The Nemea Academy campus maintained a massive field where the athletics department held their competitions, but the other students were allowed to use it as well. Glenn was trying to do something he was very bad at: he was going for a run.
“Oomf!”
“Woof!”
“Ruff!”
He could hear three distinct voices behind him.
“Haah… ahh…”
They’d run three long laps around the track, and Glenn was thoroughly out of breath. Behind him, however, Cerve showed no signs of being winded.
“Woof woof! Glenn, this is so fun, dude! I want to run more!”
“M-more… okay, I’ll do my best!”
Glenn’s face was pale, but he kept going.
Cerve was running on all fours. She normally walked on two, but the nature of her joints allowed to switch to being quadrupedal when she wanted. Many beast-kin monsters had similar joints, and preferred to run on all fours when traveling at speed. However, it did put a strain on their lower backs.
What’s more, Cerve had a collar around her neck. The collar was attached to a leash, and Glenn was holding tight to the other end. It was like something a wealthy family might use to walk their family pet.
I wonder if I should be doing this to an upperclassman…
But Cerve didn’t seem to mind. The way she kept her mouth open to breathe as she ran made her look even more like a dog. She came up to him and sat, waiting for his instructions. She was behaving like he was her owner.
It’s okay, this is treatment…it’s just treatment… Glenn tried to convince himself.
Even though they had separate brains, Cerve, Orr, and Ery shared the same flesh. Even though their minds were distinct, they were all the same Cerberus. You couldn’t create a hierarchy within a single being.
“Ahh, haa…whoo!”
“Woof, woof, woof!”
Glenn continued around the track, trying to stay ahead of Cerve, who followed him, barking the whole way. She was in a good mood. And there was no sign of Orr and Ery fighting on her shoulders. All three of them were completely absorbed in their exercise.
Cerve had thought her grades had dropped because of Orr and Ery’s fighting. Sapphee had disagreed. If the cause and effect were reversed…then they’d been fighting because her grades dropped.
Orr and Ery have their own brains…but they share the same nervous systems.
Cerve was a scholarship student, which meant she was under additional pressure. Whatever initial, trivial reason had caused her grades to slip, the mental burden would have increased in tandem. It was only natural that Orr and Ery felt the same pressure.
The left and right heads naturally try to protect the head in the middle. If Cerve hadn’t consciously identified the source of her stress, Orr and Ery would have no idea what was causing it.
From Orr and Ery’s perspective, there was no obvious enemy. Nothing was attacking them, but something was putting stress on their system. As a result, they’d instinctively bared their fangs at the first thing they laid eyes on—the head on the other side of Cerve’s—not realizing that they were blaming another part of themselves.
So, the two heads would fight whenever Cerve was feeling stressed.
No wonder there were no documented records of this happening before. In their natural habitat, Cerberii would never be pushed to this kind of breaking point. There would be plenty of outside enemies for them to focus on. Cerve’s case came about as a direct result of her living in peace, without more pressing issues of survival to contend with.
Glenn was completely out of breath. “Ahh, haa…haa.”
“Ha ha! More, Glenn! I want more, dude!”
“I-I’m sorry…I need a break.”
Cerve’s initial problem with her grades was probably just a slump. She might understand this if he told her, but the pressure of her poor performance was already hurting her. As such, Glenn had decided to focus on reducing her stress.
He figured that exercise unrelated to her grades—and with a new companion—would help her let off some steam.
“Woof…woof! Ha ha ha… ha!”
For some reason, Cerve had made Glenn hold the lead connected to her collar. She’d told him that she needed it when she ran with someone. He wondered if it was a Cerberus tradition? There was still so much about the many monster cultures that he didn’t understand.
Cerve was panting, but her eyes were shining.
I hope she feels a little better now.
At the very least, Cerve’s shoulders weren’t fighting. Even going on this brief jog seemed good for her. She could probably resume running regularly from now on.
“Um…Cerve?”
“Woof?”
“I’m sorry… I put you through a lot this week. It seems my diagnosis was wrong. There wasn’t really any point to trying to establish an order.”
“Oh, that?” Cerve laughed. “It was tough, and I didn’t get it. But look, now we’re running together! Don’t worry, dude! See? Orr and Ery are happy, too!”
One side barked, as if they had forgotten what Glenn had put them through, too. The truth was, they probably didn’t remember. Even though each shoulder had its own brain, they didn’t have much in the way of long-term memory. That was the role of the central head.
“Thank you very much…”
Mistaken diagnoses could have serious consequences. Even if he wasn’t a doctor yet, he’d been responsible for treating Cerve. Glenn vowed to never be overconfident in his own judgment in the future, and to think of the patient first. He would let this failure be a lesson for the future.
“Shall we go around one more time, Cerve?”
“Woof! Yes! Thanks, Glenn dude!”
It was tough to keep up with Cerve when she ran on four legs, even though she probably wasn’t going at even half her full speed. But when Glenn tried to run again…
“Whoaa?!”
The ground suddenly rose to meet him. He’d pulled a muscle in his leg and tumbled forward, falling flat on his face.
“Agh, owww!”
“Glenn?!”
Luckily, only Cerve was present to witness him faceplant. He would have been pretty depressed if Sapphee had seen it happen.
“A-are you okay?” Cerve asked, helping him up. “Ohh! Your face is all scraped up!”
“Ah, I-I’m fine. It’s nothing.”
Glenn could feel her breath on his skin. It didn’t help that she was a beautiful and charming upperclassman. The only other girls Glenn had been around were his sister and Sapphee.
He absentmindedly wiped his cheek, and his hand came away bloody.
“It’s not fine! If a scrape like that gets infected, it can be dangerous! As a medical student, you should know that!”
“Well, yeah, but—”
Slurp.
Cerve suddenly started licking Glenn’s cheek.
He tried to resist.
“Oh, don’t move, dude! I’ll disinfect it right away.”
“Huh? Aggh…!”
Slurrrp.
Cerve’s ran her tongue over Glenn’s scrape. She was holding his face with both of her hands and her fingers had pads like a dog’s, helping to hold him in place.
Slurp, slurrrp.
Glenn tried to back away. “O-okay, that’s enough!”
Cerve’s licking was intense. At this rate, his entire face would be covered in her slobber.
“No! It’s not enough! I need to lick more!”
Slurp, slurrrp.
“Ugh, aggh…”
Dogs used their tongues to show affection. Perhaps this persistent licking wasn’t just to disinfect his wound, but also to express her gratitude. Glenn thought it was a little excessive, but his strength was no match for hers. Cerve moved on from his cheek to his nose, his mouth, and even his eyeball.
Slurp! Smack!
“Ergh…!”
Glenn’s voice didn’t seem to be working.
He wished someone would come to his rescue, but very few students used the athletic grounds at this time of night. In fact, he’d chosen this time precisely because there wouldn’t be any other students around.
“Mmm, mmm!”
Slurrrp, slurp!
“Ugh… Ahhh!”
Glenn looked around desperately for someone to help him.
Just then, he saw white scales out of the corner of his eye.
“I was starting to get worried.” Sapphee said, appearing out of nowhere. Her expression was ice-cold—far more serious than he’d seen her since they’d been reunited. “Exactly what is going on here, Glenn?”
Glenn wanted to tell her that he’d fallen, but he couldn’t do anything as long as Cerve kept licking him.
“First of all, get away from him.”
“Wh-what?!”
Sapphee pulled Cerve away, bringing the Cerberus, who’d apparently been completely lost in her licking, back to reality.
“Now, explain yourself, Glenn!” Sapphee said, with the sweetest smile painted on her face.
“I just fell down…”
Covered in Cerve’s saliva, Glenn did his best to explain.
He’d thought helping Cerve would just be a practice shot at consultation. He’d never expected it to turn into something so intense. It was only now that Glenn finally understood the meaning of the phrase:“the extraordinary path to becoming a doctor.”