Chapter 560: It’s just a polite thing to do to applaude at the end of a movie premiere
It started with a scream. Just a sound; there was no face, no body. The screen was still showing a dim-lit corridor, and some guests even thought the voice came from outside the venue. But they soon realized it came from the pillar--or rather, from the projection.
Oh--I belatedly realized they had managed to capture the sound.
On the screen, the scene finally shifted; the camera arrived at a chamber at the end of the stone corridor. There, fire blazing from the torch acted as lighting instead of a mana lantern, casting a swaying shadow on the floor and wall that complimented the eerie scream.
Instinctively, I reached for a small bowl of popcorn that Arta secretly brought.
As the guests were confused and scared at the same time, the camera turned to the side, and two rows of prison cells could be seen. The focus of the camera, however, was on the single cell on the other side of the chamber.
Inside the cell, clear for the other prisoners to see, was someone with their knees on the ground. A warden pushed the prisoner’s head down to a large basin. [Eat] the warden said; Hagai’s cold and heartless voice was very fitting for such a role.
Natha told me that his grandfather--that old demon Di patriarch--used to be the previous Lord’s interrogator before his older brother died and he ended up becoming the heir and had to go back to his clan. Seemed like the trait ran in the family.
The guests must have thought the basin was filled with stale food mixed into disgusting paste, or even rotten parts. But the camera moved closer and Hagai yanked the head up so the nightmare’s face could be seen in the camera, with the brand of exile on his forehead and a splatter of suspicious substance around his lower face.
The camera also recorded what was on the basin, and they belatedly realized what it was. Those who were holding food in their hands trembled and dropped it.
I, too, stopped eating the popcorn.
[Names] Hagai yanked the nightmare’s hair, but he was too dazed to answer it. I had no idea how long this punishment I devised had been implemented in that video, but I could no longer see the sliver of hope and anger in that nightmare’s face.