Prison Cell

'Where am I?'

A young girl opened her eyes slowly and found herself in an unfamiliar place.

It was a room identical to an underground stone-walled jail. And currently, she found her body affixed on the wall and bounded with chains, rendering her immobile.

This girl was Lena who just woke up from being fainted. The moment she cleared her mind, she began to recall the current situation.

She was kidnapped. Right now she didn't know how much time had passed ever since she's out cold and brought to this place. What she knew was that it happened during the day when she was in a muddled state and went outside to refresh her mood.

Wandering while being lost in thought she found herself in the Outer District and from there she happened to hear some rumors about people disappearing and never came back. One of the people there, a lady about thirty years old was crying saying that her child was kidnapped by a group of people. She reported the case to the guard but was not taken seriously so Lena who was listening to the lady's story decided to investigate on her own.

The lead she got brought her to the northern Outer District and discovered the group of people mentioned kidnapping people recently. Naturally she tried to engage them and rescued the victim, and yet there was a suspicious masked man whom she assumed was the leader or the main culprit because the people there were passing the captured people to him.

Lena engaged the masked man and drew her sword but in an instant the man's figure disappeared from her sight and her consciousness went dark after that.

And then she awakened and found herself in this prison-like place.

Looking around her surroundings, it was quite dim with only fire torches placed on the wall as lighting.

On her right side was a different cell than her and in there was a pair of little boy and girl about 8-10 years old being affixed on the wall just like her. They were awake and yet their eyes were hollow with mouth hanging open.

Considering they had the same hair color, Lena thought that they might be a pair of brother and sister with the former being a little older than the latter.

There's only a stone wall on her left with another cell on her front filled by a middle aged man with frail body. Lena guessed that her cell location was the lower left most cell.

She felt nauseated and angry seeing children were also kidnapped and brought here, also with their weird condition, she knew something was done to them. Whatever it was, it musn't be a good thing since they looked like a lifeless or hypnotized doll.

Staying here was dangerous both for her and the other people here.

She didn't know why nothing seemed to be done to her but right now escaping from here and rescued the others were her top priority. Especially for her own life, she must ran away and stay alive. If it was her the day before she was kidnapped perhaps she would prefer to sacrifice her life to save others but not now. No matter what, she couldn't die here, she must live on.

Her hands were spread apart and bounded by chains, the same goes for her legs. It was very tough that even if she used all her strength, they wouldn't budge a single bit.

Using ki was also useless as for some reason she couldn't release any energy as if it was sealed. Perhaps the chain was the reason for that as she could see some kind of runes marked on the boundary.

Things looked hopeless and yet she could not give up here. She had to find a way and got out of here as soon as possible. No matter how hopeless it was she must not give up because it's not the matter of her only life here.

Some unknown time passed, Lena thought it should be a few hours but can also shorter or longer than she expected.

"Haa... Haa....."

Her wrists and ankles already bleeding and tattered from her struggle to break through the chain but for no avail. She was breathing raggedly while her body was trembling, feeling weak. Still, her teary eyes remained strong while she gnashed her teeth and put power on her hands.

"Ngh!"

*CLANK!*

"Guu...!"

Once again, she pulled the chain binding her wrists, spatting out more blood from them. But it's alright, even if her hands were ripped off she didn't care, in fact she really wish she could cut one of her hands right here and now to free herself but it's not possible if all of her limbs were bounded.

Her energy was so exhausted right now and when was she last eat anyway? Perhaps it's already a long time, not to mention her mental condition and situation was the worst, how could she hold on for long like this? Even if her strength was far from ordinary people considering her status as a knight, she was in the end a human being.

Stress, anxiety, frustration, anger, sorrow, loneliness, bewilderment, fear, fatigue, and pain. She was susceptible to such concepts, the current ones she felt right now, accumulating inside her mind and body, rendering her weak like a old leaf turned pale and frail, easily crumbled by a drop of water.

Drowsiness struck her tired body, making her dulled eyes felt extremely heavy.

No, She can't sleep here.....

.

.

.

.

*Clack*

"-!?"

A sound of door being opened stimulated her almost closed eyes and woke her up. Then a sound of footsteps resounded coming from her right. The sound was getting closer and closer, approaching her place. The steps stopped right in front of her cell door.

"Hoo? So you've awakened."

The same tall masked man wearing dark robe covering his body was standing there while keeping his hands behind his back. The mask was a gray mask with simple design, there's only two holes for his eyes to see through. They were so dark and his eyes couldn't be seen. Or perhaps this man was actually not opening his eyes right now? Lena didn't know.

"....Who are you...?" She asked weakly.

"...."

The masked man didn't answer her question and remained still for awhile before opening his mouth again.

"You're quite rebellious. But I suggest you should not struggle too much." He seemed to point out the fact Lena's wrists and ankles were bleeding and ragged.

"...Let me out of here." Lena ignored what the man just said and asked coldly.

"I can't do that." He answered indifferently.

"...."

"...."

They turned silent and 'stared' at each other's eyes, one of them the girl was glaring at him hatefully, not hiding her fury and grudge while the other could not be felt at all what his current emotion was, his eyes could not be seen from the holes on his mask.

"Why are you doing this...?"

Lena opened her mouth first and questioned him.

"For research."

"....What?"

Lena was stunned from his answer. Research? Research what? By kidnapping people like this and done something to them?

"Well it didn't matter. I warn you that if you keep struggling like that you'll only going to kill your own self." He didn't seem to pay attention on what Lena thought based on her current expression.

Lena bit her lip when he mentioned about killing herself. Death was the only thing she wished the least right now.

"Hmm, you seemed to be more obedient than I thought. Then I guess as a reward I'll free the chain on your hands." The man nodded as if satisfied with her respond.

*Clink* *Clink*

All of a sudden after he said that, the chain bounding Lena's hands broke, freeing both her arms.

She was flabbergasted both from how the man just casually released her hands and how easily he done that while standing still in front of the locked cell.

There's no trace of ki or mana being release. There's not even projectile weapons being thrown, just how did he do that? And..

"Why did you release my hands..?" Lena asked warily.

"I told you it's a reward. It didn't matter anyway even if you have both your hands."

"....What did you say?"

Lena thought the masked man was looking down on her. But he's not entirely wrong as even if her hands were free, both her legs were still tightly bounded. Her stamina already exhausted and she also couldn't use ki because there's still chains on her limbs.

"Kuh!"

Suddenly the man covered both his eyes with his hands and crouched as if in pain, Lena was perplexed from the sudden spectacle. It was maybe her imagination but for some reason it was as if her surroundings became blurred a little bit just for a millisecond.

"Haa... Looks like I use it a little too much these days." He heaved a sigh and mumbled quietly, not enough for Lena to hear what he said.

"Well, I guess I should do what I came here huh."

The masked man raised his body while also ignoring Lena's puzzled gazes and stood indifferently as if what happened just now was mere illusion.

He walked to the next cell, the one with a pair of little boy and girl and entered the cell effortlessly by 'walking through' the metal bars.

"What are you...."

Lena raised his brow when the man just entered another cell by passing by the locked cell as if his body was made from air. She suddenly had a bad premonition.

The masked man still ignored her as if she's no longer existing in his mind. He then took out things from his robe, two syringes filled with a bizzare dark red liquid and proceeded to inject the red liquid on both of the children.

"Aaa..."

"Uuu..."

Both of the boy and girl groaned weakly with their still hollowed eyes when he injected the red liquid.

"Hey, what are you doing!?"

Lena shouted seeing him inserting a very suspicious looking substance to the children.

Of course, her question and anger remained unanswered and the masked man began to enter the other cells one by one, doing the same thing he did to the pair of children just now.

Sound of muffled moans and groans echoed on the entire room each time the masked man injected the liquid using the syringe.

The knight girl Lena could only gritted her teeth while having a very ominous feeling about what the man was currently doing. She knew something really bad will happened to those inserted by those liquids and yet she couldn't do anything.

No, could it be that man was also planning to inject her body with that suspicious dark red liquid?

Her body started shivering and her face turned pale imagining such thing. Her anxiety now grew countless of times while tremendous fear was starting to consume her heart.

About thirty minutes later the constant groans and moans around the room stopped, signalling that the man had finished what he's doing.

*Thud* *Thud*

Lena's body jolted when she heard the masked man began approaching her cell once again. She prayed for the man to not come here with all her heart and yet reality trampled her wish cruelly.

"!!"

As she feared, the masked man too entered her cell by passing by the metal bars just like the others.

"Hmm, I did not get rid of your clarity because I wanted to ask you some questions about the black minotaurs case back then. But I guess that didn't matter now, I'm not that interested anymore."

The man muttered casually, mentioning something that if Lena was calm she would definitely widened her eyes in shock because the man seemed to know something about the black minotaurs case she was involved before.

Alas, the current her who was extremely frightened while mumbling "no no no no" and shaking her heads did not pay attention to that fact.

What her mind fully focused on currently was the same syringe filled with dark red liquid he injected to the others right on his hand, taken out from the man's dark robe.

Without much thought the masked man started to aim the needle on her neck.

"No no no!! Stop!!!"

She shook her head furiously, trying to dodge the syringe while also flailing her arms to resist.

"Just that...please... don't....." Her eyes were wet from tears while she was begging pitifully.

But unfortunately, the masked was not someone who cared about what she thought and what she felt, he used his left arm to restrain both her arms while pinning her to the wall, preventing her head from struggling.

'Someone, please...help me....'

She cried on her mind while pleaded for salvation.

'I cannot die here... so please....'

While she was desperately pleading, a figure of someone began to form on her mind.

Subconsciously, she also started to direct her plea on that person.

Once again the masked man raised the hand with the syringe and moved it against her pale neck coldly with any emotions.

'No no no no no no no no....!!'

Lena could feel the tip of the needle almost contacted her skin and cried out in despair and desperation.

"NOOO!!!! HELP ME, HARUTO-SAN!!!!"

!!

*RUMBLE* *RUMBLE*

As if answering her cry, the entire room, no the entire structure itself suddenly shaking as if an earthquake just struck the building.

"What?"

The masked man stopped his hands and turned his head upwards.

"Tsk, looks like a rat tried to enter my domain from outside..."

He clicked his tongue and put down his hands from Lena's body, sounding irritated.

"I guess we have to do this later, for now it was my job meet up with the rat trying to intrude to my territory."

He turned his body from her and a short while later his figure began blurring and disappeared from the place without trace.

Lena was still stupefied from suddenly saved just as her body was almost injected. The tears that stopped flowing from her despair and desperation began flowing slowly once again, streaming on her still pale face while her body turned sluggish and dropped to the ground on her knees.

With eyes still opened wide, her hand slowly began moving towards her abdomen.

She touched her abdomen and began to rub it gently and softly as if she was making sure that part was not harmed at all.

"Uuu...wAHHHHH!!!"

After awhile the tears on her eyes dropped out profusely and Lena was crying madly out of relief and joy.

For some reason she knew, that person was already here coming to save her.

....

It's just that from her delight and relief, she did not notice that the prisoners around her began to act strangely.