In response to Malty's plea for mercy, Makoto looked down at her with a smile.
"You wanted me to be your dog yesterday, didn't you?"
As soon as he said this, Malty, who had been kowtowing and begging for mercy, froze completely.
Her forehead was still pressed to the ground, and her pupils, visible through the gaps in her hair, shook violently.
It was only at this moment that she finally realized.
All of her actions had been completely within Makoto's control. From stealing the equipment last night to fabricating the charges this morning, every step had been under his control.
And all along, she had thought she was the one playing him for a fool.
Malty stammered, but couldn't utter a single word.
"Since you like dogs so much, why don't you show me first."
Malty understood the meaning of these words.
Her face turned purple, but after only a second, she fell to her knees and squeezed a sound from her throat.
"Woof woof woof woof woof..."
Behind her, Aultcray watched his daughter crawl on the ground and bark like a dog, his gray-white beard trembling violently.
He knew this daughter was usually unruly and squandered the national treasury.
But he never thought she would disregard the dignity of the royal family so completely just to save her own life.
Before Aultcray could speak, a huge force kicked the back of his knee, causing him to fall to his knees in the pool of blood with a 'thud'.
"Who allowed you to stand?"
The Teddy Devil's voice pressed down from above.
At that moment, the Teddy Devil was holding in his left paw the head of the chief priest who had summoned them from the other world yesterday.
The mouth was wide open, the eyes were bulging, preserving the last expression before death.
The Teddy Devil had inserted a steel pipe, sourced from somewhere, into the priest's forehead. One end of the pipe was buried in the cranial cavity, and the other end was held in his mouth, as he sucked the brain matter from inside like sipping a drink, making a "sizzling" sound.
Aultcray's stomach churned at the sight. His gaze moved away from the steel pipe and fell on the indistinguishable pool of blood at his feet.
Remembering his disdain for this group yesterday, at this moment, he realized what an absurd mistake he had made.
On the throne, Makoto had already crossed his legs and leaned back.
"Lick."
Malty's body trembled violently. She looked at Makoto's boots, which were covered in blood and bits of flesh.
Two seconds later, she lowered her head and stuck out her tongue.
Aultcray, standing behind, closed his eyes.
"Wh-what compensation do you want?"
At this moment, Aultcray had also completely abandoned his dignity, kneeling in the pool of blood with his forehead nearly touching the ground. "As long as you name it... I will do my utmost..."
Before he could finish, he was interrupted.
"He doesn't know he was wrong."
The Rabbit Devil crouched on a pile of corpses, a cold smile on his lips. "He knows he's going to die."
"So how should we torment them?"
The Gorilla Devil sat cross-legged on a collapsed stone pillar, tilting his head as he looked at the father and daughter. "Play with them in front of the whole nation?"
Aultcray, kneeling on the ground, jerked his head up, his expression dramatically changing.
'Play? How?'
The Dolphin Devil shook his head in opposition. "Forget it. The people here are too disgusting. I don't want to play."
To be honest, having followed Makoto for so long, the Four Gay Bros were seeing people as stupid as the Melromarc royal family for the first time.
They were afraid that touching them might lower their own IQs.
Makoto looked down at Malty, who was licking his boots.
After a while, he found it a bit boring and kicked her away.
Malty's body slid several meters through the pool of blood, only stopping when she collided with a corpse. Her wine-red long hair, stained with blood and grime, clung to her face like a wet rag.
"This is a bit of a problem too."
Makoto tapped the armrest with a smile. "After all, I don't want to use the same method twice."
Having been transported to the Anime World for so long, he had encountered countless fools who needed to be dealt with.
Every time, he had to rack his brains and think of different ways to torment these idiots.
There was no helping it. There were too many fools. Even for Makoto, a Transmigrator, he had nearly exhausted all the methods he could think of.
He looked at the father and daughter trembling on the ground and truly couldn't come up with any new ideas at the moment.
"Senpai, Yu has a plan."
Yu suddenly transformed into an idea man, revealing a smile.
For some reason, even his way of speaking had changed.
Makoto looked at him with a strange expression, wondering why this guy was suddenly speaking so poetically.
But since Yu had a plan, Makoto left the matter to him.
With Makoto's permission, Yu finally transformed. He turned to face the side wall of the hall, aiming his gun at the huge mural painted with the royal crest.
Boom—!!!
He fired a single shot.
A huge hole was blasted through the stone wall, along with the mural.
The afternoon sunlight poured in through the gap, illuminating the mountain of corpses and sea of blood inside.
The scene of the palace's main hall... corpses piled like a mountain, blood flowing like a river, severed limbs scattered everywhere... was presented without any obstruction before the citizens of Melromarc.
The square had originally been crowded with onlookers.
When the wall exploded, no one made a sound.
Tens of thousands of eyes simultaneously looked toward that hellish scene.
A few seconds later, someone's vegetable basket fell to the ground.
Someone covered their mouth and began to dry heave.
Someone's legs gave way and they fell to the ground.
"Hey, you commoners of this country—"
Yu's voice came from the hole.
"There's a good show for you to watch."
Yu turned sideways and beckoned to the Four Gay Bros inside the hall.
"Let's start with this bitch."
The Teddy Devil grumbled discontentedly: "Ishigami, watch your tone. We're not your subordinates."
But he still walked over, extended his right claw, grabbed Malty's left wrist, and lifted her off the ground.
Malty was terrified, her feet kicking in the air, her body swinging left and right like a pendulum.
"What are you going to do! What are you going to do!" Her voice was so sharp it nearly pierced eardrums.
The other three members of the Four Gay Bros also stepped forward. The Rabbit Devil grabbed her right wrist, the Gorilla Devil grabbed her left ankle, and the Dolphin Devil grabbed her right ankle.
The four stood facing four different directions.
Malty was lifted into the air.
Her body was like a piece of cloth being pulled taut in the hands of the four Devils.
Malty turned her head to look at the dense crowd outside the hole and, with no other choice, grabbed onto this last lifeline and began to call for help.
"Save me! Please, save me!"
Malty's voice echoed over the square. "I'll do anything for anyone who saves me!"
To be honest, given her appearance, if she had said this under normal circumstances, quite a few simp dogs would have jumped to her service.
But at this moment, no one in the square moved. The young citizens who had once followed her with admiring looks now had their heads lowered, wishing they could bury their faces in the ground.
No one dared to be the first to stand out.
The mountain of corpses and sea of blood inside the hall was the best warning.
Yu stood by the hole, smiling as he watched all this.
"Proceed."
The four Devils pulled simultaneously.
Malty's scream at that moment drowned out all other sounds in the square.
"Rip—"
Her left arm was torn completely off from the shoulder joint. Blood sprayed from the wound, splashing onto the Rabbit Devil's white furry face.
Her right arm followed, carelessly tossed aside by the Teddy Devil.
Both legs simultaneously separated from her torso. The Gorilla and Dolphin each held an end, standing in place, clutching the still-twitching severed limbs.
Malty's body fell from the air, landing on the pile of corpses, splashing up a spray of blood.
She wasn't dead yet. Her mouth opened and closed, like a fish thrown onto land, emitting hoarse gasps.
Blood poured from the cross-sections at her shoulders and hips, dyeing the pile of corpses beneath her even redder.
Half of the citizens in the square had already collapsed to the ground.
Some were crying, some were vomiting, some were covering their children's eyes and running home.
Naofumi knelt in the corner, vomit leaking through his fingers, dripping onto the ground. It was impossible to tell if it was bile or stomach acid.
Kazuma, who had been prepared in advance, buried his head deeply in his knees.
"I remember you know them, right?"
After a while, Naofumi's voice, having somewhat recovered, drifted from the corner. "Were they... always this cruel before?"
Kazuma didn't answer, just shook his head.
He had indeed witnessed Makoto's methods.
In the real world, before he died, he had also watched videos of Makoto's battles online.
Clean and decisive, absolutely no mercy.
But tormenting them slowly like today was also a first for him.
But he remembered the crimes Malty had fabricated, the iron spears against their necks when the guards rushed in, and the disdain these court ministers had shown toward Makoto's group.
It didn't seem so incomprehensible after all.