“Ouch…” Glenn moaned.
This time, the pain was muscle soreness. He usually spent all his time stuck behind a desk, studying. It shouldn’t have been a surprise that his body was screaming after trying to keep up with the top student in the athletics department.
“Glenn, go rest.”
“Thank you very much…Lime.”
“It’s nothing.”
Glenn was collapsed shirtless on the sofa in Sapphee’s lab. Well, it wasn’t actually a sofa, but Lime’s transformed body. The elasticity of her gel-like flesh was perfectly suited to support Glenn as he lay face-down.
“Ahh, this feels good.”
“Heh heh! I’m a slime that turns humans into mush! Don’t complain if you get addicted to me, yeah?”
Glenn was surprised by her malleability. Slimes could change the density and salt content of their flesh using osmotic pressure, which allowed her to turn herself into a Lime sofa for him to collapse into…and also cradle every part of his body as his muscles slowly relaxed.
“What happened to Cerve after that?” Sapphee asked.
“Too cold!” Glenn shouted, as Sapphee laid a compress on his back. He’d exercised with Cerve several more times after that first outing, which was why his muscles were in such severe pain. “S-Sapphee, not so rough.”
“Stop complaining. Now, what about Cerve?”
“Ah, well…it seems her grades have gone back to where they were before. She regained her confidence, and she hasn’t said anything about the dog heads on her shoulders fighting since.”
“So, your diagnosis was correct, then? Although…I still don’t understand why your face needed to be licked.”
“I already explained that…”
Apparently, Sapphee was still annoyed. Glenn wondered why she got so worked up over Cerve licking his face, but had no problem with him laying, half-naked, on Lime. He couldn’t fathom her criteria.
“I also question your judgment. Running so much that your entire body is sore… what were you thinking?”
“I had to!”
Glenn moaned again. He’d known that the exercise would be too much.
But still…
He’d wanted to follow through. If he wished become a doctor, he couldn’t let Cerve down. It was that simple.
“Ugh, whatever,” Sapphee growled. “I’ve applied all your compresses, so just stay still for a bit. You’re forbidden from studying, understand?”
“Yes, Miss—er, Sapphee.”
“Good,” she laughed.
Sapphee didn’t want to be treated as his senior, but she sure was treating him like her junior. If he’d had an older sister, he was sure it’d be the same way. In fact, Sapphee had been more of a sister to him than his real siblings. It hadn’t changed after all these years either. That made Glenn happier than anything.
“By the way, Glenn. Have you decided what to do about your lab? Cthulhy told you to choose, right?” Sapphee asked.
He’d been too preoccupied with Cerve. “Ah, yeah… I’m still thinking.”
“If you’d like…” Sapphee sounded bashful. “If you’re not against it, you could join me in my pharmaceutical lab. I mean, as one opti—”
“I’m here, dude!”
The door to the laboratory opened, and Cerve walked in. Sapphee seemed taken aback at this interruption.
“C-Cerve, what are you doing here?!”
“Heh heh, I was going to ask Master… just kidding! I was going to ask Glenn to brush me, dude!”
For some reason, Cerve had taken to calling him Master. He was glad Cerve looking so upbeat, but didn’t understand why the treatment had made her grow so attached to him. Why couldn’t she brush herself?
“As you can see, Glenn is exhausted. Please leave him alone.”
“What?! Glenn, are you sick, dude?!”
“He’s sore from running with you!” Sapphee shouted.
Cerve just chuckled. Was that normal, in this situation?
Glenn reluctantly stood up from his Lime sofa and put on a tunic. “It’s fine, I’ll do it. But just for a little.”
Cerve sat at his feet, and he began brushing her hair.
“Mmm, woof, mmm!”
Cerve let out a coquettish bark. He kept brushing. Cerberus fur was stiff, and it tangled easily, forming knots and picking up dust. Cerberii generally used grooming as an expression of affection between close friends or relatives—Cerve probably didn’t have anyone she could ask for help with this at the Academy.
For his part, Glenn also felt a sense of affinity with her.
“Ah, mm, oh, mmm! Glenn, you’re good…dude.”
“Yes. Please hold still.”
“W-woof!”
Cerve’s tongue lolled. It wasn’t just Cerberii: all canines used their tongues to regulate body temperature.
“Mmm, oh, w-woof!”
“Okay, now your shoulders.”
Cerve’s shoulders twitched. “Mmm, ooh!”
Glenn moved over to the dog heads. They had the same relaxed expression as Cerve and seemed to trust Glenn with the brush.
“Mmm, oh, oooh, woof…mm!”
Cerve was drooling now, but Glenn was too busy with the brush to pay this any mind.
“Sapphee!” Lime whispered into the lamia’s ear. She’d returned to her human form. “Aren’t they getting a little too close? It looks like Cerve has feelings for him…”
“I don’t know…I’m pretty sure Glenn doesn’t have much experience with that sort of thing.”
“Do you think…it’s a talent he was born with, yeah?”
“Well, there is no arguing that he has a knack for making monsters relax around him.”
Half-surprised and half-disgusted, the two upperclassmen watched as Glenn brushed Cerve’s fur. He was firm but gentle.
“Mmm! Oh, agh! Mm, oh!”
“Ahh… Cerve, don’t you think that’s enough?” Sapphee asked, thumping her tail on the ground. “How long do you plan on taking advantage of Glenn’s kindness? He already solved your problem, right? Do you really have to keep coming back?”
“Mmff, mmwoof! Ah, oh, uh, what?”
“I said, you don’t need to bother Glenn just for brush—”
“B-but he said I could consult him anytime. Didn’t you start something new?”
“What?”
Sapphee had no idea what she was talking about, and Glenn was just as confused.
Cerve abruptly ran from the room, returning moments later with an object in her hands. It was the sign from outside Sapphee’s pharmaceutical laboratory. However, it had clearly been written over.
The new text read: Feel free to consult us about your problems. Laboratory of Sapphee, Lime, and Glenn. Medical Department.
Sapphee look puzzled. “What…is this?”
It was Glenn’s first time seeing the sign as well. When he’d come in this morning, he was sure the sign had read, Sapphee’s Pharmaceutical Laboratory. Why had it changed?
“Lime!” Sapphee cried angrily.
“Heh heh!” the green slime laughed, scratching her head.
And that was how Glenn came to join Sapphee’s laboratory.