My Childhood Friend Turned Yandere in the Apocalypse

Reina paused, and Rin’s heart skipped several beats. It must have shown on his face, because Reina quickly corrected herself and continued.

"Don’t worry too much. You’re perfectly healthy. Well, maybe you could use a bit more sleep, but other than that, I could not find anything wrong with you. I did not pause because I had bad news."

Reina rambled, but Rin needed some time to come to terms with what he had just heard. He took a deep breath to steady himself and nodded for Reina to continue..

Cough

"A-Anyway, the reason I paused was because I wanted to ask you something. Do you want to pretend to be sick? That way, you can come to me whenever you need to head out alone and no one would panic...well, more than usual. I will also be able to cover for you most of the time."

Rin was surprised at Reina’s suggestion. He had not expected her to make such an offer.

Reina looked nervous about suggesting something like this but she did not back down. She was willing to shoulder the burden of a lie if it meant helping Rin out.

Her offer was actually quite reasonable. It would allow Rin a lot more freedom to carry out secret solo missions without alarming anyone. There weren’t many downsides to it.

The only downside Rin could think of was having to inform Reina of his every move

"Don’t worry. I won’t ever ask you where you are going and what you need to do. I trust your judgment. You can also use my isolation room when you want to be alone."

The offer kept getting better.

In fact, it felt perfect.

[User, are you going to take advantage of your subordinate’s generosity? Tsk, what a shameless boss.]

The system taunted Rin, trying its best to make Rin change his mind and give up on this offer. But the push was not too harsh.

So Rin ignored the system’s advice and took Reina’s offer.

"I will let you know when I need to use this room. But as for my condition...what are you thinking of diagnosing me with?"

Rin wanted to flesh out his story before presenting it to others. He didn’t want to be caught off guard by questions.

"Let’s say you have Myalgic encephalomyelitis. It’s an actual medical condition, so even if someone looks into it, they won’t doubt our words."

No one had time to look into others’ business during the apocalypse. Still, covering all the bases like this was reassuring.

"Got it. But what does ’Myalgic encephalomyelitis’ even mean? I feel like I should at least know this much."

Rin asked Reina and she immediately replied.

"It’s Chronic Fatigue Syndrome. Since it does not sound dangerous when I say it’s common name, it’s better for us to call it Myalgic encephalomyelitis when explaining to others. As for symptoms, it’s fatigue, small issues of memory loss, feeling dizzy etc. You know, the usual stuff."

That didn’t sound any different from Rin’s usual life.

[User, I don’t think this is a false diagnosis. Have you ever considered getting checked?]

Rin could not even say anything against this. The system had grabbed his weak spot to exploit and delivered a low blow.

Reina knew nothing about his internal struggles, so she continued to speak.

"You can pretend to feel dizzy whenever you need to use my office. I am sure you already have a spare key anyway. I will take care of explaining to others about your condition."

The smile on Reina’s face made Rin scared. Somehow, he had a feeling that Reina would do an extremely good job at ’explaining’ his disease.

’Is it too late to tell Reina I changed my mind?’

Unfortunately, that seemed to be the case this time.

...

The mattress in the medical office was far too soft and inviting. Rin had only wanted to lay down for a few minutes. But he fell asleep and before he knew it, a whole hour passed.

It was hard for him to get out of bed even when Rin woke up feeling rested. But he forced himself to get back on his feet and walk out.

The first thing Rin noticed was that he was getting a lot of looks from people around him. They pointed at him and shook their heads, their eyes filled with pity.

This was...not normal. In fact, most people who looked at Rin had pity-filled eyes. But when he tried to make eye contact, they suddenly looked away.

It did not only happen once or twice. By the tenth time, Rin was sure that something was going on.

So instead of relying on people who wouldn’t even meet his gaze, Rin decided to look for his butler. If there was one person who wouldn’t pull back his punches and tell Rin exactly what was happening, it was his butler Collin.

However, his butler took one look at him and sorrow filled his eyes.

"Young Master, I know I was not always the best butler for you. But I promise to be a better butler in the future. I will work my hardest to ensure that you do not experience any discomfort."

Collins gave a passionate speech but his words went in one ear and out the other.

"Why are you professing your loyalty to me? Show it with your actions, not your words."

Rin told his butler and Collin nodded.

"I will, young master.. But I also wanted to verbally tell you this just in case so there would be no room for misunderstanding."

The butler made sure to emphasise his words. It sounded like the kind of confession people made in movies before they were about to die.

The fierce expression on Collin’s face did not tell Rin much, but he sincerely hoped that his butler was not planning to stab him in the back anytime soon.

Unfortunately, the peculiarities did not end at his butler or that unfamiliar people. Teressa immediately wrapped her arms around his arm and pressed herself against him. Her face looked terrified and unshed tears filled her eyes.

"Master, are you about to die? Reina told us that you had an incurable disease and I-I got so scared."

Teressa’s action was too good. The facial expression made her look like a terrified girl, but Rin could see her calculating her chances of survival if she broke the bond now

But that was his secondary concern. His main concern, however, was Reina—and her big mouth

’Shit! Reina, what did you tell these people about my condition?’