Bloodhound’s Regression Instinct

Chapter 67

At Soma Station.

“Are you two traveling together?”

“Yes.”

The transportation official smiled warmly at Lia, who was clutching the hem of Yan’s clothes.

Her once snow-white hair had now been dyed black.

“What a cute little sister you have.”

“Thank you.”

“Have a pleasant journey.”

Yan tucked the two train tickets given by the official into his pocket and headed to the train station with Lia.

The path to the train station was bustling with all sorts of people.

From bureaucrats carrying thick briefcases to nobles in luxurious attire, and knights off on their missions.

Lia gazed at them with curious eyes.

“There are so many fascinating people here.”

“Fascinating people?”

“People usually only wear black or white clothes.”

“…?”

Yan didn’t understand Lia’s comment at first but then nodded thoughtfully.

The facility where she had lived until now only housed scholars conducting research and special task members.

It was natural for Lia to find the colorful world outside fascinating.

“From now on, it won’t seem so extraordinary.”

As Yan gently pressed down on Lia’s head, she didn’t know how to react.

Not only was it a gesture she hadn’t experienced before, but it also made her heart flutter.

Was it like a touch she had felt long ago?

Whooosh!

Just then, the train entered the station.

Lia’s eyes widened as she looked at the train.

“What… what is that?”

Yan chuckled at Lia’s reaction.

“There’s so much common knowledge I need to teach you.”

* * *

Inside the speeding train, Lia gaped at the swiftly passing scenery.

“It’s amazing.”

Her eyes sparkled as she took in the world outside.

Her curiosity was boundless, having only ever seen the gloomy confines of the facility, now witnessing the ‘real’ world for the first time.

Lia pressed her face against the train window, utterly engrossed.

Gurgle.

Hunger, it seemed, was unavoidable.

Startled by the sound, she quickly covered her stomach and looked at Yan with cautious eyes.

“If you’re hungry, eat.”

Yan handed her some bread he had bought as a snack.

Lia’s mouth watered as she looked at the bread now in her hands, and she bit into it as if enchanted.

Chewing thoughtfully, Lia suddenly stopped and blurted out,

“…Ah.”

Looking up at Yan with a flustered face, she offered him the bread she had been enjoying.

“Please, have this. I’m sorry.”

Yan chuckled and declined, but Lia’s face turned pale with worry.

“…I’m small, so I don’t need much to eat. It’s really, really okay.”

“Huh?”

It dawned on Yan why Lia had offered him the bread.

“Did you think I would abandon you somewhere?”

Lia hung her head low.

Yan clicked his tongue.

‘It seems that was the norm at the facility where this child was.’

It reminded him of his past life.

He too had been brought to a training center without knowing anything.

And after adapting to the center, he remembered trying to impress the top trainees, anxious about the possibility of death.

He felt a sense of kinship.

Looking earnestly at Lia, Yan said,

“I will never abandon you.”

Pity was one thing, and kinship another…

‘As Lia grows, the strength at my disposal will increase exponentially.’

He could be pointed at for exploiting an ignorant child.

People might think he’s a greedy human, only after her power.

‘It’s not entirely untrue.’

But at least.

“I promise.”

He would never use her and then discard her.

“Yes!”

Lia’s face beamed at Yan’s solemn declaration.

Then she put the remaining bread back in her mouth and began to chew happily.

Yan, hiding his amusement as easily as one might hide their eyes from the wind, broached the main topic with Lia, who had finished the large piece of bread in no time.

“And now, there’s something we need to prepare for…”

“Prepare? What for?”

“From now on, until we reach our destination, you’ll need to memorize a few questions. Can you do that?”

It was a mandatory process before meeting with the chief instructor.

Confidently, Lia nodded.

She was sure of her memory.

* * *

Yan and Lia, having alighted at the station closest to the training center, found themselves on the brink of their destination.

“Wow…”

Lia exclaimed as she looked ahead.

A black fortress stretched skyward.

A massive mountain range encircled it.

Indeed, the training center’s landscape was objectively grand and impressive.

Yan placed a hand on Lia’s head and spoke in a low voice.

“From now on, never take off the necklace and bracelet.”

“Okay!”

Lia gripped her necklace as if to memorize his words.

The silver necklace and bracelet were intricately etched with strange patterns.

[If you were going to make it, couldn’t you have made it pretty? Did it have to be so hideous?]

Momon grumbled discontentedly.

The true nature of the necklace and bracelet was a combination of the metal that had encased the carriage transporting Lia and Momon’s knowledge.

Momon had stripped away the useless parts of the control spells from the leather restraints and shackles that originally bound Lia, weaving the spells as succinctly as possible.

After all, one couldn’t go about wrapped in restraints all over.

But even a succinct spell had to fill the small surface area of items like a bracelet and necklace.

“As long as it’s practical.”

[Tsk tsk, you really lack any sense of aesthetics.]

Momon clicked his tongue, causing Yan to frown.

“I don’t need such comments from someone who was once a bone.”

[Eek! That was beyond my control! If only you hadn’t interfered…!]

“The effect is certain, right?”

[Unless it’s something on the level of that ice behemoth we saw recently, they won’t feel a thing.]

Momon referred to Duke Beowulf with the term ‘ice behemoth.’

“Aren’t you being overconfident?”

[You’re underestimating me. Even if it’s a supernatural ability, it’s still bound by the laws of nature and reason.]

“I’m not convinced…”

[You ungrateful wretch! Do you think I earned the title of Archmage for nothing?!]

“Yeah, yeah, since the Archmage did it, I’ll trust it, of course.”

Yan waved his hand dismissively at Momon’s voice and gazed at the training center before him.

He then sighed deeply.

If everything had gone as planned and she had been the true daughter of the special mission commander, perhaps, but he had ended up bringing the ‘Witch of Oppression.’

‘I need to keep Lia by my side.’

Would the chief instructor grant permission so easily?

Yan shook his head and turned right with Lia, bypassing the training center’s main gate.

Lia tilted her head at Yan’s decision not to enter through the large door.

But that was only for a moment.

“Is that child the one the chief instructor asked to be brought here? Number 974?”

A figure emerged with a heavy voice.

It was an instructor trusted within the chief instructor’s faction.

“Yes.”

The instructor looked down at Lia, who was clinging to Yan’s waist.

After examining her for a moment, the instructor spoke again.

“Enter through this passage. The chief instructor is waiting.”

The instructor pointed to a narrow door, just wide enough for one person to pass through.

Vines completely covered the door, making it difficult to spot without keen eyesight.

The instructor took out a key from his pocket and opened the secret passage hidden among the vines.

Creeeak.

The door to the secret passage began to open.

Yan took a deep breath and steeled his gaze.

‘The chief instructor might not easily agree, but I can’t give up either.’

* * *

Entering the secret passage in the order of the instructor, Yan, and Lia, a musty scent of dust pricked their noses. The instructor and Yan showed no sign of discomfort; such a triviality was not even a hindrance to them.

“Ah-choo! Ah-choo!”

However, it seemed quite pungent to Lia.

Yan pulled out a handkerchief and covered Lia’s nose with it, after which the sneezing ceased, and she could breathe more comfortably.

Yan asked the instructor walking ahead, “Has the second exam concluded?”

Silence.

The instructor, as if his lips were sealed, offered no response.

“Even with the Dragonia Project nearing its end, you can’t share that much?”

“The chief instructor may favor you, but don’t get cocky, 974.”

The instructor glanced back with icy eyes, seemingly irritated by Yan’s attitude.

Yan shrugged nonchalantly.

Not long ago, he had to look up to the instructor due to the height difference, but now they were eye to eye.

“Yeah, yeah.”

Yan replied dryly, closing his mouth and following the instructor.

He knew the second exam hadn’t concluded yet.

‘The trainees who went east haven’t returned yet.’

The second exam held in the east had only finished on the last day.

And the one leading those trainees was none other than Kasa.

‘If my memory serves right, only a very few, including Kasa, would have barely survived to return.’

But those led by Kasa were almost entirely annihilated.

Even those who survived, if not for the information Kasa obtained at the very end of the mission, would have failed despite surviving.

Survival was not the criterion for passing the second exam.

“Wait a moment.”

Yan snapped back to reality.

They had arrived right in front of the chief instructor’s office.

* * *

At that moment, in the interrogation room prepared inside the head instructor’s office.

Screams pierced the air!

Several instructors were in the midst of inflicting brutal torture on a man.

“What information did you pass on to the special task force leader?”

“…”

As the man remained silent, lips firmly sealed, one of the senior instructors pressed a red-hot iron against the man’s thigh.

The sound of searing flesh filled the room.

With the sound of his flesh burning, the man’s eyes snapped open.

The agony filled his eyes with bloodshot veins, and his face flushed a deep red.

Yet, his lips showed no sign of parting.

“Still not willing to talk?”

“…Gruuugh.”

The instructors’ eyes were filled with a sense of disgust at the sight of the man.

This man had been their colleague until recently, but he was discovered to have secretly passed information to the special task force leader.

Yet, no matter how thoroughly he was brainwashed, even when his body was beaten to a pulp, his lips remained sealed.

Just then, the chief instructor, who had been watching the situation with his arms crossed from behind, stepped forward with a determined stride.

As he made his move, the instructors surrounding the man and torturing him quickly bowed their heads and hurried out of the torture chamber and the office.

The chief instructor smirked and placed his hand on the man’s head.

At that moment, the man, who had been as tight-lipped as if his mouth had been locked, began to show signs of change.

Shivering.

The madness in the chief instructor’s eyes was so vast and bizarre that it was overwhelming.

Rustle, rustle.

It felt as if the grip that had been constricting his mind was dissolving away.

The shallow brainwashing had been severed.

The man, regaining consciousness, writhed in pain and pleaded.

“…Please, kill me.”

“Me?”

It was a single question, but fear vividly filled the man’s eyes.

The brainwashing he received from the special task force leader was fading due to the chief instructor’s past actions and that cruel smile.

The chief instructor, with a smirk, ran his fingers down the man’s chin.

“People often misunderstand something about brainwashing. Do you know what it is?”

“…”

“They think it happens in one snap! But that’s not true.”

Each time the chief instructor spoke, the man trembled like a willow in the wind.

It was due to overwhelming fear.

The chief instructor continued.

“Did you know that brainwashing only sets in after very frequent encounters? Roughly thirty times? That’s when the mouth starts to feel heavy.”

“Please, kill me.”

“But if you were brainwashed, it means you had already betrayed me before and rubbed palms with the special task force leader. Don’t bother denying it. Didn’t you know the signs of brainwashing after how I’ve trained you all? You knew, yet you pretended not to, trying to grab the leader’s lifeline.”

“Chie… Chief Instructor, that’s not…”

“Looks like the brainwashing has worn off? Good. It means my efforts weren’t in vain.”

The chief instructor chuckled and picked up an awl.

“Begging to be killed? No way. You should be begging to live.”

“Chief Instructor, please, kill me…”

With a cold smile, the chief instructor cut off the man’s plea.

“I said beg for your life, didn’t I?”

Then, with the awl in hand, he stabbed the traitor’s hand.

Bang!

The awl pierced through the man’s hand and even through the armrest of the torture chair.

The man’s eyes were bloodshot.

He wailed, begging the chief instructor for mercy.

“Argh! Ahhh! Please, please!”

“Does it hurt? I hurt more. It feels like my heart is being torn apart. We were like family.”

“Please… just spare my life, Chief Instructor.”

“If you valued your life, you shouldn’t have become the task force leader’s dog.”

The chief instructor looked down at the man seated on the torture chair with cold eyes.

He was one of the senior instructors of the Dragonfly Project, as good as his own left arm.

To think that such a person had been brainwashed after trying to curry favor with the task force leader by passing on information.

“Why did you do it? I didn’t neglect you. I would understand if I had treated you poorly, but that wasn’t the case.”

“…Please, spare me. I was wrong.”

“No, I’m curious. Why did you betray? You didn’t see this coming?”

The chief instructor leaned in close to the man’s face, twisting the awl embedded in his hand.

Crunch. Crunch.

Veins bulged on the man’s neck, a testament to the agony that shredded his sanity from his tortured hands.

Yet, the chief instructor’s eyes remained chillingly indifferent.

“Hm? Answer me. Didn’t you foresee this end?”

With a cold smirk, the chief instructor escalated the torment.

Extracting nails, sprinkling caustic potions, or slicing the skin with a scalpel.

Time lapsed in such cruel increments.

“…Gurgle.”

Suddenly, blood gushed from the man’s mouth like a waterfall.

His eyes lost focus, and the convulsions that wracked his body slowly subsided.

The chief instructor furrowed his brow at the sight of the betrayer, straightening up.

“Tsk, dead already.”

Perhaps it was the heat of the moment, but what was meant to be hours more of suffering ended in an unintended death.

The chief instructor brushed his hair back, casually wiping the splattered blood from his face.

That’s when there was a knock.

Knock, knock.

“Chief Instructor, I’ve brought trainee number 974.”

* * *

“Come in,” the chief instructor’s permission echoed, prompting Yan to take a deep breath. Now was the time to speak well. The tension seemed to have transmitted to Lia as well, her grip on her clothes tightening.

Having gathered his thoughts, Yan opened the door and entered.

“Welcome,” greeted the chief instructor, his face and clothes smeared with blood from some recent event. Lia gasped from behind, startled by the sight.

Yan’s gaze drifted to the torture chamber within the office, from where a pungent scent of blood wafted.

‘It seems someone has irritated this madman again.’

And showing this was a warning that Yan himself could end up the same way at any time.

However, Yan said nothing about it, and the chief instructor, without further ado, slumped into his chair.

Yan got straight to the point.

“I’ve brought the child you mentioned. And here is the report I’ve compiled based on what I’ve found out and confirmed through questioning.”

Yan presented the report he had prepared on the train, placing it on the chief instructor’s desk.

“Just like my disciple. Well done,” the chief instructor said with a chuckle, rising from his seat. He glanced at Lia briefly before looking away, seemingly unimpressed.

‘Momon was confident, and it seems there’s no immediate danger for now.’

But Yan wasn’t ready to let the matter of Lia pass just yet.

“I have something to discuss.”

“Hm? What’s weighing on you? Speak freely, comfortably. After all your hard work, I should at least hear you out.”

“I’d like to inquire about how you plan to handle the child.”

The chief instructor responded not with words but with a piercing stare.

Smirk.

“Why would our top trainee be curious about that? Did you grow fond of her on the way here?”

Yan swallowed hard.

‘This is where it begins.’

The chief instructor’s eyes curved like crescent moons, his gaze coldly dissecting Yan.

As if not a shred of falsehood would be tolerated.