Kael's Torment and Unbreakable Will

Kael was born into the prestigious House Valtteri, one of the wealthiest noble families in the kingdom. To outsiders, his life should have been filled with luxury and privilege. But inside the grand estate of his lineage, his existence was nothing more than a waking nightmare.

From the moment of his birth, he was treated as less than human. His father, Duke Valtteri, saw him as a mere plaything, an object for the family's twisted amusement. Unlike his elder brothers, who were groomed for politics and battle, Kael was never given a role of importance. Instead, he was a tool—something to be used, humiliated, and discarded at will.

The abuse he suffered was beyond comprehension. His family revelled in their cruelty, testing poisons on his body to see how long he could endure the pain before collapsing. They broke his bones just to see if he would scream. When he finally did, they laughed, their eyes gleaming with sadistic pleasure. If he failed to entertain them, they left him starving for days, chained in the darkness of the dungeon beneath the estate.

His mother, a woman of beauty but devoid of empathy, watched it all in silence. She never lifted a hand to stop the torment. "You are weak," she would say, her voice devoid of warmth. "And weakness deserves to be eradicated."

The servants were no better. They avoided his gaze, pretending he did not exist. The nobles who visited the estate would smirk at him, speaking of him as if he were nothing more than an amusing sideshow.

The worst of all were his siblings. His older brothers, both revered warriors, treated him like a living training dummy. They carved wounds into his flesh with their swords, making bets on how much he could endure. They would whisper into his ear that he was worthless, that he would die nameless, forgotten.

But through it all, Kael refused to break. He learned to endure, to hold back his screams no matter how unbearable the agony became. He vowed that he would one day escape this nightmare. He swore that he would rise above them all.

The night he fled was the first time he had ever felt the wind on his face without chains. He had stolen away into the darkness, bloodied and battered, but alive. He had found his way to the academy, where he was determined to carve out a new destiny for himself. But even here, the shadows of his past haunted him.

Kael trained day and night without stopping, pushing himself beyond human limits. He did not allow himself rest, nor did he permit weakness to linger in his heart. He fought, bled, and suffered, but never once did he waver. His body, hardened by years of torment, became a machine built for battle. He forced himself to master every technique, to outthink every opponent, and to never let his guard down.

The other students at the academy saw his ruthlessness in training and mistook it for arrogance. They whispered behind his back, claiming he was a monster devoid of emotion. But Kael did not care. He had no need for their approval. He had one goal—to become the strongest, so that no one could ever lay a hand on him again.

One evening, as the moon bathed the training grounds in silver light, he stood alone, his knuckles bloodied from hours of striking the stone pillar before him. His breath was ragged, his muscles burned, but still, he did not stop. He could not stop.

At last, he whispered to himself, his voice like ice, "If I cannot be free, then I will be feared."

Now, with Ren as his only true friend, Kael knew one thing—no matter what the world threw at him, he would never let himself be broken again.

Ren had been watching Kael from the side, his fists clenched. He had known Kael for some time now, but hearing his story—feeling the weight of his words—shattered something inside him. Tears welled up in his eyes, and before he could stop himself, they spilled over, streaming down his face. His body shook, his breaths coming in ragged gasps as he finally let himself feel the overwhelming emotions that had been suppressed for so long.

"You… You're the first person to ever say something like that to me," Ren choked out, his voice raw with emotion. "You're the first person who doesn't see me as a burden… or a mistake."

Kael turned to him, his expression unreadable. For a moment, silence stretched between them, heavy with meaning. Then, Kael did something unexpected. He placed a hand on Ren's shoulder—not as a gesture of pity, but of understanding.

"We're the same," Kael said, his voice steady, though there was a flicker of something deeper beneath it. "We've both suffered. But suffering isn't what defines us. Strength is."

Ren collapsed to his knees, gripping Kael's arm tightly, sobbing freely now. The weight of years of loneliness, rejection, and self-hatred came crashing down on him, and yet, for the first time, he did not feel alone. Kael did not push him away, nor did he offer hollow words of comfort. He simply let Ren grieve the pain of his past, knowing that sometimes, the strongest thing one could do was to acknowledge the hurt.

As the stars shone overhead, Ren swore that he would follow Kael to the ends of the world. Not because of pity, nor obligation, but because Kael had given him something he never thought he'd have—a reason to keep moving forward.