'Did the kids move me?'
The last thing I remembered was writhing on the floor, so someone must have found me and moved me to the bed.
'Ugh... need some water.'
I swung my legs, heavy as lead today, over the side of the bed and sat on the edge.
"Yawn... *ahem*!"
My throat stung when I yawned, so I quickly shut my mouth. I was just about to stand up to find water.
Click.
The firmly shut door opened softly, and Iris entered the room with a somber expression.
"Ah, *ahem*... Iris -..."
As I reflexively clutched my throat and barely managed to speak her name, Iris, who had been looking down, snapped her head up to stare at me.
"Ah...!"
A short gasp burst out, and in the blink of an eye, Iris had rushed right in front of me. She moved with incredible speed.
"Oppa!"
"Urgh!"
Iris's embrace was so forceful that I fell backward, sprawling onto the bed with her in my arms.
"Oppa, Oppa..."
"Hnghh..."
I raised my hand to soothe her at the sound of her sobbing, but her slender arms squeezed my waist as if to break it, and only dying breaths escaped me. I patted Iris's back weakly and said.
"Sur...render..."
Whether my meaning was conveyed well or not, Iris jumped back in surprise.
"Op -...pa."
Iris's voice hummed, and my vision faded to black.
'Wait, am I fainting right now?'
With that absurd thought, my consciousness snapped.
***
How much time had passed since then? I came to, as if waking from sleep.
"Ugh..."
"..! Rian!"
"Oppa!"
"Everyone, be quiet! Oppa is a patient!"
As I slowly opened my eyes to the buzzing sounds around me, I saw eyes filled with worry.
"Ahem, wa...ter.."
My throat was so dry that I said that in a raspy, weak voice, and someone supported my shoulders and back to half-raise my upper body, while someone else brought a cup to my lips.
Gulp, gulp.
"Ah! I'm saved!"
Once my thirst was quenched, my mind snapped to attention. A little strength returned to my limp body.
Grrr-umble -.
Now, if I just filled my stomach, which was churning violently, I would be able to recover to my original condition.
"Ah, I'm hungry."
When I reflexively muttered that, Noah jumped up and ran out of the room. I could see red hair peeking in from beyond the open door.
"Mas-ter...? Mas-ter...?"
I stared blankly toward the voice of Jess, who was pacing outside the door, unable to enter.
"Why is Jess... doing that over there?"
"I told her not to come in because if she knew Oppa woke up, she'd rush in without thinking."
My head felt dull, as if I'd been sleeping for days, so I muttered my thoughts aloud. Lily answered.
"Can't you tell her to come in? She looks so pitiful..."
"Still, no. Oppa, you opened your eyes after a whole week. You haven't had a proper meal in that time, so your body is incredibly weak. If Jess rushes in wrong, it won't just end with you fainting."
"A week...? Me?"
As I muttered that with a blank face, someone rushed in from outside the door. It was Nero and Noah.
"Hyung! You're awake!"
Nero approached the bed in an instant to check my complexion, and Noah approached the bed holding a tray.
"Whimper..."
I heard Jess whimpering outside the door. I looked at Lily and said.
"I'm fine, so please just tell her to come in."
"You are not fine at all!"
Startled by the sudden shouting, I turned my head to see Noah looking at me, her face contorted with distress. She handed the tray she was holding to Nero, then came right up to me and began pouring out words.
"Do you know what you looked like when we found you? You had collapsed on the floor, and no matter how much we tried to wake you, you didn't even twitch! A day passed after you collapsed like that... then two days... do you know how anxious I was? That you, that you might just leave us like this..."
As tears began to well up in Noah's eyes, my body stiffened. Noah lowered her gaze, bit her lip for a moment, and then asked in a trembling voice.
"Why... didn't you tell us?"
"Huh?"
"That your condition was so bad that you'd faint... why didn't you tell us?"
I rolled my eyes and broke into a cold sweat.
'Th-that's not it, I just picked up a gem that fell on the floor and lost consciousness while examining it?'
I couldn't bring myself to say that because I thought I would look like someone who mindlessly picked up food dropped on the street and ended up in the hospital. The thought of those eyes filled with worry turning cold and looking down at me with pity made my body feel like it was freezing.
I didn't know Oppa was that kind of person.
How old are you to just pick up stuff off the floor and play with it?
I was worried for nothing. What a waste of time.
I could vividly picture myself sitting down like a tragic heroine under a spotlight, shouting, "Guys, I'm sorry! Don't go!", and the children walking away with cold expressions.
Once I imagined that far, it was even harder to speak.
"U-uh... that is..."
I was rolling my eyes, desperately looking for a plausible answer.
"Ri, Rian!"
"Oh my god...!"
"....?"
Noah's voice trembled as if she were flustered, and Lily, who had been watching us quietly, came right up to my side and began to examine my face.
"Why is there so much sweat..."
"Ah."
While I was frantically racking my brain to avoid being shunned by the kids, cold sweat had been pouring out, soaking my clothes.
"Sorry, I made the clothes and bed dirty."
"What are you saying right now!"
When I apologized for dirtying the bed while thinking, Lily scolded me with a stiff face. I started to look around like a puppy that had caused trouble.
"It's not about the clothes being dirty -... no, this isn't the time for this!"
Lily dashed out of the room and ran somewhere. As I blinked and looked in the direction Lily had disappeared, Nero placed the tray on the nightstand next to the bed and said.
"Lily is studying to be a healer, so she went to get the tools used for examinations."
"Ah... but I'm not sick? I, I think I'll be fine if I just eat."
I just said that with 100% sincerity, but all I got back was a fierce glare. Nero said with a firm expression that resembled Lily's.
"First, get examined, then eat. We don't know yet if you're in a state to eat."
At those sharp words, I had no choice but to slump down on the bed.
'If I just eat, I'll be cured, ta-da!'
As I was thinking that sullenly, I felt someone carefully take my right hand. When I turned my gaze, Iris was holding my fingertips with a very anxious face.
When I grabbed her hand in response to the touch tickling my fingertips as if she were walking on eggshells, Iris opened her eyes wide and looked at me in surprise. I smiled as gently as I could to tell her to be at ease.
"Hng..."
"Eh?"
Then Iris started to shed tears. I immediately tried to sit up to hug Iris, but a firm hand grabbed my shoulder and pressed me down onto the bed.
"Stay still."
"Yes..."
Noah said in a low, sunken voice with her eyes flashing. At Noah's charisma, I became a coward again and stayed quiet with both hands on my chest. How long had it been like that?
"Mas-ter!"
Jess entered the room with Lily. It was cute how she approached cautiously, as if she had been told to be quiet.
'What is all that...?'
My gaze, which had been on cute Jess, soon turned to the items Lily had brought in her arms.
"I obtained many good items while raiding several organizations this time."
Lily said that, laid out items I didn't know the use of on the bed, and then flipped the blanket off. Then she boldly lifted my clothes up.
"Kyaaak!"
"...?"
A feminine scream erupted from an unexpected place. Noah, her face flushed bright red, was stepping back while covering her face with both hands.
"Mas-ter... does it hurt a lot? Should I lick it?"
Jess sniffed with a sullen face and stuck out her tongue. Lily pushed Jess away, saying she shouldn't do that, and picked up an object the size of an adult man's fist.
When she grabbed the round object at the top and bottom and twisted it, the middle opened. The spherical exterior was just a case, and something that looked like a medical bandage came out from inside. Lily slapped it onto my solar plexus.
She took out three more bandages and stuck one on my forehead and one on each calf. Then she started fiddling with other tools and began doing something.
'It's like watching a mad scientist.'
I watched Lily move, recalling the world of scientists with strange mechanisms where, after some flashing and clattering, a (ding!) sound like a microwave finishing would be heard, and something would be completed...
After some time passed, just like a receipt being printed out from a card machine, something presumed to be a result sheet was printed from a square machine.
'It must have come out that I'm healthy, right?'
There's nothing wrong with me other than being hungry, so it should come out that I'm very healthy.
"...Why?"
It definitely should have... but Lily's face, after reading the result sheet, had turned deathly pale.