Chapter 177 Life or Death Decision

Almost half an hour passed since Hermit went to the restroom. Suzuka's suspicion grew, and so did the worry that gnawed at her.

"What is that dim-witted goblin up to? It's been an eternity since we heard a peep from him. Ugh, I can't believe I have to check on him pooping," she grumbled, her impatience evident in her voice.

Lisanna suggested, "I think you should check, he might have fallen into the toilet and drowned, or worse, he's feasting on his own feces. You know how he likes to indulge in such repulsive habits."

Reluctantly, Suzuka approached the restroom door, her mind filled with disgust. She knocked, her voice laced with concern, "Hermit! Is everything okay in there? I really don't want to walk in and be assaulted by your disgusting stench. Just say you're okay if everything's fine!"

But instead of a response, an eerie silence hung in the air, sending shivers down Suzuka's spine. Something was definitely amiss, and she could feel her anxiety mounting with every passing second by the tough of witnessing a goblin pooping.

Meanwhile, unknown to her, David seized the opportunity presented by the knocking sound on the door and quietly slipped away through the nearest window, leaving Hermit hanging in the most nightmarish plight.

"It's your lucky day goblin, you get to keep your straw for another day." He whispered while escaping through the open window.

 The goblin dangled in the middle of the toilet stall door frame, his body suspended in mid-air, grotesquely wrapped with a rope around his ears, bound tightly in cruel knots.

Hermit's once lively face was now a grotesque mosaic of horror. Blood oozed from numerous gashes on his face, the result of the brutal beating he endured. His ears, once a source of pride, were now deeply cut and mutilated, the tight rope threatening to tear them apart. The pain was beyond comprehension, and Hermit's small frame trembled uncontrollably with each jolt of agony.

His face had become a nightmarish canvas of swollen, bruised parts, each contusion a testament to the sadistic cruelty he had faced. Bruises blossomed like grotesque flowers across his cheeks, and his eyes were swollen shut, depriving him of even a glimpse of the world around him.

Hermit's belly churned and bubbled relentlessly, a ghoulish symphony of discomfort and pain. The twisting and turning of his insides added an extra layer of torment to the already nightmarish ordeal he was enduring. Hermit could not clench his buttcheeks any longer. He was hanging, slowly spinning in circles as his feces dripped on the ground with a disgusting splashing sound.

Hermit finally relaxed his buttcheek muscles, and he erupted with thunderous farting and pooping, accompanied by bloody feces shooting from his backside. His explosive diarrhea burst forth from his raptured guts, relieving the tension and reducing bloating. The force of the eruption sent the goblin whirling like a spinning top, still hanging by the rope, spraying his bloody manure all over the restroom.

With a self-loathsome cackle of despair, he brooded, "Look at me, spinning like a demented goblin after eating a dizzy mushroom! Round and round Hermit go, where it stops, nobody knows! Finally, I can let go. Oh, how my feces splatter like gruesome art on the ground below! Such a masterpiece of misery!" His bloody tears rolled down his cheeks as he self-loathed. 

After his escape through the window, David swiftly circled around the guild building and entered the guild once again through the main doors. With a nonchalant demeanor, he strolled into the guild hall, pretending as if nothing out of the ordinary had occurred.

He approached Lisanna and couldn't help but flash her a sly grin, clearly up to his usual creepy antics.

David eagerly pestered Lisanna about giving him a new quest.

"H-hey, Lisanna! Got any jobs for me today? I'm itching for some action!" he clamored, faking charisma, though looking only creepy.

Lisanna, who was well-acquainted with David's nature, couldn't help but roll her eyes at his antics. She knew him all too well, she sighed, trying to keep a stern expression as she replied, "David, you never learn, do you? I swear, I will punch you one of these days. I told you I don't have any quest at the moment for someone at your rank. Now get lost."

With a creepy wink, David persisted, "Come on, Lisanna! You know you can send me on a higher-ranking quest! I promise I won't cause too much trouble this time... maybe."

As Suzuka entered the restroom, a scene of sheer horror awaited her. The air was thick with the stench of filth and despair, and in the dim light, she saw Hermit's defiled, limp body quivering like a broken doll, hanging grotesquely in the middle of a stall. His tiny form was bound by a thin rope, which cruelly constricted around his fragile ears, he was an unrecognizable, mangled pitiful figure.

The restroom was a chaotic mess, with objects scattered all over the floor, evidence of the heinous acts that had taken place. The stall walls were stained with bloody feces, a haunting reminder of the pain and suffering that had unfolded within those very walls.

With a playful smirk on her lips, she mockingly addressed the hanged goblin, as if nothing out of the ordinary had occurred.

"Hello there, Mr. Goblin," she said with a feigned air of nonchalance, her voice laced with irony, "I am looking for my errand boy, maybe you have seen him? His name is Hermit. He should be somewhere around here. Not too tall, not too short, you know... regular goblin."

Suzuka approached Hermit as she listened intently to his response. Hermit, with the last dregs of his strength, mustered a feeble attempt to speak, but his words came out in a blood-gurgling mumble, each syllable a laborious struggle.

"M-Mhastehr... I-I'mhg... grhh... I'm ghehemith... ghrahg... Hermight I."

Suzuka surveyed the chaotic scene, taking in the mess around her, but her attention quickly turned to the pitiful state of the goblin before her. Hermit hung in the air, his frail body contorted in pain, and she could see the telltale signs of his critical condition. His shallow breaths and weak movements indicated that he was on the brink of collapse, and without immediate intervention, he might not survive much longer.

"Well, isn't this just a delightful mess? It looks like little Hermit has gotten himself into quite a pickle. How unfortunate. All you had to do was walk into the toilet and poop, but no! You just had to get yourself into a mess."

Suzuka stood beside him and gently inspected his injuries. Hermit's torn ears were still tied with the thin rope. His body trembled, and his skin seemed to have lost its natural luster, betraying the toll of suffering he had endured.

 "Ugh, you're a mess, Hermit. Can't believe you got yourself into this crisis. Torn ears, rope burns, beaten up and swollen, tied up like a ragdoll... I've seen better-looking trash than you right now."

Hermit let out a weak whimper, his pain evident in every trembling breath.

 "M-Master Helen, please... I-I can't take it... the pain... It's too much," he managed to stutter.

She realized that the goblin would not recover on his own. He needed immediate medical attention, and she had to act quickly to save him from an untimely demise. Nearby, she spotted a trash bin, and her eyes caught sight of a discarded empty potion vial. An idea struck her, and she swiftly picked up the vial.

"Great, just great. Now, I have to save this pathetic goblin yet again."

Taking out her knife, Suzuka made a deep cut on her hand. Her half-monster blood flowed into the empty vial. Her blood had potent healing properties, and she knew it would work wonders for the ailing goblin.

Then Suzuka took charge of tending to Hermit's mangled body. Her skilled hands moved with precision and finesse as she guided her knife. With each incision she made, the swollen parts of his face seemed to release a gush of blood, akin to deflating balloons. His cheeks, brows, eyelids, and lips, once grotesquely ballooned, now began to take on the semblance of a goblin face.

The room was filled with an odd symphony of squeaks and squelches as the blood and fluids escaped from Hermit's distended features. It was as if his face was undergoing a miraculous transformation.

She then cut down the rope and Hermit fell to the ground. As the rope was finally severed, releasing its cruel grip on Hermit's ears, the goblin splatted to the ground like a lifeless sack filled with tender meat and fragile bones. His body crashed onto the floor with a sickening thud, his limbs splaying out like a grotesque wet towel. His face, once full of life and expression, now dangled like a tattered rag, his features marred by the relentless abuse he had endured.

But the most devastating sight was his once magnificent ears, reduced to mere shreds of their former glory. The ropes had sliced through them like a ruthless blade, leaving behind a ghastly mess of gory flesh, resembling a pitiful sight of someone's nightmarish experiment gone awry. Cuts and gashes adorned his ears as if they had been thrust into a raging blender, pulverized into unrecognizable pieces.

Hermit's once majestic ears, the envy of goblin kind, now lay in a twisted mess of torn flesh and crushed cartilage. His entire face was a canvas of agony, streaked with crimson tears that flowed like rivers of despair. The goblin's body trembled with pain, but he fought to pry open his still mangled eyes, determined to bear witness to the devastation that had befallen him.

As he gazed upon his mutilated ears, his heart sank, and a sorrowful whimper escaped his lips.

"Oooh... Oooh... Nooo... not again," he whimpered, his voice trembling with pain and despair.

"My... my ears... myh beautihgful ears... just when I recover them... They were... so... so lovhely... Now... they're... ruined... ruined again..." Each word was choked out through sobs, his broken voice a symphony of sorrow and loss.

His scrawny hands, once dexterous and delicate, were now shattered and broken, but with indomitable will, he forced them to drag across the unforgiving ground. Their journey led them to his shattered ears, which he clutched to his chest as if trying to shield what was left of his precious adornments from any further harm.

"Why... why me...?" he sobbed his voice barely a whisper in the vastness of his suffering.

"I-I... was just... just trying to be... be happy... But... but he took it... he took it all away... he took them from me again. Both of them... both of my treasures gone."

In a heart-wrenching display of loss and agony, Hermit clutched his wrecked ears to his chest, his body convulsing with anguished whimpers. It was as if he had lost the most precious thing in the world, a piece of himself that could never be replaced.

"N-No! My magnificent ears!" Hermit whimpered, his voice barely a whisper, choked with grief and pain. 

"T-They was... so beautiful... once... M-Master Helen... Why...?" he stammered, his voice breaking with each word.

"Why did he... hurt me so...? I... I tried to be strong... I really did... Hermit... tired of endless suffering... tired of it all."

His broken spirit seemed to echo through the air, and the world around him shrank into a dark abyss of pain and sorrow. Each whimper that escaped his cracked lips carried the weight of a thousand tragedies.

Suzuka picked up Hermit's bruised and broken body, delicately placing him on the table near the sink. 

As she leaned in, her voice a calming whisper, "Hermit, if you are tired of being tormented every day, I can just leave you here, and your suffering will soon be over. Nobody will blame you if you choose to finally end your suffering."

Suzuka's voice softened, a touch of compassion seeping through the cold facade.

"But if there is still some fight left in you," she continued after a short pause, "even the slightest spark of strength to rise up, I can heal you. It is your choice to make, I will grant you at least that."

Hermit's heart pounded in his chest, torn between the allure of an end to his torment and the possibility of healing. The words lingered in the air, like a haunting melody that held the key to his very existence.