Punishment

"Tell me...what did you do." Weiss slowly uttered each word of his sentence while giving off a scary killing intent.

"I-I...forgot...to do...mai-maintenance a-a-and...let my weapon r-rust." Clenching my ass and gathering what willpower I have left, I managed to reply.

I was kneeling on jagged pebbles with my hands behind my back. Where are we? In the middle of the wilderness of course.

I messed up. I messed real bad. After I subjugated the small drug-dealing gang in Boulse city, I immediately went back to the manor after spending another night in that shitty inn.

As soon as I got back home I went to sleep and had the same nightmare again, and the surrounding circling wind got stronger once more.

After a few days of tending to Rosaline's still hyperactive but now a bit more mellowed behavior, Weiss appeared out of nowhere, glared at me, and then threw me into the wilderness.

When I came to, I saw Weiss holding the very same dagger I used to slice the throats of those men. The memory of the sensation of cutting through live flesh flashed through my mind before I noticed the state of my dagger.

It was rusting. My dagger was just a simple iron dagger, very prone to rusting. I forgot to do maintenance. Cleaning the blade of blood and applying sword oil were the basics of weapon maintenance, something Weiss has taught me. And yet I completely fucked it up by forgetting to do such a simple task!!

Long story short: I fucked up and now have to face the consequences.

And now we're here. Getting punished by making me kneel on jagged pebbles while under the immense pressure of Weiss' killing intent.

"You need to pay respect to a weapon. A weapon is something that decides if you kill or be killed. Cleaning and carrying out basic maintenance is crucial to the survival of the weapon, and yourself. Now tell me...why did you forget such a simple task!!"

"I...I was tired a-and...it completely slipped...m-...my mind."

"Oh! You were tired you say? If I recall correctly you slept like a log in the 'Cat's Smelly Bum' inn after dealing with the thugs. That wasn't enough of a rest for you?"

How did he know that?! Was he spying on me the entire time? Holy shit that's creepy.

I couldn't answer his question. I couldn't find an excuse. I just sat there like a dumb idiot while sweating buckets.

Weiss sighed then retracted his killing intent. For the first time in what felt like hours, I could relax.

"Haah...haah...haah..." I tried hard to catch my breath and relax while wondering if this is the end of Weiss' punishment.

Weiss looked at me with a contemplating look. He's cooking up something, isn't he?

His mouth curled up into a smirk. Oh no...

...

Rosaline tilted her head upwards and saw the magnificent scene. A beautiful tree that has just started to sprout new leaves as the season enters spring. On one of the branches, there hung a cocoon-like object containing...well, me.

"Puhahahahaha!!!!" Rosaline laughed like there was no tomorrow.

She was holding her stomach and beads of tears fell down from the corner of her eyes. She kept laughing and laughing.

"Shut up!!!" I screamed. Much to my chagrin, she kept laughing.

"Ah, fuck!" I exclaimed in pain right after I screamed.

After making that whole fiasco in the forest, Weiss decided to wrap me in a cocoon with an exceedingly long metal thread. Then hung me upside down, tying the cocoon to a branch of one of the trees in the gardens manor.

The thread is unbelievably thin that if I move my body a little inside the cocoon, I get wounded, and causes pain to rush up my spine.

Even right now I am feeling immense pain. Tiny droplets of blood were soaking into my clothes, I could feel it. The cuts made by the threads weren't deep, but goddamn they are painful.

"How's it hanging Luka?" Rosaline teased with a grin plastered on her face.

Don't retort. Don't you fucking retort you goddamn shit. I WILL NOT RETORT.

Ignoring Rosaline's taunts and closing my eyes, I focused on every part of my body. Trying to halt even the tiniest movements as I could possibly manage.

Focus...just focus on not moving. Breathe as little as possible, just enough for me to survive and yet not cause my chest to expand too much.

"Umm, Luka? Are you sleeping?"

I relaxed my fingers, letting the threads touch them but not cut them.

Soon, I heard footsteps moving away from my position. Assuming that was Rosaline, she finally got bored and decided to do her own thing.

I fell into a trance. Being unable to move has given me the opportunity to think. To think about my life, both the past and the current. To think about my training, thinking about my flaws and how I could correct them.

My grandpa's lessons about morality came to mind. Back then as a kid I just shrugged them off, but I guess a small part of me accepted some of them. Looking back...I was a messed-up kid. If grandpa didn't raise me in place of my neglectful parents, my moral compass would've become much worse than it already is.

I can never be thankful enough for what my grandpa did. I wonder if I ever made him proud.

Time passed by. The glare of the sun died down and the gentle glow of the moon soon took over. Weiss hasn't freed me from my cocoon yet, but I wasn't in a hurry to be free.

I opened my eyes and saw Rosaline sitting in front of the tree, looking up at me with a worried look. Her silver hair reflected the moonlight, making it produce a beautiful but mysterious luster.

She was wearing pants and a simple tunic. If outsiders saw her in that attire, she would become a laughingstock in the noble social circles. For a noblewoman, wearing pants is something considered to be boorish. I don't even know how she got permission to dress up like that. No idea why she decided to wear that sort of clothes too.

"You're hungry right?" Rosaline asked me.

"Uhh...yeah..." I gave an honest answer. I was peckish after dangling here for hours.

Rosaline stood up and lifted a pouch.

"I have biscuits here! You want them?"

"I'd love to, but as you can see I can't move."

"Hehe! Watch this!"

Rosaline took a running stance and dashed towards the tree. She climbed the tree trunk with amazing speed and quickly reached the branch my cocoon was connected to.

"Get down from there!" I tried to persuade her to stop whatever she was doing.

Rosaline swung her body backward and dangled on the branch, hooking her feet to the branch to prevent herself from falling. She outstretched her hand, holding a cookie from the pouch she showed earlier.

"Come on! Eat it." She offered the biscuit in her hand.

I resigned and bit on the cookie. I chewed on the crumbly and sweet biscuit and swallowed. My stomach growled, sensing that food will finally be entering.

She kept feeding me biscuits until they ran out.

"How are going to get down without Rachel or me to help?" I asked.

"Fuhuhu!! Watch me." She smugly replied.

Rosaline—using her legs—swung her body from the branch, twisted her body in midair, and landed on the ground with a backflip.

"How in the world did you do that? Who taught you that?" I questioned the brat while still shocked by the scene I saw.

"I'm...umm...being asking Rachel to teach me stuff..." Rosaline answered while scratching her cheek.

"Why?"

Rosaline looked away. Is she trying to dodge the question?

"Rosaline...tell me..."

"F-fine!! I'll tell you. But first, tell me a story."

A story?

"Why a story?"

Rosaline went quiet. Her face was filled with longing. Something tells me I shouldn't pry further.

"Fine, I'll tell you a story, answer my question first though."

"Hmph! It's because I'm jealous."

"Jealous of what?"

"Jealous of you being trained by Weiss!"

"Seriously?"

"Enough questions!! Tell me a story!!!"

I sighed. This brat is such a handful. Why is she even jealous of that hellish training?

I racked my brain for stories that I've heard of back on Earth. Legends, myths, folklore, there was a lot I could think of. It was just a matter of choosing which one.

Stories involving gods should be off the list. I don't want to be branded as a heretic.

Maybe stories about heroes? Like Achilles, or King Arthur.

Many of those stories end in tragedy, however. I didn't want to tell a tragic story after she kindly fed me. What if I just take a segment of the story and relay that to the brat?

After thinking for a while, I've decided to tell Rosaline the story of how Odysseus escaped the cyclops Polyphemus.