Chapter 114 Reina's Punishment



The moon outside shone brightly in the middle of the night. The chill breeze brushed the leaves, making an arrangement of melody. The dormitory building had all their light switched off except for a room with the window left open, letting the chill breeze creep up the boy lay on the floor.

Growling under his teeth, Zio's consciousness finally returned. As he opened his eyes and rose from the floor, he found a small pouch with a note beside him as he shifted into a sitting position.

Reaching for the pouch, he took the note first and read it. 

It was but a short sentence that read, "Your monthly Serenity Candy~  -Shannon"

He sighed as he read it, recalling the time when he received a message chat from Shannon telling him that she was going to supply him with Serenity Candy out of nowhere every month.

But, he wondered why should Shannon ask Ember to give him the candies instead of herself in person or use the Octagram's Delivery Service itself.

It was not like Zio had a problem with Ember, it was just that he thought that was unnecessary to do that. Though in the end, as long as he could relax his mind, he couldn't care less about who and how did he get the candy from.

Zio flipped the note, thinking that there might be more of this note message, and yes, there was a message on the other side of the note that read, "I have already fed you one while you're unconscious. -Ember"

As he read that, he realized there was something stuck in his mouth, the candy. Sadly, he could no longer taste the candy's sweet flavor. Feeling disappointed, he immediately swallowed the whole candy that was in his mouth.

Serenity Candy's relaxing effect came as soon as someone chew it, mostly from its taste and flavor. So, as the relaxing effect was already in effect, swallowing it whole didn't make any difference to his mind. He could always spit the candy out if the effect was already active, but he chose to swallow it anyway.

Zio rose to his feet, storing the pouch in his storage cube. Before anything, he scanned the room for any potential trouble. Did not find anything, he took Retro from the floor and walked toward his bed, switching the light off as he made his way.

"Reina?"

Zio stared at his sword, waiting for a response. But, the sword, Reina, did not respond.

Though he was curious about why she didn't respond, his sleepiness started to kick in, overwhelming his thought to investigate to just sleep.

Gently put the sword beside the bed, Zio quickly jumped onto his bed. As he was on the verge of seeping in deep into his dream world, he assured his mind that Reina would be alright once he woke up in the morning.

After Zio fell asleep on his bed, the sword made a sound as if it were being polished. A trembling voice coming from the sword, "It's hurt…"

The next morning, Zio woke up with renewed energy even though he slept late.

After showering and such, he had breakfast together with Reina who was unusually quiet today. Zio asked if there was something that troubled her but Reina said no and suddenly cheered up.

"Well then, I'll go to class first. Take care of yourself, Reina. Avoid window, you don't want people to see you right?"

Reina nodded with a forced smile.

Noticing her smile, Zio stopped as he was about to leave his room and stared at Reina concerned. Though he couldn't feel what his bound artifact felt at that moment because of his lack of magic, he still could discern and guess just by looking at her expression and gesture.

"Are you sure you're alright?"

"I am, master. Don't worry about me!"

As much as Zio wanted to find out what troubled Reina, he still have a class to attend, and he didn't want to skip class for sure. So, after confirming Reina's behavior for the last time, he headed to the lecture hall, to his class.

Reina stared blankly at the door where her master had disappeared from her sight. A moment later, her body jolted as if she was being electrocuted.

"It's hurt…"

Reina groaned in pain as she wrapped her arms around her, curling up on the couch like a cat.

It was normal for an artifact, especially one that had materialized its own ego to experience its body, either human form or object form, to be electrocuted like that.

The reason why Reina experienced something like that was the result of disobeying her master. Last night, when Zio was not in his right mind, swinging her viciously against the empty air and eventually almost killed Ember.

At that time, Reina had forced herself to stop the sword's momentum before it could slash Ember. She also made her blade dull when Zio was swinging her for the second time so Ember could parry it easier.

Those were the act that was considered as disobeying the artifact's owner, and the punishment given to the artifact were varied and would be accumulated, the more they did it, the higher the level of punishment. The worst of it was losing their ego and returning to a normal artifact, and when they did regain their ego, it wouldn't be the same as their previous one.

Despite knowing that, Reina disobeyed Zio because she didn't want her master to feel guilt and regret what he was doing just like her previous master. 

Reina's previous master took his own life after unconsciously—under a hypnosis spell—killing his family and friends. On top of that, her previous master killed himself using her twin sword, which now had lost its ego as the punishment.

"Sister…"

Since that time, Reina was determined to ensure her master's life. She was ready to sacrifice and risk herself if it meant her master could live a long life. If by chance she lost her ego in the process, so be it. For her, nothing was more important than her master's life.