Raised in Dungeon

On the day Arthur and Nishizaka departed, the Noctem Dolls still lingered around the dungeon.

One of them, Norman, approached Ivaylo, who was still sitting and sewing his doll.

"What do you want, Norman?" asked Ivaylo.

"So, do you want to explain about Arthur? It seems too strange that you just let him go," Norman said.

"Ah yes, I also agree with Norman," Elinor continued. "Nishizaka's oath is very important because it can only work for one person. Plus, Nishizaka wouldn't want to kill Arthur. So what's the point of keeping him alive?"

"Maybe his eyes?" Adam interrupted. "That eye helps us a lot, even in the dungeon. Not only do its advanced detection capabilities allow us to perceive mana with great precision, but they also enable us to identify and decipher the various spirits that are present wherever we are. We can get a lot of information just by having that eye. Who knows what it can do when its level increases."

"Relying on information to fight is very weak. Whatever that ability is in front of me, it will be neutralized immediately," Leofric said.

"Irritande, those who have no intention of joining just leave. We don't have time to persuade people who don't want to become members," Illska said.

Ivaylo stopped sewing, put his doll in his pocket, and took out a new doll shaped like Arthur.

"He sure has interesting eyes…" Ivaylo said. "But what's more interesting about Arthur is his sense of justice, which is often contradicted by his selfishness."

"And what does that mean?"

"Nishizaka is the type of person who kills if necessary, and actually she hates killing people. This type of justice believes everyone has the right to live unless that person threatens her.

Unlike Arthur, when he followed us, he didn't comment at all on how we killed people, even though I'm pretty sure we're quite ruthless in dealing with our prey.

He's not normal."

Elinor then thought, realizing what Ivaylo meant, "Ooh I see… So that is why I feel something strange about Arthur. In some way he looks very normal, but somehow at certain times he looks strange."

"What do you mean by strange?" asked Ralph.

"Umm, Arthur is weak and has less mana, and he also refuses to kill, so his work in this group are only cleaning tasks such as taking care of corpses."

"Then?"

"As a normal person, it should take time for him to get used to it. But he seems to have gotten used to it from the start.

Whenever I see him seeing the corpses, his face always looks at them disgustedly."

Ralph snorted, "What's strange? I also feel disgusted by the corpses sometimes."

"Well, we're not normal to begin with; we've killed so many that humans just feel like insects.

As for Arthur, he hasn't killed anyone and has a high sense of justice, as we know. Then why did he just act normally when caring for a corpse?

And his eyes, when taking care of the corpse, it looks more like

He was disgusted by the dirt on his hands."

"Thank you for explaining, Elinor," Ivaylo said. "Arthur is a person with abnormal tendencies who desperately strives to fit into society's idea of normalcy. He probably didn't care about human life from the beginning, except for the people he considered human.

Like his Mr. Waldo... and then maybe his sister."

"I still don't understand, though; what was the reason you let him go?" asked Norman.

"Of course we'll let him join us someday. That's why I asked Nishizaka to accompany him."

Ivaylo then concluded his explanation with

"This enigmatic puppet appears devoid of empathy, manipulating emotions like strings on a puppet. A liar who wants normalcy.

Such a person can't possibly have a normal life. He will definitely come back to us."

...

...

...

"HELP! HELP ME! HELP ME! SOMEBODY PLEASE AAARRRGH!!!"

Mr. Gorste's cries echoed through the room after Arthur paralyzed him and gradually skinned his right hand.

"This is the hand of the person who killed Susan, and then these skins have touched the money that Susan had left behind. I will kill you once I separate them from your body," Arthur said.

Nishizaka, who usually never made any expression, even slightly, made a face of shock at the scene in front of her. Ivaylo had already done various kinds of torture to extract information from people, and of course, the scene in front of him was no worse than what Ivaylo was used to.

Only, the one who did it was Arthur, the supposed innocent one among the Noctem Dolls, could now carry out such horrifying acts with an unsettling calmness. The excruciating screams of Mr. Gorste seemed to have no effect on him whatsoever.

"Aaakrrghg!!! Aaaakhkrh!!! AaAKKHKHKRH!!!"

Next to Mr Gorste, there was his daughter sitting on the bed, silently watching her father screaming and being skinned by a person she used to know very well.

-SPLASH

After finally being able to move, Gorste splashed his blood on Arthur's face. Gorste managed to break free from his restraints and forcefully splash his blood onto Arthur's face. He desperately tried to escape the scene and reach his daughter, who lay on her bed.

"Arthur! I'm sorry! I'm sorry for what happened to Susan! You remember Mawa, right? She used to play with you a lot! You even promised to get married! I will bless you! So please let us go!" Mr Gorste was still babbling forgiveness, pouring out heartfelt apologies in an attempt to persuade Arthur to release him.

Meanwhile Arthur.

"Uh, I'm such a fool. If I skinned him, of course the effects of the paralysis would dissipate.

Look, Mr. Gorste, you've soiled my face, how disgusting, I hate blood. Even though I've gone to the trouble of wearing gloves."

Arthur drew his sword.

"Wait! Arthur! Listen to me first!"

"This is your fault, Mr. Gorste. I had gone to the trouble of leaving Susan for Mr. Waldo, because I thought I would look like an ordinary man by taking revenge. But it seems I did too much, so I gave up killing Allen."

Arthur then cried,

"Susan was... the only form of normalcy I craved. She was the sister I loved the most."

-THRUST

Arthur stabbed Mr Gorste in the neck.

More blood poured out of Mr Gorste's nose, mouth, and throat, and the blood on his hands was already flowing so much that it almost flooded the floor below.

"Eh? It looks like I missed. It's hard to aim for the throat." Arthur drew his sword and stabbed it once more, right in the middle of Mr Gorste's neck.

"Huh, he finally shut up."

Arthur splashed the blood on his sword and sheathed it again.

"Arthur, what about me?" called Mr Gorste's daughter, Mawa. "Aren't you going to kill me?"

"No, I'm not interested in killing people. You're not someone who deserves to be killed,"

"Why? I'm also a bad person because I'm the one who caused my father to steal.

My illness makes me won't be able to walk; without my dad to take care of me, I won't be able to live. So kill me."

"Sorry, I think you misunderstood. I wasn't thinking about you. What I mean is that I don't think my energy is worth using to kill you. Maybe I'll consider it if you're willing to pay."

-SLASH

Nishizaka quickly advanced and split Mawa's head open.

"What are you doing? Don't you like killing?"

"This girl could no longer live; I killed her because I thought it was necessary," Nishizaka replied.

Arthur paused for a moment, then he closed his mouth and said,

"Hahahaha! Right, so that also includes 'killing if necessary,' I thought you only killed if you got attacked or ordered."

Arthur wiped his tears from laughing and smiled brightly at Nishizaka "Nishizaka, thank you so much for creating this space with your god's blessing. This way, people can't hear what's going on inside."

Nishizaka looked at the smiling Arthur. It was, unmistakably, the smile of the innocent, honest boy she was used to seeing during their journey here. She originally thought that smile was alluring because it contained the purity of a good human being, but now her view has changed, that smile and the smile Arthur gave, were still the same smile, and that's why it looked terrible.

For Arthur, killing that person was so common that he could still smile like that.

Nishizaka reached into her pocket, pulled out a small doll from Ivaylo, and then squeezed it tightly.

As she did so, the doll emitted a bright, dazzling glow that caught Arthur off guard. Startled, Arthur exclaimed in surprise,

  "WHA?!"

Just then, a male voice sounded from nearby, saying with astonishment, "This is much faster than I anticipated." In an instant, as soon as Arthur opened his eyes wider, he couldn't help but let out a loud scream of shock again.

"WHAAAA!!!" To his amazement, all the members of the Noctem Dolls had suddenly appeared in the room alongside him.