"I don't want to die.."
I lowered my raised sword until its tip pointed toward the ground.
For a moment, the teen's face brightened.
"T-thank you…"
I parted my lips and spoke in an indifferent tone.
"You don't want to die?"
He gave me a small nod, hope returning to his face.
"Did that girl wanted to be assaulted?"
Only for it to crumble at my next words.
"You wanted to inflict pain on others while staying out of harm yourself. Quite funny, isn't it?"
I paused for a breath before continuing.
"Do you even know what would have happened to that girl if I hadn't stopped you? Do you know how much pain she would have been in? How helpless she would have felt?"
I raised my sword again.
"You don't."
I pointed it at his throat, ready to end it.
He spoke again.
"No… ple—"
Shuk.
Or rather, he tried to.
"Ghak!"
I pierced his throat before he could finish.
Looking straight into his trembling eyes, I spoke in a cold tone as I pulled the sword out.
"People like you only deserve death."
Slrrt.
Blood poured from his throat as he fell to the ground.
Thud.
He gasped on his own blood, drowning, before dying.
My gaze lingered on his corpse.
Then—
Snapping me out of it.
"Yeah!"
"Hero!"
"I told you he would kill them all!"
"29!"
Crashed sound back into the arena with the roars and cheers from the crowd.
Just between one shout and the other came another voice, silencing them.
"Dear guests."
His voice made my stomach twist.
Step.
I turned.
"Number 29! Like a hero, he had slain all his enemies and showed us his strength!"
I didn't care about his words. There was no reason to listen any further.
Step.
His voice continued to echo in the background as I headed toward the gate.
I placed the sword back in the rack before walking out of the arena.
Thud.
The gate closed behind me.
A guard was already waiting at the entrance, ready to escort me.
Or that was what I thought.
"29."
I halted as he called me.
My head turned toward him, waiting for his next words.
The guard turned and gestured toward the corridor opposite the one leading to my cell.
"Follow me."
Sigh.
I let out a breath before turning and following him.
There was no reason to play dumb.
Of course, there would be some sort of punishment.
It wasn't only today.
I had disobeyed John more than once already—more than enough times to warrant some kind of response from him.
John wasn't the kind of person who would simply let me be after defying him.
But before I could sink deeper into my thoughts, the guard's voice came again.
"Killing another teen outside the arena isn't allowed. You earned your innocence during the match. But there is still a need for additional punishment."
He turned his head back and looked me straight in the eyes before continuing.
"No sleep for you tonight. You're being sent on duty with the others."
Turning forward again, he continued to lead the way.
His words irritated me.
'Duty with the others?'
That was something new.
At least it didn't sound like some sort of physical punishment.
Giving up a night of sleep wouldn't be difficult. The nightmares already robbed me of that often enough.
But I was still curious.
If they weren't going to beat or torture me again…
Then what exactly was this duty?
And who were the others he meant?
Step.
The guard halted in front of a metal door at the far end of the corridor.
The door was old and rusty. Its hinges looked like they were barely holding onto the stone wall. Another guard sat beside it on a wooden chair, playing around with some piece of metal in his hands.
He quickly pocketed it the moment he saw us.
Casting a glance at me, he asked,
"What's with the slave?"
The guard gave me a slight shove, forcing me to take a step forward, then answered.
"He'll work with the cleaners for today. Just put him wherever you need extra hands."
The seated guard stood up and rummaged through his pockets before pulling out a key.
A smile spread across his face.
"Wow, what happened? There isn't a single day that we don't ask for help, and we never get any. But now you're just handing one over. Suspicious. Tsk."
My guard shrugged before turning away.
"Orders. You can thank John if you want."
Step.
He stopped after a few steps and added without turning back, "Ah, right. Send that boy back to the arena tomorrow morning."
Step.
His back vanished down the corridor, leaving me alone with the other guard.
He had already opened the door as I turned back toward him.
A staircase descending into darkness greeted me.
The guard placed a hand on my shoulder and nudged me forward.
"Go down, slave. The others are already there. Just tell them you're helping today."
Step.
I hesitantly stepped inside after another push from him.
Thud.
The door shut behind me, and the faint light from the corridor vanished with it.
I could barely see the next step ahead.
"Slave."
The guard's voice came muffled through the metal door, making me stupidly turn my head back.
"Come back tomorrow morning and...have fun."
His small chuckle was the last thing I heard before silence swallowed everything again.
I turned my head forward again and narrowed my eyes, trying to make out something in the darkness.
It didn't help.
Haah.
Letting out a breath, I slowly stepped forward.
Step.
One step at a time, I descended the stairs, one hand brushing against the wall beside me for support while the other reached out ahead.
The staircase was tight and curved down in a spiral.
The walls and air felt damp, almost wet.
And the smell—
Rot.
The farther I went down, the worse the smell became.
Rotten flesh, shit, and piss.
My stomach twisted, and I had to force myself not to throw up. Pushing the feeling down, I continued to descend.
Step.
Slowly, the staircase began to brighten.
Not with a harsh light like the arena, but with a dim glow, barely strong enough to illuminate the next few steps.
With each step downward, the light grew stronger.
The temperature changed as well.
It grew warmer, even hot.
Step.
My eyes widened as I reached the last step.
A vast chamber stretched out before me.
The ceiling rose at least a dozen meters high. Old stone walls surrounded the chamber, their surfaces covered in vines. Lightstones were set into the walls at irregular intervals, barely illuminating the space.
The chamber was filled with people.
It weren't guards.
And not teens.
Their clothes were torn and filthy. Some didn't even wear shirts, only ragged trousers. Dirt and grime covered their hands and faces as they busily moved around.
My eyes shifted away from them and toward the chamber again.
From the ceiling, streams of water descended.
The water wasn't blue. It was a mixture of grey and brown. The water poured down through thick tubes and spilled into huge basins that covered at least half the chamber. Flowing through those basins, the water was stopped by a metal wall that looked like some kind of sieve or filter.
Even after passing through it, the water remained dirty. But in the next connected basin stood a massive metal machine.
It sucked in the water through one end. A strange luminescent glow shone through the gaps in its frame. Then the water poured out from the other side of the machine and into the next basin.
And now—
The water streaming into the next basin was clear. Brown turned into blue as if the machine had somehow repainted it.
The clean water was then drawn upward by another huge metal machine, at least as large as my entire cell. A thick pipe stretched up from it and vanished into the ceiling.
After tracing the line of basins, my eyes drifted back to the first one, where most of the workers stood.
They held nets and shovels in their hands as they worked in the dirty water, scooping out clumps of dirt and shit before throwing them behind them onto the floor. There, another row of workers picked up the filth and shoveled it into a huge furnace behind them.
The furnace was massive—at least as large as the pumping machine. Its fire cast most of the light in the chamber, burning steadily.
But there was no smoke.
No pipe.
No chimney either.
And yet the chamber wasn't filled with smoke. Instead, a faint translucent glow rose from the top of the furnace.
Looking at the machines and the people working around them, I immediately understood what I was seeing.
A sewage treatment plant.