“Are you sure you’re alright?” The bloody squirrel holding my torn limbs was looking at me with a face filled with deep concern. For someone who definitely didn’t, but most likely did, murder her husband, she’s an awfully caring person, huh? “It didn’t hurt?”

“It hurt like heck!” Seriously, just because my limbs can regrow doesn’t mean it doesn’t hurt when they’re taken off! Mm, but now that my arms are free from those stupid restraining ropes, I can use mini-DalDal over here to … cut off my legs! Fuck! Why didn’t I eat some painkillers first!? I think I was in too much of a hurry to escape from these ropes…. Now all that’s left are these ropes wrapped around my neck. Everyone’s staring. Do I cut my head off? No, right? There’s no way I’m going to cut my head off. Even if my head’s cut off, I can still reattach it with the Secret Phoenix Rebirth Technique, but I’ve never tried it before…. I’ll try to untie the rope first.

“You won’t be able to take those off with your hands,” the gray squirrel with the scars said. “They’re personally reinforced by the supervisor’s spiritual energy. I don’t know what kind of miracle treasure you’ve taken to be able to regrow your limbs, but even that should have a limit, right?”

Miracle treasure to regrow my limbs? “What do you mean miracle treasure? Anyone can regrow their limbs, right? It’s just a matter of how fast or how slow it happens.” Right, even human arms and legs grow back. Mine only grow back a bit faster than theirs because of the squirrel blood running through my body. If people can’t regrow their limbs, that means I’ve horrendously maimed a lot of people in the Immortal Continent, and since I’m a good person, I couldn’t have done that. “Right, if I cut off your limbs, will they regrow?”

The gray squirrel stared at me. Then, he pointed at his face. “If my limbs could regrow, do you think I’d still have scars? There aren’t many races in the world that can regenerate without external help, but with certain techniques and arduous training, anyone can develop the ability. However, those techniques aren’t taught easily.”

Huh? I thought anyone who was strong enough could regrow their limbs. My limbs could regrow way before I even became a divine warrior! Am I … special? I mean, I already know I’m special, but am I actually really special!? There was that time when I was little and helping the noble’s daughter become a knight while being a slave where my toe was accidentally chopped off and grew back the next day. Ah? Why am I only remembering that now? Hmm. Must be the air. Anyway, how am I going to remove this rope from my neck? Is removing my head the only way…? If only I hadn’t killed Durandal earlier. Actually, no, that wouldn’t matter. Sir Pot and Puppers can’t come out; I don’t think Durandal would be able to either.

“Do you want me to bite your head off?” the bloody squirrel asked, blinking at me with innocent, round eyes. “I don’t know if I can make it painless, but I can make it fast.”

“No, that’s okay.” Right, it’ll be messy if she bites my head off. And what if she accidentally swallows it? There’ll be nothing to reconnect to my body, and if by chance I can regenerate from just my head, won’t my body regrow inside her stomach? But if I can’t untie this rope, then I can’t escape from this prison. Should I just grit my teeth, eat a crapload of painkillers, and go for it? No matter how I see it, I’m not brave enough to do it! This rope is stopping me from moving my qi around. What do I have in my interspatial ring that can help me out in this situation? …And I can’t open my ring either. What about a head-shrinking technique? If I can learn one of those, …I won’t be able to use it anyway because of this rope. Am I doomed? And why’s everyone still staring at me!?

“You can do it,” a small voice said from a nearby cell. “I believe you can escape.”

What was that?

“Yeah, get that rope off your neck. You can do it!”

…Um. I know I can, but I don’t want to if I don’t have to.

‘’Cut your head off!”

“Hey! Don’t tell a lady to cut her head off!” the bloody squirrel said, shouting at the cage across from us. “That’s very rude!”

That’s right! That’s not something people want to hear!

“Ah, sorry,” the previous squirrel said and blinked. A moment later, he shouted, “Cut your body off! I believe you can do it!”

…I’m not sure if that’s any better. It does sound a little less scary. I might tell Claw to do that from now on. Instead of saying, “Off with their heads,” I’ll just tell him, “Off with their bodies!” Right, that does sound a little less bloodthirsty. But, no! I’m not going to de-body myself until I’m certain it’s my only option! There is a lot of peer pressure going on though. All these squirrels are so bloodthirsty despite being falsely accused criminals.

“Hey! What’s the racket!?”

The surroundings fell silent as the squirrels stopped chanting. A squirrel with dark circles around his eyes poked his head into the hallway from the large door at the end. He looked around and snorted before closing the door. It slammed shut with a metal clanging sound. I’m curious though. “All the other places are built in trees like the school or the store, so why is the prison built like a human prison?”

The gray squirrel shrugged. “The ruler designed and built the prisons. I imagine it wouldn’t have the right atmosphere if it was built in a tree. Stupid kids would come over and shout insults at us or something if the cells were suspended on the branches.”

I guess that makes sense. I guess it’s also harder to escape from. Hmm. Even if I cut my head off, how am I going to get out of here? Well, I definitely won’t be able to escape if I can’t circulate my qi, so this rope has got to go.