𝐂𝐇𝐄𝐂𝐊𝐌𝐀𝐓𝐄- 𝐋𝐄𝐎𝐍𝐀 𝐗 𝐑𝐄𝐀𝐃𝐄𝐑

I'LL BE THERE

"ACHOO!" another sneeze from Leona startled all the dorm mates in the lounge. He already could not count how many sneezes he had had this morning.

The moment he woke up, Leona could already feel that something was wrong. His head was painful and dizzy and his face was flushed. His mouth felt dry, and his throat was sore and itchy that it made him keep on coughing. He could not hold himself from sneezing, and what's worst, his whole body felt unusually and uncomfortably hot.

"Leona-san... Are you ok?" a beastman asked. They had never seen their dorm leader being that ill.

Leona pressed his fingers against his temple, trying to get rid of the pain. "Ya, I- I'm fine." coughing Leona answered and stood up from the sofa, slightly wobbling, "I'll ju- just go take some OTC medicine-" But the next second, he could not balance himself and almost fell onto the ground.

"Leona-san!" the Savanaclaw students wanted to rush to their housewarden to help but were stopped by Leona. "I'm alright. Just- go to the stadium and start the morning training. I will be there soon." Leona demanded while trying his best to hold the cough. Hearing that, all the housemates did not dare to retort and started preparing themselves for the training. "YES! HOUSEWARDEN!"

Normally, if Ruggie was there, he would take care of Leona and force him to take pills, sleep, and rest until he recover. However, Ruggie had left the campus yesterday to represent NRC at Twisted Wonderland's Animal Linguistics Speech Contest, and would not be back soon. Therefore, there was no one in the dorm that could take care of the housewarden.

Leona slowly walked to the kitchen. "Ruggie should be keeping the medicine somewhere here..." he mumbled while searching the drawers. Minutes later, he could finally find the anti-inflammatory drug. He took a glass from the cupboard and filled it with warm water.

"Dammit, even the glass is heavy..." he sighed before taking the pills and chugging the water. Should get better after taking the pills, right? He thought.

Getting back to his room, Leona weakly laid on his bed. He felt like his whole body lost strength and every movement was difficult to make. He had thought of going to the stadium, but it was obvious that his body was not capable of that. Luckily, it was the weekend, and there were no lessons. Leona tried to ignore the pain in his head and get to sleep, hoping that everything would turn better when he woke up.

"Shit." Around two hours later, Leona woke up and sat on his bed. Something important all of a sudden came to his mind.

About a month ago, you planted some herbs in the botanical garden for your Potionology lessons. The seeds of the herb were rare and it was extremely difficult for it to just germinate. Yet, you succeeded to do so. You transferred them to the subtropical zone in the garden to provide it with a better growing environment.

Being such a special species, even the time for harvesting was important. If they were picked too early, there would not be enough nutrients in the herbs and they would become useless. However, if they were picked even just a bit too late, the herbs would wilt either. The timing must be so precise that the herbs must be harvested on a certain day, at a certain hour. After harvesting, they had to be carefully preserved so that they would not rot.

Through calculations, you figured that today, from half past eleven in the morning to twelve at noon was the time that herbs must be harvested, or all the efforts you had paid would turn into ashes. However, coincidentally, all the first-years were required to join a compulsory trip to the Queendom of Roses today. The trip started at eight and you would not be able to return before four in the afternoon.

"I'll harvest the herbs." Leona volunteered when you mentioned the problem. You worried that it would be too troublesome for him but he insisted on helping you.