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Chapter 397: Black Tongue (1)

Two footsteps echo in unison through the corridors of salty, sticky dampness.

The one walking ahead is Major Garm Nord, and the one following is Captain Kirko Grimm.

Wearing Garm\'s identity, Vikir is currently walking towards the Hearing Audit\'s Room, where Lt. Colonel Black Tongue resides.

\'Finally, I get to meet all five wardens.\'

Colonel DOrdume, Colonel Souare, Brigadier General BDISSEM, and Brigadier General Flubber... Each of the Wardens we\'ve met so far has been unique.

However, Lt. Colonel Black Tongue has a reputation for being dark and unpleasant person to the point where the other prison wardens mentioned above seemed ordinary.

\'How is it possible that he received fewer votes in the popularity contest than Brigadier General Flubber?\'

In the popularity polls by junior and mid-level guards, Colonel Black Tongue always came in last.

This was despite the fact that they were allowed to vote in duplicate.

Suddenly, Vikir turned to Kirko, who was trailing behind him, hoping for a clue.

"Hey, Adjutant."

"Yeah."

Kirko\'s face flushed a bit, as this was the first time Vikir had spoken to her since he became her superior.

The next topic, however, was enough to set her expression back to grim.

"You don\'t seem to like Lt. Colonel Black Tongue."

"...."

"I heard him earlier."

Kirko was silent for a moment at Vikir\'s words.

Then she opened her mouth.

"I don\'t gossip about my superiors."

"Just state the facts."

Kirko exhaled for a moment. What the hell, if the boss is gossipy, so be it.

"Real name and age unknown. Rank is Lieutenant Colonel, nickname is \'Black Tongue\' or \'jailer catcher\'. I think he got that nickname because he has a black tongue and he\'s on the Hearing and Audit team."

"I heard he uses a sword, right? I hear he\'s very skilled."

"Yes. It is said that in terms of ability alone. It\'s been said that he\'s ranked above Colonel D\'Ordume and Colonel Souare. However, his personality is so psychotic and his work reputation is so terrible that he should have been promoted to Brigadier General a long time ago based on seniority alone, but he\'s still a Lieutenant Colonel...."

"Internal irregularities, military discipline, hey, he take care of internal disciplinary action and various audits all by himself, right?"

"That\'s right, such things are rarely done within the Nouvelle Vague, unless it\'s at the whim of Lt Colonel Black Tongue himself, like today."

"You seem to be very moody."

"Yes. The problem is, it\'s not just his mood that are severe, but his impulse control disorders and sexual tendencies. He is notorious for molesting and torturing not only prisoners, but even guards."

Kirko goes on to list the names of those who have been victimized by Black Tongue so far.

Most of them dead, crippled, or missing after horrific torture.

"23 years ago, Lieutenant Valentine Grimm, Lieutenant Farran Farrandle... 12 years ago, Lieutenant Yang Bortz, Captain Gordick... 7 years ago, Lieutenant Aubry, Major Jean Dayle... 3 years ago, Lieutenant Marsong, Lieutenant Yodle... 1 year ago, and most recently, Lieutenant Virginia, according to one of my colleagues...."

Among them was the name of what must have been Kirko\'s mother.

\'So that\'s why you were grinding your teeth.\'

Vikir tore his gaze away from Kirko\'s cold face.

It takes a lot to meet someone with a dark past.

* * *

The hearing audit room where Lt. Colonel Black Tongue stayed was located in a dark and damp limestone cave.

Narrow, steeply sloping stone passageways, twisting back, forth, left, right, up, and down, the caverns were intricately twisted, but there was no need to worry about getting lost because it was a single road.

"It\'s so twisted. There is no decent person who lives in a place like this."

"Normally, I wouldn\'t infer a person\'s character from where he lives, but... I have to agree with you on this one."

At Vikir\'s words, Kirko nodded in agreement.

With that, they entered a fairly wide-open space.

It was nothing more than a wide extension of the path they had traveled so far.

Stalactites jutted up and down like teeth, salty water trickled down the walls, deep pools of water pooled on the floor, and....

"What is this?"

Kirko scratched her head at the black ball-like objects on the floor.

The black balls, which looked like eggs of some sort, became more and more numerous the further they went, until they covered the floor, walls, and ceiling.

Neither Vikir nor Kirko knew what these black spheres, about a meter in diameter, were.

When they poked at them with their fingers, they could only feel the softness, but they couldn\'t tell what was inside.

Then.

kkuleuleug-

The black ball that Vikir had kicked with his military boot made a strange noise and twisted.

juljuljuljul...

Red, yellow juice with an unpleasant smell began to leak from the top of the black ball.

"Ugh! what is this smell, it\'s like rotting meat...."

The odor was so disgusting that even the squeamish Kirko frowned.

With that, Vikir pulled out his three-tiered baton and struck the black ball.

peoeog!

The black ball popped, and its contents began to gurgle out of the narrow hole in the top.

"...!"

In an instant, Kirko\'s eyes widened to tears.

It was a corpse emerging from the black ball.

A thin skull and thick blood poured down onto the floor.

Vikir kicked at the black balls next to him, one after the other.

...peoeog! kkuleuleug! kulkeog!

Then the same unpleasant popping sound erupted and a foul odor began to emanate.

The black ball spat out different things inside.

A skeleton with only bones left, blood that has coagulated like jelly, chunks of yellow fat and flesh, or a desiccated mummy with only bones and skin remaining.

Vikir realized at once what the black balls were.

"Leeches."

Leeches. Vampires that attach themselves to their victims and suck their blood.

But the leeches here in Nouvelle Vague are different.

There are blood-sucking leeches, bone-sucking leeches, skin-sucking leeches, and so on... Each leech here sucks different things.

A blood-sucking leech would quickly turn a human-sized person into a mummified mess of bones and skin.

Bone-sucking leeches remove all of the bones from the body, leaving the victim as a living "blood bag," literally floating in a pool of blood and guts inside the skin.

When a skin-sucking leech bites someone, they are left with nothing but bones and blood, and the blood quickly solidifies, turning into a jelly-like substance with bones trapped inside, creating a strange and creepy sight.

The leeches at this point were all full-grown adults, each having swallowed a human in one bite, rolling the body into a ball and digesting it in their stomachs.

Surprisingly, some of those trapped in the leeches\' stomachs were still alive.

Kirko heard a thin voice calling his name.

"Ki, Kirko...."

The voice sounded as if it could be cut off at any moment, no louder than a breeze.

Kirko\'s eyes widened as she recognized the voice.

"Virginia!?"

Lieutenant Virginia. Kirko had been missing since she\'d been caught breaking military law and taken to Lt. Colonel Black Tongue.

At best, she\'d helped Colonel D\'Ordume embezzle military supplies as a low-level subordinate, but at most, she was taken to the auditor\'s office for the crime of embezzling a few bags of sugar that were supposed to be returned to the birthday person, and she never returned.

But Virginia\'s voice was coming from inside the black ball in the distance.

peoeog!

Kirko immediately drew her sword and struck the black ball with all her might.

The leech\'s tough skin slowly sliced away as it touched the aura.

Kirko finally scratched the leech\'s flesh and twisted it open.

chwaaaag-

The leech\'s bodily fluids spilled out, revealing Lieutenant Virginia inside.

"...!?"

Kirko covered her mouth with both hands at the sight of her companion, whom she hadn\'t seen in a year.

As Kirko stood dumbfounded, unable to find the words to say, Vikir stepped to her side and spoke.

"It must have been a bone-sucking leech."

Sprawled on the floor, Virginia was in tears.

Desperately, she moved her mouth, shaping her lips to convey her last words.

"Kill... Me..."

Kirko stood dumbfounded, unable to close her eyes or mouth at the horrific sight.

It was Vikir who raised his hand in her place.

kwag-

The skilled hound cut off the breath of his target with as little pain as possible.

"Aaah... aaah...."

Kirko dropped to her knees, her eyes moistened with tears, and clutched what had once been her companion with both hands.

Then.

"Hathathathathath- what the hell is this?"

The voice that greeted Vikir and Kirko echoed from the depths of the cavern.

A black ball, a single shadow stretched out amongst the countless leeches.

It was a singularly black color that stood out clearly against the shadows and darkness that surrounded it.

"...."

Vikir squinted his eyes.

At last, the most sinister and unpleasant man in Nouvelle Vague had appeared.

Lt. Colonel Black Tongue.

The last of the Five Warden.