Out in that wasteland, Padde and the others were repeatedly beaten within an inch of their lives by Akegarasu. Each time, a mysterious slime would instantly heal them, only for the cycle to repeat—nearly killed over, and over, and over again, until keeping count became utterly pointless.
At first, they did nothing but scream and wail in sheer, unadulterated terror and agony. Yet human beings can grow accustomed to anything. In time, even those hellish days became a mundane routine for Padde and his crew.
Right around the time day and night had cycled two thousand times across the barren plains—
"Yer sins are officially settled. Be thankful for our King's mercy, yeah?"
After beating them half to death as usual, Oboro tossed out that curt remark and vanished.
Padde could still remember weeping with joy at that moment, believing they could finally return to their world.
Naturally, that expectation was swiftly and utterly crushed. If anything, that was when their true trial began: the airborne monsters commenced what they dubbed "training"—which was nothing short of torture.
It was a waking nightmare so severe it made the brutal hazing by Akegarasu feel like paradise, and Padde and the others had no choice but to grit their teeth and endure it.
In the beginning, during those seemingly endless days of torment, he had cursed his rotten luck and harbored a bitter hatred for Kai Heinemann, the root cause of his misery. But as day after day went by with their lives hanging by a thread around the clock, that resentment vanished without a trace. Before he even realized it, an intense curiosity had taken root regarding this figure named Kai Heinemann, whom Akegarasu and the monsters revered with such absolute devotion.
Kai Heinemann: the weakest human alive, saddled with the worst Gift known as "The Most Incompetent in the World." That was the common consensus of society. But given that he commanded such terrifying monstrosities, that claim was plainly an outright lie.
In all likelihood, Kai Heinemann was what Padde and the others would consider a god.
No, not merely a god. Seeing as the elf Pal had insisted every single one of those creatures was a Transcender, Kai was almost certainly a King among Transcenders—a sovereign reigning over gods themselves.
If so, Padde and his crew had committed an unforgivable sacrilege. So why were they still alive?
At first, he had clung to the absurd notion that Kai Heinemann was simply punishing them for their foolishness.
Yet a divine being commanding such monsters would never go through this kind of mind-numbing hassle just for that. If retribution were the sole objective, their fate should have been far more bleak and hopeless. Instead, what those beings were subjecting them to felt less like punishment and more like an education.
Still, considering what Padde and his friends had done, that seemed entirely out of the question. This ought to have been a penalty.
Amidst the endless repetition of those days, Oboro of Akegarasu finally showed up after a long absence, beat them half to death once more, and knocked them cold.
When Padde opened his eyes, he was met with an unfamiliar ceiling.
"Where... are we?"
Pushing himself up to look around, he saw that he and the others were lying on futons spread across a wooden floor.
"Are we..."
As he exchanged bewildered glances with Bill and the rest, a brown-haired girl walked into the room, spotted them, and let out a shout.
"They're awake! Mom! The big brothers are awake!"
Raising her voice in excitement, she turned and bolted out the door.