Lucan watched in awe as the thugs fled, bruised both physically and mentally. He had never expected this pale man, who spoke like a zombie, to be such a brilliant shield. Though that wasn't quite the truth, he had hoped the man would do something or that his appearance would even frighten them.
What he hadn't expected was the swift and utter dismantlement of their entire attempt. He hadn't even gotten their answers to his question, but it didn't quite seem like he cared, he was so furious that he had probably forgotten his objective midway, though it was highly likely he had no plans to indulge them to begin with.
"Thank you," Lucan said sincerely. He had no idea how things would go, but he was happy that it had been resolved neatly, at the very least. Hopefully, he won't have to worry about them in the future.
"It's…okay" Bradley smiled, or at least tried to as he ruffled Lucan's hair, his smile was clumsy, like something was restricting his facial muscles but it was the thought that counted, at least Lucan himself thought so.
The man offered his large pale hand for him to hold and Lucan chuckled internally 'I haven't held anyone's hand in years'. After accepting, he tried his awkward smile once more before the two of them turned out of the alley and started walking back to Willow Wood.
"By the way, why were you in that alley back there?" he felt Bradley twitch slightly, raising his head to look him in the eye he could see the man avoiding his gaze, Bradley had a naturally stiff facial expression so most times it was hard to tell what he was thinking but this time coupled with his body reaction just now he was clearly avoiding the question "where you lost?".
The pale man didn't even look him in the eye and simply focused on the road in front of them "Let's go home".
'Did he really get lost?''
***
In the infirmary back at Willow wood the nurse was cleaning and disinfecting his wounds while he sat on a small stool next to a bed with a dainty crimson-haired observer with a mischievous smirk who watched as they cleaned his wounds with mild glee. "We really should stop meeting like this".
Lucan rolled his eyes, she had been on a streak lately and the universe kept giving her ammunition. "Where did you get that one?".
"Got it from one of those weird books the ones on nightshift always leave lying around when they doze off, it had a lot of weird words". Lucan turned to look at her while the nurse paused momentarily with her eyes wide in shock. "What?"
The two of them continued to stare at her strangely until the nurse cleared her throat with a small cough and smiled sheepishly "Polly, I don't think you should be reading those kinds of things at your age"
'I'd argue she shouldn't be reading them at all but that's not really my business'. Polly gave her a look that suggested she didn't quite understand exactly what was wrong with reading books as a bunch of small red question marks appeared over her head, while the nurse tried to explain that those kinds of books were for "Big girls".
Lucan just shook his head and carefully rose from his seat and prepared to remove himself from the conversation, having no plans to find out how she had planned to correct whatever slight behavioral deviation this may cause.
The moment he opened the door, a tall pale man was standing outside waiting for him with his same stiff expression "How you feel?" He asked, Lucan just shrugged and shook his head, he didn't feel particularly different afterall, aside from maybe some lingering tiredness from suddenly having to run after taking a relatively long stroll.
But aside from that he felt fine, the only injury he had was a small scrape, which had already been addressed, so he could go about his day without any trouble.
"I'm fine, it was only a small scrape" Bradley visibly relaxed, it would seem he had been worried about him ever since they had met outside, it made Lucan feel quite touched he smiled at the pale man feeling like he wasn't quite as scary anymore. "Thank you"
The man nodded and walked deeper into the infirmary, knocking on each of the doors with his index finger which made him scratch his head , 'I suppose he was just doing his routine inspections', Lucan turned around and walked out of the ward and back to his room where he flopped down on his bed and let out a sigh.
Today had been a rather hectic day for him, maybe he would refrain from outings for the time being, he wasn't really scared, more so cautious, he had almost gotten attacked the first time he stepped out of the orphanage after all 'No need to rush the exploration'.
He stared at the ceiling for a bit, getting lost in his own thoughts he wondered what it would look like in his original world, about the mangas and shows he had watched, wondering if perhaps someone was reading the events of his life as a comic story with him in the background and wouldn't even be mentioned.
He thought about his parents, how long it would take for them to notice he was missing, perhaps they wouldn't notice at all 'Well maybe not never' he was a student before all this after all and he was pretty popular, his parents would most definitely have been informed that he had suddenly disappeared.
'or I may not' rather than a missing person report Lucan also fully believed that they could find his corpse just lying there in bed quietly acting like it was asleep, peacefully decomposing 'What a scary thought'
He felt exhausted from all the adventures today and just allowed his thoughts to wander as he lay in his bed, he felt somewhat tired, no in fact he had never been so thoroughly exhausted in all his life, he looked at his wrist 'Maybe I'll just close my eyes for a bit and then eat dinner'
Lucan then fluffed his pillow and slowly closed his eyes as he drowned in his own thoughts drifting off into sleep dreaming of his past.
***
Lucan got up with a start, he felt disoriented, the room was completely dark with only the transient moonlight filtering through the windows he had overslept, and had now awoken in the middle of the night with nothing to do, he reached into his locker to grab his water can and take a sip only to find it empty 'Ah fuck me'.
He rose from his bed and walked out of the room carefully looking left and right before stepping into the corridor making his way downstairs and towards the cafeteria, just as he was about to turn into the corridor he was suddenly faced with a small flash of light. That made him squint.
As his eyes adjusted a tall pale man entered his view, moving his head from left to right while calmly walking around the orphanage, his flashlight in hand. Noticing Lucan standing there with his hands shielding his eyes, he pointed the flashlight's beam upward as he approached "Hello, water?".
"Yes?". The pale man slowly nodded and turned around with his flashlight and walked ahead of him, before Lucan could ask why he pulled out a bunch of keys and jangled them in his hands "Today, Sunday, cafeteria is locked".
Lucan quietly closed his mouth and swallowed his words before they even reached his tongue and just obediently followed behind him until they reached the cafeteria where he unlocked the door and allowed him to get his water.
They walked together up until the reception "Thank you" Lucan said and the pale man just gave him a thumbs up and went on to continue his patrol of the other areas, leaving Lucan to his own devices as he walked the dark corridors alone. 'I wonder what goes on in that head sometimes'.
Save for the few words he would spit back as replies or when he was required to do so, of all the times he had seen of him since his arrival the man had rarely spoken, it would have been strange for anyone else but with him it just felt like that was how things should be.
***
In his room having placed his water can back into his locker he sighed and flopped back onto the bed, he was wide awake now with nothing to do until the morning bell and he was dying of boredom, he had messed up his sleep schedule and it was going to bite him in the ass when he woke in the morning.
He tossed and turned, closing his eyes, trying to get himself to fall back asleep but there was no hope of that happening any time soon, his eyes were practically taped awake by how well rested he was, and with all that excess energy it would be difficult to fall back asleep.
'They say an idle mind is the devil's workshop, or something like that'. He rose to his feet and stepped outside again wondering what to do with himself while he walked around, he wouldn't be strolling to the medical ward, he didn't really want to go there if he wasn't injured, there was no way he was going to the field by himself at night, he may not scare easy but there was no need to test his bravery eventually found his answer making his way to the common room and flipped the switch for the TV.
He didn't know where the remote was so he would be stuck watching whatever the last person who had it set it to, which was apparently a reality show channel about serial killers and detectives to which Lucan couldn't help but roll his eyes at before throwing himself on the chair.
"Ow". A voice came from below the chair causing Lucan to jump to his feet in surprise, his eyes scanning the underside of the seat for any shadows or signs of a person, he gradually grew confused when he didn't see anyone until he remembered something and ran his hand over his face with a sigh.
"Polly, what are you doing ?" A small giggle could be heard as a dainty crimson-haired girl appeared on the sofa gently rubbing her head as she stared at Lucan with Glee.
"We really should–" Lucan raised a hand and cut her off, which made her pout a bit while he just shook his head "Okay, fine I'm treasure hunting, what about you?'
Lucan raised an eyebrow, he highly doubted there could be anything like treasure in this place that felt more like a confused haunted house than anything but that was just his personal opinion, maybe Polly had her own definition of treasure like those novels she finds lying around'.
It was likely she was looking for something similar around the orphanage, but after what she had said earlier today he doubted any of them would leave anything for the adventurous and shiny Polly to find when she went on her evening collection patrols.
"Nothing much, I couldn't sleep so I decided to try and watch something on the TV". He shrugged, had he known sleep would have been so impossible he would not have even bothered returning to his room and would have come to the common room directly.
"Ho TV huh? Looks like some crime documentaries, aren't they sorta boring? You're so weird ". Lucan rolled his eyes; he couldn't believe someone who walked around looking for stuff that people had left behind was the one calling him weird.
"Well there's nothing else to do right now and I don't particularly think trash diving like a certain someone is fun". Just as she was about to retort there was a flash of lighting followed by a thunder clap which had caused her to yelp.
They both remained silent for a few seconds before Lucan eventually spoke up Barely holding in his laughter while she looked like she was about to die from shame which only made Lucan want to laugh even harder.
But while he was laughing he would never have guessed, a storm was coming to Willow Wood.
Author's Note:
If you're enjoying the story and want to read ahead or support my work, you can check out my P@treon at [email protected]/LordCampione. But don't worry—all chapters will eventually be public. Just being here and reading means the world to me. Thank you for your time and support.