Chapter 70: Ch 70: People are asking for Help
It took some time for Rin to talk things through with Shelly but she finally agreed to untie him.
The piece of cloth had not been tight but it still left marks on his leg. Those marks were easy to hide with his pants. But his neck, on the other hand...
"How far up do these marks go? Even a turtleneck won’t be able to hide them. Maybe I should get Reina to heal them after all."
Not that Rin was going to wear a turtleneck in the middle of summer. And he did not want to give Reina more work. These marks were not dangerous so he left them as they were after bandaging them.
Shelly waited on his bed (she had followed Rin to his room) and she looked at his bandages. There was a hint of displeasure in her eyes, but it was gone the next moment and Shelly smiled at him.
"Rin, what are we going to do today? Are we going to fight more? Or, are we training?"
Her excitement was nice to see. Especially after seeing how nervous she had been the whole morning. As for her question...
"You’ll find out today’s schedule at the same time as everyone else. Let’s get breakfast first."
Shelly happily followed him around to the cafeteria.
...
Everyone was staring at Rin. More specifically, they were all looking at his neck curiously. But no one dared to ask him what happened.
Rin grabbed a plate filled with food and sat down beside Shelly. They ate in silence until someone sat beside Rin and wrapped his arm around Rin’s shoulders.
Albus’s hand lightly poked at the bandages on Rin’s neck and he looked curious as he turned Rin’s head to get a better look.
"Woah! It seems like you had a wild night. Care to share some tips with me—Hey, be careful! You almost poked my hand."
Albus complained as he watched a knife embed itself into the table inches from his hand.
"Oops, my hand slipped. I will make sure to not miss next time."
Shelly spoke with a flat tone as she reached out to grab the fork. But Albus immediately pushed his chair back when he saw her leaning closer to him.
It caused his chair to wobble and he fell backwards. Albus managed to protect his head but his back was another matter.
"Ouch! It hurts. I think I broke something."
He grumbled as Rin helped him back up.
Luckily for him, Reina and Amelia arrived soon after and Reina healed him within seconds.
"Be more careful next time. Ugh, my head is killing me. I worked too hard yesterday and now I can’t even stand up straight."
Reina complained as she leaned against the table. Amelia looked just as tired, but she was conserving her energy by not speaking.
They quickly took their seats and ate a few bites before Reina noticed Rin’s bandages. Her eyes immediately filled with concern as she reached toward his neck.
"Hey, are you hurt? Let me have a look-"
"These are minor marks you don’t need to worry about. Aren’t you too tired? You should conserve your energy for more important things."
Shelly immediately said to Reina in a concerned voice. But it was all a mask to hide her anger at Reina’s suggested action.
"It’s nothing major. Healing Rin’s neck won’t tire me out. Hey, lean closer to me."
Reina gently tugged at Rin’s collar to make him lower his neck. Rin followed her instructions and a soothing feeling soothed his throat.
He took off the bandages next, and his neck looked as smooth as ever.
"Tsk"
Shelly looked disappointed because the marks were gone and Rin decided to talk to her later.
Breakfast finished in silence and somehow Rin felt lucky that no one had gotten hurt.
...
Things became busy as soon as breakfast ended. There was a lot to clean up and the inventory was finally starting to show signs of emptying out. So they needed to start stocking up more.
Rin arranged runs to get more food and other necessities. The settlement needed to expand and the third task will begin soon. He wanted to get things in order.
He was busy handling such matters when his head butler with a concerned expression.
"Sir, we are picking up a weird radio signal. I came here to ask if we should decipher it or leave it alone."
Collin’s words sparked a memory in Rin’s mind.
"If there are radio signals, then...let’s take the risk and check them out."
Collin looked hesitant but Rin was confident that this was not a trap.
In fact, he could recall Albus coming across these signals in the novel, but he had chosen to be cautious and ignore them. He had later found out that these signals had been from ’phoenix’ settlement not too far away.
They were a group of 200 people struggling to survive and had finally resorted to attacking other settlements. And when that had not worked, the system had offered them a chance to become a boss to try and sustain themselves.
Rin did not want to change too much, but he did want to prevent this incident if he had a chance.
The only problem was-
[User, do not even try to change something this big. The consequences will not be good if you make this change.]
[Listen carefully, the higher-ups have turned a blind eye to what you are doing until now, but they won’t stay silent for much longer. Don’t you care about your life?]
"System, you keep saying that your higher-ups want to preserve the original settling, but won’t taking me out change the original setting as well? Will they take such a risk?"
Rin tried to probe a little bit, but the system did not take the bait.
[User, don’t overestimate your importance. Listen to me carefully this time and let this matter go. If you don’t, then things will get worse.]
The system warned Rin and now he had a choice to make- to follow the system’s advice or to do what he wanted.
Rin was about to give in to the system when his personal radio started to pick up the signal as well. It made him pick up the radio and a desperate voice reached him.
"P-Please! If you can h-hear me, please help us. W-We will starve at this rate. T-The children...save the children...at least..."
[User, don’t let your emotions waver...]
[*Sigh* Why do I even try? You are going to do something foolish, aren’t you?]
Unfortunately for the system (and Rin), it was impossible to look away when someone asked you for help with such desperation.