Case 01: The Centaur of the Arena

CASE 01:
The Centaur of the Arena

 

“Ummm… Are you reaaaally going to do this?”

It was a small room.

Partitioned off with a thick cloth screen, the interior was a sterile white. Everything from the sheets to the beds themselves was all properly prepared, and the room overflowed with an air of cleanliness.

Inside, a man and woman faced one another.

The woman had already taken off her outer clothes from the waist up. The only thing she wore was her cow-hide bra; her hands covered up her voluptuous chest. With her cupped breasts and her beautiful figure, a somewhat strange atmosphere hung in the air of the cramped room.

She looked distressed. The man spoke to her gently.

“Yes. And I’ll need your help to complete the treatment.”

“Buuuut it reeeeally is embarraaaassing…” The woman had a slow and elongated style of speech, but her anxiety could be heard distinctly in her voice.

“Yes ma’am, but this is something that everyone has to do.”

“Buuuut my husbaaaand…”

“If I can finish this properly, then I’m sure your husband won’t be worried, either.”

The woman thought this over for a few moments, but finally seemed to make up her mind and lowered her arms, exposing her breasts. The way she cast her eyes down gave the impression that she was frightened in some way.

“Um, if possible, please be geeeentle.”

“Please don’t worry—it won’t hurt.”

The man, acting as calmly as he could manage, extended his hand straight out to the woman’s voluptuous chest. He lifted one enormous, weighty breast as he touched it.

“Ah…!”

“D-did I hurt you?!”

“I-It’s okaaaay… Just surprised me a liiiittle.”

“In that case, I’m going to continue, okay?”

The man looked absolutely serious as he began to thoroughly rub the woman’s breast.

“Unh, ah! There, it hurts!”

“I’m sorry—please try to bear with it just a little longer.”

“Uhn… Ah! Hah…”

Her heavy breathing began to sound like she was both gasping in pleasure and—conversely—enduring a painful examination. The man massaged her breasts even further and seemed to be checking the woman’s reactions to his touches.

“I-I’m sorry, please forgive me. Let’s see here. Does it hurt?”

The man apologized, but his hands didn’t stop. Similarly, while he looked flustered, he continued to properly observe the woman.

“Ah, no! That’s—hunh!”

Pressing her hand against her mouth, the woman desperately tried to endure the pain without letting her voice slip out.

The man closely observed her condition while she endured his examination.

At long last, it was over, and he removed his hands from her breasts. The high-quality cowhide underwear that the woman was wearing seemed to be meant for someone much smaller and had slipped down, letting the tips of her breasts peek out from underneath.

Her breathing still heavy and rough, the woman fixed her disheveled clothes. She slipped her cotton clothing over her underwear, but her cheeks remained flushed red. Even with her now dressed, the atmosphere in the room remained suspect and uncertain.

“Now, then…”

The man shifted his attention once more.

The focus of his gaze was the woman’s face. Poking out from her sandy hair were large, curved horns and a pair of pointed, cow-like ears.

“Next are your ears.”

“M-my eeeears? But uuuum, are you all done with my cheeeest?”

“Yes, thank you. Next, I’ll need you to show me your ears.”

“My eeeears? Buuuut they are a little sensitive, sooooooo…”

The woman averted her eyes, looking uneasy. Her ears twitched as though responding to her unease. Their skin was so thin that even the blood vessels running through them were visible to the naked eye. They bore a striking resemblance to the ears of a cow and vividly demonstrated that she was not human.

“That aaaand…my husbaaaand…”

“Yes, I understand. However, I believe that being thorough will be the best way to put your husband’s mind at ease.”

“Uuungh…”

For a moment, the young wife hesitated, her ears twitching and trembling.

At long last, however, she seemed to have readied herself, and suddenly turned her head towards the man. She presented her energetic ears and curved horns in front of him.

“P-pleeeease.”

“Okay, then, please bear with me a moment…”

The man’s words were polite, but he looked tense. As he felt her ears, his face was stiffer than when he had touched her chest.

“Nnnh!”

The woman let out a yelp.

The cry was very different from the voice she had made when her breasts were being touched—so much so that the man instinctively yanked his hands from her ears.

“S-sorry, are you okay?”

“I’m fiiiine. It’s juuuust, the stimulation was a liiiiiittle stroooooong…”

“I’m sorry, but it’s necessary. Can I continue?”

“I-I’ll try to bear with iiiit.”

The man again touched the woman’s ears.

“Un… Hnh!”

He brought his face up close to the cow ears and her visible blood vessels, examining them minutely. Although the man had been touching the woman’s body for some time now, he still paid serious, meticulous attention to her reactions to his touches.

“Ah! …Hnh!”

“I-If it hurts, please tell me.”

“It’s not that…it hurts, buuuut… Ah, hah, ah-nh! I’m sorry, deaaaaaar…”

The man thought that it was likely the woman herself didn’t understand what exactly she was apologizing for.

She called out to her absent husband. Nonetheless, the man continued to examine her ears, deliberately ignoring what she was saying. He pulled them up and down and shined a light through them, but if someone had been looking in at the two of them, they would have had a hard time figuring out exactly what was going on.

“Nh! Unh… Hnh!”

“F-forgive me, I’m so sorry. Please just bear with it a little longer.”

“I-I can’t take it… I’m… I caaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaan’t!”

Then, finally.

“Unnnnnnnhhhhhhhh!”

The woman made an exaggerated leap into the air. Her shoulders twitched and convulsed, and she tried desperately to cover up the moan of ecstasy that threatened to spill out.

“A-are you okay…?”

The man couldn’t help being flustered by the woman’s extreme reaction.

For a moment, she could only breathe heavily, but before long she turned towards the man with watery eyes. Her upturned gaze was enough to make the heart of any man alive swell with feelings for the woman.

“I-I’m fiiiine. So, umm…”

“Oh, yes. Thank you for sticking through my examination. I’ve figured out the source of the pain.”

“Reaaaaally? That’s gooood, but ummmm—”

The woman gave a quick sideways glance towards the man.

“You’re a dooooctor after all, so can you please conduct the examination in a more dignified maaaanner? It’s embaaaarrassing for me if you are so…flustered.”

Her words thrust into the man— Glenn Litbeit—like a dagger.

“…I am ashamed of my behavior, please forgive me.”

In the face of the woman’s groaning, frowning face, all he could do was bow his head in apology.

This was a clinic whose specialty was treating monsters.

As a doctor that specialized in examining non-human patients, it was Glenn Litbeit’s place of work, and he took his duties there extremely seriously.

 

***

 

A tightening of the chest, with pain.

Some days the acute pain was strong enough to make walking difficult.

Experiencing this chest trouble, the young minotaur wife—Silsha Tessius—had come to the clinic, and it was almost time for her one day of outpatient care to be completed.

Minotaurs were a species of monster that had many distinctive characteristics similar to cattle. The male minotaurs had heads exactly like those of a bull. Their bodies were generally tall and muscular. Female minotaurs had faces quite similar to humans, but their horns and ears were just like those of a bull, and it was said many of them also developed large breasts.

Glenn concentrated his examination on the patient’s chest and ears. By palpating her breasts, he was able to conclude that she had no lumps or tumors. On the other hand, her ears were tinged red and had become enlarged, as though they were slightly swollen. Glenn believed that this swelling was the cause of her ears’ sensitivity. A female minotaur’s ears becoming red and inflamed were symptomatic of only one possible condition.

Namely—

“You are pregnant.”

At Glenn’s assistant’s quiet words, the Tessius couple—sitting together now that her husband had joined her in the room—were stunned.

When his wife began to experience pain, the husband had jumped to worse and worse conclusions about whether it was a sign of a more serious illness, so the results of the examination were a great relief for the newly married couple.

“The chest pain is a symptom of pregnancy. Congratulations.” Glenn’s assistant, Saphentite, gave this blessing with a smile on her face.

With her white skin and red eyes, Saphentite Neikes gave off a cold, indifferent first impression, but after seeing her gentle, friendly smile, it became immediately clear that her seemingly unfriendly appearance was misleading.

She was a lamia, and an excellent assistant. As she addressed the couple, she swung her tail back and forth, performing miscellaneous tasks he had assigned her.

“Follow-up observation will be necessary, but the chest pain will subside before long. If there are times when the pain is truly unbearable, please boil this herb and drink the decoction.”

The medicine tucked away in the cloth bag had been mixed together by Saphentite with herbs from the garden. She had thorough pharmaceutical knowledge and oversaw the dispensing of free prescriptions at the clinic.

Saphentite couldn’t tell if the Tessius couple was actually listening to her as they hugged each other and shared in their delight. Glenn was also happy to bring the case to a close without condemning someone to a serious illness.

Glenn and Saphentite saw the couple off as they took the medicine and left the clinic. With the good tidings in their hearts, the young minotaur couple were all smiles as they faded from view.

“I’ll go flip the sign, Doctor.”

Saying this, Saphentite turned the sign at the entrance over to “closed.” There were no more patients left for them to treat, so their work for the day was now over.

Glenn began cleaning up the examination room. This small section was separated with a curtain, but the clinic itself was reasonably spacious. More importantly, since it was used for medical treatment, cleaning and sterilizing the space was important work. To put it bluntly, it was more than just the two of them could handle.

And so—

“Time to tidy up!”

“Cleaning time!”

Lightly running across the floor were a group of fairies that helped them out.

The fairies were employed by the clinic, and were paid a fee of one serving of milk for a day’s work. No matter what they tried, Glenn and Saphentite couldn’t handle it all themselves, so they hired the fairies to take care of the routine, everyday chores. The small beings couldn’t personally assist with any of the medical treatments, but they were invaluable when it came to the various chores, and as such were a very convenient group to have around.

Now that they had seen the couple off, Saphentite let out a sigh, relieved that the day’s work had come to a close.

The assistant was a monster covered in white scales. Being a lamia, her lower body resembled the tail of a snake, and had a charming radiance to it. An albino, her skin was white with scales, and she had red eyes that gleamed like rubies. Coupled with her silver hair, she struck a mysterious figure, but because she worked in a medical clinic, her beautiful white face made her seem like the perfect person for the job.

On close inspection, a somewhat pink and purplish color could be seen shining deep within her white scales. It was a strange tinge of color, and it only served to enhance Saphentite’s mystique.

She had been working as Glenn’s assistant ever since the clinic had been opened. She was a capable person and indispensable to him.

“Thank you for your hard work, Doctor,” he said, expressing his gratitude.

“Oh, yeah…”

Glenn felt a sting behind her words of acknowledgment.

Saphentite also began to clean up, putting away paperwork and medical supplies with her serpentine lower body. Her dexterity was impressive as always, and the operation of the clinic would be hard-pressed without her. However…

Saphentite’s red eyes weren’t staring at Glenn, but somewhere off into the distance. Glenn had been with Saphentite for a long time, and he could always sense when she was in a bad mood.

“Um… Is something wrong, Saphentite?”

“No, Doctor. Not really anything in particular.”

Saphentite extended her slithering tail and took the bundle of herbs that Glenn was holding. She was clearly upset.

“But?”

“I’m not mad. I’m not upset in the slightest.”

Her silver hair was nearly transparent. Through it, Glenn could see her looking toward him. Her vivid red eyes penetrated through and shot daggers at him.

“That’s right…Doctor. Even if I hear lewd voices that sound like a man and a woman making love coming from the exam room, and even if during an ‘examination’ the doctor touches the patient in a wretched and shameful way, that doesn’t give me any reason to be upset. Indeed, I am simply worried about the future of the clinic going forward, that’s all.”

“That was…umm… Sorry…”

“If it’s something to apologize for, I’d rather you just act more appropriately from now on.”

Saphentite’s stare was ice cold.

Everything he had done was part of the patient’s medical treatment, so Glenn shouldn’t have anything to be ashamed of, but…

“Honestly, if this is how things are going to go, then there was no point in leaving that octo-woman—excuse me—no point in leaving Miss Cthulhy in the first place. Yes, we relied on her for help in the beginning, but this is Dr. Glenn’s clinic. Please be aware that you need to be a doctor that everyone can trust.”

“Y-you’re right. I am really sorry.”

Even at times like this, they were still in their roles as doctor and assistant, but originally, both of them had been students at the academy. Studying under the professor of medicine Cthulhy Squele, the two had achieved good marks in each of their respective fields. Their instructor, Cthulhy, also played a large role in helping them open up their clinic in the town of Lindworm.

Saphentite had been the first to start studying under Cthulhy, and as such she was a senior pupil compared to Glenn. The two of them operated the clinic together, but to tell the truth, there really hadn’t been any change to the power dynamics of their relationship. Glenn was often scolded and lectured by Saphentite.

“As a human, Doctor, you are the only one who can examine and treat monsters, you know.”

“Yes…I know. I’ll try harder.” Glenn nodded. He was seventeen years old, and while his timid personality made him look even younger, he had exceptional personal achievements to his name.

Although he was originally from the main metropolis inside the human territory, on the eastern edge of the continent, he still had an interest in monsters. Due to his extraordinary passion for the subject, he had transferred to the monster academy. There he studied under the authority on monster medical science, Cthulhy Squele. Even among the brilliant, talented boys and girls that Cthulhy had collected from all over the continent, Glenn showed exceptional promise.

Saphentite took pride in her genius for pharmaceutical studies, but Glenn Litbeit was head-and-shoulders above her.

Not only were monsters wide-ranging in form, the ecology behind those forms was extremely varied and diverse. They were all classified as “monsters,” but though they shared that same label, between lamia and minotaurs there were those whose bodies were so different that they could almost be said to be another species entirely. As such, the illnesses they faced were just as distinct.

Treating and examining just the single race of humans took an enormous amount of knowledge. Glenn, however, not only examined various diverse species of monsters, but was also prepared to provide treatment and perform surgery on patients when necessary.

In a town where humans and monsters lived together like Lindworm, once could say he was an indispensable talent to have available, but…

“From now on, I’ll make sure to do things properly.”

“Of course. Tomorrow is the arena’s health examination. This is a very important job that Miss Cthulhy forced on—entrusted to us, so no matter what, you need to see it through to the end.”

“That’s right… I understand. I’ll make sure to do it properly.”

Unfortunately, Glenn couldn’t help that he was still a rookie with very little life experience. He was a timid and unreliable boy, enough that it was natural for his assistant Saphentite to fret over him.

That said, he was actually quite capable; since the clinic had opened, he had given countless consultations to the monsters living in the town and diagnosed their diseases and disorders. The biggest issue was that Glenn himself still hadn’t come to grips with this fact.

“One more thing, Dr. Glenn.”

“Yes?”

“I’ve said this many times, but please don’t call me Saphentite. Call me Sapphee, like when we were at the academy.”

Whether it was to hide her embarrassment or for some other reason, her tail swung back and forth.

While Glenn used to refer to her that way, since opening the clinic he used a more formal manner of address in order to make clear their positions as assistant and doctor. However, Saphentite had always been displeased with being referred to that way.

Ultimately, it seemed that this was the primary reason she was upset today.

However, she hadn’t stopped referring to Glenn as “Doctor,” which he didn’t feel was fair. On top of that, he didn’t want to be called “doctor” by a woman who was his senior, but Saphentite didn’t show any indication that she would make this change.

“I understand, Sapphee.”

“There you go. Now then, Doctor, shall we prepare for tomorrow?”

Finally looking directly at Glenn, he saw that his exceptional lamia assistant was smiling. Her expression was still stiff, but it was much softer than it had been up until then.

“Preparations!”

“Help!”

“Where’s our milk?”

The fairies fluttered about, thin wings flapping. The price of their services was cheap, but because of this they were strict about their service contract. If they were made to work past what they had been scheduled to do, then they would be furious. Such were their conditions.

“I’ve prepared the milk for you. Now, then, there is just one more thing to be done.”

“Okay,” the fairies said. Glenn had answered as well, his voice mixing in with the fairies’.

In this town of Lindworm, where there were few people able to diagnose and treat monsters, the Litbeit Clinic had finished another busy day.

 

***

 

Once upon a time, over one hundred years ago, there was a large war.

The Vivre Mountains cut through the heart of the continent, serving as a border between the humans and monsters who waged war against one another. The humans fought with both superior numbers and technology, as well as with the proper leadership to command it all. The monsters, although fewer in number, overwhelmed the humans with their diverse range of abilities, and used ingenious schemes the humans were unable to cope with as they met them in battle.

Why exactly had the war started? The cause of the dispute was forgotten in the chaos of history. There were a number of plausible explanations, but none of them had sufficient evidence to back them up. What was certain was that the fighting bred more fighting and became a spiraling, swirling source of calamity for both sides.

It commenced with an enormous battle, two massive military hosts confronting each other head-to-head on a vast prairie.

But the long, continuous war steadily began to drain people of their will to fight. Grudges lingered over the deaths of relatives and loved ones, but as the scale of the war gradually grew smaller and smaller, the number of people who felt such pain and harbored such animosity began to decrease with it. On top of that, the longer the fighting continued, the more fearful each army’s monarchs and generals became of their fortunes being lost.

As the long war came into its final stages, the only battles that popped up occasionally were small skirmishes out in the remote areas--and these hadn’t even resulted in any casualties. At long last, the humans and monsters formed a mutual cease-fire agreement on the condition that they wouldn’t invade each other’s territory. That had been ten years ago.

“I mean... There wasn’t really any reason to keep the war going, anyway,” Glenn murmured as he rocked back and forth in his carriage, looking out at the view of the town.

From his carriage, he could see the scene of the marketplace. A human fruit vendor was selling apples to lamia children. A cyclops craftsman caught the attention of a young housewife and promoted his wares, extolling the sharpness of his kitchen knives.

This town where human and monster lived together was where Glenn worked as a doctor—Lindworm.

Located at the foot of the Vivre Mountains, it had once been a prosperous fortified city within human territory. Even now, after the signing of the cease-fire agreement, generally the monsters lived in the monster part of town while the humans lived in the human part. It was thought to be the only city where humans and monsters existed together peacefully, as if such harmony were normal.

“What brought that topic on so suddenly?”

“Oh, it’s nothing. I was just thinking how now that peace is here and the war is over, all sorts of people are living together. That’s all.”

As a doctor specializing in monster medicine, Glenn was frankly delighted by the peace that had come. In fact, the carriage that Glenn was riding in at that very moment was a symbol of that very peace. There was an emblem of two crossed spears painted on the side of the carriage—the emblem of the Scythia Transportation Company.

The Scythia family was a prestigious centaur family, so in other, more precise words, what Glenn was actually riding was a carriage hauled by a centaur.

“How’s the ride in our carriage, Doc?”

“It’s comfortable. Thank you.”

“That’s right—it’s great, isn’t it?” Acting as both carriage horse and driver, the centaur gave a hearty guffaw as he pulled the wagon.

Glenn thought to himself that this must be a good life for centaurs these days. The equine monsters who had once been well-known mercenaries, charging through grasslands to do battle, were now carriage drivers. Their new occupation at the transport company was, to them, the perfect fit for their skills.

“Everything hasn’t been settled for good, you know, Dr. Glenn,” Sapphee said, poking her head out of the carriage. “You can see the arena now,” she added.

“The arena,” Glenn mused. “During the war it was used to execute monster prisoners of war, right?”

“Yes. Combining entertainment and public executions, it is the place where prisoners were forced to kill animals, or even other members of their species. All because Lindworm was a fortress town on the front lines of human territory.” Sapphee made a somewhat pained expression. The prisoners of war that were killed there had been monsters, which meant there were sure to have been other lamia among those who died there.

“But the war ended,” she went on, “and the reason for Lindworm’s very existence—not just that of the arena—was questioned.”

With the fighting done, the facilities used in the war had served their purpose, and became unnecessary—along with all of Lindworm. The troops stationed there began departing, suddenly putting the merchants and shopkeepers in dire straits. There were many people who sold food, bowls, and other daily necessities to the soldiers. The prisoners of war in the arena were also put in a rough spot. Even if they returned to monster territory, as soldiers they no longer had a job.

Then appeared a single dragon who was given the moniker the “Draconess.”

With its original function coming to an end, she rebuilt Lindworm. She encouraged many monsters to migrate to the city, sustaining the town’s population while protecting the livelihood of its merchants and shopkeepers. In order to accommodate the variety of ways of life each monster had, she created a new city development plan. The actualization of that plan had brilliantly turned the town into a place where monsters could easily live.

The arena was a perfect example.

She recruited fighters and established detailed regulations for their fights. Furthermore, she made sure that gambling occurred under the strict regulations she put in place. The arena once used for executions had been transformed into a place where those former military men could use their skills in combat to entertain an audience.

These days, everyone knew how difficult it was to get seats for fights between high-profile warriors. It had a reputation as being a place where one could see powerful strength and skills clash.

“It is thanks to the Draconess that Lindworm has grown these past ten years. I hear that many of the mercenaries started a new life as fighters in the arena. Even with the war over and their livelihood as soldiers gone, in Lindworm they can continue on as fighters. They don’t use real weapons either, so there’s little risk of death, too.”

“Yes, I know,” Glenn said. “What are you trying to say?”

“I mean that with the rapid growth, there are still some things that have yet to catch up… Dr. Glenn’s workload is going to increase with it.” Sapphee mixed a sigh in with her words, and Glenn laughed dryly.

Just because the war was over and a large number of monsters had flocked to Lindworm didn’t mean the number of monster doctors grew with them. In all of Lindworm, there were only two places monsters could go for medical consultation.

One was Central Lindworm Hospital, which was run by Glenn’s teacher Cthulhy. The second was the Litbeit Clinic that Glenn operated.

The Central Hospital had more facilities at their disposal and could manage difficult surgeries—but handling such a large-scale hospital meant that the staff, including the medical director Cthulhy, was busy. The wait time for patients was long. Therefore, patients that were experiencing trouble that didn’t necessitate a trip to the big hospital all headed to Glenn’s clinic.

This wasn’t to say that their clinic wasn’t busy, just that they managed to scrape out enough time to humor elderly ogres who used leg pain as an excuse to come and gossip—and, from time to time, they were given work to do by their teacher Cthulhy.

Cthulhy was unable to attend to the routine medical examinations of the fighters who appeared in the matches at the arena, so their work that day was an example of one of the jobs that fell on Glenn to complete.

“Honestly, making us close the clinic for the day and sending us out on a trip to the arena… That octo-woman doesn’t consider our situation at all…”

“I know, but you don’t need to say it like that, Sapphee. Dr. Cthulhy is busy, too.”

The fighters in the arena were constantly getting injured in their matches. Very rarely, fighters lost their lives due to accidents that occurred during a fight. In order to prevent situations like that from happening, it was necessary to have a doctor who could examine and diagnose monsters.

“I know, but still.” Sapphee looked as if she didn’t accept Glenn’s justification. Though they were both distinguished pupils of Cthulhy’s, the two really did not get along well.

For Glenn’s part, he optimistically thought they were simply close enough friends that they felt comfortable quarreling with each other.

“Anyway,” Saphhee went on, “there’s nothing we can do but agree to her demands. Today’s examination will be focused on the rank-three and rank-four monster-fighters. According to the documents we were given, it seems many of them are centaurs.”

“Centaurs, huh…” Glenn looked at the carriage driver, whose face streamed with sweat as he pulled the cart forward.

They were born to be cavalrymen. While it was said that outstanding cavalrymen were of one mind between horse and rider, that was purely referring to humans. From birth, centaurs were able to run as fast as a horse, and with just a small amount of military training, they were able to lead others into battle splendidly.

During the war, the centaurs had charged across the open plains with spears in hand, the most dangerous threat to the human forces. Though Scythia Transportation showed that they were settling into the transportation industry these days, their roots traced back to their life as warriors. For a species born into battle, it made sense that a large number of them would then take up a new life as fighters in the arena.

“We will be taking their height and weight measurements, and conducting medical inquiries into the patients’ health,” Sapphee said. “Will that be okay?”

Glenn nodded. “Yes. That’s fine. There isn’t anyone who needs immediate treatment, right?”

“It seems anyone in that condition is being sent to the Central Hospital,” Sapphee said, with the look of a calm, cool-headed assistant. “Our job is to interview the fighters and discover any injuries or signs of illness that have outwardly exhibited themselves.”

Discovering ailments in advance and treating them appropriately during the early stages was also part of a doctor’s job, though it naturally required a lot of knowledge and skill to do so. What would happen if, by any chance, a critical symptom was overlooked? It would likely have a major impact on that patient’s life.

“We’re going to be there soon, Doc. Can I drop you off at the main entrance?”

“No. Please take us to the back.”

“The authorized-access-only entrance, huh? All right.”

The main entrance had a crowd of audience members milling around; getting into the fighter’s waiting room from there was quite difficult. Glenn gathered up some documents and an assortment of tools necessary for the medical examinations and prepared to get down from the carriage.

Although they had traveled a rather long distance from the clinic, and the centaur driver was covered in sweat, Glenn glimpsed an invigorating smile on his face and couldn’t help but be struck with admiration at the centaur’s ability to run so far.

Finally, they came around to the back of the arena and rolled to a stop. Glenn got down from the carriage first and immediately turned to help Sapphee do the same. Sapphee, however, used her lower serpent’s body to smoothly slide down the ramp of the carriage and didn’t really need Glenn’s help at all.

Even so, Sapphee looked somehow happy as she held onto Glenn’s hand.

“So you’ll be doing the check-up for the fighters today?” the centaur driver asked, unloading the large bags from the back of the carriage. Since some of the equipment stored inside was fragile, Glenn was’t especially keen on leaving its care to a stranger—but the centaur was surprisingly careful and neat as he picked up and carried the bags.

“Yes, that’s right.”

“In that case, you’ll most likely end up meeting our princess. We’ll all be counting on you to take care of her,” the sturdy centaur said, as he took down a bag crammed full of medical examination equipment.

Princess?

Glenn hadn’t heard anything about the existence of a centaur royal family, but before he could ask the driver to clarify, he had already started pulling the carriage, heading quickly toward the main road.

“What was he talking about…?”

Before he could raise any more questions, his hand was caught by Sapphee’s long tail. With her urging, practically dragging him along, Glenn moved towards the arena.

 

***

 

The location for the routine medical check-up was the training grounds in the back of the arena, where the fighters practiced.

The training ground had a smooth surface stripped of weeds, and there were a number of target dummies scattered about for the fighters’ training purposes. All told there were around fifty of the fighters gathered together there.

All of them were middle-ranked fighters. They didn’t have any of the clumsy, awkward injuries of the rookies, and they were able to engage in intense battles day-in and day-out. Many of them were clad in a kind of simple, sparse armor that was most likely not used for real battle, but instead made specifically for matches in the arena. Others held the wooden weapons they used during their battles.

There was a diverse range of monster species among them. However, just as the advance documents they received had indicated, it seemed that a lot of them were centaurs, a monster characterized by the upper body of a human and the lower body of a horse. From their shape, it was natural for them to be taller than humans—tall enough that Glenn had to raise his head and look up at them.

Length-wise, lamias were longer, but because they often coiled their bodies and folded their long tails, centaurs appeared larger. Sapphee, with her slender shoulders, looked even smaller in comparison.

The powerful centaur fighters were enveloped in some kind of tense, strained atmosphere. Among them was one figure that stood out from the rest.

“Welcome!”

With a well-projected voice, a single woman stepped forward. Her rich blonde hair gathered together in a bun, she gave a fresh and invigorating impression. She seemed large even for a centaur, and Glenn couldn’t meet her gaze without lifting his head. Her turquoise eyes stared directly at him.

The armor she wore was light, but with its checkered pattern and superior craftsmanship, it was different from the rest of the fighters. The crest on her chest also advertised that she had the social status to spend money on adorning her armor. The unique design clearly stood out in the arena.

Her lower body was just like any other centaur, but even Glenn could tell the way her black coat lay meant it had been meticulously brushed. She was clearly a fighter based on the armor she wore, but whether it was the styled blonde hair or her diligently maintained coat, it was clear that strict attention was given to her grooming and appearance. It was as if she was an actress of the theater.

“Welcome to the Great Lindworm Arena! My name is Tisalia Scythia, and I’m a rank-three fighter here! I would like to thank you for taking time out of your busy schedule to perform our check-up in Dr. Cthulhy’s stead… Oh, you’re surprisingly young for a doctor, aren’t you?” The blonde centaur’s greeting ended in a rather surprised tone.

Whether it was her exaggerated mannerisms or her unexpected voice, the impression she gave was less of a fighter and more of a stage actress.

“N-nice to meet you. My name is Glenn Litbeit, and I will be examining you all today. This is my assistant—”

“Saphentite Neikes.”

Wriggling her snake lower body, Sapphee bowed.

“I had heard that you were Dr. Cthulhy’s pupil, but to think you would be so young… Incidentally, how old are you, Doctor?”

“Seventeen.”

Surprised and intrigued cries rose up from the crowd. At first, Glenn thought they were suspicious of such a young doctor, but it seemed this wasn’t the case with the fighters. Instead they all stared at him with unreserved curiosity.

“You’re all being quite rude!” Tisalia said, and the lively group of fighters obediently answered back, “Sorry.”

“Honestly… I apologize, Doctor. They just think it’s rare for a human to be a monster doctor.”

“Miss Tisalia, have you had a long career as a fighter?” Sapphee asked.

Judging just by Tisalia’s behavior, it seemed that she had taken on a leadership role among the fighters. But Tisalia shook her head in denial.

“No. After all, I’m still rank three. I’m in the middle ranks of the arena.”

“Yes, but… Even still, everyone seems to have a great amount of respect for you.”

“Well, that’s obviously because of who I am!” Tisalia puffed out her chest. Glenn had heard that Centaurs often had big busts, but it seemed Tisalia’s was even bigger than the average for a horsewoman. More than that, with how tall she was, Tisalia’s hefty chest was directly in front of his eyes.

Whether he liked it or not, his eyes were drawn to her bosom.

“Oh, my.”

Noticing Glenn’s gaze, Tisalia grinned.

“My, my, my! Well, I suppose it’d be impossible not to be charmed by my goddess-like body!”

“N-no, that’s not—that wasn’t my intention at all!”

Glenn desperately denied what Tisalia had said, but it was undeniable his gaze had been fixed on her chest. Next to him, Sapphee’s snake eyes glared at him intensely.

“Anyway, that wasn’t what I meant. This is what I wanted you to see.”

She showed off the emblem depicted on her breastplate. Displayed there was a crest Glenn had seen before—two spears crisscrossing each other. It was the same crest that had been displayed on the centaur carriage that brought Glenn and Sapphee to the arena moments earlier.

“Oh, I see… In that case, Miss Tisalia is— ”

“That’s right! Heiress to the sole transportation company in the city! I am the one and only daughter representing Scythia Transportation—the company that can bring anything anywhere, with our motto From Parcels to People! I’ll be expecting the respect that befits my status! Ha ha ha ha!”

She gave a loud boisterous laugh, holding her hand up to her mouth. The gesture suited her well.

Glenn now understood. When the carriage driver had mentioned a “princess,” he had been talking about her.

The Scythias were a prestigious centaur family. During the war, they were said to be veteran warriors active on the battlefield. These days, they operated a transportation business in Lindworm, which included a wide variety of operations—from simple home delivery to caravans capable of transporting large amounts of goods and people. And she was the only daughter of this giant transportation company.

Glenn now realized why she was referred to as a “princess.” Even if the Scythias weren’t a royal family, to the centaurs of Lindworm, Tisalia was undoubtedly worthy of the title. Indeed, thrusting her voluptuous chest out and laughing boisterously, she had the air of someone who forced others to obey her. That she had become a kind of a manager at the arena was most likely due to this personality of hers.

“Well, now—our greetings have dragged on a little, but I’ll ask that you begin the health examinations shortly. Kay! Lorna!”

“Yes, my lady!”

“We’re here, my lady.”

At Tisalia’s call, two female centaurs attended to her on either side.

While theirs weren’t as high quality as Tisalia’s, the two of them shared the same armor and emblem on their chest. Presumably, they were handmaids-cum-bodyguards who served Tisalia. Their presence at the arena meant they were most likely fighters, as well.

“Please line them up like always. Now, Doctor, you’ll be here.”

“O-okay.”

The disorderly atmosphere that had been there since Glenn and Sapphee arrived evaporated.

Under the directions of Kay and Lorna, the disorganized mass of fighters came together in a line as if they were all trained soldiers.

“There have been many medical check-ups here, so we’ve become quite used to it.” Tisalia said this to Glenn as if it were nothing, all while facing the fifty other fighters and shouting out quick orders.

“I have no doubts about your skills, Doctor,” she went on. “After all, Miss Cthulhy was the one who suggested you for the job. I’m counting on you to make sure everyone will be fit and sound for their matches.”

“…I don’t think I’ll compare to Dr. Cthulhy, but I will try my best,” he said.

Tisalia gave another boisterous guffaw before joining the line, her hooves sounding as she moved. Her arms and legs were well-balanced, and seemed like the limbs of a true warrior. She had good posture, perhaps due to her properly trained upper body. Covered in a coat of black hair, her lower body had four legs that anyone who was knowledgeable about horses would find enchanting.

“Who’d have thought someone like that would be a fighter here, huh?” he said.

“Agreed. I was expecting nothing but violent ruffians, myself.” There wasn’t any restraint in Sapphee’s choice of words.

When Glenn thought about it, however, the way the area was now was—perhaps—the natural way of things. It was, after all, no longer a place where people killed one another, but rather, one where fighters competed using their skills in combat, performing for cheers from the audience. The beauty of their appearance and the elegance of their technique in the ring were both something that the female fighters had to be aware of.

“Well, then—let’s get to work, Dr. Glenn. And please work properly, without letting yourself become entranced by someone’s breasts.”

“I-I wasn’t entranced or anything, seriously,” Glenn feebly protested.

Any further objections of his were silenced easily by the snake’s glare.

 

***

 

The medical check-up was completed without issue.

Everything was thanks to the three centaurs: Tisalia in her role as a peacekeeper, and her two handmaidens, Kay and Lorna. Forming a line, all of the fighters accepted Glenn’s examination with indifference, and because of it, Glenn’s job also proceeded quite smoothly.

There were many centaurs among the fighters, so Glenn assumed that in some form or another many of them were connected with Scythia Transportation, and that was one reason Tisalia was able to lead the group as she did.

But on the other hand, during the examinations…

“Doctor, I know you are quite young, but I wonder if you are fond of horsewomen such as myself?”

These words from Tisalia kicked off quite a scene.

“B-by ‘fond of,’ what do you mean?” he asked.

“Well, I am the heir to the Scythia Transportation name. Eventually, I will lead the centaurs of Lindworm and shoulder the burden of our company’s future. With that being the case, first I will have to marry and have children. My parents are enthusiastic about my interviews with potential partners, but none of the men I’ve been introduced to have been a good match.”

Glenn had her take off her armor and was holding a stethoscope to her chest. Although it was over her light underclothing, he was still touching her voluptuous breast—but perhaps because it was for a medical examination, Tisalia didn’t seem to mind.

Meanwhile, her small talk continued without end.

“I want an excellent person of talent. While we Scythias are a famous warrior clan, I’m not interested in a strong and sturdy partner. I’m, well… I’m somewhat more inept when it comes to matters of education and culture. I’m wondering if there isn’t someone who could make up for that deficiency of mine.”

From the sound of it, it seemed studying was her weak point. Glenn desperately pushed away the thought that floated into his mind. While her lower body was that of a horse, thinking that her brain was similarly equine was extremely rude.

“That’s right. Someone like, say… someone who is so brilliant they’ve been diagnosing and treating monsters from a young age, perhaps.”

Tisalia gave a sidelong glance at Glenn.

It appeared that within less than a day of knowing each other, he had been included among her marriage interview prospects. If anything, Glenn was more curious about the men who didn’t suit her fancy.

“Excuse me?”

“Aaah!”

A sudden cry rang out.

The reason was obvious: a tail had wrapped around her lower body. Even Glenn’s eyes widened at the sudden affront. The culprit hardly needed to be said. There was only one person present who possessed white snake scales.

It was Sapphee.

“Miss Tasilia. The measurements around your waist have increased quite a bit compared to last month. Forgive me for saying this, but I recommend that you lose some weight.”

“We were having a very important conversation! More importantly, can you not measure me with your snake tail?! This is what you need to measure! This is where a centaur’s waist is!”

Although she was angry, Tisalia was true to her words and showed off her waist on her upper body. Of course, since centaurs had two stomach areas on their bodies, Sapphee hadn’t technically been wrong in her measurements.

“Are you telling me as a nurse you don’t even know that much?!”

“I’m not a nurse. I’m a doctor.”

“It doesn’t make a difference!” As she shouted, Tisalia tore off her clothes, exposing the exact boundary between her horse lower body and her human upper body. Glenn didn’t know where his eyes should be with her exposing her own stomach with no reservations.

“Now take a look, snake woman! Look at this gorgeous waist line! I dare you to say it’s grown an inch!”

It was true that, possibly thanks to her habitual training and discipline, Tisalia’s abdomen was quite firm and tight. Combined with her striking breasts, Glenn thought the curves of her body were all the more entrancing.

“Dr. Glenn is still only a novice doctor. It’s thirty years too early for there to be talk about any sort of marriage interviews.”

“I’ll be an old man at that point,” Glenn protested.

“The sooner one marries a horse the better!”

“I’m not sure about that one, either,” he said.

Aside from this exchange during Tisalia’s examination, the check-ups finished smoothly. Glenn and Sapphee finished cleaning up their equipment and filling out the necessary documents before the sun went down. Without coming upon anything that suggested serious illness, it was safe for them to say that generally all of the fighters were in good health. On the other hand, there were a number of them who had injuries currently being treated—was another distinct characteristic of the fighters in the arena.

There were quite a few of them that Glenn wanted to forbid from participating in any matches for a while. But when he considered that these battles were their livelihood, he couldn’t bring himself to tell them not to fight over some minor injuries.

For example, there was a centaur that had twisted his right front leg, but he was still going to fight in a match the next day. In the end, Glenn had decided on treating it with a simple knee brace. The centaur’s injury itself wasn’t anything major, but there was plenty of reason to worry that, with the arena being the place it was, it could lead to other, more serious injuries in the centaur’s future matches.

Dr. Cthulhy had been in charge of the medical examinations up until a month prior. Judging by the records she kept, she didn’t interfere in the lives of the fighters too much with her check-ups. She gave injuries the minimum amount of treatment they required, and there were only a few examples where she told the patient to cancel his fights. All of them were instances when the patient was clearly suffering a serious injury or illness.

“I guess I should follow her example…”

On top of being there on Dr. Cthulhy’s behalf, Glenn also thought this was the logical course of action.

“Dr. Glenn, I’ve finished with the cleanup,” Sapphee said, having been asked by Glenn to gather up the various documents. Despite his worrying, Glenn had also just finished gathering their things together to return to the clinic.

“Okay, thank you… I’d like to properly thank Miss Tisalia and say goodbye…”

However, the princess of the Scythia family had said she had some business to attend to and had entered the arena—and as expected, Glenn didn’t have the courage to follow into the colossal structure after her.

The fighters that remained at the training grounds were sparse. Having gathered together for the examination, it seemed they now had their own matches to arrange and train for, and those who had finished the check-up left the training grounds.

“Well, if she’s not here, then there’s nothing you can do about it. We’ve finished all of our work, so you can just tell someone and be done with it.” Sapphee’s words were sharp. Glenn was certain that her previous quarreling with Tisalia, including the incident involving her marriage interviews, were still having a lingering effect on her mood.

However, Glenn agreed with what she said. All he needed to do was have someone pass on a message to Tisalia. He just needed to find someone who was close to her, like the two attendants she had at her side earlier, but—

“Excuse me.”

Just as he thought this, they appeared to greet him.

“Doctor.”

“Do you have a minute?”

It was the two centaurs, Kay and Lorna.

“Oh, yes. Thank you for your help today. We were able to finish the examinations smoothly because of your assistance.”

“Thank you for your work, Doctor”

“Our mistress was also quite pleased. Gratitude.”

They bowed their heads politely. As to be expected from the handmaidens of Tisalia Scythia, the lone heiress to a commercial empire, they seemed to have a certain dignity unlike that of an average attendant’s.

Their evenly cut hair and chestnut coats looked very similar. Glenn couldn’t figure out which one was Kay and which one was Lorna. They didn’t seem to be sisters, but it felt like they were intentionally copying each other’s aura.

Appropriate for the arena, they were both now dressed in light armor, but without a doubt a maid’s apron outfit would suit the both of them just as well.

“So… Doctor.”

“We don’t mean to be rude, but we have something do discuss with you.”

“Discuss…?” Glenn said.

Kay and Lorna nodded in agreement.

“What were the results of Mistress’s exam?”

“Is she not suffering from some sort of illness?”

“Illness…?” he echoed.

In his diagnostic opinion, there had been nothing to suggest any illness in Tisalia’s check-up. She didn’t seem to be suffering from any injures, and there were no signs of dormant illness, either. Of course, Glenn was still inexperienced, so it wasn’t entirely impossible that he might have overlooked something, but—

“Tisalia Scythia is in exceedingly good health.” It was Sapphee who spoke. “There are no significant changes in her body weight, just as she said herself. I believe it is because she has a healthy lifestyle, habitually training her body and getting exercise. At the very least, looking at it from our position, there is nothing in the slightest that would suggest to us that she was ill.”

“Oh…”

“I see…”

Kay and Lorna were visibly disappointed by Sapphee’s words. Looking down, their gazes swayed back and forth, apprehensively.

What Sapphee had said was true—there were no findings to suggest that Tisalia was ill. However, Kay and Lorna’s expressions were something that Glenn had witnessed many different times before. It was the uncertain, anxious look a patient or a patient’s family gave when their loved one suffered from a grave illness.

“Is there perhaps something that you are worried about?” Glenn said to the two attendants, thinking that they would stay silent otherwise. “Please tell me anything. Even if she is in good health…if she or those close to her are worried that she might in fact be sick, then we can’t say that she is truly healthy.” He paused, then said, “Miss Kay, Miss Lorna, Miss Tisalia is an important person to both of you, correct?”

“Y-yes.”

“Of course.”

“In that case, please tell me everything. If, afterwards, I can once again assure you as a doctor that she isn’t sick, then I’m sure that will give both of you peace of mind.”

Kay and Lorna looked at each other.

At the same time, Glenn thought back to Tisalia, and the fact that her attendants loved her so much. He had only known her for less than a day, but he thought she truly was someone who stood a head above those around her—a real leader to others.

After both nodding their heads, Tisalia’s two attendants began to talk.

“Now then, let us tell you…”

“Actually, the Mistress has—”

 

***

 

The moon was visible.

The town of Lindworm was nestled at the foot of the Vivre Mountains, and from their heights flowed a constant cold wind, so that even if the day was warm, the temperature at night would drop surprisingly low. But despite the chilly evenings, the view of the moon among the steep peaks of the Vivre Mountains was famous. The beauty of the clear moonlight in the cold air made for one of the continent’s most picturesque locations.

They say that nothing can compare to the yellow brilliance of the harvest moon in the town of the dragon. The mountains were always visible from Lindworm, and the sparkle of the moon was a sight that anyone in the town could enjoy.

“I see you’re still awake,” Sapphee said to Glenn as he stared out at the moon from the clinic.

“Sapphee… You can head off to bed. It’s already pretty late, after all.”

“That’s what I should be telling you. I thought perhaps you might be here and decided to check… What are you doing? Staying up like this is bad for your health.”

Sapphee and Glenn each had their own bedrooms adjoined to the clinic, but they were sparsely furnished, so the two of them rarely returned to their own quarters. Whether they still had work to finish or simply something on their minds, they would often stare out at the moon from the clinic’s window.

It seemed that Sapphee had guessed what was on Glenn’s mind. She could only do this, he supposed, because of their long friendship together.

Indeed—the two of them were childhood friends.

Before Saphentite and Glenn became pupils at the academy, they had already been acquainted with one another. In fact, when they were very young children, the two of them had lived under the same roof together.

Later, when they were reunited at the academy, Glenn remembered how shocked he was at how much Sapphee had changed. The sickly young girl he remembered had developed into an intelligent and talented woman.

“Even since this afternoon, it’s been on my mind.”

“Miss Tisalia, right?

“Yeah. Kay and Lorna really seemed to be worried. I’ve been wondering if there isn’t something we could do.”

“Something we can do?”

Our Mistress can’t win a single match.

Hearing these words from Tisalia’s two handmaidens naturally brought a complicated look to Glenn’s face. After all, Tisalia hadn’t shown a single crack in her unwavering confidence.

It was hard to believe that the woman he’d seen laughing with spirits higher than any of the other fighters could actually be in the midst of a slump. And yet, according to what Kay and Lorna told Glenn, for the past few months her win rate had been dropping noticeably.

Tisalia wasn’t the kind of fighter to ever skip out on her daily training. And being born into a warrior family meant that her martial arts talents were obvious to anyone who saw her fight. To Kay and Lorna, it seemed that she had to be suffering from some kind of serious illness—why else would someone like her continue to lose over and over again?

“If you were to ask me,” Sapphee said, “a drop in wins is something that could happen to anyone. No fighter is invincible. Being in a slump isn’t all that rare, right? So long as it isn’t being caused by some illness.”

“If that’s all there is to it, then it’s fine,” Glenn agreed.

If it was a normal slump, then it was nothing he needed to be concerned about. But if by chance he was overlooking some ailment of hers… That possibility was extremely frightening to him. If he overlooked some sort of illness dormant inside of her despite these signs presented to him—well, depending on the kind of disease, Tisalia’s life could be in danger.

Protecting the lives of others was Glenn’s duty as a doctor.

“But the possibility that that’s not the case is what’s scary,” Glenn said as he looked up at the moon.

He expected Sapphee to call him a worrywart, but all she did was let out a sigh. She might have been fed up with him, he thought, and her exasperation was inevitable, but—

“Would you like to have a drink, Doctor?”

“Huh…? By drink, do you mean liquor?”

“Yes,” Sapphee said. “If you don’t have any preference, I’ll prepare a medicinal drink from liqueur and herbs. It’s weak, so it won’t affect you tomorrow, and I think it’ll help you clear your head.”

Glenn wasn’t very good with alcohol. However, he thought that it might be slightly more effective at clearing his mind than staring vacantly up at the moon. His decision made, Glenn asked Sapphee for a glass.

“In that case, please hold on just a moment,” Sapphee said and left the room.

Glenn thought to himself as he waited. Relying on the moonlight, he strained his eyes as he looked at the documents in front of him. Paper was still a valuable commodity, but in the clinic it was a necessity. These were the medical files he had been given by Dr. Cthulhy. They contained all the findings from Tisalia’s scheduled check-ups through the previous month.

In short, her condition was normal. No symptoms of any illness or other ailment had been found in Tisalia—and if that had been Cthulhy’s diagnosis, then Glenn could scarcely think it was wrong. After all, it was congruous with his diagnosis as well. Tisalia was not sick.

In addition, there was no record of any serious prior illness or injury. Without any other special records in her file, it was safe to say that she was both healthy now and had been in the past.

But on the other hand…

Health was something that would be affected even by something seemingly trivial. The two who served Tisalia, Kay and Lorna, were certainly the ones who would know if she was in a slump. It was logical for Glenn to take them at their word.

Perhaps it’s that there is a primary factor even a doctor might overlook, he pondered. Maybe that’s what’s causing Tisalia to sink into poor health? Moreover, maybe the fact that nothing is written down in the documents simply means that her ailment originally wasn’t worth writing down in the first place?

“Something not recorded… Hm?”

“Here you go.”

Glenn thought he’d glimpsed some sort of light—when he looked up, there was an outstretched hand holding a transparent red glass. It was a high-quality type of glass made in Lindworm. It was filled with ice and liquid.

“S-Sapphee…You used ice?! That’s for treating patients’ fevers!”

“I only used a little—it’s fine. Besides, we can gather more from the Vivre Mountains.”

“Well, yeah, sure! But that’s a two-day round trip to the summit!”

In the clinic, the ice blocks they scraped from the mountain summits were kept in an ice room in the basement for safekeeping. Of course, they were lent ice from the ice vendor for their treatments, but it was to be used only when necessary, not for their everyday life, and certainly not for a drink.

“The herb liqueur and the chill of the ice will help you work out your thoughts. It’s only a little, Dr. Glenn. Please don’t be so strict about it.”

“But…”

“Drink.”

Smiling—or rather, looking sidelong at Glenn, Sapphee even managed to look slightly alluring. Although she seemed to be teasing him a little, the consideration she had for him was clear. He couldn’t refuse her kindness, so he gulped down the drink.

A fresh, mint-like flavor sank down his throat. It barely tasted of alcohol, and the refreshing sweetness made Glenn feel like his brain had been revitalized with a dose of nutrients.

“It’s good,” he said. “Thanks.”

“Did any good ideas come to mind?”

“I guess. Yeah. Tisalia probably isn’t sick, but there still might be something wro—”

“Ngh, gulp, glug!” Glenn’s thought was interrupted by the loud sound of chugging.

“Huh, wait a sec!” he cried, as Sapphee drank her own tall glass of alcohol. He hadn’t noticed she even had one, as it was her tail holding the glass, rather than her hands. A loud gulping noise rose from her throat as she skillfully lifted the smooth glass.

“Hold on—what are you drinking? Jeez, it reeks of alcohol! This is Firedragon Whiskey. Why are you drinking something so strong?!”

“Kay and Lorna gave it to us. As a thank you for performing the check-up.”

Glenn thought it was extremely intemperate to give alcohol to a doctor in thanks for a check-up. Perhaps it was some sort of centaur custom.

Lindworm’s famed Firedragon Whiskey—a distilled liquor said to be strong enough to make one breathe fire. Drinking something like that was sure make one tipsy in an instant.

Sure enough, with just one gulp Sapphee’s cheeks had turned red. Her smile began to change, growing soft, as if relaxing.

“Don’t worry about me,” she said. “Did you figure out the cause of Miss Tisalia’s current condition?”

“I can’t really say it’s anything obvious. But Dr. Cthulhy didn’t have anything written in any of her files. That’s why I think it’s not any kind of sickness.”

“In that case—”

“But even if it isn’t an illness,” Glenn went one, “there comes a time for a doctor to act.”

Tilting her head to the side, Sapphee didn’t seem to understand his line of reasoning. Her snake tail set down the glass it was holding and started coiling itself around Glenn’s arms. Sapphee was a woman who liked both drinking and making others drink, and this was always how she acted when she was inebriated. She quite literally wrapped others up in her drunkenness.

Coiling her serpentine lower-half around others was Sapphee’s bad habit.

“There’s a place I need to go tomorrow,” Glenn said. “If possible, I’d like to go see Tisalia at the arena. Will you come with me, Saphentite?

“Honestly,” she said. “Bringing me along as you go off to see another woman? What are you thinking?”

“I’m pretty sure I’m the one who wants to ask that question, but…” He trailed off as Sapphee coiled herself further around him.

The end of her snake tail was loosely wrapped around his right arm. It wasn’t enough to prevent him from drinking, but the feeling of her snake belly on his skin was pleasantly cool. Her tail continued to wrap around his neck. With gradually strengthening force, it began squeezing Glenn’s torso gently.

Since it was normally coiled or folded up, the true length of Sapphee’s body often went unnoticed—but in truth, it had a considerable amount of length to it. Coiling herself around a human’s entire body was easy.

Using her alcohol-aided strength, she didn’t hesitate to do things she wouldn’t normally do.

“I refuse,” she said. “After all, you’ll just get recruited into a marriage interview again.”

“Even still—” he protested.

“Maybe you’ve gotten a little full of yourself after that horsewoman princess made eyes at you? You’re quite the unprincipled man, aren’t you, Doctor? To make things worse, I was even warned by Cthutlhy that she wouldn’t forgive me if I ever laid a hand on you!”

The grip of her coils rapidly grew more intense. The strength she used to squeeze Glenn’s body grew stronger with her complaints. It was said that jealousy was characteristic of lamia, but Sapphee was being slightly more harsh than usual. Glenn was sure without a doubt that the strong, distilled liquor she had imbibed was at fault.

“I won’t allow any more rivals!” she said.

“What are you talking about, Saphentite…?” Glenn retorted. “You know we’re just going to treat her, right? It has nothing to do with any kind of marriage interviews.”

“Hmph! I can’t trust you!”

Glenn jolted as Sapphee tightened her grip, almost spilling the drink that she had gone to the trouble of fixing for him.

Even he understood that Saphee wrapping him up in her drunken stupor was her way of acting selfish and spoiled. No matter how long they had been together, secrets—or things unable to be said—built up to the breaking point. Even if their relationship was normally characterized by her lecturing Glenn, there were still things that she couldn’t let off steam about.

Perhaps it was because of the nature of that relationship that she couldn’t relax. Sapphee had it hard, too, after all. As an assistant, all of the miscellaneous matters around the clinic were left up to her. Glenn understood the burden that he was putting on her. And now, to find a solution to Tisalia’s slump, he was trying to take on a job they hadn’t actually needed to be involved with.

“Hey, Sapphee?”

“Yes, Doctor?”

However. Simply by changing the way he referred to her, Sapphee broke into an easy smile. Glenn wondered if calling her by her nickname had really made her that happy. He also wondered whether she was acting drunk just to get Glenn to call her by her nickname—or if it was all thanks to her drunkenness.

“I’d like help,” he said. “Will you assist me tomorrow?”

“But of course. I would follow you anywhere.” Her expression changed effortlessly, a reflection of her calculating personality. She released Glenn from her coils. Drinking like she just had wasn’t very good for her health and Sapphee herself seemed to understand this. In truth, she hadn’t had any alcohol at all recently, but had apparently wanted to cut loose today.

All in all, she was a charming assistant. That said, the clinic had grown with Cthulhy’s support. If she had known her two students were whispering sweet nothings to one another in the clinic, she would have flown into a tempestuous rage. Thus, Glenn couldn’t exactly say that having Sapphee coil around him was in any way desirable.

The clinic was, after all, a sacred place of medical care and treatment.

“Take it easy, okay…?” Glenn said, wondering if his words of warning had properly reached her.

At his frank advice, Sapphee gave a profound smile. Whatever she was thinking was inscrutable—even to someone who had been with her as long as he had.

Glenn wasn’t sure how to respond to her expression, so instead, he finished off the rest of the liqueur in his glass. He felt like the herbal fragrance had cleared his head a little bit.

 

***

 

Tisalia didn’t win the next day, either.

The sole daughter of the famous Scythia centaur family bit her lip, but only because the training grounds were empty.

She was the princess of a proud clan. Even among the centaurs—who were generally considered to be a tribe of pure, equestrian warriors—the Scythias were particularly outstanding martial artists. They had once made a living charging through battlefield after battlefield as mercenaries, under no one’s thumb, receiving enormous sums of money in exchange for their services. The war had shunted them across numerous lands, and—depending on the period in question—had pitted close relatives against each other.

Tisalia’s grandfather and great-grandfather had both died on the battlefield. Even her grandmother was fierce, and—although she was a woman—had charged across the battlefield clad in armor and helm.

It went without saying that in the clan’s long history, many of its members had died on the fields of battle. For the members of the Scythia clan, however, this was not a tragedy. Falling to the arrows, swords, and spears of the battlefield wasn’t disgraceful. For the Scythia, battling with one’s life on the line, having it come to an end in the midst of a fight, was in fact the ideal way to meet their end. Dying anywhere but the battlefield was a disgrace.

Thus, when the longstanding war between the humans and monsters came to an end ten years past, the Scythia had been forced to make a decision. How would live their lives now? When the war was over, what were those who lived on the battlefield going to do?

As the head of the clan, Tisalia’s father had provided the answer to these difficult questions. He had decided that they would set up a business in the new, still underdeveloped city of Lindworm. Using their talent for transportation, they would circulate goods and services, and thus make their clan’s name known.

As such a change meant throwing away their weapons, there was a large backlash among the clan members. When it was decided they would move to Lindworm, many members of the clan abandoned Tisalia’s father.

Are you telling us to become mere cart-horses?

Where is your long-held pride as a warrior?

Such were just a few of the criticisms her father had faced.

But at the end of it all, her father succeeded. They carried people, pulling carts, and bearing packages on their backs. With their dependability and agility, Scythia Transportation gained the trust of Lindworm. It quickly became a large company without which the city couldn’t survive. Having achieved such renown, no one who dared refer to the Scythia as mere carthorses.

Her father carved out a path for the clan to follow through the time of peace, and showed his brilliant leadership in doing so. Though they were no longer fighting a war, it wasn’t a stretch to describe his accomplishments as the work of a military general in action.

“But…” Tisalia murmured, still chewing her lip in frustration. Her father was successful, which was utterly fine. Indeed, as the only daughter of the head of the clan, she would on day have to lead Scythia Transportation as his successor.

But if she did, what would the Scythia family, proud of their former military fame, do? Having found a way to thrive in the new era of peace, was it really okay for them to abandon their past so easily? Now that a fair wind blew, was their history and past honor no longer necessary?

Absolutely not. Tisalia wanted to cherish their former glory. The Scythias were a clan of martial prowess, and she wanted their name to ring out across all of Lindworm. Moreover, she wanted to expand her family’s business and secure their everlasting prosperity.

Ensuring these things was her duty as the princess of the family. It was why she had become a fighter. Her parents were both busy running the business. Holding a spear in her hand was fitting for someone like her, who needed to acquire more experience and educational refinement.

As such, winning in the arena, rising to the top rank, being inducted into the hall of fame, and having her name eternally etched into the monuments of the arena—all of these things Tisalia Scythia was staunchly aiming for.

“I lost again today,” she said and readied the replica spear she used in the arena.

Alone, she galloped around the training ground. A circular target. The concentrically drawn lines showed where she should aim. Sounding her hooves, she aimed at the target and thrust out her spear.

She couldn’t win.

It was the same as yesterday, and the day before. Her match record seemed to be dropping by the day. She hadn’t won a single match in quite a while. Even though her whole clan and all of her fans in the arena were cheering her on, this awful showing was all she could give them.

Even she had no idea what was wrong with her. One thing she did know was that no one wanted to see her looking depressed about her match records, like she was now. Chewing her lips in frustration and being on the verge of obvious tears was not a look that suited the princess of the Scythia clan.

A princess was someone noble and proud, someone who was burdened with the past and the future of their family. Princesses absolutely never cried, never backed down, and never gave in. That was how Tisalia wanted to be, which was why she was now brandishing her spear alone in the training ground. She didn’t want anyone to see her tears. Given her usual boldness, she didn’t want to show any weakness.

Such was the determination of Tisalia, both a princess and a fighter.

Tck.

The spear tore straight through the target with precision.

The wooden target snapped neatly in two and crumpled to the ground.

But—it was wrong. Something was off. She couldn’t express what it was, but something had been off the instant she brandished her spear. The moment she put her strength into it and reached out her four legs and aimed with her sharpened weapon, a sense of discomfort rose in her body, only to leave just when she seemed close to grasping what it was.

That was how she would lose again. A warrior of Tisalia’s caliber could predict how the match would play out before it even started. In her current condition, she knew it wouldn’t make a difference—not even if she were flawless.

“Why…”

The hand that held her spear trembled.

Kay, Lorna, her parents, and the hard workers of Scythia Transportation all had confidence. She couldn’t let herself get stuck here—not if she wanted to properly pay them back and show that the military might of the Scythia clan was still hale, or make their name resound across the continent. And yet…

“I have to train harder. Much, much harder.”

The target was back in position. Tisalia’s greatest weapon was a spear thrust delivered at top speed. She repeated the exercise over and over again, carefully examining where she was falling short.

Determined, her hooves resounded as she drove them harder against the training ground.

“Hm?” Someone was standing nearby—she could see their shadow.

Strange, Tisalia thought.

There shouldn’t have been anyone at the training ground, not at the moment. Tisalia had chosen this time to come and train hard in secret. Why then was there someone standing there, as though they had been waiting for her? Who was it?

“…Dr. Glenn?”

It was the young doctor that had been in charge of Tisalia’s check-up the day before.

There, with a gentle smile upon his face, stood Glenn Litbeit.

 

***

 

Glenn felt guilty for interfering with Tisalia’s secret, special training.

Tisalia stared at the two attendants next to him with a look of surprise. “Kay! Lorna! How dare you!”

“Our apologies—”

“—Mistress.”

The two attendants meekly bowed their heads to Tisalia. She had been keeping her training a secret, but naturally her two attending handmaidens were fully aware of the situation. They couldn’t interfere at all with her private efforts, and had been silent about it until they had informed Glenn.

“Please don’t scold them,” he said.

“…Dr. Glenn.”

Kay and Lorna had accommodated Glenn’s unexpected request to see Tisalia. Naturally, the two understood Tisalia’s feelings about her training and her losses. However, they must have felt that Glenn’s treatment was more important, as neither of them had shown any hesitation in leading him back to the training grounds.

“Well, now… I suppose I’ve been found out, haven’t I?”

“We are your attendants.”

“We are aware of how you feel, Mistress.”

“I am truly blessed to have such excellent attendants… Now then Doctor, what is your business here today? Did something come up in your examination yesterday?”

There wasn’t any sense of despair in Tisalia’s eyes, but Glenn quickly recognized that she was forcing herself to look this way. Concealing her emotions, she only showed others what she wanted them to see. Tisalia was haughty and overbearing, yes, but she was also someone who could control herself.

“No, you’re healthy. Thanks, I’m sure, to your normal, everyday lifestyle.”

“Well, then.”

He went on. “But the reason you aren’t winning your matches is clear. I’ve come today to inform you of that reason, and if necessary deal with the problem.”

“You told him everything, didn’t you? Kay? Lorna?” Tisalia said and sighed. The two attendants apologized in unison, though it didn’t seem that she was looking to press the issue any further.

“Now then, Doctor,” she said. “What is the cause of my slump?”

“Right. The cause is your hooves.”

“H-hooves…?”

Glenn picked a sword, which had be resting at his feet. It was no normal sword, however, but a colossal, boorish blade—not at all becoming of a gentleman like Glenn. Its tip was bent at a sharp angle, making it appear more like a sickle than a sword, though it was much too exaggerated to be useful for farming.

“Ah!” Tisalia exclaimed. At the sight of the brusque blade, even she couldn’t help flinching—but that wasn’t all. There was another reason behind Tisalia’s faltering.

“As you know, a centaur’s lower body is quite equine in nature,” Glenn said. “As a species, centaurs themselves have no ties to horses, but it is thought that in order for them to rush over open plains in a fashion similar to horses, they have evolved into a similar form. All of this was taught to me by my teacher.”

“A-and what is that supposed to mean?” Tisalia said.

“It’s simple. Horses have hooves which—much like human nails—grow. For those living on plains and grasslands, the part of the hoof that grows get worn down naturally. But living in the city, where running freely is not usually an option, can cause their hooves to grow too long. On the other hand, race horses sometimes wear down too much of their hooves.”

Glenn continued his detailed explanation, but to be quite honest, his information should have been obvious to a centaur. It should have been apparent that growing out and cutting down one’s hooves would have an effect on one’s movement.

Glenn took a quick glimpse at Tisalia’s hooves. They had clearly grown too long. There was too much extra at the tip of her hoof. Her city life, despite her time as a warrior in the arena, did not provide her with the proper amount of exercise. Walking on the clear and level city streets just wasn’t enough to keep her hooves naturally honed to a healthy length.

“Shoeing prevents this from happening,” Glenn said and took out a horse shoe. The basic idea was that the shoe was made to match the shape of the hoof, to which it was was affixed with nails. This protected the hoof, and maintained a steady gait in the horse. In short, it was an essential tool for domestic horses.

Of course, it was a necessary tool for not only centaurs but for any hoofed monster. In the worst case scenario, the lack of horseshoes could even make going about ones daily life a chore. Living her life in the city without horseshoes must have been a great hardship for her up until now.

“Miss Tisalia, you are in good health,” Glenn said. “There are no major injuries or illness in your past, and there isn’t a single record of any treatment within your documents.”

“Right? That’s exactly right! I’ve always paid close attention to my health!”

“There isn’t any account of being shoed, either,” he added.

“Tch…” She averted her eyes.

She hadn’t been sick, so there hadn’t any mention in her history about not being shoed. A typical centaur had their horseshoes attached by someone familiar with the shoeing process. Glenn wondered why he hadn’t noticed the absence of the record.

If he had compared her files with those of another centaur, he surely would have noticed. For instance, both Kay and Lorna had been fitted with horseshoes. However, because Glenn had been preoccupied with Tisalia’s condition and had only looked at her documents, noticing that she had no records relating to horseshoeing had been difficult.

Glenn readied the sword.

“Now then Miss Tisalia,” he said, “let me put your horseshoes on. With just this small change, your movements during your matches should become noticeably better.”

“N-no, that’s quite all right,” Tisalia said. “There’s no need.”

It was exactly the answer he had expected, which proved Glenn’s suspicions right.

“I’m—I am the princess of the Scythia clan. My body is precious, bestowed upon me by my ancestors. Even if it’s only the tips of my hooves, needlessly damaging them is out of the question!”

“I’m sorry, Miss Tisalia.”

Seeing Tisalia’s pale expression, Glenn could only apologize. Without her knowledge, Kay and Lorna appeared on either side of her and restrained both of her arms. It seemed Tisalia hadn’t noticed their approach until they were already upon her. The two attendants were seasoned fighters themselves, after all.

“Y-you two…” Tisalia said.

“We have already spoken to the two of them about the shoeing today, and received the appropriate payment for our services,” Glenn said. “Miss Kay and Miss Lorna asked us to do this by any means necessary.”

Glenn had asked the two attendants whether her slump could have been because of her lack of horseshoes, and they affirmed his theory. They asked Glenn to shoe her—to fit horseshoes on her hooves—if he could.

He had received their payment for the service and the necessary craftsmen were already ready and waiting behind him. There also, holding a colossal pair of tongs, was Sapphee. Next to her with various instruments at the ready were the craftsmen of Kuklo Workshop, a large establishment that was one of the prides of Lindworm. At first glance, they seemed to be nothing more than a stout group of one-eyed men—cyclopses—but in contrast to their appearance, they were excellent artisans, very skilled at delicate work.

Glenn had gotten the one-eyed craftsmen of Kuklo Workshop to agree in advance, arranging everything so that they could forcibly put the horseshoes on Tisalia after catching her during training.

“Now then, Miss Tisalia, let us get started,” Glenn said.

“E-eeeep…” the princess cried. Her eyes were already tearing up. It was plain to see that she hated being shoed.

Glenn knew very well the type of people who made this face. As a doctor, it was something he was familiar with. In other words, her expression was just like that of a child, trembling in fear at the sight of the tools needed to treat a cavity.

Now that he thought about it, the tools he had gathered before were a bit frightening. They included a giant blade resembling a scythe, a pair of metal tongs, nails, and an iron hammer to nail them in. There were also a number of large iron tools, all crude and frightening looking—enough that it wouldn’t have been strange to mistake them as tools for torture.

“I-I can’t stand pain! It’s scary!” Tisalia said.

“Mistress!”

“Don’t say such childish things!”

Shouting and struggling with tears in her eyes, Tisalia had already succumbed to her fear and lost her pride as a princess. She tried to slip out of Kay and Lorna’s grip. Her extreme, primal fear had been the reason for her avoidance of the process, as well as the reason she didn’t wear any in the first place.

Holding the long sword, Glenn approached Tisalia, emphatically childish in her hatred for the process.

“Don’t worry,” he assured her. “It will be over quickly. If you don’t move, it won’t hurt at all.”

“N… nooooooo!”

The wails of the proud warrior princess echoed across the open training ground.

 

***

 

Tisalia was terrified of pain—but in truth, the work of an experienced farrier meant that the patient felt almost no pain at all. There were a number of monster species that used horseshoes, and even Glenn was generally well versed in the required technique. Indeed, it was a skill that one learned early on when treating monsters.

Even with that being the case, it appeared that the reason Tisalia remained teary-eyed was because she had a good understanding of exactly what getting shoed meant.

“This is such an inappropriate showing… How insolent to come between a woman’s legs!” she said. “I’m no longer fit to be a bride! Mother…Father…please forgive me for being unable to give you an heir!”

“You can still be a bride,” Glenn said. “This is just medical treatment, after all.”

First, he slipped between Tisalia’s legs. Whether she was a centaur or not, there wasn’t any woman that would feel good having a man slip in between her legs in such a manner. Tisalia covered her face as he began.

First, he bent her front left leg. Upon checking the end of her hoof, Glenn found he was right—it had grown long. First, he needed to cut it down to a normal length, and for that purpose he took the scythe-looking blade—known as a sickle hoof knife—and adjusted the shape of the hoof.

When the blade hit the tip of her hoof, Tisalia shivered in surprise.

“Nh…Ah, um, Doctor…That’s a sensitive area, so be gentle. Gentle, okay?”

“Don’t worry, I’m used to doing this.”

“Hnh…”

The feeling was much like cutting one’s nails.

There wasn’t any pain from trimming the ends of the hoof, though deeper inside there was a concentration of nerves. Shaving the hoof too much could hurt the nerves and cause intense pain.

“Anh…Ooh! I-I can’t bear it!”

“D-does it hurt?!” Glenn asked.

“I-it just tickles. Hurry, get it over with quick!”

Tisalia looked toward him with teary eyes. He wasn’t sure if her red cheeks were because she was embarrassed, or of some other reason. Indeed, her reactions started to make Glenn embarrassed as well. He had to remind himself that this was just medical treatment—nothing more than treatment.

Typically, after shaving a hoof down, he adjusted it more minutely. He used not just the hoof-knife but a file as well to neatly adjust the hoof’s tip and also removed anything that had wedged itself in the gap in her hoof.

“Eek!”

Tisalia shuddered again. Both Glenn’s work and the work the cyclops were doing beside him must have come into her view. The one-eyed men were in the middle of making her horseshoes. The process was quite straightforward: first, the curved iron horseshoes were placed into a special furnace and heated up. Then, when that was finished, the shoes were placed on trimmed down hooves and the final minor adjustments were made.

The ends of hooves were like a fingernail. Trimming them with a blade and putting a hot horseshoe on them caused the centaur no injury. Even so, few people would have been able to passively watch a burning hot iron approach their body.

“It’s not going to be hot, right?!” Tisalia asked. “It’s okay, right?!”

“Mistress!”

“Please stay still!”

Tisalia surely must have known that it would be hot, and could not settle her fear. She looked on at the hot iron, face twitching.

Glenn had a good working relationship with the cyclopses of Kuklo Workshop. Whether it was needles, forceps, or scalpels needed for surgery—or things like stethoscopes that required a difficult manufacturing process, the one-eyed artisans of Kuklo Workshop had the ability to arrange anything for him.

For them, horseshoe adjustment was a simple, straight-ahead job.

They pressed the horseshoe against the hoof several times, each time making precise adjustments to the horseshoe’s shape. Once the horseshoe adjustment was finished, at long last it was time for them to fix the shoes to her legs.

“H-hmph, g-give me everything you got! A princess of the Scythia clan has nothing to fear!” Tisalia was gradually beginning to grow desperate.

“Okay. Well, then.”

“Eek!”

Appearing to have mustered all the bravado she could manage, Tisalia’s face again twitched in fright.

Glenn took out the nails and the hammer used to drive them into her hooves. The horseshoes were fitted with six nails. Had an unskilled farrier been at work, there would have been a risk of damaging the nerves and causing injury, but Glenn was past the point in his career where he made those kinds of blunders.

“I-I hate this! I can’t take it anymore!” Tisalia cried out.

“Mistress!”

“That’s completely different from what you just said!”

But it seemed she had reached the limits of her tolerance.

Tisalia began to struggle violently and shamelessly. At her feet, Glenn’s head twitched and jerked at the stomping of her hooves. With her struggling, it was impossible for the shoeing to continue.

Indeed, as an arena fighter Tisalia had doubtless squared off against a multitude of opponents. Although they used wooden weapons, they fought each other as seriously as if they were on the battlefield, and with that came a certain degree of risk. Glenn wondered at the tolerance of someone who was fine in an arena match but couldn’t handle horseshoeing.

“Miss Tisalia, it will be okay!” he said. “It doesn’t hurt!”

“Still! You intend to assault me, do you not?! Nails—how barbaric!”

“They’re needed to affix the horseshoes!” he protested.

“Completely uncivilized! You’re going to do something like that, to me?! Someone! Anyone!”

“Hnk!” said one of her attendants.

“Mistress…! Please…don’t struggle!” the other cried.

Her struggling was so fierce it looked as though she was going to break free of Kay and Lorna.

There was nothing dangerous about the shoeing process itself. However, if the tools and hot iron weren’t handled properly, they were quite capable of causing injury. It was possible that Tisalia’s struggles could possible cause her injury.

Glenn wondered what he could do about the situation and knew there was really nothing left to do but physically restrain her with rope. Just as he came to this conclusion, something whip-like streaked past and twirled itself around Tisalia.

“Hnh?! Augh! Ungh?!”

“You’ve gotten quite noisy, Miss Tisalia.”

It was Sapphee.

Despite the centaur’s large frame, Sapphee’s long tail coiled around her and restrained her with remarkable ease, in the same way she had carefully constricted Glenn’s body the night before.

Large snakes hide in dense forests and sometimes even swallowed horses whole, Glenn thought. It was the sight of Sapphee’s white snake tail coiling across Tisalia’s black hide that caused the association to spring into Glenn’s mind. Restraining patients was an important part of the treatment process—although Glenn had a hard time figuring out why Sapphee had shoved the end of her tail into Tisalia’s mouth.

“Guhg! Hngugh!”

“It seems somewhat likely that my tail will be chewed off,” Sapphee said. “Please work quickly, Dr. Glenn.”

“Ungh! Gugmufngh!”

Tisalia seemed to be saying something, but Glenn couldn’t understand what. Beyond that, the awkwardly movement of her mouth drenched Sapphee’s tail in saliva and even dripped down onto the centaur’s large chest.

If Glenn was being honest, the scene in front of him reminded him of something else entirely—something completely unrelated to any sort of medical treatment.

Tisalia continued to shake her neck in defiance as saliva dribbled down from her mouth. “Mhugnh! Fnugh!”

Thinking that someone might get the wrong idea if they happened to see them, Glenn quickly set about his work.

With the six spots on her hoof fixed with nails, Glenn’s work on the first hoof was completed. So, too, then was the shoeing process for that hoof—protecting the natural growth with a hoof of iron. It was a process little different than the shoeing of a horse, as a centaur’s legs were quite equine in nature. While it was dangerous work, a farrier well-versed in the process could complete the process without causing any pain to the patient. This was all the more true for a doctor of Glenn’s expertise.

“Haa… Haa… H-ha…”

Tisalia caught her breath now that it was all over. It seemed having the end of Sapphee’s tail in her mouth had been considerably hard on her. Her face was still red.

Never one to go easy on someone, Sapphee feigned ignorance at Tisalia’s suffering.

“Haa, haa… N-now, i-is it over?” Tisalia gasped.

“No, the right leg is next.”

“I…can’t do it…anymore… I don’t have…the power to stand.”

“Please put up with it just a little while longer. It’ll all be over soon.”

Tisalia had lost her energy to keep struggling, so Glenn comforted her and continued on with his work.

 

***

 

A few days passed.

Glenn and Sapphee once again were paying a visit to the arena. However, this time it wasn’t for a medical check-up. As a thank-you for the treatment they had given her, Tisalia had personally prepared tickets for them to watch a match in the arena. Their seats were first-class, with the best view of the action.

Glenn wondered exactly how much it would have cost had he purchased these tickets himself. The fact Tisalia had gotten them these priority seats made it clear how much gratitude she felt towards Glenn.

The match was just about to start. The princess was in the middle of the arena, quietly looking down. She seemed to be in the middle of focusing her mind on the match ahead.

“You worked quite hard, Dr. Glenn,” Sapphee said.

“Oh, yeah… That’s right, it was quite tiring.”

Getting horseshoes onto Tisalia as she struggled hadn’t been a normal, straightforward job. It would have been nigh impossible for Glenn to try and shoe Tisalia on his own. Kay, Lorna, Sapphee, and the craftsmen of Kuklo Workshop—it had only been possible thanks to the support they had all given him.

“But that octo-woman… I mean Dr. Cthulhy seems to be growing senile. If she knew Miss Tisalia wasn’t wearing horseshoes, it would have been much easier for her to have put them on herself. With those eight legs of hers, I’m sure she would’ve been able to keep Tisalia’s struggling in check.”

“I imagine Dr. Cthulhy thought that it wasn’t a good idea to interfere too much,” Glenn said.

“…What does that mean?” Sapphee said.

Essentially, Glenn thought that his teacher was rather hands-off. It didn’t seem likely that Cthulhy had missed the cause of Tisalia’s slump during her regular medical check-ups. This meant that, ultimately, Cthulhy had decided that until she was told to do so by the patient or her family, treatment wasn’t necessary. That was how such things played out. The patient had been against it, so Cthulhy hadn’t shoed her.

Still, for Glenn, it would have been easier for him to take over if she had at least written that information down in Tisalia’s file. Either way, it wasn’t good for doctors to meddle and interfere in everything. Considering his teacher’s personality, this seemed likely to be her reasoning. To her, there was no need to treat a patient who didn’t want to be treated themselves, and Glenn felt there was probably some truth to that.

In the match area, Tisalia confronted her opponent. She wasn’t in the light dress she wore at the training ground. Instead, she had donned a helmet and more armor around her chest. This was Tisalia’s armor, what her natural form looked like. Glenn couldn’t see her face, but he felt her dignified air reaching up to his seat through her helmet.

He continued speaking. “After all, if a fighter gets sick or injured, then they can’t appear in any matches—right? That obviously wouldn’t be good for them, so I think Dr. Cthulhy only gave them the very minimum advice necessary.”

“Yes, but this situation is different. Miss Tisalia was actually troubled by her losing streak… And there’s the risk that not putting horseshoes on her could have lead to an even bigger injury down the line.”

The match had started. Tisalia’s opponent was a lizardman—a type of monster that, as the name implied, looked like a cross between a lizard and a man. His movements were swift and nimble. However, free to use her lower equine body, Tisalia beat her hooves across the ground, causing a crisp, clear, musical tone to rise as she charged.

Hearing that sound, Glenn knew that the horseshoes he had put on Tisalia had truly come to fit her well.

“That’s true, we certainly don’t want any more injuries,” Glenn agreed.

“In that case…”

“It’d be fine if we became the nagging type of doctor, right?” he said. “We don’t have to imitate everything Dr. Cthulhy does… We can do things our own way.” Yes, their own way—in the same fashion that they had handled Tisalia’s treatment.

While Tisalia’s own wishes were important, they also had to properly account for the feelings of Kay and Lorna, who were worried about her. It was probably necessary for Glenn and Sapphee to be discerning like Cthulhy was, but even so, he believed he could attain a better balance by being more hands-on.

The crowd roared. Charging with a flash of her spear, Tisalia dealt a sharp blow to the lizardman. Her opponent fell to his knees. He tried to prop himself up with his fake sword, but the blow—which had caught the center of his body—was serious, and he seemed unable to quickly return to his feet.

The match was settled. There was no trace of the princess horsewoman worrying about poor performance. Standing there was a warrior of the Scythia clan, eminent in both name and deed.

Even Glenn’s cold assistant Sapphee was smiling as she looked at Tisalia and said, ““It seems she’s already back to form.”

Glenn was sure that, in her own way, Sapphee had been worried about Tisalia. There was no doubt that they did not get along well with one another, but despite that, Glenn understood Sapphee’s form of kindness—a kindness that he thought made her suited to being a doctor.

With her match over, Tisalia took off her helmet. Wiping the sweat from her brow, she locked eyes with Glenn. He and Sapphee were in the highest seats in the arena. Being able to clearly see the action below meant the fighters could see them clearly, as well. Meeting Glenn’s gaze, Tisalia waved her hand at him, a big smile splayed across her face.

Her face was slightly red, perhaps from the elation of winning her match. She had such an appealing charm, holding her helmet under her arm and skipping up and down the arena as she was, that Glenn could see why she had so many fans among the crowd.

He gave a slight wave back to her.

“Doctor,” she said.

Raising both her hands, Tisalia didn’t stop endearing herself to the crowd. Even while twitching the ears on the top of her head, she was expressing herself with her entire body.

A snake’s tail wound its way around Glenn’s hand and waved back at the elated Tisalia. The coiling snake scales were pleasantly cool to the touch.

“Surely, you don’t have any actual plans to hold a marriage interview with Miss Tisalia, right?” Sapphee asked.

“I don’t, don’t worry…” Glenn said.

“I wonder…”

Looking at Sapphee’s red eyes, it was she clear that she was pouting. Glenn knew that things were going to be rough until they returned to the clinic, and that Sapphee’s bad mood could certainly do with being improved.

Tisalia was still waving her hand. Her face was the smiling, grateful one of a centaur who had finally been able to regain her honor. However, because Glenn obviously didn’t know just how Tisalia had felt before, he didn’t quite understand why she seemed to be thanking him so much.

Her freshly shoed hooves sounded on the dry earth each time she jumped up, and loudly echoed through the arena.

A horseshoe was said to be a sign of good luck.

Triumphing over her dislike of horseshoes, Tisalia Scythia could now boldly face any type of arena match or hardship and step firmly down the path of prosperity—though that was all still a long way off for her, of course.