“It hurts so much. It’s unbearable. My body is breaking. I’m going to die. He’s going to crush me into a lump of flesh and bones. Ahhhhhhh!”

  These were Najun’s thoughts as he was punished by his father for his actions.

  His father believed that this entire mess was Najun’s fault — that he should have defeated the woman on his own, and that her escape in the end was also his fault, because he distracted his brother with talk of self-hatred and despair.

  Najun floated high in the air.

  His entire body was being squeezed, and he could barely breathe.

  He already had multiple broken bones and internal bleeding.

  “This is what happens when you’re useless,” said his father, Aihara, as he twisted Najun’s arm and pressed his head inward.

  In the room were Najun, Naki, their father, and his secretary.

  Naki stood below, looking up at his brother with sadness. He looked as if he could feel Najun’s pain himself — as if his own body were being torn apart.

  The secretary watched calmly, documenting everything she saw.

  Aihara was the one levitating Najun and nearly killing him.

  “Father… FATHER! That’s enough! He understands. He’ll grow stronger and become useful. He’s already useful — just not in battle yet, but he will be! I’ll train him myself, and then he’ll finally be able to help you properly.”

  Naki kept talking and talking, but his father continued hurting Najun.

  “You think I enjoy this? I feel everything my children feel. ALL of them — and Najun is no exception. I love him, but I have to do this so he learns. I promise you: the moment you do even one thing that benefits this clan, I will embrace you and accept you. Do you hear me, Najun?”

  He looked up at him and continued the torture.

  This went on for twenty minutes until Najun finally crashed to the floor.

  “I believe this disciplinary action is sufficient, yes?” Aihara asked, giving Naki an expectant look.

  But Naki only glared at him and carried Najun to the infirmary.

  “Boss, I documented everything exactly as you requested,” the secretary, Hina, said.

  “Thank you, Hina.”

  Aihara went to his room and locked the doors.

  Behind them, he began to cry — and laugh.

  “I don’t understand why Father does things like this. As if such a brutal punishment would accomplish anything. It’s nothing but pointless violence,” Naki muttered to himself while carrying Najun to the infirmary.

  “Doctor, Najun is severely injured. I think he needs intensive care.”

  Naki placed Najun on the bed and helped him lie down.

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  The doctor began treating him and tending to his external wounds.

  “He needs plenty of rest.”

  Naki understood and left.

  He worried deeply for his little brother.

  He cursed his father for this method of punishment, knowing it accomplished nothing.

  Walking through the massive estate, Naki was in a terrible mood.

  “I need to find the intruder quickly so Najun can be safe. Even though Father puts on a new face every day, his accusations always remain — sometimes getting worse. But where could she be? I already searched the underground. So she must be somewhere up here. Maybe in the forest… or inside the estate? I need a plan.”

  Naki bumped into someone.

  It was Hina, Aihara’s secretary.

  “Ah—sorry, Hina.”

  “Oh come on, watch where you’re going, you blind idiot.”

  “I apologized. Relax.”

  “Aha, someone’s in a bad mood, I see. Want to talk about it?” Hina said with a smirk.

  “No, I’m fine.”

  Naki tried to walk past her, but Hina stopped him.

  It turned into a sort of game between the two.

  “What do you want?!”

  “I want to help you.”

  “What are you talking about? How?”

  “With my intelligence and powers of deduction.”

  Naki looked at her with disappointment and turned away.

  “Wait! I’m serious. I’m smarter than I look — otherwise I wouldn’t be your father’s secretary, right?”

  “That doesn’t mean much to me.”

  “It’s obvious your brother is important to you. So important that you might even be willing to kill your own father for him?”

  “What are you saying? I never said that.”

  “But you’ve thought it. Many times.”

  “No. I’m not like that.”

  “No one makes your mood drop faster than your father. Najun has been hurt many times by others, but only when it’s your father do you become truly angry. With others, you’re normally angry — but with him, it’s different. You hate your father, and that’s okay. But at the same time, you want to make him proud.”

  “What are you now, a therapist?”

  “Not just today. But there is another way for you to find inner peace. A way that doesn’t require killing your father — and still allows you to make him proud.”

  “And that would be?”

  “Kill Najun.”

  Naki looked at Hina with disbelief.

  “You’re the worst. Get out of my sight. Now.”

  “Think about it. Without him, you’d have fewer problems with your father. And you have six other siblings — so it wouldn’t be a big loss.”

  “It would. Najun is the most important of all of them. So if you or anyone else touches him — you’re dead. Got it?”

  “No threats. I was only trying to help.”

  “Don’t.”

  Those were Naki’s last words as he walked away.

  Now his negative emotions boiled over.

  Because she was right: he did want to make his father proud.

  But when it came to Najun, he “hated” his father — and didn’t understand why.

  Ever since they were young, Najun had always been at Naki’s side, always protecting him.

  “I need to train.”

  Naki trained whenever he didn’t know what to do or felt overwhelmed, to keep his negative emotions from hurting others.

  These tunnels served many purposes: escape routes, storage for secret items, and various illegal activities.

  There was one particular secret hidden down there — the reason Aihara panicked when an intruder entered the tunnels. She might have found it… or even freed it.

  Inside a transparent cage was a creature of pure horror.

  It had a single eye on the left side of its face, a massive right arm compared to its left, and its entire body was made of mud, filth, and garbage.

  It spent every day trying to escape its cage, lashing at the walls with whips of mud and smashing its giant fist against the barrier hard enough to make one think it would break.

  Because of its strength, the barrier had to be reinforced daily — nearly hourly — with a family artifact: the Barrier Maker.

  This artifact, shaped like a diamond, allowed its wielder to create barriers using sheer imagination, shaping them like cages.

  Without this artifact, the monster could not be contained.

  Whether the Sakiko family could even stop it was unclear.

  And this was not the only secret the Sakiko family possessed.