Loric's days with Balen started to blend together. How long has he been there? Half a year? Ten months? He doesn't know.
The pain was initially excruciating and Loric resisted with all his might.
The resistance was futile, but it made Balen's research more difficult.
Balen decided to coax Loric into being more obedient by telling him that everything is for him, to find a way to activate his ability. All the pain, discomfort and suffering.
The pain from being an experimental subject to the crazed doctor became more bearable with this lie.
It is fascinating what human body can withstand and how it can adapt.
'The pain is only temporary,' Loric tells himself. 'He's doing it for me.'
If Balen ever discovers what is different about him, Loric would be no longer needed and would be disposed of.
But, Loric is still a child. He doesn't know any better. That is why he bears with all the pain and suffering.
A few years passed since Balen took Loric from the Dath house. He is at his wit's end with his research. He tried everything and yet, he found nothing different about Loric. He examined him from inside out and from outside in.
The only remaining thing to examine is his head, brain to be exact.
Balen struggles internally. What he did so far went above and beyond what a normal physician would do. Still, he is able to justify it. It is all for the benefit of others, after all.
Medicine in the world is not on such high level where craniotomy, or rather exploration of living human brain, could be done safely.
To end a life, something he swore to save as a doctor, just to satisfy his own curiosity?
He knows himself all too well. He will continue to struggle until he finally gives in.
He needs to remove the temptation as quickly as possible.
"I'm sorry, boy. I tried everything I could think of. There seems to be nothing wrong with you." Balen says to Loric, keeping up with his lies.
"But don't despair. There are others who might help you."
This is the last thing Balen says to Loric.
After around three years of being a lab rat, his life isn't about to get any better. He just changes one suffering for another.
Like this, his life of being traded and sold, changing homes on regular basis, begins.
Some view him as a novelty, others as an entertainment. Sometimes, he is treated as a slave, other times as an animal.
He goes through many places, none he could call home.
He has caretakers, custodians, owners, masters, keepers or wardens. But he doesn't have friends or family.
Everyone keeps on with the lies. Its all for his benefit, they tell him. And Loric keeps up with it. With all the abuse, torture and humiliation. He is like a cockroach that just wouldn't die.
There is one thing he is never told. Also, there is one thing he never tells.
What Loric never tells is his name. It had been drilled in his head by Balen and it stayed with him. No one after Balen knew his first or last name. No one bothered to ask.
And the one thing no one told him? He can never be killed. This was a condition set by Balen and it is the only reason he is still alive.
Now, at seventeen, he finds himself at lady Serin's estate.
Duchess Serin Muir, a twenty year old woman, inherited the title and lands thanks to her ability of negotiation.
Her ability allows her to create contracts and agreements that cannot be broken. The stipulation of breaking the contract is so steep that her contracts are considered unbreakable.
When she discovered the existence of Loric, a young man without any ability, she had to have him.
He's been with her for a few months now and he's being treated as her personal property. Nowadays, lady Serin is too busy, so he spends most his time cooped up inside a shed. A shed that is his to live and sleep in. A place he would never call home.
Being Serin's personal property has one advantage, only she can order him around, no one else. Compared to all previous household he'd been to, her treatment is by far the best.
There are many servants at the estate and Loric is not very well liked. He's never been, regardless of where he was.
One servant in particular hates Loric with a passion, a stable master Hert, person who takes care of all the animals in the estate.
For some reason, animals really like Loric and Hert hates him for it.
Hert would humiliate Loric, make fun of him and sometimes even go so far to hurt him, every time disguising it as a learning experience.
On this day, lady Serin has nothing to do and wishes to be entertained by Loric. They are outside in the garden and he is tasked with trimming the hedges. A simple task. But in his hands, nothing is so simple.
The head gardener is against this, he fears that Loric will ruin his work, but Serin wouldn't hear it.
Loric picks up the hedge shears and tests them. They work perfectly.
Serin watches Loric with interest, waiting for what's going to happen. Every time, something unexpected happens with him.
Loric approaches the hedge and prepares to trim it.
The anticipation builds up within her.
He opens the shears and of course, instead of cutting the hedge, the perfectly good shears fall apart, leaving a blade in each hand.
Serin lets out a laughter, "Every time. Every d*mn time."
She finds this 'ability' hilarious.
The rest of the time they spend together continues in similar fashion.
Serin would never admit it, but she grew fond of him.
Every time he entertains the lady, he has better meals.
After a good dinner, Loric finds himself in his shed. He lays down in bed, rather a pile of hay, and falls asleep.
In the middle of the night he awakens to a fire and smoke all around him, coughing.
'What,' he thinks, looking around and processing what is happening.
Smoke is slowly filling the room, fire is claiming a wall on the side of the shed and advances toward the front and back walls.
Now he's fully awake and quickly rushes to the door, trying to open them. They wouldn't budge, because they're blocked from the outside.
He starts banging on the door, hoping someone would hear him.
He starts to panic. Once the fire gets to the hay, he is done for.
He doesn't understand where the fire came from or why the door is locked.
Eventually the fire gets to the hay and the shed turns into a blazing furnace.
Loric stops banging on the door, resigning himself to his inevitable fate, slowly fading into unconsciousness.
All of a sudden, he hears something. Something different than the crackling fire.
A chuckling coming from outside. This wakes him up.
Fire creeps toward his feet. The heat is unbearable, but he doesn't care.
He lifts his head, his expression shifting. Something inside him snaps.
He never felt this way. His always calm and positive demeanor is gone, replaced by burning rage. Rage so strong that the fire around him seems cold.
He leaps to his feet and charges toward the wall where the fire began. He runs through the flames, shoulder hitting the wall. The wood crushes under the impact and Loric falls to the ground, rolling.
The chuckling stops.
The fire burned Loric's hair and the right side of his face.
He doesn't care about that. He is used to pain. He knows it is just temporary.
He looks up and finds Hert, whose smile slowly fades away when he sees Loric.
The expression on his face makes Hert back away.
"You f*cking b*stard!" Loric screams, coming at Hert. This is the first time in his life Loric curses.
Hert froze in place.
Smoke in Loric's lungs. Burns over his body. But he doesn't care. He sees red.
Loric jumps at Hert, pushing him to the ground and starts punching his face.
"You. Want. To. Kill. Me. Me? What. Did. I. Ever. Do. To. You? You. A*shole." Loric shouts and lands a punch with each word.
When he's done hitting him, Loric stands up. His anger subsided a little, but the rage is still there.
Hert is sprawled on the ground, grunting in pain.
Loric now notices his own pain. He looks toward the fire and gets an idea.
The shed is still on fire. He approaches the broken wall and picks up a wooden shard that broke off the wall when he broke through it.
One side of the stick is still on fire, resembling a torch.
With a grin on his face, Loric slowly comes back to Hert, stopping right in front of him.
When Hert sees Loric with the burning wood, he is scared witless.
"No! Please! Don't!" he starts yelling, his swelling face making him barely intelligible.
Loric's smile deepens. He holds Hert down and brings the fire to the right side of his face.
Hert screams and pisses himself from the pain, unable to hold his bladder.
After a while, he removed the fire from his face.
'Now, his feet.' Loric thought.
Hert kept screaming. He was like a pig about to be slaughtered.
The pain was so intense, that on top of his bladder, he even lost control over his bowels.
Loric stood up, satisfied. His rage subsided.
He tossed the stick in his hand back to the burning shed. It already collapsed, but sill burned.
Suddenly, Loric heard a sound.
*Ding*
*Revenge has been activated
His ability 'Revenge' is finally activated. Loric feels overjoyed.
After a few moments, he hears the sound again, but the message is different.
*Ding*
*Perfect revenge
A short poem follows.
*Oh, Revenge,
*How sweet you taste,
*When my own hands repay,
*What I, alone, experience.
After the poem, the voice continues.
*The execution of your revenge has been perfect
*The target of your revenge cannot retaliate
*All wounds suffered by the target will be healed
*Your body will be strengthened, granting you power on par with a boar
*Due to your target's ability, your communication skills with animals have improved
Loric did to Hert exactly what Hert did to Loric.
He punched his face for all those times Hert would hurt him.
He burnt his face and feet to match his own injuries.
What he did to him quelled his anger. This all resulted in perfect revenge.
Loric stands beside passed out Hert and he is happy. No, not just happy, euphoric. Words can't really describe how good he feels.
After so much time, he has ability. He is normal. All the things he suffered. And for what?
He is a new man. He now clearly sees. He understands. He feels like a fog has been lifted.
What was done to him his entire life wasn't for him. He was used and abused.
He decides. Here and now. He will repay kindness with kindness and enmity with enmity.
Now that he thinks about it, there is not much kindness to be repaid.
His train of thoughts is disturbed by house guards, who finally noticed the commotion.
They rush to Loric's and Hert's aid. When the guards see Hert on the ground, they disregard Loric and rush to him. They are horrified by his injuries.
After all, he is their friend.
Loric's clothes are all burnt, but he doesn't have a scratch on him. Not a new one at least. All his burns were healed, just like the voice said.
"What happened here?" one of the guards mumbled.
Loric opened his mouth to say something, but he was immediately stopped.
"Shut up! We don't care what you have to say. We'll find out from Hert when he wakes up."
The two guards called for help, to put out the fire. They then carried Hert to get help.
Loric began to worry.
'When Hert wakes up, he will surely say what I did to him. No, he will likely make it look like everything is my fault.'
His mind quickly wandered back to his ability, forgetting all about Hert.