Chapter 68

Richard walked slowly toward the man bound to the wooden post, his gaze steady and focused as he scrutinized his captive in silence.

The thief, blinded by the cloth over his eyes, could hear the soft steps drawing closer and tensed, his ears straining to catch any clue as to what might come next. After a long moment of silence, he could no longer bear the tension and shouted, "Hey? Who's there? Another torturer, huh? Hmph, save your energy. I won't tell you anything."

Richard finally spoke, his voice flat and emotionless, "Is that so?" He paused for a moment before continuing, "There was once a woman who said the same thing to me. Then I gave her a lesson on anatomy."

"What lesson?" the thief asked, confusion and fear creeping into his voice.

"A lesson on anatomy," Richard repeated calmly, "Don't rush. You'll find out soon enough."

Before the thief could process the words, Richard drew a small knife from his belt and pressed it lightly against the thief's thigh.

"The lesson I gave to that woman was about the structure of skin and the muscles of the calf," Richard continued, his tone clinical. "That was the first class. Now, let's move on to the second class, concerning the muscles of the thigh."

The thief still didn't comprehend what was happening when Richard's knife suddenly cut down into the flesh. The blade sliced through the skin, cutting into a muscle just above the knee, pausing for a moment before Richard applied force to sever it.

"Aaah!" The thief screamed in agony.

"I just severed your tensor fasciae latae," Richard explained matter-of-factly, "This muscle helps keep your knee joint upright."

"What?!" The thief's voice trembled with a mixture of pain and confusion.

Richard didn't respond with further explanations. Instead, he swiftly moved the blade to cut another muscle.

"Now, I've severed your sartorius muscle, which helps control the bending of your knee," Richard continued.

"Goddamn, what the hell are you doing?!" The thief shouted, but Richard remained silent, his focus unwavering.

"Next, I'll cut your rectus femoris," Richard said coldly, as the blade sliced through the muscle. "It straightens the knee."

"And now, the vastus lateralis," he added, "It also helps extend the knee."

"After that, the vastus medialis," Richard continued, as the thief groaned in agony. "It too extends the knee."

"By now, all the muscles controlling the movement of your left knee are destroyed. If you don't believe me, you can try to move your leg."

The thief, trembling, tried to move his leg, but it was useless. Panic overtook him, and he cried out in terror, "What... what are you doing to me?!"

"I'm teaching you," Richard answered flatly, his tone dismissive, as if this were the most mundane task in the world. He quickly moved on to the next step. "Now, I've severed your adductor longus, which affects your thigh's ability to flex and adduct. A third of your thigh's mobility is gone."

He didn't stop. "Next, I cut your adductor brevis, taking away two-thirds of your thigh's ability to bend and pull inward."

"And now, your adductor magnus is severed, leaving almost no ability for you to bend or bring your thigh in at all. If you don't believe me, go ahead and try again."

The thief, desperate and panicked, tried to move his leg once more, but to no avail. His voice cracked as he shouted, "What… what do you want from me? Why are you doing this? Don't you want answers? You… don't you want to know who hired me?"

Richard chuckled lightly, his expression unchanging. "Why would I need answers from you? I already know everything I need to know."

"What are you talking about?" The thief was confused, his voice shaking.

Richard smirked, tilting his head slightly as he continued, "The simplest thing: Your teeth are in terrible condition, heavily worn. That means you've been eating poor food, so your living standards aren't high. Your joints are thick, and you have calluses on your hands, which means you've been doing hard physical labor—or maybe wielding a weapon. You have no dirt or grime under your nails, which suggests you don't work with soil or dust, confirming you handle weapons frequently. Your clothes are clean, likely washed in the past few days, suggesting someone has been looking after you. And…"

Richard paused for a moment, his gaze narrowing as he made his conclusion.

"From all this, I deduce that you are a mercenary or a guard of some sort. You have a family, perhaps a wife and children. You live modestly but have trained hard and fought to make yourself stronger. You've always hoped for a way to change your family's circumstances. Maybe you wanted to send your children to a better place, buy your wife a piece of jewelry, or have enough money to start a business. So, you took on a job—this assassination mission. You almost succeeded, but in the end, you were caught. For the sake of your family's safety and the money promised to you by your employer, you've refused to reveal anything. Am I right?"

The thief shuddered involuntarily, his body stiffening as Richard's words hit their mark. Silence hung in the air as the thief finally let out a defeated breath. Then, suddenly, he exploded, his voice filled with anger and frustration.

"You know all that, so what? What does it matter? You still don't know who I really am or who hired me!" His voice grew louder, desperate.

Richard, however, only smiled, his tone almost patronizing as he replied, "The truth is, I don't need to know any of that. I don't need to know who you are, who hired you, or anything else."

The thief paused, confused. "Why? What do you mean?"

Richard's smile widened as he moved closer to the thief, grabbing the cloth that covered his eyes and pulling it away. The thief flinched, his eyes squinting in the sudden light, and Richard's voice came quickly.

"Because I am the one who hath engaged thy services!" Richard said, his words sharp and decisive. "I dispatched thee to slay, and then I seized thee myself. I know all that pertains to thee now—thy identity, thy kin, all of it. I can locate them and send them to their demise at any time, and I require not thy counsel for naught. Thou shalt receive no coin, for from the very outset, I had no intent to recompense thee. This was but a ruse. Whether thou didst succeed or falter in thy task, payment was never in the cards. I had no need to expend a single silver piece to fulfill mine aims."

The thief stared in stunned silence, struggling to process Richard's words. His eyes finally adjusted to the light, and he saw a face that seemed both familiar and distant. His mind raced, and then, in a flash of realization, he shouted, "No! It wasn't you! The man who gave me the job was taller, his hair was longer, his nose was bigger… you're not him! You can't be!"

The thief's voice grew more frantic, a twisted smile appearing on his face as he laughed. "Haha! You're trying to trick me, but it won't work! You look like him, but there are too many differences. You're not the same person! You can't fool me!"

Richard's expression remained unchanged as he watched the thief's manic response, his laughter echoing in the cold dungeon.