Both before and after the loss of my own family, I’d read a lot of stories about shitty families, but until now I’d never believed they actually existed. I was blessed to have a father, a loving mother, a kind stepmother, and two good siblings. I didn’t know what to make of the atrocity that I was seeing. A father who’d had his entire household come out to watch one of his youngest children get beaten, because she’d allegedly broken a family heirloom. Something that I knew she couldn’t have done because she’d been hanging out with me, while I mowed the yard, when the item in mention was supposedly broken. Not that anyone seemed interested in what a humble servant like myself had to say.

*Thwack!*

*Thwack!*

*Thwack!*

Wood struck flesh, and each time it felt and sounded like both would break from the collision. The victim lay still, stretched across an old wooden bench. Eight more sets of three strikes would fall upon the girl before the punishment was over. Making 27 strikes in total. Blood dribbled down the corner of her lips as she refused to cry out. She avoided screaming, but despite best efforts, tears still poured from her eyes. That being said, she did manage the minor victory of making it clear to all who were witnessing this farce, that those tears were as much born from her hate and rage, as they were born from her sadness.

“That’s enough...I hope you’ve learned a lesson from this,” said Conrad Marrow. Patriarch of the Clan.

“....Yes, sir,” said Jacqueline. Her voice a soft, sullen, whisper.

“Hmph, alright, everyone back to whatever you were doing,” said Conrad. Moving his attention away from his wayward and dismissing the family members and staff that had been called out to witness the girl’s punishment.

Everyone left besides me. Jacqueline held strong until she was sure that there were no more members of the clan still watching her. Glaring at the sneering faces that smiled at her misfortune. The last face that glanced in Jacqueline’s direction was the cool gloating face of her least-favorite stepmother, Madison Marrow. The Mother of Yulien, and his older brother Oliver, who happened to be the 1st born son of the current, up and coming, Marrow generation. The wife that took the inclusion of Jacqueline’s mother into the household the most personal, and the one who held the most animosity for Jack.

Then her strength broke and she listed backward in a faint. I caught her and then I carried her to her family’s infirmary. I didn’t care who saw me catch her. By this point in time, while we were careful to keep things distant while we were on the estate, most members of the family and staff were aware that we frequently interacted.

I took Jack to the infirmary. The house doctor claimed to be too busy. To be fair, there was yet another of the seasonal skirmishes taking place in the region. This time the fighting was close enough the house Marrow’s men had gotten pulled into the fighting, and several of the infirmary cots were occupied by elite soldiers and Marrow clansmen who’d been sent to the estate from the battlefield. On the other hand, Jack was a member of the clan too, and the butler they’d tasked with beating her had definitely been one of Madison’s people. Sparing the girl no quarter.

“I’m sorry...I can’t deal with her, right now. Take the brat...I mean... the young miss, to her room, and I’ll see if I can help her later,” said the Doctor. Snapping. Sounding exasperated by our continued presence.

You know...I wonder if I’ve overdone it with my Wisdom stat. As I looked up into the man’s eyes, I felt a burst of something, and it took me a second to realize that it was anger. A wave of hot and cold anger that I didn’t know what to do with.

“Alright then...Thank you for your time, sir,” I said. My voice sounded oddly inflectionless as I carried my friend away. I slammed the door closed as I was leaving. Struggling to both deal with it and the girl I was holding. At this point, the puberty fairy hadn’t quite reached me yet, but Jack was a good foot taller than me, so despite my strength, it was still very awkward trying to carry her.

I took Jack to her room. It looked nothing like what you’d expect for the quarters of a daughter of a wealthy clan, and was basically just a walk-in closet that was attached to a storage room. There were books, there were posters, there were scribbled drawings, a small desk, and a chair. Then there was her cot. I put her down on the bed, then I closed the door. Locking it so that no one could disturb us.

Then I pulled a bottle out of my inventory. The [Tale of Alchemist] had taught me lots of stuff over the past few months. Most of it was still a disorganized mess in my head, and a lot of it I simply lacked the materials, resources, and tools for. However, at the very least, I’d thankfully been able to learn how to make simple poultices and potions. Stuff that I could use common herbs and plants from the forest, and simple cooking fire, to make

I sat Jack up and my worry grew. We rarely touched because uh...why would we, but the few times we had by accident and stuff, I’d noted that Jack was almost always uncommonly cool. Her skin was often almost icy to the touch. She didn’t do well with the summer, but she flourished with the winter. I suspected it was something to do with whoever, or rather, whatever, her mother was. The point being, that right now, the normally icy girl was now almost hot to the touch. She was already coming down with some sort of fever.

I made her drink the healing potion. Since most of the first potion spilled because she was largely insensate, I made her drink two potions. Then I watched over her for a bit longer, quietly cursing that shithead doc to go bald, and have his you-know-what go incurably soft for all eternity. The two maladies the older male staff made sound the most fearsome...

After dithering for a bit, because it felt a little indecent, I ended up rubbing a healing paste onto her back. I didn’t want her wounds to get infected, and I hoped it’d help with the scarring. I waited a bit more. Then I think I might have cried a bit, but maybe not. I don’t know. I was kind of freaking out, but it was only a small part of me that was freaking out, the rest of me was almost scarily numb. Like I was on the verge of turning to stone.

Thankfully, the healing potion did its job, and her fever started to drop. I let myself out of the room. First, checking to make sure no one was around when I did so, because we were maybe getting to that age where it might be a big deal for her to have a boy in her. I used a new power that I’d gained from the [Tale of the Empty Archivist’s Heir]. I called this power my [Restriction] ability. It was exactly what you’d expect from an immortal, eldritch, librarian. A power that allowed me to unseal, or seal off, spaces. I “restricted” Jack’s making it so that no one could get inside unless she let them in. I didn’t trust her family not to try and play more tricks.