The Price

Bang!

At a construction site in Jormungandr, workers swung heavy iron hammers, relentlessly striking steel rebar to drive it into the foundation.

Although the construction company could have used other methods, this city never lacked people willing to sell their physical labor for money.

They were cheap, numerous, and mostly “rats” living in the slums. Among the group of bare-chested, hulking men, one figure looked completely out of place.

He was far too young, and far too thin.

“I bet he won’t last an hour.”

“Look at how scrawny he is. Ten minutes, tops.”

“Don’t just talk. Let’s put something on it…”

Initially, no one believed in the thin boy.

They thought he was physically incapable of such heavy labor. But soon, the crowd changed its mind.

Not only did he endure, but he didn’t stop at swinging the hammer—he took on tasks like pushing heavy carts as well.

If he wasn’t doing this for money, then what terrifying “thing” was the driving force behind him as he threw his life away like this?

“Hey! Lilo, take a break!”

Today, he arrived for work on time as usual. But Lilo acted as if he hadn’t heard, continuing to drag ropes to pull distant tires.

“That kid’s got a real knack for it.”

Anyone who had been on a site long enough could see that the lean Lilo was no novice.

He had clearly done this type of manual labor before. Despite his frail frame, there was a hidden, raw strength within him.

A “driving force” of unknown origin…

Bang! Bang! Bang!

Lilo continued to strike the rebar, hammer blow after hammer blow. His body, which should have reached exhaustion long ago, surged with a continuous stream of power.

“…”

In reality, Lilo was using the physical labor to activate his stiff body.

To catch up on his studies and get into Saint Tias, he had neglected himself to the point of ruin.

The physique that had once allowed him to be a “school bully” had withered away. Now, he was reclaiming what he had lost.

But with the lack of sleep and malnutrition… he should have reached his limit long ago. No, he was at the limit of a “collapse.”

Yet he didn’t fall. He went to school on time and picked up the hammer every day.

He was at risk of sudden death at any moment, but he refused to go down. A single thought drove him—a residual flame left over after everything else had burned to ash.

“I won’t fall. I won’t fall…”

He repeated the words like a mantra, hypnotizing himself. He kept swinging, kept hauling cement, forcing his body to rediscover the “violence” it had once known—even if he was at his breaking point.

And today… it was time to end it.

“You want your wages?” Inside the office, the foreman looked at the dust-covered Lilo with a hint of pity. Even he felt a twinge of guilt for exploiting a child.

“No. I don’t want the money.”

The foreman and the workers outside who had witnessed Lilo’s work were stunned. If not for money or profit, then what was driving him to destroy himself like this?

“I want that…” Lilo pointed to the item he had brought into the room, leaning in the corner. “I only want that!”

Lilo returned to his rental room. He needed a few more sets of training.

They were basic warm-up exercises, but he performed them with extraordinary intensity. In his dull, hollow eyes, something new had appeared.

He seemed to be remembering the past. When he finally dropped his homemade dumbbells to the floor, he let out a roar.

“AAAAAAHHHH!”

The “thing” suppressed in his heart finally overflowed. He used the roar as a release. It only lasted a few seconds, but he felt much better. He reached into his wardrobe and pulled out the old trench coat.

“…”

Looking at the holes that pierced through the chest and back of the garment, Lilo took a deep breath.

“To find two of them in one year… it’s truly wonderful.”

“You’re all still alive, and I’m alive too. How fortunate.”

He put on the coat, confirmed the message from the nun one last time, and left. The landlord, who had been sleeping off a drunken stupor, watched Lilo’s retreating back with bleary, worried eyes.

“This time… you’ll come back, won’t you? Lilo.”

Inside the abandoned building…

“A simple battle royale game. I heard your body is weak, so I wanted to see how hard you’d fight to survive. I’ve seen people die of pure exhaustion before. I hope you aren’t one of them.”

Asado scraped his karambit against Mutina’s chin. He enjoyed bullying the weak. He couldn’t understand why people condemned him for it. Isn’t it the law of the world for the strong to prey on the weak?

“…”

Mutina watched the hooded figure with the hammer approach from behind Asado. She felt no will to resist, only powerlessness. Why keep living? Living is too exhausting.

She closed her eyes, surrendering to her fate. She was a s*ave to destiny, so this time, she chose to give up.

“Hey, hey, hey! Don’t be so gloomy! Give me some motivation! How am I supposed to have fun like this?” Asado slapped Mutina’s cheek.

Suddenly, he thought of something amusing. “By the way, you seem to hate being touched, especially by men. I bet some ‘collectors’ would pay a high price for the corpse of the Qi Huang heiress~”

!!!

“Hahaha! There’s that reaction! You really do hate that, don’t you? Haha, I’m going to have—hm?”

Asado noticed the movement behind him. “Hey, I told you I didn’t need hel—”

BAM!

In the next second, the person with the iron hammer swung with all his might. Before Asado or Mutina could react, the hammer slammed into the side of Asado’s face. Blood and shattered teeth sprayed across Mutina’s face.

“AAAAAARRRGH!”

Asado collapsed, clutching his face. The blow nearly dislodged his right eye and turned his brain to mush. Mutina stared in shock. Who? Who is this?

But before she could process it, the hooded figure was sent flying by a punch.

Asado, a demi-human and a professional assassin, adapted to the trauma instantly and counter-attacked. The punch was as powerful as the hammer blow; the hooded person spat blood and was severely injured.

Clang, clang—

The sound of chains rang out again.

“Bastard! Bastard! I’m going to kill you! I’ll kill you!” Asado, losing his cool, picked up his karambit to finish off the hooded man. He didn’t forget to fix his gas mask, still wary of Mutina’s trump card.

Mutina knew she had to do something. Asado’s disgusting words had ignited a spark of rage. She reached for the weapon under her wheelchair.

Wait, this size… this model… what’s going on?

Regardless, she pulled out the dagger. While Asado’s attention was on the hooded man, Mutina stood up and plunged the blade into his shoulder.

Unfortunately, she was too weak; she didn’t even have the strength to pull a trigger, which was why she was only given a ceremonial dagger for deterrence. The blade only went in a few centimeters.

“You little b*tch…”

Asado had completely lost his professional composure. He had been out of the game too long. He wrenched the dagger from Mutina’s hand, intending to plunge it into the girl’s chest.

However, as he looked at the dagger—a weapon that fit his palm perfectly—his eyes widened in disbelief. The scorched blade, the charred hilt… a memory flooded back.

“Where did you get this knife!?”

Clang, clang—

The chains became louder, more frantic. Asado raised the dagger to end Mutina.

CLANG!

In that split second, the hooded man—who had been waiting for this lapse—flung a rusted chain. It wrapped tightly around Asado’s neck!

“GET OVER HERE!”

At the other end of the chain, the heavily injured hooded man roared in a raspy, low voice. He yanked the chain, dragging Asado into the darkness!

“Bastard! Let me goooo!”

The two vanished from Mutina’s sight, leaving her gasping for air on the floor.

Asado struggled to break the chain around his neck, but the hammer wound to his face caused his vision to swim. Before he could recover, the hammer came down again.

This time, on his right hand.

“AAAAAAAAAHHH!”

His hand bones shattered. Hammer blow after hammer blow followed, each delivered with extreme violence.

The hooded man broke Asado’s limbs one by one, stripping him of any ability to move.

Fierce. Ruthless. Maniacal.

The hooded man tied Asado’s feet with the chain and used a discarded pulley in the building to hoist him upside down.

“Wh-who… are you…?” Asado wheezed.

The hooded man ignored him. He picked up the fallen dagger and spoke.

「Do you remember this dagger… and the name Helios?」

His voice was thick with uncontainable rage, like a feral beast. When Asado heard the name “Helios” and saw the scorched knife, he finally understood.

“No… it’s impossible!” Asado’s eyes bulged with fear. “Everyone died back then! They were all burned! Why are you—”

The man pulled back his hood, revealing Lilo’s exhausted, gaunt face.

“YOU!?” The Vice President of the Student Council!?

“I will never forget your face, Asado!” Lilo growled.

“You… are you a survivor from back then…?”

“No. I died a long time ago. I died in that fire with my brothers and sisters!” Lilo picked up the hammer and walked toward the upside-down Asado. “Now, I’m just a wraith… crawling out of Hell just to kill you all.”

Lilo slowly raised the iron hammer.

“W-wait! Don’t kill me! I can tell you what happened back then—”

「You made a mistake. Now, it’s time to pay the price.」

Lilo’s black eyes held no mercy. No emotion at all. He was looking at Asado as if he were a piece of livestock.

「Asado.」

Dozens of police cars surrounded the building.

“Wow, that was a close one, Mutina!”

Nair Naya, the energetic athletic girl, pushed Mutina’s wheelchair out of the building. “I didn’t want to get involved in your family drama, but since I got a tip-off, the police and the Student Council had to step in.”

“…” Mutina was still in shock. “Asado?”

Nair paused. “Well, that’s official business. Technically, I shouldn’t tell you.”

Then, Nair told Mutina what she had seen.

Asado was dead. He had been hung upside down with rusted chains like a criminal.

Over a dozen steel rebars had been driven into his body.

To ensure he didn’t die immediately, the killer had started from the limbs, then the chest—torturing him slowly.

The fatal blow was a final rebar driven through his mouth, piercing straight into his brain.

“…” Mutina fell into silence.

Behind her, Nair Naya’s face was slightly flushed as she scrolled through the photos of Asado’s corpse on her phone.

“Ah…” she murmured. “This killer… he’s a heartless, violent maniac. So brutal. So fierce.”

“Vice President Lilo…”

「I wonder if I can train you to become a man like that.」