Chapter 92: Chapter 92 - Not Giving Up So Easily

[ Third POV ]

"Oh... no, you didn't understand. I'm 10," William clarified.

"Yeah, you are indeed 10, 'cough,' 'cough,'" Lora said, misinterpreting the situation while attempting to mask it with a cough.

But it was caught on by both of us.

Francis, perplexed by his wife's comment, didn't dwell on it and instead asked William, "What do you mean by 'you're 10' Kid, do you mean you are ten years old or you have already been in the academy for ten years?"

"I meant that my age is 10."

"You mean your age is ten times what you appear, right?" Lora dismissed William's statement and concocted her own interpretation.

"No. I am 10 years old," William reiterated, this time more intently.

"You sure you don't mean twenty? You meant that, didn't you?" Lora insisted once again, this time with more force behind her voice that seemed to break slowly.

"Nope, just 10. Only 10. And I've always been 10. That's why I can't enroll in an academy yet, But I will try to enter one in the near future when I have got the age requirement correct."

William's final statement plunged the whole room into silence.

Nothing echoed through the vast space until Francis burst into hearty laughter, unable to contain himself any longer as his worries were now gone with the laughter.

William looked at Francis, anxious and confused about what was going through his mind and he glanced at Lora for answers, but she seemed lost in her own thoughts as her eyes were vacant and fixed on the floor in agony.

Unable to stand the silence any longer, William asked, "I'm sorry, but what's so funny? I don't get it."

Francis laughed a bit longer and then answered me, "Nothing, kid, just nothing. I remembered some finer moments in life and had to laugh it out. Hahaha!"

William smiled awkwardly, still not grasping Francis's meaning, while Lora next to her husband simmered with anger, thinking,

'What the f*ck is this? How can he be a CHILD? He looks like a teenager with a godly physique, so why? WHY DOES THIS ALWAYS HAPPEN TO ME!!!'

After Francis laughed some more, he stood up from the sofa and approached William, enveloping him in a bear hug as he said with happiness filling his entire body.

Francis narrowed his eyes at that but said nothing.

"Alright then, we should leave now."

"Goodbye, kid," Francis said.

"Goodbye, and again, if you ever need anything, you can always come to me," Lora added.

William nodded, and the peculiar couple left him. After they had walked a certain distance, William returned to his house and reflected on the strange couple.

'Wow, this is a couple straight out of a sitcom. The husband initially looked at me with so much concealed anger that it seemed like I was already sleeping with his wife.'

'And the wife too.

'Whistle.'

I've never seen someone so... I don't know how to describe her, but she was something. And the husband's immediate change of behavior after learning my age was truly amusing.'

'But what I don't get is why the wife's behavior suddenly changed 180 degrees like that.'

'Let's just hope she won't do anything that will land her in prison. If she actually did something like that, I don't think I would be able to keep myself celibate any longer.'

William began cleaning the place, discarding all the food the couple had eaten. As he was about to throw it in the trash, he suddenly had a thought. 'Why am I trying to clean this place when I can hire others to do that?'

[The Hoffmans]

As they walked towards their house, Francis asked his wife, "So... what do you think of the kid?"

"He was quite nice."

"Nothing else to add?"

"He was good-looking too. He's going to attract a lot of women when he gets older. You were right in not letting our daughter meet him." Lora cunningly shifted the topic to their daughter.

As she had hoped, the bait worked. Francis's thoughts shifted to his daughter, and he pondered, 'How do I stop my daughter from ever meeting him?'