In the luxurious inn of Cardinal City, a man and a woman were locked in a heated conversation, which, to the casual onlooker, might have seemed like a lovers' quarrel. But nothing could be further from the truth.
Once his emotions had calmed, Eídal became painfully aware of what he had just done: he had grabbed Astrid's forearm and spoken to her without honorifics, as though they were close friends. Horrified, he let go at once, stepping back abruptly.
"Wait, wait, wait," he stammered. "I'm so sorry! I've been told before that I have no sense of personal space. Ah-ha-ha… ha… ha."
Yet Astrid didn't appear irritated. Her gaze was distant as she looked down at the arm he had touched. After an awkward silence that stretched for several long moments, she exhaled briefly and said, "I wonder, how would she handle this? But since I'm the one who has to take charge… I'll do it my way."
She stopped staring at her own arm and stepped closer to Eídal, studying him from head to toe. Was she assessing whether he was fit to join her group?
"You must be freezing," Astrid noted, her voice soft yet commanding, "in those wet clothes."
"Eh?"
"Let me help you."
"Th-that's not necessary. More importantly--!"
Realizing he needed to steer the conversation back, Eídal struggled to find the right words, but Astrid's next remark rendered him speechless.
"Kneel."
Her calm demeanor completely clashed with the nature of the command, almost as if she were joking. Of course, Eídal refused. But Astrid simply sighed and repeated with unyielding resolve:
"KNEEL."
"Urgh!" In the next instant, the world seemed to collapse around him.
A mysterious force pressed down on Eídal's shoulders, and in the blink of an eye, he found himself forced to bow before Astrid.
"Wait!"
He tried to straighten up, but the pressure was so overwhelming it felt like his insides were being crushed into the floor.
"This is called 'King's Command,'" Astrid explained. "It's a skill that lets me issue orders to people when there's an overwhelming difference in our levels. Normally, I wouldn't use it."
Truth be told, Eídal couldn't begin to understand what was going through Astrid's mind. Her expression was melancholic, as if she were recalling something nostalgic. Then she murmured:
"You must always heed your superior's orders."
At that moment, a monotone, soft voice echoed directly inside Eídal's mind:
[Alpha system override]. It was the thorcam [emotional containment]; once again, Eídal's emotions had surpassed the system's tolerance. [Emotions released. System use count: Five. The user's emotions exceed tolerable limits.]
Another forced shutdown. Usually, the thorcam[emotional containment]could last days, even months, but when the user's emotions surged past a certain threshold, it triggered a reset.
'No…!' Eídal thought frantically. 'Not now! Why now?! If this keeps up…'
Swallowing his dread at the looming cocktail of side effects, he resolved to activate it for a sixth time. The only way to stave off the side effects was to reactivate the thorcam. Of course, this didn't eliminate them entirely; it merely delayed them, recharging so that when the next cycle ended, the side effects would return in full force. It was a double-edged sword, but in that moment, Eídal hardly cared.
Summoning an iron will, he opened the system screen.
He hesitated for a brief second, then proceeded. Navigating through the familiar menu, he maximized the intensity of his confidence and two other primary emotions. Lastly, he raised the intensity of a secondary emotion.
This time, it took only five short seconds.
With a determined effort, he began to push himself up. It was astonishing how emotions could fuel one's physical strength. Astrid, observing this, murmured:
"So stubborn."
Then, a subtle glint appeared in Astrid's golden eyes, and the force pressing down on Eídal tripled.
"W-wait--!" He crashed to the floor, gritting his teeth. "Urgh!"
Tiny splinters of wood scattered into the air, with some shards embedding into his palms, knees, and cheek. Eídal's figure left an imprint in the floor, like a shadow of pain.
The use of a thorcam subjected the user's body to tremendous pressure. Every human body has a limit to what it can withstand, like the pain threshold before death, the number of days without sleep before collapse, or the hours one can survive without water. If that limit is breached, the human body could die. The same held true for thorcams. They didn't have a fixed number of uses; this number varied for each individual, depending on their endurance.
In Eídal's specific case, the thorcam had already determined that his body could endure only sixteen uses.
"Try not to resist," Astrid said as she crouched down to look him in the eye. "I'm being careful not to kill you. Remember I said I'd help you warm up?"
What lay behind that mask of coldness? Eídal couldn't guess. Astrid stood up, walked over to the corner of the room, and picked up a vase of about seven liters. She tossed aside the red flowers it held and returned with the vase, which seemed to be filled with water, in one hand.
Eídal's last, blurred thought was, 'Even the vase looks expensive.'
Astrid spoke:
"Raising the temperature of things is easy once you're over level 80. "Enhance". Just like that."
A faint light flickered in her hand and traveled up to the vase of water. Suddenly, a bubbling sound emerged from the vase. Steam began to rise, even in the dim light. Through some skill, Astrid had heated the water to boiling. No, for some reason, the water exceeded boiling point without evaporating. Finally, Astrid added:
"I can do this too."
"W-wait... Wait, wait, wait, wait, wait!!"
And, with a resolute motion, she poured the scalding water over Eídal...
◇◆◇
The crushing pressure against the ground began to blur Eídal's mind. His trembling, thin limbs refused to move, and his exhausted mind begged him to let the tears fall as a burning pain spread across his back. Yet, hiding those fears deep within himself, Eídal forced himself not to cry.
The boiling water easily penetrated the threads of his soaked clothes, and an infernal heat began eating away at his skin. Astrid poured the scalding water in a small but steady stream, as if she were drizzling honey onto bread.
"Aghhh!" Eídal moaned.
Even breathing was painful. The scene was like forcing a child to hold his hand over a flame, holding him down so he couldn't pull back, savoring the moment as his screams mingled with the sizzle of burning flesh. The pain was unbearable.
"Ugh. Ah!... S-stop… Why?!"
The adorable creature asked between gasps, but his question wasn't directed at Astrid; it was aimed at the cruel fate that seemed to revel in his suffering. The monotone, soft male voice echoed in his head once more:
[Alpha system overridden. Emotions released. System loses use number six.]
'W-wait! No, no, no! Nooo...!' Eídal thought. 'For heaven's sake, please wait.'
At this rate, he would die. Either by the thorcam or the boiling water, death was almost certain. But fear of the side effects pushed him to activate the thorcam a seventh time.
"A-ah… Ahh!" Another muffled groan escaped him.
Pinned to the floor, he tensed his muscles in a desperate attempt to escape the unbearable heat; however, the liquid dripping over his hair began to seep into his eyes.
Suddenly, a spasm of pain jolted through him. The burning in his back and head intensified with every heartbeat. It felt as if thousands of needles were piercing his entire body.
Had he said something to upset the heroine? When Astrid emptied the first vase, she went back to the corner of the room and grabbed a second one filled with water. Eídal didn't even have a moment's respite before the horrific torture began anew.
"Aghhh!" Another stifled scream.
The second round broke his already worn-down resolve. The voice returned:
[System loses use number seven. User's emotions exceed the thorcam's capacity.]
Eídal had already lost the ability to think clearly. Upon hearing those words, he instinctively thought, 'Again...' He activated the thorcam an eighth time.
"Haah-haah-haah." His breaths came out in painful gasps, like the sensation of stepping into a cold shower. "Haah-haah-haah…"
The third vase emptied over him.
[System loses use number eight.]
'Activate… a-again…' Eídal thought reflexively.
Fourth vase.
[System loses use number nine.]
'... A-again…'
Fifth vase.
[System loses use number ten.]
'... A… gain…'
Sixth vase…
[System loses use number eleven.]
But with the seventh vase…
"Hey, hey," Astrid interrupted, "I'm pretty cruel, aren't I? Tell me, do you hate me now? But since you were honest with me, I'll give you a piece of advice. Don't try anything if you don't have the power to follow through. Why don't you just give up?"
Eídal shook his head slightly. Astrid dropped the vase with a thud and grabbed him by the hair.
"Stop being so stubborn!" she shouted at him. Her golden eyes flickered as if struggling to find the words. "Why? I hate people like you, so stubborn. So… I'm always the villain just for asking them to surrender, right?! Why can't they just give up?! I'm… the leader." Astrid's voice began to falter as her cold expression twisted. "I'm in charge… yet… no one ever takes my orders seriously."
When Astrid lifted the eighth vase, all of Eídal's strength drained from him.
"I'm done," Astrid concluded. "This time, I'll make sure you won't get back up. Don't worry, I won't kill you, but as I said before: you're free to hate me if you like."
Why was there so much anger behind those words? Eídal understood it wasn't directed at him, but rather something deeply rooted in Astrid herself. And with that, he finally surrendered to exhaustion. His last thought was: 'Did I lose?'
As the white light enveloped him, everything faded. There were no sensations—no burning, no anguish, no pain. It was a hazy place. Only one use remained before the thorcam would kill him. Did this mean the end was near?
◇◆◇
Eidal found himself descending a long staircase. The surroundings looked like something out of a dream; everything was blurred, and no sound reached his ears. Why was he here, at this moment? Eidal couldn't grasp the meaning of this staircase or why he was descending it.
"Am I dead?" he thought, but no answer came.
The staircase had no handrails and floated in the middle of nothingness, with no beginning or end in sight. Yet, the tranquility of this place was unsettling, as if he had swallowed a poison that plunged him into pointless illusions.
As he descended the endless steps, he noticed something: a female figure climbing in the opposite direction. Eidal didn't know her identity or understand why she was there. She ignored him, continuing to ascend.
"Wait…" Eidal whispered, unable to shake a sense of urgency.
As she passed, her long, cream-colored hair became visible. Without thinking, he felt an uncontrollable urge to follow her, as if he couldn't bear for their paths to part forever.
"Wait!" he pleaded, louder this time.
He turned around to reach her, but someone held him back from behind. It was a boy, no older than nine—his younger self. The child's body was covered in bruises; his lip was swollen, and one of his eyes was entirely shut. Eidal was startled at the sight of the scars covering the child's body, wondering how he could even stand.
The boy looked at him, eyes filled with a seething rage. Grinding his teeth audibly, he demanded with fury:
"Are… you going to give up?"
Eidal was stunned. The boy repeated the question with the same intensity:
"Hey, you! Are you going to give up?! Are you going to stay a useless coward?!"
◇◆◇
"Nooooo!" Eidal jolted awake, adrenaline coursing through his bones.
With effort, he tried to get up, forcing himself to use the twelfth thorcam function [contain emotions]. Emotions, incredibly, were enhancing his physical state, and he'd worry about the accumulating side effects later. Looking up, he noticed Astrid looked surprised, muttering:
"How is this…?"
"N-not… yet…" Eidal replied between gasps. "Ugh! Th-this is n-nothing. Ugh!"
Despite his ragged breaths and the burning on his skin, Eidal bit down until he drew blood. It was a battle against the crushing pressure weighing down on his shoulders. Although Astrid's ability forced him back by a centimeter, he managed to push forward by two. It was a true clash of wills.
"I…" Eidal whispered, "I haven't given up… yet. Tsk! So don't remind me, you little brat. I haven't forgotten why I'm here!"
Swallowing the urge to cry as his burnt skin cracked, he reaffirmed his purpose. Inside, he shouted, "For my family! For my family, I won't give up!" His twisted sense of love drove him on: "I promised to be useful. I'll win in our second match."
"To do that, I need…" Eidal thought, "to get up. I just need to stand up! Come on!!"
Though he couldn't fully grasp why he reached that conclusion, something within—maybe his heart—made him believe it. Maybe it was some unspoken rule: if he could stand, victory would be his.
Realizing what he was attempting, Astrid spoke, furious:
"Don't think it'll be that easy!"
She doubled the pressure on Eidal, and the floor creaked. Astrid accepted the challenge.
"Not yet!" Despite not being able to lift his head, Eidal spoke in a mocking tone. "Hey," he grinned, glancing at her from the corner of his eye, "is that all you've got?"
"Annoying!" Astrid increased the force.
"Ugh! I-is that… all… you've… got?"
The soft, monotone male voice resonated again in his mind:
[Alpha system override. Emotions released. System loses twelfth use].
But something else sent a chill down Eidal's spine:
[Due to the number of failed containments, the alpha system is shutting down. The user can no longer access the thorcam, as emotions can no longer be contained].
Did this mean he couldn't use the thorcam anymore? Maybe the repeated uses and forced re-initializations had broken it. This left Eidal in a desperate situation; without the thorcam, he was nothing. He couldn't even stand a chance against a monster like Astrid.
Eidal tried activating the thorcam [contain emotions] for the thirteenth time, but something went wrong. The imagined screen flickered while the thorcam's voice repeated: [Error, error, error…]
"Come on!" Eidal insisted.
[Error, error, error…]
"Just give up, or I'll kill you!" Astrid demanded.
As pleas and threats blended in the dark room, Eidal thought: "Just once… I just need to stand, and I'll win. Once more, just once!"
"Give up already!" Astrid seemed at her limit.
She threatened to stomp on Eidal's head as he struggled to get up.
"N-no… I refuse to keep losing."
Groaning, Eidal begged in his mind:
'Please… Activate.'
But the thorcam kept saying: [Error, error, error… Alpha system cannot access user].
'Just turn on already!'
Finally, the imagined screen blinked off, like it had been unplugged. The last thing the voice said was:
[Alpha system severs contract with user].
Despite the adrenaline, for some reason, the side effects hadn't appeared. Eidal was plunged into complete despair.
'Hey, p-please… p-please…,' he kept pleading in his head.
"Give up!" Astrid's voice grew sharper.
'Please.'
"Fall, or I'll kill you!"
'Please!!!'
"That's enough! You're dead!"
'Please, God, I don't want to lose!!!'
Suddenly, the thorcam's voice changed:
[Okay~!!!].
The imagined screen reappeared, and time seemed to slow. Everything moved with delay, as though in slow motion. The only sound that dominated was the beat of his heart: Thump. Thump. Thump… Thump… Thump…