TBETW Chapter 14

Chapter 14 – New Owner

Main Story 1, Chapter 6, 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*

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From the floor-to-ceiling glass windows, one could see the world’s longest sea bridge stretching across the ocean, reaching as far as Hong Kong in the distance.  

It had been nearly a week since he was brought here under the guise of ‘protection’, though it was nothing short of confinement.  

Freed from a state of extreme tension, both his body and mind seemed utterly burned out. Kagura spent the first three days and nights nearly unconscious, feverish, and in a deep sleep.  

Thanks to quality medical care, the burns on his back had healed enough that he could now wear a bathrobe without issue.  

However, the circumstances surrounding his situation remained a mystery.  

Why had Li Azhar chosen to buy him?  

Surely, Li Azhar knew about the breach Kagura had orchestrated with Enwu—penetrating the security of Japan’s ‘Invincible Castle’.  

―――Does he intend to punish me with his own hands because nothing else will satisfy him?

Kagura’s encounter with Li Azhar had lasted only seconds during the auction.  

Since then, Li Azhar had not visited this spacious, hotel suite-like room. The staff tending to Kagura, while not masked, were perpetually expressionless, engaging only in mechanical, professional conversation.  

As his mind and body gradually recovered, an unbearable restlessness began to gnaw at him.  

“I could have stayed there,” he muttered aloud, as if to convince himself.  

“Toono might still be here, too.”  

If so, there was still a chance.  

Kagura knew Toono had reacted to him before. If he could recreate that moment, exploit another opening, then—  

The vivid memory of Toono violating him resurfaced, sending shivers down his spine and stirring nausea in his gut.  

―――The means don’t matter. I’ll do anything, sacrifice anything, to achieve my one goal. This is the kind of world I’ve entered.

Having broken free of the barriers imposed by a mere ‘Citizen’, Kagura had taken his first step outside.  

He had thought it would bring him closer to Zero. Yet he felt no closer now. Even now, he burned with the desire to touch him again—just once, with his own hands.  

“Zero…”  

The sensation was like the floor giving way beneath him, plunging him into an abyss. Kagura scratched the glass of the window with fervent desperation.  

***

That evening, after finishing dinner while gazing out at the vibrant nightscape, the staff began moving about in a flurry. Plates were cleared away, and an ornate Arab-style tea set was brought in.  

A server lifted the teapot high and poured tea into two glasses, adding copious amounts of sugar and a sprig of mint to each.  

Almost as soon as the tea was ready, a man entered the room.  

Kagura instinctively rose from his chair. But Li Azhar gestured with a calm demeanor, indicating for him to sit. He spoke in English, “Please, make yourself comfortable.”  

Left in the dark about his circumstances for so long, Kagura’s frustration and impatience had reached their limit. He wanted to grab Li Azhar and demand an explanation, but the quiet authority radiating from the casino king stopped him.  

Li Azhar seated himself across the table and sipped his tea. Kagura remained standing, his voice firm.  

“Why did you buy me?”  

“I don’t know,” Li Azhar replied.  

“You don’t know, yet you paid a fortune for me?”  

“A mere hundred million Hong Kong dollars.”  

At the auction, the currency had been unspecified, but a hundred million Hong Kong dollars amounted to roughly 1.6 billion yen. For Li Azhar, it was pocket change. Yet Kagura couldn’t stomach the thought of that money going to Toono, who would funnel it into the Eastern Alliance’s war chest.  

“…Is Toono Ryouji still here?”  

“Yes, he’s staying with his beautiful yet savage lover.”  

―――He’s still nearby.

Finally assured of this, Kagura sank into his chair.  

“I want to meet Toono alone. Without his savage lover.”  

Li Azhar’s blue eyes narrowed slightly.  

“Just as I’ve heard, you’re quite the intriguing person—breaking into my ‘Castle’, seducing men, and now making such bold requests without a shred of subtlety.”  

Li Azhar’s tone remained smooth, but Kagura felt the burns on his back sting sharply. It seemed his instincts were on high alert.  

Li Azhar shifted his gaze to the sea bridge visible in the distance.  

“Until that bridge opened a few years ago, people traveled between Hong Kong and Macau by ferry. Now, the two are practically connected, accelerating their synchronization exponentially.”  

Kagura grew irritated at Li Azhar’s avoidance of Toono’s topic.  

“Humankind advances synchronization across various dimensions through technological innovation, regardless of morality. When a singularity arrives, the world’s values themselves will face collapse.”  

“I’m talking about Toono Ryouji,” Kagura interjected.  

Li Azhar’s gaze returned to him—serene, without a hint of hostility.  

“Everything is changing at breakneck speed. What held value yesterday is precarious today. This wave has brushed against humanity before, but the one to come will be like a tsunami.”  

“And what does that have to do with anything?”  

“Toono Ryouji understands it, to some extent. Chaos will be his sustenance.”  

“So you’re giving him special treatment and helping the Eastern Alliance become a global criminal organization?”  

Clenching his fist on the table, Kagura glared as Li Azhar, in a solemn tone, responded: “A world without rules or borders is approaching. The forces resisting it will vanish, and a new Genesis will dawn.”  

Li Azhar’s blue eyes seemed to glow with an inner light.  

―――He’s a creepy man…  

The pain of burning spreads across his back.  

“Are you some kind of prophet?”  

It feels like he’s deliberately clouding the issue with vague words.  

Li Azhar gives a gentle smile as he rises from his seat.  

“I merely observe and go with the flow.”  

There’s no way someone could rise to become a casino tycoon and command a private army just by doing that.  

No matter how much he tries to conceal it, this man is a ruthless opportunist.  

Kagura Jinya stands up as well, questioning him in a sharp tone.  

“I’ll ask again: why did you buy me?”  

Li Azhar, looking down from a slightly higher vantage point, gazes back at him serenely.  

“I merely bought you as an intermediary.”  

“An intermediary? For whom?”  

“He’ll be arriving here tonight. That person is your owner.”  

With those words, Li Azhar turns on his heel and leaves the room.  

Feeling unnerved by the impenetrable demeanor of the man, Kagura picks up his glass to wash away the discomfort. He sips the tea he had yet to touch.  

The sweetness hits him like a blow to the head, making it difficult to swallow.  

***

About three hours after Li Azhar’s visit, the door, locked from the outside, opens. A man Kagura recognizes steps in.  

It’s someone unexpected, yet not entirely surprising.  

“So, it was you…”  

Still lying face down on the bed, Kagura mumbles while turning down the volume on the Cantonese program playing on the TV.  

Kiriyama Shungo furrows his brow and stands beside the bed.  

“Li Azhar informed me you were being auctioned off. I had him secure you… I was aware of your trip to Macau, but I didn’t think you’d be this foolish.”  

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Next update: 2025.11.30

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