Vol. 1 - Ch. 23
Unaware of the situation, Noah spoke in a friendly tone.
“Noah, do you remember the one we sent to North this time?”
“Oh, yes, yes. That guy who hasn’t responded well to brainwashing and had no other use so he became a tool dispatched to the North.” Sergei pointed to the crystal ball. Noah clicked his tongue when he noticed the broken screen.
“Who broke it?”
“Come closer and take a good look.”
Sergei gestured to him with his hand. Squinting his eyes, Noah stepped closer.
“Th-this…”
Only then did Noah realize it was one of the things he was responsible for. As he stepped back, startled—
“Ugh!”
He screamed and clutched his face. Blood poured down his fingers as it gushed from his nose, already flattened from a broken bone. Blinded by the blood, Noah groped through the air and clung to Sergei’s leg.
“I’m... I’m sorry! I’ll do better! Please, just give me one more chance...! Wait, wait—Aaargh!”
Bang! Bang! Noah cowered low, pleading, but the pain raining down on his face did not cease.
“Hah…” Sergei, who had been pounding the crystal ball onto Noah, finally straightened up and let out a light sigh, “Now, I feel a bit calmer.”
Meeting Sergei’s smile, the subordinate realized that he had been holding his breath all this time. His eyes turned to Noah lying on the floor. Noah’s face was a pulpy mess, smeared with blood. His bones jutted out, and his features were twisted and deformed.
“Ugh…”
The subordinate hastily covered his mouth, suppressing the urge to vomit.
“Oh dear. Would you like to calm yourself with this?” Sergei, furrowing his brow in mock sympathy, held out a glass of red wine. Noticing a piece of Noah’s flesh dangling from Sergei’s long fingers, his subordinate could no longer hold it back.
“Ugh! Ueeeegh!”
“Looks like you’re not in the mood to eat,” Sergei commented as he tipped the glass back and drank.
The subordinate collapsed on the floor and retched, gasping for air.
“Haa, haa…”
“Feeling better now?” Sergei asked in a disturbingly calm voice, as if he hadn’t just killed a man.
The subordinate trembled in fear. He had long suspected that Sergei wasn’t as he appeared, despite the rumors. But he’d always assumed his colleagues had exaggerated the truth. They said Sergei enjoyed pulling out nails during torture or that he drank red wine after killing someone, as if it were blood. None of this seemed to match his beautiful, kind face. He had a cold side, yes, but the subordinate never imagined the rumors could be this worse. He glanced around, but Noah’s body had already been dragged away.
Sergei wiped the remaining flesh from his hands with a handkerchief.
“Being both incompetent and shameless, he deserved to die, don’t you think?”