Lungmen, inside the Rhodes Island office's treatment room.
"Thank you, big sister."
The Feline little girl waved her hand at Minmin, who was wearing a white coat.
"It is nothing, go out first, do not keep your friends waiting too long."
With a smile on her face, Minmin sent the Feline girl out.
Then, she immediately dropped her cheerful expression and leaned against the nearby table with a tired look.
Just as she had expected, after accepting Shirou's suggestion to start treating the children, she was now completely overworked.
However, in contrast, the place now had more of a human presence. It was much better than before when it felt empty and lifeless.
On top of that, a few of the children could cook and clean so there was really nothing to complain about.
Suddenly, the door to the treatment room was pushed open, startling Minmin into sitting upright and putting on her usual professional smile.
But when she saw that the person at the door was Shirou, she immediately slumped back down again.
"You have worked hard. Here, this is today's lunchbox."
With his sharp observation skills, Shirou had naturally noticed how she suddenly straightened up, then relaxed again after seeing him.
However, he pretended not to notice. After all, he had seen how hard everyone at the Rhodes Island office had been working these past few days.
Moreover, this was also the first time he had actually witnessed the doctors here treating patients.
It was… quite normal, There was diagnosis, injections, administering medicine, and so on.
Today was the last batch of children coming in for examination. Compared to special cases like Rope who required separate treatment plans, the other children's Oripathy conditions were relatively mild. It would not take long to find similar cases and adjust treatments accordingly.
It was not as serious as Minmin had originally expected and under Shirou and Phal's instructions, everyone had been very cooperative.
Although, the owner of a certain seafood stall seemed to have once again been used as a tool to scare the children.
"Ah, what did the kids make today~?"
Looking at the lunchbox in Shirou's hand, Minmin reached out and took it.
A balanced diet had made her… no, made all the operators in the office feel full of energy. Their work efficiency had practically skyrocketed.
Relevant documents and materials had also been prepared. It seemed that this place would soon fall into another round of overtime hell.
Fortunately, Rhodes Island would be sending a few more doctors over for support.
Right now, she was relying entirely on lunch and dinner to comfort her spirit.
At this point, she was extremely envious of Shirou being able to eat this level of cooking every day, the kind of envy that twisted her expression.
"Ah, today it was not the children who cooked. I made it."
Seeing her expectant look, Shirou reminded her.
"You made it?"
Hearing that, Minmin paused as she was about to open the lunchbox.
At the same time, the smile on her face disappeared.
"The kids who are responsible for cooking have their checkups today. To avoid fatigue affecting their test results, I made it instead."
Shirou shrugged.
"I understand. You did that for everyone's good."
Although she understood that Shirou's decision was correct, Minmin still could not help but feel a pang of disappointment.
Half of her comfort for the day was gone.
Could she only look forward to dinner now?
"Alright, then I will not disturb your rest and I will go take care of things outside."
Knowing that Minmin preferred to eat alone, Shirou found an excuse and left.
Why call it an excuse? Because someone capable of managing the Fuyuki Shop's kitchen could not possibly be careless. Otherwise, it would be easy to get hurt.
That was something Shirou would absolutely not allow.
"Alright. Do not rush off after you finish, wait for me to give you the medicine."
Seeing that Shirou was giving her space, Minmin accepted his consideration.
Although she usually liked eating with others, after being busy with work, she really did not feel like engaging in conversation.
Socializing was quite mentally exhausting and she also needed a quiet environment.
After Shirou left, Minmin finally opened the lunchbox.
Although it was not made by the children, it was still better than eating plain bread.
At least, it probably would not be anything strange, right?
She was both curious about Shirou's cooking skills and a little worried.
She only hoped that his cooking was not at the level of Hibiscus.
Opening the lunchbox, there was no overwhelming aroma rushing out, nor any dazzling glow effects.
It was simply an ordinary lunchbox.
Rice, vegetables, and meat. It looked no different from usual.
"…Hmm, it looks alright?"
Humans are the kind of creatures who, as long as they do not have expectations from the very beginning, will not get hurt.
Minmin picked up a piece of meat, took a bite and as she chewed, she felt that the lunchbox in front of her seemed… actually quite good.
"This meat is more tender than usual, and this tamagoyaki is also way too amazing, right? Shirou's cooking skills are seriously incredible."
After confirming that there was basically nothing wrong with the contents of the lunchbox, she switched into full clearing mode and started sweeping through all the dishes inside.
At the same time, Shirou's status in her heart rose once again.
Why be logistics, HR, medical, or combat staff?
He could just take over the cafeteria entirely, no problem at all.
Having fallen from heaven into hell and then ascended back to heaven, Minmin ate with complete satisfaction today.
Outside the door, Shirou sat on a chair, holding a book borrowed from the office.
It was not anything particularly professional but it was not exactly an ordinary book either.
It was an autobiography written by an Infected, describing a person's life after going from a normal individual to becoming Infected.
At first, he denied that he had become Infected, shifting the blame onto others and venting his anger at those around him.
Then he constantly used various tools, trying to remove the Originium crystals from his body, foolishly believing that doing so would cure him…until his wounds worsened and complications forced him to seek medical treatment.
After being treated, he gave up on that idea and accepted the fact that he had become Infected.
He no longer buried himself in work, instead spending more time on traveling, food, and things he enjoyed.
One of the things he enjoyed was writing novels. Although he was not very famous and wrote quite slowly, he loved the process of bringing the things in his mind to life, even hoping to become a well-known author.
So he wrote about himself, both before and after becoming Infected, describing how he came to accept it through five stages: denial, anger, bargaining, despair, and acceptance.
It was essentially autobiographical.
Ironically, the book only became popular after the author's death, published by his family.
At least his dream of becoming a bestselling author was fulfilled after he died.
There were many similar books here, most of them inspirational in nature, meant to give Infected patients waiting for treatment something to read.
At the same time, they were meant to rekindle their desire to live.
"An open ending, huh?"
Flipping to the last page, Shirou was met with an open-ended conclusion.
After spending his final moments with his family, he handed over the manuscript to them and passed away peacefully.
After learning about Oripathy and understanding the Infected, this kind of open ending instead left a faint sense of sadness.
It was the kind of sadness that ordinary people could hardly understand, but one that the Infected understood all too well.
"Really…"
Flipping a few more pages and confirming that there was nothing of substance left, Shirou closed the book.
Novels like this that did not require much thinking were quick to read, he finished it in just a few hours.
In comparison, he had not even made it halfway through Blood's first book.
If Minmin had not looked like she was about to collapse every day, Shirou might have taken questions from that book to ask her.
After all, Snowsant only had a shallow understanding of such topics.
"Have you finished reading? What do you think of the story?"
Beside him, Phal asked while scrolling through his phone.
He had been coming along these past few days, saying he wanted to familiarize himself with the route so that if Shirou and Rope were busy, he could help bring people over.
But in reality, his true purpose was to assess the situation here.
Rope aside, children being easily deceived was normal.
But Shirou really was a bit too trusting of others.
Taking himself as an example, after just helping out for a few days, he had already been trusted, even being given the responsibility of freely coming and going, as well as helping manage the cash register.
Even though he had retired from his old life, he still looked like a bad person. Did he not see how the children were initially afraid of him?
"I do not have much of a reaction. It feels like a lot of things were glossed over."
Placing the book back on the shelf, Shirou replied.
Although this book was a bestseller, many parts had been beautified, especially when describing how others viewed the Infected, where the negative aspects were almost entirely glossed over.
"Of course. If it was not beautified, how could it increase public acceptance? Books that are too bloody, dark, and realistic do not suit the public's tastes."
Hearing Shirou's words, Phal replied helplessly.
He himself was part of the general public, so he could understand this level of embellishment.
"I know. After all, it is an inspirational book."
Shirou shrugged.
It was not that he disliked this kind of genre. In fact, he even planned to buy a few copies later and put them in the Fuyuki Shop for everyone to read.
"Anyway, enough about that. I received news that there have been many cases of Infected going missing in the slums recently. Be careful."
Phal did not linger on the topic since he did not really understand the Infected so he changed the subject. He had known about this for a while but since it had been limited in scope, he had not mentioned it to Shirou earlier.
After all, the channels through which he obtained information were a bit… special.
But things were different now. The situation had gradually spread and the entire slum area had become somewhat chaotic because of it.
He needed to give Shirou a heads-up. He was not worried that anything would happen to Shirou, if anything it would make more sense to worry about himself.
What he was really concerned about were the children.
Especially those who often went out due to repair jobs for electrical appliances.
So recently, whenever repair orders were handed off, Phal would basically follow along himself.
"Hm? Infected people are going missing?"
Hearing Phal's words, Shirou frowned slightly.
Just like Phal, Shirou's first concern was not himself but others.
"Yeah. No one knows where they went. If the number of disappearances had not gotten so high it might not have even been noticed."
Phal revealed a bit more. Compared to what was circulating outside, he had access to more information.
"Has the Guard Department not intervened?"
Hearing that many people had gone missing, Shirou's first thought was the Guard Department.
After all, as a law-abiding citizen, the first thing to think of when encountering problems was the authorities, unless the situation was truly urgent.
"The Guard Department… they might be short on manpower. And the ones going missing are Infected…Infected from the slums, at that."
Seeing Shirou's trusting expression toward the Guard Department, Phal explained in a somewhat tactful tone.
After all, Sister Hoshiguma was part of the Guard Department. If she found out he was speaking ill of them, he might end up drinking for several days straight.
On his own tab.
Thinking about Hoshiguma's alcohol tolerance and then his own wallet, Phal suddenly became much more polite in his wording.
"I see."
Hearing that, Shirou more or less understood what he meant.
"Ahem, but I can tell you this… the Guard Department actually started investigating quite early on. It is just that they do not have enough manpower so progress has been slow. They have already stopped some cases of Infected being taken away."
Seeing Shirou starting to fall into doubt, Phal quickly shared some more confidential information.
Good grief if Shirou started doubting the Guard Department what awaited him would not just be an empty wallet. He might end up flattened himself.
Although Hoshiguma had not said it outright, with things having reached this point, Phal absolutely did not believe she had no intention of recruiting Shirou.
"I see."
After learning all this, Shirou's gloomy mood improved quite a bit.
"Do not go around talking about what I just said. I got that information from other sources. It would be bad if it interferes with the case."
Phal said irritably.
Shirou was still too young, he did not understand the darker side of society.
Getting affected by every little thing like this would not do.
Still, perhaps it was just his imagination but Phal felt like Shirou… seemed to have gotten a bit taller and more built?
That could not be right. If he remembered correctly Shirou should already be past the age of growth. How could he still be getting taller?
It was probably because he had been around children for too long and meeting someone slightly taller made it feel like they had grown.
"Yeah, thanks."
Shirou naturally understood this.
At the same time, he realized that Phal's recent frequent outings were probably related to handling those jobs that required going out.
After all, Phal was not someone who liked going out much. His sudden diligence lately had even made Rope wonder whether he had been cooped up for too long and started going out more often because of it.
As for the matter of Infected going missing in the slums…
If he had not known, it would have been one thing. But now that he did, there was no way he could just ignore it.