Magic Academy Bans Harem

Chapter 157 The History of the Execution Rack
"This is the Tegehen style, the rack!"

Just as Ritas was concentrating on checking the rack, a somewhat intermittent voice of correction suddenly came from it.

"!"

Even Ritas was startled by the sound and took two steps back.

"Teg Heinz can talk while standing on the rack?!"

“.”「.”

Faced with Ritas who was obviously acting foolishly, Cecilia and the Goddess of Bath could not help but remain speechless for a while before the voice of the Goddess of Bath slowly sounded.

"It's obvious that there's a person inside, right? The youngest professor of magic in modern times."

Whether it is Ritas being silly or the bathing goddess being in a satirical situation, it is undoubtedly very rare.

"Is it the rack for those who want to be tortured?"

Ritas didn't care much and continued to stare at the rack, his expression becoming more solemn.

Before Ritas could express his admiration for the taste of the organizer of the banquet, Cecilia finally found the opportunity and began to introduce herself.

Soon after.

With Cecilia's introduction, Ritas had a brief greeting with Cecilia's friend, Liz Ambler, who was standing on the rack.

As his intelligence gradually returned, Ritas did not recognize "Liz Ambler" as the name Cecilia gave to the rack.

"I see. When you are inside, you will observe the outside world through this 'feeding hole'."

Ritas, whose interest in the rack had never diminished, began to observe it carefully again.

On the front of the rack that looked like the Iron Maiden, Ritas discovered an inconspicuous hole.

Through the small hole, Ritas vaguely saw an eye surrounded by thick dark circles on the rack. And the owner of this eye, through the small hole, also saw a close-up of a bloodshot, almost spherical eyeball.

For a moment, all we can say is that the two people on both sides of the small hole were a little nervous.

"Isn't this person standing on the rack really an iron virgin?"

The Bathing Goddess, who had observed closely together with Ritas, asked in confusion.

Her question instantly opened up Ritas's mouth.

Everything started from the Iron Maiden between 750 and 790 in the mainland calendar.

".As mentioned above, Duke Grant successfully inherited almost all of Duchess Bartlicia's estate. At the beginning of Duke Grant's tenure, in order to highlight his difference from the previous lord and to prevent the 'Iron Maiden' from being a symbol of terror in the territory, he ordered all the 'Iron Maidens' in the territory to be gathered together, their thorns removed, and displayed to the people in the territory, announcing the arrival of a new era in this rather special way."

As the dinner progressed, melodious and soothing music played in the banquet hall.

On the dance floor of the banquet hall, gentlemen and ladies invited each other to dance gracefully to the elegant music.

Only in the corner of the banquet hall, surrounded by discs, racks and a squatting girl with a subtle look on her face, Ritas was explaining the "history of torture instruments" to everyone in his unique, unhurried tone.

"As for the change of power between Duke Grant and the next Lord of the Duchy of Lange, it was quite dramatic. This part is recorded in most books about continental history. You can read them if you are interested. What's important is that in the next generation of the Duchy of Lange, there was a chancellor named 'Lido'. He was the inventor of the execution rack."

"It is difficult to verify why Prime Minister Lido brought out the iron maidens that had been abandoned for many years. There are three main theories. One is to torture political enemies, one is to teach his naughty children, and one is to torture them. In short, after the prototype of the standing rack was put into use, it soon produced amazing results."

"Although it is hard to imagine now, in real war times, the training for special infiltrators is extremely harsh and cruel. Therefore, the tolerance of specially trained personnel for pain and torture is also far beyond the range of ordinary people. This also means that even if some spies sent by hostile forces are captured, most of the time they cannot obtain useful information."

"But the rack, which only nearly fixed the person in the torture device and had nothing special about it, surprisingly easily destroyed the defenses of those who had undergone rigorous training. The darkness and loneliness, coupled with the inability to change the posture. It is said that if the person is tortured on the rack for more than three consecutive days, he will lose all physical sensation and begin to completely collapse mentally. According to records, no person could survive on the rack for more than five days."

Cecilia, who had just taken the white disc out of boredom, put it on the ground, and poked and drew on it with her fingers, was unknowingly attracted by Ritas's story.

After hearing about the unimaginable power of the rack, she couldn't help but look at the rack on the wall a few more times.

Is Liz really okay?

She's already a weird person, would she go crazy standing on the rack?

"Although the rack is very effective, its disadvantage is that it takes a long time. And most people who use torture instruments have little patience. Therefore, in order to increase efficiency, or to make a clear distinction from the 'thornless iron virgin', Prime Minister Lido added wheels on both sides of the rack. The wheels can adjust the direction of the body of the person on the rack. According to rumors, placing the head facing the ground will greatly improve the efficiency of torture. In addition, it will greatly increase the mortality rate. Therefore, the Lido rack was used as a tool for execution for a period of time."

After Ritas’s popular science explanation almost came to an end, the “girls” inside and outside the torture device, as well as inside and outside the disc, almost all made the same “Hey~” mouth shape.

The dinner in the banquet hall was still going on.

Although Ritas didn't know many people, there were many who could recognize him. Besides Ritas, Cecilia's youthful and beautiful college uniform also made some people with ulterior motives feel agitated.

However, no matter whether it was the person who came to try to invite Ritas to dance or the person who came to invite Cecilia, after they approached and heard what they were talking about, they looked at the glittering rack and chose to turn around smoothly on the spot.

"So, what is Tegehenshi?"

Liz, who was standing on the rack, pushed open the face of the rack that was designed to look like a small window and asked.

Looking at the design of the face of the rack, Ritas finally confirmed that the rack in front of him was indeed of the Teghen type.

"The Tegehen rack is a variation of the Lido rack. It first appeared about two hundred years after the birth of the Lido rack. Rumor has it that it was modified by the tyrant Tegehen of the former Godot Dynasty. The Lido rack is generally used for torture. As for torturing prisoners and executions, they are all additional effects. However, the Tegehen rack was created specifically for torturing others."

Ritas said, moving to the side of the rack and checking the wheels on both sides.
"Compared to the Lido rack, the Tegehen rack has a relatively spacious interior in addition to the open face. The prisoner can move around to a certain extent inside the rack, which reduces the prisoner's mortality rate on the one hand, but also makes the prisoner more desperate on the other. According to records, the prisoners on the Tegehen rack would eventually try to escape from the small window on their faces."

As Ritas told the story, Cecilia, the Bathing Goddess and Liz all looked at the small window that could barely accommodate half of their faces, imagining a living person trying to squeeze themselves out of the small window, and couldn't help swallowing.

"Also, in order to make the rack more mobile, the wheels originally used to adjust the rack were transformed into wheels. According to legend, the tyrant Tegehen had to fall asleep amid the wailing of others. So, in order to be able to take the rack with him when he went out, he made this modification."

“So that’s how it is.”

Liz, standing on the rack, nodded slightly.
"You are very, well-learned. I want to know, where it came from, but I can't find it."

Liz said this while tapping the rack.

And Ritas was a little concerned about this girl, why she spoke in a discontinuous manner. However, since she was already on the rack, it was fine for her to speak in any way.

Rather, as he recounted the horrific history of the rack, Liz seemed to still treat it as her "favorite thing," which made him wonder for a moment whether she was actually listening to him.

"Liz~ This is Professor Ritas."

On the other side, Cecilia reminded her friend with a slightly raised voice. On the one hand, she was making up for Liz's impolite behavior of praising him in a condescending tone, and on the other hand, she was also defending Ritas to the best of her ability as a student of Earls College.

"Don't mind." Ritas took over the conversation and said to Liz,

"For a long time in the past, this continent needed rulers to use terror to maintain its existence. Therefore, torture instruments have an unexpectedly heavy weight in the study of history. Even the rise and fall of dynasties can be observed from the development history of some torture instruments. However, these histories will not appear in books like Continental History that only record major events. And if you are interested in this aspect."

Next, Ritas began to recommend a series of books on the study of torture instruments.

In contrast to Ritas and Liz who were chatting happily, Cecilia, who was squatting by the wall and poking at a disc, looked gray overall.

"I knew it."

“Always like this”

Cecilia sighed and muttered two unconnected words in a low voice.

The goddess of the bath only hated that her round plate could not have a small window like the one on the rack. Otherwise, she would reach out and touch Cecilia, who tilted her head and looked dim.

Except for a certain corner, the Latras family banquet, which was generally showing a calm trend, was still going on.

At some point, Cecilia realized that she might as well invite Ritas to the dance floor!
Then, just as this thought came to her mind, the music in the banquet hall gradually faded and then stopped.

The social dance session is over.

"."

I really want to go home.

The two of them came to the party together and met the person they wanted to see the most. As a result, Cecilia, who was now "alone" for some reason, thought to herself.

On the other side, Professor Ritas looked embarrassed at the "inadvertent" mention of the Bathing Goddess.

"Although they are both racks, the Te-er style and the Li-er style are two hundred years apart. As antiques, their prices should be quite different, right?"

"Well, it won't be much different."

Ritas also wanted to argue.

He just didn't look carefully at first!

After his heated brain calmed down, even if he came across this rack in an antique shop or something like that, he would never buy it as a bargain.

It definitely seems a bit excessive, right?
Just as Ritas was saying seriously that the value of an antique is not reflected in its year or price, and that more attention should be paid to the carrier behind it.

Suddenly, a voice rang out.

“The price difference is about six times!”

As these words came out, before Ritas and the others could find the direction where the words came from, they saw the wall around them swaying like a piece of canvas.

Blah blah blah
After something that looked like a wall but was actually a wall cloth fell down, a young woman who had been hiding behind the wall cloth and listening to the conversation between several people appeared.

"Miss Olihar?"

Amidst everyone's surprised gazes, Cecilia was the first to say the young woman's name.

After a while.

Ritas looked at one of the "protagonists" of this family dinner, Olihal Latras, and didn't know what to say.

He recognized Olihar, the "flying squirrel" who practiced flying skills every day in Lily of the Valley Town.

On this day, Olihar was wearing a clean white tights, with the wall cloth that had previously hidden her rolled up on her arm, and greeted Cecilia enthusiastically.

Those who know know that this is a matter of fate that started with a few girls who were attracted to each other in Lily of the Valley Town. Those who don't know will start to wonder what's going on at this Latras family banquet venue.

Not only was there a torture rack placed prominently in the corner of the venue, but a layer of the wall suddenly "fell off".

"Miss Olihar, is it okay for you to come to the banquet hall?"

Compared to Olihar, Cecilia was actually more worried about whether there were any problems on her side. After all, their corner had become the focus of the banquet hall.

I looked around me and saw a disc, a rack, a professor (excluding the professor), and a white tights.

For a moment, Cecilia even wondered if she had a physical condition that attracted strange things.

"No problem, I put a 'clone' in the preparation room, no one else will notice it!"

Olihar said with a thumbs up.

"Oh, the atmosphere in there is really too bad. Staying in there, I feel like I have forgotten how to breathe."

A preparation room where even the white tights can’t breathe?

Instead, Ritas became curious about what the scene would be like when the sisters of Latras got together.

Since the banquet started, Latras' sisters have not appeared at the banquet venue. So, this may be part of the process of the family banquet.

Then what about this Latras who claimed to have used his "clone" to conceal the truth?
He should be a pretty bad guy.

Just when Ritas was thinking about how to leave quietly and not get involved with Olihar, Olihar came over on his own initiative.
"I guess you are the famous Professor Ritas Elson. Long time no see! I even prepared some gifts for the meeting, but unfortunately..."

What the hell is meet-up merchandise? Is there such a word?

"Yes, yes, if I remember correctly, Professor Elson and..."

Olihar looked around and found Miriam, who was surrounded by young ladies.

"Mr. Miriam, are they all members of the Yewwood class?"

Having said that, facing Ritas who remained silent and only complained in his heart, Olihar took a few steps closer.

Ritas discovered that under Olihar's rather funny outfit, he had a pair of exceptionally deep blue pupils.

"Isn't the atmosphere in Yew Fir Wood a bad one? Otherwise, why would you rather offer gifts to others than stand behind Sylvie?"

(End of this chapter)