There was a small commotion at the Steelwall Estate when people heard the news of Zich’s return. The return of the eldest, who had left the house in a storm, brought forth all sorts of curiosities and imaginations. Many people thought Zich might have returned to take the position as the next Count, but many others had the opposite opinion. They claimed that there was no way a person who had made such a ruckus before would bear the embarrassment of coming back to ask for a position that they had thrown away.
Whenever more than one person gathered in the estate, the conversation naturally turned to this topic. Some welcomed Zich’s return while some felt more reserved about it, and others didn’t care either way. However, one thing was certain: people were focused on each and every action that Zich took. The story of how Zich left his family was well known, so people thought Zich would stir up a huge commotion again—and they were exactly right.
“…What is it?” Greig asked as Zich stood in front of him. Considering their strained relationship, Greig’s voice sounded malicious, but his eyes still wavered like he couldn’t meet Zich’s eyes.
“Take this.” Zich threw the object he had placed next to him to Greig. When Greig caught it instinctively, he simply thought, ‘A sword?’ This type of sword was normally given to soldiers. It wasn’t a good sword, but its blades were sharp.
“What is this?”
“Can’t you see? It’s a sword.”
“That’s obviously not what I’m asking!”
Zich smirked. “Aren’t you too old to act cute in front of your older brother? I won’t go easy on you, so don’t try to play some tricks.”
Greig gritted his teeth, but Zich didn’t care and pulled out his sword.
Clang! The multiple blades of Zich’s sword split sharply across and invoked a sense of danger as it split the sunlight shining upon it. Greig unconsciously stepped back after he saw Zich raise his sword. He was reminded of his trauma, and it felt like Zich would rush at him while covered with blood again. Greig’s hands trembled lightly as he gripped his sword.
“You heard me right? I’m going to help cure you.”
“It’s not like I’m even ill!”
“Oh my, don’t you remember what I told you in the last battle?”
Greig hardened his expression. Of course, he remembered, but Zich decided to engrave the words into him again.
“If you endure this trial, you will be able to go to the next stage in life. Look at the state you are in now. Instead of jumping to the next stage, you are just floundering in a low mess right now. What you are suffering from right now is trauma, and that’s definitely a sickness. I’m going to cure you of it.” Then, Zich pointed to the sword Greig was holding with his chin and asked, “What are you doing? Quick, pull out your sword.”
“…” Greig looked down at his sword. He didn’t know exactly what this cure was, but he knew that they were going to duel now, and this fact tightened his heart. He remembered his last battle with Zich, and his hands trembled harder. If he could, he wished he could pull out his sword nonchalantly, and even if his skills were lacking in comparison, he wanted to give it his all to fight Zich. Yet, his body didn’t listen to his will.
“What? Are you not going to pull out your sword?”
“…”
“Well, it won’t really matter.”
Greig stared at Zich. ‘Were they not going to duel?’ He hoped they wouldn’t, but he soon saw Zich right in front of him. Whoosh! Zich’s sword drew a clean arc and pierced Greig’s body.
Slice!
“Ah!” Zich drew a long line across Greig’s body, and he let out an ear-splitting scream. However, Zich didn’t respond to this scream and kicked Greig’s wound instead.
Thump!
“Ugh!” Greig’s body rolled to the edge of the training ground.
“I am going to keep attacking whether you pull out your sword or not.” Zich’s words were beyond cold—they were frigid and gave off a chilly air. So, Greig realized that there was not a hint of exaggeration in Zich’s words. Several of the knights watching Zich and Greig outside the training ground flinched and shuddered. Although these knights were used to harsh battle and were in a territory known for it, it felt different when the estate’s heir was involved.
Still, they didn’t move. Greig had received special treatment as the heir, but this level of training is what they all also endured. Furthermore, the injury Zich inflicted on Greig wasn’t even that deep. Above all, the Count gave them orders to never intervene with Zich’s healing (?) method. Yet, not long afterward, their resolve to not intervene began to shake.
Slice! Slice! Punch! Slice! These sounds brought chills to all the watchers. They all came from Greig’s body, and Zich cornered Greig like he was trying to kill him. He also didn’t hold back from inflicting critical injuries, and the only thing he refrained from doing was making an attack that would immediately kill his opponent.
“S-Shouldn’t we stop him?”
“The Count gave his orders.”
“But would Sir Count have expected such a crazy thing to happen?” It was unthinkable that the Steelwall’s heir would be cornered to near death in the middle of their property.
“He might really die at this rate!”
All the on-looking, curious servants had run away terrified by now, and some were blocking their mouths with their hands to keep their lunch down. That was how fierce this fight was.
“Won’t it be better to just let it be?” Then, another knight gave a totally different opinion.
“Just let it be? When the young master is getting violently assaulted? Are you in your right mind!”
“My mind is completely fine. Honestly, it’s not like Young Master Greig will really die.” Zich also had no real intention to kill Greig; there were even a few priests ready on standby on the training ground. When Zich thought Greig had reached his limit, he called out to the priests and let them heal Greig. However, when the priests finished healing Greig, he mercilessly attacked Greig again.
“Even though he was fine before, I was honestly disappointed by the young master’s actions. Moreover, the reason why the young master changed was because of that duel in the past—it became a traumatic event for him. Thus, forcing him to get used to it like this is one way to return him back to how he was before.” The knight shrugged his shoulders. “It’s a method we’ll never be able to do.” No one in this estate could continuously push the next heir, Greig, to the point of almost killing him. This was a completely different situation than training Greig until he almost wanted to die.
“But the young master might become completely broken if this continues!”
“Then do you want the young master to just stay in this pathetic state?”
The two knights’ opinions clashed. Both of their opinions were based on solid reasoning, but their disagreement ended with one knight’s words.
“We have to follow the Count’s order anyway. The Count will hear about this treatment or torture sooner or later. If he changes his order, we’ll have to intervene, and if not, we’ll keep on watching like this.”
All the knights accepted this opinion and began watching the fight again.
At that moment, one knight looked toward the mansion. “Well, this isn’t going to end peacefully."
The Countess was approaching them with a bright red face full of fury.
* * *
Punch! Greig collapsed to the ground as Zich punched him directly in the face. His body was already worn out and cut all over from Zich’s sword. “You punk, don’t be a wuss and get up.”
Zich poked Greig with the end of his sword. However, Greig merely let out a soft moan and didn’t move even a finger—no, he couldn’t even move his fingers.
‘Hmm, is this really his limit?’ This seemed to be good enough for today. ‘I also got rid of a lot of my pent-up stress.’ Beating up his rude younger brother was always thrilling and fun. Since he had the justification to beat up his brother, no one could stop him anyway. ‘Nevertheless, it’d be more fun if he resisted a bit.’
It seemed as if their previous duel really traumatized Greig. Like a mouse in front of a cat, Greig couldn’t make even retaliate once. It wasn’t a matter of a difference in skill,l but willpower.
“Greig!” Then, someone suddenly called out Greig’s name.
‘As expected, she came.’ Zich thought that if there was someone who might hinder him in their first round of treatment, he thought it would be Greig’s mother. The Countess quickly ran towards Greig and held her son covered in blood. Unlike her blood-soaked son, her face was completely white.
“What are you doing? Please heal Greig immediately!” the Countess yelled towards the priests, but the priests glanced at Zich. As part of the Karuwiman Church, an order from a Karuwiman Honorary Knight held more importance than a Countess’.
“Please heal him.”
As soon as they received Zich’s permission, the priests approached Greig and used their holy powers. Greig’s body slowly healed and became clean without a single scratch. Then, Greig lifted his upper body and sat on the ground. The Countess grabbed his face. She carefully inspected his face to make sure that not even the smallest scratch was left.
“Are you hurt anywhere?”
“I’m all right, Mother.”
After making sure that Greig was fine, the Countess let out a sigh of relief. However, she wasn’t done. She quickly turned her head and glared at Zich with blazing eyes full of anger. “What are you doing?”
“What? Did you not hear from the Count? I’ll be treating Greig.”
Unlike the Countess, Zich replied with his usual carefree self and replied cheerfully. This attitude made the Countess even more furious. “How is this treatment? What kind of treatment hurts someone to this extent!”
“It’s a very specialized treatment, so I’m not sure if the Countess knows it. I understand your anger.”
“S-specialized treatment?” How could such torture be a form of specialized treatment? It was so ludicrous that she felt all of her energy seep out of her body. Then, the Countess gritted her teeth towards Zich and held Greig’s hand. “Let’s go! I’ll immediately go to the Count and protest. I’m going to chase this guy out if it’s the last thing that I do!”
“If that’s what you want to do, please do so. However, if the Count doesn’t change his order, the treatment will continue.”
“You think I’ll let that happen?”
“What can you do? No matter how powerful you are, you’ll have to follow Count Steelwall’s orders. It doesn’t seem like the Count wants to let Greig continue to stay like this.”
The Countess shot him a murderous glare and roughly turned her head as if she didn’t even want to look at him. Then, she dragged Greig and left the place.
Zich shouted towards their backs, “Come tomorrow at the same time, Greig! We need to continue our treatment!”
“T-that bastard…!” The Countess shouted back, but Zich ignored her and slowly left the training ground with light steps.