The Innkeeper

Chapter 1397  Resisting all torture II

"I know you are all just interested in resting in your rooms," said the tavern keeper, his warm, comforting voice trying to cause Henry to relax. But he would never relax! Never!

"However, I'd just like to inform you all that from here you can go to the eatery, any of the terraces or any of our other facilities within the Treehouse tavern. These facilities include the Meditation room, Training room, a small clinic, and a few others. You can explore on your own, or ask one of our staff to show you around if you wish. Now let me show you to your rooms."

Henry was the perfect example of stoicism, not letting his derision show on his face at all as he ignored the lies being spewed all around him, and walked behind his jailors as they brought him to his new prison.

Every inch of the long, spiraling branch of the tree that carried the walkway was covered in the blood of innocents - or so he imagined, ignoring the pleasant aroma that the bark was giving off. The only thing he could smell was the injustice.

He marched towards certain doom, wearing nothing but his dignity - and a rather luxurious robe given to him on the ship to avoid being dragged around naked. His armour had been destroyed in battle.

The first room they were brought to was, conveniently, the one Henry would be staying in was a quaint, wooden room with a single bed, a cupboard, a study table and a large window with a view of the outside. Of course, it also had its own private bathroom.

The room was also equipped with an independent formation to increase the ambient spiritual energy, but it would apparently cost money to use that.

"Wait here. Someone will see to you shortly," said one of the figures as they left Henry in his room. The tavern keeper looked at him oddly, as if he wanted to say something but ultimately didn't.

Henry was much too smart to fall for such obvious bait. Clearly, by leaving him alone in his room supposedly unsupervised, he was being tempted to escape. But if the insidious nature of his captors was anything to go by, getting captured trying to escape, the punishment for trying to escape would be phenomenal - in the sense that they'd probably remove his eyes while maintaining their connection to his brain so he could see himself being tortured.

Henry, caught in his own imagination about the kinds of tortures he would face, did not notice when the others left. So eventually, when he woke from his thoughts, he found himself alone in his room.

"Solitary confinement. How basic," he scoffed.

But now, left to his own devices, the question was what was he to do? He looked around the room, and ultimately decided to use the restroom to relieve himself as well as freshen up.

Then… he just went to sleep. Although he was a Foundation realm warrior, that did not eliminate his need for rest or sleep. There was a good chance that by sleeping, he would be falling into the enemies trap, which is why instead of sleeping on the bed, he slept on the floor.

But he did not sleep for long, for one of the figures cloaked in black entered his room, their arrival waking him up. There was no visible way for him to distinguish one of his captors from another since they all looked more or less the same, covered in their black clothes. That did not apply to their voices though.

"Your appointment with her majesty is scheduled to happen soon," the figure said with a stern, yet feminine voice. "As such you need to be… cleaned. Strip to your boxers and lie down."

Henry, despite believing himself to have immense self control, could not help glaring at the woman as he heard her ask him to present himself to be tortured.

He glared, but after a long pause, he relented. A part of Henry decided that he would try to survive the torture as long as possible, but if it got to be too much, he would simply fight them to the death.

He stripped, and lay on the bed on his back. Nudity did not embarrass him. As a soldier, he was used to communal showers, not to mention more than once his gear had been vaporised in intense fights, forcing him to continue fighting in the nude. Not to mention, he was not embarrassed of his body at all.

Yet the look that the dark figure gave him made him feel nervous for reasons he could not explain. Perhaps it was instincts. Even though the figure wore a mask, he could sense the way she was analysing his body as if he was a piece of meat.

Then, without further ado, she brought out her tools. There was a ceramic bowl which contained a thick, green liquid that was almost bubbling, a number of wooden sticks and a number of cloth strips.

Henry eyed the unusual torture devices, confused as to how they would be used.

"Lay on your chest," the dark figure commanded, and Henry obeyed, though through gritted teeth. He almost wanted to resist, to question, just to see how much worse things would really be if he did. But logic told him that provoking the enemy would make his situation worse.

He heard the figure move around, but before he could figure out what she was doing, he felt a searing heat suddenly on his back!

Without any restraint or remorse, the dark figure had dipped the wooden stick into the bubbling green liquid, and was applying it onto his back! It was like lava on a stick, burning his flesh, cooking the meat underneath, and boiling the spirit energy inside of him.

"Don't move, or things will get much worse," the dark figure stated when he twitched at the sudden burning of his skin. In her mind, however, the dark figure continued the sentence.

'Ingrown hairs are a pain to deal with for cultivators.'

Then, in an all too practiced motion, she applied the cloth strip onto the green liquid of torment, pressed it firmly, and then ripped it off! n/o/vel/b//in dot c//om

Henry clenched his teeth, too proud to let anyone hear him cry. He finally understood now how he was being tortured. His skin was being ripped off his body! It seemed the enemy was even more evil than he had imagined.

The dark figure, meanwhile, looked at the one clean, smooth patch of skin surrounded by a sea of thick hair, and nodded to herself. Captain Henry was a body cultivator, so it was even harder to wax his hair than normal. But it was what it was. As the royal beautician, she was used to waxing all sorts of people.

In fact, her next client was a young girl on another planet who was going to the beach for the first time. But as someone who had inherited a strong bloodline, her body was too strong to be waxed by ordinary people.

But compared to her usual customers, at least waxing an army captain wasn't so bad. He hadn't even screamed or complained once. It was a nice change of pace.

Henry, meanwhile, shed silent tears as he seared this experience into his memories, even as his torturer seared that green boiling goop onto his skin before ripping it off. But he would survive this, and he would have vengeance!

The torture continued for what Henry was sure was days, and just when he thought it couldn't get worse, he heard those terrible words.

"Now take off your boxers…"

Outside the room, in the lobby of the treehouse, Lex looked oddly at the humans in front of him as they paid him. He had come across some interesting guests, but this was a first, even for him.

They were the royal entourage for the fiance of the royal princess of the Empire, and were transporting him. Apparently, in his last mission he had hit his head, suffered a huge concussion, and had his memories messed up.

The fact that the mission which was supposed to be peaceful suddenly turned dangerous suggested that it might have been an assassination attempt, which is why the fiance had been promptly reduced, and brought to the nearest Empire planet.

Yet just as they were heading to their headquarters, they were told that they could not heal the fiance, for the princess could not trust others due to the assassination attempt, and would be coming in person to meet him.

That presented them with a new problem: the princess had a severe cleanliness phobia, and didn't like to see hairy men, so any time a man was to come in front of her, he had to have a clean wax.

As such, mid-journey, they had to land at the tavern which is where the royal beautician, someone who had the princess' trust, would meet them before they could go to meet the princess.

Lex was also impressed that the tavern showed up on their local maps as a reliable tavern nearby. It seemed the system was doing a good job.