Whips And Cells

That night, I had to lie on my stomach to prevent the wounds from aching too much. I forgot how painful those whips were since I left this place. I couldn't mine any more stones after the whipping and I was sent to bed without any food because the stones I mined were so small. In this prison, it is an unspoken law that whenever anyone gets targeted by a punisher like this, they are to be left alone. The other boys all gave me a wide berth and they didn't even think of bringing me any food to eat.

I understood that they were only children and they were scared so I didn't hold a grudge against them. The punisher is not someone that little boys can think of fighting against.

"Hey. Pssst! Psst!" A voice called out to me from the side. I frowned and turned my head to that side before squinting in the dark to see who it was that was calling me. It was a tall lanky boy with brown hair and a thin face. His cheeks were hollow and his eyes were sunken and if you saw him outside, you would think that he was dying of some disease with how thin he was.

The boy looked like he was scared and he quickly handed me a wrapped ball before moving away from me as discretely as possible. He managed to say a few words that I barely caught, "She told me to get that to you."

My eyes narrowed and I opened the ball to see that it was a rice ball. I smiled as I immediately knew who it was that gave me the ball and I just ate it quickly before anyone would see it and get me in trouble. The pain in my back was still intense but at least the pain inside my stomach had subsided.

The next day, I walked behind the long line of boys as we returned to the mines. I slowed down as we passed a small patch of grass that was on the side of the mine wall and I quickly grabbed it and pulled it out by the root before stuffing it in my mouth. I didn't dare swallow it because I knew I would need it later.

Today's work was slower than the previous day because my injury prevented me from moving as much as before. I only broke the same amount of mana stones as yesterday and the girl that usually comes to pack my stones gave me the same pitying look as before. I sent her a nod of thanks when I saw her and thanked her for what she did yesterday. She was surprised that I knew she was the one that sent me the rice ball last night.

It might have been hard for the boys to bring me food but it was easier for her to wrap food and hide it since the punishers don't watch the girls as closely as the boys.

The girl frowned and put her hand up to her mouth to tell me to keep quiet about it before turning to leave. She kept her head down as she quickly moved to go and join the other girls as they left the cave. She was also scared of punishment, so I didn't expect her to help me again. But I was still grateful.

Today the punisher was also angry about my small portion, but this time he didn't hit me as much as yesterday because he didn't want to kill me yet. I just grit my teeth and accepted the lashes as I allowed them to fuel my anger. I counted every single lash and I was going to pay this man back for all of them.

The boys were all looking at me like I was mad by the second night, and after the fourth night of me receiving the whip because of my low portions, they stopped trying to stay away from me. I think it is because I looked so pitiful, but one of the boys came to me and asked if I wanted him to rub ointment on my back. I was surprised because I didn't think they would ever get over their fear of the Punisher. Maybe it wasn't that they overcame their fear, maybe they just pitied me more than they feared the Punisher right now.

"Do you have a problem with your axe?" One of the boys asked me on the sixth night after I had mined the lowest portion. Some of the boys were crowded around my bed and they were all talking in hushed tones as one boy helped me to apply ointment to my back "If you don't know how to swing it properly, I can show you."

None of the rats down here had names, they just referred to all of us as rats so I couldn't address any of the boys. I just shook my head at him and hissed as the tall thin boy that gave me the rice ball before touched one of the scars on my back. This fucking -!

The boy immediately withdrew his hand as he saw that I was in pain. I almost cursed the bastard but I had to hold my tongue when I remembered that he was just a child. That's just what children do.

Tomorrow was the free day for the rats and I would be put in the cell. I couldn't wait for this to finally end. Everything that I've been doing for the last week would finally end tomorrow. The pain in my back was intense but I knew that it was nothing compared to the pain I would be feeling this night and tomorrow morning.

There was a small bag that I hid under my pillow where I stuffed hundreds of grass and leaves that I was able to grab from the mine when I passed there each morning. That bag of seemingly useless laves will be my ticket to getting out of here, and to do that, I needed solitude.

Bang!

The door to our room slammed open and the boys around my be scrambled away like rats as the punisher stood at the door with a frown on his face. There was another punisher behind him. This one was a woman with red hair and piercing blue eyes. She had a scar across her nose and a sword that she wore across her back.

Once I saw the punisher, I immediately put the bag of leaves into my shirt discretely. I flattened it enough so that even though I'm walking they will not notice it. My shirt was tucked into my trousers so the bag won't fall.

"Hey! Get up from there his instance, you rat!!"

The male punisher immediately grabbed me by my arm and dragged me out of the room. The female walked ahead of us and it was only after I got outside that I finally realized why the woman was there.

"So you think you can smuggle food and I wouldn't find out about it?" the male punisher snarled into my ear as he held my face and made me stare at the girl that usually picks up my broken mana stones. The female punisher was holding her hand tightly and the girl was crying profusely as she held her gown. I could feel a wave of intense anger filling me as I saw her crying but that anger was nothing compared to what I felt when she turned around and I saw the whip scars and blood on her back.

"That'll teach you not to steal from the kitchen, you rat!" The male punisher snarled at me but he was not prepared for the intense glare that he saw on my face. My teeth were grit so tightly that I felt they would crack! The Punisher flinched back before he blinked and pushed me forward in irritation! "Get into the cell, bastard!"

I watched the girl get pushed into the cell beside my own and I was then forced into my own cell. They shut the door on my face and I blinked rapidly to try and get my eyes used to the sudden darkness. The cell was very small and I could put my hand on one wall and my leg on the other wall. Considering that I was barely fifteen and I hadn't hit my growth spurt yet, that just shows that the room was really small.

The sound of sobbing echoed through the wall from the other room and I frowned. That girl didn't deserve this. I didn't want to get anyone involved in this in the first place and she was only trying to do something nice for me. This is my fault, but there is nothing that I can do about it for now. The best thing that I can do is to continue my plan.

I brought out the bag from my shirt and I dropped it to the ground as I sat cross-legged. The leaves that I picked were all random, but I didn't need them to make sense. The only thing that I needed from them was the mana inside them. The caves here were filled with mana stones that conduct mana very well, so the vegetation that grows out from these caves all have a little bit of mana in them. It is very small, but I didn't need a lot of mana right now.

I only needed enough to awaken my system.

People in the tower are usually born with their magic, but for some reason, my magic didn't activate until much later. In my last life, I was already twenty before I got my magic. But I was going to get it much sooner this time. The feeling of powerlessness that comes with being magicless was something I hated. Even if I didn't have an important mission to start, I would still activate my system immediately because I understand how important it is to have power.