Kaywhin’s mother belatedly came to her senses. She stared at her son, who collapsed to the ground, unable to bear the pain.
It was her first time seeing Kaywhin, who had a high pain tolerance for his age, in wretched agony.
“…”
The look that flickered across her face was not one of surprise, nor panic, nor sorrow.
Astonishingly enough, it was one of relief.
Ever since that day, whenever Kaywhin’s mother came back from a gathering, she would tie him up and burn his back without exception.
Kaywhin always writhed in intense agony without knowing why he had to.
He would even beg her to stop as he cried.
But his mother did not stop and his father turned a blind eye.
Kaywhin’s body recovered quickly. Some of the burns on his back left scars, but for the most part, they completely healed without any special treatment.
Perhaps Kaywhin’s peculiarly smooth recovery lessened the guilt of his abuser.
“Mommy, what are you doing? It smells weird…”
“Shh, Martin. You can’t look. Go back to sleep.”
“Mommy?”
“I’m purifying the devil’s impure energy. This isn’t for you to see.”
Kaywhin’s younger brother opened the door while rubbing his eyes, woken up by the acrid stench of flesh burning.
After hearing what his mother said to his little brother to soothe him and send him back, Kaywhin ceased his struggling.
He also stopped crying and begging.
Although Kaywhin’s resistance ceased, the abuse did not.
As more scars embedded Kaywhin’s back, his mother would go to gatherings and act like a great and exemplary mother with ease.
People began to praise her character.
Kaywhin never let out a single groan of pain at his flesh burning.
And when Kaywhin turned 9, he took up the sword, which he had quit when he was 6 and the abuse had started. But he wasn’t allowed to have a proper master.
His parents were extremely wary about Kaywhin having any remarkable achievements in any field.
When he was very young, he didn’t know why that was. But upon growing a little older, he realized.
His parents were afraid of Kaywhin growing up to be more outstanding than his younger brother Martin. They were always worried and anxious that Kaywhin would grow up and steal even the smallest thing that Martin was supposed to have.
Thus, Kaywhin learned how to not hope for anything.
He was well-versed in being neither greedy nor ambitious and lived as if he was dead.
But because he didn’t want to let go of the sword again, he would secretly go outside every night and swing the practice swords that the knights discarded after using.
And so time passed. It was soon Kaywhin’s 16th birthday.
The accident that killed Kaywhin’s entire family occurred.
After the accident, Kaywhin was too busy to even blink, occupied with arranging his family’s funeral and the duchy succession.
When he finally had a chance to breathe, Ben asked, “Master, what will you do? Will you reveal the truth… about the accident?”
The accident that had killed almost all the members of the ducal family wasn’t really an accident. Both Ben and Kaywhin were aware of this.
In response to Ben’s question, Kaywhin stared blankly at the former.
Before inheriting the duchy, the subjects of the castle would call Kaywhin Little Lord. Ben was the only one who called him Young Master.
And that was still the case.
After becoming Duke, the subjects always referred to Kaywhin as Duke. Ben was the only one who called him Master.
“I’m not sure. What about you, Ben? What do you want to do?”
“I… am opposed to the idea. I don’t think we should reveal the truth.”
“Then we won’t, since I agree with you. After all, I am also responsible for not preventing the accident.”
People used the accident to point fingers at Kaywhin. They whispered among themselves that the devil’s curse must have caused the accident and taken his family away.
Revealing the truth about the accident could have silenced such rumors, but Kaywhin just let them be. He didn’t care if people said he was a devil or a monster.
There were a great deal of things Kaywhin stopped caring about ever since he was able to keep quiet without even batting an eye while his mother set his back on fire.
***
Eight years flashed by in an instant.
Kaywhin’s daily life was relatively the same.
Just as when he had first become Duke, he still regularly went up to the mountain to catch monsters, managed the fief, and expanded businesses.
In perspective, even the sudden wedding arrangements weren’t much of a deviation from his daily routine.
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