There’s Something Special About Her - Chapter 38

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This chapter was translated by Lunox Novels. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
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Episode 38.
‘Did I make a mistake?’
That couldn’t be right.
He knew firsthand how horrific the Test Drug was, having experienced it himself.
But regardless of its vicious effects, it wasn’t a difficult substance to create.
Besides, this wasn’t his first time making it.
‘I mixed it so carefully — one cookie should put him to sleep immediately, and the other effects would set in gradually….’
Yet Ruki was now displaying symptoms consistent with an overdose of the Test Drug.
Still, he couldn’t intervene simply because the subject appeared to be suffering.
Such was the Crow’s final trial.
Whether one failed to endure the Test Drug or failed to keep the Secrets—
the only outcome of Failure was death.
Even as Noah Benton wrung her sleeves anxiously, watching the proceedings with mounting dread, the test continued to escalate in intensity.
“Answer clearly!”
Dimarck Schren drove a Wooden Stake into Ruki’s shoulder, demanding harshly.
On the surface, it seemed merely a torment that drew a small amount of blood, but the pain would be almost unimaginable.
The Test Drug scrambled sensation while maximizing pain perception to its absolute limit.
It was likely the agony of the blade burrowing between his shoulder blades, shredding the nerves piece by piece.
Noah Benton shrank even at the thought of it.
“Ngh!”
Blue veins stood out on Ruki’s neck where the shoulder was pierced, and blood seeped from his clenched lips.
A defense mechanism had triggered—creating one pain to forget another, more intense one.
“I told, didn’t I. You picked the wrong person, ungh!”
The personality, thinking patterns, and hidden inclinations of Runelk Ains.
The test, which had begun by excavating the depths of the unconscious, was now steadily approaching its final phase.
This was the stage where they assessed whether he could truly keep the Crow and the Nest’s Secrets.
And it was also the juncture where most Crow candidates failed.
“I already told you that kind of excuse won’t work. Haven’t we been handling you too gently this whole time?”
Gisela Roth picked up a thicker, sharper Wooden Stake and clicked her tongue.
Then she traced the tip slowly across his eyebrow and threatened with eerie calm.
“From now on, every time you give a wrong answer, I’ll destroy one more piece. Starting here—your left eye. This will be on a whole different level from before.”
“Damn lunatics….”
Even as Ruki spat out the curse, his eyelashes trembled.
It was from the terror of imminent agony and the horror of possibly losing sight in one eye.
For the first time since the test began, Ruki showed a crack in his resolve—and Gisela Roth pressed her advantage relentlessly.
“Think carefully, Runelk Ains. We already know about the secret organization in Nox.”
“…Are you deaf? I don’t know, I’ve said it how many times—hah—I’m just a field operative….”
“Hush. If you waste my time with more nonsense, I can just drive it in, you know?”
“Ugh….”
When she gripped his jaw with crushing force, Ruki’s face twisted entirely out of shape.
The sheer grip strength alone produced enough pain to make his vision swim.
But if she actually drove the stake through his eye—
‘Is this where I break?’
Dimarck Schren observed Ruki’s trembling response with clinical detachment.
The fear of permanent, irreversible disability.
Most test subjects couldn’t overcome this threshold.
“So all you need to do is give us their names and the location of their headquarters. Then it’s all over.”
Gisela Roth whispered soothingly.
“If explaining in detail is difficult, couldn’t you just nod? I’ll name the locations, and when I get it right, you just nod. It’s not that hard, is it?”
“How would I know, huh, anything to say.”
Though he still denied, Ruki’s voice had lost all its earlier strength.
It was proof he was wavering.
Gisela Roth had provided him an escape route; now it was Dimarck Schren’s turn.
“Your loyalty to the organization is clear enough. But think about it, Runelk Ains. Is it really worth it?”
“Ngh! Cough!”
The Wooden Stake in his hand moved, probing the wound on his shoulder.
“The injuries so far will cause you considerable suffering for a while, but they won’t leave permanent damage. That’s my specialty, after all.”
Dimarck Schren laughed with villainous relish.
As a Jiphyeong Division veteran, he wasn’t entirely lying.
“But the eyes are different. One eye? Yes, you could live without it. But what about both?”
“Eyes….”
“And after that comes the ears. I’ll jam one of these into each ear canal.”
“Though I’ll save the teeth for last. It’s harder to speak without them, after all. And there are the tendons in both legs to destroy—plenty of options.”
Gisela Roth laughed along with Dimarck’s cruel jests, but her eyes remained dry as stone.
A Crow crippled by torture.
For Gisela Roth, it remained an unhealed wound.
Seeing the darkened light in his junior’s eyes, Dimarck Schren decided it was time to end the test.
“Listen, Runelk Ains.”
The most devastating and cruel question remained.
“Do you think that organization will still want you—blind, deaf, unable to walk?”
Ruki’s shoulders flinched.
The reward for loyalty is, in the end, belonging.
The sense of efficacy and pride that one’s sacrifice is matched by the organization’s need—that they value you precisely as much as you’ve given up for them.
“Even if you manage to keep the Secret and somehow survive, there won’t be a place for someone already broken like you. Eventually they’ll forget about you. They’ll move forward. Leaving behind only you—a useless cripple with nothing left to offer the organization.”
It had been barely a week since he set foot in the Nest.
It was a question designed to shake the very foundation of a new recruit’s mind, drunk on the sweet intoxication of becoming part of the Crow and being a piece of something momentous and vast.
“So will you still keep your mouth shut? Feeling your eyes gouged out, your tendons severed? For what, exactly?”
“Huh….”
Finally, a low moan escaped from Ruki’s lips.
His mouth, crusted with dried blood, trembled in small spasms.
His breathing, which had been fast and regular, became ragged and uneven.
All signs of imminent collapse.
‘Is this a Failure again.’
A faint shadow of disappointment flickered across the watching Crows’ eyes.
In any case, the test had to be seen through to its conclusion, so Gisela Roth made her move.
“Just nod, Runelk Ains.”
She shifted the stake beneath his eye.
Positioning it to prick the delicate flesh.
His blue eyes, rendered unfocused by the drug, trembled with terror of the imminent pain, and she asked:
“Where is the secret organization’s headquarters? The main building in Nox?”
Gisela Roth pressed hard, making his skin dimple inward, and waited.
Waited for Runelk Ains’s head to nod up and down.
But after a moment’s hesitation, he opened his mouth.
“Stab away, you stupid bastards.”
“…What?”
“What you’re saying… huh… I don’t understand, any of it.”
Ruki glared directly at Gisela Roth through squinted eyes and spoke.
“Grabbing some innocent person and torturing them… does that make you feel good?”
Mockery threaded through his ragged breathing.
“Secret organization, my ass—huh—you crazy bastards. Go ahead. Stab.”
Rather than flinching, he thrust his head forward—and Gisela Roth hastily pulled the stake back.
She’d nearly actually stabbed his eye.
With his vision distorted, Ruki couldn’t possibly read her reaction and continued his jeering.
“If you’re going to pick someone, pick right. Huh, someone like me—with nothing to lose—an orphan, hah. I was tired of living anyway, so fine. What are you waiting for? Hurry up and kill me….”
“Stop.”
Dimarck Schren removed his mask and spoke in a low voice.
Beneath the Underground Prison’s dim lighting, his face twisted into something harsh and ugly.
“That’s enough. You can stop now.”

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This chapter was translated by Lunox Novels. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
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