When Lachlan stepped inside the dormitory, countless heads unwittingly turned to him from the students in the surroundings. Both students from the café and the VR section were peering towards him in shock, curious as to what had happened.
They couldn't help but murmur and whisper in between themselves why he looked all bloodied and thrashed. Unfortunately, though, before they could ask, Lachlan had boarded the elevator up to his floor.
When Lachlan finally got to his dorm room door, he stared at it with anticipation as he said in a hushed whisper, "Let's see if you keep your word…."
At that, he contorted his face into an anguished grimace, slumped his body, and began limping as he slowly opened the door.
When it fully opened and Lachlan walked inside, he could see Oliver slumped down on the retractable sofa watching the hologramed television with a lethargic expression.
But as soon as he noticed Lachlan, his eyes, which had been glued to the screen, became entirely fixated on Lachlan.
He hurriedly got up from the sofa and rushed towards Lachlan with furrowed eyebrows, his eyes glimmering with concern. "What happened!" he screamed.
He saw that Lachlan was about to fall, so he hastily grabbed Lachlan's arm and put it around his shoulder. He then hurriedly began plodding him towards the sofa, where he put him down softly.
As Lachlan's body fell on the sofa, his bloodied clothes touched its satin surface, staining it red.
Some coughs escaped his lips as he answered Oliver achingly. "Oh.. don't worry about it ---cough, cough, just some bullies."
Oliver took a second glance at Lachlan and felt panicked when he saw his condition. He looked like he had been in a bar fight, and he could see the wounds showing from under his tarnished tunic.
Oliver hurried to the inset wardrobe at the leftmost side of the room, where he hurriedly took off his casual clothes and put on his uniform by means of taking Lachlan to the infirmary.
When he finished, he piped anxiously, "I'm taking you to the infirmary, let's go," as his features slightly trembled.
He began reaching his arms out to help Lachlan up, but before he could, Lachlan spoke up, after heaving a handful of coughs, "O-Oliver, they're not done with me yet…."
Oliver, whose hands were an inch from touching Lachlan, stopped and retracted backward. He was stunned by Lachlan's words, and he quickly inquired shortly after with his eyes fixated on him. "Who's not done with you?!"
Lachlan didn't want to answer at first but seeing Oliver's turquoise eyes fixated on him for a long time, he replied, albeit with slight reluctance. "The b-bullies, they've said if I don't go to the forest later… then they'll do something terrible to me…."
Oliver's jaw clenched, and his lips unwittingly pressed firmly against one another, turning them white. He felt enraged at the fact that someone was trying to bully his dormmate, the same person he held in regards as a friend in his heart.
In his irritable state, he blurted out, without hesitation, "I'll help!"
Lachlan's chestnut eyes, which had fallen to the floor, leered back up towards Oliver at his words with the slightest hope present in his glare, but after a second of what looked like deep contemplation, tilted downwards again.
He expressed wistfully, with the slightest crack present in his voice, "No… I don't— I don't want you to get hurt, you're the only friend I've ever made throughout my entire life, and I couldn't bear seeing you get hurt and see your reputation tarnish for hanging out with me."
He paused for a moment, and then after a second, continued warmly, with a thankful smile plastered on his face. "As much as I'm thankful for your concern and all that you've done for me, I think it would be best if you no longer got involved with me… the useless cripple…."
Oliver felt an inexplicable twitch in his heart when he heard Lachlan's words, and he couldn't help but shed a few tears.
He had never expected someone he had just met a few days ago to be concerned for his safety and reputation. It was the first time he had ever felt like he had made a real friend.
You see, back in his family's territory, where he met the suitors and the children of his parents' friends. They all acted the same with the same alike smile and amiability a noble had. However always when Oliver looked into their eyes, all he could see was their apathy and callousness.
Though when it came to this boy, whom he had only met a few days ago, he seemed so much different, like an actual friend. It was the first time he had ever been treated with actual heartfelt emotion from somebody apart from his family, and It brought him a warm sensation, and for his impression of Lachlan to grow.
Noticing he was getting to caught up in his own thoughts, Oliver shook his head violently. and although he was sincerely touched by Lachlan's heartfelt act, he wouldn't allow him to refuse his help.
"Look, I know you're only trying to protect me by not getting me involved, but I am not just going to sit in this dorm room whilst you go out there and possibly die. So I'm going with you."
"But— Oliver… they're too stron—" although before Lachlan could reply, Oliver spoke up again.
He pointed towards his watch and said boldly with a confident smile covering his face, "Don't worry about that. I'm a pretty powerful guy, you know... Just tell me their levels and numbers."
Lachlan looked reluctant at first but answered nonetheless after seeing Oliver's salient gaze. "Three level 2's, two level 3's, and a level 4..."
After looking like he was deep in thought for a second, Oliver brushed his hand in the air as he said with a confident smile, "I can handle them, don't worry."
Lachlan looked like he wanted to refute but held his tongue as he eventually gave in, "O- Okay, but please," he added, "be careful," with a worried expression.
Oliver's eyes beamed, and in the next moment, he turned towards the door and said with the previous confidence as before, "Let's go teach them a lesson."
At his words, Lachlan got up from the sofa, albeit painfully, as groans of pain occasionally escaped his lips as he moved. Though not before long, he was fully standing up as he started lumbering towards Oliver, who was on his way out of the dorm room.
As Oliver's back was fully turned, Lachlan's painful expression slowly faltered, and a now seen smile covered his face.
"That wasn't so hard," thought Lachlan, as his toothy grin became even broader.
His plan had worked flawlessly, and all it took was the use of guile and his melancholic façade.
You see, Instead of asking Oliver for his help outright, which could come off as insincere, and look like he was using him as a shield. Lachlan opted to try something else, more subtle. He didn't know if Oliver was genuine in his offer to help, so instead, he felt that garnering pity by coming to the dorm room all bloodied, thrashed, and soulless would definitely entice him to help even more.
To top it off, he would play the performance of not wanting his help, seeming to care more for Oliver's safety and well-being than his own, making him appear selfless and kind. It was a risky plan, but if it worked, it would make Oliver more trustworthy and an extremely useful pawn for future use.
As Lachlan imagined, Oliver seemed touched by his selfless display, which in turn made him even more ardent to help than ever before, deriving from the spark that emanated from his eyes.
Lachlan also couldn't help but feel incredibly relieved.
The wounds that covered him were all depthless and were made to look serious when in truth, they were all just flesh wounds. But through Oliver's good nature or his naivety of the world, his mind was not on the fact of whether or not the scars were authentic, but how to stop the so-called culprits instead.
It all went according to plan, and Lachlan couldn't help but inwardly praise himself for his superb acting and plan making.
Not long after, once they had finally gotten off the hyperloop, and walked for a few minutes, they were at the cusp of the school's forest.
Without turning back, Oliver articulated thoughtfully as he stared into the ominous forest. "Whatever happens in there, don't get involved. It could be dangerous."
"Ye- Yeah, got it," replied Lachlan through feigned nervousness.
At that, they began trekking through the forest, skipping past the gnarled roots that lined the ground whilst waving off the branches that flung to their faces.
Occasionally hearing the sounds of the small animals scampering around the grass in their periphery as they got further and further towards its center, where the wildlife ran unabated.
When they were almost in the center of the forest, the sun's rays that had been overly conspicuous before were slowly becoming less and less impressive.
The reason for that was because the trees that had initially been sparse became plentiful, blocking out most of the sunlight, only letting small snippets through.
The atmosphere became gloomier because of that, and the ivy that once draped over the trees, looking healthy and light-brown, were beginning to look putrid and dark.
As the two of them were vigorously walking, not so far away, another group of students sat on a tree's branch, idly chatting with one another.
One of the boys who sat on the branch asked boringly, "Do you see anything, Robby?"
Robby, who sat with his back towards the other boy, grumbled. "You've asked me that like a hundred times, Nicholas!"
"I'll tell you when I see a heat signature!" he added as he continued leering towards the distant woodland.
"Yeah- Yeah, whatever," Replied the boy known as Nicholas back with a frown, "I just don't think he'll show up; he must've tricked us," he added, feeling anger boil within his soul at his guess.
When another more muscular boy who was off to the side heard what Nicholas had uttered, he stopped fiddling with the golden force-field around his fist and spoke up casually. "If he doesn't come, then we'll just go back to our original plan of making him our punching bag, and don't worry, Nicholas, we'll make sure to punish him thoroughly for lying to us."
The boy who said those words was Brice, and the others' his gang.
They were currently awaiting Lachlan on one of the bulky tree branches, waiting for the girl he had promised to bring, Leila, their soon-to-be fucktoy.
The boy on the lookout, Robby, was a short and stocky youthful-looking boy who had a snub nose, slender eyebrows, and curly red hair. His level was a lousy 1.7 and was called ‹Thermal Vision›, an ability that let him see heat signatures from hundreds of meters away.
He had the weakest ability among the group, but he had his uses as a scout, which is why Brice had recruited him.
The boy who had repetitively bugged Robby, Nicholas, was a wiry student with a square-like face, bushy eyebrows, and a hooked nose. His hair was seaweed green, and his eyes shared the same color, albeit a little bit lighter.
He had an ability called ‹Toxic Gas›, a level 3.2 ability that allowed him to shoot out toxic gases from both his hands and feet.
The ability didn't have many variations, but a move that Nicholas had trained for years on called condensed toxic gas cloud was a move that allowed him to shoot out compressed toxic gas clouds into faraway distances.
Once they hit their target, they would expand into heavy clouds of toxic gas that, once permeated the lungs, would immobilize the target. After perfecting this move for a long time, Nicholas's ability was no longer wholly defensive like before, where he could only expel gas in his surroundings, but a powerful long-range ability that could cause a lot of damage at far-away distances.
After a couple of minutes of waiting on the branch, their moods turning sourer by every passing second, Robby suddenly spoke up enthusiastically, jolting up from the branch, "Wait, I think I see something!"
He immediately squinted his eyes and focused his vision, exclaiming shortly thereafter, "Yeah, There are two heat signatures!"
Brice looked on at Robby, his body becoming fidgety as he heard Robby's outburst.
He asked skittishly, not wanting to get his hopes up just yet, "Are they human signatures?"
Robby responded eagerly with a grin as he looked back upon Brice. "Yes, their outlines are human!"
Brice couldn't help but smile widely at Robby's answer, unable to keep himself from licking his hips as his eyes shimmered with lust.