CHAPTER 55: COME BACK AGAIN... WILL YOU?

"...Hold him down tighter!"

Rin’s eyes were shut, as his body trembled. Blood splattered left and right, warm and wet on his skin. His chest heaved slowly with shallow breaths, and he couldn’t move a limb. He groaned lowly, teeth gritted, face twisted in discomfort.

The sound of wet, squelching flesh echoed in the room.

A surgical blade gleamed in his hand as the scent of iron remained thick.

"Ugh... Wait..." Rin muttered weakly, his voice hoarse.

"Just stay still, Rin. It’ll be over quickly," Silas’s voice was muffled through the mask he was wearing.

"I didn’t come here for this. Just... wait..." Rin tried to speak more but he didn’t want the blood squirting into his mouth. The surgical mask on his face was stained red.

"He’s so loud," Ezra groaned with his hand over his face. "If anyone were standing outside, they would assume he’s being dissected."

Silas took his hand from Rin’s hands, pulling his surgical mask away from his face.

"Don’t be mean, Ezra. Rin came all the way to my lab to see me. You can’t speak to him that way,"

"I wouldn’t have spoken to him like that if he kept his mouth shut and stopped screaming like a girl,"

"Ezra!"

Rin saw them exchanging words. He sighed in relief as he dropped the blade with a loud clang, stumbling back.

"Holy shit..." Rin whispered, backing into a stool and sitting down heavily. His bloodied hands trembled as he pulled off his gloves and stared at them. "I didn’t come here for any of this, did I...?"

The lights above flickered faintly, casting pale shadows over the tiled walls of the lab... walls that were painted with splashes of blood, dissected flesh, and metallic tools lined up with eerie precision.

He had ended up in Silas’s underground laboratory.

Correction... Silas’s horror-movie-level death basement.

It all started about an hour ago when Rin got caught by the two Alphas who were talking about catching more Half-demons for their experiments. Realising he had no means of escape, he’d done the most Rin-like thing possible.

He pretended he was exactly where he wanted to be... Which was true.

He walked in through the lab door with a polite, nervous smile, waving.

Ezra had frowned at first, lifting his head from the dissection table. His eyes were dark and annoyed.

"Are you stalking me now?"

Rin had gasped in disbelief.

"What? Me? Stalk you? You wish. I just got lost. I thought this was the... uh... medical storage. Yeah. Seems like I came to the wrong place."

Silas, on the other hand, had looked elated.

"Rin!" he beamed, removing his blood-stained gloves. "What a nice surprise. You came at just the right time."

Rin blinked, glancing down at the open body on the table. "Y-Yeah, sure. Right time. Wait... Why is this the right time?"

"You could help me while you’re here..." Silas said and turned to Ezra who was still speaking.

Rin thought they’d shoo him away. Maybe because they didn’t want anyone seeing the gruesome things they were doing here.

But they didn’t. They didn’t even try to. Of course, since the whole school knew where his secret lab was, that didn’t stop anyone from going there.

They just ignored him and resumed their conversation.

"Core compatibility is still unstable. Half-demons might be too fragile," Silas murmured, tapping a scalpel thoughtfully on a diagram.

"We won’t know until we successfully transplant one into a half-demon and observe gestation," Ezra replied coolly, as though he weren’t talking about people.

"Where are we going to find a half-demon?" Silas folded his hands.

"They are around us. We’ll find one soon,"

Rin didn’t fully understand what they were saying... but he grabbed a few horrifying keywords.

Half-demon... transplant... omega... gestation...

Yeah. He didn’t need to hear more. If they find out that he’s the ’thing’ they are looking for, he would be the one they would dissect next.

Rin inched toward the door, planning his escape.

Until Silas turned to him with a wide grin.

"You look bored, Rin. Why not help me examine this?"

"What? Me? I can’t touch any of that,"

"Don’t be a girl. It’s easy!"

It definitely doesn’t look easy. He turned to Ezra who was also waiting for him. Rin pointed to Ezra.

"You could ask him to assist you,"

Silas’s face turned sour.

"He’s someone who doesn’t like to get his robe filthy..." He walked towards Rin, grabbing him towards the body.

Before Rin could protest, the gloves were slapped into his hands, and the next thing he knew, he was elbow-deep in demon guts with Silas holding his hands and helping him from behind.

"Why is this my life?" He thought after he managed to step away from the body.

He sighed heavily, rubbing at his forehead, now smudged with blood. His eyes flicked to the walls... There were no windows. Not even a clock. He didn’t own a digital watch either... Not like it existed in this world.

He sighed again.

Standing up, Rin mumbled,

"I really should get going... I have... uhm... a few important things to do?"

Silas frowned.

"Leaving so soon?"

"Yes! I mean... yes," Rin laughed nervously. "The Duke will be worried. You know, Duke Vortellion. The one I’m staying with... He’ll get upset if I return late."

Ezra’s reaction changed immediately.

Rin caught it. A flicker in the priest’s eyes, subtle but sharp.

"Let him go," Ezra said smoothly. "If he’s staying with the Vortellion, it’s better to let him go. He really does have important things to do."

Rin’s heart thumped in his chest. He was relieved Ezra was supporting him but he didn’t like the way his words sounded like he had a thing going on with the Duke.

Silas reluctantly nodded.

"Very well. But you should come back sometime. You were quite helpful."

Rin gave him the most insincere thumbs-up.

"Sure. Any time I feel like committing mental suicide, I’ll visit."

"Mental what?"

"Bye!"

Then he bolted.