Obsession... What's That? I Just Wish Someone Would Help Me Escape - Chapter 22
Even though I had just narrowly escaped death under the planks, the cruel guard gave me no rest, and was only nagging.
“How poorly must you have trained to get crushed by falling planks? Are you really someone with abilities? Get up and finish your work.”
He said that even seeing me cough up blood?
How can someone be like that? I was disappointed by the immense lack of humanity.
The guard pointed to a cart full of ore and scowled.
“Make sure you complete your quota for today. Otherwise, you’ll be whipped harshly like them.”
Following his gaze, I saw prisoners being whipped for being lazy.
Oh my god, were they being whipped on their bare b******s? Really?
Staggering, I grabbed the handle of the cart and used all the muscles I never used in my life, but the cart didn’t budge.
“I’m sorry!”
Whack!
The sound of a whip cutting the air and a scream echoed clearly from behind me. No, I don’t want to be hit like that.
Overwhelmed and on the verge of tears, I felt someone helping to push the cart.
The person pushing my cart was Clara, prisoner Number 7. She laughed arrogantly.
“Hahaha! How does it feel to be pitied? Miserable, right?”
Great. So great I might even consider marrying her.
Playing along with what she wanted, I made a face as if I was dying of shame and shouted.
“I don’t need your help! Don’t pity me!”
“Think back to what you did to me before all this. I mean your hypocritical kindness.”
Was helping you avoid marrying that old man under all that family pressure really so offensive?
I’m not sure why she was angry at me, but I pretended to be as wounded and miserable as possible to accept her help.
That way, won’t she keep helping me to give me more shame in the future?
“So, both of us are helping out of pity? How childish.”
Suddenly, another voice joined in, and the helping hands on my cart increased.
Johann nudged my cart with his finger and grinned.
Conscious of Clara, I maintained a pride-wounded expression and asked him.
“Why are you helping me?”
“Because this new kind of torment seemed fun.”
He smirked, arching one eyebrow playfully.
It seemed like indirect help, but maybe to Johann and even Enrique, I genuinely appeared pitiful…
I pushed the now feather-light cart, feigning sadness.
Could inducing sympathy this way help me get more assistance?
“Number 7, Number 1! What are you doing? Focus on your own tasks!”
The guard, seeing it perhaps as a forced touching human drama, began to interfere like a grumpy old man.
“I’ll make you even more miserable next time.”
Clara left with a sharp warning.
Johann scratched the back of his head and stepped away from the cart.
Even the top-ranked prisoners don’t want to be beaten and stripped of their trousers.
“Ugh…”
After barely moving the cart, I collapsed on the ground.
Passing prisoners treated me as if I were a rock on the roadside, too busy to notice.
As my consciousness flickered, I suspected that maybe I was crushed by a plank after all.
“Is she dead now?”
Someone prodded my body with the handle of a pickaxe.
“Nope, she’s still breathing. Too bad. We could’ve killed her earlier.”
“Weren’t we told not to kill her?”
Squinting, I noticed the prisoner uniforms that matched mine.
Prisoners from the 40s range. They were definitely the culprits who dropped the plank on me. From their conversation, it seemed someone had instructed them.
Summoning the last of my strength, I grabbed one of their ankles.
“So it was you guys. You dropped the plank on my head.”
The two prisoners, horrified, looked as if they had seen a demon rising from hell.
