“Here, yeah?” Lime said as she dropped Glenn on the floor with a slurp.
She returned to her human form.
They’d arrived at one of the medical department’s laboratories. The plate on the entrance read Pharmaceutical Laboratory. Glenn was already very familiar with its owner.
“So that means…”
Glenn heard a cool voice coming from inside. He recognized her even before he saw her: Saphentite, the lamia he’d spent a portion of his childhood with, and his senior at the Academy.
“I don’t know why you’ve come to me,” Saphentite was saying. “This is just a laboratory. Umm…Cerve, was it? I understand you don’t feel well, but I don’t have the necessary expertise to help you.”
“Don’t say that! Please do something, anything! I heard you were the most talented girl in the medical department! Please, please save my puppies!”
“I-I can’t…”
Glenn could see Sapphee’s straight hair from where he stood. She’d grown more beautiful since he’d last seen her. She was still young, of course, just a student herself, but from Glenn’s perspective, she was an older woman. And, right now, she sounded perplexed. He could see the herbs she was growing, and the test tubes, scales, and pots for concocting medicines. What he couldn’t see was who she was talking to.
“Stop! He’s here, yeah!” Lime declared.
Glenn was waiting quietly for Saphentite to finish when his slime companion threw the door wide open, announcing their presence. For some reason, she had a strange look of pride on her face.
“L-Lime! Why?!” Sapphee stuttered.
“I brought reinforcements to help you with your problem, yeah? C’mon, get in there!”
Lime shoved Glenn into the lab.
“G-Glenn?”
“Um, yeah. Excuse me for bursting in, Sapphee.”
When they were kids, Glenn had called her his sister. But he felt awkward doing that now, in front of others. Besides, she was an upperclassman. He should address her with respect.
“Yes…”
Sapphee purposefully jerked her head away from him. She was literally giving him the cold shoulder. Had he done something wrong? Even though they’d played together as kids, things changed when you grew up. However sad he was about that, Glenn had keep his composure. He was fourteen, and well-aware that he was just a child playing at being an adult.
“Oh, Glenn! Everyone’s talking about you, dude!” exclaimed the other occupant of the lab.
Glenn looked to the back of the room and saw a girl kneeling on all fours, likely because she’d been groveling before Sapphee just a moment ago.
“N-nice to meet you,” he said.
“Nice to meet you too, dude! I’m Cerve, from the athletics department! Oh, you really are a human! I’ve never seen one before.”
“Woof!”
“Ruff!”
The barks drew Glenn’s attention to her shoulders, and the fact that Cerve had a dog head sprouting out of each of them.
“I’m a Cerberus, by the way! These heads here are Orr and Ery!”
Cerve grinned from ear to ear. Glenn was dumbstruck.
I’ve never seen a Cerberus before.
Cerve not only had a tail, but dog ears sprouted from her human head. At first glance, she looked like just another beast-kin. It was the additional dog heads growing from her shoulders that marked her as a Cerberus—a particularly rare species of monster. Orr and Ery, as she’d called them, had their tongues lolling out and their eyes fixed on Glenn.
Each dog head has a separate brain and its own, independent will. The body may look human, but the Cerberus is unlike any other living being, Glenn recalled from his textbook.
“Leave it to me!” Lime said proudly. “Glenn is a genius—the most gifted student since Cthulhy founded the medical department, yeah? I’m sure he can solve your problem, Cerve!”
“H-huh?!” Glenn and Sapphee cried in unison.
Lime gave them a smug look and a satisfied sigh. Glenn had no idea what she was thinking. She didn’t know what was afflicting Cerve, but she was somehow convinced Glenn could solve it?
“Seriously?! Please, Glenn, dude!”
Cerve grabbed Glenn’s hand. They were from different departments, but she was probably his senior, too. She looked at him with hopeful eyes.
“Uhhh…”
He hesitated, unsure what to say.
“Please, Glenn. For me, too.” It took him a moment to realize it was Sapphee’s voice. She put her hand on Glenn’s shoulder. “It is too much for me to handle alone. But maybe you’ll have some good advice for her. Please, Glenn. Can you help?”
Glenn was surrounded by his seniors. He was at a loss for words. He was a teenage runaway who’d abandoned his family to come to Nemea. He had no money and no friends. The only thing he had going for him were his grades.
But now Lime, Sapphee, and Cerve were counting on him. What could he do?
“O-okay,” he said, barely squeezing the word out. “I don’t know how much I can do, but I can at least listen…”
“Thank you very much!”
“Woooooof!” the dog on Cerve’s right shoulder howled.
Cerve shook his hand, hard.
And so began the first physical examination Glenn Litbeit ever performed.