“I’m going to need you to decide on a delivery date.”
“Then one month, at the very latest.”
“Hmmmm,” the boss replied, rubbing his hand over his bald head. Glenn thought the boss was most likely over fifty years old, but he had a vigor to him that prevented any signs of weakening from age. He had been a weaponsmith during the great war, and manufactured an abundance of weapons and armor used in battle. The experience he had acquired was different from apprentices like Memé, who knew nothing of war. As a cyclops weaponsmith, he had been lauded as the greatest craftsman among countless others.
That boss now had his head in his hands. Glenn began to understand just how absurd his request was. The cyclops groaned for a few moments, until at last, he looked Glenn in the eyes.
“Alright. We’ll do it.” His face still wore a scowl, but his sense of responsibility was evident as he spoke.
“R-really?” Glenn replied.
“Yeah. I’ll put my cyclops pride on the line. It’s gonna be expensive, Doc. We’re going to need something upfront to make something like this.”
“Please rest assured—you will be paid.”
“Hah, I suppose I don’t need to worry if the Central Hospital’s involved, do I?”
Once a city got as big as Lindworm, the number of monsters that needed treatment naturally grew along with it. That even a small town doctor like Glenn was so busy meant that the number of patients at the Central Hospital were too numerous to even count. It was natural to assume the profit the hospital earned was sizeable. Cthulhy understood how difficult the request was and would spare no expense on the surgery.
“One thing, though,” the boss said, cutting off his thought with a small pause. “The needles—that’s the only thing I can’t contract for.”
“The needles?”
“Yeah, to get them down to surgical needle size and make them strong enough to penetrate dragonscale… That will be a little difficult. I’m gonna need to rack my brains about this one. I can’t promise for certain that it’ll be done by the due date.”
“…You’re saying you’ll make it, though?”
“I can’t say for sure, but I’ll do what I can.”
Glenn thought the request must be quite the tough job for the boss to comment on how difficult it would be. “Understood. So, then, you’ll get started on everything besides the needles right away? If the situation with the needles changes, please let me know when I can expect them by.”
“Yeah, of course. Give the director my thanks when you see her,” the boss replied, smiling as he rubbed his bald head.
Glenn was sure that if the boss said he would do something, he would pull it off at any cost. He knew without a doubt that he could put his trust in the dyed-in-the-wool craftsman temperament characteristic of the cyclops.
On the other hand—assuming that the boss was able to complete the needles, there was a chance they wouldn’t be exactly as Glenn had ordered them. He should make sure to let Cthulhy know this information.
“…………” The boss cast his massive single eye around him. He appeared to be looking around the workshop. The eye of a cyclops wasn’t capable of binocular vision, but their visual acuity and range of vision were far beyond that of a human’s. It was an eye with an extremely unique construction to it. Spinning around with ease, it could clearly capture things to the right and left just as it did those in front.
“Memé.” At long last, the boss called out to the apprentice who was still glancing now and then at the order form.
“Y-y-yes?!” she replied.
“How about you try making the needles?”
It was an unbelievable nomination. Memé’s eye opened perfectly wide and light reflected in her iris, which made it seem that her eye really did emit light of its own.
“It’s about time I gave you a job. It’s small work, but it’s a major task. Try making a needle just as the Doc requested.”
“H-h-huh? M-m-me…?”
“You have to start sooner or later. This is a good chance.”
“N-n-no way! I can’t do it, Boss! I can’t make such an important needle!” Memé shook her head so hard it looked like her neck was going to break. A normal apprentice would be in high spirits to be given an assignment by the boss, but Memé didn’t seem to think of it that way. “I-I get what your motives are… You’re leaving the tools for Miss Skadi’s surgery up to a newbie like me and are going to accuse me of being responsible when her surgery fails, is that it?! The surgery will fail because of my needles, and then the town will be in an uproar, and the paper will reveal all my private secrets, and I’ll be the laughing stock of the town!”
“You’re really a pessimist aren’t you? You’re the one who’s best suited to these kinds of delicate jobs. Stop your whining and get to it!”
“Uuuuggghhhh…” Memé looked at Glenn with tears in her eye. He felt like the words “save me” were written across the girl’s big single eye.
After thinking for a moment, Glenn smiled at her, saying, “Sounds good to me. Give it a shot, Memé.”
“Hngggggggh…” With all her escape routes cut off, Memé let out an indescribable noise.
Everything within the workshop was managed by the boss. Glenn had a certain position as the customer making the request, but he had no right to speak up about who should be given the work. If the boss said he wanted to try leaving it up to Memé, then Glenn would trust in that decision.
Moreover, while Memé was still an apprentice, Glenn had heard that she was skilled at more delicate work, like metalworking. If anything, she might actually be suited to the work involved in manufacturing the surgical needles.
“I-I-I’ll do my best… But don’t get your hopes up because… This pressure, this pressure is going to kill me,” said Memé.
“What the hell are you saying to the customer? Times like these are when you say you’re going to dedicate yourself to getting the job done,” the boss chimed in.
“I can’t do it, I just can’t do it…” She was an awfully pessimistic craftsman, but that was very much like Memé to begin with. The fact that the boss was entrusting it to her meant there was no doubt of her skill—the problem was with her personality.
It appeared to Glenn that the boss had a much higher opinion of Memé than he had thought. At the same time, the boss knew that Memé needed to overcome her pessimistic attitude in order to properly exhibit her skill. He imagined that entrusting Memé with a job so quickly was out of his concern to try and give her more self-confidence.
Glenn hoped it would go well. But seeing Memé staring at the ground, mumbling something under her breath, he thought it didn’t seem likely without some trouble along the way.
“Anyway, I ask that you complete this for me. For the success of the surgery,” said Glenn.
“I-I-I’ll give it everything I’ve got…” replied Memé.
The cyclops were one-eyed giants. There were times when they used to be misunderstood, due to their appearance, as being crude and barbaric. In actuality, they were a serious species with a keen sense of obligation. They had a stubborn and unaccommodating side to them as well, but they had a strong sense of responsibility and took pride in their creations. Glenn was sure that because they had accepted the order, they would absolutely be able to get the surgical tools together.
Nevertheless, he would be lying if he said that he didn’t have his doubts about Memé Redon, who still had her eye cast down to the ground, muttering to herself.
***
“What in the world is this…? Hmm, what the…?” Arahnia muttered.
“You’re pretty sloppy,” Sapphee said. “Dr. Glenn is better at this after all.”
“Well of course he is! I’m a total amateur!” Arahnia’s cries echoed.
Glenn thought Arahnia’s words weren’t that unreasonable. She was an expert with a needle and thread, but now she was sewing up blood vessels instead of fabric.
“Hmph. I never thought there was any
thing more elaborate than lace embroidery. Doctor, are you always doing this sort of work?” Arahnia continued.
“Well, stitches aren’t really something we handle everyday… Miss Kunai is obviously the exception,” replied Glenn.
“I-I suppose so…”
They were in one of the rooms of the clinic. Arahnia had come to practice suturing again. Although she could use all four of her arms at will and was a quick learner, suturing technique was something that even Glenn had needed a long time under Cthulhy’s supervision to master. If anything, he would have been upset if she learned it overnight.
When working in the clinic, Arahnia wore a nurse’s outfit that matched Sapphee’s. Naturally, it had been modified in various places to fit an arachne.
The hat and red-and-white apron were the same as Sapphee’s. The sun-blocking inner liner was fundamentally the same as Sapphee’s as well, but it was tailored to match Arahnia’s four arms. All of her fake fingernails had been removed for her work, and she had put her hair up in a single ponytail high on her head instead of her two usual pigtails.
When working as a designer, she looked outlandish and fashionable, but now more importance was being put on neatness and practicality in her attire. Putting on the clothes most suitable for the time and place was a personal fixation of the arachne.
“I don’t really mind. The chance to sew someone up doesn’t come often. You can thank this body of mine.” Fortunately for Arahnia, there was someone willing to let her borrow her body to practice suturing.
That was Kunai. The wear on her right arm was severe from overwork and stress, and even if Glenn sutured it back together, it would still come apart easily. This was convenient for Arahnia’s practice, and Kunai would visit the clinic every day to offer her right arm up as a practice partner.
“They really are small… How is that, Kunai? Forget the blood vessels, the nerves are what’s really hard to see,” said Arahnia.
“You can fiddle with them any way you like, I don’t mind. Still, to think you’re really working here in the clinic, Miss Arahnia. When I first heard, I thought it was a joke,” said Kunai.
“I would never joke about something this important… Though I am regretting the choice a little,” Arahnia added under her breath. The exhaustion on her face was plain to see.
Glenn imagined it was only natural for Arahnia’s exhaustion to be growing worse as she stared day-in and day-out at the nerves and blood vessels in Kunai’s right arm. If it weren’t for Skadi’s surgery, Arahnia and Kunai would never have met like this. As hard-pressed as she was, Arahnia managed to sew Kunai’s arm back together.
As a result of the days of continuous training, Arahnia’s skill was improving before Glenn’s eyes. Just as he had expected, Arahnia’s needlework was the real deal. If she kept improving like this, she’d be able to do a reliable job when it came to be time for the surgery.
“Do the very best you can, Arahnia,” said Sapphee.
“Sappheeee… I’m so exhausted. I want a drink…” Arahnia pleaded.
“Nope. You always drink too much. No drinking for the time being.”
“That’s just cruel…”
Sapphee was stern with the complaining Arahnia. Glenn even felt a hint of enjoyment in Sapphee’s voice as she looked at the worn-out arachne. The two of them had a complicated friendship, and Glenn honestly felt it was a little warped in some respects.
Sapphee had told Glenn that Arahnia was scheming something, but with Arahnia swamped with work in the clinic, he didn’t think she had the time to wrap them up in one of her plots. For the sake of her technical improvement, he couldn’t afford to ease up now. He planned on strictly looking after her and pushing her to her limits.
“About the Lady Draconess,” Kunai said as she was being stitched up. “I keep trying to convince her myself, again and again. She should be receiving some correspondence from Dr. Cthulhy as well, but she is still opposed to performing the surgery. It seems she is hard set in her way.”
Glenn wanted to tear his hair out. He couldn’t perform surgery without the patient’s consent. There wasn’t any doubt in Glenn’s mind that neglecting her heart disorder was painful for Skadi, and he couldn’t understand why she was so opposed to the surgery.
Kunai, sitting in front of him, had once hated doctors, and there had been circumstances where she had refused treatment, but Glenn had never heard about Skadi hating doctors as well. Skadi had a deep, close friendship with Cthulhy to begin with, and had been the one to install her as hospital director.
There didn’t seem to be any way to quickly get rid of that heart of hers, besides surgery. If they couldn’t perform the operation, then Arahnia’s frantic special training and the needles he had requested of Memé would all come to nothing.
“Why exactly is she so against it…?” Glenn pondered.
“It may be a weird thing to hear coming from me, but I think she believes it’s her fate,” Kunai said with a self-deprecating smile.
Fate. It was true that whether one was human or monster, there would be a time when one’s life came to an end. Glenn’s job was saving lives, but no matter how many he saved, there was no escaping death when it finally came. Of course, while that was true, there were also undead races, and examples of monsters like Kunai created by sewing dead tissue together, so this rule might not necessarily apply to them.
“The Lady Draconess loathes the long history of monsters and humans fighting one another, and exerted herself to develop this city where monster and human live together,” Kunai said. “To the Lady Draconess, building this city was her mission. And now Lindworm is one of the most prominent cities on the whole continent. It’s not often a city grows this populous and has an economy of this size.”
“That’s true…” Glenn replied.
“The Lady Draconess feels that she has accomplished everything she needed to. Therefore, if she should die from a disease, then she believes it must be fate. She has no regrets. At least, that’s what I think her reasoning is.”
Though this seemed like it was only a guess, if the bodyguard that was always by Skadi’s side saw it that way, Glenn imagined it wasn’t far from the truth.
“Now that’s tricky, isn’t it?” Arahnia said. “I’d just be happy to live as long as I could. Why, I have a mountain of things I still want to do.”
“The Lady Draconess doesn’t think such base thoughts,” Kunai replied. “But… That’s right—she’s never used the word ‘death’ in front of me before. She says she’s going to ‘return to the sky.’ I wonder if there is some kind of difference.”
“Yes. Naturally, I would be a rather base woman, wouldn’t I?” Arahnia replied, pursing her lips in a sulk.
But there wasn’t anything wrong with Arahnia’s line of thinking. It was normal for all organisms to want to live well, as long as they were still breathing. Glenn felt that as a dragon, Skadi’s philosophy on the matter differed. He also found the way she put it, “returning to the sky,” very mysterious.
He wondered if it meant that, to Skadi, the earth wasn’t where she belonged. Now that he thought about it, when he was examining her, she had said something similar—that she had come from somewhere close to the realm of the gods.
Glenn wasn’t religious, but there were many humans and monsters that held religious beliefs. That she was referencing the gods signaled to Glenn that dragons were indeed the inhabitants of the world spoken of in myth and fairytale.
If he had to choose one way or the other, Glenn shared Arahnia’s more base way of thinking about life and death. Nothing came immediately to his mind when he heard talk of the gods and their realm in the heavens. He wondered if gods became sick, if he could give a god a medical exam—these were the only types of questions that came into his head.
“However, we still need to keep trying to convince her. This time, I’ll accompany you,” said Glenn.
“Right. If we keep it up, the Lady Draconess might change her mind,” Kunai replied.
Despite this, Kunai gave a disapproving shrug of her shoulders. It seemed clear that the suturing she normally received from Glenn was better, but Kunai had been the one to offer her body as Arahnia’s training partner. Glenn felt a twinge of regret, but all Kunai could do was bear with it for now.
“I know I keep saying this, but the young miss representative might just become more stubborn if you do that,” Arahnia said.
“Hm…” Kunai replied.
“Thread becomes stronger the more you twist it, but it also becomes stiff and hard to work with. I don’t think adding more people will make things better. Sometimes, you have to try pulling back… Well, I will say you don’t seem to be very skilled with diplomacy, do you, Miss Kunai?” Arahnia said as she drew out a piece of thread she had pulled from somewhere unknown. Before anyone realized it, she was using her four arms and twining the thread together as though she were playing cat’s cradle.
“You see, if you pull too strong, the thread will snap—so discretion is key,” Arahnia explained.
“Discretion, you say?” Kunai asked.
“Us monsterfolk aren’t so great at discretion, though, are we?” Arahnia said, giggling. Her gaze was pointed toward Sapphee. Sapphee had a somewhat indignant look on her face. Glenn thought that Arahnia was referring to their time in the harpy village, when Sapphee had wrapped herself so tightly around Glenn’s neck that he fainted. She had squeezed his neck hard enough to leave marks, but the one who had angered Sapphee enough to go that far was Arahnia.
The two of them really did have quite the complicated relationship. They had something that Glenn couldn’t quite figure out between them, but whatever it was might be why they were such good friends.
“In that case, what should we do…?” Glenn asked.
“If a frontal attack doesn’t work, then we have to go in from the back. If neither pushing forward nor pulling back works, then dyeing something is the best solution. If a thread is beautiful dyed, then the finished clothing will be just as splendid, won’t it?”
Monster Girl Doctor Vol. 3 Page 10