When Jared woke up, he was in a room he didn’t recognize. It was a small private room with only a bed, and the walls, which were likely once white, were stained gray with age.
As he got out of bed, a dull pain shot through his head, reminding him that someone had hit him.
Kidnapping, the word came to mind. But he wondered if there was any benefit to kidnapping him, and immediately concluded there wasn’t.
Even if it were kidnapping, he had no value. Though born into a family of swordsmen, he had no talent for the sword, his relationship with his father was bad, and he was disliked by his mother’s consorts. If a ransom were demanded, he would undoubtedly be abandoned. He thought of it as if it happened to someone else.
His grandparents might negotiate, but the Daum Barony served the country as a warrior family, so it was questionable whether they would deal with kidnappers.
Another possibility was a human trafficker. Even Jared, who was ignorant of the world, knew that there were people who abducted children with magic power to sell them.
Children with magic power who couldn’t even use basic magic—in other words, beings like Jared—were easy to capture and sell. The fate of children who were sold was unknown, but they likely met a terrible end.
“I have to escape.”
Jared at least had the will to resist. He wasn’t going to end with being hit and kidnapped without a word.
However, the door leading out of the room was made of steel, and it didn’t budge, as if it were locked. He kicked it in frustration, but only his own foot hurt.
“Be quiet!”
As he kicked the door repeatedly, a man’s angry voice shouted.
“Why are you doing this! Let me out of here!”
He felt relieved that someone was there and desperately pleaded for help, but,
“No. You will spend a day here. Accept your current situation.”
“What do you mean, my current situation?”
“You will live here from now on. Got it?”
“It’s not good! Do you think kidnapping is permissible!”
The man laughed.
He continued to laugh, as if mocking or pitying Jared, who couldn’t understand the situation.
“That’s right, you don’t know yet.”
“Know what?”
Not understanding the reason for the man’s laughter, Jared waited for his words through the door.
“Jared Murphy. You’ve been abandoned by your parents.”
“—What?”
“This is a place where problem children or those who don’t want to be publicized are housed for the convenience of adults. Well, if a buyer is found, you might be sold to a suitable place, but what about you?”
As Jared stood speechless, the man’s laughter outside the door stopped. Then, with a voice full of pity this time, he spoke.
“Well, I’m a scoundrel, but your parents are trash. The eldest son who can’t inherit the family’s legacy is a nuisance, and since you have magic power, you’re not interesting to be taken as a husband by other nobles. What else was it, oh right, your grandfather might make you inherit the family’s legacy, so they want to eliminate you completely. That’s why they said to sell you to some noble who wants a child with magic power.”
Instead of words, a single tear fell from Jared’s eyes.
He never imagined he was so disliked. He admitted his relationship with his father wasn’t good, and he didn’t like his father either. However, he had never been subjected to violence before, nor had he ever been told to leave home.
“It’s pathetic, but this is common for nobles. I’ve seen many children like you. I sympathize and pity them, but what we have to do remains the same.”
If they found him a nuisance, they could have just said so, and he would have gladly left. He was a child without a job, but he could have chosen to renounce his nobility by his own will. He didn’t want to be isolated by his parents and possibly sold.
If they disliked him that much, they should have just killed him.
“Let me out of here!”
He banged on the door and pleaded to be let out, but the man’s presence moved away from the door.
He pounded on the door again and again. Ignoring the pain in his hands, Jared continued to pound on the door as if he were broken.
Even as his skin tore and blood flowed, he never stopped, and even as the door became stained red, he continued with single-minded devotion.
Without knowing how long he had been doing it, and even as he was mentally and physically exhausted, even when he could no longer clench his fists, Jared continued.
Since there was nothing else he could do, he might have wanted to distract himself by doing the only thing he could. Then, a different voice than the man he had spoken to reached him through the door, an angry shout.
“Please, let me out of here.”
As if his weak plea reached someone, the door opened with a sound.
Although he looked up once with hope, his body stiffened as a middle-aged man with a mixture of displeasure and irritation appeared.
The man’s hand held a club. And without giving him time to brace himself, it was mercilessly brought down on Jared.
“You’re too loud, you brat!”
After that, Jared was beaten until he lost consciousness. When he regained consciousness, he was beaten again and kicked and punched as if to release stress.
It was a miracle he didn’t die then, as he was subjected to such relentless violence that Jared’s spirit broke.
It wasn’t clear how much time passed until one man intervened to stop it, but Jared continued to be subjected to violence. The one who stopped it was the man he had spoken to.
After receiving minimal treatment,
“You won’t be allowed out of the room for a while. Please, stay quiet. Otherwise, you’ll be killed.”
He heeded the warning and obeyed.
He followed the first man he had spoken to, believing him to be the only one who was still decent.
Then, he slept like the dead to forget the pain, and for the next few days, he was given meager meals and spent his time in the small room.
With nothing to do, curled up on the hard bed, he bit his nails and kept muttering curses.
The young boy’s spirit was broken, but instead, his heart was filled with a strong emotion—hatred.
Harboring hatred towards his father, the root of his suffering, Jared vowed.
—I will definitely get out of here and kill you.
