I Opened an Illegal Animal Hospital in Another World - Chapter 127

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This chapter was translated by Lunox Team. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
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127

Chapter 25. How to Distinguish Between Dreams and Reality (5)

The abyss revealed after peeling back one layer was like a black hole.

It was like gaping flesh barely covered by a thin layer of skin.

‘Ugh.’

It felt like my entire hand was being sucked into a powerful vacuum cleaner, and my whole body might get pulled in with it. It’s hard to explain in words, but it was like there was pudding inside my body that was being sucked out in chunks…

This must be what it would feel like if someone picked me up whole and stuffed me into a narrow tube.

It was subtly different from when I first treated Mother, and when the town square exploded.

Back then, it was crudely hammering away without technique, and using large amounts in a short time made my throat feel parched inside. But this time it felt like a thick hose was sucking out my energy?

‘I hate myself for analyzing this…’

I was controlling the pace as Seth had taught me to avoid having it all taken at once, but if I let my guard down even slightly, I felt like I’d get completely swept away.

“Wow…”

Nathan’s eyes sparkled brightly with innocence. His face, wrapped in twinkling light, overflowed with happiness.

Brandon, who had kept his distance to avoid interfering, was clasping his hands together like a parent entrusting their terminally ill son to a renowned doctor. Despite being so desperate and heartfelt, my heart remained cold.

Even though they were completely immersed in their own drama, I couldn’t empathize with them at all.

I briefly pondered what mindset I was watching this with, then found the perfect analogy.

It was like watching an overzealous parent in the emergency room at midnight, brought in with their son who had indigestion, screaming that their son was dying and demanding treatment before the traffic accident patient, regardless of who else was there.

‘So this is why I found them so disgusting…’

Not only had they pushed aside truly urgent patients, but they’d actually kicked them out or thrown them out of the emergency room while making a scene, demanding their son be seen first and threatening to kill the doctor and sue the hospital if he wasn’t saved.

I came up with it myself, but it was perfectly accurate.

Matthias was the husband or wife with an overzealous spouse, and Chloe was the subordinate employee trying to impress those overzealous parents. Seth was like that subordinate’s long-term part-timer…

‘What a ridiculous relationship dynamic…’

I was about to laugh inwardly when I made eye contact with Nathan and straightened my expression.

Nathan gripped my hand painfully tight like a leech. His fingers maintained their long shape, but his pale skin was beginning to show a reddish flush. After pouring out this much, the only change was barely this much.

Meanwhile, the inside of my chest was already starting to hurt like I had lung disease.

I wheezed and squeezed my eyes shut, then opened them to find Seth looking down at me with pitying eyes. He silently moved only his lips, whispering.

‘Should I help?’

If I believed those words, I’d be an unprecedented fool.

I had to rebuild the inside of Nathan’s empty body like packing soil and pouring cement with my clay. I didn’t need to think about how long it would take, since the pace was picking up.

As if gulping it down wasn’t enough, the more Nathan recovered and gained strength, the more he sucked out my life force.

When the Creator made Nathan, he must have poured in a spoonful of selfishness, a spoonful of pettiness, and a whole mess of loathsomeness…

I had the illusion that the back of my hand caught by Nathan had gotten a bit more withered.

In contrast, Nathan’s condition visibly improved more and more.

His skin, which had a bluish tint, now had a lustrous glow surrounded by light, and the whites of his eyes became a clean grayish-white. A healthy flush appeared under his eyes, and his previously erratic breathing became slower.

How much time had passed?

My right hand, which had been connected as if glued on, finally came free. Just one arm felt incredibly heavy, and I couldn’t support it, letting my arm drop.

“…Is it over?”

“Cough, gasp…”

A fishy lump rose from below my throat, and I swallowed hard. If I coughed, it felt like my lungs would tear apart painfully. You know that cough between pneumonia and flu? The kind that once it starts, you can’t stop for at least 30 minutes.

Nathan looked down at his own hands with an expression of disbelief. He seemed to have no interest in me collapsed below him.

“Brandon!”

“Prince Nathan! Finally, finally…!”

“I can’t believe it! My body has never felt this light…!”

I’m sure it hasn’t…

“Congratulations! To see you so healthy in my lifetime, truly…”

“I feel like I could run! No headaches, no coughing. I’m overflowing with energy!”

“Do you feel any discomfort?”

“No! Until now, no matter how many new parts I got, I always felt weak and uncomfortable, but now… it’s really amazing!”

That praise of “amazing” wasn’t directed at me.

It was just admiration for his own situation.

Matthias grabbed the shoulders of the bouncing Nathan, examined him, then exclaimed softly.

“Even the beastfolk organs remaining in your body have all transformed into human organs.”

“So that’s why I feel so free.”

If Nathan was like a blooming flower, I was like a withering one. Since he had drained all my life force, it was a natural result.

I silently sent my gratitude to the children who had come to receive treatment from me all this time.

If I hadn’t performed many regenerative treatments, I wouldn’t have been able to predict this outcome.

“Oh, right.”

Nathan walked over to me as I lay pathetically collapsed on the floor. Wow, I really don’t even have the strength to open my eyes…

“Thank you so much. Thanks to you, I can have a perfect body for the first time since birth.”

“Pro… mise…”

“Hm?”

“…keep…”

“Ah, right. That’s right! What did I say? Oh, I said I’d release them, didn’t I?”

Nathan smiled brightly.

“Of course I’ll release them. I really had no intention of blowing up the entire underground prison. No matter what, I wouldn’t do something so cruel. My dear younger brother is down there too…”

I really detested Nathan’s way of speaking.

While giving off an air of sophistication, he spoke slowly to appear cultured and elegant, carefully choosing words that seemed kind.

In short, it was the speech pattern of a pretentious faker who seemed sweet but was deadly. Just say A is A, but instead he’d explain it as “a letter resembling a triangle” and so on and so forth – absolutely nauseating.

“However.”

I knew this would happen.

“I’ll open the prison doors, but my secret mansion has such excellent security that I don’t know what might happen if intruders enter.”

“Ha…”

“Your parents are so capable, surely they’ll rescue my younger brother who might get caught up in this?”

It wasn’t surprising at all.

I never expected Nathan to keep his promise in the first place. Matthias had also said the prison wouldn’t explode, but he was a demon.

As Seth said, you should assume everything demons say is a lie.

Since we hadn’t made a contract, there was no reason for him to tell the truth.

“Cough, hack!”

“Oh my, that must be painful.”

Put some soul into it and try saying that again.

“Prince Nathan, what shall we do?”

“Hmm…”

Nathan pretended to contemplate.

“Matthias can’t kill humans, right?”

“Yes, shall you dispose of her directly?”

Wow, Brandon. What am I, food waste?

“Shall I do it?”

“No, don’t. I warned you, didn’t I? She’s mine.”

“This isn’t the time for pointless stubbornness, Seth. It would be troublesome if the Wentworth noblewoman somehow survives.”

Brandon scolded Seth like a stern adult. However, Matthias grabbed Brandon’s shoulder to stop him.

“She’ll die even if we leave her alone, so Seth, do as you please.”

“It’s unsettling, but if you say so, Matthias…”

“Then we’ll go ahead.”

“Wait, Seth! Aren’t you coming with us?”

Chloe, who had been sitting still like a sack, looked around in confusion as Nathan, Brandon, and Matthias left their positions in an instant. Seth waved his hand as if he had no intention of going with them, and though Chloe hesitated for a moment, she eventually followed her superior.

In the end, I was left alone with Seth. Seth crouched down beside me where I lay collapsed.

“Shana, isn’t this too anticlimactic?”

“…Screw…”

“I don’t want to get screwed. I don’t know what that would taste like.”

“…”

“Why didn’t you just endure it? Even if all the beastfolk died, your parents and childhood friend would have been safe.”

“…”

“This way, you’ve only done Nathan a favor.”

Again, again. He’s pretending not to know when he knows everything. Since I didn’t have the strength to respond and just stared at him, Seth smirked.

“How long can a chimera that’s returned to human form last…”

Who knows. I just did as requested.

Seth placed my head on his knee. A knee pillow? How disgusting…

I was about to curse, but I covered my mouth and coughed for a long time. Each time I coughed, my torso writhed like an eel. How much of my lifespan did I use with this, and how much do I have left?

Matthias said I would have had to use most of my lifespan, but honestly, it wasn’t quite that severe.

Though it was touch and go, I could still manage. If I could eat something sweet at a time like this, I’d get a burst of energy.

“But you know what? Shana, your childhood friend and family are in a bit of danger.”

Ah, please just stop already.

“Want to go? I’ll give you a discount.”

You damn bastard.

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This chapter was translated by Lunox Team. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
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