Whispers began to spread among the speculators. Things were expected to go in a dramatic, brutal way. What was Severin playing at? That made a lot of people from other platforms turn their attention his way.
Severin shrugged. "I still want to hear what you said earlier. It raised my interest."
His jaws tightened, and Ethan's eyes glowed with anger. "I understand now. You want your death to be a memorable one, you want to set yourself apart from the others. But a rat is still a rat. And your death holds no meaning in the scheme of things."
Severin stopped walking when he was close enough to see every small wrinkle in Ethan's face, a wrinkle that twitched as if something was squirming underneath. "You have dark shadows under your eyes. Have you been training late at night?"
Ethan flinched. "What?"
"And those wrinkles, they're unnatural for someone your age, and an Etherion user at that," Severin added again.
His hand tightened on the hammer. "You... what are you saying all of a sudden?"
"Ah? I'm just pointing out someth...!!"
The air around Severin suddenly grew rigid, but a moment before a force slammed into him and sent him hurling back, he rammed into the wall with a crack, and pain flared in his body.
Severin groaned as the force kept him pinned against the wall.
"Because I gave a rat like you a chance, and you think you can bite my toe?" Ethan said in whispered anger. He walked towards the wall where Severin was hanging. He expected the weak guy to be begging already. Instead, his blue eyes seemed to be looking down at him as if he was the one pinned helplessly on the wall.
The veins on his head throbbed. "I've changed my mind. I'm going to crush every bone in your body and pay the healers off to extend your life so you can feel every pain before you die."
Severin wanted to play with Ethan more, but the force holding him in place was crushing. His chest was almost denting under it. He gritted his teeth as he bit out his next words. "Why don't the healers heal the backlash of the illegal potions you are using?"
Ethan Aldrich physically recoiled as if he'd been struck. His eyes widened in fear, and he took several steps back. "What?"
The force on Severin automatically reduced as Ethan's concentration lessened. He took in several hurried breaths, and then he tried his best to make his face a cold mask again, but it was quite hard after his chest was almost cracked open.
So he made his face into a nasty sneer instead. "Oh. I'm just speaking out loud, Ethan Aldrich. The slight tremble that always happens to your hand, the shadows beneath your eyes, and those wrinkles. It's all signs of deep tiredness, but also the side effects of using illegal drugs that boost power in an explosive way.
"It's good for one or two uses. But imagine someone that uses it anytime they have to spar, or keeps it in their pocket all the time."
Almost instinctively, Ethan's hand went to his pockets, and Severin raised his brows in question. "You even bring it here? I must say, you're most addicted at this point."
A desperate anger appeared on Ethan's face, and the pressure around Severin mounted. "You. I will kill you."
"Will you?" Severin smirked. "Have you forgotten, Ethanna Aldrich?"
Ethan froze so fast and sudden he seemed to turn into stone. His eyes and his very being seemed to focus on Severin. His words were colored by true fear then. "It is you that did it!"
Ethanna was the name that Ethan's sister gave him when they were kids, anytime she beat him to a pulp during sparring sessions, which was all the time. And it's not from any kind of love. It's from pure hatred.
She was older than him by five years, but even that didn't make her eligible to contest for the position of the family head simply because she's a woman. That's their family tradition, and she resented her brother for it because she's more talented than him.
Throughout his life, Ethan battled with the low esteem of trying to measure up to his sister, and trying to overdo every record she set. One of them was absolutely dominating her class during her time.
Unfortunately for Ethan, he didn't have the pure raw power that she had. In his class, he was initially ranked low at the bottom until he started to take illegal drugs and potions.
Everything was going well, and he was part of those that are now dominating his class. But then, three days ago, he'd received a letter that started with 'Dear Ethanna Aldrich.' The letter then went ahead to detail all his transactions in illegal potions and drugs and how he was using it. Everything.
Ethan trembled. "How? But you... you..."
"I'm trash, I'm weak, the weakest. I've heard that so much these few days that I wonder how I've survived since this body stepped into the academy."
"What?"
"Don't mind me, Ethanna. But do you understand your problem now? Let's imagine something together. I give that letter—and yes, it'll automatically be sent if I die—to the Head Instructor. If you are not killed instantly because of your father, then your reputation will be totally ruined.
"Your sister will try to get rid of you, and this time your father might look the other way. But all this is speculation. One thing is clear, you would have spoiled the good name of the Aldrich family, and your father will absolutely kill you.
"Your family is a family that's proficient in mercenary work and has produced powerful Etherion users. But now we have to question if their strength is built on the..."
"Stop! Just stop!" Ethan was breathing hard. He was sweating, and his wrinkles twitched uncontrollably. His hand went to his pocket as if in comfort.
He didn't need to picture anything. He knew what would happen to him if the world should learn of what he was doing—not to talk of the authority.