Chapter 11: Even Monsters Can Get Hurt
Chapter 11:
Even Monsters Can Get Hurt
BOOM. Thwump. Slam!
I could hear loud noises outside the drugstore. Must be Noela and Griffy.
“What’re those sounds, Reiji?” Vivi asked, looking nervous.
“Noela’s been playing kind of rough with Griffy lately.”
“It’s Li’l Kyuu and Noela, huh?” That seemed to be enough explanation for Vivi; she didn’t ask anything else.
I should go talk to them in case they scare off customers. They were “playing,” as I said—but to an outsider, that’d look like a white wolf fighting a griffin to the death.
“Kyuu! Kyuuuuu?!” I heard Griffy screech.
Huh? What’s going on? I turned to Vivi. “Could you watch the store?”
She nodded.
I headed outside to the green space where Noela and Griffy always played. There, I saw Griffy kneeling—probably exhausted—and Noela back in her human form.
“Hey, what’s going on here?”
“M-Master, not Noela. Not Noela!” the werewolf girl cried.
What’s “not Noela”?
“Kyuu…” Griffy whined.
Looking closely at the griffin, I noticed scratch marks all over its body. Those look really painful. “Noela…”
I wasn’t sure what the circumstances had been, but she must’ve wound up scratching Griffy while they played. This felt like one of those situations where everyone got real quiet because a kid had accidentally poked their playmate in the eye.
“Garoo… Griffy okay?”
“Kyuu…”
Noela stroked Griffy’s head gently, then seemed to realize something. “Potion, Master! Give Griffy tasty potion!”
I smacked her head lightly. “You understand that this only happened because you were too rough, right?”
“Groo…”
Noela seemed to regret injuring Griffy, so there was nothing more for me to say on the subject. Telling them to wait, I grabbed some potions from the drugstore and then headed back. “Here, Griffy. Drink this, and you’ll feel better.”
Noela nodded intently as I lifted the drink to the griffin’s mouth. Griffy opened its beak a little, and I poured in the potion.
“Tasty taste tasty, Griffy?”
Noela really wants Griffy’s opinion on the potion’s flavor.
“Kyuu!” Griffy responded energetically, but its wounds didn’t heal.
Is the potion not working? When Noela first drank one in her wolf form, I thought it’d cured her immediately. “Hey, Noela. Remember how I gave you a potion when we first met? Did it heal you right away?”
“Yeah! Still hurt some, but felt better.”
When Doz had injured his leg the other day, I had him drink a potion, and he was back on his feet. “The drugstore’s potions are meant for humans, not monsters,” I muttered.
Maybe, just like adults and children had to take different doses of the same medicine to benefit from it, a large body like a griffin’s needed a different potion strength.
“It might be time to create a monster-exclusive potion,” I concluded.
“M-monster exclusive?”
“In other words, a new kind of potion.”
“New tasty taste?!” Noela was overjoyed.
I still wasn’t sure whether the potion had been less effective because Griffy was a griffin or just because its body was so large. “Can you chug three more potions, Griffy?”
“Kyuu.” It opened its beak again for me. I grabbed a few potions—including the one Noela was on the verge of drinking—and poured them into Griffy’s mouth. “Kyuu!”
“No fair,” Noela objected.
“It’s perfectly fair.”
Griffy seems to regain its energy, but its wounds still looked rough. I palpated them. Poke. Poke.
“Kyuuoough?!”
They definitely still hurt. Yup, of course they do. “The drugstore’s potions aren’t strong enough for monsters—at least, not monsters the size of Griffy,” I explained to Noela.
“Make sense. Noela not monster. Potion work.” Since Noela was a werewolf, she was partially human.
“Guess I’ll make a new potion.”
“Noela help Master! Taste test.”
I figured she’d say that.
Noela bowed her head. “Griffy, Noela sorry.” She probably felt a bit guilty about the griffin’s injuries.
“Kyuu. Kyuu.” Griffy didn’t seem the least bit bothered. It looked kind of blasé, if anything. We returned our loyal griffin to its stable, then headed to the lab to start.
My official taste tester, Noela, stared at my work with a grave face. “Tasty taste beyond. Beyond tasty taste.”
“No, the new potion will taste normal.” I’d obviously add some different ingredients, but the other ingredients—and the potion’s effects—would be the same, so the flavor wouldn’t change much.
“Garoo?!”
With Noela’s help, I completed the new potion.
Monster Potion: Potion for monsters. Speeds up healing.
“New beyond tasty taste!”
“Nope. The flavor will be basically the same,” I reminded her. We should get this to Griffy ASAP.
“Give to Noela. Noela give to Griffy.”
“You bet.”
Noela trotted toward the exit, sniffing the potion bottle. She seemed immensely curious about the new concoction.
Something about how she’s acting is mighty suspicious. “Don’t drink any on the way.”
“Arroo?!” Noela turned toward me silently, shocked that she’d been found out.
With a heavy sigh, I found someone to chaperone her. “Hey, Vivi, mind watching Noela to make sure she doesn’t drink that?”
“Uh-huh!” Vivi turned to her friend. “You’ll get fat if you drink that potion, Noela!”
That’s not true at all!
Vivi’s threat didn’t bother the werewolf girl. “No get fat.”
Despite Noela’s claim, I seemed to remember her temporarily putting weight on not long ago. Did she already forget?
Vivi and Noela headed for Griffy’s stable, chitchatting. I decided just to get a report on how my new potion worked from them. If my skill had described it accurately, there shouldn’t be any issues.
There were tons of products and treatments intended specifically for people with certain jobs or lifestyles—for instance, medicine that was only useful to farmers. Only a few people would need monster potions, but I could already name someone who did.
Just as I was thinking about her, the monster tamer Eva popped in. “Hey, Mr. Pharmacist!”
Since I’d first created a new product for her, Eva had come to Kirio Drugs frequently. Now that she was a regular, I let my guard down around her.
“Welcome,” I said. “What’s up?”
“That asshole complains about how I fight!”
I’m assuming she means the centaur she partnered with. Theoretically, the Translator DX helped Eva and the centaur communicate, but it seemed to be causing issues too.
“Look, I get it. I mess up too,” Eva continued. “But how dare he be like, ‘Act more feminine!’ and ‘Show me your panties!’ He’s the worst!”
Sexual harassment, bullying… I guess she’s seeing her monster warts and all. Makes you wonder about the pros and cons of being able to communicate. From what the centaur had said to Eva, it was apparently a little too smart for its own good.
“I was totally done with him. I couldn’t do it.” Eva pouted. “I nullified our pact and released him.”
Eva usually hit me with these complaints when she dropped in. If the centaur was gone, though, I figured today was the end of that.
“He made fun of me constantly,” she added. “‘If you ain’t got healing magic, learn some!’ ‘You call yourself my tamer? Bwa ha ha! You’re killing me!’ I swear, he was stress personified!”
She sounds like an office lady complaining about her boss. Honestly, she had perfect timing. I showed her an extra bottle of the heavy-duty potion I’d made. “Know what this is?”
“A potion, right?”
“Not just that. It’s a monster potion!”
When Eva first showed up, I’d heard Vivi, Noela, and Griffy gushing outside:
“Wow! It healed Li’l Kyuu right away!”
“Garoo!”
“Kyuu! Kyuu!”
So I already knew the monster potion was effective.
“A monster potion…” Eva repeated. “With this, I wouldn’t have to learn healing magic, would I?”
“Nope. But, well, you already let your familiar go, so you can use this for your next one.”
Eva clasped my hand tightly and shook it. “You’re really superhuman, Mr. Pharmacist! A monster-taming visionary!”
Oh, man. I’m revolutionizing yet another field?
Once she was done complaining, Eva bought several items, including monster potions. Then she left the drugstore, excited to find a new partner. Maybe she was tired of monsters insulting her; one thing she hadn’t purchased was Translator DX.
“Communication’s never easy, is it?” I said to myself.