บท 21: Underground Secret
The old man took a bite, then dipped it into a bowl filled with some reddish paste before shoving it back into his mouth.
Ronan was also very hungry, and he guessed that the bowl probably contained something like tomato sauce.
In the dim light, the old man sat alone at the table, silently eating. His figure appeared rather lonely.
Ronan shifted inside the cage, trying to find a more comfortable position.
He debated whether he should speak up and try to communicate. Maybe the old man would let him go, or perhaps... because a talking monster was so rare, Ronan would end up facing even worse treatment.
Ronan hesitated for a long while, but before he could make a decision, the old man finished eating and lifted the cage again.
This time, the old man didn't even bother to take the oil lamp from the table. He fumbled his way to the corner of the room, and suddenly, there was a loud "clang" from beneath his feet.
Ronan watched as the old man fell around on the floor, pulling up an iron ring that revealed a square-shaped black hole.
The hole had been hidden in the corner. After opening the mechanism, the old man grabbed the cage with his left hand and cautiously probed the hole with his right foot.
As the old man struggled to keep his balance, Ronan swayed inside the cage.
Fortunately, the old man soon grabbed hold of a ladder. Once he had climbed inside, the wooden boards above automatically closed shut.
Ronan's head banged against the cage, making him a bit dizzy. When his vision cleared, he immediately realized that beneath the small wooden house was a whole other world.
It was a pit leading to the underground. The old man climbed down the vertical wooden ladder, took a couple of steps forward, then turned a corner, and the space suddenly opened up into a large underground chamber.
Compared to the upper room, the underground space was surprisingly spacious, with glowing stones embedded in the walls, casting a soft yet bright light.
The old man's expression changed; the kindness in his eyes vanished, replaced by a flicker of darkness as he lifted the curtain hanging in front of him.
From the moment Ronan saw the basement, he decided to continue pretending. His instincts told him that this old man was not ordinary.
However, when he finally saw everything behind the curtain, his entire serpentine body went stiff.
Behind the curtain was a rectangular space, with many cages lined against both walls, housing various demonic creatures. Two of the largest cages were placed at the center of the room, and if Ronan's eyes were not deceiving him, the cages contained human children who appeared to be only five or six years old.
When the children saw the old man enter, their eyes widened in shock. The boy at the front looked terrified, clutching his head and cowering backward.
There was also a girl with braids who let out a few "ah ah" sounds, her small hands reaching out as if begging for food.
Ronan noticed a water bowl placed in front of their cage, but the water inside had already dried up.
The old man dragged him over and kicked the cage door hard, his face turning fierce as he shouted, "Shut up!"
The little girl squeaked in fear, her face immediately turned pale.
The other children huddled together, and in a nearby cage, the smallest child lay still, his tiny body sprawled on the cage floor, his feet covered in black spots.
The old man shoved Ronan into a cage against the wall and turned around to a table in the center of the rectangular room.
A long table stood in the middle, piled high with various bottles and jars, along with a range of experimental equipment that resembled what Ronan had seen during his time as a student, though they were not identical.
Ronan recalled what the mercenaries had whispered before the trade, seemingly mentioning that their next trading partner was an alchemist.
During his time as an otaku, Ronan enjoyed reading web novels to pass the time, and the term "alchemist" conjured an immediate understanding of the old man's occupation given the current environment.
But it was one thing to experiment with demonic creatures; why was he also imprisoning children? Wasn't this old man human?
Ronan felt a wave of terror wash over him. Although he had been human in his previous life, most of the "humans" he encountered after reincarnating were cruel.
The old man lifted a white cloth covering the long table and retrieved a black box, from which he took out a complete set of knives, varying in size and shape. He then turned around, grabbed a demon rabbit from a cage behind him, and, in front of Ronan and the children, he skillfully used dozens of knives to swiftly extract the still-beating heart from the living creature.
After completing this gruesome task, the old man stretched his neck, his expression quite content.
The children in the cage seemed to sense something ominous and trembled, retreating further back.
Sure enough, the old man quickly shifted his gaze toward them, approaching their cage. He grabbed the limp child's ankle and dragged him out.
He laid the child on the table and fed the still-throbbing heart of the demon rabbit into the child's mouth, then stood by silently observing.
Ronan saw the old man holding a quill, occasionally glancing at an hourglass on the table to time the process, then lowering his head to record information in a notebook.
As he climbed up the cage door, he was shocked and furious.
He felt utterly deranged, this old man was actually using children for experiments!
But that wasn't the end of it. After observing the children and seeing they had no reaction, the old man picked up the knife again.
Ronan couldn't hold back any longer; with a loud "bang," he crashed against the cage, wanting to burst out. He wanted to sink his fangs into that old man and kill him.
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