Riven entered the brothel with shaky steps while desperately praying that the crippled old man had already fallen asleep for the night.
However, unfortunately for him, the moment he pushed open the entrance door and stepped inside, his hopes immediately shattered.
Because Hagrid was already waiting for his arrival.
The cripple sat in the hallway with his belt unbuckled and wrapped loosely around his only functioning hand, while the ugly grin spreading across his face made Riven instinctively tense.
*SNAP!*
Hagrid lashed the belt against the wooden floor hard enough to make the sound echo throughout the building, as almost immediately, Riven felt his stomach sink.
"Whatt did I tell ye, boy?"
Hagrid demanded, as he rolled his wheelchair slightly forward.
"Go straight to they training.
And come straight back.
Don’t ye dare dally around and be late!"
*SNAP!*
The belt cracked against the floor once more.
"But ye dallied around anyway, didn’t ye?
Ye came back late."
Hagrid continued, as his expression gradually twisted with irritation.
"Looks like a couple days of training have already made ye forget who owns ye.
Maybe learnin’ how to punch made ye think ye’ve become a man."
Hagrid taunted, as Riven slowly lowered his eyes while remaining silent.
Because if there was one thing experience had taught him while living inside the brothel, it was that arguing with Hagrid only made the punishment worse, which was why, he simply lowered his head and pursed his lips.
"Not even two days since ye started trainin’, and already ye’ve become disobedienth."
Hagrid muttered, as saliva sprayed from his mouth while he spoke.
"Thisa cannot be allowed."
The cripple slowly pointed toward the floor before him.
"Come here and lay down.
Take yer whipping like a man.
Fifteen lashes."
He declared, as a cruel smile spread across his face.
"So that ye never repeat thisa mistake again."
He demanded, as Riven quietly obeyed.
Slowly walking forward, he lowered himself onto the floor before the cripple while taking a deep breath and tightening the muscles along his back in preparation for what was coming, as a few seconds later—
*WHIP!*
*SLAP!*
The first strike landed heavily across his back.
"MMM—"
Riven grunted in pain as the worn cloth covering his body tore instantly while a line of burning pain exploded across his skin.
"ONE!"
Hagrid counted loudly while raising the belt again.
*WHIP!*
*SLAP!*
The second strike landed almost exactly on top of the first.
This time, Riven nearly bit through his own tongue as the pain surged through his entire body.
’This old bastard....’
Riven thought while his fingers dug into the wooden floor beneath him.
’One day I’m going to kill him.’
The thought surfaced naturally, as the pain gave way to boiling rage.
*WHIP!*
*SLAP!*
"THREE!"
*WHIP!*
*SLAP!*
"FOUR!"
The strikes continued landing relentlessly while Hagrid’s voice gradually grew more excited with each number he counted.
As somewhere around the sixth strike, while the pain consumed nearly every corner of his awareness, Riven suddenly noticed something strange.
’Huh?’
Riven thought while his eyes widened slightly.
’This warmth....’
Another strike landed.
*WHIP!*
*SLAP!*
"SEVEN!"
However this time, instead of focusing on the pain, Riven focused on the rising heat in the centre of his chest, as almost immediately, he realized that it was the same heat that Garron had spent the entire day trying to teach them to find.
’This.... Is this Aether?’
Riven wondered, as his heart immediately began beating faster.
Because after spending an entire day searching desperately for it, he had finally found the sensation everyone else seemed capable of sensing naturally.
’I did it! I sensed Aether!’
Riven thought joyfully, when another strike landed.
*WHIP!*
*SLAP!*
"EIGHT!"
The tyrant counted, however, unexpectedly, the pain felt weaker this time.
’Huh? Why was this one so mild?’
Riven wondered, as he sensed something shift inside his body, as though the heat within him had started to move towards the injured area.
’The warmth is moving....’
Riven realized.
’It’s traveling from my chest toward my back.’
He concluded, as the realization stunned him, because he wasn’t consciously controlling it....
His body seemed to be doing it automatically.
Like water naturally flowing toward a crack, or a hand instinctively shielding an injured wound.
As from that moment onwards, while strikes still continued to land, he felt almost none of them to hurt at all.
"ELEVEN!"
"TWELEVE!"
"THIRTEEN!"
The numbers continued climbing while most of Riven’s attention remained focused entirely upon the strange energy moving throughout his body.
As by the time Hagrid reached the final count, Riven was barely paying attention to the beating anymore.
"FOURTEEN!"
"FIFTEEN!"
*Pant* *Pant*
The cripple counted, as he started to breathe heavily, while Riven remained lying motionless on the floor.
’It’s finally over.’
Riven thought while keeping his expression completely blank.
Outwardly, he looked broken.
Defeated.
Like the punishment had crushed whatever spirit remained inside him.
Yet inwardly, excitement surged through his chest.
Because he had finally found it.
The warmth.
The Aether.
The sensation that had eluded him throughout the entire training session.
’Does this mean I’ll finally be able to do it tomorrow?
Will I finally be able to punch like the others?’
Riven wondered, as the possibility alone made it difficult to suppress the grin threatening to appear on his face.
"Go now, boy.
Cook me dinner."
Hagrid ordered while tossing the belt aside.
"And if ye keep layin’ there on the floor, I’ll beat ye again."
The cripple warned while pointing one crooked finger toward him.
"I hope ye learned yer lesson.
Because next time it’ll be fifty lashes instead of fifteen."
He said, as Riven immediately nodded while pretending to struggle onto his feet.
Then he slowly dragged his battered body toward the kitchen exactly as Hagrid expected.
However, the moment he rounded the corner and disappeared from sight, a wide smile instantly spread across his face.
"Yes!"
He whispered excitedly while throwing a tiny punch into the air, as although the movement immediately sent pain shooting through his swollen arm, for the first time all day, Riven did not seem to care.
Because although he had returned home expecting only punishment, somehow the beating had given him exactly what he had been searching for all along.....
The breakthrough that would allow him to keep up with the rest.