Catato Patch 

And so the pregnant girl took me on a tour through the slave pens, in the process saving over 20 other beautiful teenage girls, all of whom were between the age of 14 to 19. Some were locked up by themselves while others were locked up in groups of two or three. All of whom had one thing in common, which was their youthful and captivating beauty.

 

All of them had a common reaction to my identity as a devil; fear and apprehension. They probably thought I was going to eat their souls after gaining their trust…

 

And that’s why I say, a devil’s reputation is worse than a pile of dog sh*t on the sidewalk, even saving a person is hard.

 

Because Nicole was still nowhere in sight, I wasn’t in the mood to explain myself either, at least until the pregnant girl brought me to an isolated room…

 

Using the key I looted off his unconscious body, the door opened with a click, unleashing in my opinion what had to be one of the foulest smells I had ever smelt since reincarnating, again. Considering I had spent time next to an actual mountain of corpses before, that was saying something indeed.

 

It was a stench that could only come from having locked a beast in a sealed room for a long time. The only person who found this more painful to bear was probably that crippled girl lying in the middle of the room naked. Judging by her pallid expression, that must’ve been the girl who the brothers crippled.

 

Throughout this entire process of saving the girls, my heart would pound furiously as I stood outside each of the rooms. It was as if I was standing on a precipice, all it took was a single push to send me over the edge. Was it Nicole behind the door? Or was it…

 

As the door swung ajar, what greeted me was a golden head of hair and a sudden change of perspective as I collapsed to the floor...that’s right, my legs gave way at that instant...it wasn’t Nicole...thank God….

 

“*Bark Bark Bark!*” My attention was immediately drawn away, past the naked girl that was chained spread eagled to the floor by four poles, and onto three large yellow dogs that reminded me of a chinese field dog.

 

(https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tugou) (https://tinyurl.com/y99jupqh)

 

Originally, these three potatoes were quietly gathered in a corner but upon noticing an intruder, me, enter, they immediately stood up and began barking.

 

Dogs...broken limbs...don’t tell me this is the girl who had Nicole’s wallet!

 

“Dog…” Those brothers were talking about humiliating “Nicole” with dogs...madness, how could dogs and man...ah, exactly what am I picturing in my head!

 

“Die!” Even though she wasn’t Nicole, I was raging just the same, these people were worse than beasts! It’s one thing for them to do it themselves but they actually used these dogs to humiliate her. Even the 18th level of hell wasn’t enough for men like them! With righteous fury burning within me, I dashed forward and with a swing of Shadowfang, punished those dogs.

 

With the dogs taken care of permanently, I finally turned to the poor girl lying in the middle of the room. She really wasn’t Nicole huh...Nicole had a blazing head of red hair while hers was a radiant blond. Perhaps the recent events had gotten to her, but her hair seemed a little dull as if reflecting her current state.

 

The blond girl was secured tightly to each of the wooden poles with her back facing the air and arced in a way to expose her butt and private parts….which...had really been…

 

Judging from the strange angle of her limbs, they must’ve been thoroughly dislocated. Not only that, her body was covered in a gamut of burn marks, whip marks, bruises and even knife marks, criss crossing with each other to paint a gruesome picture on her body.

 

“You...are still alive right…”

 

“...” She didn’t reply me but neither was she dead either. Instead, she merely stared at me, her eyes completely devoid of life. Even in the face of an infamous devil, her expression didn’t change a bit. From the looks of it, she had completely shut herself off from the world.  

 

In the midst of my musings, the pregnant girl chimed in: “Master...she might not understand the language of the devils, perhaps you should let me translate instead.”

 

“...” Embarrassing.

 

It finally dawned on me that I had been using the devil’s tongue up till now. Even when I was conversing with the pregnant girl, we communicated in the devil’s tongue. Putting aside the question of why she even knew this language, now that I knew where the problem lied, it was a simple matter to fix it.

 

Changing to the tongue of the humans, I said: “It’s alright, you should release her instead, I’m not even sure if her limbs can recover anymore.”

 

“Master...you can speak in our language?”

 

“Mhm.” I nodded while hurrying her along with a wave of my hands, not even taking the time to admire her stunned expression. I instructed the other slaves to help her rescue the crippled girl as well.

 

Having received my command, the slaves gingerly undid her bindings and found a relatively clean spot for her to sit. I even found a blanket to wrap her in, hiding her wound-ridden body; the last thing I wanted was to be constantly reminded of her pitiful state.

 

With that settled, I got one of the slave girls to fetch her some water which she halfheartedly drank. While she still had that lifeless look in her eyes, the fact that she drank the water meant that there was still hope.

 

According to their own words, the brothers had starved this girl for several days. Fearing the worst, I checked her body for any signs of bite marks. Given that the dogs were locked in with her as well, they might have gnawed on her flesh in a fit of frenzied hunger.

 

However, this theory was quickly debunked not only because there were no bite marks but also because I had discovered dog food nearby...was it to prevent them from biting her to death or…

 

The room wasn’t a particularly large one, it was roughly 50 meters square in area but the majority of the space had been taken by a enormous collection of torture implements. There wasn’t even a bed in the room. In order to accommodate her weakened state, I ended up holding my interrogation here.

 

I got slave girls to gather together in the room and in front of them, kicked the black robed sleeping beauty on the floor.

 

The sudden impact on his head jolted the occultist back to consciousness. As he looked around with dazed eyes, his gaze fell upon the stumps where hands once were. It finally dawned on him that all that wasn’t a dream but was instead reality!

 

“Don’t...don’t hit me...don’t kill me…” Upon seeing the gathered slaves, he immediately realized how precarious his situation was. He struggled to climb to his feet but his desperate attempt was swiftly thwarted by a kick to his leg. Having lost his balance, he fell to the ground with a loud thud.

 

I pointed at the catatonic blonde girl and asked emotionlessly: “Did you get the wallet from her?”

 

He glanced at the blonde girl before weakly answering: “...yes...it’s hers…”

 

“...” Nicole really wasn’t captured...thank goodness...

 

The gathered slaves stared at their former master with mixed feelings. Some were fearful while others were angry, either way, not a single one of them pitied his plight. After all, this beast was the entire reason why they were locked up. However, old habits die hard, even in his helpless state, the slaves didn’t dare to take revenge on him.

 

“There’s no one else here?” Having confirmed Nicole’s safety, my mind was no longer stuck in an angry rut. Turning my gaze onto the slave who was the most mentally stable, in other words, the only one who wasn’t that fearful of me, the pregnant girl, I said: “While that battle didn’t end up destroying the basement, I’m sure it must’ve caused a significant ruckus. If there’s anyone nearby, they might just come over to have a look.”

 

“Don’t worry Master, there’s no other living person in the vicinity except for us.” She replied, roughly guessing the concern behind my words.

 

“Young Master is an occultist after all, while they weren’t as hated as the necromancers, being an occultist wasn’t an honorable job either. This is why he built his villa in a remote area where no one would visit.” She calmly explained.

 

“Oh.” Having heard her explanation, my worries were put at ease. I grabbed a handful of the occultist’s hair and violently smashed his head into the floor thrice, turning his face into a bloodied mess. However, he was still conscious.

 

I let out an exasperated sigh. I wanted to smash his head again but I was worried that I might end up killing him, so stayed my hand temporarily. Seeing my troubled expression, the pregnant girl graciously offered her assistance.

 

“Master, if you wish to render Young Master powerless, there’s actually a simple way to do so. In order for mages to cast their spells, they need to chant. Sometimes, this required hand seals or magical arrays. Since you’ve chopped off his hands, all we have to do is take away his magical tools and seal his mouth and limbs.”

 

“Hmm, let’s go with your plan then.” Who knew that this little girl was a talent as well. While her words weren’t always on the mark, they were mostly logical and well thought out.

 

I loosened my grip on the occultist who by now had wet his pants from the repeated shocks. I nodded my head to show my accent, at the same time, I reminded her: “Make sure not to kill him.” The last thing I wanted was to get summoned back to Hell due to an accident caused by an angry former slave.

 

“I understand Master, I’ll be careful.”

 

With the matter of the black robed caster settled, my gaze subconsciously wandered back onto the blonde girl. Just by looking at those three dogs, I could roughly guess how much of an ordeal she had undergone. Even after being rescued, she didn’t seem responsive at all, which was a problem...I still needed to ask her where she got that wallet from.

 

While I could understand her plight, I would shut myself off as well if I had to go through that torture, but her unresponsiveness had truly put me in a bind.

 

In the end, I decided to try my luck with a question: “If you answer my questions, I’ll hand over that occultist to you. You can do with him as you wish.”

 

That sentence seemed to have some effect as the blonde girl turned towards me with her deadpan eyes and stared at me, silent as ever.

 

“...I’ll take your silence as consent.” I pointed at the black robed mage bound by the remaining slaves and said in the sincerest tone I could muster. “Look, your enemy is right over there. The two bald men have already been killed by me so all that remains is for you to take revenge upon him. As long as you tell me where you got that wallet from, I’ll hand him over to you.”

 

“As long as you don’t kill him, you’re free to do as you please. Even if you wish to get a horse to f*ck his *ss, I’ll support you. Just as long as you don’t kill him. It would be a waste to kill him, after all you can’t torture a dead person.”

 

“...” Having listened to my persuasive words, her eyes began to glint with life once more as her placid face began to take on an angry expression.

 

“Sto...Stol...Stolen…” She struggled to spit out that word. Not speaking for so long made it difficult for her to speak right off the bat.

 

“Where did you steal it from?” She finally talked...this is harder than questioning a prisoner…

 

“Az...Azure...City…”