#so hunter being so scarred was .. inevitable given who made him & his upbringing

[drbtinglecannon]

Hunter's room in the castle had an overflowing first aid kit in it too, which speaks volumes itself given his scars, but it adds another layer to the fact Belos has denied him access to healing:

Not only does Belos deny him medical assistance due to the secrecy around Grimwalkers and as a further layer of punishment to Hunter for any "mistakes" he makes, but it kept Hunter isolated.

Hunter had to tend to his own injuries, keeping him away from any potential prying eyes or even any bleeding hearts who may have wanted to help him; it allowed Belos to convince Hunter that he deserved these punishments for years since Hunter himself was the only one to deal with them; other witches/demons in the castle would see these injuries & coupled with the fact they already weren't allowed to socialize with him they would become even more avoidant/judgemental of him -- like "wtf is that kid doing to get banged up like that? Yikes"

Darius explicitly saying "it's about time you made connections outside the castle" and giving Hunter a scroll to do so was a pretty clear plea that Hunter needed to get out. Everyone at the castle was either uncaring or unable to help, as evident by everything above, but regular people who aren't used to the oppressive abusive bs in the castle? Especially the current generation of kids who openly fought to get stuff like multitrack learning allowed & adopted old palisman? They would (and did) help Hunter.

I noticed this tiny detail that made me feel kind of sick about Hunter. (It’s about his scars and abuse so if that stuff is triggering don’t read this)

In Labyrinth Runners we see a bunch of students with injuries that could left scars,

But thanks to healing magic these students fine,

Before Thanks to Them we knew he had at the very least a scar on his face and his ear was nicked. In Thanks to Them there were a lot of other scars revealed. 

We also know that Hunter was most likely abused physically by Belos based on how he flinches a lot when he moves around him, 

this is also more obvious in Any Sport in a Storm

So it’s clear that he’s probably been hurt by Belos physically at least once. Probably more based on the number of scars. But he shouldn’t even have so many scars if healing magic can make injuries like these simply disappear. Even if Belos didn’t necessarily cause these scars to exist, he denied Hunter medical help. Which means Belos probably didn’t allow Hunter’s injuries to be treated properly, despite there being literally no reason not to. He has the whole Healers Coven to help him if he wants as well as the Emperors Coven, which practices all sorts of magic. The Emperors Coven I’m sure is full of healers who are prodigies let into it because of their ability. 

It’s a small detail, but it is really telling of how abusive Belos was to Hunter.