TBETW Chapter 13

(M) Chapter 13 – Auctioned

Main Story 1, Chapter 5, Part 1

Novel Title: 獣はかくして囚われる (The Beasts are Ensnared This Way)

Author：風結子 沙野 (Fuyuko Sano)

Illustrator：小山田 あみ (Oyamada Ami)

Translator: K (@kin0monogatari)

Protagonists: 鹿倉 陣也 (Kagura Jinya -MC) & ゼロ (Zero -ML)

*Please read at freenovels.net, the original site of translation. TQ*

֍֍֍

⚠️TRIGGER WARNING: This chapter contains depictions of sexual assault and dehumanisation of people who are trafficked. Readers’ discretion is advised.

֍֍֍

Kagura was placed into a wheelchair by a staff member in a black suit and wheeled into the elevator attached to the room. 

Toono, wearing a noh mask of a demon, and Renjou, wearing a female noh mask, boarded the elevator as well, and the compartment began to descend.

The elevator walls were mirrored.

Kagura saw his own reflection: his bare body slumped forward in the wheelchair, trying to avoid the burns on his back pressing against the seat. His face was half-covered by a Zorro mask, but his agonized expression was clearly visible.

“…Is this… the auction?”  

Even speaking caused pain to radiate through his back, cold sweat dripping down his neck.

“Yeah. Tonight’s guests are hardcore enthusiasts. You’re in luck,” Toono replied. 

Renjou’s noh mask tilted in a way that seemed to smirk.

“Like an American businessman who’s into dismantling bodies, a German noble who makes human wax dolls as a hobby, and oh, an Arab king who likes to feast on human flesh.” 

Renjou leaned forward slightly, peering at Kagura’s face through the mask.

“Which one do you prefer?”

“…”

Kagura wanted to punch him, but his wrists and ankles were restrained by straps on the wheelchair. Instead, he spat at Renjou’s mask in silence. 

Renjou’s fist slammed into his abdomen, slamming his already treated back against the wheelchair’s backrest. The searing pain nearly stopped his breathing, making his body convulse uncontrollably.

Renjou turned expressionless.

“Renjou is strong, so Renjou lives. You are weak, so you die.”

The elevator doors opened, and Kagura, still in his wheelchair, was pushed out by the staff in black suits, following Toono and Renjou.

―――So, the venue is on the fourth basement floor.

It seemed designed for the easy transport of auction goods. The corridor walls were hospital-white, and the floors were covered in linoleum. 

The holding room was a spacious private chamber lined with shelves and walls covered in grotesque tools, costumes, and torture devices.

As Kagura idly stared at instruments resembling those from a dentist’s office, Renjou cheerfully explained.

“Pulling out all the teeth makes it easier to do… certain things.”

Relaxing on a sofa, Toono added casually, “If the buyer wants, the goods can be processed before delivery.”

Sitting on the operating table in the room’s center, Renjou swung his legs playfully.

“Some aren’t interested in killing. They prefer corpses from the start.”

“Oh, that necrophilic Chinese tycoon who bids often? That sounds like him,” Toono replied with a nod.

“If he wins, let Renjou be the one to kill him!” Renjou chimed in.

Just hearing their words made nausea rise in Kagura’s throat. 

The human trafficking taking place here far exceeded what Kagura had imagined. 

The room, reeking of antiseptic, already felt like the doorstep to hell. And for Kagura, the descent into hell was just beginning.

Men and women in pale green surgical gowns entered the room.

Following Toono’s instructions, they injected Kagura with a drug and laid him face-down on the operating table. The drug appeared to be a muscle relaxant. 

<Click here to read the rest of the Mature Chapter on my blog in order to adhere to freenovels.net’s rules.>

“Open the gate!” Renjou barked.

The suited guards stationed in the room scrambled to comply, manipulating a panel at the back of the room. The door slid aside, revealing a new passageway.

Renjou pushed the wheelchair forward at an incredible speed. The corridor opened into a spacious, circular room.

At its center stood a gentleman, carefully arranging a large painting—the very masterpiece that had made headlines last month after being stolen from a foreign museum.

Renjou steered the wheelchair straight toward the man and the painting.

The gentleman hastily grabbed the artwork and fled, narrowly avoiding a collision.

The wheelchair screeched to a halt in the middle of the room.

“Please wait your turn,” a staff member in a tailcoat and a gas mask said in English, approaching to offer assistance.

“We’re going first!” Renjou shouted back in Japanese, delivering a high kick that sent the staff member flying.

“Lot Z-131. Move fast, or Renjou’ll kill you.”

It wasn’t the staff Renjou was threatening. Kagura, being strangled from behind, knew that much.

Unrelenting pressure crushed his airway as Renjou looked down on him, the female noh mask twisted into a demonic sneer.

A buzzer sounded, and Kagura’s body began to rise slowly. The section of the floor he was on had been a lift platform. Renjou leaped off the platform, leaving Kagura alone as he was raised into a dimly lit space above.

The movement stopped.

“The order has changed. Lot number Z-131.”

The auctioneer’s voice continued in English, announcing the item for sale.

“A Japanese man, age 31, profession: detective.”

The spotlight suddenly flared to life, illuminating Kagura in his exposed state. Legs spread indecently, gasping for air after nearly being strangled—he was put on full display.

The humiliation was so overwhelming it sent a numbing shock through his very core. Then, all at once, he experienced an out-of-body sensation, as if observing himself and his surroundings from a detached perspective.

The buyers’ faces became strikingly clear.

A gentleman in a flamboyant striped suit. A woman with a model-like figure, adorned in a cocktail dress. Someone in Islamic attire. A fat man dripping in gold jewelry. Even a couple in luxury-branded tracksuits.

Several leaned forward with interest.

“One million.”  

“Five million.”  

“Twenty million.”  

“Forty million.”  

The bidding war began—until one man entered the room and silenced them all.

Walking leisurely, his voice calm and assured, he said: “One hundred million.”

All heads turned toward him, falling silent.

The man ascended the stage and stopped directly before Kagura.

Unlike the others, he wore no mask. He was dressed in a three-piece suit, with a brilliantly knotted ascot tie. His shoulder-length brunette hair was swept back, and his blue eyes sparkled with sharp intelligence. He appeared to be in his early forties. His features were refined yet defied classification to any particular nationality, his expression gentle yet enigmatic.

―――Li Azhar…

The casino king. The untouchable lord of the ‘Invincible Castle’. A man connected to the heart of every nation, a puppeteer of the world’s underbelly.

Kagura had seen photos of him before in documents, but standing before him now, Li Azhar exuded an incomprehensible blend of vibrancy and softness.

But why was Li Azhar buying him?

Kagura’s questioning gaze met Li Azhar’s. Without a word, Li Azhar removed his jacket and draped it over Kagura’s body.

“Take him to my room.”

Li Azhar’s command prompted the staff to leap into action. The platform began descending, and Renjou was nowhere to be seen below.

Kagura was transported to another room. The restraints, rings, and plug were removed. He was then placed in a standard wheelchair and covered entirely with a white sheet.

Thus, Kagura was escorted to Li Azhar’s room on the top floor.

֍֍֍

*Translator’s Note: Translating this chapter was difficult. It was hard to stomach what was happening. -K

Next update: 2025.11.29

֍֍֍