“Originally, there were 35 staff members: 1 doctor, 5 cooks, 3 chief guards, and 26 guards.”
“Sofia became a prisoner, while Xiugu and Liliya, along with six others, joined the prison staff, increasing the total by five.”
“But it seems the salaries for these six new comrades will be paid starting next month.”
Lafeier paused, his brow furrowed.
“A Riot Index of 99… that’s very dangerous.”
“Meal Improvement and Household Contract Responsibility must be implemented as soon as possible…”
Next, Lafeier took two sheets of paper from his drawer. They were Estina’s observation reports on the half-demon girl Tina over the past two days.
The reports did not directly describe Tina’s condition, but instead gave a general overview of the situation in the Half-Blood Ward.
The Half-Blood Ward had two floors. Each floor had four corridors. The corridors divided each floor into four zones. On the left side were thick iron doors, and on the right side were walls made of stones nearly 50 centimeters thick.
To facilitate guard management, each zone had an established Cell Leader by custom, for a total of eight. While they enjoyed certain privileges, they also had to assist the guards in maintaining prison stability and controlling the other half-bloods. From the perspective of prison management, this “custom” was extremely useful.
By establishing a privileged class among the prisoners, the contradiction between prisoners and the prison was shifted onto a portion of the prisoners, thereby dividing them. The divided prisoners would not direct their anger at the prison, nor could they unite. In this way, prison order could be maintained for a long time.
However, the people of this world had clearly gotten one thing wrong: they criminalized half-bloods themselves. An undeserved calamity…
Tina’s cell was on the first floor, first zone, number three, i.e., Cell 1103. This cell happened to house the Cell Leader of the first zone on the first floor, Alpha. Tina had been bought into the prison at an extremely low price when she was young.
She actually had no particular conflict with Alpha. But in a prison that pushed the principle of Survival of the Fittest to its extreme, there was always a weak person pushed into a situation where they could be bullied by anyone. Tina suffered abuse simply because she had a weak personality and was young, that was all.
If one had to find another reason, it might be the sadism and violence lurking in human nature, as well as the desire for power. Only by stepping on others could one show how great they were. This was common sense for Lafeier, who had lived two lives.
Things like cutting hair, hiding schoolbags, cold violence—these methods were nothing but child’s play in prison. Alpha only allowed Tina to eat one piece of black bread that she and her group had trampled on the sandy ground each day. Otherwise, she had to eat the swill dumped into the wastewater ditch.
If Tina disobeyed their orders or even hesitated for a moment, she would be beaten severely under the pretext of “discipline.” In addition, sleep disruption, verbal abuse, brainwashing, and control—such things were endless. Every night, Tina had to complete the tasks assigned by Alpha before she could sleep.
Washing clothes for Alpha and the others, cleaning the cell—these were normal. Sometimes, on a whim, they would make Tina kneel all night on the uneven stone floor until her knees were bruised and her legs turned red and purple from poor blood circulation. Or they would strip Tina naked and point at the wounds they had inflicted on her, laughing heartily.
During work hours, they would deliberately not give Tina a shift change, making her stay at her workstation for an entire day. Sometimes they would frame her in front of the guards, making false accusations, so that the guards would whip Tina. They delighted in seeing such suffering; their happiness was built on torturing others.
More, even more despicable things, Estina wrote, were too numerous to record. Yet such phenomena were common throughout the prison. The guards did not care about such things. As long as order was stable, the guards would turn a blind eye to whatever the Cell Leaders did.
On the night Lafeier sent Tina back, since it was late, Tina had a rare good night’s sleep. However, the next day, when Alpha saw the luxurious robe on Tina, she was naturally furious. Alpha took the robe from Tina.
Smelling the aroma of meat on her, Alpha punched the girl in the stomach. Then, she brutally pried open Tina’s mouth and stuffed her dirt-covered hand into Tina’s mouth, forcing her to vomit.
“Like eating? Like sneaking food behind our backs, huh?”
“Then eat all of this!”
On May 24, the first zone of the first floor had no mandatory labor requirements. Tina was abused for the entire day.
…
On the morning of May 25, during outdoor exercise. Alpha knocked Tina to the ground and repeatedly kicked her in the head. The robe Lafeier had given Tina was waved around by Alpha like a trophy.
The guards, under Estina’s orders, only observed from the sidelines. But unexpectedly, the guards’ inaction made Alpha believe she had tacit approval. She became even more rampant.
Perhaps, Estina speculated, Alpha was testing the guards’ attitude to determine whether Tina’s robe had been obtained legitimately. When she saw the guards unmoved, she naturally assumed that the robe was either stolen by Tina or given to her by some soldier who had slept with her. Either way, since it was not obtained legitimately, Alpha could claim it as her own.
She tore off the few tattered pieces of cloth on Tina and ordered her to crawl from the entrance of the cell block to the cafeteria like a dog, and then back. The sunlight shone on Tina’s naked body, steaming, her skin beginning to redden. Laughter and jeers were incessant.
Estina specifically noted that some half-bloods had very grim expressions. They clenched their fists, sweat beading on their foreheads. As if the one being humiliated at that moment was not Tina, but themselves.
When Tina crawled humiliatingly to the center and saw Lafeier walking past the periphery of the exercise yard, seeing off several craftsmen—Estina wrote that this was only speculation—Tina’s eyes, filled with chaos and bloodshot, shed tears mixed with blood. The horns on her forehead grew at an alarming rate, the roots squeezing through skin and flesh, causing blood to spurt, leaving streaks of blood across her face in an instant.
Demonization. A small number of half-demons, when emotionally agitated, would briefly enter a state of demonization. Loss of reason, bloodlust, irritability, indiscriminate attacks… They truly became demon men.
But Tina was not like those demonized half-demons. Although equally frenzied, she targeted only the group that had bullied her, especially Alpha. Demon men were a race that fed on nectar and berries, and were the most adept at fighting among the Blood Race, as if born for battle. But to bear offspring, demon men had to drink animal blood, especially human blood and human organs.
Alpha was an orc. In terms of raw strength, she was certainly stronger than the weak and young Tina. But having indulged in pleasure and not worked for a long time, she had grown fat and her reaction time had dropped significantly. When Tina darted in front of her and twisted off one of her arms, she finally realized:
That waste, who had been bullied and tormented by her, had gone mad.