Deserted Island Survival (5)

― Chirp! Chirp!

A sparrow chirped indifferently in the forest.

“Ugh, uuuuuugh…!”

“Hic, ugh, huuuuh!”

“Keh! Kehk! Ugh!”

Hector’s gang let out painful groans as they crawled across the muddy ground.

There were a total of 11 of them.

All of them had either broken legs or severely wrenched backs, making them unable to get up.

But Ian had no intention of forgiving them at this point.

‘If you teach guys like this half-heartedly, they’ll definitely come crawling back.’

Despicable people like that, who band together to prey on others’ weaknesses, are almost always bullies who pick on the weak and grovel to the strong.

They become endlessly stronger to those weaker than themselves and endlessly weaker to those stronger.

And on top of that, they’re idiots.

If you don’t give them a clear education, they’ll forget in no time and come again.

So with guys like these, you had to deal with them thoroughly—from the skin to the bone—when you caught them.

Etch the lesson deep into their soul, so it could never be forgotten.

So they’d never forget what price comes with crossing you.

You had to make sure that even fools like these would remember, so they’d never repeat what they did today.

‘First, one of them.’

Ian pressed his knee into the back of the minion closest to him.

― Crunch!

“Ah, aaagh!”

The minion’s face twisted in agony from being pinned down.

“Kuh, kuhh! S-stop…! Ah, aaagh!”

The minion sounded like he was dying, but Ian didn’t care and grabbed him by the hair, jerking his head back.

― Crack!

“Gah, aaagh!”

The minion’s face was covered in tears and snot.

“S-sorry! P-please! Please stop…! It, it’s all my fault…!”

“What did you do wrong?”

“Ugh, ugh! E-everything! I’m sorry! I’ll never mess with you again! Not your girl either! You! Please! Please, just this once…!”

“And?”

“Ugh? A-and…?”

― Crack!

Ian tightened his grip.

“A, aaagh! I’ll never, aaagh! I’ll never show myself again! Uuuugh!”

“Yeah. Not a bad answer.”

Ian nodded.

“But you still have to pay for your sins this time.”

“W-what!?”

Ian grabbed the minion’s left wrist and yanked it.

― Crunch!

“H-hyaaaaaaaaagh!!!”

With a sickening crush, the minion’s elbow bent the wrong way.

“We’re not done yet.”

Ian immediately grabbed the minion’s ear.

“H-huuuuh!”

When Ian pulled, the ear tore away like a piece of paper.

― Rip!

“Kyaaaagh!! Kkek! Kkeh!”

The minion screamed as if his breath would stop, then buried his face in the mud.

He’d fainted from shock.

“……”

But Ian didn’t stop.

― Smash! Smack! Crack!

Ian, still holding the minion by the hair, threw three punches into his jaw.

― Clatter…!

White teeth fell out of the minion’s mouth like coins from a piggy bank.

Tooth fragments scattered on the ground, slicked with blood.

That was the end of one of them.

Now, ten remained.

“C-crazy…!”

“N-no! Please…!”

The gang, watching this brutal discipline in horror, started to whimper and crawl desperately.

“Ugh, uuuuh…!”

“Aaagh! My leg!”

But with broken legs and wrenched backs, even crawling ten steps away was impossible.

“A, aaagh!”

In the end, not a single one escaped receiving an unforgettable lesson from Ian.

“You too. Tell me what you did wrong.”

“I, I never wanted to do it! Hector made me…!!”

“You’re making excuses? That’s an extra penalty.”

“A-agh! Aaaaaaaaaagh!”

― Crunch!

― Rip!

“Kyaaaaaaagh!”

― Smack! Smash! Thud!

“Guh! Ghek! Geh!”

― Clatter!

“Uuuh… Ueek…”

Ask what they did wrong, break their elbow, tear their ear, knock out their teeth.

Make excuses—break their nose on top of everything else.

“A-ahh! Damn it…!”

One scrambled to fire a flare in a panic.

“Heh.”

― Whoosh!

― Smack!

“Ow! Aaagh!”

Ian threw a rock, smashing both the flare and the guy’s hand.

“Tell me what you did wrong.”

“Y-you bastard! Even if I talk, you’ll cripple me either way…!”

“So you’re not going to talk? You’ll regret it.”

“R-regret what! I’ll end up crippled anyway! Just get it over with! Y-you bastard!”

“Tsk.”

― Twist!

“Hyah!? Hyaaaaaaagh!!”

When someone tried to fight back, he twisted and yanked out their jaw joint too.

About five minutes passed just like that.

“……”

“……”

“Grrrr…”

All 11 had finished their education.

The forest that had been filled with screams and moans was now calm.

― Flash!

― Flash!

Instead, the red lights on the belts at their waists flashed frantically.

“Ai, aigo… I knew it would end like this again…”

Sophia clutched her forehead, lamenting that things had ended this way once more.

― Shiver…

Charlotte, next to Sophia, was trembling anxiously.

‘If I’d made the wrong move, couldn’t I have ended up like that too…?’

If she hadn’t decided to win Ian over in the middle… if she’d kept up her plotting to get in his way… Thinking she could have ended up like those minions made goosebumps prickle all over her body.

“Grrrr… Y-you bastard…!”

Then, a growling voice came from behind Ian.

“Kuh, kuhuh… I almost died for real! You crazy bastard!!!”

It was Hector.

He grabbed his throat as he got up again.

His neck had definitely been broken, but Hector was neither dead nor disabled.

This was thanks to the absurd regenerative ability of the Gold Hound Transformation.

Ian nodded calmly.

‘When you use Gold Hound Transformation, your recovery amplifies even more than a troll’s or most vampires’.’

He’d considered that when breaking Hector’s neck.

He’d wanted to discipline the minions first while Hector was down.

― Gulp!

“U-urgh!”

But the recovery clearly wasn’t perfect.

Hector fell back down and vomited.

So much strength had gone into healing that he was almost spent.

And the Gold Hound Transformation was almost undone.

“Heh, heh… Hehhh…”

Moreover, Hector’s body was now suffering the full price of Gold Hound Transformation.

His eyes were bloodshot, and bruises were blooming all over his body.

His breathing was ragged, like someone with acute mountain sickness, and he looked ready to faint at any moment.

“Ripe for the picking.”

It was the perfect state to carve an unforgettable lesson into Hector.

‘This one, I’ll need to pay even more attention to than the others.’

Hector was the ringleader of these despicable scoundrels.

That meant he had to be disciplined the most thoroughly, so this would never happen again.

― Rustle. Rustle.

Ian walked over to where Hector lay facedown.

Then, just as he’d done with the minions, he grabbed Hector’s hair and yanked his head up.

― Crunch!

“Ugh, uuugh!!”

“If you beg for forgiveness, I might just let you go.”

“F*** you…!”

Of course.

He hadn’t expected him to beg for mercy so easily.

This guy’s pride was enormous.

Actually, that was good; it was a reaction he’d hoped for.

“Ku, kuuh…!”

Hector’s bloodshot eyes darted desperately around as he surveyed the area.

‘What about the instructors…? Why aren’t they showing up? Why haven’t they come?’

He’d told the instructors not to get involved no matter what happened, but there should’ve been a limit.

His whole gang was out cold and sending red signals, so they should at least come check the situation.

“……”

“……”

In fact, the instructors who had been bribed by Hector were nearby, secretly watching.

But.

‘It’s better not to interfere now.’

‘Better just to keep watching.’

They’d agreed not to rescue Hector.

Out of fear.

‘If we get involved now… and Ian finds out we’re associated with Hector, we might get retaliated against too.’

They also had their own guilt with Ian.

They’d given Hector’s group favorable entry order to the island, and while Hector tortured Sophia and Ian, they’d created a blind spot in the control room’s surveillance net so there’d be no interruptions.

‘We could, of course, just pretend nothing happened and break it up, but Ian isn’t someone easily fooled… If we show even a hint of suspicion, he’ll pick up on it.’

‘And right now Hector isn’t even thinking straight—if we step in, he might conveniently blurt out that we took money or told us to catch Ian, and then we’ll definitely get on Ian’s bad side.’

‘Right this second, even if Ian finds out we were bribed, surely he wouldn’t do this to us…’

‘But what if time passes…? If Ian remembers and comes for revenge later… my wife and children could be in danger… No, we’d definitely die!’

‘So it’s way too dangerous to step in now! We must not show our faces to Young master Ian! It’s better to just hide and clean up after he leaves. Doing nothing right now is best…!’

Those were the instructors’ thoughts.

“Haaa…”

Ian let out a low sigh and looked down at Hector with eyes that had gone cold.

“Alright. Since your pride is so strong, I’ll give you a special choice.”

“What…?”

“First option.”

Ian picked up a sharp stone from the ground and set it down in front of Hector.

“If you gouge out your own eye with this, I’ll spare you.”

“…!”

Shock filled Hector’s face.

“There’s a second option too.”

“…?”

Hector looked up at Ian in silence, his eyes trembling.

“You could simply do nothing.”

Hector’s brow twitched.

Just do nothing? Then obviously…

A hint of hope flickered in his eyes.

“But if you do nothing, I’ll gouge both your eyes out myself.”

“… Ah, ahh!”

Despair replaced every other emotion on Hector’s face.

“Choose. If you do it yourself, I’ll let you keep one eye. If you don’t, I’ll take both.”

Ian waggled two fingers in front of Hector’s eyes.

“By the way, if I do it, I’ll make sure to extract the entire optic nerve.”

Ian pressed his index finger hard into Hector’s eye.

― Press!

“Aaaaaagh!!”

Hector squeezed his eyes shut, but his eyelids were much too flimsy a shield against Ian’s fingers.

When sparks filled his entire vision, Ian finally withdrew his finger.

“Did you know? If the optic nerve is extracted, you can’t get treated for it.”

If the optic nerve survives, even if you lose your eyes, you can grow new ones and fill your sockets again.

But if the optic nerve is removed, you can’t fix it with surgery.

“You’ll live with artificial eyes for the rest of your life.”

Of course, if you install magical prosthetic eyes, you can easily regain your lost sight.

But—

“But being stuck with prosthetics is a huge weak point as a swordsman. It makes you vulnerable to dispel magic.”

Good prosthetics might resist dispel to some degree, but if someone uses a stronger dispel, even the best ones will fail.

In other words, once Hector loses his optic nerves, fighting mages for the rest of his life would be hard.

Every time he fought a mage, he’d lose his sight to dispel magic.

It would be a fatal weak point as a swordsman.

“Is that what you want? When you fight mages, you’ll lose your sight every time.”

“… A, ahh…!”

Pride and rage vanished from Hector’s face, replaced by pure fear.

No matter how thoroughly rotten he was to the core, he was still just a fourteen-year-old.

If someone threatened to gouge out their eyes—including the optic nerves—anyone would tremble.

“… U-ungh…!”

Hector looked at the sharp stone on the ground.

He was being told to dig out his own eye with that.

‘How can I do something like that…!’

It was an act that ran entirely against the survival instincts of any living creature.

Even more so for Hector, who valued his own body more than anything in the world.

“Damn it…! Damn it…!”

But if he didn’t do such a crazy thing, Ian would gouge out both of his eyes for him.

“I’m starting the countdown.”

“W-what!?”

“Ten. Nine. Eight…”

“U-ungh?! W-wait!”

His mind wasn’t made up at all, but now there was a time limit!?

What would happen when the countdown finished!?

Would he immediately lose both eyes!?

That meant within ten seconds, he’d have to gouge his own with a rock!?

Damn!!! What kind of nonsense was this!?

“Seven. Six. Five…”

Even as Hector hesitated in anguish, the countdown fell mercilessly.

Hector’s eyes trembled violently, taking in their last sight as living eyes.

That was the fate of eyes that had picked the wrong master.

————-= Clacky’s Corner ————-=

I’m neither pro nor against torture…

But some people need them..

【ദ്ദി(⩌ᴗ⩌)】

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