Obtaining Funds (5)

"Did you not see the results that my partner was close to dying from another fever again?" Luke yelled at them.

"And we'll make sure it'll never happen again," Delia shouted.

"But I always get these kinds of fevers," I decided to interfere.

"And it's gone now," I felt normal.

I pulled out all the medical equipment attached to me, monitoring everything. When Luke noticed, I flinched, briefly pausing under his warning to stay still. He shot a look to Alex to reattach them to me again while I decided it was better to listen to prevent him from getting angrier. Both Delia and Cillian didn't know how everyone in Luke's family took my health faltering very seriously.

"What do you want us to do?" Cillian found himself talking to a tall wall.

"I want you to stop asking for a second chance since there will never be one. I will personally watch over Rika myself. I apologize for causing you any trouble," Luke decided to end the conversation, also feeling a bit tired.

"We can't do that. Rika is our best friend. You can't take her away from us like that," Delia wasn't willing to give up.

"My cousin has the right to make sure his fiancée won't almost collapse from a fever again," Alex firmly supported Luke.

"And we mentioned multiple times that she won't ever collapse under our watch again," Cillian sighed.

"It's fine. I can go sleep in one of your rooms during the nights," I knew there wasn't much Luke could do if I never returned to our dorm while they prevented him from going inside their room.

"Rika?" Luke turned to me.

"Can't you give them one last chance?" I started to negotiate with him.

"What made you think you'll ever get the chance to leave our dorm room?" He was a bit confused.

"I still have to attend classes," I wasn't following him.

"You can't possibly treat your partner like that!" Delia was taken aback.

"I did think you were being a bit too strict with her in the fifth district," Cillian recalled.

"I don't even treat my partner this way. You're being too extreme," he argued.

"Your partner isn't always on the edge of dying," Luke sadly pointed out.

"What if your partner always got sick very easily, would you ever be able to forgive yourself if your partner died when you knew she could have lived if you watched over her more?" Luke explained when they didn't buy his reasoning.

"But this is still on a whole other level," Cillian disagreed with him.

"Rika, you're free to use our room until you want to return," he turned to me.

"Mine as well. My room is always available too," Delia pitied me.

"Don't even think about it, Rika," Luke turned to me.

"We can return to our room right now since Alex had already asked the school for permission to bring some things from this room with us," he warned me.

"Fine! I drank some smoothies from the mana research club. Happy now?" I shot Delia and Cillian a look to cover for my story.

"Smoothies?" Luke had never heard of them since we were keeping them away from the stall.

"The mana research club was selling some smoothies for a day that we stockpiled," Delia pulled one out from her inventory.

"I might have drunk too much since they tasted too good," I sighed.

"This still doesn't explain why you looked exhausted after you came back from your break," Luke took a sip.

"As Cillian said, we were experimenting with some large spells to prepare for our midterms," I decided to go with his story.

"I'm giving you two a second chance for telling me the truth," Luke acted like he was merciless towards them to confess.

"Rika, you're still coming with me to our dorms with the machines," he wasn't so generous towards me.

This was how I was lectured by Luke for the entire night for overdoing practicing for the midterms. But he stuck to his word, letting me go for the breaks without keeping an eye on me. Once I teleported to the ancient artifacts club room, everyone looked at me differently. I guessed they must have heard everything from Delia and Cillian. I was one second away from being confined to my dorm room.

"Luke is really strict when it comes to Rika," Shelly gave them the warning a little too late.

"It's really hard to cover for Rika," Henry agreed.

"His whole family is extremely strict towards her," Shelly informed them that they needed to look out for his cousins and siblings as well.

"I heard his family's fraction was strict, but not to this extent," Oili didn't experience what the rest of them had been through.

"It's not at the level of being strict anymore. It's a matter of controlling everything they can," Delia recalled while shuddering.

"Luke and his family are really scary," Ethan recalled the time I was dragged into the portal.

Seeing how the mana research club members were helpless under our club, Ethan decided to join ours while resigning from his former club. Since we knew Ethan, our president accepted his application under the condition that he would be the last member we would ever take.

"That is why the true purpose of this club can't ever be revealed," I reiterated its importance.

"I never thought I would be glad to come from a normal family," our president started to pity me.