Case 01: The Fatigued Scylla

Monster Girl Doctor Volume ZERO — LNCrawler · All chapters

CASE 01:
The Fatigued Scylla

Lindworm. Whe n one spoke the name of this city, they spoke about a former fortress town. During the previous war, it had been a stronghold, built on the front lines of the human forces. The fortress had barely any facilities that weren’t expressively dedicated to combat. However, when Skadi came, she gave the fortress town the name of Lindworm and remade it to be suitable for civilians to live in.

The arena had formerly been a place where prisoners were forced to fight for entertainment. The central city council building had been used for the leading generals to gather and hold war councils. Though these various buildings and facilities were rebuilt and remodeled, their general shape remained as it had been during the war. It had been decided that the buildings were so massive that it was better to use them than destroy them.

The Central Hospital had also been repurposed from one of the military facilities. It had formerly been a military hospital, but was heavily remodeled after the war and changed into one for the citizens of the city. It had been a long and difficult process to court a doctor of monster medicine to come to the hospital, but in the end Cthulhy Squele was named director and the Central Hospital was given its current structure.

As almost a sort of bonus, Glenn also opened up his own clinic, but that wasn’t a necessary detail to add.

Cthulhy’s shrewdness was plain for anybody to see. There wasn’t another hospital on the entire continent that could compete with the Central Hospital when it came to practicing monster medicine. With its state-of-the-art equipment and Cthulhy’s brilliant pupils, the hospital had a proven track record of treating and healing monsters with both rare and life-threatening diseases.

It would be appropriate to say that, as a town doctor, Glenn’s intended role was completely different. This was the first time in a very long while that Glenn had come to the Central Hospital. For a short period of time before opening his own practice, he had actually been a resident working there.

“We haven’t really come here since opening up the clinic, have we?” said Glenn.

“That’s because we’ve been busy. Besides, all the things we’ve been doing were forced on us by Miss Cthulhy. We haven’t asked for any help from the Central Hospital, after all,” Sapphee replied, clearly displeased with the unreasonable tasks that occasionally came to them from Cthulhy. The two women had never gotten along to begin with, even when Glenn and Sapphee were in the Academy together.

They continued through the enormous entrance. As to be expected, the monsters there were the first to catch Glenn’s eye. At the Central Hospital, there were a large number of beds prepared for patients. Both the patients and those working to treat them were all monsters. It was proof that Glenn was about the only praiseworthy human who had aspired to master monster medicine.

There wasn’t another single human to be found, but Glenn was used to such an environment and didn’t really pay it any mind. Ever since he enrolled at the Monster Academy, he had grown used to feeling the odd-species-out in a crowded room.

A nurse passing by bowed her head. Glenn remembered that she had been a senior pupil of Cthulhy’s when he had been a resident here. They hadn’t been particularly close, but she waved toward Sapphee with a smile on her face. If anything, the nurse had been better friends with Sapphee.

“I guess since everyone knows our faces, we don’t even need to go through reception,” Sapphee said with a carefree tone to her voice. Normally, it would be difficult just to meet with the hospital director, but as Cthulhy’s personal pupils, no one questioned Glenn and Sapphee.

“Will Miss Skadi be okay?” Sapphee asked.

“I’m worried, but I’m sure she’ll be fine… I hope,” Glenn replied.

The ceremony had been at noon that day. Skadi had collapsed and was carried to the Central Hospital that afternoon. Glenn had given her emergency first aid, but all the follow-up treatments had been under the Central Hospital’s jurisdiction, and he hadn’t been allowed to participate. This was because Skadi’s regular doctor was her old friend—Cthulhy Squele.

Once the sun went down, Glenn and Sapphee made their way toward the Central Hospital once again. Although Skadi’s primary doctor was their teacher, Glenn was the one who had happened to be present when Skadi collapsed. It was natural for him to be worried about her condition.

Glenn also wanted to see the teacher who had taught him medicine, and who he hadn’t seen in close to a year. Of course, as the patient, Skadi was the top priority, but Glenn thought it was okay to take the opportunity to enjoy a reunion with his teacher. Despite living in the same city, they were both so busy that they had almost no opportunity to see one another.

“Dr. Glenn, I’m just going to say this now, but…” Sapphee said with a grim look on her face. She had been in a foul mood ever since they arrived at the hospital. “Don’t get carried away just because you’re reuniting with Dr. Cthulhy. Got it?”

“I’m telling you, it’s fine, Sapphee. Dr. Cthulhy isn’t interested in me anymore, and besides, she’s worried about Skadi right now. We’re not going to be able to have a nice long chat or anything,” replied Glenn.

“I certainly hope that’s the case.”

The hospital director’s room was at the end of a corridor. Glenn hadn’t seen any patients in a while, so he assumed this area had been portioned off for the clerical and administrative functions of the hospital. The number of employees at the hospital dwarfed their small clinic, managed by just the two of them.

From the hallway, they had a good view of the courtyard. It was well maintained, and even equipped with a fountain. It was smaller than the fountain in the central plaza where Lulala sang, but Glenn thought it must have been built to try and improve the atmosphere inside the hospital’s walls.

Not only that, he thought, the water was essential. Even for Cthulhy.

“Are you in, Doctor? It’s Glenn… Saphentite is here with me as well,” Glenn said, knocking on the hospital director’s office door. It was high quality, made from oak.

“Please, come in,” said a voice from beyond the door.

“Thank you,” Glenn replied. He was seeing his mentor for the first time in a long while. With a mixture of nervousness and excitement, he opened the heavy wooden door.

The first thing he saw was tentacles.

“Oh my, it’s been so long, Glenn…!”

The tentacles stuck themselves to Glenn’s face. They were unmistakably the arms of an octopus, but these sprouted from the scylla’s lower body, and as such it was more accurate to call the long, sucker-equipped tentacles legs rather than arms.

Whether they were referred to as arms or legs, the long tentacles tightly stuck themselves to Glenn’s arms and face. The suckers began sticking themselves all over him, starting with his shoulders, then feeling his neck and face. Despite his best efforts to get used to the sensation of the suckers squeezing up against his skin, he had never quite managed to do so.

He thought she must have just been in the water, as her tentacles were slightly damp. The suction power of the suckers was extraordinary—enough to leave red marks on his skin even when Cthulhy made sure to restrain herself. Although he could say the affectionate physicality was nostalgic, Glenn still felt it was a little much.

“Dr. Cthulhy…!” Sapphee shouted. “You’re such a terrible teacher… Knock it off and stop coiling yourself around Dr. Glenn this instant!”

“Oh, Saphentite, you’re here too? You can just leave now. I’ve got something to say to my brilliant pupil here,” Cthulhy replied.

“Absolutely not!” said Sapphee. With a look of anger, she tried to rip off the tentacles that had stuck themselves to Glenn. However, Glenn himself knew very well how frivolous it was to try. The tentacles that grew out of the scyllas’ lower bodies were a mass of pure muscle, and very powerful. Once the suckers were stuck to something, they didn’t remove themselves very easily. It was something he had come to understand very well during his time as Cthulhy’s pupil, when she would stroke him with her tentacles without mercy.

“Glenn,” said Cthulhy.

“Yes?” Glenn replied.

“You’ve gotten kind of old,” Cthulhy declared in a somewhat appalled tone of voice, as her tentacles separated themselves from Glenn with a pop. Still only seventeen, Glenn would never have expected to be told he had grown old. But then again, that was the kind of person his mentor was.

Cthulhy Squele, the authority on monster medicine. She was without rivals at the Academy, but one could say that she had a little problem—or rather, a big problem—with her personality, her attitude, and her behavior.

“It’s been some time, my cute and darling little pupils,” said Cthulhy.

“It’s been…quite a long time, Doctor,” Glenn replied.

Cthulhy was still a very beautiful woman. Molting species of monsters never showed any aging in their skin in the first place. Perched on her intelligent-looking visage was a high quality pair of glasses. Paired with her white coat, she had the appearance of a genuinely brilliant woman doctor. The truth was that she was indeed quite a clever woman.

Then there were the eight tentacles that poked out from under her short skirt. Her tentacles had a striking resemblance to those of an octopus and wriggled at will to help Cthulhy’s movement, working both as arms and legs. Those that had just released Glenn slapped and stuck to the floor as if to make sure it would support her, carrying Cthulhy’s body along.

The tentacles were the scyllas’ most distinctive characteristic. The scylla were a combination of a human-like vertebrate with the distinctive characteristics of the invertebrate octopus, something rarely seen even among the many species of monsters. There were many mysteries surrounding how their bodies were constructed and no complete explanation for how they came to be. Because of this, they were often the subject of ridicule and said to be descendants of a malevolent god.

While Glenn wouldn’t say that she was the descendant of a malevolent god, Cthulhy herself did have a malicious side to her.

“Yes, yes, allow me to give you a proper greeting as well,” said Sapphee. “It has truly been quite some time, Dr. Cthulhy. It appears you have your sights on Glenn just like always… You’re a middle-aged woman and you still haven’t fixed your bad habit of trying to seduce young boys? Don’t you think it’s about time you get that checked out? That cradle-robbing sickness of yours, I mean.”

“Oh, be quiet. Don’t go nitpicking at other people’s propensities. I can see that you still haven’t fixed that crafty, overly-jealous personality of yours either, have you?” Cthulhy replied.

“If someone didn’t make passes at him, I wouldn’t have to be so jealous.”

“Oh my, please do forgive me. I just want to cherish my cute little pupils, you see.”

“I’m pretty sure that I’m one of your cute little pupils too, you know.”

The two of them were smiling, but their relationship was the absolute worst. Glenn believed they had had a normal student-teacher relationship when they were at the Academy, but once Glenn arrived at the school, things grew oddly complicated between them. Glenn was an old friend of Sapphee’s, and Cthulhy had had her eyes set on the young fourteen-year-old, so he imagined it would have been more unusual if they had gotten along.

Despite all of this, Cthulhy had effectively taught them medicine, and Sapphee had inherited Cthulhy’s knowledge of pharmacology. They may have had a complicated relationship, but there was no question that Sapphee respected Cthulhy as a doctor.

One would have never known it from the attitude she took toward Cthulhy, however. Even now, Sapphee’s snake tail and Cthulhy’s octopus legs seemed on the verge of coming to blows with one another. They’d always gotten into quarrels with each other during their time at the academy.

“Even so, you were so cute back then, Glenn, and now you’re all grown up, aren’t you?” Cthulhy remarked.

“It’s been three years since I first entered the Academy, after all,” replied Glenn. Although still young, he was an adult. For someone of Cthulhy’s disposition, this was something to lament, but Glenn realized that Cthulhy was just the type of woman to mourn his maturation at their long-awaited reunion.

“Well, I’ll still welcome you in, at least. How is the clinic?” Cthulhy asked.

“Not so bad, we’re getting by somehow… The two of us,” replied Glenn.

“I’m going to remind you that I didn’t give you that clinic just for you two to enjoy some lover’s tryst, you know. If the two of you neglect your duty to treat your monster patients and carry on with one another, then I’ll ask you to leave,” said Cthulhy.

“As if we even had the time for that…” said Glenn. Just that winter they’d been frantic in trying to deal with the cold epidemic. Though Sapphee and Glenn had been able to get through the busy season, to be perfectly honest, they hadn’t had the time to get involved in anything that wasn’t related to their primary jobs.

Perhaps Glenn had wanted Cthulhy’s praise at their long-awaited reunion—to hear her say that they had done well or that they had really worked hard. But his strict mentor only cast a sharp, penetrating glare from behind the lenses of her glasses.

Even now, it made Glenn feel like he was back in class and taking one of her pop quizzes.

“Dr. Cthulhy, as for why we’re here…” Sapphee said, moving the conversation forward.

“I know. You’re here about Skadi, right? I wasn’t able to attend the ceremony, but it was lucky that the two of you happened to be there. She was carried here immediately,” said Cthulhy.

“You couldn’t make it? I’m sure you just thought it was a pain to go,” Sapphee responded.

“Well, after all, the ceremony’s got nothing to do with me, does it?” sighed the honest Cthulhy. Her tentacles squirmed, making a sort of shoulder-shrugging motion.

“Miss Skadi… What kind of illness is it?” Glenn asked.

“A very serious one,” replied Cthulhy.

“Can you give me any more detailed information?”

“I’m sorry, Glenn. As Skadi’s primary physician, it’s not something I can talk about lightly. However, it is an extremely rare case, and there isn’t anything else like it. Yes, rather than serious, perhaps I should say it’s…strange,” said Cthulhy.

She was the leading, most prominent authority when it came to monster medicine. Originally, she’d researched the evolution of monsters, to try and clear the stigma associated with her species—that the scylla were the descendents of a malevolent god. Through that process, she ended up conducting research on each species’ stages of evolution and how their bodies were constructed. The scylla were a species that were covetous of knowledge to begin with, enough to be known as the “sages of the deep ocean.”

Now that Glenn thought about it, she had researched dragons as well. Glenn thought that dragons might possess the most primitive bodies of all monsterkind. In any event, although there were many things about the origins of monsterkind that weren’t clear, Cthulhy’s duty was that of a researcher—a scholar.

She had become a doctor because she gained extraordinary knowledge of medicine and biology through her research, but despite medicine not being her actual specialty, that she had been able to become the director of the hospital proved just how capable of a woman she was.

And yet, this disease was rare enough to make a woman like her say she’d never seen anything like it.

“I heard Skadi collapsed in the middle of the ceremony. Is that right?” Cthulhy asked.

“Y-yes,” replied Glenn.

“Her disease is already eating into her entire body. The biggest danger is her heart. This time, she just fainted from low blood pressure, but…there’s a high possibility that next time, the drop in blood pressure could induce heart failure. No, if anything I’d say it’s a miracle she hadn’t collapsed in front of anyone before this.”

“Heart failure?! So it is some disease of the heart, then?” Glenn asked.

“That’s right,” Cthulhy replied. “She’s had it for years. Dragons are troublesome creatures. Even if they come down with illnesses that would kill a normal species, their bodies are so strong that the disease can’t quite kill them. Conversely, that only serves to make the time they spend suffering even longer.”

Up until just recently, Skadi had been quite active in her work as the council’s representative. Glenn wondered how it was possible for her to do everything she had done while her heart had such a disease. Even if she was a dragon, she shouldn’t have been able to be so reckless—but no, Glenn thought, it was precisely because she was a dragon that it was possible.

Be that as it may, Glenn was sure it had been tough for her. Just as Cthulhy had said, she must have been in considerable pain.

“Ah, Miss Cthulhy?”

“What is it, Saphentite?” Cthulhy replied.

“Could it be that the reason Miss Skadi is covering her face…is because she doesn’t want those around her to become aware of her illness?”

Cthulhy gave no answer. Her silence only confirmed that Sapphee was right on the mark. Cthulhy scowled and began chewing on the end of a tentacle. It was something she would do when she was irritated. Just like humans chewed their nails, scylla chewed on their arms.

“It’s nothing that I can talk about.” There was a tone of refusal in Cthulhy’s words. “It’s not an illness that is easily cured. Furthermore, a rare dragon disease is beyond even my ability to treat. For the time being, she’ll manage, as long as she drinks plenty of nutrients and gets a good amount of rest. She should be waking up soon. But in order to cure her completely, I need to strike at the source.”

“Are you saying…you don’t know what the cause of her disease is?” Glenn asked.

“Not at all—the cause is clear to see. After all, that’s—” Cthulhy started and covered her mouth with a tentacle. A clear signal she was about to carelessly let a secret slip out. She heaved a big sigh and straightened her glasses. “Whoops—that was close. My cute students have gotten me saying too much.”

“Dr. Cthulhy, we want to know more about Skadi’s condition… We came because we thought we might be of some help.”

“Just forget about it and return to your clinic. Listen, the real problem isn’t the disease. That’s why there just isn’t anything I can do about it. As long as that stubborn Skadi doesn’t change her thoughts on the matter, there isn’t any sort of treatment you or I could give her,” Cthulhy said, her tentacles smacking and sticking themselves to the floor as they carried her body further into the room to her director’s desk. Piled on the desk was a mountain of documents. Becoming the director of a major hospital meant her job had become enormous and encompassed many different things. There was an octopus pot installed in the corner of the room. Cthulhy didn’t even have time to go home and was sleeping here in her office.

Glenn wasn’t the only one who was busy. He should have known her absence at the ceremony wasn’t simply because of laziness.

“Listen, this much I’ll tell you. So after I say this, I want you to leave.” There was an affectionate tone to Cthulhy’s voice. “The biggest problem is that Skadi has absolutely no intention of trying to treat her illness,” she declared as she locked eyes with Glenn. While she may have appeared to be a strict, very hands-off mentor, in her heart Cthulhy thought very tenderly of her pupils. She couldn’t neglect her students and was a very caring teacher.

Glenn looked Sapphee in the eyes. She silently shook her head. There wasn’t anything the two of them could do. Skadi had no intentions of getting better—Glenn wanted to ask what Cthulhy had meant by that, but it didn’t look like she intended to talk about the subject anymore. He concluded that it was meaningless to try and press the issue.

“Thank you for your time, Dr. Cthulhy. I’m very glad I was able to see you,” said Glenn.

“Work hard at the clinic, you two,” Cthulhy replied, waving a tentacle at them while continuing to sign documents.

Sapphee immediately left the office, as if she had finished all of her business there. Glenn followed right after her but couldn’t clear his mind of gloomy thoughts about the rare disorder of Skadi Dragenfelt, and the meaning behind Cthulhy’s telling them that Skadi herself had no intention of trying to get better.

As they left the Central Hospital behind them, Glenn grabbed the nurse they had passed by earlier and asked if they could visit Skadi, but sure enough, visitors weren’t allowed to see her.

“Even Dr. Cthulhy is grasping at straws, it seems.” Sapphee’s quiet words as they left the hospital were telling. “With all those tentacles of hers, you’d think she’d be able to grasp at a lot more of them, too.”

“That’s not the point,” Glenn retorted. Sapphee’s sarcastic reply was very like her, but he knew it didn’t mean she was okay with this situation. To be a doctor, and yet unable to plunge into treating a patient, was bound to be a painful, bitter pill to swallow. When Glenn thought about being in Cthulhy’s shoes, his heart ached.

Suppressing his desire to see more of his mentor, Glenn continued down the road to return to the clinic. Sapphee was just as reticent as she walked beside him.

Glenn unconsciously bit his lip as he thought about how, despite being a doctor, he was powerless to help. His frustrations hung over him, heavy as lead.

***

A few days had passed since the ceremony. Glenn’s days were filled with work at the clinic as usual, but even without going outside, he knew about the uproar in the city. Skadi’s collapse at the inauguration was in the city paper that Illy delivered to him. They wrote that although her condition looked serious, no one had a grasp on the actual situation.

To make matters worse, Cthulhy was keeping silent about Skadi’s current condition and declining any interviews. This appeared to have soured the reporters’ opinions of Cthulhy, and they mixed abusive remarks about her into article after article, writing that she was negligent as Skadi’s primary doctor and that she had a duty to explain the city council representative’s current condition.

“Sorry for always coming to you like this, Dr. Glenn,” Kunai said as Glenn sewed her wrist back together.

“No need for an apology, Miss Kunai. If anything, I should thank you for coming by when you’re so busy.”

“The city council is in such an uproar, I managed to use my medical care as an excuse to get away,” Kunai Zenow replied with a dry laugh. The flesh golem had happened to come by the clinic a little after noon, saying that the stitches on her wrist had come loose and needed to be sutured back together. She appeared as calm as ever, even when carrying her right hand completely detached from her body, but Glenn had become used to such grotesque spectacles.

Glenn was convinced that Kunai had been using her body recklessly again. Yet, he found the appearance of her detached wrist to be a little strange. It looked almost like Kunai had used all her strength to tear off her own wrist. He thought it might be that Kunai’s reason for coming had just been an excuse to escape from the Central Council Hall.

“So the city council is in turmoil, after all?” Glenn asked.

“That goes without saying. At the end of the day, the council’s representative collapsed, and although she’s been discharged, she’s still recovering. The next candidate to become the representative, Miss Aluloona, is doing her best to settle things, but the Lady Draconess’s political rivals are trying to use this as their chance to take over leadership of the council. Both sides are throwing words back and forth at each other,” Kunai replied.

“Miss Aluloona is it…? There were some rumors that she was the one behind Miss Skadi’s collapse.”

“Ridiculous. Her illness brought on the collapse, and Miss Aluloona is very close to the Lady Draconess to begin with. There isn’t a kernel of truth to the story.”

Aluloona was the head of the Aluloona Plantation. For a monster with a plant body, such as her, it really was a rumor without a “kernel” of truth, Glenn thought.

“Is it all right for you to be away from Miss Skadi’s side, Miss Kunai?” Glenn asked.

“I made sure to ask that of the Lady Draconess myself, but she told me that staying by her side while my wrist was detached from my arm was depressing to look at, and ordered me to come here. There wasn’t anything I could do but follow her wishes,” replied Kunai. Glenn thought the combination of being unable to stay at her master’s side and not belonging in the city council was what had really brought her to be treated.

“…However, all of that is actually just a front,” continued Kunai.

“A front?”

“That’s right—well—I wasn’t lying about my hand being separated, but besides that… I wanted to talk to you.”

In a corner of the clinic, Sapphee’s tail trembled with a jolt. She hadn’t paid much attention to Kunai when she entered the clinic, but her hands had stopped grinding down medicinal herbs, and it seemed to Glenn that she was listening closely to their conversation.

“By ‘wanted to talk to me,’ you mean…” Glenn began.

“Of course, it’s about the Lady Draconess.” Kunai nodded solemnly. Sapphee returned to making her medicine. Glenn wasn’t sure what she’d misunderstood, but he wondered if something had stirred up her jealousy again. “Have you heard anything about the Lady Draconess’s illness or treatment? You are Dr. Cthulhy’s disciple, after all.”

“My mentor didn’t seem to want to discuss it at all,” Glenn said. “I don’t know anything specific either.”

“I had thought as much,” Kunai continued. Glenn’s hands never stopped their sewing, all the while. He wondered exactly how many times he had sewed Kunai’s body together now. He had become completely accustomed to it.

“The Lady Draconess has a serious disease. I’m sure you understand that much?” Kunai asked.

“Yes, of course,” Glenn replied.

“Yet, the Lady Draconess shows no interest in being cured and says that she doesn’t need to treat it. Dr. Cthulhy agrees as well… Or rather, I should say, she’s simply respecting her patient’s wishes. As such, there aren’t any plans for the Lady Draconess to be admitted again or to go to the hospital for regular treatment,” Kunai said, biting her lip, sure of the fact that things shouldn’t be left as they were.

“The paper is reporting whatever it wants,” Glenn said. “Saying that my mentor is negligent, that she has no passion for medicine, that she’s ignoring the disease and isn’t explaining anything to the people of the city.”

“Of course,” Kunai replied, “I don’t take everything that comes out in the newspapers to be true. It is the Lady Draconess’s will that she not receive treatment, after all.”

Now that Glenn thought about it, something similar had happened before. The centaur Tisalia’s shoeing. Cthulhy was aware of the fact that Tisalia hadn’t been shod, but she didn’t suggest it or treat Tisalia herself. Cthulhy didn’t approve of becoming excessively involved with one’s own patients. Glenn was sure that this case with Skadi was no different.

“I must say that it’s likely that my mentor will not go against Skadi’s wishes and treat her. That’s her way of practicing medicine,” said Glenn.

“…Despite you two being teacher and student, your way of doing this is quite different, isn’t it?” replied Kunai.

“All that I was taught was medicinal techniques and knowledge. My mentor’s true calling is to be a scholar. I’ve heard it was Skadi’s strong urging that caused her to become the hospital director here in Lindworm.”

“Those two are very old friends,” replied Kunai. Glenn thought that there was probably something shared between the two of them that none of them would ever understand.

“However!” Kunai exclaimed, tightly clenching her fist as soon as Glenn finished stitching. Practically hearing the strained sound of the threads, he was afraid that the hand he had just reconnected would immediately come undone again.

“Even if that is the case, I can’t just stand helplessly by and watch this life-threatening illness get worse! The Lady Draconess showed me kindness in picking me to be at her side. I can’t sit by silently as she suffers. Even if it meant, for example, that I was going against her wishes!”

“I thought you’d say something like that, Miss Kunai,” replied Glenn. He knew there was no way that Skadi’s bodyguard wouldn’t do anything in the face of her master’s illness. And Glenn had a similar line of thinking. Setting aside the fact that Cthulhy had been his teacher—Glenn was a nosy and meddlesome doctor.

“So that’s the real reason you’ve come to our clinic today, then?” Glenn asked.

“I’m glad you’re so quick to catch on. I wanted to ask you to treat the Lady Draconess, Dr. Glenn. I can pay whatever you ask,” answered Kunai.

Quite the rich offering, Glenn thought to himself. He wondered if being a bodyguard was really so lucrative. But Kunai was in a high enough position to have people working under her. It was only natural her pay would be different from that of a normal guard.

Glenn had heard that since Kunai was a corpse, she didn’t even need food. As such, he imagined the money she spent on daily expenses was probably inconsequential and that her personal wealth must reflect that.

“I assume you know why I am asking you to treat her. Although you might end up infringing on Dr. Cthulhy’s work…” continued Kunai.

“She isn’t the type to fuss over that stuff,” Glenn replied. Cthulhy was absolutely not lazy. However, she didn’t spread her tentacles any wider than she had to. She had absolutely no initiative. Glenn thought that if anything, she would thank him for taking on her work for her. “Now, then… First, I’ll need to examine her.”

“Of course. That being said, it will be impossible to have the Lady Draconess visit here. She has no intention of receiving any medical examination. Thus, I’m going to have to ask you to go to her, Dr. Glenn.”

“That won’t be an issue,” Glenn replied. This wouldn’t be the first time he saw a patient that had no interest in his examination. It took a long time to convince Illy to let him see her when he visited the harpy village.

“At any rate, I’ve mapped out a plan,” Kunai said. “You could just visit the Lady Draconess’s chambers at the Council Hall.” At these words, there arose a clatter of something being dropped.

“D-did you say…her chambers?! ” cried Sapphee. She appeared to have dropped the mortar she was using for her work. In an instant, she stretched up nearly to the ceiling, poised like a cobra ready to strike. The sense of intimidation she gave off from this position was extraordinary. “Hold on just a second! Dr. Glenn sneaking into a lady’s room, you said…?!”

“If they went somewhere else, they’d risk being seen,” Kunai replied. “If the convalescent Lady Draconess and the town doctor are discovered meeting, there will be more groundless gossip in the papers. Her chambers are the best place to avoid any prying eyes.”

“Th-that may be so, but…” Sapphee stuttered. Glenn wondered exactly what in the world the flustered Sapphee was imagining.

“On top of that,” Kunai added, “it would be better for the examination if the Lady Draconess was lightly dressed, correct? Anywhere else and she would have a hard time taking off her usual robe and veil.”

“So Glenn’s going to stealthily sneak into Skadi’s chambers and have her strip all the clothes off her youthful body?! N-no—it’s just an examination… It’s just an examination, right? Right, Doctor?!” Sapphee said, frantic for reasons unknown to Glenn. But the way she put it, he had to admit it did sound indecent.

“You don’t have to worry—it’s just work,” Glenn replied. “I’ve made plenty of house calls for other patients before, right?”

“R-right. An examination… This is just an examination…” said Sapphee.

It was just a simple house call—or at least that was what Glenn had assumed. But, as Sapphee had said, sneaking off in the middle of the night to give an examination was scandalous in itself.

“I’ll say this up front. I want you to be prepared,” Kunai said with a serious expression, apparently not having paid any attention to Sapphee’s panic. “I’m sure you’ll be looking at the Lady Draconess’s heart, but that thing is beyond my imagination. It’s hard to explain… No, I can give an explanation, but I have no idea how it happened.”

For Kunai, a flesh golem created from piecing together different corpses, to say all of that—Glenn wondered exactly what kind of disease Skadi suffered from. Judging from the way Kunai spoke, it seemed he would understand as soon as he saw it. This convinced him that the reason Skadi always covered herself with a veil and robe was to hide her illness.

However, there was one thing above all else that lay on Glenn’s mind—the way Kunai had said, “ when you see her heart .” The heart was concealed behind the rib cage, not visible from outside the body. Yet, the way Kunai spoke almost seemed to suggest she had cut open Skadi’s chest and looked directly at her heart.

Glenn shook his head—he had to be overthinking things.

“Dr. Glenn, please. I’m begging you.” The faithful bodyguard bowed her head deeply and pleaded with Glenn. He had absolutely no objections and immediately accepted her request. Afterward, Sapphee mumbled to herself about whether Glenn was actually going to examine her, or whether this was some kind of lover’s tryst, but Glenn set all that aside for the time being.

And yet, he wondered if Skadi’s disease might be much, much stranger than he could even imagine. He couldn’t stop those thoughts from creeping into his head.

He asked himself what he would do if the disease proved too much for him to handle. It was a possibility he needed to consider.

***

The night of the house call came quickly. Only a few days had passed when Kunai came to visit Glenn at the clinic after he had finished his work for the day. She took both Glenn and Sapphee outside and headed toward the Council Hall.

The hall naturally only had a few people around it at night, and its small security team consisted entirely of Kunai’s colleagues and subordinates. It wasn’t difficult to convince them of the situation.

What worried Kunai was the possibility of a scandal involving Skadi. She was cautious of any more half-baked articles being written in the city paper and used by Skadi’s political rivals. But being seen a little by the security force at the Council Hall wouldn’t cause any problems. None of the security team bore any ill will toward Skadi.

Actually, not only did the stationed security team not reprimand them when they came across them, they all nodded as if to say they were aware of everything, which told Glenn just how thorough Kunai’s preparations had been.

He had come to the Council Hall once before. A colossal building built out of stone, it was comparable in scale to the arena, and was one of Lindworm’s prominent historical buildings. It looked rough from the outside, and though there were a few statutes and engravings decorating it, it was a facility fundamentally devoted to its practical purposes.

Entering from the front, one immediately saw the large assembly hall, where the council discussed matters of importance to the city every day. This time, however, Glenn and the others entered through the back. That way, they were directly connected to Skadi’s chambers, Kunai’s room, and the guest room that was used to house dignitaries from outside of Lindworm. Previously, when Sapphee had been attacked by a slave trader’s poisoned blade, she had borrowed that room to rest and recover.

The moon was dazzlingly bright. Lindworm was famous for its bright full moons, but tonight’s was especially bright. Glenn could clearly see Kunai’s face in the corridor of the Council Hall without the help of any illumination. The window had been made large to keep the stone hall well lit, which let them walk through the building without any difficulty.

“Here we are,” Kunai whispered. “These are the Lady Draconess’s chambers.” Glenn thought the whispering must have been out of consideration for Skadi. “Someone might come if it gets too loud, and the Lady Draconess hates to be fussed over. I ask that Dr. Glenn be the only one to go in.”

“I-I will go, too,” Sapphee declared. “Dr. Glenn doesn’t show enough consideration when examining female patients, so another female should be there!” She had absolutely no trust in Glenn. But given how many times he had made a mistake when examining his female patients, there wasn’t anything Glenn could say to defend himself.

“Sorry,” Kunai replied, “but please bear with it. A whole crowd running in would put an unnecessary burden on the Lady Draconess.”

“B-but… I guess that’s how it has to be…” Sapphee replied.

Glenn thought there hadn’t been any need for Sapphee to tag along on a house visit to begin with—but it seemed that no matter what she was told, Sapphee was worried that something beyond the examination was going to happen.

“Now, of course…” Kunai began, a flash appearing in her eye. Glenn was sure her eyeballs had also been taken from a corpse, but he felt the insight housed in those dead eyes was several times stronger than those of the living. “I don’t believe that there is even the slightest chance of this being an issue, but if I think that anything has happened to the Lady Draconess, I’m going to rush in there. Don’t think about trying to do anything audacious, Doctor.”

In the end, it appeared that Kunai had been thinking something similar to Sapphee.

“I’m not thinking about that stuff at all… Why are you being so cautious?” Glenn replied.

“Oh? Did you forget about what happened when you stitched up my leg?” said Kunai.

“Ah,” Glenn replied, in realization.

“O-of course, I’m fully aware that in my case, it was just part of my treatment, but… Well, um, while that may be true, it’ll be a problem if you do the same to the Lady Draconess as you did back then… How should I say it… Hmph, well, she is a dignitary, so give her the appropriate amount of consideration, that’s all,” stammered Kunai.

“U-understood. I’ll be careful,” replied Glenn.

“I-I’m counting on you,” said Kunai.

Glenn thought the care he had once given to Kunai must have been humiliating for her. At long last, he was able to understand the cause of her anxiety on the matter. Having not been there at the time, Sapphee looked puzzled, wondering what the two were talking about.

“Okay then, please head inside,” said Kunai.

“Pardon me,” Glenn said. As soon as he went inside, the door shut behind him, but he could still feel the presence of Sapphee holding her breath and Kunai with her ears at attention. It seemed the two of them were still worried after all.

The inside of the room was so bright that it was hard to think that it was still nighttime, thanks to the moonlight streaming into the room from the large window. Due to the especially bright moon that night, Glenn was able to see the canopy bed in the middle of the room, as well as the design on the lace curtains surrounding it.

“Miss Skadi,” said Glenn.

“…………”

In the middle of the moonlight there stood a young girl. Wrapped in her nightclothes, the dragon woman truly had the appearance of a young girl no more than ten years old. Glenn thought this was probably his first time seeing Skadi without her robe on. The slender dragon looked in danger of collapsing in a stiff breeze—so much so that it was impossible to imagine she was a being of such colossal power. Except for her horns reaching up to the heavens and the tail extending behind her—these two traits conveyed that this immature child did indeed conceal within herself the power of a dragon.

Skadi’s nightclothes were so thin they were almost transparent. They were well made, and Glenn thought perhaps they were the product of Loose Silk Sewing, where Arahnia worked. It had a flowing design similar to her robe that made Glenn think that loose clothing was a preference of hers.

Standing next to the window and staring up at the moonlight, Skadi slowly turned toward Glenn.

“…………” She said something, but Glenn couldn’t hear her.

It was the first time he had seen Skadi’s face. She had turquoise hair. There were many different species of monster, but Glenn had never seen one with naturally blue hair. There were scales around the corners of her eyes, and from the blue sheen that they also possessed, Glenn assumed the color was one of Skadi’s unique characteristics.

He found it mysterious how the tone of her scales changed slightly as they were bathed in moonlight. Glenn concluded that they were minerals. Some component similar to minerals or gems must be mixed into her body in large amounts. He gathered that dragons weren’t beings he could make conjectures about with just his own practical biological knowledge.

Her frame, neck, and limbs were all slender. With her blue coloring, she gave off a somewhat lonely impression.

“…………” Skadi’s lips were moving. Glenn knew she was saying something, but he still couldn’t hear. Then, Skadi beckoned to him.

“ Huh? Oh, come over, is that it?” Glenn replied.

Skadi nodded without saying anything. As Glenn approached, Skadi continued to beckon him, implying that he still wasn’t close enough. He took a few more steps forward, and Skadi beckoned him closer again. Glenn ended up half-crouching down and brought his body close to Skadi’s. The two of them were close enough to feel each other’s breaths on their faces.

“Why are you here?”

It was the first time Glenn had clearly heard Skadi’s voice. It was like the tinkling of a bell. This reaffirmed his idea that the reason she was unable to speak normally was her illness.

Glenn returned her whisper and explained the circumstances of his visit.

Skadi nodded after listening to Glenn’s explanation. “I see. So Kunai brought you.” For now, Glenn was relieved that they were able to understand each other normally. Up until now, he had only ever been able to speak to her through Kunai. Skadi’s voice was so quiet the slightest noise would drown her out. Even at point-blank range, Glenn felt he would miss her words if he didn’t concentrate fully on her voice. If he hadn’t come on a quiet night like tonight, it would probably have been impossible for them to talk to one another.

Well, Glenn thought, all the more reason it was strange that Kunai could have normal conversations with Skadi. He wondered if the flesh golem’s hearing really was that keen.

“I’ve troubled… worried Kunai. There’s always so little I can do for the ones at my side,” said Skadi.

“Miss Skadi?” Glenn replied.

“Oh, no, it’s nothing… Dr. Glenn.” The tone of her voice suitably matched her authority as the city council representative. “I’ll overlook you sneaking into my room without permission. I’ll let Kunai off with just a scolding. Seeing how far you’ve come for my sake, I must make sure I can oblige.”

“In that case…” Glenn began.

“Yes, I will allow you to examine me. I doubt you intend to leave empty-handed. Of course… I’m sure it’s not something you’ll be able to cure, Dr. Glenn,” replied Skadi.

It was resignation, Glenn thought. Or, maybe, there was some other emotion mixed in with her words. Either way, it appeared she held no hope in him.

That was natural. It was a disease that even his mentor Cthulhy had deemed to be rare. There was no way her pupil Glenn would be able to cure it easily. However, Glenn had a feeling that Skadi’s surrender came from some other place inside of her. Put simply, it was the fact that she had no intention of getting better to begin with. Without that expectation, it didn’t make any difference to Skadi whether she was examined or not.

“Okay then, please forgive me, but I’ll need you to take off your clothes,” said Glenn.

“Mhm,” Skadi replied. There wasn’t any hesitation. Skadi opened up the thin negligee at her breast. She didn’t show any sort of shame or embarrassment. Glenn at long last understood why Kunai had been so bent on clearing everyone out of the room for the examination. Glenn wondered what people would think if he were seen in this situation. The figure of a man in a young girl’s bed chambers, making her strip, with his face close enough to hers to feel her breath on his face.

If it wasn’t for him being a doctor and her being his patient, it was a scene that would clearly end with him in the care of the Council Hall security force. Glenn made up his mind to be all the more devoted to the duty at hand.

“Now you can see it clearly, can’t you?” said Skadi.

Her chest exposed from the opening of her night clothes, Glenn’s eyes were drawn to her white skin. Even when taking her childlike appearance into account, she was very thin. Although she had a nominal amount of bulge on her slender chest, she had almost no womanly curves to her.

However, more than any of that, Glenn’s eyes were drawn to the middle of her chest. In the middle of what he could only describe as her modest bosom, was some kind of pulsating thing.

“What…” Glenn was amazed. Despite the considerable amount of experience he had gained through his career, he couldn’t keep himself quiet when faced with what was in front of him. “What…is this?”

If asked what it was, he could give an answer—it was a heart. It was about the size of Skadi’s fist. Considering her figure, Glenn determined that it was a relatively normal-sized heart. But he couldn’t believe that it was possible to see a heart—normally protected by the rib cage—so close to the surface of someone’s skin. The heart pulsated with a beat, and it glowed turquoise blue on the inside.

Glenn assumed that the blue light was the color of Skadi’s blood. If the inside of Skadi’s body was mixed with a large number of minerals as Glenn had estimated, then it would stand to reason that her heart would be a blue similar to her scales.

The problem was that the heart that had formed on top of her rib cage looked almost like a tumor.

“…May I touch it?” asked Glenn.

“Hng. Fine,” said Skadi.

Glenn timidly touched the heart. It was hot. It wasn’t too hot to touch, but it had a heat to it. Glenn tried to measure the pulsing beats, but sure enough, it beat like a normal heart. Fortunately, there was skin surrounding it, but the heart was pushing up through Skadi’s skin and making it transparent, as though it were a bulb that had been planted on top of her rib cage.

“Cthulhy says—hng—that it’s a malignant tumor,” said Skadi through her pain.

“A tumor? Just as I thought. So it only looks like a heart,” Glenn replied.

“Apparently. However, ever since this tumor formed on top of my chest, it has gradually hijacked the blood vessels in my body. It’s trying to spread its ‘roots,’ penetrate my blood vessels, and alter the structure of my body’s circulation… In other words, it means I have two hearts now.”

Glenn was dumbfounded. In her current state, Skadi could suffer arrhythmia or heart failure at any moment. The heart was an organ that was directly linked to keeping one alive and possessed considerable strength to continue beating as long as its host remained alive. Glenn posited that if the functions of this tumor were indeed similar to those of the heart, then the burden that having two hearts put on Skadi was unfathomable. It was a miracle that her collapse was all that had happened.

If she were a human, she would have long been dead. Glenn was sure that Skadi’s disease had been progressing for several years now, just as Cthulhy had said. He was stunned that Skadi was performing her duties as city council representative and working for the sake of the city in this condition.

Glenn could only be astonished at the vitality of dragons and be amazed at the mysterious tumor that could gnaw at the body of such a tenacious being.

“There’s nothing that can be done. This is my destiny, after all,” said Skadi.

Glenn couldn’t remember ever seeing a case similar to this. He couldn’t identify the cause of the tumor, but he thought there was a possibility of removing it surgically. If they underwent surgery to remove the heart, Glenn was sure they could treat the symptoms it was causing. He knew, however, that it wouldn’t be that easy.

Even just from looking at it, he could tell that this heart was receiving blood and beating properly. As long as blood was pumping through it, just the act of removing the tumor itself would cause massive bleeding. It was imperative that he analyze the disease and draw up a precise surgery plan.

“The dragons weren’t ground-treading creatures in the first place,” Skadi continued. “A long, long time ago, our ancestors came down to the earth from their place close to the realm of the gods. However, they were influenced by the miasma on the ground, and their forms changed. Some lost their limbs and became the wyrms. Others lost their front legs, becoming wyverns. I’ve heard that in the east there are dragons whose appearance changed even more drastically. And some, like me, changed into a form similar to humans.”

Stroking the heart, Glenn continued to think. He couldn’t deny that he would be unable treat this disease himself. Inside Skadi’s slender chest, this heart tormented her. Her breathing had gradually become more labored. He had been right, he thought, and the second heart was causing her quite a bit of pain.

“I became close to humans. I can no longer return to my previous fire dragon form. Blood was spilled all across this continent because of the great war. That impurity and corruption built up—hng, ha-ah—I’m sure this disease is because of it,” continued Skadi.

“I’m sorry, just a bit more,” Glenn replied.

“Um… Uh… Dr. Glenn…?”

Glenn hadn’t listened to most of what Skadi was saying—rather, he had been concentrating on his examination. He didn’t believe her half-fairy tale story about the corruption of the earth or the realm of the gods had anything to do with her disease.

That dragons had come down from the skies, and their appearances changed over the course of their long lives—Glenn found that fact intriguing. He knew that coming from Skadi meant it must be true and that it involved a world Glenn couldn’t even imagine. The Giant God Dionne that lived in the Vivre Mountains had also lived since ancient times, and was a species beyond his imagination.

But those facts and this disease were two different things. Tumors weren’t created by miasma. They were a phenomenon that occurred when for some reason or another, an organ became swollen and grew in size. If that was the case, Glenn could use his knowledge to identify the cause of the tumor—or at least, he thought he could. At the very least, he believed he would be able to as he continued his examination.

“Um… Dr. Glenn… So you get it? I don’t have any plans of treating this…” Skadi stammered.

“I’m going to continue my examination. How are your scales, I wonder…?” Glenn replied.

“Ah! Hng… Um…”

Dragons had scales in various places. They weren’t smooth like Sapphee’s, but bristled slightly with sharp, sword-like points. It appeared Glenn could cut himself on them if he touched them the wrong way. Being careful not to slice his fingers, Glenn stroked the dragon’s scales ever so lightly, observing them.

“Hyah! Ah! Th-that tickles!” protested Skadi.

He checked the scales around her neck, on her back, and around her waist. All of them had a color closely resembling the blue heart that could be seen through her transparent skin. He needed to consider that her second heart and her blood vessels were made of a texture similar to her scales. Glenn imagined that a normal surgical needle wouldn’t even pierce through them.

“Pardon me, but please allow me to examine here, too,” said Glenn.

“Hng?!” Skadi jumped and let out a surprised yelp. Glenn had continued on to her tail.

“Uh, that’s, um… a little…” said Skadi.

“The color here is different, it looks like,” Glenn replied.

Skadi’s tail color was gold or—he thought—possibly ocher. It wasn’t sharp to the touch and was smooth like a snake’s tail. Thick and strong, it gave Glenn the impression that he would be knocked out cold if he were hit with it. Judging from the difference in its color and touch, it was completely different from the other parts of her body. Glenn’s curiosity was unending.

“During the ceremony, your tail was sagging. So you were straining yourself after all, then?”

“U-um my tail, gathers, um, nutrients. That’s why, um, when I’m feeling under the weather it becomes thinner and hangs down… Ah, hng! H-how much longer…?” Skadi pleaded.

“I’m sorry, just a bit more.”

There was a species of lizard native to harsh environments that stored nutrients in its tail in preparation for times of scarcity. Glenn wondered if Skadi’s tail was similar. He thought it might be possible to measure a dragon’s health by looking at the condition of their tail.

“U-umm… My tail’s…sensitive, so… Ah!” protested Skadi.

“Hm? But I was sure I saw you fight with it before,” Glenn replied.

“Th-the base is, s-sensitive… Hnnnn!”

So that’s what it was, Glenn thought. Yet, his examination wasn’t yet over. This time, his eyes moved toward the area around her back. Dragons were supposed to have wings similar to a bat, but there wasn’t anything on Skadi’s back. Once he lowered his gaze, however, he was immediately able to find them.

“Gyaaaah?!” Skadi exclaimed.

“Are these your wings…?” asked Glenn.

“Ah—Ah! Hng”

Growing from the small of her back was a pair of bat-like wings. Glenn thought them extremely small, even considering that they were folded up together. Fully extended, he imagined they wouldn’t match the length of his arm span. It seemed extremely unlikely she would be able to fly with them, even if she flapped with all her might.

They gave the impression of only the atrophied remains of wings she once had. Glenn tried touching them. As soon as he did, Skadi’s whole body jumped as if an ice cube had been placed against her back.

“Ah…Hng! S-stop, um, my wings, they’re really…” Skadi said, struggling.

“I’m sorry, but since the disease is affecting your heart, I have to see if there are any other abnormalities elsewhere,” said Glenn.

“Hnnnnngh! Th-the remains of my wings, it’s too muuuuuch!” Skadi let out a voice Glenn had never heard before. “I-I’m telling you, it’s too much…! Ahn, Dr. Glenn… Are you, listening to me…?”

Glenn was definitely listening. However, the examination took priority over Skadi’s objections. Even if she was somewhat ticklish, all he could do was ask her to endure it for now. Fortunately, he didn’t see anything irregular on her back. It seemed that Skadi’s problems were limited to just the formation of the second heart in her chest, after all.

“Unh… Augh, ngh.” All of Skadi’s dignity as the Lindworm city council representative was long gone. Glenn had intended to do his best to be careful, but he couldn’t help but become engrossed by his first experience giving a dragon a medical exam.

“Auuuugh…”

Focused completely on the disease, Glenn hadn’t turned his eyes toward the most vital part of the exam—the patient herself. Skadi was half-crying, yet trying hard to endure the tears, and to look at her, anyone would think she was just a normal child. Though, of course, she had aspects that were very different. She had many of the characteristics of a cold-blooded species. Glenn wondered if a “dragon” was an organism that mixed the characteristics of a snake and a lizard—but now wasn’t the time to think about that.

“What’s going on?” The door opened and Kunai rushed into the room. “I could hear the Lady Draconess crying! What exactly…is…going…?”

That’s right, Glenn thought. There was no way a faithful servant like Kunai would let her master’s cries pass her ears without response. And now that she had taken a step into the room, he could imagine the scene it presented would lead to even more of a misunderstanding.

No, Glenn assured himself. There was no way Kunai could misconstrue the situation. Even if she looked toward Glenn as he appeared to be forcing a young girl to take off her negligee and driving her to tears, when he remembered that Kunai had been the one to lead them there, he was positive she would understand that it was all part of the examination.

Or at least Glenn thought that she should have understood.

“…………!” Sapphee didn’t say a single word, even when she entered the room and saw the scene before her. But from the twitching of her eyes and the way her tail was up and shaking like a rattle, she was definitely ready to explode in anger, if still, for the moment, putting up with it. The fact that she was bearing with it meant that Sapphee understood that Glenn hadn’t done anything indecent to Skadi to make her cry.

“Dr. Glenn,” Kunai said, darting forward without hesitation. She tore Skadi away from him, adjusted her nightclothes, and fixed Glenn with a sharp glare.

“No—um—Miss Kunai? I believe you understand, but this is part of the examination,” stammered Glenn.

“Of course. I understand very, very well, Dr. Glenn,” Kunai replied. “You’ve mended my own body many times after all. You’re often much more devoted to your examinations than you are willing to enjoy the body of a woman—oh yes, I am very well aware of your stranger personality quirks, Dr. Glenn.”

That in itself was a misunderstanding, Glenn thought. He wasn’t completely without any thoughts about the bodies of the monsters he examined, but as a doctor, it would be rude for these thoughts to show on his face or in his attitude, so he simply had to be careful. Naturally, the real problem lay in how much he was able to put that theory into practice.

“Nevertheless,” Kunai said, yanking out her short sword. Glenn wondered in shock where she had been hiding it. It was hard to imagine there could have been a sword concealed on the lightly-dressed golem. “Yes, despite that, I will need you to apologize for making the Lady Draconess cry. As my sole mercy to you, I will try to make it painless and slice through your neck in one blow.”

“W-wait just a second! That’s a bit much, isn’t it?!” replied Glenn.

“Of course, I won’t let you die alone. I’ll immediately cut open my own stomach. I’m the one who arranged for this to happen. I will take responsibility and go with you to the grave.”

“What point is there in you committing suicide?!” asked Glenn. Considering she was made out of a collection of corpses, he couldn’t believe what the flesh golem was saying.

But he understood. Kunai had gone mad. She had probably lost control at the unfamiliar sight of her master’s tears. However, even if that were the case, Glenn wasn’t sure he could stop her. Kunai Zenow was a seasoned warrior and had reached the top rank in the Lindworm Arena.

“Heh heh heh! I beg your apologies, my Lady Draconess—I will make this matter right this very moment…”

“Don’t start parading out those eastern customs!” Glenn said. He couldn’t even laugh at the idea of committing double suicide with the undead.

“W-wait just a minute, Kunai. It’s okay, it’s okay. I’m fine.” Clinging to Kunai, Skadi was able to hold her down.

“Understood,” Kunai replied. Skadi’s pleading seemed to be the trigger. Kunai finally appeared to get a hold of herself. The usual calm shine returned to her eyes. “M-my Lady Draconess. Has any harm come to you?”

“I’m okay. Calm down a little,” Skadi replied.

“I am always calm,” Kunai declared nonchalantly. She probably tried to remain calm at all times, but because of how serious she was, it had truly looked like she was going to mete out justice against Glenn.

Anyway, Glenn thought, he had gotten out of trouble for now.

“That’s enough, right? The exam is over. I’m… I’m going to rest a bit more,” Skadi said, rubbing the leftover tears from her eyes.

“Certainly—forgive me for interrupting you during your rest,” Glenn replied.

Skadi separated herself a little from Glenn. She seemed to be saying something, but with even just the small distance between them, Glenn could no longer pick up her voice.

That second heart—it was putting a burden on Skadi’s original heart. Glenn thought that her inability to speak louder could also be due to the pressure that the second heart was putting on her chest. That second heart had laid roots inside Skadi far, far deeper than what Glenn had been able to see from the surface.

“…I wonder if dying would fix that adulterous habit of his,” Sapphee muttered to herself, watching the exchange. Glenn was sure that Sapphee didn’t intend for him to hear, but for some reason those words came to his ears much more clearly than normal.

From Glenn’s perspective, this casual murmuring of Sapphee’s was many times more frightening than Kunai brandishing her sword at him. He swore to himself that he would no longer give any easily-misconstrued examinations.

***

It was still dark when Glenn and Sapphee left the Council Hall. Since it had grown quite late, Glenn and Sapphee both prepared for bed as soon as they got back to the clinic, but Glenn lay awake the rest of the night, thinking. How could they get rid of that second heart? Could he even heal such a rare disease?

The tumor had resembled a blue jewel. He wondered if the light was peculiar to the tumor, or if, perhaps, all dragons’ hearts were accompanied by that metallic luster.

They had to get rid of the tumor. If they didn’t, Skadi’s life was truly in danger. Glenn wondered if he would be able to remove it using the surgical methods he was familiar with. Throughout the night, the thoughts swirled around his head.

***

“…And?”

Glenn went into action the next day. After finishing the day’s appointments, he headed straight for the director’s office at the Central Hospital. His expression was so grim that he looked as though he were a soldier marching into enemy lines. Following behind him, Sapphee had a rare look of worry. She hadn’t thought he would be doing something so direct right on the heels of what had happened last night.

In the director’s office, Cthulhy was grappling with the innumerable documents on her desk. Behind her glasses, her pupils bore the same languid luster they always had.

“What are you asking of me?”

Glenn hadn’t kept anything back from Cthulhy. He told her everything about the selfish examination he had given Skadi—and the second heart he had found out about as a result, as well as the fact that Skadi would die if the cause of her disease wasn’t surgically removed.

And in addition to that, Glenn told her how it was impossible for him to treat her by himself.

“I’d like to ask for your assistance, Dr. Cthulhy,” Glenn replied.

“Can’t you just work together with Sapphee? You can’t keep relying on your teacher forever, you know,” said Cthulhy, curtly.

She was right. Sapphee was his partner. If Glenn sincerely asked her, she would lend him her aid. But he knew that wouldn’t be enough this time. Of course, he knew that Sapphee’s assistance would be necessary, but that didn’t change his mind.

“That second heart of hers has already connected itself to the major blood vessels in her body. The fact that it’s beating steadily is proof of this,” Glenn began.

The fake heart had already become a part of Skadi’s body. If they simply excised it, the blood flowing into it would hemorrhage. With that, there was no doubt the blood loss would prove fatal.

“To excise the tumor, it will be necessary to sever the blood vessels in the tumor and immediately connect them back to their original blood vessels. In order to connect the blood vessels without placing too much stress on the patient and to avoid hemorrhaging, it will be important to have speed and a lot of hands on deck,” he continued.

He wondered if blood transfusion research was still being done at the academy. When Glenn had been there, blood transfusion as a treatment still wasn’t ready for clinical practice. He remembered that there hadn’t been anything more than a few successful animal trials.

If transfusion treatments were more established, they would be able to supplement the blood Skadi would lose in the surgery. However, when Glenn thought about it longer, he realized there was no way for them to procure dragon blood in a hurry anyway.

“That’s why, with all your hands, I wanted to ask for your help, Dr. Cthulhy,” Glenn said.

If they just had Cthulhy, she could use the eight legs of her lower body and the two arms on her upper body to effectively perform the surgery. It would be possible to perform multiple operations simultaneously—linking blood vessels back together as they excised the tumor. With her cooperation, Glenn was sure they could manage the surgery with twice, or even three times the speed.

Cthulhy listened in silence, not looking up to face Glenn.

“If you performed Skadi’s surgery with me—”

“Thirty points,” Cthulhy said, cutting Glenn off.

Glenn had been graded, just like when he was in the academy. He felt a twinge of nostalgia, but it was gone in an instant. His time studying under Cthulhy had long since passed.

“Glenn, you’re talking about surgery, but did you get the patient’s permission? Skadi doesn’t want to be treated. That’s, well, her own egotistical decision to find herself a good place to lie down and die, but… No matter what, you can’t administer treatment so long as you don’t have the patient’s consent,” Cthulhy continued.

“For that, well… I’ll convince her.”

“Come back to me when you have,” Cthulhy replied.

Her argument was sound. Glenn, however, had no plans to acquiesce quietly. He had faith in his own convictions.

“In that case, suppose I’m able to convince her—will you lend us your help, Doctor?”

“Um, Dr. Glenn. You shouldn’t be too unreasonable. I’m sure Dr. Cthulhy has her own ideas,” said Sapphee. She looked worriedly between Glenn and Cthulhy. It appeared to Glenn that she couldn’t side with either of them. He continued on, unconcerned by Sapphee’s objections.

He wasn’t convinced. Cthulhy was supposed to be Skadi’s close friend. Despite that, Skadi remained without treatment and didn’t even try to turn to Cthulhy for help. Cthulhy, for her part, had named herself as Skadi’s primary doctor, yet hadn’t forced anything on Skadi and was neglecting her.

Glenn couldn’t understand it. He wondered who would be left with the most regrets if Skadi actually died. It was obvious, of course —Cthulhy would. If she acquiesced to Skadi’s wishes, Cthulhy was the one who would regret it most of all. Glenn had no idea how the two had formed their deep friendship, but what he did know was that when Skadi had become apprehensive about the lack of capable doctors in Lindworm, it was Cthulhy she had hired as the hospital director.

Skadi was sick, so all she had to do was rely on Cthulhy. If she did, then Glenn was sure Cthulhy would respond. If the two of them had had a proper doctor-patient relationship, he was sure that he wouldn’t even have had to be involved to begin with.

“I will convince her,” he said. “I will change Miss Skadi’s way of thinking.”

“……………”

“So please lend us a hand. Let’s save Miss Skadi together. You know you’ll regret it… So please don’t even think about saying those sad things about not saving her, Dr. Cthulhy.”

She was thought of as a lazy woman. She would immediately give Glenn any annoying job she had, and Glenn had heard that even at the hospital she only dealt with a small fraction of the patients. “Bothersome” was declared to be her favorite word, so she was often misunderstood. Even at the academy, she was said to often leave her students to their own devices.

But Glenn knew—it wasn’t laziness. No matter who she was dealing with, Cthulhy would draw the line somewhere. She didn’t venture past doing only what was necessary because she, herself, didn’t like it when people pushed her. But what his mentor hated most of all was when someone bluntly interfered with her own ideas and shouted unnecessary things at her—exactly like Glenn was doing now.

“You’re just an amateur. You sure make it sound simple, don’t you?” Cthulhy replied, glaring at Glenn as though a tempest raged inside of her. Her tentacles wiggled back and forth like they were a flame expressing her anger. If something sparked her ire, her tentacles had enough force to tighten themselves around Glenn in an instant.

“Glenn. You’re talking about excising the tumor, but you’re being presumptuous in thinking the three of us can even do that. Do you even understand how deeply that heart clinging to Skadi has taken root inside her body? That isn’t just a tumor. It altered her blood circulation on its own, and is continuing to beat and take all of Skadi’s blood for itself. It isn’t even accurate to call it a tumor. That thing is like a heart-shaped parasite.”

A parasite. Glenn understood at last. That heart wasn’t something that grew from within Skadi—it was caused by some external factor. The heart itself might just be the parasite. Although—he had never heard of a parasite mimicking a heart.

“That thing is almost like a mollusk, slowly spreading its limbs little by little. Day after day, it pulls in her blood vessels and eats away at Skadi’s arteries. Finally, it will replace Skadi’s heart. That fake heart has already stretched its limbs into close to a hundred of her blood vessels. Listen, Glenn, do you think you can deal with all of those blood vessels with just those two arms of yours?” Cthulhy continued.

“That’s why, with your help, Doctor—” Glenn replied.

“If it were something that could be done with my eight legs, I would have done it a long time ago!” yelled Cthulhy.

Glenn nodded. She had finally spoken her mind. Without a doubt, he knew Cthulhy’s sorrowful voice had said what she was truly feeling. Glenn’s blunt, impudent words had finally gotten Cthulhy to open up to him.

His mentor was quite the handful.

However, Glenn himself was quite the handful of a student. Thus, it was only natural that Glenn took great pains when dealing with his mentor, just as much as she had taken pains when dealing with him. Fortunately, while they were both a handful, the two of them shared over ten hands between them. That was more than enough, Glenn thought.

“…Hey, Glenn,” Cthulhy said. Her octopus legs smoothly spread outward. Glenn instinctively took hold of the tentacles as they wrapped themselves around his arm, but the way they tightened around him was somewhat gentle. There was no pain, and Glenn only felt the sensation of the suckers holding fast to his arm as if they were relying on him for support.

“Yes, Dr. Cthulhy?”

“Can you really…convince her?”

“I’ll do everything in my power to,” Glenn said. He still didn’t clearly understand either the suffering Skadi was enduring or her reason for refusing treatment. He guessed that the reason was something only Skadi knew.

However, he would do everything in his power to treat his patients. If treatment was necessary, then he simply had to convince the patient as well. Of course, with Skadi being the patient, he knew she would be a very tough person to deal with.

“I tried to convince her too, you know. I told her she wouldn’t be cured without surgery. Of course that bodyguard… Kunai, was it? I’m sure even she’s suggested it every chance she could get. We said all of that, yet the stubborn little dragon girl didn’t once even consider changing her mind. You’re saying you can do it despite all of that?”

“Yes, I can. I’ll try my best,” replied Glenn.

“Why are you doing all this? You aren’t that close with Skadi, right? You’re not like me at all— you aren’t her friend or anything like it.”

“…That might be true.”

“In that case, why?”

The two hadn’t known each other for a long time. To Glenn, Skadi wasn’t just the city representative, but the relationship they had formed together wasn’t one of close friendship, either. Nevertheless, Glenn had any number of reasons for his actions.

“Well, because…” Glenn began. As a doctor, he couldn’t overlook Skadi’s illness. Nor could he overlook it as a human being. However, the biggest reason was… “You’re the one who wants to save Skadi the most, aren’t you, Doctor?”

A jolt of surprise ran through Cthulhy’s extended tentacles. She looked hard at Glenn. As one would guess from the high-quality glasses on her nose, Cthulhy was extremely near-sighted. As such, her sharp looks weren’t because she was in a sour mood, but because she was trying to ascertain what the person she was talking to was thinking.

“What did you say?” asked Cthulhy.

“You’ve already come up with a surgical plan. You’ve even been trying to convince Miss Skadi already, correct? Why is that? The answer’s obvious, isn’t it?” Glenn replied.

“…I suppose so.”

“You want to save Skadi more than anyone else does, Dr. Cthulhy. The reason I’ve come all the way here is because I know that. I feel the same way, Doctor.”

Next to Glenn, Sapphee heaved a deep sigh. But while it was a sigh of exasperation, there wasn’t any fatigue or bewilderment mixed with it. It seemed to be defending Glenn’s actions, as though she was reassuring him that while things would get tough for them, she would still stay by his side.

He had been able to boldly challenge his mentor precisely because he had Sapphee at his side.

“You two.” Cthulhy’s tentacles rushed forward. She rose up from her desk and crept toward Glenn and Sapphee. Her spreading tentacles stroked Glenn’s face and began sticking themselves to his cheeks with a loud popping sound.

“Huh… Wha—Me too?! Eeek!” Sapphee cried.

The tentacles of the scylla were expandable, and had much more volume than it seemed. They were quite long if they were stretched out to their limit, and with these tentacles, Cthulhy had also been able to apprehend Sapphee.

With the octopus legs and snake tail entangling one another, Glenn couldn’t tell what was what, but Cthulhy began sticking herself to Sapphee’s scales with her suckers to try and ascertain something.

“You really have aged, haven’t you?” said Cthulhy.

“I-I am still quite young!” Sapphee protested.

“No, you have aged. You’ve aged more than I would have ever imagined when I was teaching you at the Academy. You’ve grown up,” Cthulhy said, not giving any heed to Sapphee’s rebuttal.

Glenn simply stayed quiet and let the tentacles stuck to his arms and face do as they pleased. He knew from the many times he had been showered in this tentacle baptism before that this was his mentor’s way of giving a hug. Despite wanting to show her gratitude, it was too embarrassing for her, and her hugs took on this shape as a result.

“Dr. Cthulhy, if you stick to me that much, I’ll… Ah … W-wait a second, where are you touching… Ahn!” Sapphee said, struggling.

This was Cthulhy’s awkward expression of affection. Glenn tried as much as possible not to look toward Sapphee as strange noises escaped from her mouth. He had a feeling that if he carelessly looked at Sapphee at the moment, he’d be scolded by her once again. No matter what sort of cries she made, he would do everything he could to avoid paying her any mind.

“W-wait… Ah, Hng…!”

Glenn pretended not to notice. Nothing was happening, he thought.

“Ah, that’s my—Hng… Ahn! D-Dr. Glenn… h-help me…”

He kept trying not to pay any attention to what was happening—but it would have been impossible for him, even if his heart were made of steel. He didn’t know what in the world she was doing to Sapphee, but the mucus-lathered tentacles had been making some suspiciously sticky sounds for the past several seconds.

“Saphentite. He’s given you a lot of trouble, too, hasn’t he?” Cthulhy asked.

“Huh… What…?” replied Sapphee.

“Glenn is so young and reckless, it must be hard for you, right?”

“Ah—hng! Um, what are…you talking about?”

“I mean, it’s gratitude, it’s gratitude from your teacher.”

The viscous sound of mucus on scale echoed through the office. It felt good to be appreciated, but Cthulhy’s show of appreciation was far too peculiar, and if anything, it seemed to Glenn like Sapphee was the one exhausted by the whole affair.

“Dr. Cthulhy, um, that’s enough, isn’t it?” said Glenn.

“You too, Glenn… You’re all grown up.”

The tentacles went around to the nape of Glenn’s neck and the suckers fastened themselves to him. For a moment the tentacle communication continued, with the suckers attaching and detaching from his skin. Just as Glenn felt that the back of his neck was beginning to hurt, the tentacles gave one long final suck, almost like a kiss. Then, finally satisfied, Cthulhy released the pair.

“I’m so happy my pupils are growing up. Pretty soon I’ll be able to retire,” said Cthulhy.

Cthulhy’s wish was to retire and freely devote herself completely to research. She would often comment that she was never cut out to be a teacher or a doctor to begin with.

Sapphee straightened out her clothes and got her breathing back to normal. It seemed that the tentacles had been so unrelenting as to wedge themselves under Sapphee’s clothes.

“Still Glenn, even if you’re going to perform surgery, there’s a whole mountain of problems to deal with,” she continued, the face of the exceptional doctor stiffening. “I’ll leave convincing Skadi up to you. But even if you get her to agree, we still don’t have enough people. Even if you and I work with everything we have, we still won’t be fast enough to suture all her blood vessels.”

“I-I’ll help, too,” Sapphee said, putting her hand on her chest, but—

“Saphentite. You’re in charge of the anesthesia. It’s heart surgery, so we’ll need a full-body anesthetic,” Cthulhy replied, shaking her head.

“Anesthesia…”

“There isn’t any precedent for giving a full-body anesthetic to a dragon. If you fail, then it’ll all be over, and there isn’t anyone else who would be able to make the anesthetic besides you. You need to make absolutely perfect preparations. During the surgery, it’ll be your job to keep track of how the anesthetic is working.”

Sapphee made a big gulp. As a pharmacologist, it went without saying that Sapphee was knowledgeable about how to administer anesthesia. She had her own job to do. They couldn’t entrust her work to anyone else.

“I want one more person to help us,” said Cthulhy. “I want almost no gap in time between when we excise the fake heart and when we stitch together the blood vessels. I want to keep the blood loss as low as possible. If we don’t do that, even if we start the surgery, the amount of blood loss could end up becoming fatal.”

“…Yes, that is true, but…”

“We still don’t have enough people. We just need one more. Someone close to you, Glenn, and Sapphee, too… If there’s room to hope, they should be someone close enough to you that you can communicate with just a glance. Despite all that, they have to be a doctor, skilled at delicate work. Especially if they are good at using a needle and thread for suturing,” Cthulhy continued.

“Is there someone we could ask here at the hospital…?” Glenn replied.

“Unfortunately, while all I’ve done here is teach my students to become effective doctors, there isn’t one we could rely on that has your level of skill, Glenn.”

Cthulhy’s words were high praise for him to hear. At the same time, it meant that there wasn’t one person in the Central Hospital that could keep up with Glenn and Cthulhy.

Cthulhy had approved of Glenn becoming an independent town doctor, but the key point was that, even now, Glenn was the only one who had received her permission to do so. This was how strict of a mentor Cthulhy was. It was not often that a student of hers could match up to him.

“They don’t necessarily need to be a doctor or a nurse. Worst case scenario, they don’t even need to know anything about medicine.”

Cthulhy’s suggestion was completely outrageous, Glenn thought.

“If they’re well-versed in using thread and proficient with their fingers, then that’s fine,” Cthulhy continued. “Someone who can follow my instructions and suture the blood vessels, and someone who can stay in sync with you and Sapphee. At any rate, it has to be someone who can wield a thread and needle as fast as we can…”

“Impossible. There’s no way someone that convenient—” Glenn began. Wait, Glenn thought, stopping mid-sentence. Right as he began to say that someone that perfect couldn’t possibly exist, he suddenly realized something. There was someone like that—just one. They had no medical knowledge, but they were more of an expert with a needle and thread than Glenn was. What’s more—this person was friends with Sapphee. They were probably the most dexterous person in all of Lindworm.

“…Dr. Glenn,” said Sapphee, speaking up.

“Yeah.”

It seemed that Sapphee had thought the same thing. The two of them exchanged a forceful nod.

“…Do you happen to know someone like that?” asked Cthulhy.

“Yes. Although she can be…a little hard to read,” Glenn replied.

“It doesn’t matter. Make sure that they can help us perform the surgery.”

Glenn wondered if she’d agree to help them. No, he thought, they had to have her agree to help. An important step, then, would be to convince her to help, just like with Skadi. It was a problem that he needed to overcome, no matter what, in order to save Skadi’s life.

“By the way—what is this person’s name?” asked Cthulhy.

“Arahnia Taranterra Arachnida,” answered Sapphee. Word for word, it was the exact name that had come to Glenn’s mind.