Editing Tytania:Volume 5 Chapter 7 (section)

=== V ===
Idris pressed the firing button in rapid succession. On the other side of the secret door, the heat rays flew wildly and vainly.

During that futile burst of fire, the merciless door was slowly compressing Idris’ right arm from both sides. Cold sweat welled from Idris’ forehead, trickling down his cheek, past his well-formed jaw, and down towards his throat. With every passing moment, pain gripped him. An eerie sound announced that his right arm was being crushed.

“Stop it, Ajman!” shouted Jouslain, unable to bear it any longer. “Killing Idris may be the work of a hegemon, but causing him such agony is the deed of a mere torturer!”

“You maintain such righteousness even at this stage, Duke Jouslain? I had held you in higher regard than others, but perhaps it was that self-satisfied look of yours that I truly despised.”

The gap in the door had narrowed to a mere three centimetres.

“You needn’t worry about Duke Idris. I have prepared something else entirely for you. This is my private domain. Therefore, the punishment of intruders shall be carried out according to my own whims.”

Idris let out a scream. The pride that had allowed him to endure the agony had finally reached its limit. His right arm’s skin was torn, the muscles crushed, and the nerves severed, until, at last, the bone shattered. A fire of agony scorched Idris’ entire body, and he writhed unconsciously.

His right arm was torn away.

Idris’ body writhed from the recoil, blood and bodily fluids spraying from the wound where his arm had been torn away. He was slammed against the floor. The torn skin swayed like tattered rags, revealing white bone and bundles of nerves.

With a pale face, Idris attempted to pull himself up. He clawed at the closed door with his left hand, attempting to plant his knee while letting out groans of pain and curses.

“Stop, Idris, don’t push yourself.”

Jouslain grabbed Idris’ left shoulder from behind and pulled him away from the door.

“Someone, call a doctor. Or rather, is there anyone here with medical knowledge?”

Miranda replied:

“I don’t have much expertise, but I can manage at least some first aid.”

“Then I am counting on you. Please, tend to him.”

Doctor Lee spoke:

“Just to be clear, Lord Idris is a man who was attempting to kill you. Even so, are you still telling us to treat him, Lord Jouslain?”

“I, too, was seeking to overthrow Idris. However, I never imagined it would be in such a manner. This is far too cruel. For now, I simply wish to save his life.”

“I see. It certainly appears that you are not suited to become the supreme commander of Tytania,” nodded Doctor Lee as if convinced. “But your objective is definitely to kill the Clanner. You should prioritise chasing after him. Leave this to us and be on your way.”

Jouslain hesitated, but the younger Balamy persuaded him:

“We cannot allow the Clanner to escape. Leave this to them, and let’s go after the Clanner ourselves.”

Jouslain nodded, gave a light bow to the pirates, and then galloped away alongside Balamy.

“Now then, although I am called ‘Doctor’, I am a philosopher and not a physician, but I shall do all that is within my power. Give me a hand.”

“You are unexpectedly soft-hearted for a ‘Doctor’. This noble lord intends to kill us next, right after the Clanner.”

“No time for sarcasm, Mahdi. Are you content to simply stay here?”

“What do you mean?”

“Lord Jouslain has gone to pursue his objective. The person who could obstruct us is no longer here. So you, in your turn, should be pursuing your own objectives.”

Mahdi’s face lit up. He remembered his original purpose. To plunder the vast treasures held within this magnificent palace.

“Right, I’m off.”

“Avoid artworks. They are bulky, and the more expensive they are, the harder it is to get rid of them.”

“I know that very well. I’ll only take cash and jewels. Just wait for me, my darling treasures.”

Mahdi ran off with an admirable lightness of step, intent on filling his empty sack to the brim.

“Good grief, we’ve wasted so much time. How is Duke Idris faring, Miranda?”

“He hasn’t fully regained consciousness yet. It’s quite dreadful… even for me, and I’ve seen plenty of casualties.”

Crushed and torn wounds generally looked far more gruesome than clean amputations. Idris was no exception. The cross-sections of his injuries lacked any semblance of order; bone and nerve were entwined with muscle, and blood continued to spurt from ruptured vessels, staining the pirates’ clothes.

Idris, lying on the floor, trembled violently, his unharmed left arm and both legs convulsing. His closed eyelids drifted slightly open, and his mouth parted just enough to force out the voice of the dying youth.

“Do not touch me so familiarly, you pirates…”

The vibration in the air left the impression of a voice that barely remained within the audible range. Nevertheless, it carried no sense of weakness. He attempted to prop himself up with his right hand, but his facial muscles stiffened when he realised his right arm was gone.

“Stay still. We are trying to treat you.”

“Are you bastards even capable of treating me?”

“First, we must disinfect the wound, and then…”

“Useless!”

Idris’ voice possessed a strange strength despite its low volume, and a light flickered in both his eyes. Moving his eyes from side to side, Idris questioned them.

“Where is Jouslain?”

“He went after the Clanner.”

“Is Balamy with him?”

Doctor Lee responded with a nod rather than words, prompting a groan from Idris. It was a sound that Miranda would later describe as “like a person cast into hell, clawing their way up a cliff leading to purgatory.”

“I will be the one to kill Ajman. Do you think I would yield just because I lost an arm?”

“I don’t. You are, after all, the renowned Duke Idris.”

While Hyulick’s voice held sincerity, it lacked the strength to restrain Idris’ passion.

“Stay still! You’re going to die from blood loss and shock. Miranda!”

Doctor Lee’s voice was sharp, more of a command than a mere reprimand.

Miranda, who valued practicality in all things, pulled a small spray canister from one of the many pockets of her field uniform. She sprayed a fine, freezing mist minus thirty degrees Celsius onto Idris’ bleeding wound.

The effect appeared in short order, freezing both the blood and the wound. It was a horrifying sight. The lower half of Idris’ arm looked as though several icicles of crimson, frozen blood were growing from it. In contrast to the fact that Idris was a handsome young man, the sight was nothing short of gruesome.

“I have stopped the bleeding for now, at least…”

“Sorry for being a burden.”

The first words of gratitude escaped from Idris’ earth-coloured lips. At the same time, he stood up, though he staggered. He had managed to stand on his own strength despite having likely lost nearly twenty per cent of his total blood volume. The second pistol gripped in his left hand was aimed at the pirates, who were both his sworn enemies and his saviours.

“But if you try to restrain me any further, I will kill you.”

“… Understood. Go.”

Thinking about it, it was an impolite way to speak<ref name="ftn27">It's a bit lost in translation, but “Understood. Go.” didn't have any of the markers of politeness and formality that should be used when talking to a person of higher rank.</ref>, but Idris made no reprimand. Without even a reply, he began to walk, his steps unsteady. His heart and lungs must have been under considerable strain. He moved forward with the sluggish pace of a drunkard, letting out agonised wheezes.

“Where is he going?”

“He likely knows another passage. He probably went to follow Duke Jouslain.”

“What about us?”

Doctor Lee responded to Hyulick’s utterly bewildered voice with a wry smile:

“We have interfered in other people’s family affairs quite enough already. Shall we follow Mahdi’s lead and return to our own business?”



Idris continued to walk. Or rather, he was swimming through the air. He knew the depths of the palace as well as Jouslain did. ''Jouslain, chase down that demon Ajman. I am the one who will kill him. And then, shall we have one final duel between the two of us?…''

Having suddenly lost his right arm, Idris lost his balance many times, crashing into walls and nearly toppling over. His vision grew blurred from the blood loss and intense pain. As he tried to shake his head to clear the haze before his eyes, a figure appeared before him.

“Is that you, Jouslain? Where is Ajman?”

“I am here.”

An emotionless voice struck Idris from the front.

Idris instinctively raised his left arm, but he had almost no vitality left to carry out his thoughts. His upper body swayed, and the gun gripped in his unfamiliar left hand trembled violently, defying his will. Even so, Idris’ sheer tenacity would not let him remain silent.

“Die, Ajman!”

The gunshot rang out.

Idris’ second gun was a ray gun, so it was incapable of making a gunshot. In the centre of Idris’ already bloodstained chest, a new blossom of blood bloomed. Clanner Ajman gripped a gunpowder-based pistol in his right hand, the scent of death wafting from its muzzle.

Even so, Idris did not fall immediately, merely lowering his left hand. However, when Ajman silently and expressionlessly fired a second shot into his left knee, he finally collapsed. He fell into a pool of his own blood.

“All talk, aren’t you?”

Muttering this coldly, Ajman turned on his heel. As he strode into the next room,

“Clanner…!”

Jouslain’s voice was trembling with passion. He and Balamy had been beset by minor misfortunes, causing their arrival to be delayed. They had encountered groups of guards twice and had been forced to evade them.

“At last, you’ve arrived. Since you were late, it’s a one-on-one again. Childish games like duelling are not to my liking, though.”

“I have had quite enough of catering to your whims. Prepare yourself to pay for what you did to Ariabert.”

Ajman let the corners of his mouth curl upward slightly.

“What an unexpected touch of humour. Do you truly believe you can defeat me, Your Ducal Grace?”

“You homicidal maniac. How many masks have you worn to survive this long?”

“Masks, you say? How immature of you. Everything I have told you thus far has been the truth. Today is merely the day one of those truths revealed itself. It is impossible for me to be slain by a human inferior to myself.”

“Nothing is impossible!”

Jouslain levelled the heat ray gun with both hands, preparing to press the firing button. This was, of course, exactly what Ajman had anticipated. A black serpent streaked through the air, followed by the sound of a heavy impact, and Jouslain recoiled.

A lash of the electromagnetic whip had struck Jouslain square in the face with brutal force.

A searing sensation swept across the upper half of Jouslain’s face, from left to right. Along with an intense, excruciating pain, his vision vanished. He could no longer see the blood spraying through the air, falling to the floor like scattered rubies. For Jouslain, the entire universe had been plunged into darkness.

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