Chapter 253: Punishment of a Cat Girl, and Treatment of a Criminal Slave (1)

"I understand. But I did not think it would be this bad..."

I looked at Freit once, answered, then sat again and faced forward.

"Even this is still on the better side. This time it was sudden. If notice is put out beforehand, it is like a festival."

Related people, unrelated people, everyone threw something at the person, I was told.

What was thrown had no mercy either.

Originally not a Dule, so even if stones were thrown and she was injured there was no blame, I was told.

At most, killing her was no good after all, so the city’s guards guarded and held it down to some degree, I was told.

This time the scale was small, and already my Dule, so Muriel and Rosina guarded, and if anything happened Freit’s guards sitting in front went out and worked to settle things.

"Well, at this rate they will have no turn."

As Freit said, after that about ten minutes passed and we arrived at the destination without the guards going outside the carriage.

The punishment place was enclosed by a wall of white bricks, and inside there was a waiting place large enough for several carriages to enter.

The carriage we rode entered that waiting place and stopped near the building that seemed the punishment place.

I went outside and looked behind, and Lily had sat down there.

Seeing her shoulders heaving, she was probably crying.

Muriel and the others and the guards looked at Lily with grim faces.

From the building that seemed the punishment place two men who seemed guards holding spears came this way.

"Stand! ...We are going!"

The men undid the leash from the carriage, then with that made Lily stand.

Then they bowed to us coming out of the carriage and took Lily into the punishment place.

"Let us go too."

"Yes."

I took Muriel, Rosina, and Sara and followed Freit, and entered the building from an entrance different from where Lily had been taken.

Enter, and at once there was a guard room, and there we were told to leave our weapons.

I of course, Freit and his guards, Muriel and Rosina too left their weapons.

"Please wait a little."

Told by a man who seemed a guard in the guard room, we waited, and soon a man came out from the door beside the guard room.

"Well, well, Lord Freit."

"Hey, Lord Nikolaus. Putting work in suddenly, sorry."

"No. A criminal slave after a long time. I am interested too."

About the latter half of the thirties, maybe.

The man Freit called Nikolaus started chatting with Freit.

"He is Lord Hiroyuki, who will be the master of Lily, the criminal slave."

"I am Hiroyuki Asahi."

Freit turned it to me, so I introduced myself.

"Pleased to meet you. I am the director of this execution ground, Nikolaus Heidemann."

Nikolaus introduced himself too and sought a handshake.

Execution ground?

At a word I heard for the first time, a question mark floated above my head, but I shook hands.

"Here the execution place, the punishment place, and the arena are reasonably near. Managing these is my work."

Maybe he saw that question mark. Nikolaus talked simply about his work.

I see. That was why execution ground.

Even so, the arena had the same manager too.

"Then let me guide you."

Nikolaus led us and advanced ahead.

We followed, and at the back there was a sturdy-looking iron door.

"..."

Nikolaus set a hand on the door and muttered something like a password so we could not hear, and the heavy-looking door opened slowly.

"No! Stop, up, no, ugh..."

That moment a scream was heard.

I looked around the spacious room illuminated by outside light taken in from a large window, and Lily had been stood by the wall, and water in a bucket was poured on her vigorously by a man.

"We are washing the body. A little rough, but a criminal after all, please forgive."

Nikolaus explained toward us and bowed his head a little.

Lily seemed to dislike it, but it could not be helped.

Freit looked at me, so I endured wanting to go help and nodded at Freit.

"Fine. If not done like that the dirt will not come off."

True, between the assembly hall and the punishment place, rotten eggs and overripe tomatoes people had thrown had stuck to Lily’s body.

With only water poured it would not come off.

"Then, this way."

We passed Lily, still having water poured on her, and entered the room at the back.

There was narrower than before, but enough width for us to enter.

From the center to the left back there was a large iron cylinder, and three rods were inserted there.

And on the right two chairs were set.

"Please sit."

Nikolaus urged us to sit in those chairs, so Freit and I sat.

Freit’s guards and my Dules stood behind us as usual.

Even so, a little hot.

Enough for sweat to come out.

"A little unpleasant, but please endure."

Nikolaus, who said that, wiped sweat with a cloth he held too.

"Please use this."

"Thank you."

From behind Muriel held out a cloth to me, so I used it without reserve.

"Lord Freit too, please."

"Oh, considerate. As expected of Lord Hiroyuki’s Dule."

Rosina had handed a cloth to Freit.

Before handing she had worn a sullen face a little, maybe because Muriel had gotten ahead, but when praised by Freit bringing out my name she went a little red and smiled.

I glanced at the happy-looking Rosina and faced forward, and it was just when the door opened.

"Uck... eg..."

From there fully naked Lily, brought by two men, walked about to cry.

Again driven by the impulse to help, but I endured hard.

Lily was brought to the center of the room, and both hands were grabbed by the men respectively and raised diagonally up.

On Lily’s wrists were iron shackles with yellow gems set, unsuited.

"Then. ..."

Seeing that, Nikolaus bowed to us, turned toward Lily, and chanted words like a magic spell.

Right after, the gems of the handcuffs shone for an instant.

When the men parted their hands, Lily’s both hands stopped in the air.

Next the men grabbed Lily’s legs and opened them wide.

On those legs too were shackles with gems set, the same as the hands.

"..."

When Nikolaus chanted words like a spell again, the gems of the legcuffs shone.

The men parted their hands from Lily’s legs, and the shackles restraining Lily’s legs stuck to the space as they were.

Even if Lily, hands and legs spread, tried to move her hands and legs, the handcuffs and legcuffs did not move, as if fixed in that space.

The body could only twist a little.

Suddenly a cool wind blew in the room filled with heat.

I looked, and a man opened the door and entered alone.

Then he handed something to Nikolaus, and with the two who had been there took one rod each from the iron cylinder at the back.

"Then let us begin."

Including the man who had entered earlier, the three men in total showed us the tips of the iron rods each held.

The tips of the rods, somehow shaped like crests, were burned red.

I see. The cause of the heat here was that.

The men who finished showing, two stood in front of Lily, and one more stood behind Lily and turned the tips of the rods toward Lily.

Then all at once they pressed those rods to Lily’s body.

"Gyaaaaaaaaaah!!!!!!!!!!"

Lily opened her mouth large, faced up, and raised a scream.

On the fresh white skin of the right breast, and the hairless crotch that had probably been shaved after water was poured, the rods were pressed and smoke rose.

Probably on the left buttock too a rod was pressed, and smoke was rising.

The smell of burned skin stabbed the nose.

I saw Freit pinch his nose with the cloth out of the corner of my eye.

For a while the men who had been pressing the rods peeled them slowly from the edge of the pattern at the tip.

There a pattern based on many small circles floated red-black.

Probably this city’s crest or something.

"Ah... ha, i... kuu... uck..."

Lily clenched the restrained hands, and while shedding tears gritted her teeth.

"Next we will attach this."

Nikolaus showed us what he had held.