Zero to Hero (Prequel/prototype)

Chapter 38. Ignored

Waking up to the chatter outside of his dorm room, Ken yawned as he got ready for another day of his typical school life.

"Morning everyone! Happy birthday Seraphina!" Ken greeted the girls waiting outside of his room.

Exactly two months had passed since Clare's birthday debacle on July 7th and on this Saturday September 7th, it happened to be Seraphina's 16th birthday.

"Thanks Ken! Let's go get something good in town tonight! We haven't been in town a single time since school started!"

As the group walked to the dining hall, and got some breakfast and chatted about everyday things, one person was clearly missing from the picture.

"How's it going Ken? Having a good breakfast with your group of mutts?" A now familiar voice whispered quietly so only those at the table could hear.

"Oh, hi Luke. Yea, the group of mutts are doing well as you can see." Ken replied with a forced smile.

After a few more tactless taunts, Luke and his groupie of nobles went on their merry way feeling good that they managed to annoy Ken and the girls for another day.

Since the start of the semester, Clare had refused to talk, sit or listen to Ken and it became obvious fast that the two were having issues and Luke with his pettiness did not let that opportunity go to waste.

Whenever he could, Luke would show up, make a few nasty remarks towards Ken or the girls. Other than Ken being the obvious target, he was also especially nasty with his remarks towards Lovetta and Emma due to Emma's mixed race and Lovetta getting in his face when he threatened Ken.

All in all, with Ken pleading with the girls to not act irrationally due to Luke's status. Whenever Luke would show up, they would mostly just ignore him and Luke had kept his taunting and harassment under wraps to just the group and it was not to the point of being unbearable.

When Ken got home, he explained the situation to Emma and Genesis right away and when school started back, the rest of the girls also learned of the situation on day one.

While none of them were happy that Ken ended up losing his virginity the way he did, none of the girls was surprised especially since if they didn't have the protection spell, most of them would have already done it with him without a question.

When he explained the situation to the girls, he didn't want to go into the specifics to protect Cecilla so he just told them that it happened on Clare's birthday but he felt that Cecilla needed him to be with her more and while he felt bad for Clare he did not regret his action but Clare refused to listen or let him explain.

"Hey Clare, ready to listen to me today?" Ken asked after Clare arrived at the dining hall sitting at the table next to them.

"You're coming to town tonight for my birthday right, Clare?" Seraphine asked in her usual cheery voice.

"Of course, order whatever you want, I will pay for the meal." Clare answered her casually like nothing was out of the ordinary while completely ignoring Ken.

While Clare had ignored Ken like he no longer exists, she has not acted any differently towards the girls and they still shared the room like always. But with her taking on more classes than ever, Clare seemed to have devoted her time to studying and training and rarely had time other than during meals to chat with anyone and it seems like she had almost completely reverted back to the days when she was known as the ice princess.

Thankfully, even though Clare wasn't really interacting with anyone all that often, Ken was glad that she at least still lets the commoners bring her food whenever she was in the dining hall so other than getting picked on by Luke himself, no other group was getting targeted by the bullying.