"What did you do!?" The guards once again mmed him on the wall, causing Rhys to just slightly let out a small but very short chuckle before shaking his head. The sound of the nket swinging Howard''s neck, apanying his silentughter.


    "I just asked him to clean the cell, Sir," Rhys then let out a sigh as he looked at the floor, only to see that it was stillpletely dirty, "I guess… he gave up on that."


    "You think this is funny!? You—"


    "I do," Rhys did not even let the guard finish his words, "I know that''s a rhetorical question, but I do think this is funny."


    "You did this to him!"


    "I—"


    "Nope!"


    And before Rhys could even say anything, a prisoner from the cell directly opposite of Rhys''s cell yelled.


    "We saw everything from here, Dwight hung himself like a motherfucker because the fish dogged on himst night."


    "Saw that too!"


    "...Tch," the guard then immediately let go of Rhys after giving him one final m on the wall, "Let''s just go clean this up."


    And without saying another word to him, the guards grabbed and carried Howard''s body out of the cell. They did, however, leave Rhys''s cell open — and before Rhys could wonder why, the sound of a horn reverberated through the entire prison.


    "Breakfast, boys!"


    The guard who mmed Rhys on the wall then started banging on the walls of the prison as all the gates unlocked and the prisoners got out of their cells.


    "Hm…" Rhys, of course, also stepped out of his cell to finally get a better view of the prison now that all the lights were turned on — and true enough, it just looked like a normal prison; nothing special at all.


    "Fuck you, guard!"


    Rhys, however, soon found out the reason why the security seemedx. One of the inmates suddenly rushed toward the guard who mmed Rhys earlier… only for his head to be blown off from the rest of his body.


    It wasn''t just a normal explosion either, as steam was stilling out of the corpse''s neck.


    "...It''s warm," Rhys also touched the blood of the inmate that showered over him. Unfortunately for Rhys, the inmate''s neck exploded right in front of him — and he could feel the temperature of the blood almost boiling,


    "...I need to take a shower, Sir."


    "Tch…" The guard could not help but once again click his tongue as he saw Rhys approaching him covered in blood, "...Shower''s not until 12. It''s breakfast time."


    "But I''m covered in blood."


    "How is that my problem!? Get a move on, you''re holding up the line!"


    And so, Rhys did not really have a choice but to just follow the crowd; his orange uniform, now brown. Suffice it to say, everyone in the canteen was looking at him…


    …no. Not exactly.


    They were looking at something behind him.


    Rhys turned around to look as to what it was, but before he could even turn his head, he instinctively leaped forward; tumbling and somersaulting in the air and not stopping even as he vaulted over several tables. How could he stop… when the floor and the tables he moved across all suddenly parted into pieces?


    As soon as Rhys no longer sensed imminent danger, he quickly turned to look at where he was previously standing, only to see an old woman; probably in her 60s, staring him straight in the eyes—no. She was probably even older, but her glowing violet hair that almost reached her knees made her look somewhat youthful.


    "Hm…?" The woman smiled; her wrinkles folding on her face as she did so — even with her age, however, it was obvious that she was quite beautiful when she was younger. There was a certain ent in her voice, however, thick… strong,


    "...This should be interesting, hm?" Her ''S'' sounded more like ''Z'', "When I heard someone was looking for me, never in my life would I have thought that it would be a dregger. Just what is going on out there on the outside, hm?"


    The disgust as she said the word ''dregger'' was palpable and very clear, but even more so was the expression on her face as she looked at Rhys from head to toe.


    "...Talia Talcott," Rhys whispered.


    "Hm…? This dregger knows who I am?" The old woman, Talia, could not help but twitch her eye as she heard Rhys calling her by name, "But zhen again, of course, you would."


    A smirk—no, a malicious smile very slowly crawled on Talia''s face as she started making her way to Rhys. And as she did so, gashes and thin crevices started to form on the floor where she walked; the other inmates who were near her, quickly ran away and making sure they weren''t on her path.


    Rhys turned to look at the guards in the cafeteria, only to see them walking out of the canteen and locking everyone else there; the fear in their eyes, almost as clear as the disgust in Talia''s eyes. And now that Rhys was looking around the cafeteria, he was finally noticing that there were already several old fissures and cuts around everywhere — most probably Talia''s doing as well.


    "Now, pray tell yourst words, inzect," Talia waved her hand to the side, creating arge crack on the floor just a foot in front of Rhys, "I will humor you and listen to that filthy mouth of yours…


    …why were you asking for me?"


    Why indeed? Of course, Rhys could just say that he wanted to conquer her and fill the 5 empty Hearts that were floating above her head…


    …as she was one of the strongest Nobles in the world — and the only reason why she was not listed in the top 15 Strongest Explorers is because she wasn''t an Explorer, no. Talia Talcott… was an Amerkan general during the war almost a hundred years ago, except she was actually a spy nted by the enemy, extending their cause and creating a concentration camp right on Amerkan grounds…


    …and is responsible for ughtering millions of Lowborns.