Thirty minutes after exiting the Summoning Hall, Kaine was standing inside a medical ward, looking at the three women lying on the examination beds.
Pale light coming from the curved crystals hanging above them passed over their bodies, scanning every single injury and the extent of the damage. Two physicians studied the results, occasionally speaking to each other in low voices.
The women were unconscious.
Which was common, travel from one world to another was exhausting even if it may seem instantaneous. The three passed out the instant they settled on the comfortable beds.
Kaine stared at them in silence, just then, the door of the ward opened. He turned around and saw a brown man in a plain brown coat step inside. His short hair was greying, there was an old scar crossing the edge of his jaw and his nose was slightly crooked.
Kaine recognised him.
How could he not?
He was Master Darran, the Valcrest Family’s best Combat Instructor, who, as the Family’s Golden Child till just a few hours ago, was assigned to him.
Master Darran closed the door and momentarily looked at the physicians before walking towards Kaine.
"Did my father send you?"
Kaine asked directly.
"No."
Darran shook his head as he stopped beside him.
"He is still in the summoning chamber."
"Then why are you here?"
"To talk to you."
He answered.
Then, his eyes fell on the three women lying on the examination beds.
"And to understand what you are trying to do."
Kaine did not say anything.
Darran kept studying the three women for a while, then, he turned back towards Kaine.
"So?"
He asked.
"What are you trying to do? What do you intend to do with them?"
"I’ll help them."
Kaine answered honestly.
This was all it was.
No one helped him, even those who knew of his situation and were in the position to help him turned their heads away.
He remembered the despair that came with it.
And he...
He wouldn’t let his Summons feel the same.
Darran stared at him for a moment, then he asked another question.
"What did the physicians say?"
"The examination is not finished."
"And what if they cannot treat them?"
"I will find someone who can."
"Who?"
Kaine turned silent for a small moment. Then, he shook his head.
"...I don’t know."
He didn’t have an answer.
That made Darran pause for a short moment.
He, however, wasn’t done yet.
"Even if you go to someone outside the family, those physicians will ask for payment. Medicine costs money, so does taking care of three patients and you should know the Family will not invest in you, not if you don’t change your mind."
"I know that."
Kaine nodded.
The Family’s investment in him would end the moment the Severance Period did. All the benefits he received weren’t given out of familial love, they were given because he was considered useful and now that he was not, everything would go away.
Kaine knew better than anyone.
He always expected it.
"You do?"
Darran raised an eyebrow.
"Because it certainly doesn’t feel that way."
He spoke and Kaine remained silent.
That... frustrated Darran.
He stared at the boy and he couldn’t understand.
He knew this boy.
At least, he thought he did.
Kaine never entered a spar without studying his opponent. When he failed, he returned with thousands of precise questions and improved. When a movement did not suit him, he worked at it until he understood whether the fault was in his body or his technique.
He could endure weeks of dull practice for the smallest improvement.
Darran rarely needed to push him, more often, he needed to order him to stop.
And all this time, he always thought he understood why.
Kaine wanted strength more than anything. He wanted it so badly that he would accept any pain that came with it without the slightest complaint. He gave up the pleasures other children fought their parents over, he spent his mornings alone in the training yard while the rest of the house slept.
That was who Kaine was.
That was who he had always been.
When Darran heard what happened in the chamber, he assumed Kaine noticed something the others missed.
An advantage.
A reason these three were worth keeping but...
Seeing him standing in here, with no plan in his mind, no clear answer for what would happen tomorrow...
He couldn’t understand.
"...why are you doing this?"
Darran asked in a low voice.
"I have seen you push yourself to your limits, every single day, ever since you held a sword. I have seen how hard you have worked.
Why are you throwing it all away and putting your future at risk for them?"
At that question, Kaine turned back towards the three women in front of him and after a small pause, he gave a proper answer.
"Because they are my Summons."
That answer made Darran pause.
My Summons.
Those words had a much deeper effect on him than he thought they would. For a moment, he looked... uncomfortable.
He always taught his students to watch their companions, understand their limits, and never waste their lives through careless orders.
A wounded Companion weakened its Summoner, a dead one could ruin their future since an Aspect stops growing once the Companion disappears.
Darran taught his students to take care of their Companions, but every reason he gave came back to the strength they provided.
It made him wonder what exactly that taught his students to value?
Was it their Companions? Or... was it the Strength they provided?
It seemed like his student here understood more about being a summoner than he ever did.
Darran kept staring at his student and he... couldn’t help but laugh at himself.
More than a decade of training together and he still didn’t understand his own student, perhaps... no one in this Family did.
It was... regretful.
Even then...
"I still think you made this decision too quickly."
Darran did not back down.
Kaine nodded at that. He could understand what Darran was trying to say.
"You won’t sever even if I tell you to, right?"
He asked one last time.
"I won’t."
Kaine shook his head and...
Darran accepted his answer.
"Alright."
He then stared at one of the physicians who had stepped away from the examination panel and was now coming towards them.
"Then listen carefully to what he tells you, if there is something you do not understand, ask."
The instructor instructed.
Kaine glanced at him.
"You’re staying?"
"I am."
Darran nodded.
"Alright."
Kaine nodded back, not saying anything else.
The physician stopped in front of them with a complete report in his hand.
"Young Master."
Kaine turned toward him.
"What did you find?"
The physician hesitated for a small moment, he momentarily looked at Darran, then at the three women, then back at Kaine.
"The dragon’s condition is worse than her visible injuries suggest. Her limbs were broken several times, each time they began to heal, someone broke them again. Her blood was drained repeatedly, her regeneration has stopped and her Dragon Heart is no longer active."
"Someone broke them again...?"
Darran’s eyes narrowed.
"Yes. The damage was deliberate."
The physician nodded, he then glanced toward her bed.
"We can replenish some of her blood and treat the wounds on her skin, but without her regeneration, setting her bones will not be enough to make her walk again. We also have no known cure for an inactive Dragon Heart.
She is... absolutely powerless."
Kaine looked at the dragon, even while unconscious, her head was still turned towards the other two beds.
"What about the other two?"
He asked.
"Eight of the Fox’s tails were pulled out through sheer brute force, causing severe damage inside her spiritual roots and making it impossible for the tails to grow back. Her core is also shut down, most likely from repeated extraction of her power."
"Extraction of her power?"
The physician nodded.
"Whatever power she gathered naturally was extracted before she could use it, causing her core to shut down permanently, making her unable to gather any power at all."
Darran’s face became even uglier when he heard those words.
Just... what had the three of them been through...?
Kaine, on the other hand, remained still. The physician’s words only made his guess even stronger, these women...
They were like him, kept in a place and tortured and abused for someone else’s pleasure.
He clenched his fists, then he glanced at the third woman.
The physician noticed his gaze and began explaining her state.
"We could not identify this woman’s race. However, the channels connecting her core to her body are almost completely destroyed. The examination also showed that parts of her body are struggling to remain stable."
"...so she is just like them?"
"We see no difference, if anything, her case is more complicated. Centuries of research have given us ways to heal a damaged Core of some general races but there has never been a case where channels connecting to a Core have been recovered."
The Physician answered.
He then looked at Kaine again and after a few seconds-long pause, he gave some advice.
"Young Master, I will advise you to Sever the Contracts."
Kaine, who was looking at the women, turned back to him and the Physician continued.
"An Aspect’s strength is determined by the potential of the Companion. I understand why you might wish to keep them. A Dragon and a Nine-Tailed Fox... their races alone would make anyone hesitate."
He spoke as he looked at them.
"Even in their current condition, there was a slight possibility that they retained a part of the potential that is innate to their races. Weakness caused by injuries or exhaustion does not necessarily take away a Companion’s future."
"Then?"
Darran asked with a frown.
"Potential is the possibility of what a being can eventually achieve. In their case, that possibility no longer exists."
Kaine glanced at the Physician and the Physician continued.
"The Dragon’s inactive Heart can no longer sustain her regeneration and growth. The Fox’s core no longer generates power."
Then he pointed at the third woman.
"And because of her damaged channels, even if there is power inside her, her body cannot use it."
He took a small pause, allowing Kaine to understand before continuing.
"Their races have not changed, Young Master. But the parts of their bodies that made those races powerful no longer function."
"Even with treatment?"
Darran asked.
"Treatment can keep them alive. Expensive medicines, regular infusions, constant supervision, all of that may sustain their bodies but none of it will allow them to use their power again."
The Physician shook his head.
"As far as their potential is concerned...
It is zero."
Kaine looked at the three women he summoned in silence. The Physician looked at him and continued.
"Once the Severance Period ends, the Bonds forged between you and all three of them may try to form three different Aspects, but considering their states, it is highly unlikely their bodies will be able to support that process.
There is a strong possibility that you may not gain an Aspect at all, and even if by some miracle you do gain one, it will be extremely weak, useless even."
The Physician took another short pause, then, his face became grave.
"I do not say this lightly, Young Master. You can spend years caring for them but you may not see any improvement. The expenses will continue, whether you can afford them or not. They will depend on you for medicine, food, and help with even their most basic needs."
He then looked into Kaine’s eyes.
"Severing is the best choice while that choice is still available.
Or you would have to spend the rest of your life taking care of these three women."
At those words, Darran turned toward Kaine.
Kaine’s face remained still as he stared at the three women in complete silence.
Eighteen years.
He spent eighteen years preparing for the moment he could finally summon his Companion.
Every morning he spent in the training yard, every evening he spent forcing his tired body through one more exercise, every small improvement that brought him closer to the strength he wanted.
That strength was all he had thought about in these eighteen long years.
And now, when he could have that strength he so desperately wanted just by severing the contracts with these three women...
He couldn’t do it.
Someone else might look at them and see nothing worth keeping but when Kaine looked at his summons, he saw a small boy standing beside a smiling man, desperately wanting that woman to turn around, to... look at him properly, just once.
His throat tightened at that thought.
Before, he thought that the reason he woke up in this world was so he could have the strength he always desired, strength that would help him rise above all to make sure no one else could ever abuse him.
And that’s what he always worked towards, that’s why he trained as hard as he did.
But...
Perhaps that wasn’t true.
Perhaps the reason he woke up wasn’t to get the strength he didn’t have in his previous life, perhaps it was something else.
Perhaps he was supposed to look properly, like he once wanted someone to.
Perhaps he was supposed to turn around and end someone’s suffering.
And he...
He would turn around.
He would make sure the women lying on the beds in front of him were not abandoned again, even if that meant he would need to abandon the dream he worked so desperately for.
"Tell me what they need to stay alive."