The cigarette butt seared against his palm, hissing and smoking. Just now, Siffrin had used all her strength and still failed to leave a mark on Ash's Soul Body, but now Death Frenzy casually burned him badly enough that he pressed his lips tight and trembled.
"Does it hurt?" "No!"
"Then I'll burn you for another five minutes."
"Hey, hey—" Ash pulled his hand back and rubbed it, saying in pained frustration, "That should be enough, right?"
"Veela and a vampire together are only worth five minutes in your heart?" Death Frenzy tossed away the cigarette butt and sneered. "So they really are just toys you use to pass the time and relieve your loneliness, huh?"
Ash stiffened. After struggling with himself for a moment, he held out both hands as if marching to his death. "Both hands. Add another five minutes!" "Only five minutes?"
"Then... ten minutes?"
Death Frenzy flicked Ash's forehead with a finger, knocked a cigarette out of the pack, and said coldly, "What do you take me for, a priest who redeems the world? If you want to atone, go find Sonia later and accept your punishment properly. I just plain don't like the look of you and want to torture you, that's all."
Ash hurriedly lit her cigarette for her, and the tobacco crackled distinctly. He had always suspected the cigarettes Death Frenzy smoked might be some kind of treasure; otherwise, there was no explaining how a cigarette could burn through a Soul Body and roast the soul. Every time, Ash used all sorts of Healing Miracles to try to ease the pain, but the more he resisted, the deeper the pain became, until in the end he could only obediently accept his punishment.
"Every strand of tobacco is woven from the souls of ten