Chapter 13

“Well, I guess it’s not the time to be getting carried away just because I managed to enter the country.”

This is the capital of the demon nation, “Demon City Delmond.”

I was inside the Demon Lord’s castle, located at the center of the city.

It had been five days since I escaped from a town at the northern edge of the kingdom.

Without encountering the pursuit of the kingdom’s soldiers, we had managed to escape all the way to the Demon Nation by taking a significant detour around the already subdued territory of Elden.

…Has my asylum been successful? No, no, the world isn’t that easy.

“Asylum is only achieved once you receive ‘asylum seeker certification.’ Rather, you could say that this is where the real challenge begins.”

In a time of war, there’s no way someone from the kingdom could wander around the Demon Nation without permission.

That’s why I was currently sitting on a red sofa in a guest room within the “Demon Lord’s Castle.”

“However, even though I was told to wait here… is this really a guest room?”

The architecture was quite unusual.

After all, this room was located right in the center of an enormous courtyard, so vast that the edges couldn’t be seen.

Moreover, there were no walls on any side.

Because of that, I could see the brightly colored poisonous flowers all around.

The only things that stood around the guest room were white marble pillars, and a glass ceiling supported by them seemed to provide some cover from the rain.

What was reflected beyond that glass was a purple, sinister sky.

“So this is considered ‘clear weather’ and ‘daytime,’ huh?”

I wondered if laundry would actually dry in this weather.

I was starting to miss the sun a bit.

With my tongue clicking at the gap between this place and the kingdom, I checked my appearance (though I was only wearing a wrinkled black shirt with a white coat over it).

I was feeling a bit tense, which was unusual for me.

…Well, that can’t be helped. I was about to stand before the “Demon Lord.”

Naturally, I didn’t know what the Demon Lord looked like.

Most likely, a robust giant comparable to Agito would appear.

I needed to brace myself now to avoid the blunder of being frightened by such a figure!

“…Oh?”

Before I knew it, I spotted a girl with pink skin, long purple hair, and light blue eyes playing with a giant butterfly in gaudy colors while holding a cat-like stuffed toy in her arms.

Of course, she was a demon girl.

She looked about six years old.

Two pink horns protruded from her head.

“Ah!”

I accidentally locked eyes with her while I was observing.

The girl seemed stunned for a moment, then flapped her legs and dashed toward the guest room.

“My name is Amilta. Who are you?”

“…I am Kiwi Alaya.”

I had no idea who the girl was, but she was undoubtedly connected to the Demon Lord’s castle.

I had to be careful not to make any mistakes just because she was a child.

“Hmm, and you see, this is ‘Mior.'”

The girl who called herself Amilta proudly held up the fluffy, patched-up cat-like stuffed toy in front of me.

…No, that’s not right. It’s not a stuffed toy. It reacts to light in its eyes and is breathing.

“A monster?!”

“That’s right!”

Amilta adjusted her hold on Mior.

Mior was almost unresponsive, looking just like a real stuffed toy.

…I’ve never seen such a monster before. Could it be a unique species of the Demon Nation…?!

“Wow, no, to be honest, it’s quite fascinating.

It looks like a cat has been transformed into a monster, or it seems like a cat’s ghost is moving while attached to a cotton pillow.

What kind of body structure is this?

Moreover, what particularly catches my attention is the ‘tumor’ that has popped up on its belly.

“Amilta, what on earth is this?”

“Ah, um…”

Amilta looked downcast and lowered her face.

“Mior has a disease that causes ‘bad swellings’ to appear somewhere on its body once a month. So every time, we have to do ‘surgery’ to remove them.”

I see, a malignant tumor.

That means the patches are likely the result of surgical procedures.

Since it’s forbidden to use healing magic after excising the affected area (or else the tumor would regenerate), it’s only natural that they would have to resort to the classic method of stitching with actual thread…

…However, it seems that rather ‘old’ practices are being used in the Demon Nation?

“The next surgery is coming up soon. After the operation, Mior suffers, and it’s so sad…”

“Oh, is that so…”

“Hey, Kiwi-san, you’re wearing a white coat, so you must be a healer, right? Can’t you cure Mior’s illness?”

When asked that, I couldn’t simply say, “Yes, I can cure it.”

That said,

“May I take a look at it for a bit?”

“Yeah!”

I reached my hand under Mior, which Amilta handed over to me, and gently lifted its body.

“Meeow~~”

Mior let out a strange sound.

At that moment, an indescribable sensation pierced through my body.

…What is this?

It’s the presence coming from Mior.

It feels as though my insides are being peered into.

However, nothing more happens.

…It doesn’t seem like it’s resisting, does it?

I cautiously, yet unable to resist my curiosity about this new type of monster, began to flow my magic power into Mior’s body.

“Mee, mee, mee”

“Oh, oh…”

“Meeowee, meeowee”

“I see…!”

Interesting.

Truly interesting!

About five minutes passed.

I thoroughly enjoyed examining Mior.

…It took some time, but I began to understand Mior somehow.

Having examined numerous monsters before, I could tell.

This monster is a kind of synthetic being, like a chimera.

And it seemed that the malignant tumor was caused by the conflicting traits of the monsters that made it up.

“Hm… fascinating.”

I had chosen this path as a dark healer for the sake of making money, but the fact that the knowledge I’ve accumulated so far applies to this new type of monster is purely delightful and interesting.

Furthermore, if I gather new know-how here, it will broaden my scope of work in the future.

What a truly meaningful experience.

…Well then, shall I get to work a bit?

I rolled up the sleeves of my white coat.”