Episode 4. You can come anytime if you are in pain.
Episode 4. You can come anytime if you are in pain.
"Ugh, argh......!"
One month ago, in a secluded corner of the backyard of House Belmont.
It was an early hour, before the dim dawn mist had even cleared.
With a rough gasp, a heavy iron sword fell powerlessly to the ground.
Clang─!
Both hands gripping the sword were already a mess of popped blisters, and sweat poured down like rain, soaking her pink hair.
Vivian Belmont clutched her throbbing right shoulder and let out a painful groan.
"A, Agassi! Were you secretly training again?"
Before she knew it, Philip, the family's long-time butler, ran over with a pale face.
He hurriedly kicked the iron sword that had fallen to the ground to hide it, looking around anxiously.
"If the Baron finds out, I will really be in big trouble too! Please stop training, Agassi!"
"Haa...... lower your voice. No one is awake yet."
"Agassi......"
Vivian caught her breath with a pale face and massaged her shoulder.
Philip's worried nagging hovered in her ears, but she had absolutely no intention of letting go of this heavy iron sword. No, she couldn't let go.
"For the sake of the family, I have to become even a little bit stronger."
The Baronial House Belmont was a peaceful and wealthy noble family on the surface, but internally, it harbored a fatal weakness.
That was the lack of a 'male heir' to inherit the family.
Eventually, her father had reached the point of planning to adopt a suitable boy to hand over the position of family head.
'I am right here...... and he wants to hand the family over to an adopted son who doesn't even share our blood?'
Vivian could not accept that reality at all.
As the eldest daughter of a household with only three daughters, the only path she chose was to pick up the sword and prove her own martial prowess.
However, her conservative father did not look kindly upon his daughter holding a sword, so Vivian had to continue her swordsmanship training day and night, avoiding the eyes of others.
"Ugh, argh......!"
Once again, a sharp pain, as if scraping her optic nerves, spread from deep inside her shoulder.
Because she had forced herself to swing the heavy sword, Vivian's muscles and ligaments were clearly screaming.
"Agassi! This won't do. I will bring a physical therapist first. Your condition does not look good at all."
"No!"
At Philip's suggestion, Vivian shouted and grabbed his arm.
"If that physical therapist makes a mistake and spreads a rumor that I am training in swordsmanship...... it's only a matter of time before it reaches my father's ears. Absolutely not!"
"But if you leave it like this, you might not be able to use your arm forever! You must receive treatment."
"I can bear it. This level of pain is...... ugh!"
Before she could even finish her sentence, a severe pain surged, making Vivian's waist sway.
It was then. The butler Philip, who was stamping his feet at her stubbornness, clapped his hands as if something had suddenly flashed in his mind.
"Ah! Agassi, there is one way."
"......A way?"
"There is a very famous physical therapist in the back alleys of the Roswell Territory market. He is called the 'Hand of God' among noble ladies and young misses...... but he is blind."
"A blind...... therapist?"
"Yes! Since he cannot see at all, he won't notice the traces of swinging a sword. Moreover, since he lives tucked away in the back alleys, it will be easy to keep him quiet."
Philip's words made quite a lot of sense.
If he was a blind man who couldn't see, it was perfect for hiding the cause of the injury.
"Hmm, if it's the Roswell Territory, it's not far from our estate."
"We also have a good relationship with House Roswell, so you can go with a comfortable mind."
"I understand. Then let's leave right now."
Thus, covering her face with a hooded robe and accompanied only by Philip, Vivian set foot in the back alleys for the first time in her life.
The musty smell of the sewer piercing her nose.
The shouting and dog barking heard from somewhere.
'Does a therapist really live in a place like this......?'
Suppressing the urge to turn back several times, she arrived at a shabby single-story house huddled at the end of the alley.
— Knock, knock.
"Come in."
The voice heard from beyond the door was unexpectedly young.
No, it was beyond young; it was clear.
Creak.
The old door opened, revealing a simple interior barely lit by a single lamp.
Under the orange light of the lamp, a man stood quietly beside the treatment bed.
That was the first meeting between Ian and Vivian.
"Please close the door. The outside wind is cold."
"Ah, I'm sorry."
The man's appearance was too different from this dirty and smelly back alley.
Blonde hair that shone brilliantly as if gathering all the sunlight, and red eyes that glowed ruby and clear.
To put it simply, it was an overwhelmingly unrealistic appearance, more so than any high-ranking noble young master or imperial family member Vivian had ever met in social circles.
"Who is it? Judging by the voice, you don't seem to be someone with a reservation."
The man asked in a gentle voice.
At that moment, Vivian's heart thumped.
"Can I only come if I make a reservation?"
"Haha, I was just flustered because it's a voice I'm hearing for the first time. Nice to meet you, I am Ian."
"I am Vivian......"
Those red eyes, which had lost focus and floated in the air, proved that he was completely weak.
Moreover, the moment Vivian's gaze traveled down Ian's face and lingered on his neckline, she gulped down her dry saliva without realizing it.
'That slender neckline...... it feels like it would snap if I applied just a little strength with my hands......'
Gulp.
As the sound of her Adam's apple moving up and down sounded embarrassingly loud even to herself, Vivian hurriedly clutched the hem of her robe.
Then, Ian smiled faintly and spoke.
"Did you come because your shoulder is uncomfortable?"
"H-How did you know?"
"Because your footsteps lean to the right. First, would you lie down here?"
As Vivian lay face down on the bed, Ian's hands gently climbed onto her shoulders.
As the treatment began, Vivian realized at once why this man was called the 'Hand of God'.
"Ah, ugh......!"
"The ligaments are heavily damaged. It will hurt a little."
Instead of his blind eyes, it felt as if hundreds of eyes were attached to his fingertips.
His skill in accurately finding the source of the pain, pressing it down, and relaxing the roughly tangled muscles was marvelous.
"Hahut─♥ O-Oh!? I'm sorry. I made a strange sound......"
"It's fine. It's a natural phenomenon that everyone experiences when they receive my treatment, so you may make as much sound as you want."
Every time his touch reached her, the muscles that felt like they were tearing melted like cotton candy, and a pleasant heat enveloped her entire body.
To Vivian, who had never fully entrusted her body to anyone, the bold touch of the blind Ian caused a strange sense of relief and pleasure at the same time.
"Are you okay now?"
Ian, who finished the treatment, asked as he wiped the sweat from his forehead with the back of his hand.
At his words, Vivian carefully rotated her right arm.
'It's refreshing...... like a lie, there is no pain at all.'
Her shoulder, which had been hard to even lift to hold a sword, had become as light as a feather. Vivian closed her robe and replied in an excited voice.
"I think I'm fine. It's really amazing. It doesn't hurt at all."
"That's a relief."
Ian, still looking into the air with unfocused red eyes, added softly with a gentle smile.
"You may come whenever it hurts."
It must have been just a therapist's routine greeting to a patient.
However, that low and soft voice flowing through the blind therapist's lips left a deep burn mark in Vivian's mind that could not be erased.
"I-I understand...... I will come to find you whenever it hurts......"
Since that day, Vivian's daily life began to twist in a bizarre direction.
"Haat! Hut......!"
The dark training ground of the Belmont mansion.
Vivian swung her sword with much more violent and destructive movements than before.
Clang─! Clang─! Clang──!!
Rather than training to surpass her limits, her movements were so violent that she looked like someone determined to ruin her own body.
Every time the heavy iron sword cut through the air, her shoulder ligaments were pulled taut to the limit, and a scream as if her muscles were tearing could be heard.
"A-Agassi! Aren't you training too severely lately?"
The butler Philip, who was keeping watch from afar, couldn't take it anymore and ran out, shouting.
"Your body will really be ruined at this rate! No matter how much you want to prove your martial prowess to the Baron, to abuse your body to this extent......"
"Be quiet."
Vivian caught her rough breath and drove the sword into the ground.
Then, the sweat dripping from her forehead fell to the ground drop by drop along her chin.
"Ugh, argh......"
At that moment, a familiar yet sharp pain tingled and spread from her right shoulder, which had been excessively abused.
A severe pain that required her to stop training immediately and look for an ice pack.
However, Vivian's expression as she clutched her shoulder, far from being distorted in pain, bizarrely began to flush.
'Is the pain starting to come?'
Vivian's eyes gleamed in the darkness.
Even while feeling the pain, the corners of her mouth slowly curled up, harboring an uncontrollable ecstasy.
"Haa...... haa......"
Until now, Vivian had to be perfect, had to be strong, and could not show a weak side to anyone.
But in front of that blind therapist in the shabby back alley, it was different.
When he felt her skin and caressed her pain, she could lay down all the burdens of the world and feel a sense of liberation as her true 'self'.
— You may come whenever it hurts.
That sweet voice that hovered in Vivian's ears as if whispering.
She tightly gripped her throbbing shoulder.
"Heh, hehe......"
A suppressed laughter leaked through her lips.
Vivian's eyes, reflected in the moonlight, had already strayed far from the path of normal reason, flashing red with terrible obsession and thirst.
'Since it hurts now......'
Pain was a ticket. The sole qualification to monopolize the touch of that beautiful and fragile blind man.
'......I can go see Ian-nim again.'
Philip unconsciously took a half-step back.
It was a face of Vivian Belmont that even the butler, who had guarded her side for over twenty years, had never seen once.