After a calming huff of air, Raghnall tried his best to continue telling the story without stuttering.

"So... Uh... Where was I.. oh yeah.. Aril... He was too good at masking his problems with his usual cheerfulness so I wasn't able to realize what they were doing to him. And so, just like a fool, I continued to be oblivious to the signs of Aril being abused. But then, day after day, I began to see changes in Aril. In just a few weeks, he transformed from a healthy young man to a young man who seemed to have had his life sucked away."

"He grew thinner with his cheeks nearly sunken in. His robes started to become too big for him that it would drop down from his shoulders. But before I could get a good look at the state of his body, he would always hastily fix his robe and flash me an amused smile. But I no longer trusted his smile because, despite the bright smile he wore, he had visible dark bags under his eyes that showed how exhausted he was. It was as if he was starved and kept awake for weeks!"

"My gut feeling at that time was telling me that something was wrong so, it was at that moment that I started to observe Aril closely. And I finally noticed that not only his appearance but his behavior changed drastically as well. He used to be more headstrong and full of energy, so much so that he could spend sleepless nights but still be energetic enough to dance for a whole night in the room. But at that time, he no longer held that vibrance he once had. He barely even raise his voice or make jokes. He only listened to me every time I would make one and he wouldn't laugh as much as before anymore. And the change that greatly bothered me was the fact that he would visibly flinch every time I would tap him just to get his attention. His eyes would go out of focus often, his hands would tremble periodically, and he would even stutter from time to time."

Raghnall sighed, trying to ease the heaviness he felt in his heart.

"Aril changed drastically but he still tried to pretend as though he didn't. He tried to be cheerful and loud as he was before but I knew that it was getting hard for him to keep up the act. So, I approached him to ask him about it. And after much coercion, he finally relented and told me everything that happened to him. And in the middle of his story, his sleeve dropped and the result of what they did to him was now exposed for my eyes to see. And the second I saw it, I had to hurriedly take out a bucket because I vomited like there was no tomorrow."

"His.. h-his skin was.. bruised.. scarred.. burned.. and.. I.. I can't even describe it all into simple words.. It was like they tortured his whole arm!"

"Aril said it wasn't such a big deal but I knew better than to believe those words. Those students obviously had malicious intent! So I forced him to tell me everything. And when he did, it took everything from me not to storm into their dorms and cut off their own arms!"

"THOSE BEASTS JUS--"

Inna flinched slightly from Raghnall's sudden change of tone. And sensing her flinch beside him, Raghnall immediately realized that he was raising his voice so he stopped. He buried his face on his trembling hands as he sucked in a breath. Then, with his face still buried in his palms, he continued to speak. This time, his normal tone returned.

"They.. they ambush him each time his class ends. They drag him to the forest and just hit him until they were satisfied. Aril tried to fight back at first but they were about four people and he wasn't even strong enough to defeat one of them. And so, he gave up after the third try. He just let them do whatever they wanted because he knew that the lesser he struggled the faster they would leave."

"But as days passed, his unresponsiveness must've made them more irritated and so they began to do worse things than hitting him. They would make him eat disgusting things like soil, grass, bugs, and even tree branches. He.. he had no choice but to obey just to get things over with. He didn't kick up a fuss because he didn't want them to have the satisfaction of seeing his reaction. But the less fuss he made, the worse they get."

"They began to leave marks on his body. Using sharpened pieces of wood, they would start slashing his arms with little writings as though they were just writing on paper. It would lead to his arm covered in wounds and blood. Then, they even had the audacity to pour vinegar on his wounds. Aril, being a mage, didn't have any way of healing himself apart from the minor healing spells I taught him. And that spell can only heal a minor cut, not hundreds of them at once, so it wasn't a wise decision for him to use it then. And so, he told me that he'd always try and heal himself outside the dorms so that I wouldn't notice his wounds bleeding. But judging from the numerous scars just in his arm alone, he must've had trouble with healing them. They were probably far too numerous for his capacity to heal. If only he'd relied on me sooner, I could've helped.. I could've done something..."

Raghnall sighed deeply before continuing, regret dripping in his tone as he spoke.

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"Aril is strong, I can tell you that. But he's also the type to keep things to himself. The type to choose to bottle things up and endure than ask people for help. And it didn't help his situation at all. Instead, it just only made it worse."