"...Shou Xin…" He felt a little hurt as he cradled his little shard of talent tightly as though it might fly away at any moment.
The winds of the abyss within which he was, were especially brutal on his thin skin.
"Shou Xin! I hereby declare you my disciple! You will henceforth call me Great Master Supreme Sword God Vienna! Hahahaha!" Vienna, laughed heartily, "Such a name is the only proper way to address a being such as myself after all, isn't it?!"
His look was almost comical as he squinted not believing a damned thing Vienna had said past the talent analysis.
Vienna, in his form, tall and with sharp long claws as well as the muscles on his body clearly visible like vines wrapped around something beneath, was enough of a look to stop him from saying a word about it.
"Master, I, Shou Xin, accept you as my venerable master." He still opted to go for the easier to remember method and whilst Vienna was less than happy, he would not gripe over it.
"Call me by my full title when introducing myself, though, in private, this will suffice." Or would he?
He felt that Vienna was a fickle god whose vanity was only rivalled by his power.
"Yes, Master."
"Good. Now for your first lesson. Don't die." With these bewildering words, Shou Xin felt his very foundations shake down to his soul.
His mind was dragged down beneath even this abyss and into a far smaller place, cramped in comparison, yet warm.
Agony surfaced in his mind!
Hundreds of memories all slammed into him at once like shards of glass shot at breakneck speed!
His little shard of talent, the speck he had was about to be hit and so he quickly covered it with his illusory body!
The rain of glassed memories tore into his body, ripping open his crumpled body, yet he did not yield!
This little bit of talent was the way forward, his mind holding onto a single memory.
His first kill.
The way he would one day die, and the life he would be forced to lead if he did not keep this safe!
Since he could not take his own life, he would not allow anyone else to take it either!
The rain of memories stabbed into his mind shattering it almost instantly before being forcefully rebuilt by the sheer pressure of the other memories slamming into the surface of his mind like a mountain being shattered by another mountain!
By the time the process was done, Shou Xin had left his Inner Sea.
Opening his eyes, he felt nothing was different save for a weight which had lifted as though his past sensations and memories were covered, collected and the useless things which cluttered his mind thrown away.
"You have such little talent, that keeping those things would only take up space needed for techniques and training." Master Vienna said coldly, "Now run."
"What?" He who held his chest firmly gasping after the intense pain, tears in his eyes, looked up to find the eldritch horror of a being above him looking down with frigid eyes.
"R-U-N. NOW!" Master Vienna's arm turned into a blade and slashed at him with killing intent.
His pupils shrank and his already pale face turned white as a sheet.
Barely dodging it by an inch, he stumbled upwards kicking up dust as he almost fell before he began to sprint like his life depended on it.
"If I catch you, I will fillet you like a bloody fish. Now run faster." Vienna's words may have scared him less if he had shouted.
The tentative calm in his tone which moved through the tree's like a gentle whisper did not seem so gentle at all and only served to encourage him to run harder till his lungs felt they'd explode and then some more.
By the time he'd completed his run and finally his body gave out, he slammed into the ground whilst going full tilt, eating dirt.
A shadow appeared over him and he felt the presence of death.
"Do you wish for a break?" Vienna's voice came gently.
"...a-h… a...h-?!" Shou Xin tried to speak but his throat had dried long ago, long before his mouth had.
"What's the matter? You wish to rest? Just say the word." Vienna's slow steps echoed like thunder in his ears as he tried in vain to reply.
"I see. So you think the training is too easy then?"
Without the ability to speak, without the breath to move, he could only try in vain to weakly shake his head.
"The training isn't too easy? My…" Vienna squatted over him with a nightmarish grin, "...too bad."
A single long sharp finger tapped Shou Xin on the head, and he lost consciousness believing himself dead.
----
Clouds. Birds singing. A bountiful breeze. The scent of blood.
"So it was just a dream…" Shou Xin weakly stood from bed only to freeze in place as though a rabbit seen by a wolf.
He looked back to the sky, where did my roof go?
He looked to the birds chirping in the forest, where did the walls go?
He felt the breeze on his skin, what of the door?
He smelt blood and began to shake uncontrollably.
"Welcome back." A voice he wished to never hear again rang in his ears, instantly he made a run for it but didn't make it more than a step before he fell down, dragged by the ankle back unto the small clearing.
It had already been a month since Vienna had come to this world, and Shou Xin had begun questioning himself.
He would torture in the name of training. Kill in the name of kindness. But he would not allow Shou Xin to die without upholding his end of the bargain.
He would make him a master, whether he liked it or not.
That promise knowing it was taken so seriously both made him relieved, and scared.
"...cooked… something, again?" He was white.
Vienna insisted on never telling him what he was eating no matter how many times he asked and he had learned the hard way that one did not decline Vienna's food, the sensation of Vienna's hand forcing it down his throat lingered like a horrible trauma.
In fact, it was a horrible trauma.
Today, just as he finished his meal and Vienna stood up casting a shadow, Shou Xin quickly spoke in a hurry.
"W-, wait! I have duties as an executioner today! I can't train today, please believe me! It's just one day a month! If I don't go… the entire force of Sea Spring Town will come for us!" Shou Xin pleaded.
"Us? They dare…" Yet, it was in vain.
His words had stoked Vienna's pride.
"M-Master! Please!" Shou Xin bowed before Vienna honestly for the first time, "I wish to do this!"
He wanted to be more confident.
Vienna looked down upon Shou Xin coldly, "You bow so sincerely for this, yet not for anything else."
He huffed, "Fine. But, I will have to move up the trainings."
Shou Xin felt a chill run down his spine and suddenly the little speck of light called talent in his body began to tremble fiercely, like a storm had touched down.
His organs shook and blood gushed between gritted teeth.
Something felt like it was being engraved into his very being itself, the immense pain removed even his ability to scream as his skin crawled and his veins popped as though trying to escape his very flesh.
When the entire process was complete, Shou Xin felt he'd learnt something.
"Talentless Sword Arts?" He managed to get out between heavy breaths the name engraved now unto his soul with an overwhelming joy which shocked Vienna.
"What? Are you happy? With that name?" Vienna was bewildered, he wasn't sure what reaction he expected, but that was not the one.
He who had become teary eyed lost the strength in his legs, yet there were no tears to fall from his eyes as they'd all but vanished, only blood fell from his eyes.
Tears of blood shed in joy.
"Master Vienna, you may not know. But even this to me… is precious. A chance. An opportunity I'll never forsake." Shou Xin bowed his head.
Despite the beatings and torture he'd been forced to endure under this monster of a master, he never complained because he knew better than most.
The fate that awaited him was not kind.
He was terrified of it such that he would still take this fear, over that life of quiet desperation.
This was why anything… even the tiniest, smallest, most insignificant crumb of hope could make him break into the tears he didn't even have anymore, causing tears of blood to fall endlessly.
Such was the sensation he felt.
To one who truly despaired with nothing, the amount of encouragement it took was truly so insignificantly small to keep them going just a bit longer, it was unbelievable how little it truly took for such a person to hold on.
Vienna took his bow with open disdain however, and kicked him sending him flying down the hilltop where the shack laid.
"Your my disciple, quit groveling! If I ever catch even a single one of your knee's touching the ground again, I will personally come and rip every last shred of your soul out from your body to burn in the abyss!" Vienna's words awoke Shou Xin from his grateful tirade.
As he looked up at Vienna, he understood it was not a joke nor from embarrassment.
His Master was dead serious in every word his spoke like a decree directly from heaven.
It was a bit scary, but also reassuring.
If someone told him Vienna had told a joke, he would not believe them even if his soul were to be torn out.
He would sooner believe the Divine Emperor of Heaven was eloping with a mortal woman somewhere than to believe his master had told a joke, even by accident.
His heart cooled, he looked at Vienna coldly.
"I will now be heading out, Master." Shou Xin bowed slightly and turned heading towards Sea Spring Town.
It had been a month and yet the walls remained the same, the gates guarded by the same lax guards.
The streets filled with people, many did not remember his face since his opening moment as the new Sea Spring Executioner were taken by his horrible performance, everyone who saw it instead focusing on the splattering blood.
Not many recognized him if anyone.
...Soon enough he arrived at the plaza where the platform was.
Stepping into the crowd people cursed at him and pushed him around like a ball, their curses raining down like hail battering him.
Shou Xin scratched the back of his head and bowed, apologizing and such things before finally arriving at the front.
Several guards tasked with keeping the crowd and prisoners in check noticed Shou Xin instantly, others may not notice due to the mud and dirt on his clothes, but they could easily see the blood stained underneath.
Not to mention the Sea Spring Executioner's Blade which was handed down from executioner to executioner.
That alone served as proof and they let him through without question.