Raze walked to the men and then bent down before them. He looked at them for a few seconds and then finally spoke.
"I’ll ask you, and I want your genuine answer. If you lie, forget about a good punishment; I beg you with everything that I have, lie to me and let me show you what launched looks like," he said. He spoke calmly and without any threatening tone.
"Did you go to peep at the women bathing there?" he asked, and as he did, he used God’s eyes, watching their heartbeats and everything.
One of the men looked up and then yelled, "Young master, I swear, we went there for a bath and the men caught us and said we were peeping. Young master, we swear in our lives that we didn’t do that; we are being framed," he said, speaking genuinely, but Raze saw it all. He saw the lie leaking from this man’s mouth.
He slowly shook his head. "You had a chance," he said. They got up; his smile returned. "Since these men committed a crime like that, they’ll be subjected to labour." As he said those words, the smile on his face widened. ᴛʜɪs ᴄʜᴀᴘᴛᴇʀ ɪs ᴜᴘᴅᴀᴛᴇ ʙʏ NoveI-Fire.ɴet
"They’ll work round the clock every day for an entire month, no pay and just two rations of food, but there will be no rest, no stop," he said out loud and then looked at the men.
"You’ll work for me so hard that your souls will feel the pain," he added.
What he said didn’t seem that massive of a punishment, but the men were about to find out. They were dragged away toward the mountain for work.
All the other men were already there and they were informed about what these men had done. Raze made it clear to them that they were never to assist or help these men and that whoever assisted them without the explicit permission of Raze would be punished like them.
As the men were put to work, Ella walked beside Raze. She looked at the men breaking the rocks, and then she looked at Raze. "How is this punishment enough?" she asked.
He looked at her with a calm expression on his face. "Trust me, they’ll hate their lives after today. What do you think drives everyone working here?" he asked.
"Um, the rewards that you offered to them?" she responded.
"Exactly, that’s it. And now those three are working for free, and working more. They can’t smile like the men around them; they can’t find any sense of peace, only the pain that comes from swinging their hammers.
Every swing reminds them that for thirty days, they are bound to this hell, repeated work, over and over and over again.
Their only hope is the thirty day mark, but I have a plan for that as well. I’ll shatter their reality when the time comes, throwing them into more despair." Raze explained, and Ella shuddered, imagining what sort of horror he was putting them through.
"So why not just tell them that they’ll not get out in a month?" she asked. She understood from their discussion that when the time came, he would still not release them.
"Oh, well, if I told them, they would start in misery, but quickly adapt, and one day start looking for ways to escape. The method I’m using will break their will; the pain of their hopes getting crushed will be immense," Raze said. She turned around; Ella watched his back, wondering what sort of being he was. He was extremely good to be with, yet completely evil underneath.
Raze, on the other hand, started the second phase of the road, the laying of the road. There were many ways for them to make a road, but some would take technology that wasn’t present yet.
Still, he wanted a standard road, a very good one, and he already had one in the back of his mind. The first stage was the clearing and leveling of the road.
But just as he was about to call for it to start, there was a massive explosion followed by a shout. He turned around and rushed into the forest at top speed.
When he arrived, he saw that someone had dug down to the cave level, and the ground had collapsed, sending him down into the depths of the cave.
"Hmm, I was wondering when they would reach down there," Raze said casually.
"You knew that there was a cave there?" Ella walked from behind and asked. He gave her a smile and didn’t say anything else. He rushed toward the cave.
The man was standing inside the cave; he had dislocated an arm when he fell. Raze looked at him and clicked his tongue.
’I didn’t plan for anyone to get hurt; I overestimated the structure of the cave,’ he thought, then looked around.
"Get a rope, someone, and let’s get him out of here," Raze said. After a few minutes, a rope was brought; the men held it and pulled the man out of the hole.
When the man was out, he asked them to take him to the town for treatment; he would still receive pay for his missed days and some compensation.
Now that they had finally reached the hole, Raze could finally gather the ores that were inside and also finally find out what the creature was.
He spent some time handing over the work to the workers; they started handling the clearing of the roads and leveling the ground.
While a group of ten men stayed, Elaine and Ella remained with him as he decided to check out the hole.
He used the hammers to hit certain points, with the help of God’s eyes, to open the hole into an even wider mouth.
"Are you certain it is safe to enter the cave, young master?" Elaine asked.
"Um, no, I’m almost fully certain that this is a terrible idea, but I am going to check it out," Raze said. She looked at him; her face said it all. She was tired of his antics. She let out a deep breath and nodded.