The Heavenly Demon Can’t Live A Normal Life [EN]: Chapter 316

Jonathan sat in the Knight Commander’s office in Dmitri. The room was usually calm, but today the air felt heavy.

Jonathan’s jaw tightened as he read the report. His eyes scanned the words quickly, but his face stayed hard.

“…It seems there are prisoners of war from our side in the Cronos Empire?”

“Yes. It’s not confirmed yet, but a message arrived ten minutes ago at coordinates beyond the western front. As the report states, the person who sent it listed short words like, ‘Help, here, prisoner.’ Considering it was connected directly to Dmitri’s magic communication line, it’s highly likely they are prisoners of war.”

It was a hypothesis.

There was no definite evidence, but the fragmented information strongly suggested the possibility of war prisoners.

“We are currently comparing the short voice recorded in the communication logs with the voices of soldiers who have been marked as dead because they were missing. If it’s truly a soldier belonging to Dmitri, we should be able to confirm their identity within a few days at the latest.”

Jonathan cleared his throat, looking worried.

Knight Commander Jonathan looked troubled. He ran a hand through his hair, a bad feeling growing in his stomach.

Missing people were a difficult issue. If a body was found, they were declared dead. But if not, they were ‘missing.’

This was a problem because they might be dead, or they might have run away, or they could be prisoners.

If there was any chance they were alive, Dmitri would not have processed the missing as dead.

‘During the armistice negotiations with the Cronos Empire, they said they had released all prisoners. In fact, some prisoners returned to Dmitri after the war ended. Lord Roman did not keep Cronos’ prisoners alive in the first place, so naturally, there was no further discussion regarding prisoner exchange. If what the communications officer says is true, we can conclude that the Cronos Empire lied at the negotiating table.’

This was a serious problem because it involved the armistice negotiations.

At a meeting to agree to end the war, the Cronos Empire may have lied.

That meant the agreement could be cancelled.

If the existence of war prisoners was revealed and they were punished, the worst-case scenario was that war might break out again.

His head began to throb. He rubbed his temples, feeling the pressure build. War again? Dmitri was still weak from the last one.

“How will Lord Roman react?”

Jonathan knew Roman Dmitri was a strong leader, but also ruthless. Would he see these prisoners as a problem or ignore them?

At the time the war broke out, Roman Dmitri didn’t let prisoners stop him.

Rather than sacrificing to save prisoners of war from our side, he boldly beheaded enemy soldiers to win victory.

Everyone agreed with Roman Dmitri’s bold choice.

If they had let worries about prisoners control them against the strength of Cronos, the war would certainly have gone worse than it is now.

“Gather the data. I will report to Lord Roman and hold a meeting with the senior leaders.”

The decision was Roman Dmitri’s to make.

Jonathan stood up, his decision made. “Gather everything,” he repeated firmly. “Lord Roman needs to know.”

Meanwhile, far from Dmitri, in a dark prison of the Cronos Empire, there was an uproar, but of a very different kind.

Whack.

A dark hand seized the man’s hair.

The man tried to speak into the communicator, but he screamed as he was kicked in the face.

Crack!

“Kraaah!”

His nose was crushed, and blood splattered. The air filled with the metallic smell of blood as his nose broke.

As the man clutched his face and lowered his head, a boot stomped on his head.

Thud!

“Hey, you bastard. What did I say? I clearly said that if you quietly focus on your work and live, I wouldn’t kill you, even if it wasn’t like a human. You’re a complete nutcase. Why can’t you understand when someone is talking?”

He kicked his head.

He grabbed him by the collar, pulled him up, and slapped him several times on the cheek.

Slap!

Slap, slap!

His head snapped back and forth.

The man’s sturdy frame seemed stronger than the one inflicting the violence, but his emaciated face, perhaps from lack of food, had no strength to resist. The cold stone floor pressed against the prisoner’s cheek as he fell.

The violence showed no sign of stopping.

As his face became stained with blood and the man groaned as if he had lost consciousness, Jason, the knight, frowned and shook the blood off his hand. A cruel smile touched Jason’s lips even as he frowned at the blood on his hand. He seemed annoyed by the mess, not the pain he caused.

“Damn it, my hand hurts.”

His name was Jason.

A knight from the Cronos Empire, he glared down at the man and growled as if to devour him.

“To think you’d steal a magic communicator and try to contact Dmitri. You’re something else. But you know what? I’m really curious, so I’m going to ask. Do you really think that if you contact Dmitri, Roman Dmitri will come running to save you? You’re seriously crazy. Roman Dmitri doesn’t care about prisoners.”

He squatted down on the floor.

He grabbed the face of the man groaning in pain and slapped him whenever he didn’t respond, waking him up.

Slap!

“Listen carefully. In the war with us, Roman Dmitri didn’t even consider ‘prisoner exchange’ from the start and killed all the soldiers of the Cronos Empire. That’s the reality of the being you serve. Dmitri is already regaining stability, so why would they worry about prisoners now? The armistice negotiations are over, you bastard. The fact that you weren’t mentioned at the negotiation table where the armistice was discussed means that Dmitri knows of your existence but isn’t going to do much to bring the prisoners back.”

“N-no… Hey.”

“No, my foot.”

Slap-!

His head turned.

Sweat and blood mixed together, soaking the ground.

The man slumped.

Jason got up from his seat, yawning, and said to the soldiers waiting behind him.

“Take him to the torture chamber. This is a good opportunity to show them exactly what happens to troublemaking rats.”

“Yes, sir!” the soldiers said eagerly.

With this opportunity, Dmitri’s prisoners will know for sure what happens when you disobey.

Thud-!

“…Kuh-heuk.”

The man was thrown to the floor.

You could see the marks of torture all over his face and body.

His upper body was covered in cuts from knives, and all his fingernails and toenails had been torn off, with pus forming in the wounds.

In addition, his skin was burned red from hot water, and in places, it looked like it was rotting from electric shocks.

“Carol!” someone shouted. “Are you okay?” Carol lay on the cold, hard floor. Her body hurt all over. Then, she saw light. Men rushed into the room.

This was the worst part of the prison, where they put prisoners who were punished. Carol was brought back here after they hurt her badly.

“You monsters!” one man yelled. “How can you be so cruel? If I ever get out of here, Jason, I will make you pay for this! I will never forget what you did!”

All the men were angry. They were Dmitri’s soldiers, captured by the enemy.

Everyone thought they were dead. The official papers said they died in battle. So, how did they end up in this prison?

It happened during the war. The Chronos Empire, our enemy, attacked our army at the Western Front. Our fortress was destroyed. Many soldiers, including these men, were captured. Then, a cruel leader named Hannibal ordered them to be tortured.

Carol and the other prisoners were scared, never knowing when they would die. Then, the Chronos Empire decided to move forward, taking some of the prisoners back with them.

The prisoners could cause problems for them.

So, they moved the prisoners to a place called McHitten. It was a big farm or house in the east of Chronos.

Then, they heard rumors that the war was finished. They watched the enemy soldiers outside talking and laughing. The prisoners thought, “Maybe we can finally get out of this terrible place.”

But days and weeks went by, and no one told them they could leave. It seemed like the war was really over, but the enemy soldiers still looked at them in a strange and scary way.

One day.

Jason said.

“Dmitri has abandoned you. I’ll give you a choice now. Either quietly obey our orders and remain as slaves of McHitten, or just die now.”

Then.

When some prisoners protested, Jason had them killed right in front of everyone. Their heads were chopped off. After that, everyone was too scared to argue. They agreed to be slaves just to stay alive.

It was the beginning of hell.

McHitten was a big place with lots of work to do. For example, they had stone mines (quarries) where they dug rocks. The prisoners were forced to work very hard all day. They only got a little food, just enough to keep them from dying. They had no rest, day or night.

Every day, the prisoners walked to work with heavy tools. They had to keep working even when they saw other prisoners get killed. Sometimes, big rocks fell and crushed them. They couldn’t even stop to help.

If they didn’t do what they were told, they were punished. Whips cut into their skin, making it bleed.

But they kept going. They still hoped that Dmitri would rescue them. Then, one prisoner heard something terrible.

“…We heard that the Chronos Empire told Dmitri that there were no prisoners left. So, Dmitri thinks all the missing soldiers are dead. That means he thinks *we* are dead. He won’t come to save people he thinks are already gone. We are like dead people walking.”

They felt hopeless.

Even a little bit of hope was gone.

So Carol risked her life.

She hoped that if she could let Dmitri know they were still alive, he would save them.

“Kuh, kuuuh.”

She tried not to cry out in pain.

Watching Carol in pain, one of the men said.

“…We’re finished. Carol couldn’t send the message properly, and Dmitri has already signed the truce, so he won’t want to say we are here. He can’t start another war with the Chronos Empire just to save a few dozen or hundreds of lives. It’s cruel, but… this is our reality.”

His voice sounded like he had given up on himself.

They looked at the world with empty faces.

Like Carol, who had been tortured, they would die as slaves in McHitten.

In a big room at McHitten, the important leaders were talking seriously. “Do you think Dmitri knows about the prisoners?” one asked. Jason answered quickly, “No, no way. The prisoner only sent a message for a very short time. It was weak and broken. Even if Dmitri got it, he wouldn’t understand what it meant.”

Even with Jason’s words.

The top leaders were still worried.

Baron McHitten spoke angrily. “It’s all Dmitri’s fault! He killed all *our* prisoners. He pretends to care about his soldiers, but he didn’t even try to trade prisoners! He just killed everyone we captured. Dmitri knew this would cause problems, but he didn’t care. He made sure there were no prisoners left on his side.”

“That’s right. This all happened because of Roman Dmitri.”

During the truce talks.

At that time, the Chronos Empire had many prisoners.

But they got orders from their leaders.

Dmitri didn’t have any prisoners to trade, so the Chronos Empire couldn’t let them return prisoners without getting something in return.

So they hid the prisoners.

At the meeting, they said they had already let go of the prisoners who had been found. They secretly sent some of the prisoners to the stone mine to be slaves.

It was a small, mean way to get back at Dmitri.

They didn’t worry about being found out.

If they hid the prisoners on purpose, there was no way for Dmitri to know they were still alive.

However.

There was a problem.

One of the prisoners sent a magic message to Dmitri.

Jason, who was in charge, took care of it.

“Everyone, don’t worry too much. Dmitri doesn’t know about the prisoners. Even if he did, it’s not easy to change things after signing the truce. Besides, we are doing this because we were told to. Even if something goes wrong, it’s not our fault.”

The leaders started to relax.

Jason was right.

Dmitri probably didn’t know anything. Why worry about something that might never happen?

It was then.

Suddenly, a soldier burst into the room. He had news that shocked everyone.

“…L, Lord! We just got a report that Roman Dmitri has crossed the border with his soldiers!”

Everyone stopped moving.

They had talked about what to do if they were found out.

Crossing the border without warning? They couldn’t believe it. Their minds couldn’t understand what this meant.