The Academy's Terminally Ill Side Character
Chapter 121: I’m Hospitalized Again [1]

Chapter 121: I’m Hospitalized Again [1]

Ethan didn’t struggle.

Not even when Lena rose to her feet, blood still on her gloves, and bound his arms behind him with a searing spell chain that hissed and smoked against his skin.

He didn’t scream.

Didn’t curse.

Didn’t even look anyone in the eye.

He just stood there—empty, deflated—like someone who had been waiting to lose all along.

Lena didn’t say anything to him at first. She looked down at him with her usual steel-hard expression, but the tremble in her jaw betrayed her anger. Her eyes weren’t just angry anymore.

They were tired.

Disappointed.

"You knew this wouldn’t work," she said quietly. "So why?"

Ethan chuckled.

It was low. Broken. Not cruel like before—just... hollow.

"Because even if I lose, I still get to ruin things," he whispered. "That’s what people like me do, Professor."

Lena didn’t dignify him with a response. She turned away, pushing him toward two arriving instructors who had just stormed in, weapons drawn and expressions pale from what they had sensed outside.

"Take him to the Isolation Wing. Strip him of his artifacts. Lock him down with triple seals," Lena ordered, her voice cold. "If even a flea escapes from him, I’ll hold you responsible."

"Yes, ma’am!"

The moment Ethan was dragged out, murmurs started to swell in the room.

The students—those who had hidden, those who had fought, those who had frozen in place—began to come to their senses.

One of the boys stood shakily, looking at the wreckage, the crushed bodies of insect monsters, and finally at Rin—still half-conscious on the floor, surrounded by blood and dust.

"That guy... he saved us," someone said.

Another nodded. "He jumped in before the poison spread. He... he wasn’t even supposed to be here, right?"

"I thought he was just some loser support-type..."

"He was. That’s what everyone said. But that thing—the monster? He faced it. Even helped Ryen."

Ryen hadn’t moved from Rin’s side. His hand hovered over Rin’s shoulder, hesitant. Unsure.

Leona knelt beside them, checking Rin’s pulse again.

Whispers rippled across the room, uncertain and shaken.

"...Is he going to be okay?"

"Why would someone like him jump in like that...?"

"He’s just a first-year, right?"

"I... I thought he was weird, but..."

Professor Lena turned toward them, her face stern as always—but she let them speak. Let them process. She wasn’t about to scold anyone for whispering.

Not today.

Instead, she knelt again beside Rin and reached into her coat, pulling out a crystal the size of a palm. It shimmered faintly with healing light.

"Hold still," she murmured to Rin. "We’re going to fix this."

Rin, half-conscious, blinked once.

Then—another cough, another spatter of blood. But his eyes met hers, dazed but sharp.

"...Don’t waste... relics... I’m fine..."

Lena smacked his forehead—lightly.

"Shut up. You’re not."

Behind them, Leona smiled faintly. Even Ryen let out a breath of disbelief.

The crystal pulsed once, glowing brighter.

And slowly, the bleeding began to stop.

-----

Seriously, is my life a joke or what?

I mean, it seems like the hospital is becoming my new home at this rate.

Yeah, you heard right.

I’m hospitalized again.

Despite the fact that Lena used some kind of high-grade healing crystal—probably expensive enough to feed a small village for a month—I still ended up in the infirmary.

Apparently, spitting out blood like a malfunctioning fountain tends to raise red flags. Who knew?

I didn’t lose consciousness, thankfully. I remember everything. The light, the poison, the way everything moved in slow motion. Ryen’s face when he realized what I’d done. The warmth of Leona’s hand gripping my shoulder. Lena’s voice when she muttered, "You idiot..."

But now? Now I’m lying in a too-clean bed, under too-white sheets, hooked up to glowing mana threads, with my muscles still aching like I got hit by a magical truck.

A very angry, poisonous, insect-shaped truck.

Anyway, I wasn’t alone in the room.

"I already told you a hundred times, I’m fine. Honestly, if you just let me out of bed, I could probably run a lap around the ward right now."

"Don’t joke around!"

Lena’s voice cut through the room like a whip, sharp and full of exasperation.

I flinched.

But I wasn’t joking...!

She ran a hand down her face, clearly holding back from smacking me across the head. Again.

Lena let out a tired sigh, the kind that made it sound like she aged a decade in the last few hours. "I told you, didn’t I? Not to use your talent."

I sat up straighter, wincing a little from the stiffness in my side. "I didn’t have a choice, Professor. What was I supposed to do? Just stand there and let everyone die?"

Could she please keep her voice down? We weren’t the only people in the room.

"What do you mean, ’don’t use his talent’?"

Oh no.

Ryen’s voice. Calm, but firm. And far too perceptive.

I turned my head and saw him standing at the foot of my bed, arms crossed, brows furrowed in confusion. Leona, Nora, and... Keira, for some reason, were all behind him, staring at Lena like she’d just dropped a bombshell.

Lena’s eyes widened. She covered her mouth as if she could shove the words back in.

Too late.

Every single person in the room had caught it—something was wrong with my talent. Something I’d been hiding.

I saw their faces shift. Ryen’s confusion turning serious. Leona’s narrowed eyes. Even Nora had stopped rolling hers for once.

So I did what I do best.

I lied.

Kind of.

"It’s really nothing big," I said, waving a hand lazily, like it wasn’t a big deal. "My talent is Enhancement, right? It boosts my abilities, but... it drains my energy like crazy. That’s all."

They stared.

I kept going. "If I push it too far, I crash. Takes a while to recover. That’s what happened. It’s happened before."

Not technically a lie. Just... not the whole truth. Because if I told them that it consumed Primal Qi—literal soul power—then things would go from concerned to panic mode very fast.

"...Rin."

Ryen’s voice was quiet now.

I forced a smile. "I’m telling the truth... really."

Lena looked like she wanted to slap me again, this time for lying so badly. Her jaw tightened, her eyes shined—and I realized she was on the verge of tears.

Great. I made a teacher cry. That’s gotta be some kind of achievement.

"You expect us to believe that?" Leona snapped, fists clenched. "You nearly died! You were coughing up blood like—like—!"

"Leon," Ryen said gently.

She stopped mid-rant, biting her lip.

Ryen turned back to me. His expression wasn’t angry.

Just... concerned.

"Rin. Is that really the truth?"

I hesitated.

Why did it feel like he already knew the answer?

"...Yeah," I muttered. "It’s the truth."

He studied me for a few seconds.

Then, he smiled.

Not the heroic, flashy grin he usually wore. Just a small, quiet thing.

"That’s good," he said. "Then if you don’t use your talent again, this won’t happen anymore, right?"

"...I guess?"

He didn’t look entirely convinced.

But he didn’t call me out either.

He just let it go.

For now.

I leaned back against the pillow, heart thudding a little too fast for someone claiming to be ’fine.’

I wasn’t sure if I should be grateful... or terrified.

Because if Ryen started asking the right questions...

...I wasn’t sure I’d be able to lie to him again.