Chapter 80: Ch 80: Shelly’s mission
"Did everyone see the next task? I am going to announce your roles immediately. Make sure you remain with your group and if you notice anything suspicious, report it immediately."
Rin ordered his people and they nodded without any hesitation. Everyone in the settlement trusted his words.
Once the assignments were done, the patrolling started. The sacred tree seedling had already begun to germinate and soon the tree would start to grow.
While everyone else worked, Shelly sat down quietly, observing him. Rin observed her back, wondering if she had gotten the traitor task or not.
Unfortunately, there was no way for him to know without asking her.
"Shelly, can I talk to you for a minute?"
Rin called her out once most of the other people had left the room. Shelly immediately nodded and walked toward Rin’s side.
Reina gave Rin a questioning look, asking if she should stay with him, but he signaled for her to go forward without him. This conversation was meant to stay between him and Shelly.
"Rin, do you want to tell me something? I am all ears."
’Since when did Shelly become such a good actor?’
Rin wondered as he looked down at her smiling face. There wasn’t even a hint of guilt or any other emotion on her face.
Either Shelly had not gotten this mission, or she had decided to not do it. Because comparing her current self to the one in the novel was like day and night.
’Is this really the same female lead who broke down in front of Albus because of the secret mission and confessed all her crimes to him, even though she was innocent? Somehow, I cannot see a hint of that.’
[( ,,⩌’︿’⩌,,)]
[Rookie, ignorance is bliss. Please take this into account when you ask certain questions.]
The system dampened Rin’s mood as well as his desire to find out the difference between this story and the original novel.
Shelly did not like him getting distracted and she immediately grabbed his hand and pulled his attention back to her.
"Rin, did you want to tell me something?"
Her question immediately brought Rin back and he took a breath to compose himself and clear his mind before asking her questions.
"Shelly, is there anything you want to tell me? Did the system give you any extra missions?"
Shelly looked taken aback by Rin’s question and she immediately looked at her system screen. Then, she looked back at Rin with the same smile on her face.
"The system didn’t give me any special missions. You don’t have to worry about me."
She was lying. There was nothing on Shelly’s face to suggest she was lying, but Rin could still somehow tell when she was hiding things from him.
He let out a sigh and made a disappointed face.
"Ah, I see. I was hoping the system would give you that mission, but since you did not get any, I guess I have no choice but to let this go-"
"A-Actually, the system did give me a secret mission. But I have no intention of betraying you all and completing it. I did not want to say anything about it because it did not feel important."
Shelly immediately spilled the beans as soon as Rin showed his disappointment in her. He had expected this from her, so he was not surprised. But he did feel sorry for tricking her.
"It’s alright. I had a feeling the system would try and pull something like this. This is not your fault, Shelly. There is no need for you to feel responsible."
Rin assured her and Shelly nodded with a hesitant expression on her face. She was trying her best to show her strong side to Rin.
"Shelly, I won’t be disappointed in you, no matter what you do. So relax a little and take a deep breath."
Rin assured her and Shelly nodded before she forced herself to take a deep breath and then looked back at Rin.
"The system told me to steal the fruit. It did not mark it as an important mission, so I decided to forget about it. I swear I have no idea why it chose me and what it wants from me. I promise."
Shelly looked agitated as she spoke. The system’s message was stressing her out, so it was no wonder that she pretended to forget about it.
Rin felt sorry for her and he immediately reassured her.
"It’s alright. Rather, it’s a good thing you got this mission. I actually want you to fulfill it. During the last 2 minutes of the task, I want you to take the opportunity and grab that fruit and eat it."
Since the task was to survive and help the tree bear fruit, it would be considered a success as long as those conditions were met.
In the original novel, someone harvested the fruit 10 minutes before the task ended and it caused chaos, causing panic as the barrier broke.
Shelly had hunted down the other traitor and then eaten the fruit when there seemed to be no way to fix the situation.
Of course, the blame for this fell on Rin since he had been in charge of the settlement. It had strengthened Albus’s position in the settlement.
But the current situation was different.
Rin could take advantage of the situation and ensure the same results. But the look on Shelly’s face was a little weird.
"How can you ask me to do something like that? You will be held accountable if anything goes wrong. Don’t you see how dangerous it is for you? I cannot just-"
"I know that it’s dangerous and there is a chance this all might backfire. But we can’t afford to let this opportunity slip away. We have no way of knowing how strong the future enemies would be."
Rin advised Shelly and her eyes slowly changed. She looked determined to follow his lead
"I understand. I will do as you have asked."
Rin let out a relieved sigh once he had Shelly’s agreement. Little did he realize that Shelly had only agreed because she had plans of her own
If anyone dared to disagree with Rin’s decision or give him a hard time, then Shelly could always make them disappear. But there was no need to tell Rin that at the moment.
Maybe not even in the future.
This would be Shelly’s secret and one she would take to her grave.