Next Day ...
A transmigrator's morning started early.
Painfully early.
Honestly, I really just wanted to sleep in—just for once.
But that wasn't going to happen today.
Because someone had decided to visit me at the crack of dawn.
Knock, knock.
The sharp sound dragged me out of my half-asleep daze.
I groaned softly, forcing my heavy eyelids open.
"Ugh... What time is it?"
Still blurry-eyed, I glanced toward the door.
And there she was.
Professor Lena.
Her expression was apologetic, but her eyes were filled with their usual concern.
"I'm sorry for coming here so early. Did I wake you?"
Her voice was gentle, almost too gentle.
Like she knew exactly how annoying this timing was but didn't want to hear me complain about it.
I let out a groggy sigh, dragging myself up into a sitting position. My joints protested with every movement, still stiff from yesterday's recovery.
"You think you woke me?" I muttered, rubbing my temples. "I was just in the middle of a very important dream. I think I was winning a duel against a dragon. Or maybe it was a roasted chicken. Hard to say."
Lena gave a faint chuckle, stepping into the room and quietly closing the door behind her. She was wearing her usual long coat, but it looked slightly disheveled, like she'd rushed out without finishing her morning routine.
"I'll make it quick," she said, walking over to my bedside and setting down a small bundle wrapped in brown cloth. "I brought you medicine. The hospital medicine is not that good."
I blinked at the bundle, then raised an eyebrow.
"You woke me up for medicine? Also did you say that hospital medicine is not good? Seriously?"
What the hell happened to her commen senses in last day?
"Well, I also need to talk to you," she admitted, crossing her arms.
Before I could react, she began pulling out a variety of health supplements from the bag.
Magic-infused 21-year-old red ginseng extract.
And some unlabeled, sketchy-looking energy drink.
I stared at the assortment in her hands.
...What the hell was I looking at?
I didn't even have to taste them to know that my digestive system would probably stage a violent rebellion against me.
Ugh.
Just imagining it made me queasy.
There was no way in hell I wanted to drink this stuff first thing in the morning.
But... the way Lena was looking at me...
Her soft, expectant eyes were practically begging me to accept it.
I could already feel my resolve crumbling.
"I-I'll drink them later," I muttered, offering the lamest excuse I could muster.
Her expression brightened slightly, but I could tell she wasn't convinced.
So, like any reasonable person trying to survive an early morning ambush by weird herbal concoctions, I doubled down.
"I mean, it's not good to take all this stuff on an empty stomach, right?" I said, waving vaguely at the suspicious lineup of bottles and vials. "You know, gotta let the body wake up naturally first, then eat something, then maybe—maybe—take the supplements."
Lena tilted her head slightly, arms still crossed, unimpressed. "I brought breakfast, too."
I blinked. "...You what?"
She reached into her coat and pulled out a second wrapped bundle. This one smelled like rice, seaweed, and cooked meat.
Of course she brought breakfast.
"Okay, well, um…" I scratched the back of my head. "I don't have utensils."
She reached into her coat again.
Chopsticks.
Reusable. Eco-friendly.
Dammit.
I cleared my throat. "W-Well, I just brushed my teeth, so taking medicine now would mess with the absorption rate. You know how sensitive these things can be, right? Spirit medicine's really fickle."
She narrowed her eyes. "You didn't brush your teeth. There's no sink in this room."
"…Maybe I used water magic."
"You don't have an affinity for water."
"…Maybe I borrowed someone else's affinity?"
Lena sighed, finally placing everything on the side table. Her patience was beginning to fray, but not in a threatening way—more like a long-suffering guardian who knew exactly how many brain cells I was operating on this morning.
"You don't have to drink everything right now," she said softly. "But you do need to take care of yourself."
Her gaze met mine.
Serious. Warm. A little tired.
It made my excuses catch in my throat.
I exhaled slowly, feeling my soul wither a little.
There was no escape.
She was too damn persistent.
"Fine..."
Resigning myself to my fate, I steeled my nerves and reluctantly grabbed the red ginseng extract.
I popped the cap open and brought it to my lips.
The moment the liquid hit my tongue, I regretted every single life choice that had led me to this point.
Bitter.
So bitter.
It tasted like someone had ground up dirt, tree bark, and despair into a bottle.
I fought the urge to gag and forced myself to swallow it down.
Barely.
I grimaced as the last drop slid down my throat, the taste lingering like a cruel reminder of my suffering.
Lena's eyes sparkled with satisfaction.
She smiled warmly, clasping her hands together.
"See? It's better than the hospital medicine, isn't it?"
Better? Better?
I stared at her like she'd just claimed setting yourself on fire was a great way to warm up in the winter.
"Better than what?" I croaked, clutching my throat like it had personally betrayed me. "That stuff tasted like fermented regret."
Lena tilted her head, still smiling like a proud pharmacist. "That means it's working."
"That means I might die," I muttered, slumping back against the pillow. "You're lucky I'm too weak to run away right now."
"Oh?" She raised an eyebrow. "Then I guess this is the perfect time to give you the next one."
"No." I immediately rolled to the side and pulled the blanket over my head. "You said one. One bottle. You don't get to trick me into a second boss battle before breakfast."
Lena walked to the side table and gently placed another bottle on top of it—this one a murky orange with little flakes floating around inside.
"I didn't say you had to take the second one right now," she said calmly. "But if you don't, your recovery will be delayed. You'll miss your lessons. And then—"
"Fine! Fine!" I flung the blanket off dramatically. "Blackmail with education? Really?"
She simply shrugged.
I groaned, glaring at the bottle like it owed me money.
"…This is what they don't tell you in those 'How to Survive in Another World' guides," I mumbled. "You think you'll be fighting dragons or learning cool sword techniques, but no. It's just getting force-fed potions by a concerned professor while you contemplate your mortality."
Lena didn't even try to hide her amusement this time.
"I'm glad you still have your sense of humor."
"It's the only thing I do have," I grumbled, lifting the bottle. "Besides early-onset stomach trauma."
This one was worse.
Thicker. Sweeter. Like syrup that had committed a felony.
I choked it down in three gulps, resisting the primal urge to scream.
Lena offered me a small candy again. I took it like a prisoner accepting his last cigarette.
"Now," she said, her tone shifting just a little, "about what I needed to talk to you about…"
I paused mid-chew, suddenly wary.
Here it comes.
The real reason she woke me up at the crack of dawn.
"...This isn't about the medicine, is it?"
She shook her head slowly.
"No. It is not."
I stared at her.
"First, why don't you eat your breakfast and come outside with me at the garden of the hospital? You will get some natural fresh air and …you'll feel a bit more human before we talk," she added gently, though her eyes were already scanning me for signs of refusal.
I hesitated, glancing at the wrapped breakfast bundle on the side table. Honestly, after drinking those potions of doom, I wasn't sure if I could eat, but the way Lena phrased it told me this wasn't really a request.
More like a polite command.
"Fine," I muttered again, reaching for the bundle. "But if I throw up in the garden, that's on you."
"I'll take full responsibility," Lena said, deadpan, already moving toward the door. "But please aim for the bushes."
---
Ten minutes later, I was walking beside her—shuffling, really—wrapped in a blanket like a cursed mummy wandering through an herbal retreat. The garden behind the hospital was quiet, save for the soft chirping of birds and the occasional rustle of morning wind.
The sun had barely risen. A pale gold hue touched the tops of the trees and spilled lazily across the stone path beneath our feet.
Lena was silent as we walked. Not tense, exactly—but definitely thoughtful.
I munched on a bite of the rice ball she packed. It was... surprisingly good. Warm, savory, a little sweet. At least she wasn't trying to poison me and starve me.
After a few steps, she stopped by a small bench tucked beneath a flowering tree.
"Let's sit."
I nodded and collapsed into the seat with all the grace of a dying cat. Lena sat next to me, crossing one leg over the other, hands folded neatly in her lap.
She took a breath.
Then another.
Here it comes.
"I told you I was an academy professor, right?"
I exhaled sharply through my nose, still wincing from the dull ache in my ribs.
"Yeah," I muttered. "You mentioned it."
Her eyes glimmered faintly with a hint of mischief, and she pressed on with an almost casual air.
"Actually, yesterday, Rin..." she drawled, her voice deceptively sweet. "I looked up the academy student records... and contacted your family."
I froze.
"...What?"
For a moment, I just stared at her, unsure if I'd heard her correctly.
Contacted my family?
What nonsense was this?
I didn't have a family.
I was an orphan.
Alone.
No family to contact.
But then it clicked.
Ah.
Right.
My head was still spinning from whatever bitter concoction she'd shoved down my throat earlier, clouding my thoughts.
Of course.
She wasn't talking about my family.
She was talking about Rin Evans' family.
This body's family.
"Oh... shit."
I slumped back slightly, the weight of those two words settling over me like a wet blanket left out in a thunderstorm.
Lena didn't say anything. She let the silence stretch, her gaze steady on me.
I felt it then—that sinking sensation in my gut that had nothing to do with the potions.
She really had done it.
Contacted them.
The Evans family.
Rin's family.
Not mine.
And now I was stuck here, holding the weight of someone else's past I hadn't even begun to understand.
But maybe, just maybe she has contacted wrong family?
I hope so.
"So…" I cleared my throat, trying to play it cool. "Which family did you contact, exactly? Because, you know, there's a lot of Evans in the world. Real common name."
She arched an eyebrow.
"Your family. The Evans family registered under this academy's official records. Your guardian's contact information was still active."
Of course it was.
Curse these magic data records. Couldn't even count on isekai bureaucracy to be conveniently broken.
"And… what did they say?" I asked slowly, each word dragging itself out of my mouth like it didn't want to exist.
"They were... surprised, Theybwere concern about your health specifically" Lena said delicately. "You haven't contacted them in a long time, have you?"
No, I hadn't.
Because I wasn't Rin Evans.
In fact, at the duel in the Velcrest Academy entrance examination I had threatened that guard in saving me.
At that time, I know that I have father in this world.
But I pretended to ignore it and now this news from Lena hit like punch in gut.
Still....
I was just a guy who died in another world and got yeeted into his body like an unwanted software update.
"I didn't knew that you have bad relationship with your family. If I did I wouldn't have contact them in the first place."
I blinked.
Bad relationship?
"Your older sister said you pretended not to know her... and hung up on her."
"Wait, what?"
My brow furrowed.
My older sister?
I hung up on her?
Wait minute so woman who called me yesterday was supposed to be my sister?
Now, not only I have father but an sister also?
Great. Just great.
I stared at her blankly, but the pieces started falling into place.
Somewhere in the back of my mind, a faint memory stirred—fragments from the original setting I had skimmed over.
I recalled reading that Rin Evans' family was still alive in the original story.
Unlike Rin, who died early, his older sister and father made multiple appearances later on.
His father, once a wealthy merchant, became a semi-villain in the early part of the novel, using economic pressure to squeeze the academy after his son's death.
Bitter.
Grieving.
And dangerous.
Meanwhile, his sister—stricken with guilt—spiraled into regret and obsession, eventually turning into a villain herself.
She had mourned the rift between them.
Wished she had reconciled with him sooner.
But by then, it was too late.
I swallowed hard.
The bitter taste of the second potion still lingered, but it was nothing compared to the sudden knot in my stomach.
Villains.
They were villains.
The kind who might smile one moment and bury a dagger in your back the next.
The kind the protagonist would inevitably have to deal with—the kind I would have to deal with now.
And Lena, good old well-meaning Lena, had just invited them back into my life like she was handing out party invitations.
"I… see," I said carefully, voice quiet.
Lena's eyes softened again.
"I'm sorry, Rin. I didn't mean to cause trouble. I genuinely thought you might want to reconnect."
I nodded slowly, but my mind was already racing.
Reconnect?
With them?
That sister who apparently got hung up on—by me?
That father who was known for crushing his enemies with money and influence?
Now once again....
Great, Just Great.