I Reject Quests

"Sir, Baron has requested your presence." The servant said while respectfully bowing.

Rewen's eyes shifted to the servant, then to Sam. "Talk to you later." He got up. However, just as he was about to take a step, his knees went weak and immediately fell flat on his face. 

It was the headache again!

Both Sam and the servant were stunned for a moment. 

Coming back to his senses, Sam crouched down. "Rewen, you good?"

Fortunately, the pain this time was not as severe as the one when he was on Gruer's Landings. That's not to say that the pain was negligible, it was just less painful and irritating than before. To put it into figures, if the pain he felt before was ten out of ten, then the current pain was seven out of ten.

Gritting his teeth, he brought his legs together and tried to get up. 

He failed and again fell flat on the floor.

Sam didn't know what was happening but he knew that it wasn't good. Putting Rewen's right arm around his neck, he said. "Here, try to get back." Then, he looked at the shocked servant. "Come and help me."

The servant hurried over. 

Both of them carried Rewen over to the sofa and laid him down. After that, the servant went on to call the others regarding his condition.

'Why is the pain still around?' Rewen breathed in and out quickly. Unlike the previous times where the pain subsided after a few seconds, this time, however, it was around for about a minute now. Slowly, as time passed, the pain became even more unbearable for him. 

He squirmed around on the sofa for a few seconds, then grabbed the sofa to still himself.

Watching him, Sam squinted his eyebrows. "What happened, Rewen? Where do you feel pain?"

Let alone replying, Rewen barely managed to open his mouth. Therefore, he started rubbing his forehead.

"It's a headache?" Sam asked, before rubbing his temples in an attempt to subside the pain.

Just at this moment, Mrs. Klofar along with Vinia and the Baron appeared in the room.

When she saw her son, Mrs. Klofar rushed to him. "What's wrong, Rewen?"

Rewen's eyes were closed but he recognized the voice. 

"What happened? Tell me what's wrong." Mrs. Klofar shook his arms.

Rewen couldn't reply.

Mrs. Klofar got even more anxious. 

"He has a headache, Aunty," Sam answered.

Mrs. Klofar appeared shocked. "A headache? Is the pain severe?" 

Listening to his mother, Rewen got furious. 'Is the pain severe? Hell no! An ant just bit me. For God's sake, instead of asking idiotic questions, call the doc.'

Mrs. Klofar touched his neck with the back of her hand. "Oh my God! He's burning!"

At this moment, the Baron approached Rewen and also felt his body's temperature. "He has a high fever. First, carry him to a room. Then, wash his body. I'm calling the doctor." Immediately after instructing, he left the room in a hurry.

Without wasting any time, Mrs. Klofar, Sam, and Vinia carried Rewen's body over to a room and laid him down on the bed. 

Rewen was still conscious and the pain was still around. He was then undressed down to his boxers.

Mrs. Klofar brought her mouth closer to his son and asked. "Do you feel better?" 

Rewen couldn't decide whether to laugh or cry. Was he supposed to exert himself to answer her questions? 

Seeing that her son wasn't answering, Mrs. Klofar turned to Vinia. "Vinia, bring a bucket of water along with a towel." 

Vinia nodded, then left the room.

Sam sat down on the bed wondering about his friend's condition. "This is strange. Rewen never had a fever in the eighteen years of his life. It is abnormal in itself."

Mrs. Klofar massaged Rewen's temples and didn't answer.

Sam noticed her silence. "Why does it seem like you are hiding something, Aunty?"

"..."

"So you are hiding something," Sam concluded from her silence.

A minute later, Vinia came back to the room holding a bucket full of water and a white towel in her hand. While Mrs. Klofar soaked the towel in the water and washed her son's body with the towel, Vinia looked at Sam and approached him.

Vinia: "Is it a normal fever?" 

Sam: "I sure hope so."

"Um…" Vinia appeared hesitant to say something. "He… he had a fever yesterday night as well."

"He had a fever yesterday!?" Mrs. Klofar stopped washing him and turned to Vinia. 

Vinia hesitantly nodded. "Last night, when he came to the room, he couldn't walk straight. My first thought was that he was drunk. A few seconds later, he fell unconscious on the bed. When I moved his body to sleep, I noticed that his body temperature was unusually high, although not as much as now."

"Why did you not inform me of this matter yesterday night? He wouldn't be in this state if you did!" Mrs. Klofar got heated. She wasn't too angry at her but rather the situation itself. She just found an outlet to display her frustration.

Vinia's face changed as she lowered her head, backed off a little, and then slowly left the room.

Sam was a bit shocked at the development. Thinking for a moment, he chased after her leaving Rewen alone with Mrs. Klofar.

Mrs. Klofar appeared unfettered and continued to wash her son's body. "She needs to become more responsible. That's the main problem with girls nowadays. They simply like to think that they aren't responsible for what happens to their partners. She was with you last night. She knew that you had a fever. Yet, she didn't do anything about it. What does it say about her? If she can't even look after my son, how is she going to look after the kids in the future?"

Rewen felt bad for Vinia. 'It's got to be hell to have such an ultra-traditional mother-in-law. I'll have to talk it out with her. Anyways, system?'

[What?]

'I want an explanation.'

[I don't know. I have nothing to do with it.]

'What about your friends?'

[They aren't my friends and they also have nothing to do with it.]

Rewen calmly accepted the answer. He didn't hope for anything much. 'Could it be that I have interference? Don't victims of interference suffer through the same problem as this?' He gave his most possible guess.

[Maybe.]

'What do you mean 'maybe'? Give me a more definitive answer.' In normal times, he would have raged but currently, he had no energy to do that.

[Figure that out on your own!]

'Alright…' Amidst the excruciating pain, Rewen slowly fell asleep mainly because of his mental exhaustion. 

Mrs. Klofar rubbed his arms with the towel and didn't notice that he had fallen asleep. Perhaps because she was the closest to him she had ever been in a few years, she started reminiscing about the past. "Your palms have gotten rough, completely different from the time you were small. You were as soft as a feather and your face was always puffed up. Ardie thought that you were going to be fat when you grow up."

She stopped at this point and let out a light chuckle. "There was a time when your father and I quarreled over whose genes you inherited the most. He said you would look like him and I had to disagree. I compared my fair skin tone with yours and he compared his eyes, nose, and ears with yours. We went back and forth and before we even knew about it, we started arguing for real.

"You might not remember it because you were small, like probably two years and a few months old. In the end, he turned out to be correct. As you got older, your skin tone matched up to your father's. I'm getting nostalgic… hm? Rewen, did you fall asleep? Of course, a mother's ramblings are very annoying to listen to, isn't that right?"

She pinched his nose, then carefully pulled the quilt over his body. Giving one last glance at her son, she left the room.

In the living room.

Sam and Vinia sat opposite each other.

Looking at Vinia's downcast face, Sam felt the need to say something. "Don't take Aunty's words personally. She is overprotective of her son and easily gets worked up about matters related to Rewen."

"It's easy to say that for you. I am going to live with her and from the looks of it, I don't think other than superficially, there's no other way we could get along. What does she even think I should do? Babysit him all day? If that's the case, I can't. I just can't. Rewen could be a fine man but I don't think that I could tolerate a Momma's Boy?"

Vinia aggressively said.

Not used to her aggressiveness, Sam didn't know how to answer. This was the first time he had seen a usually calm person like her get so vocal and angry. 'And this is happening a day after marriage…'