Prove their worth, huh?
Lin Ye realised that this job was not going to be as simple as he previously thought it would be.
He opened the file that had her background that Saria had given to him.
He briefly glanced at it and found only one sentence in the column about Eyja's parents.
"Deceased (unknown reason)."
Other than that, no extra information on them was given.
"Senpai?" Eyja's puzzled voice sounded, "Are you listening?"
Lin Ye closed the file.
"Yes. Yes, I am." Lin Ye smiled at her, "I am listening to you."
However, in his heart he was complaining a bit.
Why is it so vague? What happened to her parents? Why doesn't it have anything about her past?... Well, this is her medical records so all of it is filled with mostly her health, which means I need to find out by myself.
"You can continue," Lin Ye smiled at her and got up, "In the meantime, I will make some tea for us."
"You don't need to trouble yourself, Senpai," Eyja shyly said to him, "I'm not that thirsty."
"This is just basic etiquette." Lin Ye said with a smile, "It's fine. You can continue to tell me about you and your parents. I will listen carefully."
"Well," Eyja nodded, and then said softly, "If you insist."
After that, she went on to tell him all about her and her parents while he prepared and placed the cup of tea down for her.
Both of her parents worked at the University of William in Leithania. Her father was a professor of Originium technology, while her mother was an expert in the study of The Natural Environment and Ecosystems.
Both of them were amazing people, and by how happily she was talking about them, they seemed to be amazing parents too.
Unfortunately, both of them died on a field trip.
Under Eyja's narration, Lin Ye knew a lot more about her past now.
Her life was almost perfect.
She was a girl born to a pair of loving parents and destined to have a great future.
But like everything in this world, nothing stays perfect.
She lost them. Accidents were not uncommon in this inherently unstable world.
He hated that.
Every time a Catastrophe happened, families would be lost.
He hated that.
However, Eyja did not sound sad when she told all of this.
She sounds determined.
To be honest, this really surprised him.
What was even more surprising was when he learned that she was already infected when she continued her parents' research.
This was also the reason why her condition became worse.
Truly, she was a kind hearted child.
When Eyja finished speaking, the tea that Lin Ye made for her was almost cold, and both of them fell silent.
"Senpai?" Eyja asked cautiously, "Was I talking too much?"
Lin Ye chuckled at this.
"Nonsense. I love hearing more about you." Lin Ye smiled at her, "You really are amazing."
"I am not that great." Eyja shook her head, and she told him with a little loneliness in her tone, "Up until now, I have not been able to complete the study of my parents. If they were still alive, it would have been done already. I'm so stupid. I even made my condition worsen. Now, it is very difficult to continue their study."
Lin Ye knew that Saria had made it clear that Eyja would not be allowed to go out.
Eyja's research needed her to go out for visits, and most of the sites she visited were volcanically active areas.
Those places were also typically an Oripathy-dense area. They were the reason why she was like this now.
If she continues to go there more, her condition would worsen.
Moreover, even without the presence of Oripathy, volcanoes were dangerous.
Before, her parents were killed by those places, and now, those places were making her illness worse. Lin Ye tried to persuade her to not go.
"You can always conduct some theoretical research on the island first and wait until your condition is stabilized before going on the field again."
She shook her head. He already knew the answer. She was quite a stubborn girl.
"No. My research must be done on-field."
Lin Ye sighed at this.
"Don't worry, Senpai." Eyja said with a smile, "Although my eyesight and hearing have deteriorated, my other senses are still very sensitive. Even if it becomes worse, I am not that easily knocked down. I will never be knocked down until I finish my parents' research and prove its value. Please rest assured, Senpai."
Lin Ye smiled at her. Then he remembered something.
"I am glad to hear that," Lin Ye asked her, "but, didn't Saria prohibit you from going out?"
"...That is a problem," Eyja thought for a while, and then whispered loud enough for him to hear, "Then my only option is to sneak out without Miss Saria's knowledge."
Lin Ye smiled at her and coughed to get her attention.
"Eyja?"
"Yes, Senpai?"
"I can hear you."
"..." She was silent for a while before her eyes widened, "Ekk!"
At this moment, Eyja remembered that Lin Ye was also one of the medical department staff. She immediately jumped up from her chair like a frightened rabbit and rushed in front of Lin Ye.
She folded her hands in front of her head and pleaded with him.
"Please don't tell Miss Saria about this! I beg of you, Senpai!"
Normally, Lin Ye would burst out in laughter right now, but he couldn't. With how she was pleading right now, how could he?
Then he remembered what Saria told him before giving Eyja's file to him.
"You'd better stop her from continuing her research, because allowing her to leave Rhodes Island like this is equivalent to watching her go to die."
Lin Ye did not know what to do.
Eyja must have had her guard down when she said that. Probably because she trusted Lin Ye.
He was the first person that she could hear clearly for a long time, so it was not that unreasonable to think that way.
And if Lin Ye told Saria about Eyja's desire to escape, and if Eyja found out about it, even though she would not say anything about it, she would definitely know Lin Ye was not a trustworthy person in her heart.
She would be disappointed in him.
He didn't really want that.
He really liked her presence.
Man… I am weak against girls.
So, he took a deep breath and collected his thoughts. Eyja seemed to be worried about his answer. However, her worry turned into surprise when he smiled at her.
"Don't worry, I'm not the kind of person who likes to snitch on someone," Lin Ye said while still smiling, "Although I don't agree with your idea of sneaking out, I won't tell Saria about this."
Lin Ye then petted her head.
"So, don't worry."
After listening to Lin Ye's words, a very sweet smile spread across Eyja's face.
"Thank you, Senpai!" She said to him, "That's enough for me."
Lin Ye looked at Eyja with a smile on his face, but his heart was not relaxed.
{Rhodes Island's Psychologist}
"Huh? So you met up with that child?" Warfarin asked Lin Ye while shaking a potion in her hand, "I know you did."
"Why do you say that?" Lin Ye raised his brow.
She just glanced at him.
"You came to me of your own accord. In the past, you always wanted to run away when you saw me."
"You're just exaggerating."
"No, I am not!" Warfarin slapped her hand on the table, "When you see me, you just turn around and leave without saying anything?! Aren't you going to let me take your blood? Doesn't it require me to go out in person to get you here? You know it's annoying!"
Lin Ye's mouth twitched.
"It's just me following my fight-or-flight response."
"Fight-or-flight response?" The vampire scoffed, "What do you think you are? A cat?"
"Cats are not the only living thing that have a fight-or-flight response, you know." Lin Ye said, "Any normal person that sees another person who only wants their blood will have some sort of discomfort in their heart, and you can see that I am a normal person."
"Look at what you're saying," Warfarin said displeasingly, "Why are you saying that? I am using your blood for good."
She looked at him.
"And aren't you a big man? Why are you so scared?" Warfarin rolled her eyes and said, "I am not an insatiable woman. When you come here, I will always put a limit on how much blood I take from you. I even give you a bunch of health care products, and take good care of your body. As a researcher, aren't I already very responsible? Don't always slander me! If I really didn't care about you, I'd have already sucked up your blood, okay?"
Lin Ye did not know what to say to her.
It's already late and he was too tired to care anymore. He really did not want to argue with a hundred year old loli now.
He coughed twice.
"Let's just skip this topic," Lin Ye sighed at this, "I am here because of Eyja."
"Eyja?" Warfarin looked confused, "Do you mean Eyjafjalla?"
"Who else?"
Warfarin curled her lips at this.
"Don't you know that it's a big deal to talk about another woman in front of a woman? Is she better than me? Is it because she is a few hundred years younger?"
"What are you even talking about?!"
"Oh, it's nothing. I just watched a romance drama recently. This was a line that they used," Warfarin said, "I thought that this sentence was very imposing, so I wanted to give it a try."
Lin Ye's mouth twitched.
Truly she was a hundred years old loli. An ordinary person like him did not know how her brain works.
"Okay, okay. Enough talking," She put down the experimental equipment in her hand and took off her gloves. "I thought that the child was dead. Now that I know she is fine, I'm very happy."
"Please word your sentence better." Lin Ye shook his head, "It sounds weird."
"Is it weird? Maybe. After all, I am a blood demon. I have lived for hundreds of years, and I do not care about life and death," Warfarin said faintly, "I still pay attention to that child, not because of her, but the research in her hands. From a certain perspective, this child is the same as you."
She glanced at Lin Ye.
"Both of you have the potential to change the world."
{Rhodes Island's Psychologist}
Draft: Jaq
Proofread: Shirokuro & tax evasion
Edit: Jaq