Ideally, the narrative would have played out like a dramatic blockbuster—lights flaring, explosions booming in slow motion—as a student who had once faced ridicule was finally bathed in the spotlight, with everyone watching in stunned silence.
In fact, if anyone was interested, D-29 thought that it should’ve been the kind of scene where the music swelled, the cara zood in, and the screen froze on the hero’s smirk as the tension built up to an uncontrollable degree.
But all there really was for soone was the tension.
A tension so palpable he was close to snapping.
Luca was mortified.
The little money-grubber who would count their gains and losses when doing anything just blew up an entire wall, and it was now more open than the wormhole that the pirates used to invade the commuter ship.
The weather outside was nice, but every breeze that wisped past him had his heart sinking and his pulse rising as he realized what had just happened.
He seriously just blew up an entire wall to smithereens.
Poof, kablam, kaboom. Gone.
And he was pretty sure that it went beyond the targets they could destroy in the na of training.
Oh, he was so screwed.
And D-29? The little system had decided to pause the calculation of damages and instead focused on docunting all of it in case soone decided to add more structural damage.
The host might not be able to take it if they had to pay for damage they didn’t cause. But when the host’s vitals suddenly tanked, D-29 almost jumped out of the space button if not for the benefactor who had co forward to assist in damage control.
Xavier had a feeling that sothing like this would happen.
While he didn’t exactly expect Luca to do that, it was likely that his little wife had forgotten that this training hall wasn’t like the one they had back in the space, which would just absorb the damage as if it were so sort of battery.
So he decided to deal with the wall, the instructor, and definitely with his little chipmunk, who had probably imagined all the worst possible outcos.
"Instructor Falco, apologies for the wall. We’ll compensate for it and have it fixed today. It’s been a while since he’s had to severely restrict himself when training, so there’s minor damage."
Xavier was calm and collected as he spoke with his head turned toward the instructor while his body continued shielding Luca, who almost stuck himself against his husband.
"Is it going to be expensive?" Luca asked, voice trembling, eyes wide, clearly on the verge of tears.
"No," Xavier replied gently, one hand ruffling Luca’s hair in a soothing motion. "It’d just be like getting a snack, I promise."
"...Like a big snack?" Luca tried.
"Hmm. More like a cookie," Xavier said, tilting his head to the side. It wasn’t even a lie. After all, each of Luca’s cookies could really pay off a few of these walls.
Luca blinked up at him, lower lip still quivering. But he nodded.
Everyone else, however, had enhanced hearing.
They heard the absolute lies (not) being whispered like sweet nothings.
And the dog food.
Force-fed.
Kyle sighed, feeling his soul deflate. Even in training, it was really impossible to escape this level of dostic delusion.
He turned to Jax, who just shrugged and started wondering what other weapons they could form, considering how sothing like that actually worked pretty well.
"..."
Clearly, with friends like these, the odds weren’t looking so good for Kyle’s sanity.
But the wall? That could be fixed.
However, he was also part of the problem, as he only thought about the wall and dog food like soone with a skewed sense of priority.
But what could he do when he’s seen this and more from Luca?
Because to everyone else, they were still stuck hearing the boom, with many still shaking their heads to regain their senses.
While the rest were stuck gaping at the couple who looked like they were standing in the background of so ruins or post-apocalyptic disaster scene, as more and more students trickled in from all corners of the Academy.
"Was it an attack?" soone asked.
"Did soone bomb the training field?"
"Are we under siege?!"
The rumors spread like wildfire.
And the forums—oh, the forums. They exploded. Figuratively. Not literally. (Although if you’d seen the wall, you’d be forgiven for confusing the two.)
Posts ca in faster than auto-refresh could load.
[Thread: Wall Blown Open – Was It a cha Cannon?!]
[I saw two people in the crater! THEY WERE HUGGING! Who hugs in a crater?!]
[There was a crater??? I thought it was a wall?!]
[A small one. But instead of that, we should really focus on the more important questions, like what kind of couple goals is this?!]
[WAIT. Was that our school’s top student? And the school’s flower vase?!]
[Wake up, upstairs comnter, what flower vase, when it was he who allegedly blew up the wall!]
anwhile, in a classroom not too far away, a certain chanic who was not paying attention to his lecture had taken full advantage of the chaos to sneak a peek at his terminal.
Ollie.
He had hoped—prayed—that maybe, just maybe, the loud boom earlier ant sothing.
Like, say, a gas leak.
Sothing that could delay exams.
He didn’t expect what he saw.
He stood up in the middle of class.
"WHAT?!"
His sudden movent startled the students around him.
He looked at the screen, then back at the teacher, then back at the screen before sitting back down and panicking in his seat.
Internally, Ollie scread.
The good brother was reading as fast as he could and was seeing things and evidence of what was clearly a cri scene.
He clutched his terminal like it might explode next. But at the sa ti, he was a bit proud because his brother had made a good boom. Truly deserving of his admiration and loyalty!
But it wasn’t ti to be admiring him; instead, he should be looking for news about this.
Photos. Videos. Forum threads.
[Is the exam still happening?! Please say it’s cancelled.]
[Who are those two? And what happened after they hugged?!]
[Upstairs comnter, are you by any chance, blind? Or were you living under a rock the entire ti?]
[No seriously, did anyone see what happened AFTER the hug?]
[Sobody, please report if anyone cried. I need closure.]
But the main witnesses were silent.
Too silent.
The cadets who should be in that class weren’t saying anything.
Which just made everyone thirstier for details.
But another group—one made of admirers, observers, and part-ti archivists of certain flower boys—moved fast.
Their coalition sisters shared everything.
Full-resolution video.
Zoom-ins.
Tiline of events.
Even the audio transcript.
They had the whole saga.
And who would’ve known—
There really was a story to follow after the wall.
Aside from the hug, a few cha cadets who had managed to recover looked skeptical.
"That was just an explosion, right?" one muttered. "Probably rigged to scare everyone."
"Definitely fake. Who could even materialize weapons?" another scoffed, clearly unaware of what spiritual energy could do.
Then the spreading doubt turned into a challenge.
"Why not ask him to prove it?"
"Yeah, let’s see if the flower vase can actually fight," said soone who could only speak like this because they have likely forgotten about the other exams after such a long ti of not seeing these people.
However, many were actually borne out of envy, and those who felt excluded because their families were unable to secure daycare mberships.
So a few people lost it.
And then ca the words that made everyone pause.
"All-out duel."
The murmurs started again, hushed but heavy.
All-out duel ant real injuries. Nothing staged. It only ended when soone surrendered—or couldn’t get up.
And for a mont, Luca looked like he was going to refuse. Because he really was. Especially after overhearing the murmurs and realizing what this actually entailed. This was no sparring session.
He was still clinging to Xavier, unsure.
"I don’t think that’s a good idea," he said, voice soft. "I haven’t really asured my strength properly."
But the few idiots laughed, jeered, and egged him on, and Noah felt even stupider after realizing that he was once one of those people who had peas for brains.
Luca sighed at this, looking at the instructor who was in no position to stop a duel, provided the challenge is done properly, as this exists in Imperial law as a possible way to settle issues between nobility.
He walked forward.
Not to fight.
But to whisper sothing quietly to the instructor.
"Sir...how much would I have to pay if I accidentally kill soone?"
Instructor Falco blinked.
"...Excuse ?"
"I an, is there a different rate if the body’s still intact or a bit...decimated?" Luca added, all while trembling like a depressed puppy next to the rubble. He could likely revive them, but for a mont, soone might actually be pronounced dead, and he might actually have to pay for damages even when they could recover.
Sigh. What an unfortunate training session!
And in that mont, the entire field fell into stunned silence.
Because what if he wasn’t kidding?
A good question.
Because he really wasn’t.
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