Case 04: The Lamia with an Incurable Disease

CASE 04:
The Lamia with an Incurable Disease

 

Glenn Litbeit was born to a merchant family at the eastern edge of the human territory.

Glenn’s father was an executive of the Eastern Trade Alliance and was a pure, dyed-in-the-wool tradesman, who also ran his own company. The Trade Alliance held and controlled trade routes that went through various regions across the human territory. Controlling everything from land caravans to merchant vessels, they could be counted on to deliver good products to the places that wanted them.

The generation-spanning merchant routes that Glenn’s ancestors and the other Trade Alliance executives had established passed through all of the major cities in human territory. When Glenn was born, his father was in a predicament. He had been entrusted with establishing a new prospective trade route by the Alliance, but for him it was a heavy burden, as most of the trade routes that needed to be developed had already been established.

There was the possibility of developing routes to isolated and far-away regions, but even if he invested and developed such routes, he suspected that the profits yielded would not merit the investment. At any rate, there was no way the Alliance executives would give him money for something that would not turn a profit.

A little risk wasn’t a problem, however. Glenn’s father searched for a trade route that was certain to make back the initial investment and which could bring in profits, as well. Eventually, his search fell upon a certain domain.

It was the monsters’ territory.

Glenn’s father’s answer was foreign trade with the monsters who, at the time, were still at war with mankind. Nonetheless, his father’s plan was to pass through the Vivre Mountains and open up a trade route into enemy-controlled territory.

Of course, it was dangerous to do this without any proper plans or idea on how to move forward. Nonetheless, Glenn’s father persuaded the executives of the Eastern Trading Alliance, and they decided behind closed doors to boldly construct a foreign trade route—the Alliance’s biggest undertaking. At that point, the war had become a mere formality, and no one had any serious intentions of fighting the monsters. If the trade route was constructed and turned profits for both sides, there was the possibility it might even help end the war.

As for Glenn’s father, it was unclear whether he was dreaming of an end to the war—he was a taciturn man who never said much. On the other hand, Glenn’s mother firmly believed that the reason her husband wanted to develop a trade route with the enemy country wasn’t simply for profit; she believed it was driven by his aspiration to bring about an end to the war.

On the other side of the conflict, in monster territory, there were merchants thinking in a similar fashion. They were pharmaceutical salesmen: the snakes of the lamia, who manufactured and sold drugs and medicine. Since they traditionally excelled at manufacturing medicine, they would make it and then made their sales by traveling to wherever medicine was needed. They were highly praised merchants among monsterkind.

Glenn’s father secretly got in touch with the Neikes lamia family and prepared the trade route construction.

It was a dangerous gamble. While casualties at the time were fewer in number compared to the height of the fighting, there were still weapons dealers and mercenaries that reaped profit from the war’s protraction. If, by any chance, Glenn’s father’s connection to a monster merchant was discovered, he would likely be convicted as a spy.

And Glenn’s father wasn’t the only one in danger—the entire Eastern Trading Alliance bore the risk.

The Neikes family was in a similar situation. If they were discovered to be in secret negotiations with the humans, they would be subject to reproach from their fellow monsters, and might even be attacked.

Their biggest fear was of information leaking out. If information spilled out before the trade route was established, everything would be for naught. Conversely, if they could finish establishing the trade route, then it could be a big step toward ending the war—and if the war itself ended, then they wouldn’t be traitors or anything of the sort.

For that reason, Glenn and the head of the Neikes family needed to have a strict arrangement to manage the spread of information. So they come up with a hostage proposal.

First, the head of the Neikes family would send their only daughter, Saphentite Neikes, and then later, Glenn’s father would send his oldest son, Glenn Litbeit, to live in the lamia household. By exchanging hostages, the families would watch over one another, making certain neither betrayed the other.

At first, Saphentite lived in the Litbeit household under strict secrecy. Glenn was six years old at the time, Saphentite was eight. They lived together for close to a year. Saphentite was the ideal hostage. A scandal would surely have been stake if it were discovered that a monster was there in human territory, so Sapphee lived under virtual house arrest. However, because of her albinism, she wasn’t able to walk outside during the day, anyway, which made the situation rather convenient.

Living in the Litbeit household were both Glenn and his older sister, who was close to Sapphee’s age, which helped Sapphee quickly adjust to her new life. By reading the valuable books in the Litbeit house together, Sapphee and Glenn rapidly deepened their relationship. Glenn even learned the language of the monsters from Sapphee, simple as it was.

Of course, since it was a hostage exchange, it had originally been planned that Glenn would be moved to the monster territory. However, that didn’t happen.

Why was this?

Because the construction of the trade route through the Vivre Mountains moved forward smoothly—more smoothly than had been anticipated.

Glenn’s father and the head of the Neikes family, having been ready for all of the difficulties they had predicted, rapidly developed the route and began trading goods with one another. The valuable goods produced by the monsters—in particular the Neikes branded medicine, glassware made by the mermaids, and the special textiles of the arachne—could all be sold at a high price.

The Eastern Trade Alliance waited for its opportunity and made it known far and wide that they had been successful in trading with the monsters.

Most of the public were overjoyed. Many knew the high value goods manufactured by monsters had. Conversely, on the monster side, human-made produce and farm products were highly popular. Due to the harsh soil of the western lands, the farming industry there hadn’t expanded much. Herbivorous monsters shed tears of joy at the flavor of human-grown vegetables.

Thus, the war ended. People on both sides wanted to live a luxurious life trading goods made by both sides rather than fighting.

Sapphee had been at the Litbeit’s home for a year. During that time, because of how swimmingly the new route development had advanced, there wasn’t any need to send Glenn over as a hostage.

Thus, Sapphee returned to monster territory and her time exchanging culture with Glenn and his family became memory.

The time Glenn spent sharing cultures with Sapphee became the trigger that drew him into the world of monsters—their customs, and way of life.

Before he realized it, he had read every book on monsters in his house and, as if even that wasn’t enough, at fourteen he went to study abroad at the Monster Academy. In all the Academy’s long history, Glenn was the first human to ever study there.

There at the Academy, he studied under the renowned Cthulhy Squele, who was an authority on monster medicine. In Cthulhy’s research lab, he was reunited with Saphentite Neikes, his upperclassman in the lab. She was—appropriately—learning medicine manufacturing under Cthulhy.

They had been separated from each other for some time, but at a turning point in both of their lives, they became inseparable, always together.

“What a strange coincidence,” Cthulhy said to Glenn before he opened up his clinic. “You have a strange bond, and you both get along well. Might as well make use of that and run a clinic together. Don’t worry. A place has already been prepared. You can take the supplies you need from my hospital. It’s equipped with most of the things you’ll need in Lindworm.” Cthulhy Squele had announced all this to Glenn rather indifferently.

“There is one condition—you can’t use the clinic I’ve prepared and overseen to do anything audacious. Got it, you two?”

There was a suspicious sparkle in her eyes, hidden by her glasses.

Cthulhy was a frightening teacher to anger, so when the clinic opened, Glenn and Sapphee could only nod quietly in agreement at her words of warning.

 

***

 

Despite all that, there Sapphee was—apparently pregnant.

“That can’t be it,” Glenn said. After all, he had no memory of doing anything to Sapphee that would have impregnated her. More importantly, if she was pretending to be like this, he’d be chased out of the clinic by Cthulhy.

“But Doctor, look— my stomach’s so big.”

Glenn couldn’t understand Sapphee’s thought process behind such a prank. That, however, was something that would soon enough come to light, because—

“First of all,” he said, “why in the world would an oviparous lamia be pregnant?!”

“Oh?” Sapphee put her hand up to her mouth and smiled.

It was an extremely contrived gesture. Obviously, Sapphee herself would know better than Glenn that lamia didn’t get pregnant.

Still, there were many types of monsters that laid eggs—including harpies, mermaids, and lamia. Glenn served monster patients every day, and was sometimes present as monsters gave birth. If anything, falling for a prank like this would call his fitness as a doctor into question.

“Whatever,” he said. “Just let me take a look at that bulging stomach of yours.”

“Oh my, Doctor, telling me to strip! How bold.”

“I didn’t say anything like that!”

Glenn was exasperated. In the past, she had acted like a big sister two years his senior, but recently, while she still politely attended to him as his assistant, these jokes and pranks of hers had grown in number. Joking about pregnancy and other such matters was in especially poor taste.

Sapphee rolled up the skirt of her negligee for Glenn. Glenn’s heart skipped a beat, but when he got a better look he saw that, under her negligee, Sapphee was wearing her normal nurse’s outfit. Under that was the same opaquely black underclothes, as well.

However, between her negligee and nurse’s outfit was crammed a large amount of cloth and a small basket. Just as he had known, Sapphee being pregnant or having some sort of other problem was preposterous. She had hidden these goods under her clothes and used them to pretend she had a bulging stomach.

The basket was tied around Sapphee’s body with a string. Sapphee should have known to begin with that her prank would be immediately found out when Glenn noticed her opaque underclothes underneath her negligee.

And as for the inside of the basket, there was something wrapped up in cloth inside it.

“…Eggs?” He gaped.

“The fairies found them a little while ago,” Sapphee said. They all scattered across the city to look for Miss Kunai’s body, right? Well, they didn’t find her body, but they did bring this back.”

“Well, now.”

Sapphee took off her negligee and showed Glenn the basket properly. It seemed she had only been wearing it to hide the eggs. They were quite big, each was about twice the size of a chicken egg. It was immediately clear that they were monster eggs.

“They couldn’t just leave them there, after all. I thought maybe if I warmed them up they would hatch.”

For a moment, Glenn thought she was joking, but her gaze was serious.

Glenn examined the eggs again. They were different from both the eggs of underwater mermaids and from the soft-shell eggs that lamia laid. If they were indeed a monster’s eggs, then it seemed they were most likely harpy eggs.

Harpies were a bird-type of monster with bird-wing arms and raptor-taloned feet. Naturally, there were many harpies living in Lindworm, and they had a colony along the slopes of the Vivre Mountains.

But—even if that were the case, Glenn wondered—had harpy eggs truly been dropped in the city?

“Their parents must be searching for them, right?” Sapphee said.

She had a point—if there were harpy children inside the eggs, then the parents would surely be out looking for them. The eggs wouldn’t hatch without an adequate amount of heat, and there was a risk of the children inside dying. Taking that into account, Sapphee wrapping them in cloth and hiding them under her clothes had been the proper way to handle the situation.

“Excuse me for a moment,” Glenn said to the eggs, picking one up in his hand.

They were distinctly light. Glenn immediately came to a conclusion just from picking them up.

“That’s not it,” he said.

“What isn’t?”

“These eggs aren’t fertilized,” he explained. “There aren’t any babies inside. These are probably just the result of a female harpy’s ovulation.”

Whether they were actively trying to have children or not, all oviparous female monsters ovulated regularly—Sapphee laid unfertilized eggs periodically, as well.

It wasn’t something female monsters discussed lightly with men, but when they were feeling ill or unwell, there were times their ovulation rhythm would be thrown off schedule. There were many women who came to the clinic for a consultation about such situations. Most of the time, the causes were related to stress, hardship, or a disruption in their daily life, so as long as the patients got some rest and ate something rich in nutrients they would suffer no further complications.

“That means they aren’t someone’s lost children, then,” Sapphee said. “I suppose that is something of a relief.”

“Still,” Glenn remarked, “unfertilized eggs aren’t something that should just be lying around by the side of the road.”

“Honestly,” Sapphee said and took the eggs from Glenn, wrapping them up once more in the cloth.

Even though the eggs were unfertilized, they weren’t something to throw out anywhere one pleased. Indeed, Sapphee herself always made sure that Glenn never saw her dispose of her own eggs.

All in all, it seemed only the strangest of things were being left around Lindworm that day—be they arms, legs, or eggs.

Glenn was puzzling over all when he felt a light tugging at the hem of his coat. There at his feet was a fairy, looking up at him with an anxious expression on its face.

Glenn assumed it intended to remind him about their reward—and now that he thought about it, he still hadn’t paid them for the work today. But before he could ready himself for them, the fairy declared—

“Outsiiiide!”

“Outside?”

“Outsiiide!”

“Maaaany!”

“Peeeeeople!”

“What…?”

A lot of people outside? Glenn thought to himself. At this hour? But the fairies were saying so, which meant it was undoubtedly true. Glenn hadn’t noticed, but the fairies had a special sense for such things—he did know, however, that he could trust their word.

“Sapphee, what is this about?”

“It had occurred to me, but…” Sapphee hugged the eggs close to her. “I wonder if the raiders Miss Skadi and Miss Kunai were chasing after were keeping their eye on you, Dr. Glenn.”

With her keen gaze, Sapphee looked out the window. Glenn suspected that someone was there, but he wasn’t able to confirm whether or not there were any people on the other side of the window.

Lamia, however, had a special organ for sensing temperature. According to Sapphee’s description of the way it worked, she could “see temperature.” Glenn thought he would probably never be able to fully understand this sense of hers, but that wasn’t important.

With this sensory organ, lamia could catch the movements of people or animals even on a pitch-black night. They could also identify where someone had been moments prior by sensing the residual heat a person left in the space they had formerly occupied.

“Wait,” Glenn said. “You think they followed me all the way back here?”

“Who knows?” Sapphee said. “At any rate, it’s dangerous to stay here. They might surround us.”

It was a truly awful situation.

Glenn couldn’t possibly go up against the rebels. His life had been entirely devoted to learning—he had absolutely no knowledge of martial arts or one-on-one combat. Fortunately, since becoming a doctor he often found himself running all over the city and had gotten more athletic as a result, but ultimately, he simply had no idea what do to.

As he was racking his brain, the sound of footsteps came from outside the clinic. Then, just as Glenn turned with a start toward the noise, the plain door to the clinic was blown off its hinges.

“!”

In its absence was darkness.

Mixed in with the dark of the night was someone in navy blue attire. His face covered with a piece of cloth, the man swiftly stepped into the clinic. The fairies knew something was wrong and hid themselves with terrifying speed. The man said something in a muffled voice, aimed at Glenn, and rushed towards him, when—

“Doctor!”

This time it was the man’s body that was sent flying.

Sapphee’s white tail had lashed out. With its whip-like length, Sapphee drove off the bandit that had broken into the clinic.

Lamia’s lower bodies were flexible and strong. Able to extend the tip of her tail out like a third hand, Sapphee had used its long reach to pull Glenn out from the water before. With its strong muscles, such a tail could be used to rain down furious attacks on a lamia’s enemies.

Such an attack would not likely be possible against a monster, but the man who had burst into the clinic was a human. Without knowing that there was a lamia in the clinic, the bandit was overwhelmed by the entirety of Sapphee’s counterattack.

“There are two important things I’ve realized, Dr. Glenn.”

“O-okay,” he said shakily.

“First. The bandits probably saw your exchange with Miss Kunai. But before that, they didn’t have their sights set on you. Also, they didn’t know that a lamia like myself was here, so they thought they’d easily be able to make their attack. Since I’m here, however, we should be fine.”

Sapphee was calm; Glenn was glad to have her composed presence in this situation. At the Merrow Waterways, she had shown him her childish grin, but in times of emergency, she was reliable. Of the two of them, it had been Sapphee who was the upperclassmen while they were at the Academy, after all.

“Second. This clinic has been targeted. I think it’s time to run.”

“G-got it!” Glenn responded quickly.

He threw the medical bag he always had with him over his shoulder. Sapphee cradled the eggs wrapped in cloth and exited through the destroyed door at once. As for the fairies, they had already escaped. They were nimble monsters, good at hiding from the eyes of others, so Glenn wasn’t worried about them. It was just he and Sapphee who were left.

“Oh, there’s one other thing,” she said, just as another bandit rushed them. She blew him away with her tail as he lunged at them. Even in the twilight, Sapphee’s vision worked without any difficulty. Utilizing her heat sense to its maximum potential, she rained down blow after blow on the attackers, who—under other circumstances—would have had an overwhelming advantage in the night’s darkness.

“Don’t worry about treating the bandits,” she said to Glenn. “No matter how much of a doctor you may be, your duties don’t extend that far.”

“I suppose you’re right,” Glenn replied with a dry smile. “I’ll just treat them later, after we’ve successfully made our escape.”

“Oh, honestly, Doctor—you really never change.” With these words, Sapphee finally smiled at Glenn.

She had seemed on edge since Glenn had returned to the clinic, but she looked at him now with a relaxed expression on her face.

 

***

 

All told, there were four nighttime assailants, all wearing dark clothes, all with their faces concealed. Having overpowered the two that slipped into the clinic, Sapphee knocked out another as they escaped. She wrapped her tail around the bandit’s feet as he pursued them through the city at night and tripped him. Doing this to a human as he was running full speed meant that he went flying face first into the level ground. The bandit let out a small groan before he stopped moving.

Somewhere along their way, they lost sight of their final pursuer. Glenn wondered if the man had concluded it was too dangerous to attack a lamia at night, or if he had departed in order to call more of his companions to join him.

“Where are we running, Doctor? The Central Hospital?” Sapphee asked as she slithered along at top speed. At first glance, her snake body looked sluggish, but with this unique way of moving, she was able to rush through the town with unexpected speed.

The suggestion she had made was the Lindworm Central Hospital—the a large establishment run by Cthulhy Squele, with equipment and personnel that Glenn’s small-town clinic simply couldn’t hold a candle to. As Glenn’s mentor in the city, Cthulhy did seem like she would be the natural person to go to for help.

However, Glenn shook his head. “No, I don’t want to go to the Central Hospital.”

“Dr. Glenn?”

“If we go there while being pursued, we might end up causing trouble for the patients admitted there. We can’t do that. Some of the patients there wouldn’t be able to escape on their own.”

If the bandits broke into a place like that—even if harming the patients there wasn’t their objective—there was a risk of casualties. Glenn abhorred the thought.

“In that case, what should we do?”

“Well…”

Glenn’s words faltered. He couldn’t think of a good plan. Why did they target me in the first place? he wondered. Was it because he was an associate of Kunai and her master Skadi? Even so, what would the bandits have had to gain from coming after a town doctor like himself? They should have been chasing after Kunai directly.

Or maybe, he thought, it has nothing to do with any of that.

“This is just a thought,” Glenn said, looking at the eggs Sapphee held in her arms, “but…could these eggs be what they’re after?”

“Wh-what do you mean?” she asked.

“Miss Kunai said she was chasing after slave traders,” he explained as he ran, gasping for breath. “But slavery is a system that was long abolished by both humans and monsters alike. In that’s case, then what is it that they’re selling? It’s possible that by slavery, she meant illegal trafficking, right?” The more clear-headed he became as he spoke, the more confident he felt in his reasoning.

“Illegal trafficking… They couldn’t be trafficking harpies, could they?” Sapphee said.

“That’s what I thought at first,” Glenn responded, “but that might not be the case. If they’re after the eggs…then they might be selling the eggs, too. What the fairies carelessly picked up and brought back with them might actually be the bandits’ products—products they’ll try to get back by any means necessary.”

“Are unfertilized harpy eggs worth anything?”

“…Yeah, probably,” Glenn said, but hesitated to speak further. It wasn’t a story he wanted to have to tell Sapphee.

One of the effects of the long war was that both monsters and humans were still filled with prejudices and often discriminated against one another. Both groups harbored antipathy for the other. On the one hand, this extreme dislike manifested in the two groups avoiding one another. However, it also made one group the target of the other’s curiosity. Put simply, a certain number of humans treated monsters like they were animals at a freak show.

Such humans were often rich. These people had already had their fill of normal forms of entertainment and had begun dabbling in hobbies that were difficult for others to come by.

During the era when the war was at its most violent, monsters would be taken from occupied villages and kept as slaves by the nobility. It was something Glenn would never breathe a word of to Sapphee, of course, but naturally the slaves had all been beautiful, young, female monsters.

As always, the rich spent their money on their vulgar tastes—what mattered was that they had something to spend their money on. Thus, even if doing so was illegal, it wasn’t exactly unexpected that some slave traders would capture harpies, make them lay eggs, and then trade those eggs to such wealthy individuals.

“So, they’re after these eggs, then,” Sapphee said. She bit her lip and tightly hugged the eggs against her chest.

For a monster like her, Glenn imagined it was a cruel story to hear. As for himself, he couldn’t completely scorn those rich people and their curiosity. After all, a similar type of curiosity had driven Glenn’s desire to learn about the ecology and physicality of monsters—it was, in part, why he ended up as a monster doctor. He had wanted to know more about monsters, and for both humans, and the men and women who lived completely differently from them, to understand each other. It was a cross between a thirst for knowledge and his own curiosity.

The reason he had hesitated when speaking with Sapphee was because he could understand the feelings of someone who would pay huge sums of money to buy harpy eggs, even if his understanding was only to the slightest degree.

Glenn continued to speak, as if he were trying to shake off his guilt. “It’s still hard to say for sure whether they’re after the eggs or not… Anyway, let’s head to the Lindworm City Hall.”

“City Hall?” Sapphee said.

“Security will be tight there, and I’m sure Representative Skadi will be there late. If Miss Skadi is there, then Miss Kunai will be, as well. Let’s at least try to get that far.”

“That won’t be necessary!” barked a voice from behind them.

Thinking it was their pursuers, Sapphee and Glenn stood ready to defend themselves, but instead of bandits, standing behind them was a pale woman with stitches all over her body. Although her dead flesh fit the current situation rather well, Glenn and Sapphee still became frightened when they looked at her complexion.

It was the bodyguard of the Draconess, Kunai Zenow.

“Miss Kunai!” Glenn said.

“There was an eyewitness account of some fairies hauling a basket of eggs around. I had a bad feeling about it and visited the clinic, but the door was already destroyed, the place was a mess… And now, I’ve finally caught up to you.”

Glenn looked closer at Kunai.

In her right arm she held a pinioned form, its arms and legs tied behind its back. It was one of the bandits, his face covered with a piece of cloth. Glenn had thought they’d stopped giving chase, but it appeared that Kunai had still managed to capture one. Tossing the unconscious bandit to the side, she scratched her head.

She had bound an adult man and knocked him unconscious. It appeared flesh golems weren’t just well-versed in combat techniques, but also had a significant amount of raw strength.

“We were planning to settle everything by ourselves,” she said. “I never would have thought the town doctor would somehow get wrapped up in all this, as well.”

“Sorry…” Glenn apologized, though it was really the fairies he’d sent out to look for Kunai’s arm who had brought the eggs back to the clinic in the first place.

In other words, it was partly because of Kunai that the eggs had been brought to the clinic in first place. However, Glenn thought that if he told her that now, the truth of the matter would only serve to worsen the doctor-hating flesh golem’s mood.

For someone who couldn’t fight, like Glenn, fighting strength was certainly a precious commodity.

“I’d like to protect you,” Kunai said. “but unfortunately, I can’t—and there isn’t anyone at City Hall who can, either.”

“Huh…?”

“The slave traders realized we had gotten wind of them and are aiming to quickly escape from the city. We’ve positioned all the City Hall guards to capture them before they can escape. Naturally, I’m heading off to break into their hideout.”

It was a bold move—though Kunai was surly capable of capturing them without any trouble. After all, Glenn had personally just sutured her back together. Even if a patient’s arm had been severed, as long as a skilled doctor carefully connected it back together, the patient could return to their training and be able to move their arm nearly just as well as before it had been severed—depending, of course on a number of different factors.

Whatever the case, Glenn was positive that Kunai’s movements would be far better than they had been when her mended arm and leg had been fit together with sloppy suture work.

“Consequently, as we are all otherwise occupied,” Kunai said bluntly, “there is no one who can protect you.”

Sapphee looked dejected.“That’s going to be a problem,” she said. “This is your fault to begin with for letting those bandits go free for so long, right? ‘There’s no one here, so we can’t protect you’—what kind of logic is that? We’re just ordinary people, you know!”

By ordinary people, Sapphee surely meant that neither of them were the sort of people who acted with violence.

“Maybe we could we leave these eggs with you?” the lamia offered. “If we do that, then they’ll have no reason to target Dr. Glenn and me.”

“If it would set your mind at ease, you may do so,” Kunai said. “But there’s a chance the remnants of their group might take over your clinic for revenge, you know. I’m won’t be responsible for you if you get taken as hostages.”

“Miss Kunai!” Sapphee exclaimed. “You’re speaking like this doesn’t concern you…” Glenn’s assistant lifted up her tail, which was trembling violently. The behavior clearly expressed her feelings—some species of lamia even gave a warning rattle when they lifted their tails in such a fashion.

“Hmm. In that case…” Kunai nodded as if she had taken their argument into account, then said,“Lady Draconess and myself are going to raid the slave trader’s hideout. Our mission is to circle around the back and rescue the young harpy girls they have captured. If you come with us, I’ll protect you.” Kunai gave a big grin, an expression Glenn had never seen her make before.

Immediately, he began weighing the risks. They could go back to the clinic, not knowing when they could be attacked—or they could go along with Kunai and Skadi. Not only would the second option allow them to personally witness the bandits’ capture, thus allowing them to sleep at night without worry, but they would also be under the protection of both Kunai and an individual of the strongest living species in the world—Skadi Dragenfelt, a female dragon.

“No, thank you,” Saphee said. “Something that dangerous—”

“No—we’ll go,” Glenn interrupted her.

“Doctor?!”

Sapphee looked ready to reprimand him, but Glenn was resolute. “In a battle, there’s a risk of people getting injured right? I’m sure they’ll need people who can give first aid, Sapphee.”

“But…”

“Stop talking in circles. The choice is simple—are you coming or not?”

Sapphee stood for a moment, unsure about what to do, but finally gave a small nod. She seemed to have weighed the risks against her safety, as well.

Kunai appeared to be the practical type—or least, the type who valued saving time and taking action over thinking things through. Glenn thought it must be a habit that had become ingrained in her while working as Skadi’s bodyguard.

“With that settled, we’ll head to the canals,” she said. “We have a boat waiting there.”

“Boat…?”

“A gondola. The bandits’ hideout is in the Waterways,” she explained, then immediately started off. Her personality seemed quick and decisive, indeed.“We’re relying on the boat for the raid,” she called over her shoulder as they followed her to their destination.

“Heeeey! Doctor! Over here, over here!” a voice rose up from the night-dark canal as they approached; in the dim, Glenn could just make out a figure waving to them as they approached. The person wore glass ornaments that gleamed in the moonlight and by them, he recognized who it was immediately: Lulala.

Her shining golden scales glinted with a unique sparkle underneath the light of the moon. Glenn thought to himself that if she had given a performance in the Waterways light-up show, she probably would have become even more famous.

“Why’s Lulala—?” he wondered out loud, but Kunai interrupted him.

“Talk on the way. Hurry up and get in.”

At Kunai’s urging, Glenn quickly got into the gondola. With Glenn’s help, Sapphee slithered in after them.

In the back of the gondola, Draconess Skadi sat shrouded in her robe. She could have been a tourist of some kind, sitting calmly there in the gondola as she was—but of course, that wasn’t the case. They were all gathered there in the boat for the same purpose: to raid the slave trader’s hideout.

With Glenn, Kunai, and Sapphee all safely aboard, Lulala grabbed the handle in front of the gondola and began to pull. The boat headed out slowly, though it pitched and rolled heavily. Lulala seemed to lack strength compared to the professional gondoliers of the canals.

“Miss Skadi.” It was Sapphee, speaking up with a reproachful look in her eyes. Her gaze was clearly filled with anger.

In contrast, Skadi’s hidden expression was, of course, inscrutable.

“Why is Miss Lulala pulling a gondola?” Sapphee asked. “Not only that, but why is she pulling this one in particular, headed off to expose a group of slave traders? Can I ask you for an explanation?”

“‘That was the deal’—is the Lady Draconess’s answer.” As always, Kunai acted as Skadi’s mouthpiece.

“Deal?”

“‘I asked Lulala sing in the central plaza—she has a lovely voice, after all. In exchange, we made an agreement that, when the time came, she would pull our gondola to slightly dangerous locations. In particular, we discussed having her pull our gondola to the slave traders’ hideout.’ Those are the Lady Draconess’ words.” Kunai then spoke for herself. “The contract Lulala entered into was only made after properly explaining and discussing everything with her.”

Glenn could see that Sapphee’s expression was growing more and more intense. She was clearly displeased with the answer she’d been given. Her expression wasn’t the sulking look she gave Glenn when she was dissatisfied—instead, her eyes were filled with real anger.

“Miss Skadi,” she began, but Glenn—thinking that things would likely become difficult if Sapphee asked the question—decided to turn towards the Draconess and ask her directly himself.

“In other words,” he said, “what you’re saying is that in order to capture the bandits, you’re using Lulala—even though she has nothing to do with the situation. Is that correct?”

“Dr. Glenn!” Kunai said. “That’s a rude way to talk—”

“I’m sorry, Miss Kunai,” Glenn interrupted. “My question was directed at Miss Skadi.”

The body guard gave a huff, looking embarrassed.

Skadi remained silent.

While he’d only heard bits and pieces, Glenn understood Lulala’s circumstances to a certain extent—including her a meager life on the canals, the invitation from the City Council, and finally, singing in the central plaza—which of course should have been an honor for Lulala Heine. Lulala herself had been delighted; the news had brought a great big smile to her face.

And yet, now he found that it had been part of a deal. In exchange for saving Lulala from poverty, Skadi had given Lulala a dangerous job to perform. True, someone had to pull the boat through the waterways—yet the job had been forced on a young girl, still in the prime of her adolescence, almost like she was being taken advantage of…

“—————”

Skadi gave a small nod. It seemed that she had needed some time to conclude whether or not she wanted to confirm what Glenn had said.

“‘That is indeed correct, I cannot refute that.’ That is the Lady Draconess’s statement,” Kunai said. The bodyguard appeared to be displeased. Glenn was well aware that Kunai’s personality wasn’t one that would allow her to calmly listen while her mistress’s reputation was being damaged.

“However,” Kunai went on. “the fact of the matter is that Lulala is suited for this job.”

“What do you mean?” he asked.

“The canals leading to the slave trader’s hideout are complex. When the time comes to attack, swift action will be necessary. We wanted to pay painstaking attention to detail in our preliminary preparations. However, meeting with a professional gondolier would have certainly meant that our plot would have been quite easily exposed, don’t you think?

“With Lulala working as a songstress, we were able to contact her without raising any suspicions. Giving her a job in the central plaza was a pretext and there were advanced meetings that occurred beforehand. No one would ever expect a tender-aged songstress to be pulling a gondola like this on the canals in the middle of the night. Considering the fact that her reward was an adequate amount of money and goods—not to mention the job she now holds in the central plaza—well… I don’t believe it’s a bad deal at all.”

Glenn couldn’t help but admit that he hadn’t imagined all of what Kunai had just told them.

Lulula was swimming out in front of the gondola. At one point, she had been on the verge of drowning due to her poor health, and it was still difficult to say whether her dehydrated throat and gills were now completely healed. As a doctor, Glenn wondered—was it really okay for him to stay silent and let her be exposed to such danger?

“Wait a sec, wait a sec! Why’s everyone gotten so gloomy?” It was Lulala. She seemed to have sensed the mood aboard the boat and had turned around to speak up herself.

“You know, Dr. Glenn, you’re talking like I was forced into doing this, but…I knew everything beforehand, so it’s really okay! I talked everything through with Miss Skadi properly.”

“But…”

“And she told me to run straight away should any danger come up. I’m not a child, you know! I’m the one who decides what work I do! And it’s my responsibility to make sure everyone gets through the Waterways!”

Now that Glenn thought about it, even when Lulala had been singing under the bridge at the Waterways, she had been serious about her job. She hadn’t had much money to spare, but still retained her dignity.

“…I understand,” he said. “If what you say is true, then there’s nothing more for me to say, either.”

“Right?” Lulala said.

“Please just be careful, okay?” he said.

“Okay!”

Thinking back to her close brush with drowning, Glenn couldn’t say he was entirely convinced, but in the end, all he could do was pray that Kunai and Skadi would properly protect her.

The gondola swayed back and forth as they continued on. The bumpiness of the ride was most likely due to the fact it took all of Lulala’s strength to control the boat, what with four people riding in it. It was only natural that she was struggling, considering the fact that she was a professional gondolier.

“All right, I’m going to explain our strategy,” Kunai said as they entered a narrow canal. “The bandit slave traders have about ten harpy girls imprisoned and are selling their eggs to collectors. In short, they’re disgusting scum.”

“Why is their base of operations here in this city?” Sapphee asked, though she appeared to have a rough idea herself.

“It’s obvious,” Kunai said. “They capture orphaned harpy girls, make them lay eggs, and sell them to humans far and wide. Their business crosses both monster and human territory, so Lindworm is convenient because it’s in between both.”

“So that is the reason, then…” Sapphee murmured.

“Incidentally, it’s also because Lindworm doesn’t have a military,” Kunai went on. “Maintaining peace and order is the job of the Lindworm City Council’s Guard Patrols. The bandits probably think Lindworm is a city where they can do whatever they want without being subject to the local laws… I’ll make sure to teach them just how wrong they are.”

Lindworm was managed by the City Council. The members of the council discussed and decided on policies and important things for the city, though it went without saying that their representative Skadi had an influential voice in the decisions. It wasn’t like other cities and towns, where an aristocratic lord governed everything, but that didn’t necessarily mean that the city was unsafe. The capability of the Guard Patrol, which fell directly under the council’s power, played an important role in maintaining law and order throughout Lindworm.

“So, their hideout is in the Waterways,” Glenn said.

“They couldn’t possibly be aquatic monsters, right?” Sapphee said.

“Of course not,” Kunai said. “All of the bandits are humans. The Waterways were originally made by submerging an existing town, right? The underwater portions were heavily remodeled to accommodate the monsters who would live there, but most of the parts still above the water are the same as when everything was sunk—though navigating that area is pretty complicated, with a lot of dead ends and buildings only reachable by boat. The slave traders picked one of the houses on the water’s surface to be their hideout.”

“There are quite a number of abandoned houses…” Glenn mused, as Kunai looked out at the uninhabited town on the surface of the Waterways.

There were some places accessible by bridge, but most of buildings’ original entrances were now sunken underwater. The second or third floors of the buildings were as they had originally been, above the surface of the water.

There was a moment of silence, then Kunai said,“Lady Draconess can’t help but regret that the maintenance on the Waterways wasn’t extended to all the sections above the surface. Because of this, the slave traders were able to make their hideout here. But we’ll put a stop to that tonight.”

And in order to get there, they had needed Lulala’s help, for—as a resident of the Waterways—Lulala would know the area’s peculiar and complex geography well.

“Are we the only ones headed there? The guard patrol is coming too, right?” Sapphee asked, and Kunai nodded.

“Of course they will be there. Actually, they are already building a bridge close to the hideout. Ostensibly, it’s a part of ‘city planning,’ but the reality is that they are using the bridge to get into the slave trader’s hideout. The plan is that the guards will expose them from the front.”

“From the front… So that means we’re going in the back?” Glenn asked.

“That’s right. When the bastards run, they’ll likely try to use boats to avoid pursuit. We’re going to free the boats moored in the back and make sure not a single bandit gets away. On top of that, we’ll rescue the captured harpy girls. We’ll mostly likely find the area where they’re imprisoned by first going in through the back,” Kunai said, then added, “assuming everything goes well,” Kunai added.

After a pause, she went on. “I’ve been both attacked, and targeted. The bandits have caught on to our pursuit. If they escape, then they’ll definitely flee the city. That’s why we needed to move forward with the plan to expose them.”

“So the rush to reveal the bandits was why you came to me for treatment, then?” Glenn asked.

“If I didn’t have my right arm I wouldn’t be able to fight at full strength,” Kunai said. “On top of that, I’d been attacked again in the middle of the day.Because of that, the Lady Draconess resolved without a moment’s hesitation that tonight was the time to put the plan into action.”

In other words, tonight’s assault had been catalyzed by the trouble Kunai had gotten into during the day when she lost her leg.

Glenn himself had run around in circles to stitch Kunai back up, but behind the scenes, there had been a number of strategies being planned all across Lindworm. Glenn himself, Sapphee, and even Lulala had found themselves wrapped up in these schemes, but…

Glenn glanced over at Skadi.

Just visible from under her veil, Skadi’s lips were moving ever so slightly. As usual, Glenn couldn’t hear what she was saying, but the word her lips were shaping was one Glenn recognized.

Sorry.

It looked as if she were apologizing to Glenn. And if she was apologizing for getting him involved in everything, then it meant that Skadi Dragenfelt wasn’t the type of person who dragged other people indifferently into something for the sake of her own objectives.

Glenn supposed there was nothing more he could ask for but an apology. However, he did wish she had said it properly, so he could hear her, rather than deciphering her contrition through lip-reading.

“I can move now thanks to your suturing, Dr. Glenn,” Kunai said. “The bandits won’t be any problem.”

“You’re going to show us what the former top-ranked fighter is capable of, is that it?” Sapphee’s words seemed to have a touch of sarcasm to them, but Kunai didn’t appear to take them to heart.

The late-night canals were quiet. The boat stalls that were so lively during the day were closed, the shopkeepers having returned to their houses under the water. There were no tourists around, and the surface of the water was still.

As such, it made a perfect place for the bandits to lie low.

“‘Once the bandits are dealt with, we will continue with the maintenance on the Waterways’—so says the Lady Draconess. Her thought is that with more construction work, the tourists will be able to walk over the water as well, and the breadth of business on the Waterways can expand.”

Glenn certainly agreed that a thriving Waterways was a good thing. Such was true of the arena as well, but a large portion of Lindworm’s revenue came from tourism. This was because monsters and humans, through mutual effort, were making things a reality that were only possible in Lindworm. Glenn was positive that the tourism revenue from the Waterways was linked to the revitalization of the whole city.

“We’re almost there!” Lulala said. “We’re going to pass under a low bridge, so everyone keep your heads down, okay?”

The canal had already become narrow enough that it was difficult for even a single gondola to pass through. In areas like these, there were sometimes bridges that could treacherous to pass under, depending on the water level.

Still, it was only to be expected that the bandit’s hideout would be in an area that was hard to navigate, difficult to reach either by land or by water.

The bridge came into view. Before he brought his head down, Glenn thought he saw a shadow on top of the bridge. The structure was night-darkened, but he had nonetheless seen something move.

“Hit the deck!” Kunai shouted.

Glenn grabbed Sapphee by the shoulder and pulled her down with him—just as Sapphee used her white tail to pull Glenn down. It appeared they had had the same thought.

Pressed into the deck of the gondola, Glenn heard the sound of something flying overhead, accompanied by the snap of taut strings recoiling.

“Archers?!” he said. The sound was clearly that of arrows cutting through the air.

Glenn raised his head and there, standing firmly upright in the boat, was Kunai.

“Miss Kunai!” he said.

“Keep your head down!” she commanded. “More arrows incoming! Lulala, dive!”

From the top of the bridge, arrows flew through the cover of darkness. Kunai was the only person not hiding. She drew a short sword that had been concealed at the base of her left thigh and raised it high overhead. Her skill at warding off the falling arrows was unbelievable. She repelled all of the arrows flying at the boat with marvelous skill. Meanwhile, it was all Glenn could do to keep himself hidden.

“Five people on the bridge!” Kunai said. “Dammit, I didn’t expect them to bring out bows and arrows!”

The gondola had come to a halt. Lulala had dived underwater to dodge the arrows, timely and smart decision. However, without her guidance, the gondola would soon be left to the whim of the currents. On top of the that, they were now sitting ducks; it seemed unlikely that the bandits would let such an opportunity slide by. True to form, the archers on the bridge nocked their arrows and fired rapidly at the boat.

As Kunai continued to beat back the arrows, Glenn wondered how these bow-wielding bandits were so well-trained. They were just bandits, yet he felt that they must have been under someone’s mysterious command. The fact that they had been able to lop off the arm of a top-class bodyguard such as Kunai—even considering that the attack had been a surprise—meant they must have been more than ordinary criminals at work.

“Here it comes! Get down!”

Glenn was already down in the boat, but the source of Kunai’s desperate cry was clear: an arrow was sticking out of her left shoulder. It appeared that she’d been unable to dodge one of the shafts and had been hit.

There was no guarantee that they would be able to continue on safely. Glenn stiffened his body and kicked his brain into overdrive—at least, he had to try to keep Sapphee from getting hurt.

But the rain of arrows had ceased.

The loud clatter of hooves echoed from the top of the bridge.

 

***

 

“Ooooooooh ho ho ho!”

It was a loud laugh, ringing with confidence—one Glenn thought he had heard before. Indeed, he knew only one person who could possibly laugh in such a way.

There was only darkness to be seen atop the bridge, but it was obvious the shadows that had come rushing in from the side had caused a panic among the startled archers. Moreover, the tall shadow on the bridge, with a large, lower body expanding out behind it, was undoubtedly that of a monster. Matching the shadow to the voice, Glenn was quickly realizing who had appeared upon the bridge.

“This is quite the predicament, Doctor!” the voice shouted. “I tried visiting the clinic to set a date for our marriage interview, but when I got there, it was clear some ruffian had broken in! I set out in pursuit and now suddenly we’re up against archer bandits in the middle of the night?! All is well, however—for brandishing their spears before you are none other than the famed warriors of the Scythia clan!”

“You talk too much!” Sapphee yelled back, oddly acerbic. “And marriage interviews have been postponed indefinitely!”

Glenn still couldn’t quite make out the person face, but it seemed to him that only Tisalia Scythia would speak out as the monster upon the bridge had done. The ringing of metal horseshoes resounded from the hard, stone arch, and as did the clash of warriors. Glenn glimpsed two other shadows with Tisalia, surely belonging to Kay and Lorna.

“Dr. Glenn!” one of them shouted.

“We’ll take care of this for now,” said the other.

“How great it is for us to earn the gratitude of City Council Representative Skadi!” Tisalia cried. “I’d say this will end up being quite beneficial for the Scythia business!” It was a calculating thing for her to say, but as she was saving them from danger, there was nothing anyone could say in retort to her.

The archers on the bridge were panicking—and understandably so, considering they had been assailed by centaur fighters while aiming at their quarry on the water.

“Now’s our chance!” Kunai shouted. “Lulala, go!”

“O-okay!” The mermaid’s voice was trembling a little—but even still, she bravely began pulling the boat. The bandits above could no longer spare a moment to shoot at the gondola in the water.

“It’s a straight shot to the hideout from here on out. There are no bridges for archers to hide on, so charge right through!” Kunai commanded.

“Y-yes, ma’am!” Lulala said.

The sounds of battle still echoed from atop the bridge and through it all cut Tisalia’s loud and high laughter, reverberating brightly across the quiet Waterways. She watched as the swaying gondola continued down the canal. In all honesty, she didn’t completely understand the situation. After seeing the ransacked clinic, she had come to the conclusion that Glenn was in a bind and, upon her naturally hale and tireless legs, ran about searching for him. She had sent a message to the fighters she was close with, which meant that the fighting strength of the arena would surely be arriving any minute.

“Kay, my spear,” she said.

“Yes, Mistress.”

Tisalia took the imitation spear, created for matches in the arena, from her attendant.

There were three bandits. Up until a moment ago, they had been aiming their bows at the gondola on the water, but faced with the centaurs, they now took out their short swords. They had been thoroughly prepared, having armed themselves with the swords in case of close combat. These were clearly not just simple bandits.

The moment one bandit unsheathed their short sword, all the others discarded their bows and assumed a close-quarters combat stance. It was a quick command—one that didn’t make any unnecessary noise. They thus got into formation without any orders having been given.

“These don’t seem to just be normal bandits,” Tisalia muttered. She knew of people who moved like the men in front of her.

The spear she had taken from Kay was her favorite. It was an imitation, but had been decorated for Tisalia specifically, and was a magnificent weapon all the same. Tisalia sighed and rested the long weapon on her shoulder.

“That crest… So you’re part of the Scythia, huh?” said one of the bandits. His face was concealed, but he nonetheless seemed to be the commanding officer of the group.

Tisalia was surprised, having assumed that the battle would surely continue in silence.

“You’re quite well informed,” she said laconically. “I don’t believe there is anyone who doesn’t know the name of the famed military clan of Scythia! But much as I like to brag, I have a feeling you know us for a different reason.”

“A family of horsemen, mercenaries by trade,” the bandit said. “If I had to describe the Scythia, it would be that they are—above all else—warmongers.”

“That’s unfortunate,” Tisalia said, sighing again. “We could have discussed this peacefully if you’d said ‘transportation business,’ instead.” She was disappointed that she and her family, as former mercenaries, shared a trade with the bandits. After all, the criminals were illegally selling goods and people, which—in a certain sense—could be considered a transportation business, she supposed, though there was no way Tisalia would really know anything about it.

“If you’re horsemen, then what reason do you have to interfere with us?” the bandit asked.

“What? Is there any reason why we wouldn’t interfere with people who are shooting off arrows in our peaceful city of Lindworm?”

“Weren’t you all soldiers? In that case, wouldn’t you be the ones fighting and firing the arrows and such?”

They aren’t bandits, after all, Tisalia thought, considering the man’s logic. Instead, they seemed to be rank and file soldiers, trained and given orders—or, at the very least, former archers.

“I have no idea what you are talking about,” she said.

“You may be monsters yourselves, but still—shame on you for conspiring with monsters! With the enemy! We’re mercenaries, after all—we can’t live without war! We sell monster eggs to keep us fed, but we used to be warriors who lived by war! A peaceful age is hell to people like us! Isn’t that true for you too, woman of Scythia?”

“Hmph…” she snorted. “Monster eggs, huh?” The bandits wanted Tisalia to understand them, but Tisalia was a monster before all else. There was no way she would be able to empathize with people who spoke idly of illegally turning her kind into a commodity.

Moreover, the phrase “living in an era of peace is hell,” wasn’t something one said to a member of the Scythia clan, who had worked so hard to survive during the new peaceful era.

“Are you saying it’s okay to use monsters for profit just because they’re your enemy?” Tisalia asked.

“That’s not it,” the man said. “If it’s discovered that monsters are being sold like products, then this damn peace will finally collapse. Coexisting with monsters is just a fantasy. It’s only natural for humans and monsters to kill each other.”

Tisalia desperately suppressed her instinctive laughter. For him to be talking like this, Tisalia thought, this man must have lived in Lindworm for a while. And yet, if that were the case, then what had he even been looking at? Had he been so absorbed with his illegal trading that he had completely ignored the reality of things?

Had he never noticed human tourists enjoying pleasant small talk with the centaurs pulling their carriages along? Or humans listening spellbound to the mermaid’s song in the central plaza? Had he never taken note of the human doctor who ran all over the city to heal his monster patients? All that was the day-to-day life of Lindworm, its reality. Had the bandits truly never noticed? Or had they seen it all, but pretended it simply wasn’t true? Were they purposely ignoring it, so they could throw around their own self-serving logic?

The only ones wrapped up in a fantasy were the bandits wishing to return to war.

True reality glinted in Tisalia’s eyes—the reality of Lindworm, where humans and monsters lived together in a completely natural fashion.

“You all feel the same, right?” the man pressed. “You’re suffering without war, right? You can’t just simply hang up your spears, can you? Looking at that fake weapon of yours, you must be a fighter. You want to go to war.”

“I’ll make one thing clear for you,” Tisalia said. “During the war, I was a child. I’ve never hoisted my own weapon and headed off to battle.”

“What…?”

The former mercenaries appeared to be convinced she was the same as they were. Yet Tisalia hadn’t ever been on a battlefield herself—though she had gone to several battles with her father. At the time of her birth, the war had already been in its final stages; the era for battle had passed.

Even so, with her own specially made spear in one hand, she had thrown tantrums about wanting to fight and caused trouble for her parents. Ever since then, she had been a mischievous princess. As a matter of course, she had gotten the two handmaidens she had been assigned—Kay and Lorna—mixed up in her mischief, as well.

“Absolute absurdity,” Tisalia said. “I’m the one who should be saying, ‘shame on you.’” In her heart, Tisalia had already decided to not to be lenient with these bandits. The same was true of her two handmaidens, Kay and Lorna, standing at her side. Each of them with a weapon in hand, they faced the group of bandits.

“The war is over,” Tisalia went on. “It’d be laughable to cling to a peaceful way of life during times of war, wouldn’t it? But the opposite is just as true. While everyone else is trying to search for a new way of life now that the war is over, you just keep saying I want to fight, I want to fight! How about trying to search for a new way to live—in a peaceful society?!”

“You brat,” the man growled. “What would you know?! We’re proud mercenaries! A world without war is just—”

Tisalia interrupted. “Involving people unrelated to your war and hurting them—that’s your ‘pride’?!” Take that scummy pride of yours and throw it away. It’ll make living in this peaceful society a lot easier!”

Tisalia knew that mercenaries were highly valued during times of war—but the value of things changed with the passage of time. The era when mercenaries were well paid was gone. To still cling to the mercenary way of life despite that change meant they had been reduced to nothing more than bandits. The men in front of Tisalia were a perfect example.

“Allow me to correct you,” Tisalia continued. “My attachment to my family’s military history and my decision to be a fighter has absolutely nothing to do with wanting to go to war.”

Did she want to battle?

Did she want to fight?

If Tisalia were to answer these questions honestly, then yes—she did, indeed. That didn’t, however, mean she wanted to battle anyone just anywhere. There would definitely come a time when her skills and her lifestyle as a fighter would become necessary even in an age of peace—in fact, her current situation itself proved that very thought.

“I wield my spear in these times of peace so that I may punish wicked people like you!” she cried. “Now then, Kay, Lorna—are you ready?!”

“Of course, Mistress.”

“Whenever you are ready.”

Her handmaidens were reliable as ever. Kay and Lorna each held their own sword and bow. Both of weapons were made for battles in the arena—the swords wooden and the bows simple pellet bows used for shooting clay balls. Even so, Tisalia thought that what they had to hand was more than enough to put down the bandits.

After all, at the end of the day, they weren’t on a battlefield.

“Come now! These villains must to be put to death!”

“You sure can talk, you damn horse!” the leader said and, giving in to his anger, plunged forward with his short sword.

Of course, there was no way an attack driven by emotion could ever harm Tisalia, and the centaur princess coolly sent her riposte back into the man.

As for the rest of the fight, the outcome was simple: having insulted the proud centaur princess, the bandits all fell to Tisalia’s spear.

 

***

 

Around the time Tisalia was beating the archers into submission, the gondola continued down an even narrower canal. Lulala appeared to be having a difficult time steering the boat, but as there were no other gondolas to crash into and no more surprise attacks, they continued onward smoothly.

“I wonder if Tisalia’s going to be all right…” Glenn wondered.

“She’ll be fine,” Sapphee told him brusquely. Turning around, however, she saw that the bridge was already out of sight, and thus couldn’t guarantee that what she had said was true.

“They won’t have any problems,” Kunai said. “That horsewoman had her spear with her. The bandits, on the other hand, had only small swords with them for self-defense. They can’t win at that distance, and if they try to fight back with their bows, they’ll be stabbed before they can shoot. Either way, it should be the horsemen’s victory.” As the bodyguard pulled the arrow out from her shoulder, Glenn took some comfort in her words. If a former arena fighter could explain all of that, then what she said was probably true.

“More importantly,” Kunai went on, “we’ll arrive soon. Stay on your guard.”

“U-understood,” Glenn said.

“Lulala, once we land, moor the boat and run. You don’t need to worry about us.”

Lulala raised her hand out of the water to show her assent. Glenn recognized and appreciated Kunai’s consideration for Lulala, to keep her safe and not expose her to any more danger than necessary.

“What are we going to do to get back?” Sapphee asked.

“We won’t be going back,” Kunai declared.“We will bring the enemy’s hideout completely under our control. There’s currently no need for us to prepare a return boat.”

“Wh-what a ridiculous plan!”

“Say what you will.”

Kunai wasn’t acting like she was putting her life on the line, but Glenn wasn’t sure he would be able to share in her readiness to charge down the enemies. He knew Kunai was arbitrarily planning to make reckless, perhaps suicidal, attack—even if it was a decision that came from proper planning with Skadi and the Guard Patrol squad.

Finally, the boat came to a halt. They were just a little ways away from what could barely be called a proper docking location—it was little more than a stonework staircase half sunk under the water. If they went up the stairs, they would reach the portion of the building that rose above the water—however, because there was no way to reach the exposed part from land, they had had to travel by boat to get to the building.

There were a number of small boats moored where they had stopped; Kunai cut their ropes with her short sword and began to kick them free of the landing. The boats had presumably been stashed there for the bandits to escape upon, but now that Kunai had cut them loose, the criminals no longer had a way to flee.

Lulala slowly drew the gondola up to the staircase. Just as she did, a silhouette emerged from the dark, directly in their path.

“…Tch,” Kunai grit out.

It was an ambush. The bandits from earlier had all been wrapped in standardized navy blue apparel and this one was no different. However, this time around, Glenn had two reasons to be more on guard.

First was the fact that the silhouette belong to just one person. Why just one? he wondered. The second was that the gaze peeking out from the cloth covering their face was unusually keen and sharp. Glenn knew nothing of combat, so judging whether or not they were a warrior was beyond him. However, he had seen a gaze such as theirs once before.

It had been during an autopsy of a patient with Dr. Cthulhy. She had dissected the body calmly and indifferently, without a single break in her concentration. The eyes of the bandit standing there alone before them closely resembled Cthulhy’s own that day.

In other words—the gaze watching them now belonged to someone who had experience with human dissection.

The boat slowly drew up to the stairs.

The bandit didn’t exactly look like he was going to obstruct them. Kunai carefully got out of the boat, followed by Glenn and Sapphee. Then, finally, Skadi disembarked from the gondola.

“You look like the ringleader of the slave traders,” Kunai said, readying her short sword.

“I don’t remember ever selling any slaves. What we sell is monster eggs. We don’t sell or buy monsters or humans.”

“So you are the leader.”

“Yes.”

From what Glenn could tell, the man was human.

Despite his status as the bandit’s leader, his physique was quite slender. He didn’t give off the air of a rough and rowdy type of criminal. If Glenn had had to describe him, he looked like a scout or an undercover agent—like a spy. Or, at the very least, a soldier that pursued that kind of work.

“Illegal squatting in the Waterways, kidnapping and imprisoning harpies, and on top of that, the illegal sale of eggs. There’s quite a lot I’d like to ask you,” Kunai said.

“All we are doing is protecting monsters that don’t have a place to go and raising them,” the leader said. “As for the eggs, well—we got to make money somehow, right? After all, in times of peace, former mercenaries have a hard time finding jobs.”

“The City Council will work you to the bone. Lindworm is in the midst of redevelopment, to make the city a pleasant place to live in. The construction crews are always looking for workers.”

“Oh. And how much is the pay?”

“However much a criminal is deserving of.”

The man gave a snort. It seemed he had never intended to accept her offer. Kunai slowly closed the distance between them, while shielding Glenn and the others behind her. In order to make sure of her path on the stone steps, she shifted her position in relation to the ringleader.

“Unfortunately, this is the end of the line,” he said. “I won’t take your life, but be prepared for some pain.”

“How nice of you to say. Well, it’s not that I have a life that can be taken, anyway,” she said with a chuckle. Then she spoke to Skadi. “Lady Draconess! Now’s the time! Glenn and Sapphee—you go, too! I’ll deal with this one!”

“You think I’m just going to let you go?!”

The ringleader instantly stepped toward them. In the same moment, Kunai launched herself at him. She held back his arms and tried to push him into the water. They struggled against each other for supremacy, but Kunai twisted her body and secured a path for the Glenn and the others.

“Go! Hurry!”

“Doctor, this way!” Glenn said to Sapphee, as Skadi took the lead and dashed up the stairs. Her dragon tail peeked out from under the hem of her robe. Her golden scales swayed like a guiding light. Relying on it, Glenn and Sapphee followed after her.

As Glenn climbed the stairs, he looked back down at the figures locked together in battle and called out, “Miss Kunai, be careful!”

“No need to worry!” she said.

The two were close, trading blow after blow with their short swords, but Kunai seemed to be doing well enough to be able to give Glenn a proper reply.

“A corpse can’t die!” she said. “Thanks to this doctor who sewed me neatly together, my arm is at peak performance! Don’t worry—go!”

“Well, then,” the ringleader said. “This time I’ll make sure to cut you up and sink you to the bottom of the canals!”

Glenn ran up the stairs, guided by Skadi, and entered an abandoned-looking building. He thought absently that fishing the bits and pieces of Kunai’s body up from the canals sounded like backbreaking work.

 

***

 

The ringleader’s dexterity was exceptional.

As to be expected of an ex-mercenary, Kunai thought to herself, biting her lip. Before this mission, she had investigated the fact that the slave traders were a former group of mercenaries who had lost their profession with the arrival of peace.

The previous war had been massive in scale, and had lasted many years. Humans and monsters both had individuals who lived and earned their daily bread off of the war itself. In Lindworm, many of the former monster soldiers became arena fighters, but that option hadn’t extended to other regions. Kunai could see how selling illegal monster eggs and similar work made use of the bandits’ old skills as mercenaries. In fact, they probably welcomed the fighting and violence the work brought them.

Kunai and the ringleader trades blows in the twilight. Kunai could see well at night, but the ringleader seemed to be more accustomed to night battles and easily dodged her attacks.

“You’re a nuisance,” the ringleader said to Kunai. Stubbornly pursuing the slave traders and discovering this hideout had been Kunai’s achievement. Naturally, the bandits had been aware of this, and had attacked Kunai a countless number of times.

“Even if we break off your arm or rip off your leg,” he went on, “you calmly just come back to life. It’s a shame—I’m sure if there had been soldiers like you during the war, they would have worked for us.”

“Well, from what I know, my creator did originally make me as a request from the army,” Kunai said, aiming a sharp kick with her greaves to break his stance.

The ringleader dodged her blow. He was used to one-on-one battles and fights that took place in dark, cramped areas alike. Breaking his stance from the front seemed like an impossible task for Kunai.

“He wanted to make me into a soldier that couldn’t be killed,” she explained. “Unfortunately for him, I wouldn’t meet his demands—I have no intention of living my life as a soldier.”

“And yet you’re a bodyguard. Isn’t that so, Miss Undead?”

“That’s right. Since I’m undead, I can ignore my own body and become my master’s shield!”

Kunai raised her sword above her head. Just as she had told Glenn, her body was currently in peak condition. Her movements were far better than the last time she she had faced off against the bandits and it was all thanks to Glenn’s careful suturing.

However, the thing his sutures had helped with the most was the one thing that had made her suffer the most. The tormenting, all-consuming, grudge-filled voices that stemmed from her various body parts had disappeared almost entirely. The change wasn’t such that she could no longer hear them—the parts of her body still told her endlessly of their desires. However, Kunai was now able to brush them aside.

She wondered what had happened. It was like the disparate pieces that composed her body had finally all joined together—like she had finally become her own, unified self.

Kunai slashed downwards with her short sword. The bandit ringleader easily avoided the blow and countered with a roundhouse kick. Kunai’s right arm—the one that had been sewn together with nothing but male muscle—took the blow with ease, though she couldn’t help staggering a bit.

The ringleader took advantage of her slip and attacked the stumbling Kunai with three flashes of his sharp short sword.

“Hyah!” In the night air, even her breath was like a blade.

He seemed to think that he just had to hit her anyway he could. After all, even if his blows didn’t land, he could force her to into the water. Kunai took a step down the stairs—one step more and she would find herself in the swift currents of the canal.

However, even if she fell into the canal, she wouldn’t drown. That said, if she fell in, the ringleader wouldn’t hesitate to chase after Skadi and the others. She had to keep that from happening—she had to stop this man here, at any cost.

“Hmph!” Kunai let out a sharp breath and stepped forward.

Leading with her left hand holding the short sword, she darted in front of the bandit, prepared to thrust her sword into him. But naturally, right at that moment, a torrent of the ringleader’s rage came rushing at Kunai as he swung his sword.

“Fool!” he cried and without hesitation, slashed with his sword.

With a terrible tearing sound, Kunai’s left arm was cut cleanly off at the exact middle of her forearm. The shoddy sutures hadn’t just come loose—the bone and muscle itself had been torn apart.

Such a blow, being able to cut through bone with just a short sword, made it clear that the man’s skills were far from ordinary. On the other hand, quite an amount of time had passed since Kunai’s construction—it was possible her bones were just deteriorating. The ringleader kicked Kunai’s severed left arm away with contempt.

With a splash, the dead flesh sunk into the canals. Nevertheless, Kunai remained, looking nowhere else but forward.

“Now that you don’t have your weapon—!”

“You’re the fool,” Kunai cut in, never pausing in her forward rush.

She took another step—the final decisive step. By the time the bandit ringleader realized this, it was already too late.

“Did you think a corpse would be frightened from the loss of an arm or weapon?!”

Her right arm, gathered together with the muscle of five adult men—including muscle taken from the corpse of a bloodthirsty murderer—swung upwards and punched the bandit in the chin. An unmistakable knock-out punch.

Since her time in the arena, Kunai’s weapon of choice had been her fists—she preferred to fight empty-handed. For the bandit leader, her swooping uppercut had been final. His head shook, and his legs teetered unsteadily.

She had won—and yet, the very moment Kunai thought this, she realized the bandit’s eyes weren’t empty with death. His sword was in his hand, too.

“Da… Damn you!!” The ringleader’s voice rang out, anger and pain intertwined in it together.

Despite everything, his brilliant skill hadn’t dulled and now, he was aiming directly for Kunai’s neck.

Though even decapitation couldn’t kill her, her neck did hold one vulnerability: the scroll at its nape—the command scroll where the flesh-golem-summoning incantation was inscribed. If it were damaged, there was a possibility that her body might completely shut down.

She braced herself to protect the scroll if at all possible when, at that moment—

“Taaaaaaaaaaake this!”

A loud splash resounded, like a rush of gushing water coming down from upstream—at least, that was what it sounded like to Kunai.

“Blugh!”

In an instant, the ringleader’s body was thrown sideways. There was nothing he could have done to avoid the attack, which had come directly at him from his blind spot, a direction that neither Kunai nor the ringleader himself had anticipated.

The spray of water drenched Kunai, as well. As for the ringleader, it appeared it had taken the last of his strength to stand up and execute the last attack he had aimed at Kunai. In the wake of the surprise assault, he toppled on the stone staircase, completely soaked and unable to move. Kunai swiftly relieved him of his short sword.

“Honestly!” said a voice from the canal, the direction the assault had come in.

Kunai looked and saw Lulala, her head poking from the surface of the water and her brows furrowed in anger.

“Throwing garbage into the canals is prohibited!” she said. “Honestly!”

Gently, she passed Kunai her lost arm. The bodyguard couldn’t repress a wry smile that came to her face at Lulala’s blasé attitude towards her severed limb.

It had been Lulala who had launched the water attack.

“That’s quite a strange technique you’ve got there, Lulala,” Kunai remarked.

“Huh? This?” she said. “Anyone can do this, right?”

Lulala spread a hand out as wide as she could on the surface of the water. As she brought her fingers together, the membranous webs between them shut tightly. Then she drained the water into her hand and squeezed it out with great force, launching forth an unbelievable amount of water.

“Can humans not do this?”

“Well, they can shoot water if they put their hands together, but…it doesn’t come close to that much power.”

“Hmmm. I get it, then—it’s because I have webs that I can shoot out so much water. None of it leaks out, either.”

That must be why, Kunai thought.

The bandit ringleader had resisted Kunai’s blow, initially. And though he had ultimately fallen unconscious due to the crushing punch Kunai had delivered to his chin, he had still been teetering for a moment. It had been the force of the mermaid’s water blast that pushed him down, just before he slipped from consciousness.

In other words, Kunai had been saved thanks to Lulala’s help.

“Thank you, Lulala,” she said.

“Eh heh heh!”

“However,” Kunai went on, “why are you still here? You were told to run away!”

Holding the short sword in her mouth, Kunai took off the bandit’s mask. The long cloth seemed perfect for tying someone up. She bound both his arms, ensuring he wouldn’t be able to move easily even if he woke up. She tied the cloth in such a way that, if he tried to force himself loose, he would break his bones doing so.

“You know how dangerous it is here, right? Both the Lady Draco-ness and I have already relied on you for help. That’s why we don’t want to expose you to any unnecessary danger. Got it?”

“B-but, if I wasn’t here then you’d be in danger, too!”

“The risks I take on and the risks you take on have completely different consequences. And when I report on the situation, I’ll be the one who has to apologize to Lady Draconess and that doctor for putting you in danger.”

“W-waaaaah!” Lulala was embarrassed. It appeared that even though she wasn’t at all shaken by the chopped-off arm, she was scared of Kunai’s enraged tone of voice.

“Now then, it’s lecture time!”

“Waaaaah! I hate those!”

“Don’t be childish!” Kunai said. “ Listen, if the worst happened and you got injured, do you have any idea how worried that doctor would be?!”

“Huh…? Dr. Glenn would be…?” When she spoke his name, Lulala’s cheeks grew red. Her attitude was distinctly different from just a moment previous.

Watching her, Kunai felt something, as well. Her chest, after all, had belonged to a young girl. Her heart still pined for stories of love, and it sympathized with Lulala. The throbbing heartbeats Kunai felt from within her chest were noisy, though they were nothing more than a trick of her senses. Kunai’s heart had stopped beating long before she was created. Even so, the romance-obsessed heart of the young girl had sensed a premonition of love and—still yearning for love itself—refused to stop pulsing.

It had nothing at all to do with Kunai’s own emotions. The young girl before her clearly couldn’t hide her infatuation at even the mere mention of the doctor’s name. But that didn’t mean Kunai thought anything of him. Well. Perhaps she felt just the slightest bit charmed.

“After everything’s done, you’re going to apologize properly to my mistress and Dr. Glenn, got it?” Kunai said.

“Okaaaay!”

In the end, the emotions that had prompted Kunai to give Lulala a long lecture about her actions evaporated. She felt exhausted and plopped herself down where she stood with a thud, letting out a long sigh.

Lulala swam in the canal for a while, but upon tiring, began humming a song. Her form as she hummed along was most becoming of the songstress. The golden reflection of her scales in the moonlight delighted the eyes of Kunai, who sighed.

It had been decades since she had been created. Her appearance aside, Kunai was no longer young—not mentally. But at the thought of the young girl’s love, an uncharacteristic smile rose to Kunai’s face.

However, there were still pressing matters to be seen to.

After checking the ringleader’s restraints once again, Kunai ordered Lulala to flee for good, and then quickly followed after Skadi and the others.

 

***

 

With Skadi leading the way, Glenn ran through the bandits’ hideout.

Besides the ringleader, there were a number of sentries in the hideout as well. But they were all knocked out before they could even brandish the weapons in their hands.

“Hyah!” Sapphee exhaled and wielded her tail.

Lamia were excellent to have around for surprise attacks. The inside of the hideout was dimly lit, but Sapphee swept through it as if they were fighting in the afternoon sun, brandishing her tail like a whip or wrapping it around the bandits’ necks and throttling them as she forced them to the ground.

Within, the hideout looked much like the front of a stronghold. Weapons were placed everywhere, and there were sentries posted in the passageways. Knocking out the guards with her tail, Sapphee and the others continued further inside.

“This place is pretty big…”

“It’s because the slums were completely sunk under water,” Sapphee said. “It’s hard to wrap your head around how much excess space there is above the water. So much neglected space shouldn’t be the norm… And to make matters worse, the bandits have been using it to suit their own needs.”

Glenn seemed to hear an air of irony in Sapphee’s words. Running out in front of them, Skadi didn’t seem to pay any mind to their conversation as she waved her golden tail back and forth, like a guide telling Glenn and Sapphee where to go.

Turning the corridor, Glenn and the others kept running.

The inside of the hideout had clearly been provisioned and equipped in preparation for an attack from an outside force. The weapons that could be found everywhere pointed to this. On the other hand, however, the number of guards was clearly low. When they heard what sounded like angry voices off in the distance, Glenn figured that the Guard Patrol was moving in with an assault on the front of the hideout.

Because the bandits had their hands full answering the attack in front, they hadn’t noticed Skadi coming in from the back entrance of the hideout, via the Waterways. Well, in truth, the bandits’ ringleader had noticed, but Glenn was sure he would be kept at bay by Kunai.

When Skadi launched a surprise attack, she also brandished her tail to fight with. Peeking out from under her robe, she rained attacks down on a sentry and knocked him out before he could make a sound. Skadi Dragenfelt, rumored to have no rivals in the arena, had shown him her immense fighting skill. Although her opponents were bandits, Glenn still couldn’t help worrying about them.

With the help of the lamia and the dragon, Glenn arrived deep inside the bandit’s hideout without difficulty.

“…Is this it?” he asked.

Her face concealed as always, Skadi gave a slight nod. In addition to being unable to read her emotions, Glenn couldn’t communicate with her through conversation, so grasping her intentions was proving difficult.

Resolved, Glenn opened the door.

The room beyond was dark. The only illumination came from a lamp that hung from the ceiling. Lacking oil, it was a rather weak light source. The illuminated area was small, and frightened eyes shone on the other side of the darkness.

It was a group of young girls; they stared at Glenn with stiff shoulders. They were in the middle of their teenage years; all of them looked to be either around the same age as Lulala or a little bit younger. At first glance, the monsters looked practically human, but their hands were exactly like bird’s wings. The fact that many of them were quite small was a distinctive characteristic of the harpy, as their growth period usually occurs around age fifteen.

According to Glenn’s knowledge on the subject, that was about the same time that they started ovulating. They were likely all around the same age, as being of a similar age made it convenient for the bandits to make off with them. It was also possible that the people buying the eggs from the bandits wanted the eggs of girls in the middle of their teenage years.

The thought of it all made Glenn nauseous.

Before he came here, he had been thinking he might have something in common with the type of people who would buy these harpy eggs. But when he looked at the young harpy girls, scared and locked up in this dark room, he felt anger and disgust well up in him. Feeling such fury proved to Glenn that he was still, in fact, a doctor.

Thank goodness, he thought. He could still throw out his chest and declare himself an ally to these harpy girls.

“No need to be scared,” Sapphee greeted the girls with a smile. Just as at the clinic, the expression she used to relieve patients calmed the hearts of all who saw it.

“This is Miss Skadi Dragenfelt,” Sapphee said. “She has come from the Lindworm City Council to rescue all of you.”

Skadi lightly bowed her head, but her face remained hidden. Glenn wondered if the harpies would trust Skadi like this. He was unsure how much the harpies knew about Skadi to begin with, having been kidnapped from distant places and brought here.

As Glenn expected, they still seemed confused. The harpy that appeared to be the oldest among them raised her head slightly.

“You came to save us?”

“Yes,” Sapphee said. “Right now, the Guard Patrol is storming in. You’re okay now.”

In all honesty, Glenn thought that the guards were probably still in the middle of bringing the hideout under their control, and there were likely still bandits around—but there was no need to tell the young harpy girls that.

While Sapphee greeted the harpies, Glenn observed them. He had expected them to be in a far worse state, having been imprisoned, but their clothes appeared to be no different than the clothing most citizens of Lindworm wore. The room itself was perfectly clean, and it looked like the harpies were bathing regularly, as he saw no dirt or grime in their hair or on their skin. They were, after all, in the Waterways, so they could get as much water as they wanted and bathing was a necessary ritual for harpies. Keeping their feathers clean was a very important part of a harpy’s daily life.

Thus, it appeared that whoever had managed their hygiene had been attentive to detail. Though their kidnappers were bandits, the care they had taken of their prisoners had been thorough. Glenn was, admittedly, a bit surprised.

However, he couldn’t overlook the fraying of the harpies’ feathers. There was no doubt that the psychological damage from their imprisonment was exhibiting itself physically. They harpies lacked the oils and fats that would normally be secreted into throughout their wings, and as such, the feathers themselves had been damaged.

Even so, though it was all better than Glenn had thought it would be, he nevertheless came to the conclusion that the harpies were not healthy.

The eldest harpy spoke up. “Um, excuse me…”

“Yes?” Glenn asked.

“This girl, she, um, said her stomach hurts…” She made a little room and Glenn saw the she was hiding the younger harpies behind her back, like she was protecting them. He thought the fact that she would tell them this was proof she had put given them her trust.

In the center of where the harpies were huddled together, their bodies rigid, an especially tiny girl was squatting on the ground, clutching her stomach. Her face was terribly pale, Glenn could tell even in the dim light of the lamp. He immediately knelt right next to her to observe her condition.

“Sapphee, bring me the light.”

“Okay.”

Sapphee lifted up the lamp hanging from the ceiling with her tail. She moved the light source to make it easier for Glenn to examine the girl.

“Ugh…Oww…” The harpy whimpered

“Are you okay?” Glenn asked. “Where does it hurt?”

The harpy had a greasy sweat showing on her forehead. She was biting her lip in pain; her agonized expression was not normal. Glenn could tell that something wasn’t right and felt that asking the girl questions wouldn’t get him very far. So instead, he directed his questions to the older harpy.

“When did she first complain about the pain?”

“Huh…? Today, a little after lunch… Actually, no—she only started feeling this much pain just a little while ago…”

“Pardon me. I’m going to lay you down for a bit,” Glenn said to the little girl.

Among the close observation of the other harpies, Glenn lay the patient on her side. As he did so, Glenn immediately noticed that her abdomen was swollen, as if she had just finished eating.

“Sapphee, cloth!”

“Yes, Doctor… Is a blanket okay?”

“That’s fine. Thank you!”

Glenn took the blanket from Sapphee and quickly used it to cover the young harpy girl. At the same time, he took a clean piece of cotton cloth from his bag.

“Bite down on this,” he told the harpy.

“Nh… Hnghh…”

Glenn forced the cloth into the harpy’s mouth, giving her something she could bite down on, so she didn’t bit off her tongue from the excessive pain.

“Sorry. I’m going to feel around your stomach. Raise your hand if you feel any pain.”

“Ngh…Nrgh!”

Glenn didn’t know how much of what he was saying was getting through to her. She might have been listening, but it seemed she didn’t have the composure to answer him.

“Excuse me.”

Glenn slid his hands from underneath the blanket that covered the harpy and felt the her stomach.

It was a swelling, after all, and the distention of her stomach felt oddly firm. With it, Glenn was able to confirm that her swelling wasn’t caused by an abnormality in her stomach and intestines. The firmness actually felt familiar. It seemed to span from her abdomen, all the way down between her legs.

“Nggggh…Nh! Hgnh…”

“It’s okay. It’s going to be okay,” Glenn reassured her, thinking quickly.

A young harpy girl, taken prisoner, whose eggs were being sold illegally…

Although their living conditions were better than he had predicted they would be, her life in captivity was certainly a great source of stress. The harpies’ rough and coarse feathers proved this.

“Doctor? What do you think…?” Sapphee asked.

“I’ve got it!” he exclaimed. “Her oviduct is blocked. It’s become impacted.”

At the unfamiliar words, Skadi silently cocked her head to the side. Glenn realized her confused gesture was likely because it was the first time she had seen anything of this sort.

“An impacted oviduct is a condition found in small birds and snakes,” he explained. “It’s when stress or other kinds of hardship keeps their eggs from coming out smoothly, causing them to build up inside their body. Naturally, the condition can also be seen in lamia and harpies, and other egg-laying monster species.”

Dragons were born from eggs, as well—but perhaps because they were such powerful creatures, Glenn imagined that they did not have to deal with impacted oviducts and the like.

“There are a number of symptoms,” he continued, “from swelling caused by the blocked oviduct, to intense pain. In the worst cases, the oviduct can rupture, or eggs inside of the oviduct can burst, causing death. It’s a very dangerous disorder.”

Naturally, during a harpy’s normal daily life, they would never experience this sort of stress. Glenn was sure the girl’s condition was a result of stress building up in her body, due to her imprisonment. Considering the intensity of her pain, it was clear that Glenn needed to force the eggs to discharge—and immediately. There was no way Glenn could bring patient back to the clinic in her current state. Beyond that, they were on top of the Waterways—even Kunai had said there wasn’t any way for them to get back.

“I will begin treatment here,” Glenn said.

“Doctor?”

“Sapphee. Keep watch of the area with Miss Skadi.”

Without thinking twice, Glenn removed the harpy’s clothes. He tried to hide her under the blanket as much as he could, tried not to look at her naked body, yet still removed everything she wore without hesitation, including her underwear. As the patient couldn’t move on her own, Glenn had to undress her himself.

“I’m going to massage your stomach,” he told her. “It’ll be okay. Your body is going to be able to lay eggs properly. Remain calm.”

Glenn spread the harpy’s legs and made her get into a position suitable for laying eggs, then sat down before her.

With the area between her legs hidden by the blanket from those around her, Glenn slowly touched her bare stomach.

“Breathe in—yes, like that. Now breathe out slowly. That’s it. Relax.”

“Doctor.” There was tension in Sapphee’s words.

Outside the room, Glenn could hear men’s angry voices and the sounds of numerous feet.

“Doctor, outside—the bandits.”

Glenn was too focused to listen to Sapphee’s warning. Rubbing the harpy’s stomach and talking carefully to her, he was already absorbed with thoughts of how to save her life.

 

***

 

Some diseases were incurable.

No matter how much of a doctor one was, incurable diseases that absolutely cannot be treated existed. One such disease was death. Treating a fatal disease wasn’t within a doctor’s power, though there were legends of doctors transcending death itself, and provoking the god of the underworld.

Sapphee was suffering from an incurable disease.

She hadn’t told Glenn. It was impossible for Glenn or even their master, Cthulhy, to treat her illness. As such, there was no need for her to say anything about it.

“Hyah!” She brandished her proud tail at the bandits.

It was a confusing melee. The assault from the front by the Guard Patrol had thrown the bandits into a panic. They were planning on running away via the Waterways, but the boats at the back entrance had been set adrift by Kunai. Without knowing this, however, the bandits had broken into the harpies’ room to try and bring them all with them as they escaped.

As the source of the bandit’s precious commodities, the harpies were important to the bandits. They had come to take back the harpies anyway they could.

“Hmph!” Sapphee swung her stout tail and aimed a blow at the bandits breaking into the room.

In a similar fashion, Skadi threw herself at one of the bandits and sent him flying. She slammed him into the wall with a strength that would be impossible to imagine coming from her tiny frame. Sapphee supposed that nothing less was to be expected from one the dragonfolk.

As Sapphee repelled the bandits, she glanced over at Glenn. He had opened the harpy’s legs and was desperately trying to force her to lay the eggs that were trapped inside of her. He was massaging her stomach and dribbling oil in between her legs as lubricant to forcefully discharge the hard-shelled egg.

He wasn’t even aware of the bandits charging into the room. Completely and single-mindedly focused on the treatment, he took no notice of his surroundings.

Of course, this meant that he was completely defenseless. Sapphee was sure that if she and Skadi weren’t there, he would have quickly been stabbed by one of the bandits’ short swords.

Dr. Glenn…

Sapphee lithely dodged a bandit’s slash.

The bandit’s movements were shrewd. Surely because he knew his opponent was a lamia, he refused to let down his guard. He launched another attack with his short sword. Sapphee batted the blade away with her palm, and with the bandit’s stance thus broken, she launched an attack by shoving the heel of her palm into his stomach.

As he collapsed, unable to endure the assault, Sapphee struck him with her tail for the finishing blow.

She wondered what Glenn would think, looking at her flowing series of attacks.

…Dr. Glenn!

From behind her, she sensed an intent to kill—to kill Glenn!

The bandit probably thought he would take Glenn by surprise, but Sapphee had realized what was happening. She immobilized the bandit’s wrists with her bare hands and coiled her tail around his wrists. She hefted the bandit up, twisting her tail, and slammed him against the floor.

Her movements were clearly not those of an amateur. She could tell that, next to her, Skadi was looking at her in surprise. Even through her veil, the dragon had probably recognized that Sapphee’s movements were those of a warrior—and not just that, but that she was a warrior who excelled in battles where she was outnumbered.

As she fought, Sapphee thought back on the reason that she was able to drive back the group of bandits.

The Neikes family was known among monsters to be a family of famous pharmacists. The lamia had been well-versed in drug preparation for generations. But, from another perspective, it meant that they also excelled at making poisons.

Many people considered poison and medicinal drugs to be separate things entirely. However, drugs and medicine essentially had the same basic structure. If just one step went wrong in the creation process of a drug, it could easily transform into something toxic and harmful. Even proper medicine could become toxic if the dosage was too high.

Most medicinal herbs used in anesthesia were associated with a high risk of dependency and addiction. A drug could become a poison simply by changing the way it was used. Being proficient with medicine thus meant one was also proficient with poison.

The Neikes family wandered across the monsters’ territory creating medicine and selling it—but they also carried out missions to murder important people as assassins, using their poison.

Medicine traders on the surface. Assassins behind the scenes. Such had been the Neikes family’s business for generations.

The lamia’s unique ability to sense people by their body temperatures in dark places, and the silent, ever-changing, and versatile qualities of their serpentine form (which even made it possible for them to lie in wait in ceilings) were all distinct physical characteristics of the lamia that made them well suited to being assassins.

As a matter of course, while Saphentite learned from her mother the knowledge of the Neikes family’s specially made medicines, she was also taught how to handle the poisons and hand-to-hand combat techniques used by assassins.

When the war was at its most intense, the lamia of the Neikes family would use their medicine-peddling work as a cover to wander from battlefield to battlefield, secretly assassinating people essential to the human war effort. No matter how big an army was, the death of its commanding officers and famous generals would greatly diminished its fighting strength.

Saphentite herself had practically never utilized the assassination techniques she had been taught. The war had come to an end while she was still a child.

There was only one occasion when her assassination techniques were necessary—but even then she ultimately hadn’t used them.

In the past, when her family was exchanging hostages with the Litbeit family, she had been sent off to the Litbeits as a hostage only on the surface. Ostensibly, the exchange had been a part of the negotiations between the Neikes family and the Litbeit family to establish a trade route.

However, the reality of the situation was different.

If the negotiations had failed, Sapphee’s role would have been to kill the humans of the Litbeit family, in order to erase all evidence that any negotiations had ever taken place. In the end, everything had moved forward, and she never had to use her skills as an assassin, but…

Sapphee wondered. Even if her skills as an assassin actually had become necessary, would she really have been able to kill the humans of the Litbeit family? Suffering from her incurable disease, would she really have been able to do that?

One of the bandits rushed right up into Sapphee’s space, short sword in hand.

“Too slow!” she said and, using her own tail as a shield, she blocked the attack. The proud white scales on her tail could stop an attack from the likes of a small short sword. The blade did cut into her scales a bit, giving her Sapphee a slight twinge of pain—but at most it was like the ache one got from being stabbed with a splinter under one’s nail. Sapphee didn’t worry about the attack and conversely swung a counterattack at the bandit with her tail. He recoiled as his sword was snatched in her grip.

The bandit was easily dropped with a swift blow to the head.

“Was that…the last of them?!” she wondered aloud

No, she thought, it’s not over.

The bandits came in one right after the other. Sapphee didn’t know exactly how many bandits the hideout held, but she and Skadi had dealt with close to ten of them already, yet more were still coming through the door.

However, at that moment, Sapphee felt her vision shake violently.

“Eh?!…Huh?!”

She was sure that she hadn’t been hit with any attacks.

And yet, her strength had left her body. She tried to say something, but her tongue was numb and wouldn’t move.

Sapphee glanced down at the sword still piercing her tail. The blade was coated in something—a fact that she hadn’t realized until just then.

Crap…! It’s covered in poison!

For their battle in the cramped hideout, the short sword-wielding bandits had coated their blades in poison.

It was an assumption that should have come to her naturally. With her consciousness growing faint, she desperately reached out her hands. Glenn was just beyond her reach, fully focused on treating the harpy girl.

Glenn Litbeit.

Ever since being sent to his family as a hostage, Glenn and Sapphee had been linked by fate.

Doctor… Run!

Glenn was desperate to save the harpy. No matter how many bandits came into the room, he didn’t pay attention to them. Sapphee tried to raise her voice and call out to him, but her needlessly long tongue didn’t move in the slightest. She couldn’t warn him.

Sapphee wondered if the poison was invading her brain.

Even at times like this, she thought to herself that Glenn looked cool, concentrated fully on the treatment with that earnest expression of his. As the color faded from her mind, Glenn’s form burned into her retinas right up until the moment she lost consciousness.

There were two illnesses that even a doctor cannot cure.

The first was a fatal disease. The other was a fever brought on by love.

Of all the many skilled doctors that had existed throughout the world, there hadn’t been a single record of anyone treating lovesickness. Sapphee knew very well that the intense fever that Glenn brought about in her was an illness that even he would never be able to treat.

But that was fine. She didn’t want to be cured.