The Laughing Swordsman

Talon cut one of the muscles holding his eye in place.

Blood immediately began spilling out of his socket while his eye loosened ever so slightly.

Now... it was time for the rest of the muscles.

Oddryl could hardly say anything as he watched this.

"...You are mad."

That was the only thing he said before falling silent. Oddryl focused on increasing the pressure as much as possible, because he came to the realization that Talon was unaffected by the words he said.

As for Talon, he continued on, resisting the pressure put on him.

Once again, the blades of his scissors went into his socket, cutting up some of his flesh in the process.

Talon sucked in a deep breath. His knuckles whitened from how hard he was clenching the handle. Then, he cut.

A fairly loud snip rang out, along with Talon's muffled groans of pain.

This time, Talon used excessive amounts of force to cut the muscle in his eye. In the end, that excessive use of force made him push the scissors deeper into his socket, piercing his flesh.

Talon slowly pulled it out and let the blood pour out.

His eye loosened further, slightly dangling from the socket.

If he cut with too little strength, the muscle wouldn't be cut through fully. That would make the cut very messy and even more painful.

However, if he used too much strength, his control over the scissors would be lacking, leading him to injure himself in other ways. In the end, he would still face unnecessary amounts of pain.

And so, Talon attempted to find a compromise. There were only two muscles left to cut, but he may as well do it properly.

With ragged breaths, Talon brought his face closer to the blades of his scissors. He opened the scissors up slightly, before wrapping the blades around his muscle.

Talon sucked in a deep breath before firmly pressing the handles together.

A muffled groan of pain rang out.

Talon had cut through the majority of the muscle, but a few strands remained. He pushed on the handle once more.

With a gentle snip, the muscle was cut.

Talon's eye dangled and sent immense waves of pain to his mind. It was as though the eye realized what he was trying to do and was doing everything it could to stop him from going through with it.

However, Talon wouldn't stop now.

He pulled out the scissors once more before slowly putting it on the last muscle.

Talon felt himself touch the edge of insanity.

The delirium of how close he was, got to him.

With this, Talon would finally be free. He would go and find his sister, then leave this horrid empire behind with her.

Talon couldn't help but think of the test he took to become a guard in the first place. The one where he won first by a landslide.

In the first round, everyone was whipped one hundred times while holding a pail of water. Talon found the people conducting the test whipped him even harder than his father did, who already did it with great intensity.

Over half of the boys fell down, splashing the water in their pail across the floor.

Of the boys that remained, over two-thirds lost most of the water in their bucket. In both cases, they were disqualified.

As for Talon, not even a drop leaked out.

Then from whips, it became swords. The people conducting the test slashed at them another hundred times, but only let the tip break through their skin.

These people were quite skillful, making sure the wounds were painful, but not lethal.

The boys who made it up to this point were all resilient. However, many of them ended up failing. Some even voluntarily poured out the water from their pail and ran away.

After this round, there were only a hundred or so left.

The instructors all lit up torches for the new round.

And directly pressed the flame onto the back of the boys.

Several of the contestants immediately fell down, while others fainted directly.

Although the torch was pressed to their skin for only a few moments, over half of them fell.

Fifty boys were left, which was the quota for that competition. The winners were determined, however, the rankings were not finished.

The next round began. The people conducting the test took out metal clamps made to squeeze down as though they were pinching.

Only a few moments after the boys had their skin twisted by these clamps, most of them gave up. After all, the boys knew that they were winners, thus didn't care much for this test.

As for the rest, they tried their best to continue on, but either lost consciousness or could not stand it any longer.

It did not take long for only Talon to remain standing.

He could've just given up. After all, he was already first.

But Talon chose to continue.

Going through torment was always a choice for him.

His father always asked if he wanted to be whipped. It was never against his own will.

Most people would take it easy because of this, especially children who were impulsive by nature. However, this was not the case for Talon.

Every day, he would let himself be lashed by a whip at least one hundred times. Even when he was on the verge of blanking out, or when it really felt like too much, he continued.

By being so cruel to himself, he surpassed what he believed was his absolute limits each time.

Talon even found a way to temporarily suppress the feeling of pain, albeit only for a short moment.

And so, when he was the last one standing, he continued on for an unbelievably long amount of time.

Instead of him giving in, it was more so the person testing him that did so.

...By taking out a sledgehammer and directly knocking Talon out.

Talon always had a choice to go through the pain.

And so, he chose to go through it all.