Luke watched Sakura's face twist in pain and her whole body tremble as she tried to drill into her soul. For the tenth time, she let out a grunt and opened her eyes in disappointment. "God, how can you deal with this pain?" she asked.

He would've shrugged if his shoulders weren't broken. "It's not that bad."

He couldn't imagine a reason for his pain tolerance to be any better than Sakura's. He had gotten used to physical beatings, but they shouldn't affect soul pain at all. His memories did say it was very rare for people to build their own mana channels because of the pain, but he hadn't thought too much about it.

"I'll keep trying," she said with conviction and closed her eyes.

Luke smiled and kept his own eyes open as he tried to feel the mana around him.

In the past days, he had leveled up his Mana Control to level ten, and now both it and his Mana Sense skill were at a bottleneck. The way to level up his Mana Sense was by using it with eyes open, while Mana Control required him to finish his mana channels first.

Feeling mana with eyes open was hard, yet Sakura was capable of it as she could send mana waves without closing her eyes. Luke had planned on not worrying about it for lack of time, but he would be on a bed for the foreseeable future, so he now had the extra time to try new things.

Theoretically speaking, feeling mana with his eyes open wasn't so hard. It was just another of the five physical senses in action while he did it. However, it was one of those cases where theory and practice were different.

A whooping one fifth of all mana users couldn't use it with their eyes open, which made them all but useless in battle and forced them to become scholars instead. Luke's memories had many theories as to why, the most simple being that people focused better on themselves when their eyes were closed. It felt way too simple, yet some other theories were so outrageous—one said that open eyes made the soul hide from the person—that it might as well be true.

Using mana with open eyes was a requirement to most armies in his memories. For elves, it was also the final proof that a child had achieved adulthood. They treated anyone incapable of it like children, which greatly irked some races.

Luke didn't have an easy time with it either. For hours, he failed completely to do it, while Sakura did manage to advance a little with the drilling. She still twisted her face in pain and could only keep going for a couple minutes before resting for at least ten, but it was a better progress than his.

"Aren't you going home?" Luke asked when he realized it was already 2 AM.

She shook her head. "It's safer for you if I stay here."

He smiled. "Thanks, but I would feel better if you slept comfortably on your bed."

"Still worrying about me even in your situation," she said with a smile of her own. It was the first time she showed teeth while smiling, and her perfect white teeth made her even more beautiful. It outright dazed him. To make things worse, she even fixed her hair behind her ear and looked down a couple seconds before looking at him again.

He had no idea how long it took him to recover, but even when he did, he could only look at her in silence, his mind too melted to produce any words he could speak.

In the end, he said nothing. Someone opened the door and entered. Luke turned his head slightly to see Tom. Last time Luke had seen the black guy with a perfectly trimmed beard, he had moved Luke's furniture. Last time he had heard him though, it had been in the school's rooftop, calling for Sakura.

Today, Tom was wearing a black suit and standing straight. His beer belly was noticeably smaller, which made Luke wonder if he had been wearing a cushion before or was wearing straps to hide it now.

He was carrying a black rolling duffel bag, which he offered to Sakura with both hands and bowed his head. "Ms. Akira."

Her smile turned into displeasure. "You should've knocked first."

"I apologize, but the clan head has given me specific instructions." He didn't sound apologetic at all.

She frowned, then closed her eyes and sighed. When she opened them, her face was back to the usual peacefulness. "You may leave the bag there..." She pointed to a corner. "...and leave."

"Understood." He obeyed and left. He didn't glance at Luke even once the entire time.

"I apologize for his behavior," Sakura said with a tired voice. "The clan head is overly protective of me."

Luke didn't understand what she meant. "What does that mean?"

She blushed, but instead of replying, she stood up and went to the bag. "I can explain it to you later." She pulled the bag's telescopic handle and walked to a side door that fit so seamlessly with the wall, he hadn't noticed it before. It led to a bathroom. "Be right back."

Moments later, he heard the sound of falling water. He guessed she was taking a bath and preparing to sleep. His heart warmed, and it wasn't because of a heat wave delivered by the phoenix heart; rather, he was filled with gratitude. Sakura was such a great friend she would even stay there for him. He was lucky to have found her.

That's the moment he decided he had to grow much, much stronger.

His grandad only required Luke to use healing skills. But Sakura...

Sakura was an important girl from a powerful family. She lived in a completely different world from his. Luke was lucky to interact with her; Mr. Akira was a hell of a man for thinking about calling his niece so Luke wouldn't feel lonely in his house. Unfortunately, it was obvious she wouldn't stay around for long. She had her own things to deal with.

To stay by her side, he had to grow powerful enough to be worthy of her. Not in any romantic way, of course; even if he became the most powerful and rich guy in the world, she would still be way out of his league. Luke just... He knew he was broken inside, no matter how much he thought about being a warrior. She could do much better, so she obviously wouldn't even consider something with him. Still, he did want to keep her around as a friend for as long as he could.

So for Sakura, Luke would keep growing, keep pushing. For her, he would do his very best.

And that started with feeling mana with his eyes open.

With newfound determination, he kept trying. He fixed his vision on the bathroom door, thinking of the wonderful girl on the other side who believed in him so much. The sweet girl who told him he could do the impossible.

He refused to let her down.

His phoenix heart released wave after wave of heat. His entire body was filled with warmth. His willpower went through a qualitative change right then, right there.

And at the edges of his burning soul, he felt the coldness of mana.

Mana Sense 5 → 6 / 10

The notification was proof of his success. Once again, Sakura had helped him. She was such a great friend, she helped him even when she didn't know.

Luke thanked the girl over and over again in his heart.

He took a deep breathe and composed himself. This was just the first step; he couldn't stop here. He started working on his soul, expanding the sphere that would become his mana core.

Sakura left the bathroom wearing pink sweatpants and a white sweatshirt with an anime-like bunny face showing its tongue. It was one of the cutest clothes she had ever worn in front of him.

Her hair was tied tightly on the top back of her head, in a style that reminded Luke of ballerinas. It highlighted her beautiful face even more, and due to the hot water, her lips were extra red. Luke was basically hypnotized by them for a few seconds before remembering he would never touch them with his.

She was pulling her rolling duffel bag behind her and holding a comfy looking white blanket and a white pillow under her other arm.

"You should get some rest," she said while putting her bag on a corner. She sat on the armchair and pulled a lever, lowering its back and lifting the legs, turning it into a veritable bed. She then placed the pillow under her head and covered herself.

There was something special about a girl lying on her bed and looking at you with a peaceful expression. Luke's heartbeat accelerated. He gulped.

"Good night," he said.

"Good night," she replied, smiled a last time, and closed her eyes.

He wanted to keep looking at her, but decided it would be too creepy. Instead, he looked at the ceiling and went back to building his mana core.

A few hours later, he decided his headache was bad enough; he had accrued enough willpower fatigue. It was time to sleep.

He peeked at Sakura just a few dozen times before finally falling asleep.

The following day, Luke woke up with a nurse removing his IV—it had been there mostly to give him the medicine that was now gone—and putting a trolley with food on top of him.

"Do you have someone to feed him or should we send someone?" the nurse asked Sakura.

The girl had already changed clothes into a light pink dress with white flowers that ended just below his knees, her hair was flowing free behind her back, and the armchair was back to being a chair, which she was sitting at. She had a laptop on her lap and the duffel bag was at a corner of the room. It seemed she had started the day early despite it being a Saturday.

Sakura and Luke looked at each other. As much as he would love to have a beautiful girl feed him, he could feel his breath, and it was absolute terrib— Actually, now that he felt it, his breath was quite nice. Not I-just-brushed-my-teeth nice, but the usual odor was gone. Though he couldn't be sure of the source, he could only guess it had to do with the eternal phoenix's heart too. It might have healed something in his mouth that was responsible for the bad smell.

Well, that changed things. He would love to be fed by her. So he opened his mouth to ask her when a male voice sounded in the room.

"I'll take care of it," said Tom as he entered the place.

The nurse just nodded and took the IV bag away. Sakura let out a small sigh. Tom approached.

As disappointed as Luke was, he was thankful for Tom for doing it. And a few spoonfuls of the thick soup with vegetables later—it had no taste at all—and some gulps from the cup of water, Luke was also impressed at how good Tom was at feeding others.

"Thanks," he said once he was finished.

Tom didn't even reply. He just left.

"I'm sorry about him," Sakura said.

Luke smiled. It almost wasn't painful anymore. "You don't need to apologize for him every time he comes. Speaking of which, what did you mean about your clan head being overly protective?"

She blushed again and bit her lips, avoiding his gaze for a few moments. Then she looked at his eyes, which were full of confusion. "Do you really not get it?" she asked.

He shook his head, which was still painful, but doable.

Sakura closed her eyes, took a deep breathe, gulped, and looked him in the eyes for only a split second before lowering her eyes to a little blow his eyes. "Tom was ordered to... How can I explain it? If I ever... I mean... If I show..." She took another deep breathe, and her face was positively crimson by now. "If I show interest in any boy... And they can't just order me to leave the boy's side for some reason... Tom is here to stop the situation from... escalating."

Her words were so, so alien, Luke didn't even understand them at first. It sounded like he had just heard a lot of words that didn't fit together. Things like "I," "interest," and "boy," when directed at him, simply made no sense whatsoever.

He was just Luke. Who would ever have any interest in him? Since her words made no sense, he had to ask her to clarify.

"Sorry?" he asked, absolutely out of his depth in confusion. "Do you like someone from our class?"

She looked sideways. "Please don't make me say it."

He still didn't get it. "Say what?"

She breathed deeply for a few more times and stared him straight in the eyes.