The skull's throbbing pain slowly faded away. Mare cracked his eyelids open just a sliver, only to find he couldn't move at all—his entire body was bound by something.
He forced his eyes open wider, and what greeted him was EeDechi's kind and warm smile.
"You're awake. You've become a cute girl now."EeDechi looked down at Mare and said gently.
"!" Mare's eyes bulged wide, like he'd been struck by lightning.
He twisted his body with all his might, rubbing his legs against his crotch. The sensation of his balls was still there, and he let out a sigh of relief. So EeDechi was just messing with him.
"Captain, how's my tortoise shell bondage technique?" Franco asked, fishing for compliments. He patted the magical chains that had Mare tied up in a humiliating pose, looking awfully pleased with himself.
EeDechi ignored him. She eyed the tattered short pleated skirt on Mare's body and frowned. "You're a boy—why are you wearing women's clothes?"
"Shh!" Franco quickly pressed a finger to his lips. "That's not politically correct—don't say stuff like that! It won't pass the review!"
"Who dares to censor what I say?" EeDechi exploded in anger.
"Wearing whatever you want is everyone's freedom—don't judge people for it," Franco explained. With that, he started pulling down his pants.
"Okay, got it—don't judge others' outfits." EeDechi shot him a glare. "But what are you taking your pants off for?"
"This type's called a femboy—you can fuck 'em." Franco's eyes gleamed with wicked intent, his gaze raking up and down Mare's body. Mare broke out in goosebumps all over from the stare.
Mare panicked, his red-and-blue mismatched pupils brimming with tears, looking all pitiful and helpless. Among the floor guardians of the Great Tomb of Nazarick, he wasn't the combat type. Right now, with his whole body locked down, he had no way out.
"Heh heh heh." Franco's laugh was downright sleazy as he reached out to grope Mare's slim waist. "You're so pretty, I don't even mind that you're a guy—but I hate filth, so how about I give you an enema to clean you out first?"
Mare's face went ghostly white. He thrashed wildly, trying to dodge Franco's grabby hands, but he couldn't budge an inch.
EeDechi snatched Franco's arm and snapped, "Back off—I've got real questions to ask."
"Let me ask you this," EeDechi sat down beside Mare, her expression dead serious. "What is World Item Fusion?"
World Item Fusion was something she and Barrett had spotted in Mare's desert archaeology notes. The notes described it as the ultimate magical technique researched by the Eight Greed Kings.
Mare's pupils suddenly dilated wide. He knew his secret was out, and to keep it safe, he absolutely couldn't spill a word.
"Hmm? Not talking?" EeDechi's face darkened like a thundercloud, ready to pour.
"I don't know!" Mare bit out each word. He craned his neck defiantly, wearing a look like he was marching to his doom. He tensed his little face, his tone rock-solid. "Give it up—I won't say a thing! I won't let you win!"
EeDechi stood up and clapped her hands. "Fine. Franco, set up the enema."
"At your command!" Franco lit up like a kid in a candy store. He immediately pulled out jars and bottles from his spatial ring and spread them across the table.
There was a sterile tray, sterile towels, an enema syringe, a measuring cup, an anal tube, a pot of warm boiled water, enema solution, hemostatic forceps, lubricant, and cotton swabs.
"You're prepared for anything!" Barrett said, totally speechless.
"I'll talk! I'll talk!" Mare blurted out in a rush, his eyes brimming with tears as he started sobbing in fear. "Isn't that enough? I'll talk!"
...
Under the "harsh interrogation," Mare spilled his discoveries from the ancient city of the Eight Greed Kings.
World Item Fusion was a magic that could fuse two or even three World Items together, researched and achieved by the Eight Greed Kings. World Items were already the top-tier artifacts, and fusing them created something truly apocalyptic.
A fused World Item from two originals? One plus one equaled more than two—the power was way scarier than just adding up the two separate ones.
When someone held a World Item, other World Items couldn't attack them. That's why the Eight Greed Kings developed this World Item Fusion.
"Interesting." EeDechi realized this tech wasn't much use to her—after all, she didn't have any World Items to fuse—but she couldn't let Ainz and the gang get their hands on it.
EeDechi and Barrett searched Mare from head to toe, stripping him bare, then destroyed every parchment, scroll, and bronze tablet tied to World Item Fusion.
Mare wanted to cry but couldn't squeeze out a tear, staring blankly as EeDechi burned the parchment scrolls. These were the last surviving copies of World Item Fusion; by torching these materials, EeDechi might have wiped the technique out for good.
Dragon Endbringer's form materialized behind EeDechi. He caressed the yacht's white hull, full of admiration, "Interesting skill. Human ship-crafting magic isn't half bad."
The sky-blue kitty Cheeko paced off to the side, meowing pitifully with "meow meow," flicking its tail restlessly. Every now and then, it twisted around and licked its sopping wet butthole with its pink tongue.
Ever since Cheeko gobbled up the crystal from Moonstone Hollow and got hit with supernatural power, whenever it munched on sand or rocks, its rear would leak pure water, which bugged the hell out of it.
Dragon Endbringer snatched up Cheeko in one swoop, petting it fondly like he couldn't get enough, "What a fun chubby cat, so adorable." He stepped up as the litter scooper, gently dabbing the water stains off Cheeko's butt with papyrus.
"Oh yeah, there's one more crucial thing." EeDechi recalled something and turned to eye Mare, still trussed up in tortoise shell bondage, a grin creeping across her lips.
"What... what are you gonna do?!" Mare was terrified. It wasn't like he hadn't tried firing up magic to bust out of the chains, but with EeDechi and the others breathing down his neck, he didn't dare cast a spell.
EeDechi whipped out her signature item, the golden pen Modify, and said loudly, "What am I gonna do? Inject some Justice Value, of course!"
After catching a captive, injecting Justice Value was a rock-solid tradition. As long as EeDechi figured someone could still be redeemed, she'd dose them with Justice Value to tweak their level of goodness.
EeDechi activated her Innate Talent and spotted the Justice Value number above Mare's head: -100, which put him in the neutral-leaning-evil category.
Without a second thought, EeDechi grabbed Mare by the hair, aimed the pen's tip at his forehead, and a brilliant stream of golden light poured into it.
"Not bad." EeDechi eyed the number "308" now floating above Mare's head and tucked away her pen. The pen had started with 518 points of Justice Value; after dumping it all into Mare, she'd lost 110 points in the process. It was a bit more waste than usual, but the outcome was solid.
When injecting Justice Value into someone powerful, their own resistance caused some loss. But it also depended on the target's condition. If EeDechi had beaten Mare half to death first, then injected it, the loss would've been way smaller.
EeDechi felt writing emerge on the pen as she rubbed it. She leaned in close and saw the raised text etched on it:
[Through repeated modifications of Justice Value, the attributes have grown.
Current Justice Value total capacity: 900. Increased by 200 points.
Justice Value generation rate: 6 points/day. Increased by 2 points.
Note: Modifying Justice Value cannot be used on yourself.]
Mare felt something warm flowing into his mind, but his body didn't change otherwise, so he breathed a sigh of relief.
But then he noticed a sudden shift in his mindset. He'd been seething with hatred before, especially toward EeDechi and the others—Franco most of all—grinding his teeth in rage, wishing he could bolt back to the Great Tomb of Nazarick right then and summon everyone to skin them alive and rip out their tendons.
Now, Mare got it: EeDechi could've used way harsher methods on him but hadn't. All he wanted in his heart now was to slip out of EeDechi's grasp, wait for the right moment to break free from his bonds, and sneak away quietly.
But Mare's wish was doomed. He was tied tight to the yacht, with all sorts of rune arrays pressing down on him. EeDechi and the crew took turns watching him, not slacking off even at night.
In the thick darkness, the white yacht cut through the sand dunes, pressing deeper into the Eight Greed Kings' desert...