Luca was too naive to think about his crops before thinking about himself.
With how things are going with him, Pan-pan and the chickies would likely outlive him.
You see, Luca followed through with resting after the whole skeleton debacle. But just a night of rest wouldn’t change his fate.
Not when Luca was experiencing all kinds of pummelling.
There’s the sudden increase in homework, the overzealous stalker, the quarreling farmers, and most of all, the training hall Grandmaster.
Surprisingly, he could survive the physical training and sparring sessions, which was probably because of the manuals. It’s just that his technique was practically non-existent.
But the Dungeon training hall was a whole different beast.
Luca maximized his use of the module in an attempt to get a good return on his investment. The problem, however, was that he could never get past an invisible line.
At first, Luca noticed how he would get attacked immediately after reacting in a particular way. By then, Luca had already stormed through several Stamina pills so that he could keep on re-challenging. But the Grandmaster remained relatively the same.
Well, relatively, because whenever there was time, the Grandmaster would mumble things about insubordinate students and those who take the training for granted.
But he really wasn’t taking anything for granted! In fact, it’s nearly consumed the remainder of his life.
In this regard, a few people were already unhappy with Luca’s worsening condition.
Ollie noticed how Luca kept on sulking more as the days passed. While Luca’s brain was filled with a certain Old man, Ollie thought about the probability of Luca being bullied by Xavier.
And he couldn’t even apologize because Luca was being followed by an entire gang of people who had sharp ears for gossip.
Contrary to what one might expect, the Princess easily integrated with like-minded people, and now it was insanely hard for him to talk to Luca privately when even the rose bushes weren’t safe.
But by Tuesday, Ollie has had enough of this shit.
When he went to the cafeteria for lunch, he was greeted by an unusually cheerful Luca.
Ollie’s eyes narrowed in suspicion because he had been down in the dumps for a while now, and several people, primarily new fans, were already growing concerned about Luca’s despondent look.
But today was different; Luca was all smiles, and yet it felt slightly wrong. Ollie tried figuring out what was amiss because he felt like something had been off since the week started.
That’s when he found it. Luca had a bruise around his collarbone.
Ollie shot up from his seat, almost shouting to ask who dared hit him.
In his mind, that now explained Luca’s sudden change in expressions. Was he trying to cover up the pain by looking and acting happy?
Was he being bullied that badly?
Ollie could barely sit still and wanted to drag Luca away from there for intense questioning.
Xavier hastened his pace, walking with an intention that made the others move to the side.
"You, what’s this?" Xavier closed in on the chipmunk before tilting his head by lightly gripping his chin.
Then he traced the area with another finger, wanting to verify the extent of this bruise.
Xavier made sure that Luca didn’t get damaged like this in class. And he was especially vigilant because tomorrow was the exam.
So, what was this, and how come he looked happy despite this giant bruise?
Ollie, for the most part, was about to intervene, wanting to ask how Xavier had the gall to approach Luca after doing something like that.
But he stopped when he heard Xavier’s line of questioning. And it didn’t help that he traced Luca’s bruise intimately.
The cafeteria went silent, but Xavier was so engrossed in looking that he didn’t notice.
In the guy’s mind, he was trying to rattle off the events of the day and was trying to make sure that nothing should’ve caused such severe bruising.
"I’m fine, really. I accidentally hit the edge of the drawer when I went to pick something up. There’s no need to worry."
Luca tried gripping Xavier’s hand so that he could let go of his chin and collarbone, but to the others, the scene looked way different.
This time, several dreams were shattered as the two people continued the public inquisition, which looked more like an attempt to smother everyone else with dog food.
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