Chapter 5 - A New Life? - V
"Bern, you're going to get yourself killed like this. That's the fourth time this week the executioner's sentenced you to 40 lashes for not hitting your target," Glenn said to the man named Bern.
Bern had once been a powerful, muscular man, but he'd become heavyset after losing a lot of weight working as a slave in the mines. His muscles had softened without the intense training he used to do, and with the poor food here, his body was slowly falling apart. His hair had gone completely gray, and his beard was a mess. His right eye was completely white and blind from one of his failed escapades.
"Relax, Glenn, I know what I'm doing. These guards are just low-ranking soldiers barely awake," Bern said, raising his wrists to show a different chain than the one that bound Glenn. "If it weren't for these suppressors, I wouldn't even feel their blows," he added with a smirk.
"Shut up, you crazy old man. It might not hurt you, but if they hear you and decide to take it out on me, I'll be the one paying for it all week. And then there's that damn room with the pink gas," Glenn whispered, leaning in close to Bern's ear.
Bern was the only friend Glenn had managed to keep in this hellhole. This had happened five months after Glenn was first exposed to the strange pink gas. For one hundred and fifty days, all his neighbors had died in a single night. Glenn even started calling the next room "the cursed lust room." No demon had ever survived more than one night there. But two weeks ago, Bern became his new roommate, against all odds.
Through the translucent wall, Glenn saw Bern using yet another trick to resist the gas. He simply held his breath for several minutes, something Glenn thought was impossible for anyone else.
Out of curiosity, Glenn got closer over the following days and discovered that Bern was able to do this because he was an Awakened—on the verge of becoming a Warrior.
"I would've made it, of course, if that bitch hadn't handed me over to the city guard," Bern said proudly, puffing out his chest. Soon after, a soldier punched him in the ribs, shouting at him to get back to work.
"Yeah, right. Like being a professional thief was a legit career choice. You're lucky they didn't just chop your head off after you tried to rob the Ferrox Umbra family's convoy," Glenn said, shaking his head.
"Details, kid, details. High risks, high rewards. That would've been my retirement," Bern replied.
"Your retirement now is living with your finger up your ass, trying not to die from a heart attack every time you get hard from a blowjob. Kkkkk," Glenn laughed.