I’m the Only One With a Different Genre - Chapter 30
As soon as Jiso left, the Odol-like man who had been imitating a child’s voice spoke up, pointing at Iris and me with a voice laden with gravity.
Knowing that any resistance here would only be met with violence, I stood up and approached the Odol-like man. Even as I approached hastily, the man’s expression was sour.
“Eek! This is why slaves need a beating to come to their senses!”
His face flushing between red and blue with anger, the Odol-like man pointed his finger at Iris and shouted. I turned around in disbelief, only to see Iris sitting there with a vacant expression, as if she hadn’t heard a word.
“Damn slave girl!”
The Odol-like man grabbed the whip from his waist and lashed out roughly.
Snap, shrrrack!
The whip struck the cell floor, filling the air with a menacing sound.
‘Gasp..?! Wouldn’t you die if you got hit by that?’
Seeing a stone shattered by the whip’s impact, I hurried over to Iris.
“Iris, get up! Quickly, let’s go!”
“…?”
Iris just gazed vacantly at me with her mouth slightly open. She looked like a soulless being. I forced her to stand up.
“Get up…urgh!”
My efforts to pull her to her feet fortunately led to her standing willingly. It seemed less like she was ignoring me and more like she was so out of it that she couldn’t respond.
“How dare you! How dare you ignore me?!”
The Odol-like man didn’t take kindly to me looking out for Iris and swung his whip fiercely again.
Shrraaack!
The whip tore through my back. With a scorching pain, it felt like ripping off a band-aid along with a scent of blood.
“Aargh!”
A stinging pain forced me to bounce around on my toes. It was like someone sneakily put ice down my back.
“Get up!”
With a rough yell, I grabbed Iris’s wrist and pulled her along. Like a doll with cut strings, Iris followed wherever she was pulled.
“If you defy me here, you won’t like what’s coming for you!”
After swinging his whip on the floor a few times, the Odol-like man spun around and began to stride away. His height was just one head taller than me, making him very short compared to the average adult male.
This meant I could easily catch up to him despite his brisk walking. As I walked past the row of cells lining both sides of the broad corridor, the path split.
There were a total of four paths including where Iris and I stood. The path in front and behind was the same as we had come along. The central path had cells on either side of it.
From where I stood, a long corridor stretched to the right, ending with a massive door. The door was at least 10 meters in height.
To the left was a shorter path with about a dozen steps at its end. The Odol-like man took the path to the left.
‘Wow, could that be an elevator?’
Atop the stairs was a wooden elevator that looked like it might have been used in an old mine. Once Iris, the Odol-like man, and I entered the elevator, he pulled a rope on the left side.
Wooddrrrduk, kookung.
The elevator shuddered then started descending slowly as if going down a vertical cave, and darkness encompassed us.
Even though there were two lanterns attached to the elevator, either they were nearing the end of their life or just weren’t bright enough.
Creak.
The elevator was brightened once again as we descended to the floor below. Without a word, the Odol-like man gave the rope another shake.
And then the elevator began descending even further.
The rope was pulled a total of three times. That meant we were at least four floors underground.
‘Will they give me a spoon later?’
A spoon became a formidable digger in a prison. Even if this place were ten levels below, I could quickly dig my way out of the cell.
“Here, from now on, your room will be here.”
The Odol-like man pointed to a sturdy door and opened it, revealing the cramped interior of the cell. The tiny room, which could barely fit three adult men lying down, was suffocatingly dark without even a window, let alone a lantern.
“Get in quickly!”
With a hand twitching as if wanting to reach for the whip right away, I hauled Iris into the cramped cell.
Creak, clang! Boom!
Iris and I were imprisoned in complete darkness, unable to see even an inch ahead.
***
Crrrack, cwack!
“…!”
Noah’s eyes widened as she stared at the suddenly broken practice wooden sword in her hands, its splintered bits scattered around as if she had just twisted and snapped it.
[Oh no, it’s broken. It must’ve not been well-maintained—it broke easier than I thought.]
Julianna grumbled and told me to fetch a new wooden sword. Noah remained silent for a moment before belatedly nodding.
‘Why do I feel so uneasy?’
Noah clutched her chest, where a gnawing sense of unease began to rise, then released her grip repeatedly. Her gaze drifted toward where Lian had been sitting.
The place was empty, as if no one had ever been there.
‘He must have left for some other business. Lian is always busy.’
Trying to suppress her growing unease, Noah headed toward the warehouse where the wooden swords were kept.
[Ugh, it feels awful.]
As soon as she entered the warehouse, the first thing she saw was a dead insect, the size of a palm, near the entrance. Julianna, who didn’t like bugs, trembled slightly and stepped back behind Noah.
Thump thump thump!
The broken wooden sword, the carcass of the dead bug.
What would’ve been dismissed as trivial matters felt terrifyingly strange and frightening. Noah looked down at the dead bug and searched her memory.
‘Why am I feeling so uneasy? Was there an event that made me this anxious?’
As nothing specific came to mind, her unease continued to grow. Eventually, Noah left the warehouse without picking up a wooden sword.
“[Eh? Where are you going? The toilet?]”
Noah’s heart raced as if it would burst from her throat, and her head turned white, leaving her unable to answer Julianna’s question. Her brisk walk evolved into a sprint.
“Pant, pant…!”
Noah realized when she had felt this anxiety and fear before.
“Lian! Lian!”
A horrific scene peeked through the crack of a door flashed before her eyes.
“Lian!”
The first place she rushed to was the kitchen, but there she found only children busying themselves by chopping vegetables.
“Looking for Lian hyung?”
Note: hyung = brother
“I saw him. He went to the sleeping rooms carrying something like this?”
“What’s that?”
“I don’t know.”
Noah brushed past the children’s conversation and ran toward the dormitory. The closer she got to the dormitory, the greater her anxiety grew.
“Lian!”
With a desperate voice, Noah reached for the dormitory door, which opened to reveal only neatly arranged cute dolls on the beds.
With eyes halfway turned, Noah immediately opened another door. Lian was in neither the second nor the third rooms.
“Lian, please… are you here?”
Noah, voice quivering pitifully, managed a weak, humorless smile as she opened the last door.
Creak.
The door opened gently. The first thing she saw was Pia sitting on the floor, clutching her hair in despair.
“Why? Why aren’t you saying anything? Is this the end? Huh? Please answer me. Please please please.”
Pia was pleading several times, hoping to find confirmation that she hadn’t been wrong, but with Dovan’s magic undone, no response came back.
“Pia…?”
Noah didn’t recognize Pia right away due to the completely darkened hair and purplish-black eyes, but soon, she realized after seeing her face.
Pia looked up at Noah’s voice.
“Ah ah -.. Noah.”
Pia forced a smile while struggling to her feet, giving Noah chills.
“Listen. I finally saved you.”
“What?”
“I finally exiled the hypocrite tormenting you, me, and all of us! But my sister… my sister won’t answer me. Ah ah -, has she finally let go of her attachment and left my side?”
Pia mumbled unintelligibly, appearing mad. Noah, fighting the urge to flee immediately, asked,
“Pia, have you seen Lian?”
“..Lian?”
Pia suddenly wiped the smile off her face and rolled her eyes toward the floor. Following Pia’s gaze, Noah’s eyes landed on a doll lying on the floor.
The dolls that had been on the beds in other rooms were only rolling around the floor in this one.
“Why is this on the floor…? Pia, what in the world… what happened here?”
As Noah asked the question, her voice trembling, Pia blinked her big eyes slowly and forced her mouth into what looked like a smile.
“I told you before. That damned trash, Lian, I’ve had him exiled.”
“What..?”
“Don’t you think so too? Lian is trash. He just smiles like a hypocrite trying to use us.”
A small confusion swirled in Pia’s previously unfocused eyes. Her voice trembled slightly, and she spoke obsessively, as if seeking confirmation.
“Right? Lian that bastard is trash. Trash that should be killed on the spot! Having him by our side doesn’t help us, does it? It only brings more misery!”
Pia’s eyes scoured the floor. At the end of her gaze lay a doll made to resemble Pia’s hairstyle.
“…Right? That’s how it is, right?”
Pia’s voice was now trembling beyond concealment.