The Ward at the End

Riku kept one hand on a whiteboard full of healing formulas while a patient coughed behind the curtain and the night shift slipped farther out of reach. He worked as the hospital’s hidden theory man, the one who built the math behind treatment magic, but his name never stayed on the reports. When a sealed retirement-fund card turns up in the wrong locker, he realizes someone is hunting proof that could expose years of unpaid work and quiet cover-ups. A resident named Mio keeps asking why he protects the people who forget him. Riku knows the answer is ugly. The system saves lives, even when it uses him up. The moment he finally cracks is small, private, and human. He has one jacket pocket, on...