Chapter 176: I promise!
[FLASHBACK: 13 Years Ago, Remsworth Mansion]
After passing out from the extreme pain and exhaustion Barnes had endured from the beating when he woke up, he felt as if he was lying down with a thousand needles being stuck inside his body.
Every part of his body was aching hard, especially when he woke up with his broken ribs bandaged, along with his nose which was also bandaged. His arms and wrists were also covered in bandages, but what surprised him the most was to find himself still alive after that brutal torment!
With a groan, when Barnes blinked open his eyes big, he flinched a little to find himself in an unknown cold dark damp room, compared to his room which was allotted for the servants in the mansion.
Mustering his inner strength, he struggled to sit up on his own on the small bed he was lying down. Upon taking a proper look at the surroundings, he saw there was a small broken window at the corner of the room which had the view of murky night, with stars shimmering brightly in it.
The room was quite cold but he had a small lamp lit on the side of the bed, which gave the place an eerie ambiance. Barnes started to feel anxious and the first thought that came to his mind was to worry about how was Aiden...and how was he coping with those painful scars on his body.
Suddenly at that moment, the wooden door of the room was pushed open from outside, and before he could figure out what was happening, an excited voice greeted him aloud, "You’re awake, Barnes?"
He could easily recognize the head butler Rick’s voice who almost rushed towards him in one breath, holding a sad smile on his trembling lips as if he was too emotional to start crying. "Barnes? When did you wake up? Are you hungry or thirsty? Shall I bring something for you?"
"S-Sir...w-where am I?" The first words Barnes struggled to utter was his pure confusion about this unknown place, which was making him strangely uneasy. "Why am I here...instead of the mansion? What about Master Aiden? Where is he—"
"Barnes, you woke up after a week! Right now, you should be worrying about yourself...instead of focusing on other trivial things!" Sitting beside him on the bed, the butler scolded him in a cold voice, but it didn’t silence him either.
"Master Aiden isn’t someone trivial for me! Sir...you know how much he means to me...so please tell me, where is this place? Where am I?"
"I know how much you worry for him, you stupid boy...to the point you almost traded your life in his place." With a heavy huff of sigh, Rick lifted his sad gaze to his face as he conversed, "And...I couldn’t watch to let you die either.