“Warden…!”
“There’s nothing to be done. A mere meal is an acceptable concession.”
Lunara decided to accept Elena’s proposal.
Though Bargon protested, Lunara shook her head with unwavering resolve.
From Lunara’s perspective, the paramount concern was maintaining the prison’s operation and executing the directives handed down from above.
Unaware of Elena’s true intentions, Lunara was disinclined to disregard a choice Elena had, with some effort, rendered plausible.
‘More importantly, if the Witch desires something, it’s actually a good sign.’
At this point, Lunara was almost relieved simply by the fact that Elena had displayed any will at all.
The somewhat unexpected yet minor request to upgrade the meal she had so thoroughly disdained, Lunara believed, actually served as proof that Elena was not entirely complete or invulnerable.
Elena had, until recently, been an Empress.
Within the magnificent Imperial Palace, she had dined daily on the Empire’s most precious and costly meals, meticulously crafted by dozens of chefs.
While Elena hadn’t actually hosted daily parties or indulged in extravagant feasts, Lunara firmly believed she had.
‘Even if she pretends to be unperturbed, she must still despise having to lap up the low-quality gruel given to common prisoners like a dog.’
Lunara’s confidence began to resurface.
She genuinely believed that Elena, who had toyed with them even while imprisoned in Tartara, had finally shown a weakness.
Of course, this hypothesis was a misconception born of Lunara’s own hopes, but amidst their differing dreams, the negotiation reached an agreement.
“This time, it’s moderately acceptable.”
“…”
Before Elena, still bound to the extraction chair, an array of hastily airlifted gourmet dishes began to appear, one after another.
Served in containers enchanted with warming magic, the dishes certainly looked appetizing.
The various dishes, featuring a balanced assortment of meat, fish, and vegetables, were of such caliber that even Lunara, the Warden, would have to steel herself to partake.
“You expect me to eat this with my mouth, even here?”
“We cannot remove your restraints or your straitjacket. To do so would require a direct order from above.”
“Then feed me.”
Elena’s demand went a step further: if they wouldn’t release her hands, she insisted on being fed.
Though she could, if she truly willed it, consume the food without using her hands, Elena merely chuckled with amusement as she observed the flustered Lunara and the other administration personnel.
“What are you waiting for? Ah.”
As Elena opened her soft, pink lips and playfully extended her alluring red tongue, Lunara was so dumbfounded by the sight that she unconsciously let out a sigh.
“W-Warden. I’ll do it.”
“No, I will do it!”
Perhaps perceiving Elena’s actions as a form of provocation, the administrative staff, already feeling manipulated by her, experienced a profound sense of humiliation.
Volunteers stepped forward, each offering to endure the humiliation themselves.
It was a testament to Lunara’s not-unfavorable reputation, despite her sudden promotion to Warden.
“No, I will do it myself. Regulations state that Abyss-level prisoners must be directly managed by the Warden, so this task falls to me.”
Lunara then declared that she could not pass such a humiliation onto her subordinates and would handle it personally.
No one dared to refute her declaration, especially as she cited regulations and affirmed it as her own responsibility.
Her reputation for taking initiative merely rose a little higher.
‘She’s certainly a woman of strong conviction.’
And Elena, observing Lunara, felt precisely the same.
****
“You might not know this, but even in the Imperial Palace, I always fed myself. As a mere prisoner, I wonder if I should truly be receiving such service?”
“Silence. This isn’t for your benefit.”
Lunara, having cut a piece of meat with a knife and speared it with a fork, frowned as she placed it into Elena’s open mouth.
This was certainly a sight she had never imagined.
According to her original plan, a meal both crude and humiliating was meant to be one of the factors that would break Elena’s spirit.
“Water.”
“Tsk…”
Yet now, Lunara found herself attending to Elena’s meal, moving entirely at her command.
What was most absurd was that, throughout this entire process, Elena had not exerted even a fraction of her power.
Had Elena simply overwhelmed them with a powerful force that ignored the restraints, Lunara would have felt less wronged.
No matter how much Lunara considered it, she could not shake the feeling that she had been thoroughly entangled in Elena’s schemes.
“By your appearance, you seem to hail from the Southwest. Where exactly are you from?”
As the meal progressed to a certain point, Elena abruptly turned to Lunara and brought up the topic of her origins.
“While not as vehement as that squat dwarf, you too revealed your resentment the moment you saw me.”
Elena recalled the first moment she saw Lunara.
It was at the time when Krasen, who should have been the Warden, had harbored foolish desires and was subsequently executed.
“Yes, that’s right. I am Assyrian. From the people the Empire conquered and enslaved over fifty years ago.”
Lunara dropped her fork with a clatter and glared at Elena with cold, golden eyes.
Her dark skin and deep chestnut hair were characteristic features of the Assyrian people, who, once nomads, had been absorbed into the Empire and reduced to a minority.
While the previous emperor had initiated the wars of conquest, it was Elena herself who had forcefully suppressed and crushed the Assyrian people when they rebelled against harsh and discriminatory treatment from within.
‘The Assyrian suppression. That was something I did before I possessed this body.’
Sifting through her memories, Elena listened to the story with an odd expression.
It was true that Elena had forcefully suppressed the Assyrian resistance movement, and considerable bloodshed had occurred in the process, but those actions were not committed by ‘this’ Elena.
“When my father, who ran a prosperous horse farm, was dragged away by the Imperial Special Task Force and disappeared, and my mother fell ill and passed away, I abandoned everything my father had taught me since birth about being Assyrian and studied to become a part of the Empire.”
Amidst persecution and discrimination, Lunara earned recognition through her abilities.
Her talents caught the eye of Equitas, and she secretly joined the organization.
When she finally contributed her strength to somehow overthrow her rumored enemy, Elena, the Empress of the Valtira Empire, and cast her down as the Empire’s last sovereign, Lunara felt a thrill of triumph and a peculiar sense of emptiness simultaneously.
“Why do you seem so unsettled? The revolutionaries you believe in declared they would reform that wicked Empire and create a peaceful world where everyone lives well, laughing together.”
“That’s…”
Lunara was momentarily speechless.
Simultaneously, Elena discerned the state of Lunara’s heart.
She had gritted her teeth and learned everything about her enemy to bring them down, but as her knowledge grew, doubts began to surface, and her faith wavered.
This was the classic manifestation of an identity crisis, providing the very evidence Elena needed.
“I will hear no more. The meal is finished.”
Biting her lip, Lunara collected the utensils and cleared the dishes.
Then, she replaced the gag in Elena’s mouth and secured her mask.
Elena, who had silently watched these actions, merely smiled with an expression that found it all rather endearing.
“Now it’s your turn to uphold your end of the bargain.”
Mana extraction resumed.
As the extractor whirred to life with a harsh, humming noise, Elena let out a small chuckle and released her own power.
‘Oh… this, this is quite…’
The extractor began to draw in Elena’s mana, which, despite the strong repulsion and suction, moved cooperatively from within her.
Elena, her bound body twitching from the peculiar sensation engulfing her, had merely offered a slight push to help her mana flow smoothly.
Then, the mana, which had been drawn with immense force, finally burst forth from her forcibly opened Mana Meridians, a torrent of dark crimson Malefic Mana that the extractor eagerly absorbed.
“The mana…!”
“Quickly, check the purification tubes! It’s corrupted Malefic Mana. We don’t know what will happen if it leaks!”
Bargon shouted, urging his staff into a frenzy.
The dark crimson, viscous mana, drawn by the extractor, flowed through tubes and steadily filled special containers inscribed with spells.
‘Ah, how refreshing…’
Meanwhile, as her Mana Meridians were forcibly widened and her mana was drawn out, Elena felt not a scream of pain, but a wave of exhilaration, and closed her eyes.
It was as if a low-frequency massager was alleviating muscle aches.
While the intensity was rather strong for a massage, it was still well within the realm of a pleasant stimulation.
Moreover, there was the added benefit of her Mana Meridians, usually difficult to expand, being forcibly widened.
Under such circumstances, there was no reason for Elena not to enjoy this labor of mana extraction.
“Just as I thought…!”
Unlike Bargon and the other staff, who cheered excitedly at having already filled ten special containers with Elena’s extracted mana, Lunara’s gaze remained fixed solely on Elena, cold sweat trickling down her brow.
Elena still held them all in the palm of her hand.
Though not entirely, Lunara, the only one who had grasped a fragment of this truth, involuntarily looked down at her goosebump-covered arms and gritted her teeth.
[So, is today’s schedule finished with this?]
“…The original plan was to extract mana ceaselessly until the target amount was reached.”
The expected duration was 24 hours.
However, the first mana extraction labor concluded in just two hours.
In response to Elena’s question, after she was freed from the chair, Lunara let out a small sigh.
“Re-imprison and seal the prisoner.”
Lunara decided to stop here.
The quota had already been abundantly met.
Although the special regulations established by Krasen, her predecessor who had died on his first day, stipulated that extraction should continue past the quota until Elena wept and begged, Lunara had no intention of adhering to such a rule.
And so, Lunara watched Elena’s retreating figure as she was quietly led back to the 100th floor.
Elena would remain sealed in an uncomfortable, immobile posture until the next labor session.
Labor, seal, labor, seal.
It was an eternally repeating cycle from which she could never, and should never, be released, no matter if Lunara’s successor or the one after that took over as Warden.
[I know it’s probably useless to say this, but I’m sorry about what happened back then.]
“…!”
But at that very moment, Elena’s voice echoed in Lunara’s ears once more.
It wasn’t the voice that mattered, but its content.
Lunara, who had been about to turn and depart for her duties, froze rigidly in place, her eyes wide with shock.
“A-Are you alright?”
Long enough for another staff member to notice her frozen state and cautiously inquire about her well-being.
