I Opened an Illegal Animal Hospital in Another World - Chapter 77

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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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77

 

Chapter 18. Right Now Our Hospital Is (3)

 

‘He really has no intention of going back, does he…’

 

While the immediate breakup had been thwarted by falling for the honey trap, Raven himself seemed to have no intention of returning, having leisurely settled into one corner of the clinic.

 

He’ll go back after breakfast, he’ll go back after having a cup of tea to help digest… But even when Ella finished cleaning up the dishes and returned, Raven didn’t budge an inch.

 

Is he actually completely free?

 

At this rate, it seemed like he’d hold out until clinic hours started. Seeing him begin to flip through books I had placed there for reading when I was bored, it didn’t look like he planned to leave within an hour or two.

 

Should I kick his butt?

 

‘No. He’ll figure it out on his own…’

 

He’s not even a child.

 

It absolutely wasn’t because I was annoyed at falling for such an obvious scheme and being petty about it.

 

And it definitely wasn’t because the more I talked, the more tangled up I felt!

 

…Really.

 

I ignored Raven’s massive presence (no, he really was physically large) and took out my lab coat to put on. My hair was particularly messy because I hadn’t dried it properly yesterday, so I roughly tied it back in a ponytail and put on my glasses, finally feeling comfortable.

 

That’s when Lili burst through the door.

 

“….”

 

And she was speechless. I knew Lili’s gaze was directed toward Raven, who had pulled up a chair next to me.

 

“Don’t mind him. Just treat him like he’s not there.”

 

“Okay? Then. I applied all the medicine. Now we just wait until he wakes up?”

 

How bold of her, when it’s not like she doesn’t know who he is. Her naturally dismissive gaze was truly natural.

 

“We need to call his guardians. Contact Ron and Renate for me.”

 

“…Got it.”

 

Lili looked somewhat uncomfortable. When I stared at her wondering why, she answered in a small mutter.

 

“I’m definitely going to get scolded for not stopping him.”

 

“Ah, by Renate?”

 

“By Ron.”

 

Ron… scolds people…?

 

I was as shocked as someone learning for the first time that the earth is round. Lili saw my expression, smiled slightly, and said.

 

“He is an alpha, after all.”

 

“If you need to say ‘after all’ about an alpha, isn’t that already over?”

 

Raven tactlessly butted in with his provocation. I kicked Raven’s shin hard enough to make a thudding sound. Lili honestly followed my instruction to treat him like he wasn’t there, pretending not to hear his nonsense.

 

“Let’s say Lili didn’t know. I’ll say I dragged the kids out on my own.”

 

“Only if he believes that…”

 

Lili grumbled as she left the clinic.

 

“That Canaria hasn’t changed at all even after 11 years.”

 

“She’s naturally small-framed. Even if she looks young, do you know how reliable and dependable she is? She’s the most mature among us.”

 

Lili had come under Ron’s protection along with Jake. At first she had declined, but I knew Ron had persistently followed her around. Same with Jake. Jake, being a mouse beastman, had run away saying it would be a burden for him to join the pack, but he changed his mind when Lili declared she wouldn’t join either if Jake didn’t.

 

‘It seems like Jake and she are dating, but she gets angry whenever I bring it up…’

 

I sat at my desk and tidied up the area for no reason. I hung my stethoscope around my neck and skimmed through charts, but Raven’s gaze following me was uncomfortable. Ignore… I have to ignore… I tried to ignore him, but he was staring too obviously.

 

I glared fiercely at Raven, who was propping his chin on his hand and staring intently at only me.

 

“What are you looking at?”

 

“You.”

 

“…Am I some zoo monkey?”

 

“Does it bother you?”

 

“Of course it bothers me! You’re going to bore holes in my face!”

 

“Treat me like I’m not here.”

 

…Is he sulking?

 

However, Raven’s face was fresh without any trace of resentment. He even seemed to find something amusing. What is it. What’s so funny. It can’t be that boring book. He’s not even reading it.

 

I couldn’t figure out his intentions at all. He’s not someone who would like being treated like he doesn’t exist, and he must have received all kinds of attention from birth until now…

 

‘Ugh, I don’t know…’

 

Half of me wanted to probe deeper, and half wanted to just leave him alone since he said not to mind him.

 

Even if I asked, it didn’t seem like I’d get a satisfying answer. Since we met again, Raven had often said things that left me not knowing what expression to make. It seemed like flirting but was friendly, and too suspicious to have no intention behind it…

 

‘Or not? Was he always like this?’

 

Thinking about it carefully, it seemed like he had always been like this.

 

Back then I thought the kid said all sorts of things. I even found it endearing how he pretended to be an adult. Actually, even recently when we only contacted each other by voice, I often laughed it off.

 

But seeing his face made it very difficult to counter him.

 

‘…No matter how I look at it, she’s not a child….’

 

Anyway, I decided to just do what I had to do. When I got up, Raven naturally followed suit as if it were obvious. Let’s just ignore him.

 

The hospital had many small tasks. Though Lili and Evelyn were handling management and general administration, since it was my hospital, checking and making decisions was my responsibility.

 

I went to the warehouse and pharmacy to check inventory and count the medicines.

 

The medicines divided into ointment and potion forms were almost out of stock. I’ll have to make medicines over the weekend. It must be because Renate and Ron took so many.

 

Evelyn, who was in charge of cleaning, nursing, and supply warehouse management, wrote down the shortage numbers for me.

 

Normally I would get the appointment list from Lili and go straight to the clinic, but today I made a special stop at the inpatient ward.

 

It’s not good for the inpatient ward to be full. I recalled the things I had made by extorting money from grandfather. Those items with no chance to be useful were rotting away day by day….

 

Maybe… they might get a chance to be useful. I smiled slightly then startled and covered my mouth with my palm.

 

Smiling when there’s a sick person makes me look like a psychopath!

 

“I wasn’t smiling.”

 

“Who said anything?”

 

“…My cheek was just a bit itchy. Because you keep staring at me.”

 

“I didn’t say anything.”

 

In case he misunderstood.

 

I opened the inpatient ward door. Thanks to the magical device that controlled humidity and temperature, the air was more moist and warm than in the hallway. Mm, it feels like a hospital…!

 

‘For the first time it feels like a hospital…!’

 

I was a bit moved.

 

Thanks to Lili and Evelyn’s care, the patient was in much cleaner condition than in the morning. Except for his pale complexion, the wounds on his skin seemed almost healed.

 

‘Thank goodness.’

 

Checking his comfortable breathing made me feel good too.

 

‘I’ll tell Renate about the curse when he comes later.’

 

Since general healing power doesn’t work on beastmen, he wouldn’t receive healing magic from anyone other than me, but you never know.

 

I asked Evelyn to keep watching this person and that she didn’t need to come down to the clinic. Evelyn seemed reluctant but glanced at Raven and said she understood.

 

‘Why does everyone dislike Raven so much…?’

 

While I understood it, I felt a bit sorry for Raven. If you look closely, he does have some good points.

 

Though they’re hard to find, they do exist.

 

***

 

Raven was surprisingly good at staying in the corner of the clinic without being too bothersome.

 

He’s so big and so handsome, yet no one pays attention to him. Raven didn’t seem particularly bored either, so I stopped paying attention at some point too.

 

“Doctor, I’m so sorry to keep bothering you.”

 

Sorry my foot. But do you really not see that big guy over there?

 

“Don’t mention it. Don’t worry about it. Do you have any medicine left?”

 

“No….”

 

“I’ll prescribe some for you to take. Come back if you need more.”

 

Saying this makes it sound like an illegal clinic that abuses prescriptions.

 

‘It is an illegal clinic, what else….’

 

I felt a bit sad. If Maria comes back as a licensed doctor, could we become a proper legal hospital too?

 

Though I was charging consultation fees, they were really small amounts, and I was accepting medicine payments through barter too. The in-house exchange run by Lili was famous for having very low standards and generous rates.

 

However, as I initially worried, when things were too cheap, people became suspicious instead. On top of that, since I distributed potions so freely, the Apothecary Guild spread rumors that they were illegal drugs.

 

I knew this would happen from when I wasn’t a member of the Apothecary Guild (how could I join when I knew nothing about medicines….).

 

No matter how much I adjusted prices to reasonable levels, the conditions made it inevitable that people would view us unfavorably.

 

Not long after the hospital opened, word spread that the Wentworth Family was sponsoring our hospital, and people who believed that and came to take advantage bought medicines in droves, so business was quite good for a while.

 

But after the rumors spread, people stopped coming completely. What made it worse were the twins who came during holidays and vacations.

 

“Ah, why are you only picking on me?! Ian went too!”

 

“You’re both the same! Why did you beat up random people on the street?!”

 

“Because they were badmouthing you!”

 

“They must be from the Apothecary Guild!”

 

“You knew and still wanted us to leave them alone?!”

 

“When I’m interfering with their business, they can badmouth me a little!”

 

“Is that something the person being badmouthed should say?”

 

“It’s not like they’re spitting in my face, so what’s the big deal?”

 

“Even if you can stand it, we can’t!”

 

Because you can’t stand it, more customers run away….

 

Because our hot-tempered kids fought with people who spoke ill of us, the only people coming to the hospital were the few who had believed the ‘angel theory’ and supported us from the beginning.

 

Mother said that was better. If we became too successful, the Temple would come barging in claiming to investigate, so she told me to let the rumors spread as they would.

 

Father added rumors that the Wentworths had been scammed. That his daughter was naive and got fooled. I became a weak, overly sympathetic idiot who even got scammed. Sob sob.

 

The rumors Lili mentioned were like this.

 

If you take the medicine, your hands and feet rot. If you receive treatment, your organs get stolen. If you become addicted to the medicine (but how do you keep taking it until addiction when it rots you…?), you become a cripple…

 

It was truly disgusting, but those vulgar people who despise beastmen would see the beastmen coming and going from our hospital and spread rumors that taking the medicine makes you grow fur.

 

Thanks to that, people stayed even further away, and except for a few, they were all beastmen who had graduated from Renate’s orphanage and worked as mercenaries. I checked the time.

 

Almost 4 PM. Time for them to come flooding in.

 

“Hello, Shana! I think my arm’s about to get cut off!”

 

“Aaaaah!”

 

“Hello, Shana! I’m going to risk my life taking on a high-rank request, so please sell me just two potions!”

 

“Go back. Don’t do it. I’m telling Renate.”

 

“Hello, Shana! I got a hole punched through my stomach! Hahaha.”

 

“Aaaaaaaah…”

 

Please, you guys need to take better care of your bodies…

 

My precious ones had all grown up way too tough.

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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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