Luca’s familiar golden eyes fluttered open.

But the warmth inside them vanished in an instant.

His pupils dilated sharply as his gaze swept across the area, not even reflecting everything he could suddenly see. His breathing hitched violently, and his entire body stiffened as though something invisible had slammed straight into him.

Before anyone could even ask what was wrong, his knees gave out.

"Luca?!"

The golden-eyed cadet’s head tipped back as consciousness slipped away from sheer sensory overload.

Chaos immediately erupted throughout the testing grounds.

"Son!"

"Young Lord!"

"Brother Chipmunk!"

"Host?!"

Several voices shouted at once while people lunged forward in alarm, scrambling to catch Luca before he hit the ground.

__

Stress.

Stress.

Stress.

Today truly was not for the faint of heart.

People’s hearts had already been attacked multiple times by events they could never have predicted. Thankfully, the latest crisis eventually passed after Luca woke up feeling much better.

Honestly, it didn’t even take long, about ten minutes after he fainted, the young cadet managed to wake up on his own.

Unsurprisingly, the first thing Luca noticed was the familiar reassuring hand holding his.

"Ughh..."

He blinked slowly before eventually staring at the recognizable ceiling of the medical bay. For a moment that honestly didn’t last long enough, he simply lay there blankly, trying to remember why exactly he was even lying down in the first place.

Unfortunately, he barely had time to think before one particular blonde beat even a distressed father to his bedside.

"Ack!"

"Brother!" Ollie practically launched himself forward. "Are you okay?! Do you need a revive pill? I have two with me!"

The blonde fussed over him with wide, panicked eyes.

"Huh?"

Revive pill?

Luca wondered why he would even need one.

"Wait! Maybe you should keep your eyes closed until the diagnosis is over!" Ollie continued anxiously, hovering over Luca like an overprotective mother hen.

The shorter cadet could only stare in confusion.

"I-I don’t think I need the revive pill, Brother. I actually feel fine. Though... maybe a little disoriented." Luca blinked. "And I realize I’m in the medical bay. Did something happen?"

"Did something happen?!" Ollie repeated in disbelief.

"Luca," Xavier said while lightly squeezing his hand to remind him he was there, "you fainted immediately after opening your eyes. The Elders checked your spiritual pathways and said they appear completely stable, but we still cannot be certain, so you’ll have to tell us right away if you feel any discomfort."

"!"

"Oh!"

It took a moment because he was rather confused, but eventually Luca exclaimed, "I remember now!"

Then, as if trying to sort everything out, he stared at the ceiling while organizing his thoughts.

"Sorry! I’m alright! As in spiritually, I don’t think anything’s wrong. Earlier, I think I only fainted because it felt like looking directly at a flashbang."

"A flashbang?" Ollie echoed weakly.

"I thought I’d only see little specks of light like Count Alexander described," Luca explained shyly while scratching his cheek. "But when I opened my eyes, it felt like I was staring at space itself."

He looked embarrassed after saying it.

Clearly, the golden-eyed cadet felt bad for causing so much trouble just because he fainted from seeing unexpectedly bright lights.

But to his surprise, Jax’s father suddenly stepped forward.

"Luca," Count Alexander asked carefully, "you said you saw bright lights? What kind?"

"My lord..." Luca tilted his head while recalling it. "They looked like twinkling stars connected by lines. Umm... Pretty much like constellations."

Then, almost absentmindedly, he added, "Just like yours, my lord. I can still see a gray twinkling star from here, and lines connecting all the way toward your head."

"!"

Count Alexander’s eyes widened.

"Luca," he said immediately, "I think you’re seeing the pathways where I direct spiritual energy whenever I use my bloodline ability."

"!!!"

"Ehh?"

Really? The curious chipmunk thought that might be it. After all, the Count had to use his eyes for it.

However...

"But my lord," Luca said curiously, "if that’s the case, then why does my brother have so many lines?"

Without realizing it, he pointed toward the blonde whose hair antenna had been melancholic since earlier.

The newly-married Mylor nearly jumped out of his skin.

"Me?!" Ollie pointed at himself in alarm. "I have many lines?!"

"Yes, brother," Luca answered honestly. "There’s so many that it almost looks like an entirely different circulatory system."

"!!!!!!"

Well.

What do you know?

They somehow ended up with a second unexpected patient.

But really, how could Oliver Mylor not end up bedridden after hearing something like that?

At this point, wasn’t it practically an established truth that having too much of something—or too little of it—usually spelled disaster?

Yes.

Especially if his good brother was the one saying it.

More importantly, Ollie was someone with a husband now. Was this what people meant when they talked about someone disintegrating at the peak of their life?!

"..."

"..."

Everyone else would have said probably not.

Unfortunately, nobody really dared comment on the blonde’s crisis when they had already figured out the reason behind everyone else’s lines, yet even after cracking open the very first beggar’s chicken, they still had absolutely no idea why Oliver had so many.

And so, Ollie sat there dramatically slumped over while lamenting his tragic fate.

Everyone else had already figured out their bloodline abilities.

Meanwhile, he apparently had enough mysterious lines in his body to resemble a complicated transportation map.

"The only lines I’d ever want to have a lot of are credit lines!" Ollie wailed, throwing a hand dramatically over his forehead. "But this? This definitely doesn’t look like financial prosperity!"

Luca, deeply concerned for his brother’s wellbeing, approached with a comforting expression.

"You probably don’t have anything to worry about, brother," the golden-eyed cadet reassured gently. "It doesn’t seem like a bad thing."

Ollie sniffled weakly.

But instead of calming down because of the comforting words, his body physically relaxed because of the smell wafting from the dish Luca was carrying.

"Here, brother!" Luca said brightly. "We can eat first, and then maybe later we can figure out what’s wrong!"

Well—

The golden-eyed bringer of good food was not technically wrong.

After all, he never actually specified when later was supposed to be.