Monster Girl Doctor Vol. 3 Page 2

  “There’s still some time left for lunch today, so I’ll stay with you a little while longer, okay?” He said.

  “R-really?” Sapphee replied.

  “Yup. But there won’t be any kisses.”

  “Nggghhhh, pleeeease just forget about that!” Sapphee cried in an agony of embarrassment. She didn’t often allow herself to rely on others, so she wouldn’t immediately turn to Glenn for help in moments like this. However, this made her all the more pitiful to Glenn, and he couldn’t just leave her alone.

  As he added hot water to the basin, Glenn wondered if, perhaps, he wasn’t already caught in the trap of a lamia in love.

  I truly am no match for Sapphee , he thought in speechless admiration.

  PROLOGUE 2:

  The Waterways Commemoration Ceremony

  A t long last, around the time Sapphee recovered from her cold, spring came to Lindworm.

  Spring was the festival season. In the Waterways, the merfolk held multi-day carnivals, and at the arena, there were the annual promotion trials. Both monster and human alike grew restless for the season of revelry on the horizon.

  With the arrival of spring, Sapphee increasingly cast suggestive looks toward Glenn. Even he could guess that she wanted to go sightseeing around the Waterways. He imagined that her aim was to buy some seasonal merchandise only available at that time.

  But just when Glenn had decided to make time and go with her, a single letter fell out of the sky, almost as if it had chosen that exact moment to arrive.

  ***

  “Hellooo!”

  The window of the clinic was thrown forcibly open with a bang. The sudden intruder barged into the clinic, oblivious to the patients waiting to be examined. Both Glenn and Sapphee looked at the scene with exasperation.

  “Illy. How many times do we have to tell you to come in through the door?” Sapphee said, her eyebrows twitching in anger.

  “It’s an express delivery to the clinic! Look, see, it’s from the Central City Council!” Illy replied.

  “Listen to people when they’re talking!” Sapphee ordered.

  The young girl’s habit of entering through the clinic’s windows was already established. A harpy with brilliantly colored wings, her name was Illy. She had a deep connection to Glenn, who had saved her from a blocked oviduct and diagnosed the molting of her feathers during her growing phase.

  “So how is it, Illy?” Glenn asked. “Your job with Scythia Transportation, I mean.”

  “It’s fun! I can fly as much as I want! Miss T. is always complimenting me, and I stand out, too!” Illy replied.

  “That’s good,” Glenn said.

  Illy lived in the harpy village, but she’d officially become an employee of the Scythia Company in early spring. Now she worked as an airborne mail deliverer. She had learned the names and faces of the people of Lindworm, and it didn’t take her very long to get used to the city. For someone who liked flying more than anything else, one could say she had found her calling in life. Nevertheless, Glenn thought, he definitely wanted her to fix her bad habit of nonchalantly barging into the clinic through the window.

  “Okay, here! You have a delivery!” Illy proclaimed.

  “Hm. From the council… So from Miss Skadi?” Glenn asked.

  “Yes, yes. She was the one who gave to me! All right, I’ve still got a lot of deliveries left!” Illy declared, and promptly flew out the window, just as quickly as she had come.

  “She’s sure in a hurry, isn’t she…?” Glenn mused.

  “Well, still, that’s just perfect for a girl like her,” Sapphee replied.

  At Sapphee’s words, Glenn gave a strained smile. He thought that it was precisely because of how energetic Illy was that she could enjoy being so busy. It was clear from her animated expression that she was living a fulfilling life as an employee of the Scythia Company.

  Glenn immediately checked the letter that Illy had delivered. The wax seal was stamped with a dragon crest, and Glenn could tell that it was a handwritten letter directly from the city council representative herself, Skadi Dragenfelt. He was sure the contents of the letter must be of quite some importance.

  “An invitation to the Merrow Waterways Commemoration Ceremony…?” Glenn read. “I see. The reconstruction is over. It’s an inauguration ceremony.”

  The Merrow Waterways had a complex structure. It was a comfortable town for merfolk and many other aquatic monsters to live in, but because the canals had been created by remodeling the existing townscape, there were still unused ruins poking out of the water. These unused ruins had even been used as a hideout by slave traders. Glenn’s first meeting with Illy, when she was suffering from her impacted oviduct, had in fact been in such a hideout.

  Glenn had heard that the remodeling project had been moving forward during the winter, under the direction of Skadi’s personal attendant Kunai Zenow. That those very slave traders were all trained by Kunai and taking part in the remodeling was truly a strange twist of fate in Glenn’s eyes.

  At any rate, Glenn thought, it appeared the reconstruction had finished without incident. No longer would the Waterways be home to strange gangs of people. He was sure Lulala must have felt safer too, since she called the Waterways her home.

  “It says here there is a festival to commemorate the remodeling of the Waterways. It looks like there’s going to be a lot of flashy events, parades, choruses, you name it. Oh, it says here that Lulala is going to appear as a songstress, too,” Glenn read from the letter.

  “Oh, I definitely want to make sure to see that. Perhaps, on the invitation…” Sapphee trailed off.

  “Of course you’re invited too, Sapphee.” Glenn replied. Sapphee’s name was clearly written on the invitation as well. Skadi could be quite tactful.

  A document containing the details of the ceremony was included in the envelope, and it seemed to Glenn that it was going to be a grand event. Naturally, since they were reopening the Merrow Waterways, he was sure there would be a considerable number of street stalls and booths at the event as well.

  More than anything else, Glenn wanted to hear the songs of his merfolk friend Lulala. As the doctor looking after her continued recovery, he was also curious about how her throat was doing.

  “We have quite a lot to look forward to, don’t we, Doctor?” Sapphee said.

  “Sapphee, have you gotten over your cold?” Glenn asked.

  “How mean, Doctor. Just how long ago are you talking about? I’m quite fine now,” Sapphee said, looking in high spirits as she waved the white tail on her lower body back and forth. She loved the items that were sold in the stalls of the Waterways, so Glenn imagined she was quite happy.

  “Together. We’ll go around to all the shops together,” Sapphee said. Now that Glenn thought about it, it had been a while since they’d both made their way out to the Waterways. During the winter months, they were so swamped with work that they hadn’t even been able to get out of the clinic to go shopping.

  “I know, I know. But right now, we have work to do,” Glenn replied.

  “But of course. Thank you for your patience. Next patient, please.” Sapphee called out. They had been unabashedly prattling on in the waiting room, but the regular patients there didn’t seem upset by it at all. If anything, they appeared to find the sight of the doctor and pharmacologist conversing back and forth to be both pleasant and heartwarming.

  The friendly atmosphere was precisely because this was such a small city clinic. No such atmosphere existed at the Central Lindworm Hospital—a huge facility situated on the main avenue of the city, that worked day and night to fight against disease.

  Spring had finally arrived. Having fought the epidemic until the flow of patients dwindled, Glenn surmised that it might be the perfect time for the Litbeit Clinic to relax a little bit.

  Etching the date in the letter for the following week into his mind, Glenn once again returned to work.

  ***

  On the day of the ceremony, there wasn’t a s
ingle cloud in the sky. Glenn and Sapphee entered the Waterways on foot. Previously, it had been extremely inconvenient to traverse the canals by land, but now there were new bridges and pathways built above them. Glenn was sure it was more accessible by boat as well.

  “Now you can even get this far on foot, huh. They really added a lot of bridges, didn’t they…?” said Glenn.

  “They were put in place for tourist use. With this, it’ll be easy to come and do some shopping,” replied Sapphee.

  The two of them talked as they looked out at the Waterways, marveling at how it had been developed even further into a tourist destination. There were stalls and street stands on either side of the bridges. The traders didn’t necessarily appear to be residents of the Waterways, and whether human or monster, the most enterprising individuals had already set up shop. There were also now food stalls, something quite hard to operate out of a boat.

  “It’s wonderful, isn’t it, Dr. Glenn? I wonder if we’ll be able to see all the shops…” Sapphee mused.

  “Y-you’re not actually going to try and look at them all, are you?” Glenn stammered.

  “Well, all of them might be a bit… Oh, but I would like to go to that stall there. And that stand over there, too.” Sapphee replied. The two of them had a time limit today. Sapphee immediately began to devise which shops she should visit.

  Glenn had enjoyed slowly drifting through the Waterways by gondola, but he couldn’t deny the convenience of being able to walk around on his own two feet. Taking a peak under the bridge, he saw gondolas stream unceasingly up and down the canal. Glenn doubted there would be fewer tourists using a boat to make use of the canals. He was sure that going forward, the gondolas would still be essential for tourism.

  “First up is the main bridge,” Glenn said to Sapphee, who seemed on the verge of being hypnotically drawn toward a stall.

  “I-I know,” she replied.

  The two of them were headed toward the heart of the Merrow Waterways. The biggest and most naturally wide canal of the Waterways had a bridge newly constructed across it, known simply as the main bridge. Glenn had heard there was a parade that occurred every day at the base of the bridge. There were special seats for those who wanted to watch the parade from up close, but naturally, there was always a throng of people who crowded around to try and grab a seat.

  Today, however, there was no such crowd. In fact, there wasn’t a single normal tourist to be found. It was lavishly decorated with a banner for the inauguration event and flags bearing the symbol of the city council, but the only people standing on the bridge were members of the city council’s personal security force.

  Glenn continued forward without hesitation. The security guards didn’t try to stop him, suggesting that they were aware of his invitation. He spied the form of the person he was looking for on one of the side paths of the Waterways. At the foot of the bridge, there was a staircase that brought one up to the main canal. When Glenn and Sapphee carefully descended the stairs, the woman he was looking for was standing along the water’s edge.

  “Good day, Miss Skadi, Miss Kunai,” Glenn said, greeting the pair.

  “Dr. Glenn, you came?” Kunai replied.

  “Thank you very much for your generous invitation,” Glenn said. Both he and Sapphee bowed their heads in thanks. Their inviter, Skadi Dragenfelt, remained silent and gave a gentle nod. As usual, her face was covered by her veil and there was a mysterious aura surrounding her. While she was both the city council representative and the most influential and powerful figure in the city, her appearance was that of a child. Her voice was also quite soft, and without her attendant Kunai to speak for her, Glenn had no idea what she was saying.

  It appeared Skadi had just arrived at the ceremony herself and would soon give an address from atop the main bridge. This explained why the area around the main bridge was only populated by people from the city council, in contrast to the hustle and bustle throughout the Waterways.

  Having been personally invited, Glenn imagined they would have a good seat to listen to her address—the question on his mind was simply how much of her words he’d actually be able to hear.

  Either way, he thought, he was sure that Kunai would raise her voice and give the address in her stead. Being her loyal retainer, Glenn was sure not a single word of her master’s got past her. As a flesh golem, Kunai’s ears and eardrums were both stitched together from dead flesh, but where Skadi was concerned, Glenn thought her ears might actually be more powerful than those of the living.

  “The Lady Draconess was worried that you would be too busy to come. Is the clinic all right with you here?” Kunai asked.

  “Yes, well, we’re only closed for the morning.” Glenn replied.

  “I see. It’s a well-earned break, so make sure to take your time and enjoy the ceremony,” Kunai said. She had an armband on her right shoulder that indicated she was part of the security team. As was expected of Skadi’s attendant, she was also helping to keep the ceremony safe and secure. Glenn didn’t have a problem with that, but her armband appeared to be fixed to her upper arm with its pin driven directly into her flesh. Kunai had a tendency to treat her own body roughly, thinking it didn’t matter since she was a corpse. Glenn was considering whether to give her a word of warning about it when—

  “Oh! Dr. Glenn! You came!”

  “Now now, don’t move. Stay still.”

  “Okaaay.”

  Glenn heard a familiar pair of voices. On the canal, he could see many gondolas and merfolk in the water. Seeing how extravagantly the gondolas were decorated, he assumed they were preparing for the parade. Everyone was moving about in a rush both above and below the water’s surface. Glenn was startled when he spied two faces he recognized.

  One was Lulala Heine, who had the lower half of her body submerged in the water. She was a mermaid songstress who lived in the Waterways. Glenn assumed she was singing in the parade. She had an elegant dress wrapped around her that reminded Glenn of many flashy species of tropical fish. The dress floated in the water and spread out like a flared skirt.

  And there was one other face he recognized.

  “Arahnia…” Glenn sighed. It was the arachne dress designer, Arahnia Taranterra Arachnida.

  There was no denying that Lulala was a patient of his—he had given her medical treatment and periodically checked in on her to see how she was doing. Arahnia, however, was different. She had feigned illness to trick Glenn and had tried to rape him, all as part of her own agenda.

  Yet, as if Arahnia herself had forgotten all about that, she was fixing Lulala’s clothes and humming to herself as she swapped out decorations and ornaments on the outfit. Arahnia was dangling upside down from the pier of the bridge by her silk, but she seemed to be consumed by her work. She looked just like a real spider as she hung inches above the water and faced Lulala.

  “Why is she here…?” Even her close friend, Sapphee, was surprised to see Arahnia in attendance.

  “Madame Arahnia is in charge of designing the costumes for all the merfolk singing at the ceremony today,” Kunai replied. “Not just the designs, but everything from taking measurements and sewing to finishing each outfit was all done by her hand. Right now, she’s in the middle of her final checks. It’s a huge task for sure, but her work ethic is top-notch.”

  “Oh my, Arahnia is?” Sapphee replied.

  “Yeah. Anyway, with how carefully she finished everything, even the merfolk have been complimenting her work. Loose Silk Sewing has quite a skilled young employee on their hands.”

  “Is that so? To think she’d be praised so highly…” Sapphee said.

  Glenn thought that for how big Lindworm appeared, it was actually quite small. His circle of acquaintances interacted in ways that even he wasn’t aware of. Given Lulala’s and Arahnia’s personalities, it didn’t seem like they would have any opportunity to meet each other, but when he considered their roles as a songstress and a costume designer, he realized that there did seem to be a connec
tion between the two.

  He just hoped that Arahnia wouldn’t have any untoward effect on the pure-hearted and innocent Lulala.

  “The Lady Draconess is beyond pleased that such a large number of people, arachne and merfolk included, have cooperated to make today what it is. From this spring onward, the Waterways will become even more lively than ever before,” said Kunai.

  “Yes, yes. There’ll be much more shopping to do, won’t there?!” Sapphee said, her love of shopping shining through her smile. It wasn’t too much of a stretch to imagine she already had a plan of what shops she wanted to visit.

  “…………”

  “Yes?” Glenn replied. Skadi Dragenfelt had spoken. Glenn would describe her voice as being even quieter than the sound of a mosquito flying through the air. It was truly a rare occurrence for him to catch what she was saying.

  “ I’m glad you were able to come. Please enjoy yourselves —is what my mistress said,” the undead bodyguard relayed to Glenn, speaking on Skadi’s behalf.

  “I-Is that so?” Glenn stammered.

  “I’ve said it many times already, but the Lady Draconess is truly delighted that so many people have come together for the ceremony today. Lindworm has really become splendid. It’s proof that humans and monsters are living together in good health… Of course, she is also very satisfied with your efforts, Dr. Glenn, to keep the residents of the city healthy.”

  “I see,” said Glenn. He had never seen Skadi’s actual face. He was sure her opinions were just as Kunai described, but without being able to see her face, he couldn’t actually feel like she was delighted, even when told so.

  Moreover, what had Glenn curious was Skadi’s tail. Poking out from the bottom of her robe, it was a thick and sturdy dragon’s tail. Covered in scales that sparkled with the color of yellow sand, it drooped like it was being pulled along the Waterway’s stone pavement. When Glenn had seen it before, it had been standing up at the base, and he was sure the tip had been swaying back and forth.

  “Well, the time’s come. We’ll be starting soon. Seats have been prepared, so just show your invitation to the security guards. All right, then, Lady Draconess, let us be off,” said Kunai.