I Don’t Want to Die as a Mob in My Second Life! ～A Story Where I Kept Training from Inside the Womb and Ended Up Being Mistaken for a Monster～ - Chapter 52: The Darkness Descends

Chapter 52: The Darkness Descends

—For Riru Shiranui, this reality felt like a punishment.

“Hey. Number 13. You’re up.”

“…yes.”

Backstage at the dimly lit auction hall, Riru was pulled forward by the chain around her neck as a staff member called out to her.

“Move it. You ungrateful brat who disgraced Lord Ouma!”

“…”

She silently walked as the insults rained down on her. The light grew closer with each step.

And as the surroundings became brighter, revealing her own appearance, Riru let out a bitter laugh.

“so… disgusting…”

She was twelve years old, but due to the twisted conditions of her artificial birth, her body had stopped developing around the age of five. Her ribs were visibly sticking out.

They gave her nothing but a tattered, see-through camisole to wear—almost like they wanted to parade her around in shame.

And then there was the collar, so tight it nearly choked her, with a chain dangling from it.

“ahaha… I’m… even lower than livestock…”

“Shut up!”

The staff member struck her.

The shock came first—then the heat and sting bloomed across her cheek.

“Don’t speak, you beast. You spat on Lord Ouma’s mercy. Just being alive is a crime for someone like you!”

His eyes burned with righteous fury—completely convinced that he was in the right.

“……”

Riru said nothing in response.

Because deep down, she believed… if she were in their shoes, she probably would’ve acted the same way.

“Lord Ouma is the hope of postwar Japan. Thanks to him standing guard against outside threats and leading this nation, we’ve managed to avoid being swallowed by the mighty Libertaria Empire. And you—you dared to disgrace him…!”

“…I know. I’m trash… I shouldn’t be alive…”

“…Tch. Then shut up and take your punishment.”

The staff member said nothing more after that.

Silently, he led her toward the shining stage of the auction hall.

And then—

“Ladies and gentlemen~! What we have here, brought to you by the Japan Slave Association, is today’s crown jewel! The infamous criminal who dared defile our beloved national hero—introducing: ‘Criminal Slave Riru’~!”

A girl too unnaturally beautiful to seem real shouted with exaggerated flair.

And in that very moment—

Riru realized something.

That staff member… had actually been one of the kinder ones.

“DIIIIIEEEEEEEEEE YOU PIECE OF GARBAGEEEEEEEEE!!!”

“YOU SCUM! YOU FILTH! YOU DAMNED CRIMINAL!!”

“Why are you even still alive!? JUST CURL UP AND DIE ALREADY!!”

It was an eruption of pure hatred.

Thousands of screams and insults shook the air around her.

“—!!?”

“Drop dead!” “Die already!”

A storm of screaming voices rained down on Riru.

In the seats before her, rows upon rows of people packed the venue—Reisoushi, men in black suits, filthy-rich civilians. At a glance, easily over a thousand.

Every single one of them wore the same expression—like demons thirsting for blood.

“You dared disgrace our hero! I’ll kill you, you little brat!”

A metal can was hurled from the crowd. It struck Riru on the head with a dull clunk.

—And that was the trigger.

In the very next instant, the rage exploded.

A flood of trash and objects flew toward her, blotting out her vision. The beating began—nonstop and merciless.

Bottles, cans, wrappers, whatever they could grab—slammed into her from all sides. She was battered in seconds.

The never-ending impacts. The fury behind them.

The pure, unfiltered rage of “righteous justice” rained down like gunfire, turning into a full-on lynching.

“guh… ahh…!”

“Ohhh dear guests, please stop that, I beg youuu~! Oh, dear guests, ahh~!”

Riru groaned and collapsed, bleeding.

No one tried to stop the brutality.

Even the girl emceeing the event was only going through the motions—her voice barely trying.

She knew this was going to happen.

“Die and atone already, you worthless trash!”

And clearly, so did the crowd.

Someone had brought a rock.

It was thrown with spiritual power.

And when it struck Riru’s head—

A burst of blood painted the air.

“gah—!?”

Letting out a final cry, Riru collapsed onto the floor.

Blood gushed from her head in thick streams.

Her skull might’ve been fractured—but honestly, it didn’t matter anymore.

“ha, haha… riru can finally… die…”

The pain… actually felt like mercy.

…Why had she lost control so badly over something so stupid?

…“Kanata Soranaki is getting more attention from Father than we are.”

…Was that all it took to make her snap and want to kill?

Of course it was.

“because… riru is… a demi-human…”

—It was something like a curse she’d been born with.

Demi-humans are humans with Conceptual Spirit blood running through them.

In other words, they carry an uncontrollable instinct—an urge to lose themselves just to feel full.

That’s why she couldn’t blame those who hated her.

Because she truly was… trash.

“Oooh~! What a surprise! Looks like she’s on the verge of death! But—no worries! She’s a demi-human! She won’t die that easily! And guess what? She’s got [Werewolf] blood! Just give her a little moonlight and she’ll be good as new~! No matter—what kind of injury—you give her, okay~?”

The atmosphere in the hall twisted—growing hotter, darker.

The crowd was consumed by obsession, all at once.

They were already fantasizing what they’d do to the girl before them—all under the banner of “justice.”

Riru’s sharp senses picked up the stench of it.

Thousands of twisted, beast-like desires flooded her nose.

“hii—haah…!”

She thought she was ready for this.

She thought she’d accepted it.

She was a fool, a criminal. She deserved whatever punishment came her way—no matter how cruel or degrading.

And yet—

“I’m gonna break you… rip you apart…”

The looks thrown at her weren’t imagined horrors.

They were real. Far more raw and vicious than anything she’d pictured.

“Now then~ the tension in the room is electric! I’m getting a little excited too~! Let’s move right into the auction, shall we? Starting price—thirty million yen! A strong opening bid~!”

Three times the going rate for a typical slave.

But the crowd didn’t flinch—they immediately started shouting over one another to raise it.

“Forty million!” “Fifty million!”

The numbers skyrocketed in seconds.

Each voice carried the same burning obsession: I will be the one to break her.

“haah… haaaaaah…!”

What was going to happen to her?

She thought she was prepared.

But now, little Riru was finally beginning to understand—

Just how terrifying this reality truly was.

The bids reached the hundred million mark.

And the hunger in those gazes… only grew sharper.

“no… s-stop…”

She almost whispered the words “help me”—but then she caught herself.

There was no one left to help her.

“…There’s no one… Not a single person…”

Her brother, Rouga, had been thrown into the death row unit.

Butler Tanaka was drowning in debt.

And her father, Ouma, had already condemned her.

That was the full extent of Riru’s relationships.

Her entire world—cut off and closed in on itself.

“hah… hahhh…”

She was completely, utterly alone.

And in that moment—true despair swallowed her whole.

She had never made a single friend. She never even tried to know anyone.

She had pushed everyone away.

And now, she was left to face the consequences.

And then—

“—Five hundred million! We’ve got a five-hundred-million-yen bid from the Houjou family!! If there are no other offers, this will be the final sale!!”

Riru’s fate had finally been sealed.

The Houjou family… among the most extreme Ouma loyalists.

A long-standing house in Japan, and one of the loudest supporters of Ouma’s ideology.

When she looked over, the female head of the Houjou family was glaring at her with overwhelming hatred.

“uh… uuuh…”

In a puddle of her own blood, she sobbed alone.

Pointlessly. Pathetically.

Surrounded by the gaze of a thousand hungry eyes.

“Any more bids!? No? No one else!? Then five hundred million, so—”

And just as her fate was about to be finalized, Riru opened her mouth through her tears.

She knew she had no allies.

She knew no one would listen.

And still, she spoke—just one word.

“help…”

She barely whispered the words—and in that exact moment—

“I heard you.”

The doors to the auction hall exploded.

BWOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOM!!!

A monstrous roar echoed through the hall as a black-and-silver motorcycle burst through the smoke and rubble.

“W-What the hell!?”

The host shrieked in panic as the bike, trailing a streak of brilliant light, tore down the aisle between the seats.

It skidded to a stop right in front of Riru, performing a perfect spin turn.

It parked itself as if to shield her—blocking the eyes of the righteous mob.

For the first time, the darkness wrapped gently around Riru… like it was protecting her.

“You okay, Riru?”

“ah…!”

The motorcycle dissolved into particles of spirit light.

And from those lights, the rider stepped down—causing Riru’s eyes to widen.

“kanata… soranaki!?”

“Yeah.”

—The white-haired demon with crimson-gold heterochromatic eyes.

The boy who had turned her fate upside down… now stood before her.

“I’ll pay a billion. This girl belongs to Kanata Soranaki now.”

━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━

[Tips]

Japan Slave Association:

A powerful organization that has handled all slave regulation and sales in Japan since the Edo period.

The current chairwoman is Special-Class Reisoushi, Miria Kinoshita—the same woman who acted as the auction host.

Her favorite food is soybean miso.

Its origins trace back to the Yoshiwara Pleasure District, a state-run brothel system established by the unifier of Japan, Toyotomi Hideyoshi.

At the time, Hideyoshi was struggling with the growing slave trade led by Western Christian groups.

One after another, impoverished Japanese were being sold overseas. To the ever-greedy Hideyoshi, it felt like foreigners were devouring Japan’s most precious resource—its people.

Crackdowns weren’t working. So, in a wild twist of logic, he came up with a solution: Outbid the foreigners.

He started buying back Japanese slaves at inflated prices—so much so that the national treasury took a huge hit.

Yoshiwara became the base of this operation.

Eventually, this reckless plan contributed to his downfall, and the Tokugawa clan took control of the nation.

Still, Hideyoshi’s efforts to protect his people were recognized, and he was spared execution.

His family name was stripped, and he was demoted to the name Kinoshita.

But even after all that, his legacy lived on.

Driven by the dream of one day reclaiming their power, the Kinoshita family established what is now the Japan Slave Association.

Today, it remains the only legal way to obtain slaves.

Any slave acquired outside this system is labeled an illegal slave—a criminal offense with severe penalties.

Note: Even within the slave system, there are ranks and classifications.

While slaves lose all legal status as citizens—including their names—they are, in a sense, treated like animals with regulated rights.

Some are granted right to live and dignity protection, meaning they may be shielded from excessive abuse in certain cases.

Debt Slaves–

Individuals who, unable to pay off their loans, sell themselves to the Association in exchange for money.

They are guaranteed both the right to live and the right to dignity.

Buyers are strictly forbidden from harming them without cause, and any abuse is considered a violation.

Criminal Slaves–

Those who have committed serious crimes, though not severe enough to warrant a death sentence.

Only the right to live is guaranteed.

For the next three years, their survival must be routinely confirmed.

If they die by anything other than natural causes (illness, accidents, or aging), the buyer is held responsible.

However, as long as they’re alive, what happens to them isn’t questioned.

Death Sentence Slaves–

Individuals deemed deserving of punishment equivalent to death.

They are stripped of even the right to live, and are often used in brutal environments such as live experiments or deployed in the Yatagarasu Unit, which has an 80% annual casualty rate.

━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━

↓ Feel free to hit that Follow & ☆ Rating!

And if you’ve got any thoughts or “Wouldn’t it be cool if this happened?” kind of ideas, we’d love to hear them anytime!