Chapter 100: Just... what sort of training is your teacher putting you through?

"People died because that thing was used."

"Well, I just don’t have to die then."

Lucian shrugged and Sarah...

She was regretting the moment she thought waiting to see what Lucian’s teacher sent him would be a good idea.

But the next second—

As she looked at Lucian, as she looked at his calm eyes, she couldn’t help but pause.

All of this was absurd, yes.

But...

Lucian wasn’t a fool.

He knew what these artifacts did, he knew the harm they were capable of and he... he was still using them.

And that made Sarah stare at him a little longer.

Lucian on the other hand, closed the glass cover and turned to the last item, a red-black thread wrapped around a white spool.

"That’s... Widow’s Thread..."

Sarah’s face turned pale.

"Mhm."

Lucian nodded.

"This is for Healing discipline."

Sarah stared at this monster in front of her in disbelief.

"It tightens when energy or regeneration pushes too violently through the bound area. If my body tries to heal without control, it punishes the mistake."

"Punish the mistake?"

Sarah’s voice turned sharp.

"That thread is used on regenerating prisoners, it is wrapped around open wounds and every time the prisoners try to heal their wounds, it cuts deeper into their wounds.

I’ve seen Vampires scream in agony because of these threads.

These things do not punish the ’mistake’, they punish you when you try to heal."

"That’s where you are wrong."

Lucian shook his head.

"The threads move with energy, they don’t have any of their own. You see, every time anyone tries to heal themselves, they use Energy, usually, because most beings do not train their healing, their body uses excess energy to heal itself.

These threads use the excess energy to move and cut deep into the wound, however, if you use the exact amount of energy needed to heal a particular wound—

The Threads won’t have the energy they need to wound you any further.

So yes, these threads only punish mistakes."

Lucian explained, telling her everything Vivienne taught him and Sarah... she looked at him with a ridiculous look on her face.

This was... the first time she had heard such a ridiculous statement.

Sarah had spent months working with the Interrogation Unit and never once had she heard such a thing, she had only seen supernatural beings scream in agony once these threads were wrapped around them.

Heck, she had seen many cave in the instant they saw these threads.

These were one of the worst things used in that Unit, one that even made the interrogators uncomfortable and he...

He was using it for training...?

"You are insane..."

She spoke her thoughts out.

"No, I am careful."

Lucian spoke with a serious look on his face.

"That’s not careful, you are using a torture device to train yourself."

"If my own recovery can be turned against me and be used to ’torture’ me, I need to learn how to control it."

"That is..."

Sarah didn’t know what to say.

"Wrong on so many levels..."

She still completed her words, saying anything that came to her mind, but by the end of her sentence, even she seemed... unsure.

"Just... what sort of training is your teacher putting you through?"

She couldn’t help but feel frustrated for his sake. And that itself was frustrating because she felt angry for his sake.

But Lucian—

"The one that will make me stronger in the most effective way possible."

"That makes no sense, there are countless ways to get stronger."

"This one’s fastest."

"You don’t know that."

"I don’t."

Lucian shook his head.

"But I trust my teacher."

"A little too much, maybe."

Sarah spoke as she looked at the ’training kit’ in Lucian’s hands.

"That’s not a Training kit, it’s a Torture kit."

"Meh, it’s all about perspective~"

"That is not perspective!"

Sarah raised her voice.

But Lucian—

"It helped me survive, Sarah."

He spoke and suddenly, Sarah turned silent.

"The enemies I will face in the world won’t be kind, so my training cannot be ’kind’ either."

Lucian took a small pause then—

"Vivienne says every fighter pays in blood. You can spend yours in training, or spill it on the battlefield. I know which one I’d rather choose." 𝗳𝐫𝚎𝗲𝚠𝚎𝗯𝕟𝐨𝘃𝚎𝗹.𝗰𝗼𝗺

He spoke with a dangerous grin that made Sarah gulp.

For a moment, she didn’t say anything, she only stared at Lucian, somewhat horrified. Lucian shrugged as he stood up with the case in one hand, then, his expression returned to his usual, bright self and—

"Want to see?"

He asked.

Sarah blinked.

"What?"

"How I train with them."

"Absolutely not."

Sarah shook her head.

Just one conversation was more than enough for her to see the ’real’ Lucian and... as shocking as it was to say this—

She very much preferred his usual lazy, sarcastic self to the real him, who, at best, was a training-obsessed maniac who cared about nothing but strength. And at worst... well, she couldn’t bring herself to imagine what his worst might look like.

"Come on~"

Lucian smiled at her answer and leaned towards her.

"I know you want to.

Your mouth may say no, but your eyes are saying yes."

"The only thing my eyes are saying is that you need professional help."

"I have a professional teacher."

"That is not helping your case."

Lucian laughed, then, with a shrug, he started walking toward the door. Sarah stayed where she was for two seconds, then she cursed under her breath and followed.

"Oh? Coming after all?"

Lucian grinned.

"I am making sure you do not kill yourself."

"How kind."

"This is not kindness. I simply do not want a teammate to kill himself while training during an active mission, that would be too embarrassing."

"Kek. Tsundere."

"What did you say?"

"Meh, you won’t know."

Lucian shrugged.

The two walked down the protected hallway, the guards near Evelyn’s suite looked at the case in Lucian’s hand, then quickly looked away when they saw his smile.

The basement level was quiet, there was a sealed training room at the end, Lucian walked toward it like he was heading to a normal gym. The space inside was mostly empty except for a few reinforced posts, steel plates, a padded floor, and several old training dummies.

Lucian placed the case on a bench, then he took off his jacket and folded it neatly.

"You are seriously doing this now?"

Sarah couldn’t help but ask.

"Of course."

Lucian nodded as he opened the case again.

"It is past midnight."

"Less interruption."

"You were working all evening."

"Meh, I mostly stood around and looked handsome."