I Became the Childhood Friend of the Northern Duchess – Chapter 82

Ch 82: The End of a Traitor

◈◈◈

Vincent was extremely thorough.

Even while cutting away each part, he somehow controlled it so that the other person wouldn’t die, a feat that even Ariel, who was watching, admired.

Perhaps because he had been in battle for so long, he knew well how much a person could take before dying.

Due to the magical influence on his body, the man felt all the pain of his skin being cut and his eyes being gouged, yet he couldn’t even resist.

Even with a gag in his mouth, the only indications of his situation were the saliva flowing from his mouth and the pained groans that escaped.

Ariel, being kind, even used healing magic to forcibly delay the death of the man, whose fingers had already been cut off nine times.

“Kuh, it’s already been 15 years……!”

Thanks to that, Vincent succeeded in cutting off ten of the man’s fingers, both ears, and three toes.

The reason he didn’t gouge out his eyes was simply because he was worried that the man might die, not because he felt any pangs of conscience.

In the first place, if he had felt any pangs of conscience, he wouldn’t have been able to continue this gruesome act.

“You will keep your promise, won’t you?”

Vincent, looking at Ariel who was watching this scene from outside the bars, gave a sly smile and reaffirmed his previous statement.

She responded with an even brighter smile.

“Of course. Do I look like someone who would go back on their word?”

“Good. Very good.”

After all, he had already earned fifteen years of life.

Considering Vincent’s age, it was safe to say that he had already secured enough time until the end of his life.

Still, just in case, he started cutting off the man’s remaining toes, hoping to earn about five more years.

If that wasn’t enough, the last target would be those bloodshot eyes that looked like they were about to burst.

“By the way, you don’t seem to have any guilt?”

“Is there anything in this world more important than my life? Young lady, you are still young, so you don’t know the ways of the world.”

Vincent, who had become quite mentally relaxed, now spoke as if provoking Ariel.

However, she didn’t respond and just watched the scene with a full smile on her face, as if enjoying it.

“Kueee……!”

“It’s amazing that he hasn’t fainted.”

Now, only two of the man’s toes remained.

Even though he had felt the pain of his skin being cut raw, Vincent was amazed that he was still conscious and screaming in pain.

It would have been easier if he had lost consciousness.

Perhaps Ariel had manipulated things to keep him from losing consciousness in order to stir up his guilt, but that was none of his concern.

After all, how many times had he taken the lives of complete strangers?

If he considered it just a process of interrogating an enemy to extract information, it was a trivial matter.

He was curious about what was going on in her head to offer such simple conditions.

‘This should be enough.’

Having cut off all the man’s fingers and toes, and even taken his ears, he lightly shook off his hands while looking at the flesh and blood clots on the floor.

He, who was already past sixty, would only live for about twenty years at most.

At this point, it was safe to say that he had earned enough time until his death, so there was no reason to get his hands dirty anymore.

“Is it over? Vincent.”

“Hehe, yes. This should be enough.”

Ariel opened the bars and slowly approached him as he stood up with a cold smile.

Now, the figure of the man lying sideways on the floor, uttering sounds that were neither screams nor cries, came into view.

The way his fingers and toes were cut in slightly different shapes made it clear that it was the work of a human, adding to the horror.

“Now, you must keep your promise, Young Lady.”

“Of course, I must. But before that, aren’t you curious?”

“What do you mean?”

Vincent expressed his doubt at Ariel’s sudden counter-question.

He had no intention of having a Q&A session, so he just wanted her to let him out of this cold iron cage.

However, thinking that he would lose the time he had worked so hard to earn if he provoked her now, he decided to play along.

“Haven’t you ever thought it was strange? Why I offered such good conditions.”

“That is…….”

Of course, he couldn’t have not thought about it.

He had simply rationalized it himself, thinking that she had underestimated him, Vincent.

Seeing him hesitate while swallowing his words, Ariel smirked and bent her body halfway down.

Her hand reached out to the man who was lying on the cold bare floor, trembling.

It seemed that he had even wet himself, as a bright yellow liquid was flowing from his pants.

“This face, you really don’t remember it?”

“I’m not so stupid that I can’t remember an acquaintance just because I’m old.”

“Really? Then this might be a little different.”

Ariel grabbed the man’s hair and lifted him up, then personally removed his gag and lightly snapped her fingers.

Vincent wondered if she had cast some magic, but there didn’t seem to be any changes.

“What on earth……?”

Vincent, who had been looking around inside the cage, turned his head back to the man’s face that Ariel was forcibly holding up, and his pupils began to widen slightly.

Eyes, nose, mouth.

The face, covered in various liquids from the three areas, was unsightly, but it wasn’t to the point where he couldn’t recognize it.

His eyes were somewhat narrow, his nose was blunt, and his jawline was quite sharp.

And his hair was a light brown that reminded Vincent of his younger days.

Vincent, realizing the man’s identity, couldn’t say anything and just repeated a low, “Uh, uh…” in a strange voice.

“How is it? Do you remember now?”

“You, you fucking bitch……!”

Thud!

Vincent, who had rushed towards Ariel, who was asking again with a bright smile, fell to the ground as if he had hit something.

It was obvious that Ariel had foreseen this and had created an invisible wall with magic, which had proven its worth.

“Aidan…! How could it be you……!”

Finally, the man’s name came out of Vincent’s mouth.

There was no way he wouldn’t know. That’s because the man in front of him was Vincent’s own son, whom he had raised with great care.

“I thought that even though you’re a bit older, your magic resistance would still be strong. So, I directly cast a perception-hindering magic on your son.”

Perception-hindering magic cast directly on a person is a type of hallucination.

Therefore, it was highly risky because it often didn’t work on people with strong mental fortitude or strong resistance to magic.

That’s where Ariel came up with a counter-idea.

Instead of Vincent, she directly cast perception-hindering magic on his son, making him believe that he was a different person, rather than directly changing his appearance.

The result was a huge success, as you can see.

Enough to make him personally cut off the fingers and toes of his own son, whom he had watched over for about 30 years, and even take away his hearing.

“How’s the feeling? Vincent Roland.”

Thump.

“Ugh, huh… Aidan…….”

No matter how much of a man he was who had plotted to take someone’s life, he was not okay after learning that he had personally cut off his own family’s bodies.

Vincent sat down on the spot and endlessly repeated his son’s name.

However, Aidan, unable to withstand the pain, had already lost consciousness, and because he couldn’t hear, there was no way he could hear his father’s desperate voice.

Ariel smiled with satisfaction at the sight of him crying and hitting his head on the floor, pounding the ground with his fists until they were broken.

That was the exact look she wanted.

She had made a promise to make those who did such petty things to take away her precious ones show that kind of expression, and she had planned everything one by one.

And now that the fruits of her labor were finally bearing fruit, she felt an indescribable sense of exhilaration.

Moreover, the most enjoyable thing was that there was still despair left to give to that man.

“Why are you crying and wailing already? It’s just the beginning.”

“You, committing such heinous acts…! Is it still not enough!?”

“Heinous?”

Ariel shrugged her shoulders with a look that said she couldn’t understand what this old man was talking about.

Wasn’t being heinous something that was said when one felt guilty or when one committed a crime?

No one would say that tearing apart a dog that bit its owner was heinous.

Ariel’s perception of her own actions was exactly at that level.

“Surely you didn’t think that you wouldn’t make this much of a decision when you laid a hand on Edgar, did you?”

“Bullshit…! You’re the one who’s gone crazy because of that insignificant bloodline, haven’t you ever thought that’s weird… Keheuk!”

Crack.

His last words were cut short.

That was because Ariel grabbed Vincent’s neck and put strength into it as if she was going to break his neck bone.

Moreover, because she had used body-strengthening magic in case something happened, her current physical strength was beyond imagination.

“You trash… How dare you mention him?”

She wanted to break his neck bone right away, but the revenge was not over yet.

His sin was higher than a mountain and deeper than the sea, so it wasn’t enough to repay it with a mere death.

Moreover, Ariel had no intention of getting her own hands dirty.

Just the thought of these hands that would hug Edgar again tomorrow being stained with filthy blood made her feel disgusted.

“Kuhuk…! Cough! Cough!”

Ariel, who had thrown his body to the floor after releasing his neck in a fit of anger, turned towards the corner and picked up a crystal ball.

It was a rather neat-looking object that didn’t fit in this desolate iron cage.

As she held it and slowly approached him again, Vincent was overcome with fear and instinctively backed away.

He had no time to speculate about what that object was, nor did he want to know.

The shock of having cut off his own son’s flesh was still filling his head.

As if to kindly explain it to him, Ariel placed the crystal ball, wrapped in a cloth, in front of Vincent.

And then, as she snapped her fingers again, a faint light emanated from the crystal ball, and a scene entered Vincent’s eyes.

“Ma, Mari…! Even my wife……!”

Even though the video was a bit blurry, it wasn’t to the point where he couldn’t recognize a face he had seen for decades.

And the scene contained in that crystal ball was his entire family, including his wife and daughter, in the same miserable state as Vincent’s son, who was now lying on the floor.

What on earth was going on?

Had they already extended their reach to other members of the family, not just Aidan?

Vincent’s consciousness couldn’t keep up.

“I forgot to mention it. Your wife and daughter are being tortured in the same way you tortured your son, as you can see.”

Ariel, with a nonchalant expression as if she had forgotten about meal time, offered a brief apology for telling him late.

Despite the shocking news, no screams or cries came out of Vincent’s mouth.

No, to be precise, he couldn’t.

As a rule, when a human exceeds the limit of mental shock they can receive, they can’t say anything.

Rather, when the situation reached such an extreme, Vincent was finally able to make a calm judgment of the situation.

That there was no use in trying to save his life now.

That what he had to protect was not his own life, which was like a fly, but the lives of his children, who still had a path to take.

“I beg you. Please, please spare my wife and children……!”

Even if all his fingers and toes were cut off and both his ears were gone, there could be no ending more miserable than death.

If he could somehow survive, with the power of the Roland family, he might be able to regain his lost body parts.

That’s why Vincent begged desperately.

Please, just keep his family safe.

However, Ariel tilted her head at this, and neatly corrected his misunderstanding.

“Surely you don’t think these people are still alive, do you?”

“Wh, what……?”

“How could they be alive with such severe bleeding? You seem to have forgotten, but your son was only alive because I cast healing magic on him.”

The last hope of the old man, who had vowed to save his family at all costs, collapsed before the cold reality.

That’s right.

The reason Ariel had cast healing magic on Aidan, who was being tortured by his father, was just a stepping stone to drive the other two people she had captured to their deaths.

If she ended it ambiguously, there was a chance that they might survive.

To be honest, she had hoped to gouge out an eye or two, but thanks to that, Aidan was able to witness his father torturing him until the very end, so it might not be a bad result.

“Anyway, congratulations. You have a total of 18 fingers and toes, and if you include your ears, it’s 20, so I promise I won’t lay a hand on you for the next 20 years.”

“…….”

Vincent couldn’t say anything to Ariel, who was clapping her hands in praise.

What could he say?

If he had given up even just 5 years, or even 3 years, his wife and daughter might have lived.

Even in this extreme situation, his actions to earn a little more of his own life had led everything to destruction.

Without a word, he picked up a dagger that had fallen on the ground, bowed his head in front of Ariel, and respectfully offered it to her.

She could fully understand what that action meant.

“You achieved the result you wanted so much. Now?”

“…If you won’t, I’ll do it myself.”

“Hmm… I don’t like that.”

That would make it seem like he had repented for all his sins and accepted a death of atonement, which Ariel found very uncomfortable.

An evil enemy should die as an evil enemy.

There should be an ending that suits him.

‘Ah.’

Then, the figure of Aidan, who had fallen to the ground, caught her eye.

As if she had come up with a fun idea, she bent down and cast healing magic on Aidan’s body, waking him up and then tossing a dagger in front of him.

Aidan, with all his fingers and toes cut off, just stared blankly at the dagger in front of him and then at his father.

“I’ll leave the decision to your son. Then.”

Ariel closed the bars and walked out into the hallway, moving her feet with dignity.

What would the man, who had witnessed his father cutting off his own limbs and ears, do?

Just as she was about to turn around and check out of curiosity, she heard the weak scream of an old man.

Only then did Ariel smile with satisfaction and move her legs again.

The end of a traitor is always to be pierced by the sword of their most cherished companion or loved one.

It was a common trope in any fictional story, but it was also a classic story.

She was satisfied that it seemed to have ended with a pretty good ending.

She also wanted to watch Lux’s end, but she gave it to someone else who wanted it.

Now, all she had left to do was to enjoy her daily life with her beloved again from tomorrow.

That was all.

◈◈◈

（82/282）