I Opened an Illegal Animal Hospital in Another World - Chapter 78
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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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78
Chapter 18. Our Hospital Right Now (4)
The kids who swarmed in between 4 and 7 PM as if they had made an appointment were the same children I first met when I was 7 years old.
Those kids who recognized at a glance that I was a pushover and, despite being older than me, shamelessly appealed with their cuteness… I melted instantly back then.
The last one to arrive had his leg half severed. Ugh.
“Please, if you’re seriously injured, come in first! Why are you acting all leisurely and waiting around?!”
“It’s bearable though?”
“Don’t bear it! Don’t endure it!”
Why is he so patient? I smacked the broad shoulders of the guy who was grinning happily for some reason, making loud thudding sounds. At least pretend it hurts, you fool.
“As long as we can get to Lady Shana, she’ll heal everything anyway.”
“…You’re going to pay 10 times the hospital fee from now on.”
“What!”
“No more taking medicine either. I’ll tell Ian about this.”
“Nooo! Then I’ll die!”
“Then don’t take jobs that give you life-threatening injuries!”
“But the danger pay makes it so much more profitable!”
“Where do you get off acting spoiled? It won’t work, so go!”
“How… has your love changed…?”
“…”
“You used to say I was the cutest!”
“Back then I thought all you kids were cute too.”
“…I wasn’t special…?”
“I shared my love equally with everyone. Stop talking nonsense and get up. Eat more meat today.”
“Yeah, I’m confident about that!”
“No alcohol though.”
“…S-see you next time!”
Look at him not answering until the very end…
“Ugh, the smell of blood…”
I sniffled and wiped the blood on my hands several times. No matter how much I saw blood, I could never get used to it.
Raven, who had kept his mouth shut the entire time the patients were rushing in, took my hands and the towel away from me. Then he started wiping them for me instead. Since there was no need to refuse his help, I just let him do it.
He wiped so surprisingly gently and carefully that I felt a bit embarrassed.
“Do those guys act like that every day?”
“Oh, no way. Only once every ten days or once a month. They’re busy too. They’re successful mercenaries.”
“…”
“Still, thanks to them, the hospital feels more like a hospital, right?”
Isn’t it more hospital-like than having only flies buzzing around every day or regulars just sitting around chatting like it’s a social club! Though aside from the blood splattering, scratches and nearly severed legs all heal instantly just the same.
“They’re shameless and disgusting to watch.”
“They’re cute because they’re shameless.”
We reached completely opposite conclusions from seeing the same thing.
“I told you not to pick up useless things.”
“I wasn’t the one who picked them up, Ron was.”
“Ah, that kidnapper.”
Ron’s long-standing label…
“Aren’t they taking advantage of you?”
“Does it look that way?”
It was possible. Raven was frowning, clearly showing his displeasure. I pressed his furrowed brow smooth with my clean hands and said,
“They may act like that, but they really like me a lot.”
“Of course they’d like you. You’re convenient.”
“I don’t dislike that they depend on me either…”
Actually, I was very happy about it.
The fact that they acted cute and spoiled around me. Because I knew that those kids didn’t trust any other human besides me, not even the twins.
When Ella was around, they wouldn’t even come near and only got medicine through Ron, but once I started seeing patients, they began coming like this.
How happy it makes me that only I am liked and depended on…
“That’s what being a pushover means.”
“Ah, I’m not buying any nagging.”
“Listen to me seriously.”
“Blah blah blah!”
Raven glared at me with eyes that said “I can’t even hit this one.” This glare at least hadn’t changed, which made me happy… well, it’s subtle to say happy, but I was glad.
“Shana. I hate it when anyone looks down on you. It makes me angry when you’re treated that way.”
“Are you still planning to claim ownership?”
“If claiming it would work, I would.”
“It won’t work.”
“That’s why I’m telling you this. Don’t let anyone look down on you.”
“They say they’re not looking down on me…”
Well, I understood there were many elements that could cause misunderstandings.
But it really wasn’t like that. Those kids only acted spoiled around me, and I accepted it as we built our relationship.
Look how shamelessly they call themselves cute.
Being cute was a story from when they were young, and now they were all either big or intimidating mercenaries. They were overflowing with charisma and would be scary if anything, but not cute.
But he does that because he knows I find it endearing. To Raven, that must have… sounded quite insane.
“I’m not really looking down on them. The kids don’t look down on me, and I genuinely enjoy taking care of them.”
“….”
“In the first place, I started doing this to help those kids, even if indirectly since I couldn’t care for them directly. How happy it makes me that they rely on me.”
“Ha….”
“They trust that there’s someone who will help them even when they get hurt.”
It was much, much more joyful than beastmen thinking they can’t be treated when injured, or that humans wouldn’t help them even if treatment were possible.
“Since I was born with this power, it’s good to use it well. There’s no loss either. It’s more rewarding to help those who are harder to help than those who have many people to help them. I’m very satisfied.”
Others might find it strange, but I loved this hospital dearly.
The fact that winter epidemics no longer spread through the gloomy streets, and that people now hesitate but don’t run away when they see beastmen entering the hospital.
“…You really are a pushover to your very bones.”
“Hey, the pushover listening doesn’t feel good about that.”
“That’s why you can’t refuse my requests and get caught up in them.”
“…Is that something you should be saying?”
So shameless… Who’s calling whom shameless, come to think of it. While being the most shameless person I know.
Raven just twisted the corner of his mouth and smiled quietly.
I felt a bit uncomfortable.
Raven quietly observed my daily routine as if he had wanted to know how I’d been living while he was away.
He must have known everything already since I chattered about every little detail whenever we contacted each other.
‘While he never tells me anything….’
I told him everything like a report – what I did each day, who I met, how my parents were, and what pranks the twins pulled. But Raven never told me where he was or what he was doing.
When I asked what he was doing, he’d just say he was preparing for bed or that he’d been busy.
‘Is the situation really that bad?’
The beautiful Empress too, and my parents had been cooperating with Raven since our engagement. Even though he has an older brother, Raven was the one appointed as Crown Prince, so I thought things were fine… but looking at his expression, that didn’t seem to be the case.
Raven said he had to go outside because of some duke named Algren or Allergy or something. And that duke was trying to put Raven’s older brother on the throne…
‘What if he even breaks off our engagement at a time like this…’
Wouldn’t things get really bad…?
I should have listened more carefully to the stories I’d dismissed as uninteresting. I should have at least asked my parents about it.
What could have happened to his older brother, who didn’t seem that threatening when we were young, to make him struggle like this?
And where exactly had he been wandering around and what had he been doing during all that time he wouldn’t tell me…
I should interrogate the twins about this.
“Hey! Pay up! No more credit!”
“Come on, cut me some slack. I’ll definitely pay you back when I get paid for this job!”
Raven and I looked out at the noisy scene outside the clinic together.
“You said that last time too and still haven’t paid.”
Are the hospital fees… a bit expensive? Lili, who had been punishing the attempted deadbeat, turned to look at me fiercely and shouted.
“Don’t think useless thoughts. The prices are incredibly cheap! Honestly, where else could you get this kind of treatment for this money?”
“Huh, how did you know?!”
“Your thoughts are obvious… Hey, there’s a limit to taking us for pushovers. If you don’t settle up this time, I’m telling Ron!”
“If it’s Ron, then what…”
“It’ll reach Renate’s ears too.”
“Gasp, anything but that…!”
Ron is so nice, it feels like he’s with us even when he’s not…
“Jake told me everything. You’re taking only high-risk jobs with danger pay and blowing all the money on gambling.”
“…That, that’s…”
The glances thrown my way stung. Raven looked at me as if to say “That’s different from what you said,” and the kid who almost had his leg cut off had a “I’ve been caught!” look in his eyes.
“Don’t misunderstand, I’m like a grandmother to those kids.”
“What’s that supposed to mean?”
“You know, child discipline is the parents’ job, and grandparents just dote on them and spoil them.”
In my case, my parents, grandparents, and everyone around me joined forces to spoil me rotten.
“The parent will scold the child who did wrong. Right, Ron?”
“Mm.”
Ron, who had entered through the entrance at some point, let out a low hum. The kid turned almost pale. Poor thing…
“Addicted to gambling?”
“Jake looked into it, so it’s certain. I was curious why he couldn’t pay despite earning money well, so I asked him to investigate.”
“Lili, that’s invasion of privacy…”
“Debtors and gambling addicts don’t have privacy.”
Lili is so cool when she’s firm like that.
“Well, I don’t want to nag a grown man, but…”
“R-Ron, I’m not going to do it anymore! I quit everything! R-r-really! So don’t tell Renate!”
That won’t work….
“Keep talking, where.”
“Ahhh, it’s Renate!”
There’s no way Renate wouldn’t go where Ron is going….
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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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