Ash found himself in the dark. Swerving his eyes around his surroundings, there was nothing he could see. The entire room was a pitch black reminiscent of a starless night.
There was the faint coolness around his feet. Moving his feet around, he realized there was water that was up to his ankles.
After a moment where he stood in quiet observation, the young boy began running through the black room. The wind whipped across his face and the water tickled his feet.
His body was as light as a feather. The ache of his muscles was gone, and he couldn’t feel his breath quicken despite running with all his might.
Yet the black haze never seemed to end. His hands flailed at his sides, entering and exiting out of his vision as he looked for anything that might tell him where he was.
Despite being left alone in the dark, the anger that had always burned fiercely inside his heart had been quenched with a vague fog of indifference.It was as if he was swallowed into the darkness and freed from himself. Despite that, there was the loss of his purpose that departed with his emotions. Not that it mattered much to him in this placated state. There was no longer any reason to feel wronged, or to fear.
It was an endless abyss of black that continued infinitely regardless of how much he ran.
Regardless of the futility of the action, he continued to his destination.
He ran.
And ran.
And continued to run.
It was only after a long, long period of time that he reconsidered why he was running. He began to slow down his pace, his hands now listlessly dangling at his sides.
Eventually, he found himself stopping and realized that there no meaning behind his actions.
He watched the darkness above him instead and waited. With a patience unbecoming of his usual persona, the young boy patiently stood for something to happen.
There was a sense of foreboding that he was making the correct choice. That instinct soon blossomed into a conviction.
The calmness of the water below his feet, and the emptiness of the room coincided with his flat emotional state as he simply observed the darkness.
It was as though he was peering at an empty canvas. With a hint of wonder, the boy began imaging the colors he would use in the emptiness all around him.
He would create a dark red color for the earth.
He slowly looked down at the ground and smiled.
Afterwards, he would mix in the burnt orange for a sunrise. He looked up from the ground, and peered at the door that appeared there.
He paused for a second. And began to walk to the exit in front of him. He put a hand on the door, and began pushing as a sense of peace enveloped his mind.
“Darling~”
A voice disturbed the silence. The boy stilled.
“Don’t go there. Not after I met you again in so long.”
A feminine voice with a hint of amusement made itself known.
His swallowed emotions returned to him in a flood. His eyes, once calm with satisfaction, lit with alarm and caution as he whipped his head around. He regarded the familiar girl before his eyes.
“You…”
In a confused whisper, he reached for the girl instead and turned away from the door. The water beneath his feet began to rise. Those vicious violet eyes of hers lit up with happiness when she watched him get closer.
First there was confusion. Then, it shifted to anger at this girl for disturbing his moment of quiet that was rare to the boy with a tumultuous mind.
He reached out to grab her neck. He clenched his hands tightly together, yet the young girl didn’t bother resisting and allowed her shoulders to drop.
She closed those disgusting eyes of hers as he pressed harder. The water rose above their heads without his notice.
The two of them were engulf into the waves as Ash's mind began to fade.
The boy opened his eyes in alarm
“AEUuk?!”
“G-aaak?!”
He awoke to the sensation of a cord of wires around his neck. Right above him, the nonchalant assassin stared down at him with those brooding eyes of his and watched the boy choke.
“F-fucker…”
You could be reading stolen content. Head to Royal Road for the genuine story.
“Good morning young master. It seems like you haven’t learned your lesson from yesterday, or the days before.”
“Hubert! Hubert! Time out!”
“...Oh wait, he can’t hear me–!”
Strangulation was the choice today. The day before, it was knives embedded into his sheets around his face, and before that a knife dandling right above eyes as he opened them.
Random assaults in quiet hallways, a hand around his neck as he was eating that made him spit out his food, getting knocked out as he was painting and ruining his drawings, knocked out in the library, and even in the bathroom…
Ash felt like he was steadily going insane.
The assassin finally let go with a gaze brimming with a reluctance that increased Ash’s stress levels.
That bastard…once he got his hands on him…
“Get the fucking out of my business, you fucker!!”
Holding his neck, Ash coughed as he stared at the old coot who kept disturbing him.
Despite his animosity none of his behaviors seemed to affect the mental state of this rickety old mercenary that refused to retire.
“Young master, as I was contracted to teach you everything I know, preparing you from assassinations is also a part of your training regimen.”
“...preparation my ass! Get the hell out of my sight! Go harass the other annoying duck bastard when he’s around.”
“Uwaak?! Nononono, you can’t do this to me! I’m practically your father!”
“Young master. That ‘duck bastard’ that you speak of is actively avoiding me and switches places with you when I try to find him…so instead. I will focus on training your body to react reflexively in danger.”
The assassin lunged towards the young boy and held his neck in his hand once more. This time Ash flinched before Hubert reached him, eliciting a small smile from the assassin.
“Young master, as I was contracted to teach you everything I know, preparing you from assassinations is also a part of your training regimen.”
The usual words spouted out of his mouth.
“E..euk…”
Hubert dropped Ash onto the ground who found himself depressed by being unable to resist him. With his hands clenched against the ground, Hubert turned away from him.
“That’s all. Good morning, my young master.”
Good morning…good morning…??
In a blink of an eye Hubert vanished from Ash’s vision as though the man were just a mirage. Staring at the blank spot where the mercenary departed from, Ash was slow to react.
“YOU FUCKING OLD COOT!!”
He hollered loudly as his stress exploded from him like a volcano. Hammering his fists against the ground, the teenager threw a tantrum once more.
“Oh god…how did it end up like this…what have I done! The happy father and son…I’ve decided! I’m Ash’s father now. Call me ‘papa’, my big baby!’”
“Shut up, you quacking son of a bitch! You’re just as bad as the old geezer!”
“Domestic violence…sob. Sob. So sad. I’m soooo sad.”
“B-bastard…shut the fuck up!”
The sound of falling glass distracted him momentarily. Turning his head around, Ash noticed a new presence inside the room.
Corvina had a distraught expression on her face, that made Ash freeze in place with his arms still up in the air. With a wooden expression on his face, Ash watched as the maid covered her face and run out the door.
“I-I’m sorry for being a burden and annoying the young master!”
With a light sobbing tone Corvina quickly ran off.
“W-wait no!”
Ash watched in panic as the maid hurtled down the hall.
“Gahahhahaha! Oh god, oh god, thank the lord for karma~!”
Redirecting his attention at once, Ash yelled angrily at Jackson.
“You noisy bastard, stop talking inside my brain!”
“My dear protagonist, you do realize you could’ve just responded inside your mind, right?”
“Huh?! How is it my fault you exist you duck bastard!”
“Oh dear…what a stubborn kiddie…”
“Shut up!”
Recovering his lost spirits at once, Ash responded angrily to the annoying bastard inside of his brain. There was something at the back of his mind that disturbed him, but he couldn’t put a grasp on why he was so unsettled.
There was something he had forgotten. However, his rage had easily filtered out the sense of discomfort as he bothered himself with the annoyance of the scriptor.
“This old man here won’t speak any longer. Shoo, shoo, go train.”
An image of a shadowed figure lounging at its side, picking at its ears flashed through Ash’s brain. In deep annoyance he hammered and cussed at the bastard who yawned and rolled around the ground.
“Uncute brat.”
“...”
With a face curled in disgust and rage, Ash stomped off to complete the rest of his morning.
--
“F-fucker…”
In the training hall, the young teen who charged numerous times against the mercenary was once again lying on the floor.
“Young master, please get up at once.”
Ash’s face twitched in annoyance as he heard the grating tone of the old geezer with his knife in hand, boring his eyes through the boy on the ground.
With trembling arms, Ash picked himself up to his feet. Swaying to and fro, the young master gritted his teeth at the assassin and charged once more.
“A-aeuk!”
He was on the ground once more.
“Again.”
His back landed against the floor first as his teeth knocked against each other, causing his jaw to ache.
“Again.”
With his face planted onto the floor, the young master was covered in dirt with his hands sprawled at his sides.
“Again.”
Ash’s legs and arms were wide apart as though he were a snowman as he contorted his face in disbelief.
“Again.”
With a blank expression on his face, Ash cursed at the assassin silently in his head as he laid on his side and refused to get up.
“Fighting~ Gogogo! Good luck, you’ll get there eventually!”
An image of a cheering man flitted through Ash’s brain as his face twisted once more. The mix of rage and stress on his face was similar to a drawing Ash made a few years ago. It caused even Corvina to yelp in fear, despite the maid being well accustomed to his bizarre art.
Hubert, after seeing his dark expression, smiled grimly and neared the boy who was lying on the ground. The assassin gently put his hands on his face. And gripped hard.
Ash’s face shifted into one of confusion mixed with frustration, before the boy dangled in the air.
With one hand on his face, the assassin spoke calmly to the boy whose cheeks and eyes were now distorted.
“O-old geezer…”
“Hmmm?! Hubert…’”
A growl of confusion and rage was directed to the assassin who’s face shifted into a passive expression.
“One day, that unkempt rage of yours will cause you trouble. It’s best to strip you of that arrogance now. Calm down.”
“Ash! Don’t react. At the very least, try to appear calm.”
The sound of gritting teeth came from the distorted face gripped in the assassin’s hand. Ash’s hands clenched and unclenched, as he continued to blister in rage that he was desperately holding back.
The assassin regarded the boy with a passive expression and simply watched as Ash struggled.
As the boy continued to dangle in the assassin’s arms, Hubert’s gaze darkened and he opened his mouth. Before he could say his words however, the assassin quickly dropped the boy and swiveled to his right.
A sword appeared from the corner of Ash’s vision.
“Hubert. That’s enough.”
With a stern expression, a man with pale yellow eyes regarded the assassin and raised his sword against the old man.