"This first area of the dungeon is dark, sir, so if someone crawls around a few meters away from them, they'll just think they're rats."

"... there he goes again with the areas..." The salesman quietly mumbled to himself while touching his chin. It seems that he didn't mind the bloodied stranger's half-a.s.sed explanation as he nodded. "I think it's okay if we take him with us. It would be great to have another expert on the dungeon with us. I'm sure father would agree with me." The salesman said, while looking at me with a nonchalant gaze.

Seriously? He wants to take this thing with us!? Does this fat man know what my plans are and is now doing his best to jeopardize that?

Ugh...

I need to calm down... With my anger slowly boiling away within me, I quickly showed him a smile without explicitly saying a word of agreement or disagreement with what he had just said. It's best to remain quiet in this one.

"I'm against it!" The policeman then pointed at the bloodied stranger on the floor with a disagreeing scowl. "This one is suspicious—waaay too suspicious! He's probably some kind of spy sent by the ones who threw us here to confuse us!"

"I agree, I agree!" The silver man utters as he moved behind the policeman, seemingly hiding his body away from the bloodied stranger's gaze. he then peeked from the policeman's shoulders as he continued speaking, "It's impossible to survive this d.a.m.n s.h.i.+thole for a day with the ration they gave us, and this man is claiming that he's been here for years!?" He then extended his arms and pointed at the bearded man on the floor. "I SAY HE'S LYING! LOOK AT THE BLOOD AROUND HIS BODY! HE'S A MURDERER; HE'S GOT TO BE A MURDERER!"

"I-I can explain the blood, sir! I have only managed to survive this h.e.l.l by eating the raw flesh of the rats around this place! I know it sounds disgusting, but after a long, long time of staying here, I have learned to be accustomed to its taste, even enjoying it to some extent! That's why there's a lot of blood around me because I have no way of was.h.i.+ng the rat's blood away from me, so I just lived with it! Please believe me!" The others started groaning one after another while the bloodied stranger explained his method of survival in this damp maze below my family's mansion. "As for the water, well, you only have to look around you! There's water all around us! I survived thirst throughout this whole ordeal just by licking the leaking water on the walls!"

Oh, for the love of...

I covered my mouth tightly to prevent myself from puking whatever s.h.i.+t I have inside of my stomach. Luckily, the rest of the people around us are too busy being disgusted at what they had just heard that they didn't notice me trying my hardest to swallow the puke that had just escaped my throat. With a hot and stinging feeling in my throat, I began to look at the bloodied stranger again with newfound disgust. None of the people around me reacted as grotesquely as I did because they didn't know where those trickling liquid on the wall was coming from, ugh! ABSOLUTELY REPULSIVE! Does that mean this man had been tasting the family' s.h.i.+t for years now!?

"You two should be ashamed of yourselves!" The nurse articulated as she finally found the courage to approach the bloodied man, but not enough strength to touch him. "Spy? Murderer? Look at him! He's beyond malnourished! Treating an old man like him with such disrespect is beyond ridiculous, even for you all! Besides, we all agreed that no man should be left behind, so I see no reason why we should leave this man alone here now!"

I can go on tangents about how much I hated the idea of bringing this man along with us, especially since he would be the very bane of my plan's existence! I have to get rid of him, and luckily for me, I just might be able to do it in the next area... ekekekeke...

"We're wasting time arguing more about this." The salesman said with a groan as he moved towards the right side of the bloodied stranger beside the nurse. "Those who want this man to stay, come here on the right; those against it, go to the left."

Without further ado, the policeman and the silver man walked towards the bloodied stranger's left side, but both of them refused to approach him. Thus, they all stood a few feet away from him on his left side. Then, all four of them looked at me as I still had both my hands on my lips, trying my hardest to refrain my puke from coming out of my mouth. From the look on their faces, they seem to be pleading with me to make a decision right away wordlessly.

A huge part of me wants to leave this disgusting thing in this place, but...

I have two reasons as to why I am more inclined to believe that we should take him with us. Okay, I'm sure you're fed up with how I suddenly changed my decision, out of nowhere, but hear me out, eh? Come on! Give a man some slack!

Firstly, agreeing to take the man with us would solidify my benevolent priest persona, thus making it even easier to infiltrate through these four people. After all, if I showed them that my heart is in the place of the good, it would be easier for them to let their guards down for me.

Secondly, well...

I just think killing him in the next room would be so much better! Just imagining the amount of fun I would get is enough to make my blood trickle from all of my nerves hurriedly. The rush I felt in my insides is so unbearably euphoric that I could almost feel my sense tickling the lower half of my body!

Thus, with a smile on my face, I approached the bearded man and knelt before him. "Raise your head, child."

The stranger then slowly complied with what I had just said and slowly raised his body to look at me with an awe-struck expression.

I then extended my hands towards him, and, as much as I hated the prospect of doing this, I wrapped my hands around the bloodied man's body and gently tapped his stiffened back. I could then feel the stickiness of the blood around him permeating my ca.s.sock as the foul stench coming out of him immediately infiltrated my nose by the time I held him. Suddenly, I could feel the puke I had just swallowed return in my mouth. I then laid it there as much as I could while trying my hardest not to taste the bile around my tongue. As the liquid c.r.a.p swims around my mouth, I decided to show a gentle smile at the bloodied stranger before moving beside the salesman and the nurse on his right side wordlessly. Well, it's not like I could say much with this amount of awfulness in me.

The bloodied stranger then jumped with joy when he finally understood that we're taking him with us. The policeman sighed in defeat as he realized what had happened. Meanwhile, the silver man began to nibble on his silver fingers again while still hiding behind the policeman. On the other hand, the salesman nodded with a smile. Then, the nurse looked at me with a vibrant smile that showed how much she appreciated what I had done. However, it seems that she's slowly moving away from me, probably because I had just hugged the now celebrating bearded man.

As they slowly moved towards the next area with varying expressions on their faces, I stayed behind them before spitting the puke in my mouth with a weakened heave. I then wiped my lips on the back of my hands while trying my best to get myself together and follow on their lead.

I then remembered what mom told me before she left my side earlier.

"Remember, son, some areas in the dungeon have some lights like in the case of the second area. If you want us to close the lights, just raise a fist in the air!" 

With the voice of my mom in mind as she spoke those words to me earlier while Christopher and Alejandro beat the life out of me, I nodded as I immediately understood what I had to do.

I then raised my fist up in the air quickly, but with a small difference: I pointed with my other hand towards the bloodied stranger, signaling my family that they should close the lights before he could finish the challenge awaiting us in the second area.

Ah... That's right! Mom, please close the lights before this disgusting thing could escape the ninth pendulum!