Chapter 49: Ch 49: Getting Drugged
"Rin, are you alright? I heard that you called for me, so I came as soon as possible. What do you want me to do for you? Should I get you water? Or maybe-"
"Teressa, sit down."
The girl instantly obeyed. There was not a hint of resistance on her face. It showed she could follow his orders willingly.
So then why was the system warning Rin that her disobedience was causing her condition to deteriorate?
[User, your subordinate ’Teressa’s’ condition is deteriorating. Help her out before she loses control]
[Current hunger level: 50%. Berserk state will activate automatically after hunger level reaches 80%]
Teressa had followed Rin’s command to sit and which lowered her hunger level by 10%. But if it was this easy for her to feel better, then why had she not done so before? Was she trying to torment Rin by making him work harder?
He was already tired and in a bad mood, and she was only making it worse.
"So, can you start explaining why you lost consciousness? I could not find any signs of injury, so if anything hurts, it might be a sign of trauma."
Reina explained patiently. Rin wanted to answer her immediately but a pair of hands pulled him back against a soft chest.
He tried looking up, but pink hair instantly blocked his view. The hands circling his chest lightly touched his eyes and closed them gently.
"It seems like you had a hard time until now. But don’t worry. Now that I am here, I will take care of everything. You can go back to sleep."
Shelly’s soft and familiar voice tugged Rin back to sleep. He closed his eyes before realizing what was happening.
His eyes snapped open and he instantly broke free from Shelly’s surprised grasp. She looked just as shocked to see herself being pushed away as Rin was to see her.
"Shelly? When or rather, how did you get here? What about the rest of the party? Actually, someone gave me a brief summary of what happened."
The stress came back in full force. Who knew losing consciousness could make someone miss so much?
Rin looked at Reina first since she was the only one he could trust to give a straight answer here. But she shook her head to indicate she did not know.
"Unfortunately, I have not gotten time to hear what happened either. They carried you in here five minutes ago and then you woke up and called for Teressa. I’m just as lost as you are. Shelly, would you like to speak?"
Rin turned towards Shelly and she wasted no time in speaking up.
"I was on my way back to you when I saw someone getting attacked. I decided to help and got rewarded for my hard work. Maybe it was God’s way of sending me back to your side."
Shelly omitted everything she deemed unnecessary. There was no mention of Amelia or Albus, even though she must have met them.
Rin had read the original novel so he knew about the underground secret passage that the original MC had used. But he did not understand why Shelly was not mentioning them.
’She should have gotten close to them by now. But she wasn’t even mentioning anyone else. Did the original MC never meet her?’
"Did you really make it all the way here alone? Is that even possible? Hey, we are not going to get in trouble because of you, right?"
Reina asked Shelly boldly. Rin had only ever seen her like this with Teressa before..
And speaking of Teressa, she was still sitting, but she was starting to grow restless. It was clear she wanted to speak. But she held herself back because she did not want to break Rin’s order.
Rin felt sorry for her, so he decided to release her first, and then help Shelly, who was being questioned by Reina.
"Teressa, you are free to do whatever you want. Just don’t hurt anyone. Reina, you can ease up on Shelly. She must have her reasons for wanting to keep things to herself. And Shelly...I want you to tell me everything later."
Reina looked irritated with Rin’s decision to hear Shelly out alone.
Rin did not know how to explain to Reina that Shelly was delicate and putting too much pressure on her could be bad for her mental health. So he decided to change the topic.
Since Shelly was here, it likely wouldn’t take long. Rin thought about giving Reina a heads-up, but then decided not to. The thought of seeing her shocked expression gave Rin enough restraint not to blurt everything out.
There was a mountain of stuff to check out, but exhaustion was starting to claw at Rin once more. His adrenaline spike was finally wearing off and he rubbed his eyes and let out a huge yawn.
It was not the time for him to fall asleep. There was a mountain of work to finish before Rin could even think about relaxing. Just thinking about this was stressing him out.
[Current exhaustion level: 60%]
[You can use your skill to lower your exhaustion level. Time remaining before use: 18 hours]
Rin’s exhaustion was only at 60% and he already felt like dying. He was lucky to even be alive after his exhaustion levels crossed 80%.
But still, work wouldn’t wait for him...
"Rin, I don’t want to alarm you, but as your doctor, I feel like I have to tell you the truth. You look like you’re about to drop dead any second. Go to sleep before I’m forced to drug you."
Reina sounded 100% genuine when she threatened Rin. He had no doubt in his mind that she would drug him if given a chance.
Rin decided to go to sleep before that could happen. He was sure that nothing would go wrong during the few hours he decided to rest.
Hopefully...
But why did he feel worried? Maybe it would be better for him to make sure everyone was getting along nicely—
"Tsk, so you are still not asleep? You leave me with no choice. Can anyone hold him down? I will inject him with the sleeping drug-"
"I will hold him down. The one with pointed ears can keep watch to make sure we don’t get disturbed."
"Got it. Be careful with Rin since he’s delicate."
Rin was not delicate. He was perfectly fine and could handle himself just fine...
Unfortunately, he did not even get to voice his objection before a sharp needle pricked his neck and he fell unconscious.
’T-This is not fair! Why are they ganging up on me like this—?’