(EP-136.1) Exam Time #4
136 – Imps And Exam Time #4
Of course, even with her big heart, Marmar wouldn't just forgive those who deceived and bullied her.
"Fix all the rooms and furniture…! Otherwise, I'll kick you out…!"
With nothing to fear from the Imps anymore, Marmar became their leader by default. The Imps, who would've been thrown to the streets, were grateful for Marmar's treatment.
"I, Tartar, will sweep the floor…! Purpur will wash the dishes, and Gargar…."
Tartar looked at Gargar, who was chasing after a fly, and sighed while shaking her head.
"It's best not to let Gargar do anything…."
"Then start cleaning!"
Marmar ordered the Imps who had been deceiving her for days. The Imps then began to slowly move, cleaning up the chaos they created one by one.
Seeing this, Marmar nodded with satisfaction.
"Good. Everything is going back to normal."
"Are you okay with this Marmar? These guys tormented you. Shouldn't we report it to Ark for punishment or expel them?"
I asked Marmar if it was okay for the Imps' punishment to end so lightly. But Marmar simply shook her head.
"There's no need to do that. After all, among us Imps, the one who gets deceived is considered to be at fault!"
The deceived… would be at fault.
I guessed they really were the creations of the Demon King.
At the thought of the Demon King, I looked at Gargar, who was said to have been baptized by the Demon King.
… She looked more like a beast than anything else. The girl didn't feel intelligent and seemed to be purely driven by instincts.
"Is she from the beginning?"
I asked the Imps who were diligently cleaning, to which Tartar nodded.
"She's been ill since we escaped from the facility…!"
"I see. By the way, you've been mentioning the facility. What is it?"
The Imps said they had escaped from a place called the "facility." With nothing to their name, they wandered around like vagabonds, before eventually coming to Ark. ʀаΝȏ𝖇ÊṦ
But even in Arc, they couldn't eat well, so they rummaged through trash, collecting and selling junk and scrap metal.
In the midst of that, they thought of taking advantage of Marmar, who showed them kindness, to gain even greater benefits. This was, without a doubt, bad. But on another angle, you couldn't help but commend their tenancy, especially after all they'd been through. They were similar to Marmar in that regard.
As she hammered away on the broken wardrobe, Tartar explained.
"The facility was a very Imp-phobic place…! The demons imprisoned there were all deprived of their freedom and were exploited for labor…!"
According to Tartar, it seemed that an institution called 'facility' existed somewhere in the vicinity of Ark. There, they locked up demons and subjected them to various kinds of abuse.
"We're made to dig the ground until evening, then fill it up again the next day…! Meaningless labor, it was very insulting and terrible…!"
It was quite literally undoing any work you did, reducing all to nothing…
I remembered hearing that prisoners of war would be made to do such work so that their strength would be sapped away. Plus, it was very effective in breaking both their bodies and minds.
"Hihi, full speed ahead…!"
I could now see why Gargar kept digging the ground. She'd been mechanically repeating the orders of the facility…
"Then why were you guys locked up in the facility?"
I became curious about the reason behind the facility's existence. Why did the facility imprison demons, including Imps?
"The vicious guards at the facility said that horned Imps like us are suspects…."
"Speaking of horns, you have one while Marmar doesn't. What's the difference?"
"Horns are a symbol of misdeeds…! They're like medals that grow little by little every time we do something bad…!"
Was it like Pinocchio's nose that grew every time he lied?
For the Imps who considered horns as medals, Marmar, who didn'thave horns, must have seemed inferior.
Just to be sure, I touched my forehead. It was smooth and there was no sign of any horns.
The blue-haired Purpur added.
"We were chained…. So, we all ran away when that incident happened…!"
Purpur then explained the incident that took place at the facility about two months ago.
It was like any usual day of being exploited for labor, until someone suddenly broke into the facility and killed a lot of people, all while hunting the imprisoned demons.
Taking advantage of the chaos, the sisters Tartar and Purpur escaped. At that time, they also joined forces with Gargar.
Listening to her story, the one who broke through was probably the main character's party.
Come to think of it, in Chapter 2 of the original novel, there was a mad scientist who experimented with demons. Was that when it happened?
Seeing it this way, it seemed that the main character's party was steadily following the original route.
Like a train running on a fixed rail, chugging along the laid out path…