Chapter 9: Human Farm
The worst part about this was not that Ronan could not save the child, but the fact that even after seeing the child die while holding her in his arms, apart from regret, he felt no grief.
He truly felt nothing.
This was a wake-up call for Ronan.
He... he had changed.
He was no longer human.
He only felt regret because he still had his human self deep inside him, but if this continued...
Just like his Ghoul companions, he would become a monster like them.
He looked at the dead child’s face, his mind filled with guilt and regret, while his body only responded with hunger and wanted to devour her flesh.
Ronan took a deep breath as he stood up and gently laid the child down.
His eyes lingered on her as he looked at the way she was curled up, remembering the expression of extreme fear she had before she died.
Now, though, there was a smile on the little girl’s face.
One of comfort.
Ronan took a long, drawn-out breath as he turned and left, soon rejoining the Ghoul army and walking behind them.
He still needed to live, though.
If he stayed there for too long, his master, Levit, might suspect something.
After all, having a Ghoul you created but couldn’t fully control called for an investigation, and that would be the last thing Ronan ever wanted.
The only thing he could do for now was try to survive.
Yes, Ronan was a coward.
Maybe a brave person would have challenged the Vampires.
Or would have vowed to take revenge in the end.
But was Ronan a saint?
Heck no.
He had done some terrible things to survive, and he wasn’t a stranger to the feeling of having his life and death outside his own hands.
He wasn’t some hero or guardian.
Just a man trying to survive while being the weakest creature in the Abyss.
After all, the starting Realm of all Ghouls was always Transcendent One Star.
His was Mortal.
He was weak.
Very weak.
Shouting would get him killed, and he wasn’t obligated to get revenge for anyone.
He didn’t even know the little girl.
"Yet why am I so restless?" Ronan asked himself as he narrowed his eyes.
Soon, they arrived at the gate, where the Vampires were waiting outside beside an open portal.
The instant they saw the over two thousand humans, they smiled.
This batch of food wasn’t bad, and it would be enough to feed on for weeks while cultivating a growing food supply.
Then, one by one, the humans marched into the portal and appeared in the Abyss.
The Ghouls followed them, and lastly, the Vampires stepped through.
With that, the portal closed as space slowly healed itself, dark tendrils like stitches wrapping around the region.
A few minutes after they left...
Boom!!
A cloud of dust rose as a figure fell from the sky, creating a ditch five meters deep and more than twenty meters wide.
The figure carried a giant longsword over his shoulder, wore exquisite leather armor, and radiated the aura of a Peak Sovereign Realm expert.
It was a human male, standing over six feet tall with a giant sword nearly two meters long.
He rubbed his nose in disgust.
"Those wretched Vampires run very quickly," the man muttered as he looked at the healed space.
Around him were the destroyed town gate, the half-eaten corpses of soldiers, and a dead town.
This wasn’t the first time this had happened.
The Abyssal creatures were always like this, especially the lower-ranked Vampires.
They would sneak around and destroy the towns at the edge of the kingdom’s borders.
He was truly tired of them.
They avoided battle and ran away anytime they encountered the knights sent by the kingdom.
"Sigh... May your souls rest in peace, and may you be reincarnated into better lives," the man muttered as he prayed for the dead soldiers.
Then he walked away.
After all, it was already over.
The next thing to do was report back to the kingdom.
But just then
" cough cough ".., he heard a faint sound as he looked towards the town shocked.
" someone is alive?"..
---
Back in the Abyss...
Ronan and the rest returned to the Vampire mansion as the over two thousand humans were divided among the fourteen Vampires, each dragging their own share back to their abode along with their Ghoul horde.
Unlike the first time, when they had stood outside Levit’s home, this time they entered, leading the one hundred and forty-two humans deeper into the mansion.
Ronan had to admit, the exquisite design of the mansion was top-notch, even compared to houses from the modern world.
It was huge, had plenty of space, and apparently even had an underground basement.
The basement was dim, with next to no light, but for Ronan, a Ghoul, it was as bright as day.
And what he saw...
What he saw stunned him.
Chains hung from the walls of the room, which was over a hundred meters wide. Various human bones and dried-up corpses were scattered all around.
The more than fifteen humans still alive were barely clinging to life. Their bodies were thin and almost lifeless, having been drained nearly to death.
The newly captured humans trembled when they saw this, but what could they do?
Around the room were various pieces of equipment that humans would be strapped into. Once inside, sharp needles would pierce through their bodies and continue draining their blood until the required amount was reached. Only then would the process stop, and the humans would be removed.
As for food, the Abyss—or at least this area—lacked human food, and undead creatures didn’t eat the same things humans did.
So they fed the prisoners the corpses of their dead companions.
It was a brutal sight as Ronan followed the other Ghouls, tying the humans to the long chains hanging from the walls.
Children, adolescents, teenagers, adults...
No one was spared.
Levit watched from the back, his expression calm.
After all, he had done this so many times that he was already used to it.
Just as they were done, he gave another order as he looked at Ronan.
"You... Put that child in there.I love the taste of children’s blood," Levit said.
Ronan trembled.
What????
Ronan was stunned.
Why him, of all the Ghouls here?
Honestly, he would have had little to no reaction if it had been another Ghoul.
After all, he had convinced himself that he was weak, that he needed to stay low and obey.
But telling him to personally take the child into that thing...
To have him drained until he was almost dead...
Just after he had watched a little girl die in his hands?
This was way too much.
Ronan couldn’t help but clench his fists.
His eyes grew cold as he slowly opened his mouth.