Early morning.
Black Prison.
Heavy, feathery snow had fallen all night.
The entire prison looked like a city of snow.
This was the largest and most secure prison in the Capital, with two floors aboveground and eight underground.
Every guard was an Awakened, and everyone locked up here was a hardened criminal.
A death sentence was the bare minimum.
On the eighth underground floor of the prison,
darkness, cold, and despair were inadequate descriptions of this place.
During the routine morning inspection, the guards paused as they passed the innermost cell.
"Fuck, this guy... he's really insane."
"Well, another fucking dead one."
"He's been here three days and bitten seven cellmates to death. Fucking vicious."
The guards gathered outside the cell in curiosity and peered through the food slot.
In the dim, damp room, a young man was covered in blood, with specially made shackles on his wrists and ankles.
He sat calmly on the floor. The sole bedroll woven from dried grass was covered in blood.
And beside him,
a burly man well over two meters tall had stopped breathing.
A chunk had been bitten clean out of his neck.
It went without saying that the young man had done it.
"Well, the eighth floor has exceeded its death quota this month. Don't put anyone else in there." The old guard leading them breathed out a cloud of white vapor and rubbed his hands with a laugh. "If any more die, we won't have enough prisoners on the eighth floor."
Black Prison had a death quota every month.
Whether prisoners died in fights or were killed for resisting discipline, only so many could die each month.
"I heard this kid is the King of Spring Prefecture's sworn brother."
"No wonder he's so vicious. I saw him bathing in human