Chapter 9
Transaction of Life
Part 1
When I woke up, I was inside a prison cell I had now grown sick and tired of seeing.
Even trying to sit up was difficult, as the muscles all over my body ached.
I had been imprisoned in this place for several months now. I was arbitrarily assigned the number ‘Thirteen’ and forced to participate in the humans’ experiments day after day.
Being continuously injected with that fluorescent liquid via syringe was driving me insane.
Just remembering what happens after the drug is administered is horrifying.
Right after the injection, I feel something coursing through my veins and spreading throughout my entire body, followed by intense pain. Then, my upper body swells up significantly, and the shape of my arms changes drastically.
The most agonizing part is that, due to the pain and the boundless hatred that wells up, I lose almost all reason. I’m overcome by a powerful urge to destroy everything around me out of anguish and rage, and I can barely hear the words of those nearby.
Just the memory of it makes my head boil with anger, but the aftereffects include muscle pain throughout my body and intense fatigue, leaving me barely able to stand. In that state, I can’t even put up any real resistance against the human guards here; all I can do is grit my teeth.
With my body unable to function properly, I’m easily pinned down by humans who should be weaker than me, while another human hums a tune and ties me up.
Pleading, ‘Stop, please help me,’ is useless. In fact, if I say such things, the guards only delight in it more, treating the event as a topic for their drinking parties.
The drug experiments are conducted daily, and each time, I despair at my own grotesque transformation and want to destroy everything. The guards always retreat to a safe zone, watching me from a distance, and there’s truly nothing I can do.
Moreover, I could feel the duration of the drug-induced transformation getting longer each day. The patterns that appeared on my arms after the injections also remained permanently, never fading.
If this continues, I’ll never be able to return to normal. I’ll be used forever, not as a demon, but as a mindless monster.
The thought of that terrified me beyond measure.
Tonight, as I lay there gritting my teeth in frustration, a light appeared before me.
It was strange, as lights-out time had already passed. Struggling to lift my body, I looked ahead and saw a pair of feet right in front of me. Even though this being was emitting light in the pitch-black space, no one else seemed to notice its presence except for me.
As if matching my gaze, the presence crouched down, looked at me, and smiled.
“W-why are you here…?”
“I wanted to see you.”
I couldn’t believe my eyes. The one staring back at me was someone I was meeting for the first time, but he was a demon whose existence was known to all.
He was a pure white man with four large wings sprouting from his back. Two more wings grew from his head, covering his face. I couldn’t see his face clearly, but the visible part of his mouth was smiling as he spoke to me.
“You want to be saved, don’t you?”
A clear voice reached my ears.
It sounded like the words of the Holy Mother who saves all, or the voice of the omniscient God.
I nodded slowly. I felt suspicious of this bizarre being. But it was also true that I wanted to be saved from my current situation.
“Let’s make a deal. I’ll save your life. I’ll even remove all the impurities from your body.”
“R-really?”
“Of course, but there are conditions. What do you say?”
There was no need to even think about it. My suspicion remained, but if this guy was serious, getting me out of here would be easy for him. After all, he’d managed to come to this prison cell without anyone noticing, though I didn’t know how.
His power was likely the real deal.
“Tomorrow, you won’t go to the usual lab. Instead, I’ll arrange for you to be placed on a truck heading to a town quite far from this facility. Once there, just follow your heart and act as you wish. That’s the condition.”
“I-is that all?”
“Yes. I promise I will definitely set you free, though not immediately.”
The request was too abstract, and I couldn’t discern his goal. If I were thinking calmly, I’d find it an extremely suspicious proposition.
But by then, I was nearing my mental limit. I hated the guards intensely. But more than that, my desire to be freed from this suffering was overwhelming.
The man before me held out his hand, and the light emanating from it began forming lines, shaping into something. The light transformed into what seemed to be text and a map, and I found myself staring at it intently.
This appeared to be instructions for my actions tomorrow, up until I board the truck to the town, along with a map of the town. Since I couldn’t keep the information as physical material, I desperately memorized the map’s contents. Finally, I was going to be freed from these hellish days. That alone became the driving force propelling me.
He placed his hand on my head as if stroking it, and finally said:
“Well then, I’ll be counting on you.”
After I had memorized all the information, the man slowly stood up.
He gave a small wave, saying ‘bye-bye,’ and as the light faded, his figure vanished without a trace.
