WHACK
Sixty.
Kaine’s thoughts were becoming much simpler now. He just counted, breathed and waited for it to end. He was getting used to the pain as well, so even the increasing pain felt more manageable than before.
At this point, the punishment officer was sweating, he had put so much of his power into every strike that his arm was beginning to ache and Kaine still hadn’t screamed.
At this point, it didn’t even seem like he was punishing Kaine, it felt like Kaine was humiliating him instead.
The worst part?
Kaine wasn’t even looking at him, that made him even angrier.
He put more of his strength into his strikes, but the result still didn’t change.
...
Amongst the audience, Marlon now seemed more desperate.
"Is he unconscious?"
He asked.
"No."
Teren shook his head while his eyes remained on the platform.
"Then why isn’t he saying anything?"
Teren didn’t answer.
He... had no answer.
Kess seemed uncomfortable as well. Kaine’s back looked horrible, even he was starting to feel uncomfortable looking at it.
"What the hell is he...?"
He asked and no one around him could answer.
WHACK
Eighty.
Kaine’s arms were trembling from fatigue now, holding tension through his entire body for this long was exhausting, even his breathing became rougher.
At this point, the pain seemed blurry as well. His entire back burned, he couldn’t clearly tell which parts were fresh cuts and which were older anymore.
What he did know, however, was that only twenty strikes were left and that was all he focused on.
WHACK
Nineteen.
WHACK
Eighteen.
Kaine continued counting in his head.
Seventeen.
Sixteen.
Fifteen.
All the way to...
Three.
WHACK
Two.
WHACK
And... one.
The officer raised the whip one final time, once again, he put everything he had into the final strike, the whip screamed through the air and...
WHACK
One hundred strikes.
Kaine’s entire body went rigid, for a short moment, his knees gave out but then...
It ended.
It was over.
Kaine lowered his head a little and breathed.
Every single person watched him, the punishment officer stood behind him, his chest rising and falling heavily.
Then, one of the guards stepped forward and released Kaine’s wrists, his legs weakened for a moment, he was about to fall, but he balanced himself.
He would not look weak.
He stopped for a moment, then, he waited, gathering enough strength. One guard moved towards him, wanting to help him stand, Kaine raised his hand and stopped him.
"No need."
Then, he straightened his back and stood straight.
The punishment officer stared at him in disbelief, Kaine walked and picked up his shirt. The small movement made the pain worse, Kaine flinched but then he slowly put his arms into the sleeves and put it on.
It hurt again when the shirt’s fabric touched his open wounds, Kaine, however, clenched his jaw and buttoned the shirt.
Once he was done, he adjusted the shirt through the pain one last time, then he walked.
The guards stared at that scene in utter disbelief, one of them turned towards the punishment officer and...
"You really used your full strength?"
He asked out loud.
And the punishment officer, who had been trying to hide his anger and frustration all this while, suddenly snapped.
"WHY DON’T YOU STAND HERE AND SEE FOR YOURSELF!?"
The guard immediately shut his mouth, the rest of them looked away. The punishment officer glared at Kaine’s back and then...
He threw the whip away.
Kaine didn’t notice the fuss, he was already walking away.
Near the exit, he saw the three brothers. When Teren saw him, he grinned.
"Well? Enjoyed yourself?"
Kaine didn’t even look at him and walked away.
That irritated the three brothers.
"Bastard..."
Kess spat as he looked at Kaine’s back. Blood was already beginning to stain parts of his shirt, yet he was still walking.
That made him shut his mouth completely while at the same time, he couldn’t help but wonder...
Could he walk like that with a bleeding back...?
...
When Kaine finally returned to his room, he closed the door behind him and stood there for a few seconds.
Then, when he was absolutely sure no one else was watching him, he let his shoulders drop.
"Haah..."
He let out a long breath.
His back hurt.
A lot.
Every movement of his shoulders pulled at the damaged skin under his shirt, even walking became increasingly uncomfortable because the fabric kept rubbing against the open wounds.
Kaine slowly started unbuttoning his shirt, the front was easy, the back wasn’t. Some parts of his shirt were now stuck to his wounds, Kaine had to pull them away, bearing the pain that came with it.
When he finally managed to remove the shirt, he noticed it was covered in blood.
"This is... troublesome."
He muttered as he stared at it, then, he dropped it nearby, walked towards his bed and lay down on his stomach, letting air touch his wounds.
His back continued throbbing but finally being able to lie down felt relieving.
Just like that, fifteen minutes passed by.
The pain didn’t disappear, but the initial burning had weakened enough that he could think about something other than his back.
And he did.
’I should check on them.’
He thought inwardly as he thought about his summons.
Then, once he stood up, he walked towards their beds and accessed the system. Seconds later, light shone on the beds and the women appeared and just as they did...
"You!"
Serathiel screamed in anger.
"You absolute idiot!"
And Kaine...
"What?"
He blinked in surprise and confusion.
"What do you mean, what!?"
The Dragon screamed even louder as she glared at him, her eyes were still red from all the tears she had shed.
Kaine looked at the other two to understand what happened and when he saw their faces, he realised it.
...they were watching.
He completely forgot about that.
"Why did you let them do that to you!?"
The Dragon asked furiously.
Kaine looked back at her, then, he answered honestly.
"I couldn’t stop them."
Serathiel didn’t believe that.
"What are you talking about? You’re strong!"
She had seen it with her own eyes, how he handled those three even when he was alone. But Kaine shook his head.
"They’re stronger."
And that... silenced her.
They were stronger.
Being willing to fight didn’t matter when the difference in power was too large. She understood those words, perhaps better than others. She learned that lesson repeatedly.
Lysara and Nerys turned to her.
The two still remembered how many times Serathiel resisted those people and how many times she was put down.
Still...
"That doesn’t make it right..."
The Dragon spoke in a much quieter voice.
"They were the ones who provoked you first, why were you punished like that?"
"Because they are Rank One Summoners and I am an Unranked."
Kaine answered honestly as he then looked around, as if talking about the entire estate.
"They’re useful to the Valcrest Family, I am currently not.
So when the family decided how much each side was worth protecting, the answer was obvious."
He spoke as if it was the most obvious thing in the world and in a certain sense, it was.
Kaine was skilled, exceptionally skilled. No one in the Family doubted that, but he had no Aspect. No matter how skilled he was, without an Aspect, he was useless.
Sure, he defeated the three brothers but that was only because the brothers weren’t used to their Aspects yet and their reflexes were so weak that they couldn’t activate their Aspects in time.
In a different scenario, where the brothers could activate their Aspects, Kaine would have lost terribly.
And Kaine knew that.
This was the reason the Family preferred them over him.
His words made the three women a little uncomfortable.
"...they’re your family."
Serathiel spoke in a very, very low voice.
Kaine just looked at her and tilted his head.
"That doesn’t change anything."
That line got a reaction, not just from Serathiel, but from the other two women as well. The three of them understood it.
Kaine was discarded, just... in a different way than them.
The three continued staring at him, then, Serathiel lowered her head.
"...this happened because of us."
She spoke in a guilty voice.
The summons didn’t know the exact details, but from every confrontation and conversation they heard, they had the general idea.
Kaine wasn’t always like this, the family never punished him before, they treated him well, they gave him everything he wanted, but that changed when he refused to abandon them like the family told him to.
"...if you had sent us back—"
The Dragon spoke but before she could even complete her words.
"No."
Kaine interrupted her.
"I didn’t send you back because I did not want to, that was my decision. I attacked those three because I wanted to, that too, was my decision."
He looked at Serathiel, then at Lysara, then Nerys, one by one, making sure they understood this.
"Everything that happened afterward came from choices I made myself."
His gaze then returned to Serathiel.
"You don’t take responsibility for my decisions."
And Serathiel...
Her eyes changed.
Something about those words struck much deeper than Kaine realised. For years, whenever she resisted, Lysara and Nerys suffered. Every act of defiance became another reason for their captors to hurt the other two.
Eventually, Serathiel learned that lesson.
If she fought, someone else paid.
And now, once again, someone was suffering because of her.
"...you had everything."
The Dragon spoke in a low voice.
"...they treated you well, and now, because you kept three useless summons—"
"Are you useless?"
Serathiel froze.
"...what?"
"I asked, are you useless?"
Kaine repeated the question and Serathiel... she couldn’t answer.
She feared saying yes would make Kaine abandon her, but she couldn’t even bring herself to say no when she looked at her ruined body, her broken limbs, missing scales, and her damaged wing. A body that couldn’t even sit upright without assistance.
"You’re a Dragon, Serathiel."
Kaine spoke as he looked right into her eyes. Serathiel broke the contact and lowered her gaze.
"A Dragon who can’t even move."
She corrected.
"Then move."
Kaine answered and suddenly, Serathiel’s face changed.
"You are not useless, Serathiel. You are injured.
And injuries can heal.
So heal."
He looked at her, then, he looked at the other two.
"The same applies to you two. None of you are useless, far from it, once you heal, what they think no longer matters.
You are above what any of them could even comprehend."
He spoke in a heavy tone and he wasn’t lying.
Serathiel and Lysara were Legendary Grade Summons, let alone the family, no one in the entire Zone had ever laid their eyes upon such creatures.
As for Nerys?
She was even more absurd.
Her Rank was something even the records given to them by the Last Zone hadn’t mentioned.
"So stop blaming yourselves. You three are not the reason my life was ruined. If anything, once you recover, you will become the very reason it becomes far better than it was supposed to."
The instant he said those words, the room fell completely silent.
Serathiel couldn’t look away from him, nor could Lysara. Even Nerys’s pale violet eyes remained fixed on his face.
Kaine had no idea how significant his words were to them.
He just said what he felt like he needed to say, something the three needed to know.
Just then, Kaine’s back spasmed and his expression changed.
"Gh..."
He groaned as his hand immediately gripped the edge of the bed.
"Are you alright!?"
Serathiel reacted quickly, the other two seemed worried as well.
"I’m fine."
Kaine lied.
"You’re not!"
The Dragon caught that lie.
"I am."
Kaine tried it again.
"You just—"
The Dragon was about to rebuke, but just then, something happened.
Kaine felt something touching his hand.
He paused, then he looked down and saw a dark hand holding his hand.
Nerys.
Kaine blinked in surprise and not just him, Lysara couldn’t believe it either.
Nerys too, realised what she had just done when Kaine looked at her, her body tensed up, her fingers twitched as if she wanted to pull away but...
She didn’t.
Kaine kept staring at her, she was nervous, very, very nervous, but she gathered every bit of bravery she had and... she tightened her hold.
"...Lysara does this."
She spoke in a very low voice.
Kaine glanced toward the Fox, she was looking at the scene with this blank look on her face as if her brain couldn’t comprehend it.
"...when it hurts."
The Shadow Demon explained.
"She... holds my hand. It... feels better."
Kaine stared at their hands, for a moment, he didn’t know what to say.
Nerys was terrified of physical touch, he saw that when her entire body stiffened up when the servant placed her on the stretcher. Heck, she was terrified of his touch even when she knew he was trying to help her.
Yet now...
She grabbed his hand on her own.
Kaine slowly turned his hand, then, as gently as he could, he closed his fingers around hers.
Nerys flinched, Kaine immediately loosened his grip, giving her enough space to pull away whenever she wanted and she...
She didn’t pull away.
Instead, after a few seconds...
Her trembling fingers slowly curled around his again.
Kaine looked at her, then, he showed a gentle smile.
"...it does feel better.
Thank you."
Nerys’s eyes widened, she quickly lowered them and nodded ever so slightly and even now, she still did not let go of his hand.
Lysara stared at the two of them, then something almost resembling a smile appeared on her face. Of course, it disappeared before anyone could notice it.
Serathiel, however, had something else on her mind.
"Now heal yourself."
She spoke directly as she stared at him.
"I can’t." Kaine shook his head.
"Why?"
The Dragon narrowed her eyes.
"I don’t have access to the family medicine anymore."
"Then make some!"
"What...?"
Kaine blinked.
Serathiel stared at him as though he was the unreasonable one.
"You made ours. How can you not make one for yourself?"
Kaine didn’t know how he was supposed to answer that.
"Besides..."
That was when the Dragon tried another approach.
"How are we supposed to trust you?"
Kaine frowned.
"You keep telling us you can heal us, you make our medicine, our food, and say we are recovering but how are we supposed to trust someone who doesn’t even know how to treat his own injuries?"
Kaine stared at her with an absurd look on his face.
Serathiel felt the change herself, she knew her body was recovering. The only reason she was saying something like this was because she wanted Kaine to make his own medicine and heal.
Kaine knew that.
"...please."
Nerys suddenly raised her voice as well.
"...heal it."
She requested.
Even the Fox was looking at him.
Kaine looked at the three women staring at him and... he sighed.
This three-against-one was somehow much harder than the last one.
Kaine would rather fight the three brothers again.
In the end, he gave in.
Besides, even if Serathiel’s argument was obviously created because she wanted him to treat himself, there was some truth buried inside it.
These three barely trusted anyone.
Healing himself was one way to win that trust at some level.
"Fine, let me see what I can do."
He spoke.
And then, he opened a system feature he had been meaning to open for a while now.
[Recovery Shop]