Lucian collapsed on the ground in exhaustion.
"That's enough, for now. Your actual class should start in about 10 minutes. Don't be late."
Stella wiped some of the sweat sticking to her forehead with a towel.
Lucian slowly pulled himself up to his feet.
He was almost completely drained from Stella's 'punishment', moreover his entire body was aching all over.
After all, he had to serve as her punching bag for almost half an hour.
Stella brought them to the school gym and used one of the wide-open areas to fight it out.
While Stella called it a 'spar' it was more of a one-sided beatdown.
Lucian tried to throw in the towel and surrender but Stella wanted nothing of it.
She said that he needed to 'get stronger', so she took it upon herself to beat him into shape.
No matter how unwilling he was.
Stella pondered for a moment and then turned to face Lucian.
"I'll make you a deal, if you can land 5 hits on me the next time we spar, I'll give you a reward."
Lucian sighed.
"The carrot and the stick approach? You do know I was the one who taught you that."
Stella gave him a teasing wink.
"And you taught me well. It's my turn to teach you now."
Lucian had a defeated expression on his face.
"Fine, fine. Do what you want."
Stella smiled as she walked out of the room.
She left to go change back out of her gym clothes and back into her school uniform.
Not wanting to be late, she didn't waste any time, immediately going to the locker room to change.
After all, unlike a certain someone, she actually put in effort for her education.
Being late to class was something Stella had and will never do.
While Lucian was by no means dumb, he never really pushed himself in these kinds of things.
Seeing Stella leave the room, Lucian also stood up and headed toward the male locker rooms.
However as he opened the door, he was greeted by a group of guys glaring hatefully at him.
Lucian looked at them all and smiled.
"For all of you to come here to personally greet me, I feel honoured! Do you all need anything?"
The boy in the middle walked up.
He had dirty blond hair, with a fairly good physique.
His appearance was by no means on par with Lucian's but it was still somewhat handsome.
He walked up until he was only a few feet away from Lucian.
"Yeah… Keep your distance from the goddess."
Lucian raised an eyebrow.
"Why should I? You do know that she's my fiancé right?"
Lucian put his hand to his chin as if deep in thought.
After a moment Lucian's eyes widened.
"Don't tell me… You're all into me! I'm sorry but I'm already engaged! Two-timing would already be bad enough, but to have a relationship with all of you at once? I can't!"
Lucian dramatically looked into the air and clutched his heart.
"I can only curse the gods for making me this handsome! Being this attractive is both a blessing… and a curse!"
The boys in the room initially flinched at Lucian's words, but they were visibly fuming.
"Who the fuck wants to start a relationship with you? It's plain and simple you F-rank trash. Someone like you isn't worthy of being with our goddess. Don't go mistaking her acts of kindness as her having feelings for you. The only reason she's baring with this pitiful engagement is that she feels some lingering sense of obligation to your family. If you really care about her, you should annul the engagement!"
Lucian looked at that boy while clutching his heart dramatically.
"Your words wound me! Just because I had to reject your feelings doesn't mean we can't be friends!"
At this point the group of boys were about to start puking blood.
Dealing with someone like Lucian was too much, even for them
"Remember what I said! Stay away from her or else!"
The boys quickly turned around and left.
Staying any longer would simply lead to permanent brain damage.
Seeing them leave, Lucian began waving goodbye.
"Nice chat! See you later!"
After the group left, Lucian's seemingly cheerful smile slowly drooped into one of self-loathing.
"Sigh… How could I not know that I'm just abusing her kindness. Keeping her chained to someone like me is just a waste."
Quickly changing into his uniform, Lucian attended his classes that day as usual.
Of course, didn't forget to properly 'greet' his friends.
After all, selling out a friend to his fiancé was a major breach of the bro code.
After school ended for the day, Lucian walked up to his car, only to find it completely covered in threatening messages.
'Seriously… Can't the security team be any more obvious about their blatant hatred for me?"
Since the security team made no effort to prevent this from happening, Lucian was almost 100% sure that they either turned a blind eye or were in on the 'prank'.
Either of which could cost them their job.
If Lucian was an ordinary student that is.
However, Lucian was nothing more than a trash F-rank whose family company was falling apart.
SanguineCorp was already struggling to keep itself afloat.
They were in no position to pressure the school to get the students to stop mistreating Lucian.
Furthermore, most of the people doing this were probably related to other large companies.
The school would need to choose between these massive corporations and a company quite literally on its last legs.
It was obvious who they would support.
Especially with Lucian being a failure with his pitiful F-rank power.
Some of the nearby students snickered when they saw Lucian approach the car.
However contrary to their expectations, Lucian didn't seem to care all that much, even ignoring the blatant death threats posted on his windshield.
Lucian unlocked the car with his car keys and got into the driver's seat.
Turning on the window wiping system, the washer fluid was able and the wipers were enough to give Lucian at least a good enough view of his surroundings.
On the way back to his home, Lucian also made a quick pitstop at the carwashing center to get the remaining notes washed off.
While the employees gave him curious stares, Lucian didn't care too much.
After all, this wasn't the first time this happened.
Lucian spent another 10 minutes driving, before approaching a large closed gate.
Reaching into his glove compartment, Lucian pulled out his resident's permit and passed it to one of the guards standing watch.
After varying its authenticity, the guard scanned it and opened the gate for Lucian to pass through.
The gated community that Lucian had just entered was known as 'Golden Peak', and it was a neighbourhood that only the wealthiest people in the city called home.
A house in this neighbourhood would have a minimum asking price of 100 million dollars.
And that was the bare minimum.
Lucian continued driving until he reached a particularly eye-catching mansion.
Disabling the defense system surrounding his house, Lucian pulled up in front of the mansion.
Stepping out of his car, he took a deep breath filling his lungs with fresh air.
"Home sweet home."