Never Die Villain

Aleksei could see nothing.

There was nothing but chains, whips, and endless darkness around him, with no floor, walls, or horizon to tell him where he was anymore.

Every time he tried to move, the chains wrapped around his body tightened, while the sound of whips cracking echoed through the darkness and made him flinch each time.

Crack——!

——Again.

His father’s voice.

Bruises covered his fingers and wrists, while several of his knuckles were swollen from training. When Aleksei looked down at himself, he realized he was a child again, small and battered, just as he had been when he first learned that crying only made the lessons last longer.

——Raise your sword.

There was a wooden sword in his hand.

Aleksei tightened his grip.

——I said raise it!

Crack——!

The whip struck his back.

"Ghk...!"

He nearly fell to his knees, but the chains immediately pulled him upright before he could fall. Aleksei gritted his teeth and raised the practice sword in front of himself, forcing his trembling arms into the stance that had been drilled into him countless times before.

——Too low!

Crack——!

——Your wrist.

Crack——!

——Your feet.

Crack——!

——Again!

Aleksei obeyed.

He always obeyed.

Because somewhere behind him, hidden beyond the darkness, someone else was crying.

——...Brother?

The whipping stopped.

Aleksei froze.

A muffled sob reached him from somewhere beyond the chains. He would have recognized that voice anywhere, and the moment he heard it, his entire body tensed as he turned toward the sound.

——Brother...?

Aleksei pulled against the chains, no longer caring how tightly they dug into his body.

——Are you there?!

——Brother?!

The darkness shifted.

Far in the distance, he saw a small figure.

His younger brother stood alone with a wooden sword held awkwardly between both hands, his shoulders trembling as he stared at the floor. Behind him stood their father, one hand resting upon the boy’s shoulder while the other held the same whip Aleksei remembered far too well.

"No..."

Aleksei pulled harder.

The chains tightened.

"No, no, no. Don’t touch him!"

His father looked toward him.

——You’re tired, aren’t you, Aleksei?

"I’m not..."

——You can rest.

"I said I’m not tired!"

——You don’t have to bear the burden anymore.

Aleksei’s breathing stopped.

His father gently pushed the younger boy forward.

——He can take your place.

"No...!"

Aleksei threw himself against the chains.

Metal tore into his wrists as he fought them, but he barely noticed the pain. He could see his brother looking at him, confused, frightened, and still too young to understand exactly what it meant to be standing there with that sword in his hands.

"I can do it!" Aleksei screamed. "I’m still here! I can keep going!"

His father raised the whip.

——Then prove it.

Aleksei stopped struggling.

The wooden sword was in his hands again.

His body was older now.

Then younger.

Then older again.

Years passed with every blink, his hands changing from the bruised fingers of a child to the calloused hands of the young man who had been scouted by the Northern Frontier Knights.

Yet the sword remained in his grip, the chains remained wrapped around his body, and his younger brother remained behind him.

Crack——!

Aleksei raised his sword.

Crack——!

He corrected his stance.

Crack——!

He swallowed his tears.

Again.

And again.

And again.

It didn’t matter how much it hurt.

As long as he remained standing, his brother wouldn’t have to take his place.

As long as Aleksei remained the heir, his brother wouldn’t have to suffer the same fate as their mother.

As long as Aleksei remained the heir, their father would have no reason to turn his attention toward the only family Aleksei had left.

That was why Aleksei endured every beating, every broken bone, and every night spent wondering whether the next mistake would finally be the one that made his father discard him, always with the same thought in mind.

He only needed to hold on until he became the heir, until the title and authority of House Karskin belonged to him rather than the monster who had taken his mother’s life and held his younger brother hostage to keep him obedient.

Then he could finally do it.

He could kill his father.

The thought had frightened him when he was younger, but as the years passed, it became less of a fantasy born from hatred and more of a promise he repeated whenever the pain became unbearable.

One day, he would become strong enough that his father could no longer threaten him, powerful enough that nobody could take his brother away from him, and when that day came, he would personally make the man answer for everything he had done.

So... he couldn’t fall.

He couldn’t lose his position to his brother, couldn’t allow himself to become useless, and certainly couldn’t let his father decide that there was another son worth molding into the next heir.

Every failure carried consequences far greater than another beating, because whenever his father looked disappointed in him, Aleksei knew exactly whose name would come next.

——Perhaps your brother would do better.

Those words had always worked.

No matter how exhausted Aleksei was, no matter how badly his hands trembled around the sword or how much he wanted to collapse and never stand again, the moment his father mentioned his younger brother, Aleksei would rise.

He always rose.

Because if someone had to suffer until the day their father died, Aleksei had decided long ago that it would be him.

——Aleksei.

Aleksei reached forward, feeling a lump form in his throat as the darkness before him slowly gave way to a figure he knew far too well.

A woman stood there with the same gentle expression he remembered from his childhood, watching him with eyes he had spent years trying desperately not to forget.

"...Mother."

It was his mother.

For a moment, Aleksei could do nothing but stare at her. He had imagined seeing her again countless times over the years, sometimes in dreams and sometimes during those long nights when the pain had kept him awake, but none of those memories had ever felt as vivid as the woman standing before him now.

——Aleksei.

Her voice nearly broke him.

"Mother...?"

His hand trembled as he reached toward her, afraid that the moment his fingers touched her, she would disappear.

Yet when her palm gently touched his cheek, warmth spread across his skin, and Aleksei sucked in a shaky breath.

——You’ve grown so much.

"...I tried."

——I know.

"I really tried, Mother."

His voice cracked despite his efforts to control it. He wanted to tell her everything that had happened after she was gone.

"I protected him," Aleksei whispered. "Just like I promised you. I worked harder, and whenever he said I wasn’t good enough, I forced myself to become better."

His mother said nothing.

"I didn’t let him touch Yarik..."

The chains around Aleksei tightened.

"I became strong, Mother. I’m almost there. I just need to endure a little longer."

His mother looked at him sadly.

——Aleksei...

"Just a little longer."

She raised both hands and gently held his face.

——How much longer are you going to make yourself suffer?

Aleksei’s smile faltered. "...What?"

——You’ve done enough.

His mother pulled him closer until his forehead rested against her shoulder, holding him exactly as she had when he was small enough to hide within her arms.

Aleksei remained stiff, frightened to accept the embrace, because somewhere in the darkness behind them, the chains were still waiting for him to return.

——You endured everything because you thought you had to, and even when you hated every second of it, you kept standing because you were afraid of what would happen if you stopped.

Aleksei’s fingers slowly curled into her clothes.

——But you were a child too.

"...."

——You should never have had to protect everyone.

"...Can I really stop?"

His mother smiled.

——Yes.

Aleksei closed his eyes.

———!

And then the darkness swallowed him whole.

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