A week later Persy sat behind the desk in the slave area of the clinic counting jars of salve. It was a simple wooden counter with a wooden and woven thatch stool behind it, on a raised platform meant to keep it off the dirt floor of an area that looked more like a sale barn than a hospital. Kanta, the apothecary from the standard area, had just brought her a new supply and was clearing the old ones off the shelf. Salves tended to only have a shelf life of a week or two, so he needed to do this on the first day of every week. As she was finishing the bell above the door dinged and in walked a Cat woman carrying a goat.
“Lya!” Persy said, jumping up and running over. Then she noticed the goat. “Oh, what happened to blackie?”
“He and Gray got in a fight over one of the girls, and he got head-butted in the side. The goats are starting to go into heat, so I wouldn’t be surprised if this happens again.”
“Ah, that makes sense.” she said, then sent a detection thread into his side. “Lots of bruising. And a broken rib.” She got up and opened one of the jars of old salve on the counter. “Hey, Kanta, can you help me over here?” She stuck the tip of her finger in the salve, and went back to the goat. Kanta followed her. “Can you hold the goat down?” She petted the goat and let it lick the salve off of her finger. A few seconds later the goat relaxed and started looking around like it was seeing the world for the first time.
“What’s going on with him?” asked Lya upon noticing the goat’s strange behavior.
“That salve has Devil Grass in it, so he’s intoxicated.” Devil grass was a popular narcotic which looked like a type of spikey grass whose end split into three at the tip. The split section contained the narcotic substances. It was a common plant in the nearby forest, and therefore a cheap way to make pain killers. And best of all it wasn’t very addictive, about as much as caffeine, not that they knew what that is.
Lya held the goat’s front legs and head, and Kanta held its back legs as Persy used her magic to pop the bone back into place. The goat squirmed a bit, but the pain killing effects of the salve quickly made the pain disappear again. Once it was still again, Persy started healing the damage. The bone fused back together and the bruising disappeared.
“I could detox him from the salve, but I have to charge at least one copper per spell, so you should just let him sleep it off. Four copper.”
Lya pulled out four coppers from her pocket and handed them to Persy. She was given a small budget for buying things the animals needed. “No charge for the salve?”
“We were about to throw it out, which is the only reason I used it.”
“Thank you, then. He’d be much harder to deal with if he wasn’t intoxicated.”
“So, how have things with you been going? I haven’t had a chance to catch up with you recently.”
“Everything is going well. One of the barons brought by his Tiger coachman and we hit it off really well.”
“Oh, so does that mean you’ll be having kittens?”
“Unfortunately not.” Pregnant slaves and those with children tended to be treated better, as the children would usually become loyal servants of the master as long as you didn’t split parents and young children. Lady Starshine valued loyalty above all else. Lya would also prefer to take care of her own children instead of the animals. And, of course, the Lord of the Forest encouraged all Beastfolk to have children, as that was the purpose of life.
“Well, I’m sure you’ll get lucky one of these days.”
“And what about you? Found anyone special yet?”
“It’s only been a week.” Persy responded.
“And it was only a night with me and Raul.”
“In that case, no. There aren’t actually that many Foxes in town. I only know of two males, and neither have been brought into the clinic yet.”
“Well, I’m sure you’ll get lucky one of these days.” responded Lya with a smile.
Both of the women laughed. “Well, I’d better head back to the palace.” said Lya, picking up the goat. Persy said goodbye and opened the door for her, and she left.
It was only then that Persy realized that Kanta was still standing there staring at her. “What?” she asked.
“Well, if you’re looking for a guy…” she stared at him and he stopped what he was saying. “Right, not appropriate for work.” With that he scurried off back to his lab.
Persy sighed. Why couldn’t a beast man come onto her like that?
--
Kanta smacked his head against the desk repeatedly. “Stupid, stupid, stupid.” he said. Of course she isn’t interested in you. Sure, she was probably looking for a beast man, not a human, but even if he was her type, he had nothing going for him. Sure, he was a certified apothecary, but she held multiple certifications as an intermediate healer and a combat healer. She even knew a bit of combat magic, though she wasn’t certified in it. Why would a woman so far out of his rank be interested in him.
Most humanoid men would have seen that she was a beastfolk, and only considered her as a brief fling or a diversion at most. Kanta had never been that way. He had been obsessed with beastfolk since he was little, and when he started developing an interest in women all of his thoughts in that way were about beastfolk women. His father found out about him and tried to beat some sense into him, but it didn’t help. Sure, elf, dwarf, and goblinoid women were interesting, as were some human women, but they couldn’t compare to animal girls.
This story has been stolen from Royal Road. If you read it on Amazon, please report it
When that failed his parents stopped showing him any affection, just waiting until he was an adult before they kicked him out for being a pervert, as kicking him out before then would only have the neighbors asking questions. His sister was the only one that still talked to him, and that is mostly about their combined interest in medicine. As his father had put it, he had only the few months before his 15th birthday to either fix his perversion or find another place to live. He had no intention of doing the first, so he needed this job to be able to afford to move out.
Persy was his boss’s slave, anyway. He would never allow another man to have her unless he gained something from it. Besides, when he had gotten the job there, the boss had posted rules for employee behavior in the break room, one of which forbid ‘sexual harassment’ of coworkers and clients. He knew it was put into the rules in case they expanded, but he had almost violated that rule just minutes ago.
Kanta then decided that it was time he made something of himself. He would get his Healer certification as well, and maybe even another certification. That way he could go from being paid eight coppers per day to being paid a silver, like his sister, if not more as he would be able to do multiple jobs. He would also get into shape. Women, especially beastfolk women, liked strong men, he was sure of it.
Once the day’s work ended he changed clothes into something less fancy than his work uniform, as he didn’t want to get it sweaty, and ran over to the Healer’s Union. He was panting for breath by the time he got there, despite the fact that it was only a few blocks from the clinic. Once he caught his breath, he went inside to buy the manual. Surely the two silver it cost him would be worth it.
–
As I totaled up the sales for today I noticed something. Most of the current business was in the Standard section, followed by the Slave/livestock area. The Rich area only had two customers today, the wife of a local baron that wanted to look younger, and a knight that was interested in medicinal “male enhancement”. When I decided to become a doctor I didn’t expect most of my noble business to be about relationship issues.
Thankfully I had purchased a Silver Moon Tulip recently, the same ingredient I used to make the anti-aging potion in my certification trial, and had already extracted the essences. I was quickly able to make her a potion that would make her look five years younger for several weeks. As for the man, blood pressure medicine had been used for that purpose on earth, so I made a weak blood pressure medicine mixed with something to make him more sensitive and something to increase testosterone levels. Either he would become a repeat customer because of how well it worked, or he wouldn’t like it and would never come back. Either way, it got him out of my office today.
I still earned most of the money that the clinic was bringing in, as I spent any time I wasn’t dealing with a customer extracting essences from ingredients and selling those that I didn’t need to the Union. Because essences had a shelf life of years if properly stored and prepared, as my stores reached levels I was comfortable with my sales would only increase.
“Hey, boss.” said Berry, the sixteen year old healer woman, coming into my office. “I’m done cleaning. Mind if I head out?”
“Sure, here.” I pulled a silver from the top of the stack and tossed it to her. “Tell your brother he can come get paid too, if he wants.”
“Actually, he left as soon as I flipped the sign to ‘closed’. He was wearing his older clothes, not his uniform, so he’s probably going shopping or maybe heading to a bar.” Sometimes Berry worried that her brother might be becoming an alcoholic with as much as he drowned his sorrows. Of course, if she was interested in beasts she would probably want to drink to forget it too. Maybe he’d find a nice human woman while he was out. At this point Father would probably be happy if he fell for an Orc. Even a male Orc would be preferable to a beast. Berry would have kids one day, so the fact that he couldn’t give them grandkids if he was gay wouldn’t even be much of a concern.
“Strange that he didn’t pick up his pay first. Maybe he wanted to make sure he didn’t lose all of his money on a bad hand of cards.”
Berry shrugged. “Maybe. Not sure he plays. More likely he didn’t want to drink it away.”
“Do I need to give him some sober drops or anti-addiction drugs?” I asked. All of my employees were promised full Standard medical care for them and their families as a benefit, though neither my family nor theirs had come by yet.
“I doubt it. Might need to give him a drop or two in the morning for a hangover, though.” She knew I kept a bottle in my office just in case a client came in intoxicated or with a hangover.
“Fair enough. Have a good night, Berry.”
“You too, Cam.” She nodded and left. Most noble employers made their employees use their titles when talking to them, but I let Berry, Kanta, and Persy use my first name and act casual around me. After all, in this business, ceremony between fellow employees could put our patients at risk.
I reset the cash boxes with the correct change for the morning and put all of the money in the safe. I had spent twenty gold on this model, and the Dwarf that made it insured me that it was near impossible to break into either magically or physically, as you needed to inject mana through the key and along a specific path in the maze of magical circuits to deactivate the locking mechanism.
I put the key’s cord around my neck and walked through the back hallway to the Slave area. “Hey, Persy. Want to get something to eat before we head home?” I had been taking her out every few nights since we started building the place.
“Sure.” she said, putting the last salve jar on the shelf and double checking something on a piece of paper. Inventory, I guess. “Can I suggest that Goblin place in the Southern district?”
“Goblin again? Not very fancy.”
“You don’t need fanciness if you know how to season the food properly. Besides, I’m still trying to figure out exactly which spices they put on the breading for that chicken meat.”
I was about to make a comment about a certain Colonel and his fast food restaurant when I stopped myself. I hadn’t told anyone I remembered my past life in another, very different world yet, and I didn’t want it to come out over a dumb joke that she wouldn’t even get.
–
Kanta sat in his room trying to focus on his breathing. The Healer’s manual said that meditation was a great way to both train your concentration and restore your mana. He needed both, as he rarely used magic and as such, was only really competent with a few utility spells such as Ignite which he used when heating mixtures for salves. His parents had seen him with the manual, but the only response had come from his father. “Probably just trying to impress that Fox at work.” he said with disgust. ‘I most certainly am not.’ Kanta thought, but didn’t say it. Deep down he knew that would be a lie. Sure, he wanted to improve himself and earn more money, but he also kind of wanted to impress her. What is wrong with that?
After cycling his mana around his body for several minutes, an exercise which the manual said would increase the speed at which he could expel mana, he tried casting one of the spells in the book, Revitalization. It should just make you no longer exhausted from exercise. After several attempts he felt a rush in his body, like when he ate Koan nuts, a common stimulant. He did a few push ups to test it and, when he started getting tired after a three times he recast it on himself as he laid on the ground. The pain in his arms was still mostly there, but he didn’t feel as tired. The manual said this was because the muscles were damaged as he used them. His mana was getting low, though, so after forcing himself to do two more he started meditating again. He really needed to look into getting a Core necklace. He could probably get a rating two for a silver, and it would let him cast weak spells as much as he wanted until he got good enough to use more energy than it could put out.
One he had meditated enough to mostly refill his mana he tried the healing spell. Surely this would fix his damaged muscles. It took him three rounds of meditating and trying to heal himself before he felt the pain in his arms go away. His stomach growled and he got up to go eat something. In the kitchen his mother had already put up the left over food so it could be reheated and maybe worked into something else tomorrow. He didn’t care, though. She often ignored him, so the fact that she didn’t leave him anything out was normal. He took a roll from the table and added some of the pork she had made that night, making a basic sandwich.
Normally he would consider just going to the tavern to eat, but he had already spent two silver today on the book, so he needed to be careful with his spending.
–
The next day Kanta ran into work, using Revitalization to deal with the exhaustion it caused. His muscles were burning by the time he got there, and his mana reserves were virtually empty, but he had managed to make it. Sure he had to leave an hour early and stop to meditate multiple times on the way here, but he had made it.
Once inside he went to his office to touch the large Amethyst the boss had left on his desk in case he needed the mana to brew a potion. As he rarely did that he didn’t really use the mana inside, but if it ran low he knew Persy would refill it for him from her own mana. Just thinking about drawing in her mana made him imagine he could smell her.
Now that he had drawn in enough that his reserves were once again refilled, he cast healing on himself to get rid of the muscle pain and went to take a bath. Or, more accurately, to scrub himself with the bar of soap they had back there for cleaning wounds and rinse himself off with cold well water. It was fine, though, as it meant he could work out before work. He shook his head to break himself out of a fantasy about Persy walking in on him as he was bathing and dried himself off well enough to put his work uniform on. After that he went back to his office.
Persy came by a little while later to check if the crystal needed refilling and was surprised that it did. “Well, I worked out a bit on my way here, and used Revitalization to keep going, so I needed it to refill my mana.”
“So that’s why you needed to bathe when you got here. I heard you back there and gave you your privacy. Now that you’re done, though, I’ll go check on the animals.” Several people had taken to using the clinic as an extra set of stables for their horses and pets, and it brought in a decent amount of money.
He almost made a comment about not minding if she saw him, but stopped himself before breaking the policy. He needed to try to keep from saying that kind of thing until he was sure she was interested in him. It was only a matter of time.