102 Is He Maybe Smiling?

When I and Valeri went to Slaine's quarters, we saw a horrible scene.

No… it far surpasses of what "horrible" means. It's something I haven't seen in my entire life.

Slaine stood by two of the dark-elf captives that didn't have any limbs.

They were both squirming in pain.

One seems to be a male and the other one seems to be a female dark-elf.

When I came in, at first there was just one of them, just laughing at Slaine however in just a few hours another captive was brought and the fear trip started.

According to Slaine, the dark-elves treasure their females too much, but it's a wonder how can he even identify females from males as they all look disgusting.

And right now, he is whipping the female in front of the male dark-elf.

The whip was constantly being freshly taken after being heated, each strike would cause the female to scream loudly not only because of the strike but also the burn that went inside its skin.

And each time the female would scream, the male dark-elf would make pleading sounds, screaming and crying, but it can't do anything as it doesn' have any limbs at all.

To think that these shits still have emotions.

"Now… speak, you understand me right? How much time do you think I spent to learn this language? Now, point at the map where are the important locations, routes and where your higher-ups are"

Slaine asked as he looked calmly at the male dark-elf.

However, the male wouldn't speak.

He looked at Slaine in rage, shaking and grinding his teeth.

Seeing this, Slaine simply made a sigh and took the blazing whip and without any mercy hit the female dark-elf with it again, this time it was stronger than usual that it made the female dark-elf scream so much and blood started gushing from its eye.

"So… you won't talk, huh?"

Seeing him like this, I felt fear within me.

How can he be sane doing this? How long has he been doing this?

Once again he kept whipping and whipping as he went on with his interrogation.

The hours that went by and the room became full of screams and the cracking of the whip, I and Valeri who were assigned to accompany Slaine couldn't bear to watch it anymore, Valeri decided to leave first.

Only I and Slaine was left in the torture room.

"That Valeri… running out first."

I pouted as I sat on the side, covering my ears, and looking away.

The gore scene was too much for me to bear anymore.

From time to time I would steal glances at Slaine, but as I watched him do more of his interrogation, I noticed his hand shaking, even though his eyes didn't show any trace of fear or pain.

Could it be… he doesn't really enjoy doing this? Like what I had in mind? That he is still sane to feel the fear of hurting a life, making it suffer and not totally killing it?

He was also out of breath, and his eyes were showing signs of frustration, at the end he could only get insignificant details about where the camps were, it was the only thing the male dark-elf knew as he pleaded until he passed out.

Seeing him finish, I ordered the fighters waiting outside to get the bodies and put them back to their cells.

As they came in I saw their faces also looking disturbed on hearing the interrogation and screams of pain.

It was the first time for us to hear a dark-elf screaming in pain, confessing and pleading. And because we somehow speak the same language, it was hard to hear… it was too disturbing.

I handed him a cloth to clean his hand, but he was just standing up, in a daze, looking down with his dead eyes.

He was suppressing his shaking hand with his other hand.

Just like me… he is… afraid.

As he won't accept the cloth, I calmed down myself and made a long sigh and looked at him.

"Amazing… so this is how you get information on their bases. But at what price? Look at your hands, they are shaking"

I opened the cloth and wrapped his hands with it and wiped the blood and filth, as I held it, his hands weren't what I expected, I thought his hands were more manly because of his strength and power, but it turned out his hand was as thin as a woman would be, but like a man his fingers were sturdy and long.

And as I held it, it was still shaking.

"So… how many years have you been doing this? It seems you haven't been used to it at all."

But he didn't answer me, but after it, noticing me, he pulled the cloth and used it to wipe his hands.

"Don't tell me you lost your fluency with our language agai—"

"Don't you… don't you see me disgusting? You should have just waited outside."

He suddenly asked me before I can make small talk with him.

Far from his temperament earlier in the battle, right now he looks and appears like the opposite, together with his strange question.

"Disgusting? Why? You are doing this for something important, right? Also, it's my duty to be at your side always, truthfully its bloody, but its something you have to do right?"

"... "

"But… if you don't enjoy doing it, then you should stop doing it, what's the point of gaining that information if you become a wreck like this afterwards?"

"If I don't do it, who wi—"

"You are already with us, you can rely on us for other things, if you want, I can be with you every time you do this.

Even if you are doing this for your own reasons, because of your victories you are already doing so much for us, there's no way I wouldn't help you.

Even Valeri and those men that came to retrieve the captives feel the same. It's just that they aren't used to it."

"But this is—"

"Yes, it's gore, and it hurts my eyes, but these creatures also killed our kind and did the same thing or much worse.

They should be ready for the exact thing happening to them.

So you don't have to feel guilty. You don't have to carry all that load.

Stop blaming yourself.

Rely on us… or at least rely on me, you don't shoulder everything."

As I've said those words, I noticed him flinch and stopped wiping his hands and his eyes looked sadder than usual.

What? Did I hit a nerve? Or was he bothered that I kept talking and cutting him off?

"Wait! did I say something wrong?" I worriedly asked him.

Even though I don't know which part of that was wrong, I just wanted him to feel less of the burden he is carrying, seeing him like this, I just couldn't help it, after all he is my savior, and the resistance savior.

I looked down realizing that I got carried away again and maybe have offended him.

"Sorry…" I lowered my head and closed my eyes.

But, in response, I didn't receive his scolding, but instead he just shook his head and walked beside me and then I felt his hand suddenly patting my head.

"It's okay, stop sulking and let's go to the surface, I want to breathe some fresh air."

For a moment I could see his eyes smile a bit.

Seeing it mesmerized me a bit as it left me astounded as I recalled his face when I first saw him.

Cold… with no emotion at all.

But just now as he patted my head I could see a bit of warmth from his expression, even though I couldn't see the lower part of his face.

Is he maybe smiling?