Chapter 48: The Bloodrose Potion
Shortly after the officers left his room, the young nurse working at the orphanage came to see Jinn. After some basic checks, she said, "You are lucky that I had to stay back because of the rain, or I would have gone to the market."
"Five minutes without treatment and I would not have been able to see you." She let out a sigh, penning down his blood pressure and other things on the notepad in her hands.
Jinn let out a dry chuckle before forcing himself to sit up straight. His painful groan attracted the nurse’s attention.
"What are you doing? Lie back down; your muscles need time to heal." She cried in panic and rushed to push him back down in the bed, but Jinn stopped her.
"Can you help me remove these bandages?" Before she could be more frustrated with him, Jinn showed her the vial given to her by Officer Chen and said, "This is supposed to help me heal."
After a wave of frustration and anger, the nurse felt astonishment when she saw the contents of the vial. With a swift movement, she snatched the bottle from Jinn and uncorked it to take a sniff.
"The Church must really value you. Even if you were harmed on their watch, there is no way they would give you this."
Jinn raised an eyebrow at her blunt words.
"And what is that?"
"Bloodrose Potion. Basically a concoction that speeds the process of healing by ten times." Closing it back up, she placed it on the table nearby and signaled him to raise his arms. "With this, you should be able to heal in less than an hour."
As she neared Jinn to remove his bandage, she felt him shudder and paused. "Are you embarrassed that I will see you bare-chested?" She unwrapped the bandage while teasing him. "Don’t worry, I have already seen everything while I was treating you."
Jinn chuckled at her words, "I am just ticklish around my neck."
The nurse did not believe his words and just waved it off as an excuse. Removing the bandage, she put it on the table, right beside the vial.
Jinn looked down and saw it. The cracked slash across his chest was still glistening with blood.
"It might scar." The Nurse whispered as her fingers trailed on the skin around the wound.
Even before being awakened, Jinn had very low fat in his body, but now his muscles could be seen bulging under the skin.
After a second, Jinn looked down and sneered, seeing the lost look on the nurse’s face.
Startled by the noise he made, the nurse whipped her hand back in panic. A warm flush marred her cheeks.
Just now she was making fun of Jinn for being embarrassed, and now she was acting worse than him. Realizing this, her blush deepened, and she did not dare to meet Jinn’s gaze.
Instead, she picked up the vial of Bloodrose Potion, opened it up, and poured its contents on Jinn’s wounds.
’This will teach you not to tease the nurse taking care of you.’ The nurse grinned in her mind, already hearing Jinn’s painful screams.
But, to her surprise, Jinn did not even let out a moan of pain. After gathering some courage, she looked up to see him smiling at her in amusement.
"Is there something wrong?" Jinn tilted his head innocently and asked, but the mischievous smile on his face gave away his impure intentions.
The nurse rolled her eyes and stood up before pushing him back on the bed.
"Lay down and let the potion work its magic." She said this as calmly as she could, despite feeling embarrassed on the inside. She poured the rest of the liquid on the wound before placing the empty bottle back on the table.
"Get well soon." Jinn heard her faint whisper followed by the rushed footsteps slowly fading away.
’I should rest a little.’ Just as Jinn closed his eyes, the door that the nurse had shut on her way out suddenly swung open with a bang.
"Urgh!" The boy groaned before tilting his head to see Sally standing in the door.
Surprisingly, she did not rush at him; instead, she seemed to be frozen in her place, looking at him like she had seen a ghost.
"What—"
"Ahhhh!" before he could say anything, she let out her banshee scream without holding back. Jinn swore that he saw the glasses in the windows groaning under her voice.
"Don’t die, Jinn!"
Hearing her screams, several people came rushing to the room. Even the nurse who had just left came back.
She saw the scene and realized what happened.
"Stop!" She instantly smacked Sally on the back of her head, making her stop crying. "That’s a medicine that would help him heal, not blood, so stop screaming."
Hearing her explanation, everyone heaved a sigh of relief, while Sally herself stared at Jinn’s blank face with an ’oh!’ face.
"And what are you doing here? The patient needs rest. I heard your teacher telling you to go back to your room. Did you sneak back here?"
The nurse sternly glared at Sally, making her look around in panic.
"Oh, I forgot." Making an innocent face, the girl turned around and ran away.
The nurse did not chase after her. She glanced at Jinn one last time before instantly looking away before her cheeks could turn red and then left the room, closing the door behind her.
The rest of the crowd also dispersed while Jinn finally closed his eyes and drifted off into sleep.
***
Outside the orphanage, right beside the main gate, three people stood facing each other.
"The boy does not know anything about the excommunicated nun." Officer Chen said this while providing Acosta with the details of their investigation.
"Excommunicated? Already?" Acosta asked, a little surprised by the speed of the church of the one-eyed goddess.
"Since I’m from the same church, it was easier for them to decide based on my word and the evidence we gathered."
Officer Chen turned his head upon seeing Angelia lost in thought. "What?"
The woman shook her head and said, "I still feel like the boy knows something he is not sharing with us. Just not sure what."
"Maybe you are overthinking." Officer Chen shrugged, not agreeing with her opinion.
"It does not matter..." But Angelia seemed to have made up her mind. Her eyes shimmered with deep blue light as she whispered, "The truth will come out tomorrow, when I will finally be able to use my powers again."