"Vessel? What do you mean?" I blurted out as my head fell.

  I felt the touch of a cool metal on my big toe. I glanced at it, and I saw Harris placing the screwdriver's tip on my toe, preparing to cut my toe by smashing the hammer against the base.

  "Wait...wai-t, what are you doing? What are you doing? Stop it, stop it. You already broke my toes; please stop it," I shrieked.

  Bang!

  "ARGHHHH GOD NO GOD NO WHY DID YOU DO IT ARGG," I screamed at the top of my lungs.

  I tried to pull my leg away from Harris, but he didn't leave it and held it tight, pressing the wound, which made the pain worse.

  "Stop, stop, stop, stop, please," I cried. Tears and sweat drenched my entire body. The pain was getting to my head. I tried to kick Harris, but it was futile.

  My head sank, blood dripped from my face, and my mind screamed in pain and was desperate for death, desperate for someone kill me.

  Someone kill me, I need to die. Why didn't I die right away this time? If I had died, I wouldn't have had to go through this. Kill me. I need to kill myself to escape. Why did I want to live if I have to be tortured again?

  "Aldon, you are not going to escape; you will die in this cell for sure, so why don't we make a deal?" the king said, his words falling on my deaf ears as my mind thought on how to kill myself.

  "Since you were searching about Alyss, I will tell you the reason why no one knows about her, and you will tell me who sent you."

  I lifted my head for a moment and gave him a nod since delaying my torment was the best and to think of a way to kill myself.

  "Very well, then, where shall we start? Well, as you know, Alyss Morea was a swirless child, his parents were executed, and a bounty was placed on his head, only to be found dead, being stomped by drunks."

  wait this chains he called it fetter right? This nullifies abilities.

  "Well, what you and I know is true, but Alyss was supposed to be a vessel to this kingdom; he was our ace to triumph against the world."

  If this chain nullifies abilities, does that mean if I die, I won't transmigrate again?

  "Most people awaken before seven, you see, only a few awaken after seven, and only a handful of people in history have awakened after eight."

  So if I die now, can I stay dead?

  "And Alyss was one of the few who has yet to awaken their ability and swirl after eight; to make it even more unique, Alyss was the only one who hasn't awakened an ability after crossing eight and a half years in the entire Ocean of Ever."

  They said they will kill me, but how many more times will they torture me?

  "So Alyss was a rare specimen for us, even when I first heard about it, I thought he was a messiah." The king chuckles.

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  "How foolish of me."

  How can I die? There must be a way to kill myself. Should I smash my head against the wall?

  "But we realized we could use Alyss to our benefit if word spread that there is a swirless kid around. The UEF or EOA would interrupt and might seize you to use as their asset. Of course, I was part of the UEF and EOA, but why would I want to share something that is mine?"

  No, I can't smash my head, the knight might stop me.

  "And the nation was in the gutter at that time after the economic collapse due to the mess the eunuch made in Everdusk, which ceased trade with them for a while, and Evergale was trying to control us by providing large investments to become "

  Think, Alyss, think. You read a lot of stuff, lots of novels where the protagonist is captured. How does he die? Think.

  "Of course we can't just go with their flow, but the kingdom's situation was getting worse. And now you may wonder where Alyss is part of this whole mess."

  I can bite off my tongue. Yes, that's plausible, but what if it hurt?

  "Alyss was an empty flesh for us. If we did experiments on Alyss and tamed him successfully, he would become a tool to uplift this country."

  Weapon? What do they mean I was squirrel-less?

  "And once Alyss's mind was just a blank slate, we could do the ritual of barnacle over and over again. We could imbue him with the finest abilities to become a person who would have saved the nation from Evergale's ploy, and if the tide turned in our favour, Everheat could have become the nation that rules over the world."

  Ritual of barnacle? What is he saying? And take over the world? By giving my ability and experimenting on me?

  "And we could have ruled over the UEF or EOA, or in the worst-case scenario, be an independent nation not being meddled with by others."

  They tried to overthrow whatever this UEF and EOA are? by using me? Was I not even a person to them?

  "Of course the great plan all went in vain thanks to Alyss's parents. We sent Iker Emi to convince them to hand over you without making a fuss, but his parents thought too much of themselves and hid Alyss in that rotting basement."

  Don't talk about Mom and Dad like that.

  "Poor child, don't you think? This nation's greatest treasure being locked inside a basement for six months because his parents were a bunch of fools. We even offered compensation."

  Mom and Dad aren't fools.

  "And of course, one event led to another, and Alyss escaped, and the chief of the peacekeepers,if he just had listened to my dad's order, none of this would have happened,he used his authority to make a show by killing his parents and then issuing a bounty just because my father wasn't in the nation at that period of time."

  So Mom's and Dad's death was a mistake? No one ordered it?

  "And then our great plan went down the drain; word spread out about Alyss, and Alyss also died soon. The words reached Evergale and UEF."

  I need to die, but will I die if I bite my tongue off? Should I try? What if I don't die but just gag in it?

  "We had to go to desperate measures to cover it up. We silenced journalists, peacekeepers, and anyone who knew about Alyss we can't let the UEF frame us a traitor or evergale to issue a notice of war at that time. It took us years until no one knew who Alyss was or about that incident."

  Biting my tongue is the best bet. Should I do it?

  "Of course, UEF and Evergale still had some lead on that incident even though we covered it well, and it brings us to the present: you searching about Alyss, which I am certain no common folk in the world know about, caused us a stir, and here you are captured, refusing to answer."

  "So tell me, Aldon, are you from UEF or Evergale? What more leads do they have?"

  "I...sa-id…the t-ruth...I...am...Alyss...I trans-migrated...here."

  Bang!

  "That's for lying again," Harris said as he chopped another toe.

  I need to kill myself.

  My body made a decision on it's own and in a moment, I bit my tongue off desperately, the pain going through my head. My eyes turned red, and I gasped for air as lethal amounts of blood poured down my mouth, and I choked on my own tongue. The world around me started to fade, with the ringing sound in my ear vanishing and the words of the King and Harris's words becoming dull as I went cold.

  "So he chose death, huh? Evergale surely has well-trained agents."

  I saw Harris trying to stop my bleeding, his navel glowing with twenty swirls.

  Harris's efforts were futile, as a few seconds passed, my body went limp as I started to lose my senses one by one. I could no longer feel the pain; the taste of my own blood and tears vanished; my eyes blackened, and my ears gave out deafening me, the prison's rancid smell vanished as my breath started to come short. and I died finally.