"..."
"Welco back! I’m completely alive. Ignore the new appearance."
As Anastasia entered Dante’s cell, the first thing she saw was him without his forr mask.
Instead... his face was skinned completely by a mana barrier, made to manifest under his skin to chop it off every ti it regenerates.
The artifact that caused all that was a small gem that was resting on his forehead as if it was glued.
Anastasia stared at that sight with a horrified face, getting reminded by so mories that she wanted to bury deep into the back of her mind.
"That’s... too much." She murmured under her breath, wondering how the other anomalies were treated.
Were they treated the sa, or were they simply upset at Dante and decided to do that to him?
It was obvious that the barrier artifact was more costly than the previous mask. It was made to cause more continuous pain.
And considering that he had broken his collar the previous day... that timing couldn’t be a coincidence.
They just wanted to torture him!
As if guessing her thoughts, Dante opened his mouth and spoke: "I think the captain of those guards was a bit mad for so reason. I was just sitting on my own and suddenly the guards decided to put it on ."
Anastasia stepped closer and sat in front of Dante: "Is it so painful, to be skinned every ti?"
TZZZZ!
"Ouch."
Suddenly, the barrier appeared, chopping off the new skin that had just regenerated, yet Dante gave only a plain response to it, though his body betrayed the emotions he had been hiding.
He was certainly in pain.
"Yes, unfortunately. I won’t sugarcoat it." Dante smiled lightly: "The pain keeps increasing, the pain never ends, it uses my regeneration against , and I’m unable to sleep now. I’m really exhausted ntally. If they don’t take this thing off in like a month, I think I might beco a bit insane."
As Anastasia’s expression turned grim, Dante added imdiately: "But, but, but... if we look at the bright side, I can talk freely and eat with a spoon now! Nothing is perfect, so that’s okay, I guess."
Anastasia frowned at his response: "Why are you happy about that small thing? You’re being tortured."
Since she started visiting him, she couldn’t understand how he could look happy like that while being in such pain.
The only explanation she could think of was that the pain made him lose his mind. However, despite showing signs of insanity, he didn’t act insane enough to be on the level of ignoring pain.
Sothing was wrong about him.
"Umm... why not?" Dante asked with confusion: "What do you want to do then? Scream and cry? Ask for rcy? Keep shaking like a cold kid? Stay silent? Tell and I’ll start doing it now if it can make my situation better."
"That’s..." Anastasia couldn’t respond to him. What he said was true.
Screaming in pain and showing sadness wouldn’t do anything. Anastasia specifically understood so well that so people didn’t have the concept of pity in their minds. She cried, she scread, she asked for rcy, but her torturers didn’t care.
So were even happier to see that. Most of them were sadists, and those who weren’t just followed orders without caring.
Dante smiled softly: "You understand, right? I cried and asked for rcy several tis in the past, and the results weren’t what I wanted. I’m not saying that crying is an act of weakness in general, but crying while being hurt by soone who wants you to suffer is aningless! If they want to see a reaction from , I’d rather give them the one that doesn’t satisfy them!"
"That’s why I’m here looking at the bright side and smiling. I assure you that’s not what they want to see."
After finishing his speech, Dante glanced quickly at the walls.
He was sure that the snake demoness was observing him.
"I see..." Anastasia held the pink loaf of bread and brought it to Dante’s mouth.
"Oh, I almost forgot about that." Dante took a bite from the bread, slowly eating it.
During the whole process of feeding Dante, Anastasia was lost in her thoughts.
’It’s easier said than done.’
Hearing her thoughts, Charis appeared instantly: "Unlike most people, I can see that the boy in front of you is truly young, not just looking younger. He’s younger than you, his rank is lower than yours, and he already has this mindset."
"I told you many tis when you were... being tortured. Maybe you should learn that from him. Instead of being traumatized all the ti, he acts like he doesn’t care at all. I don’t want to be harsh on you, but right now, you have no excuses."
’I understand. I will try to beco better than my current self.’ Anastasia agreed with Charis, determined to change.
She understood her own weaknesses and didn’t avoid talking about them. It was easier said than done, but she was willing to try.
After she finished feeding Dante, he said in gratitude: "Thank you, see you tomorrow I guess."
Anastasia put the plate aside and shook her head violently: "Didn’t I tell you yesterday? I asked them for more ti to talk with you, and they accepted. So... Do you want to start?"
Dante blinked with confusion before the barrier skinned his face again, making him flinch.
Anastasia raised her hand subconsciously, feeling bad to see him in pain but unable to do anything, yet Dante imdiately asked with a calm voice: "Can I know why you are doing this? I wasn’t joking when I said I’m not a good person. I also don’t care about loneliness. Why do you think that having a discussion with would matter?"
Anastasia smiled: "Because when I was in a similar state, I felt like it’d be nice to have soone to talk with instead of a voice in my head."
"And I was right. After arriving here, I found a ssenger who was a bit close to my father. His na is Braham, if you rember him. Speaking with him helped to recover, so I’m trying to do the sa thing with you. I’d have been depressed all the ti if not for his efforts."
"Don’t you feel better to talk with soone who isn’t trying to harm you?"
Dante closed his eyes and thought deeply about her question. After a few seconds, he opened them and responded: "Yeah, it feels nice. But why are you doing it when you can talk with that ssenger instead?"
"As I said, I want to help—"
"Help yourself first." Dante cut her off imdiately: "Can’t you see yourself? You’re shaking from standing in front of a chained, pierced, face-skinned man. You can spend that ti to ’recover’ instead of helping soone like ."
"If you are doing all that for only because of empathy, then what are you doing to the other prisoners who are also struggling? You’re helping them too, aren’t you? You are wasting your valuable ti, and maybe even your valuable points for so strangers with unknown past and sins."
"You are harming yourself, and you are wasting the efforts of the ssenger who is trying to help you recover from what was done to you! Were his efforts aningless for you? Don’t you care about his feelings when he sees you shaking like that?"
"I..." Anastasia listened to him with wide eyes, realizing that she hadn’t thought about it that way before.
Dante sighed, wishing that he could move his hand to cover his face: "Being controlled and hard by your own kindness?"
"That’s... pathetic."
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