"It's me. Something came up—I probably won't make it back to the academy today. How's Teio right now? …Okay. Thank you, Air Groove."
After receiving the reassuring answer on the other end of the line, Symboli Rudolf hung up and let out a long, heavy sigh. She stood from her chair and walked toward the reception desk, intending to ask about the test results.
"I just hope that child is okay… I should've noticed."
Thinking about it made her teeth ache.
For once, she'd actually finished her paperwork early and decided to take a rare walk.
Then she got the news: Tokai Teio had slipped during training and fallen from a height.
Rudolf rushed to head back to the academy to confirm Teio's condition—only to end up smashing straight into a horse girl who looked like she hadn't even fully entered her formalization stage yet, sending her flying.
Teio was fine, thankfully.
But Rudolf could already picture Teio's sulky, injured pouting later—how she'd whine about Rudolf not staying by her side.
And then there was the tiny body of the horse girl Rudolf had knocked down.
Symboli Rudolf promptly fell into full-on gloomy Luna-mode.
Meanwhile, our protagonist lay in a hospital bed, eyes closed, ears twitching now and then—already planning how she was going to look pitiful and swindle a hefty sum.
Looks like I really got hit by fortune this time. Dinner and a place to sleep—solved.
Eternal Meteor couldn't help the grin that slipped onto her face—an absolutely shameless, smug little smile.
"But your injuries are already healed," X said flatly. "And strictly speaking, you were the one breaking rules—walking in the horse-girl-only lane."
"...You know, do you physically suffer if you don't crush my dreams?"
"Yes," X replied. "And the satisfaction has now transferred to my face."
The smile vanished from Eternal Meteor's face.
"Fine. I'll improvise."
With her left hand—still stuck with an IV needle—she felt around near the head of the bed.
"If I'm not mistaken, it should be here… ah. Found it."
She pressed the call button.
Almost immediately, hurried footsteps sounded in the corridor. The door to the room swung open hard—then bounced off the wall.
Eternal Meteor froze the instant she saw who it was.
Jackpot didn't even begin to cover it.
"Looks like your chance has arrived," X said, practically vibrating with anticipation. "Let's see if you can seize it."
Eternal Meteor hurriedly organized her expression so nothing slipped onto her face. She forced herself to look weak, propping herself up as if it took real effort, then leaned back against the raised bed.
"Don't move," Symboli Rudolf said, crossing the room in two strides. She gently pressed Eternal Meteor back down, then adjusted the bed so the head lifted higher, letting her sit comfortably supported.
"It's really—"
"It's really my fault!" Eternal Meteor cut in, blurting out the apology before Rudolf could.
Rudolf had been about to say, No, it's not your fault. I was the one rushing.
But Eternal Meteor kept going—words firing like a machine gun:
"I'm so sorry for taking up your time. I was starving and didn't notice what I was doing. I'll pay the medical bill back as soon as I find another job."
The sheer information density in that barrage detonated Rudolf's train of thought. She just… stopped, stunned.
At the doorway, an intern nurse who'd rushed over also heard it. She clapped a hand over her mouth, clearly imagining something wild.
"You don't even have a phone right now," X muttered. "You can't leave contact info. You're not planning to run the moment things look bad, are you?"
"I've got a plan," Eternal Meteor replied. "Just watch."
While they were still frozen, Eternal Meteor didn't waste time.
With her right hand—she'd been peeling at the bandages out of boredom earlier—she quickly lifted the IV tape halfway, yanked the needle out, and slapped the tape back down like nothing happened.
Then she swung her legs off the bed and hopped down.
Her knees nearly buckled—she hadn't eaten all day—but she clenched her jaw, forced herself upright, and left one sentence behind as she bolted out of the room.
"My name is Eternal Meteor. I'll pay you back as soon as I can!"
By the time Rudolf and the nurse snapped out of it and ran into the hallway, Eternal Meteor was already gone.
X's confusion practically wore itself into the air.
"What… was that? What kind of bizarre maneuver was that?"
"Playing pitiful," Eternal Meteor said, wearing a smile that screamed everything is under control.
"Achoo!"
Eternal Meteor shivered violently and sniffed, trying to pull the snot back from the edge of disaster.
She was hiding under a bridge, clutching half a loaf of expired bread she'd fished out of a convenience store's back-door trash bin.
She sat on a piece of cardboard from the same bin. Beside her feet was a bottle she'd found, washed clean, and filled with water.
"Why is the temperature swing between day and night so insane…?"
She was still wearing the short-sleeve top and skirt she'd arrived in. She hugged her arms and rubbed them for warmth, but it barely helped.
"So," X said, "where's this 'plan' of yours?"
Eternal Meteor looked up with a straight face.
"Do I look pitiful right now?"
"Extremely," X replied. "Especially with that small body of yours."
"Perfect." Eternal Meteor nodded, as if this was all part of a grand strategy. "On the way, I even saw a poster for Special Week. If the Rudolf I know is the Rudolf I think she is… she's already started looking for me."
Even though she was shivering so hard her whole body trembled, her ears drooped limp across her head, and her teeth were probably clacking—she still wore a smug, victorious expression.
"And if you guessed wrong?" X asked. "You just freeze out here all night?"
Eternal Meteor glanced at the two loaves of bread she'd picked up.
She stuffed the half in her hand into her mouth, chugged water hard, then forced herself to stop eating and looked away—she needed to save the rest so she'd have strength tomorrow to job-hunt.
"As long as there's food, I'm fine," she said. "Worst case, I grab more cardboard and crash in a public restroom for the night."
"…Whatever makes you happy," X muttered.
Ten minutes.
Twenty.
Thirty.
Time crawled. Without a phone to kill the boredom, every second felt like it was stretching her nerves thin.
After an entire hour, Eternal Meteor started to feel her sanity wobble. Her nose kept twitching as she sniffed, her eyes turning faintly red, and she wouldn't stop muttering under her breath.
"Damn you, Rudolf… you hit someone and then just vanish? Hurry up and use your family power to find me already!"
It didn't help that this was entirely her own fault—she was the one who'd insisted on pulling that stunt and sprinting out of the hospital room.
The more she spiraled in her head, the more swollen her eyes became—until a tear finally slipped down.
"No way," she whispered to herself, voice half-mocking. "Lin Feng… you're crying over this?"
But the more she tried to control it, the worse it got. Tears kept coming.
Sometimes it was like this—some small thing you didn't even care about that much failing to happen, and suddenly it mattered too much.
Especially after a day of running on fumes.
Even if you tell yourself it's fine… your eyes don't listen.
Her vision blurred completely behind a veil of tears.
Through the haze, she thought she saw a streetlight drifting closer—its light swaying, closer and closer—until it was right in front of her, accompanied by the sound of running footsteps and urgent shouting.
"Oh… it's a flashlight," she mumbled.
She lifted her head and could only make out the lower half of a figure—and the flashlight clenched tightly in their hand.
She forced herself up—
stood too fast—
and the world went black again.
In the instant before she fainted, through the blur, she caught the anxious outline of Symboli Rudolf's face.
Finally… you're here, Rudolf.
Join here to read ahead.
In Star Rail, Ultra-Beast Armored — Have I Caught "Equilibrium"? l Chapter 26)
Uma Musume, But I Only Have Five Years Left to Live Chapter 26)
My patreon : patreon.com/queen_sin?utm_medium=unknown&utm_source=join_link&utm_campaign=creatorshare_creator&utm_content=copyLink