"My lord, is that really true?"
On a gravel road on the outskirts of town, a middle-aged man knelt on the ground, looking pleadingly at Saint Shepherd Sommers.
"Of course. I can give them back to you right now."
Two people stood beside Sommers: a middle-aged woman and a young boy. They were the man's wife and son.
"Dad... I, I don't know why, but I can't move my arms or legs..."
"Honey..."
Looking at the family of three, Sommers shrugged.
"Unfortunately, you can only choose one."
"H-how can you..."
The man was on the verge of breaking down. Facing someone like Sommers, dressed in a luxurious black military uniform and holding a saber, someone clearly powerful at a glance, he had considered fighting back. But he feared he would end up saving neither of them.
"...Take our son..."
The boy's mother gritted her teeth and spoke.
"Mom!"
"...!"
The man ran toward his immobilized son, intending to scoop him up and flee.
But the instant he touched the boy, invisible spikes seemed to pierce his body, sending blood spraying.
"Aaaah-aaah-"
The man collapsed, howling from the agony and blood loss.
"Ah... now that's quite nice."
Sommers was a Thorn-Thorn Fruit user.
His thorns took two forms.
One was invisible. When someone tried to touch a person entwined in them, the more they loved that person, the greater the injury and pain they suffered upon contact.
The other was a set of visible thorns. Though these lacked that property, they were stronger.
Watching the family descend into chaos and despair, Sommers considered gagging his hostages before trying again next time.
Personally, he preferred the mother to say, "Save me," or the man to choose his wife. He had done this often enough to have seen other combinations, but he still