Chapter 432 - Obtaining Funds (3) - Delias POV (1/2)

Deciding I would stall for more time once they discovered she wasn't at the café, I followed them. I needed more time to come up with a plan to help cover for her. I stiffened as I noticed Rika was already at the café from receiving my message. She looked extremely exhausted since this was the second last day of our operations. Her uniform was drenched with sweat like all the other club members who couldn't take a break from the stall.

In fact, she seemed to be burning with almost a dangerous fever. I guessed we had overworked her in using teleportation too many times. We would normally give her a smoothie to help her regain some energy but there was no way I could do this now. The smoothies we made resembled very effective mana chargers, making them more attractive for people to purchase. One of the reasons why the teachers had their own stockpile of them.

”I couldn't come to the study session today since I couldn't move after finishing the errands from the teachers,” Rika followed the script.

”Why didn't you send me a message?” Luke frowned after taking her temperature.

When my marble vibrated, I read the message Rika had sent me a few seconds ago while distracting Luke and Alex. I was to replace her role since she would serve as the lookout now. I nodded to quickly leave her alone to deal with them. However, Alex blocked the door to prevent me from leaving from Luke's subtle signal.

”How did Rika get this sick?” Luke turned to me after Rika lost her consciousness for a moment.

”It has to be from one of their fights together,” Alex held a grudge from when I threatened him to not tell Luke.

”Our fights weren't that bad,” I glared at him since it had ended weeks ago.

”Rika will get better soon. Don't you think you're being a bit overprotective?” I wished I could give her a smoothie right now.

”Don't you know how frail her body is?” Luke's eyes slightly flickered with anger.

”This will take at least a day to recover inside the infirmary. It's like she didn't have any rest ever since the week started,” he instantly hit the mark.

”What do you do during the breaks anyway?” Alex asked for him.

”Does it even matter? You're invading her privacy,” I couldn't reveal anything for both of our sakes.

”My cousin works really hard to keep Rika from visiting the infirmary in school,” he shot a quick look at Luke that he would take care of this.

”It's fine Alex. I'll just make sure to keep a stricter leash on Rika on who she can spend her time with,” Luke sighed while holding her in his arms.

My jaw almost dropped from his absurd words. He was thinking of separating her from her friends from this one incident. It would become harder for her to visit the café either way even if I told him about the truth. I clenched my hands into fists, knowing I couldn't leave Rika alone when it was mostly my fault.

”I'm sorry that I couldn't take care of Rika. I didn't know she would get sick this easily. Please let us go, just once,” I pleaded to them.