46: Cat’s Wounds

“Kuuga? What’s that?”

Upon returning to the office, Gadillas immediately noticed that Kuuga was holding a basket and asked. Once Kuuga put the basket on the floor, he humanized. When he received a gown from Uros and put it on, he gently placed the basket on the office desk.

“A cat?”

“It’s a cat~! …are~, is it injured? Eh, wha-, is it okay?”

As expected, Edallion immediately responded and approached.

“I found it dying when I was taking a walk. Lewis took it to the medical office.”

“…speaking of which, Kuuga-sama, you look like you were looking for something… are you looking for this child?”

Kuuga started when the sharp Lewis pointed it out, but he nodded without revealing it on his face.

“I heard that a stray cat has recently settled in the castle from a dragon.”

He didn’t lie. He didn’t bother further explaining since he already promised the dragons.

Gadillas noticed Kuuga’s ears twitch for a moment, but he overlooked it and looked at the cat in the basket.

“Isn’t it cut with a knife?”

“Hah!? …uwa, that’s true… then it wasn’t attacked by stray dogs… someone did this…?”

Edallion, who responded to Gadillas’ words, and carefully confirmed the wound, turned his face into a vicious one. Kuuga didn’t expect the carefree Edallion to look like that, so he was surprised but immediately understood the sudden change in reaction considering his love for animals.

More than that, he’s worried about the fact that it’s a person who hurt the cat. He’d be sure to hear the story when the cat woke up.

“Gadi, can I take care of it until the injury is healed?”

“…I don’t mind…”

Gadillas didn’t seem to have any particular thoughts about taking care of the cat, but he frowned while looking at Edallion. When Kuuga followed, he saw Edallion, who had a face that said, “I want to take care of it myself.”

“…I found it.”

“I know that, but Kuuga-sama can’t apply the medicine unless you’re humanized, right~?”

“There’s no problem applying it when I humanize.”

“But I can’t ignore it as a zookeeper~.”

“You just want to play with the cat. I’m not isolating it from you, though.”

Gadillas was looking at the fight between Kuuga and Edallion, who seemingly looked innocent, about the cat, but when he got fed up, he looked at Uros. Uros, who thought he was being told to do something about it, approached the two.

“Edallion-sama, please try to imagine.”

“Eh?”

“The beast-shaped Kuuga-sama playing with this white cat.”

“…!!”

Perhaps he imagined it as Edallion pressed a hand to his chest and began to groan in pain. Everyone on the spot looked at Edallion, who was muttering, “It’s frustrating, but that’s so cute…!” Even Lewis was staring at Edallion with a complicated face.

Kuuga managed to win the cat from Edallion, and while observing the cat sleep quietly, he decided to ask what he was interested in.

“By the way, isn’t recovery magic something anyone can use?”

“Recovery magic? …ah, you mean cure? I thought you know it already.”

“Cure? Is it not magic?”

“No, it’s magic… but not everyone can use it since a unique magic is used for treatment.”

“???”

Tilting his neck to portray that he didn’t understand, Uros joined the conversation to follow up on Gadillas.

“Simply put, how to heal a scratch, how to heal a burn, and how to treat an illness are not the same…”

“Uhm… does that mean different magic are used depending on the symptom?”

“That’s right. Cure is a technique where the person who learned medicine, would correctly diagnose the patient and form a formation that incorporates the necessary elements on the spot.”

“…I see. Since it has no versatility, it can be used only by a specialized person.”

Kuuga nodded as he understood that the magic of this world was still complicated. Kuuga felt it was troublesome because there were fantasy novels and games in which magic could be used just by casting spells in his original world, so it’s not based on real experience. There were likely to be misconceptions of beliefs.

However, Gadillas had previously said that it would be troublesome to use magic, so it seemed like everyone also thought that drawing a formation every time was troublesome. That’s why magic tools were developed.

“By the way, in terms of versatility, there is a magic that cures abnormalities throughout the body…”

“But?”

“It requires a lot of magical power.”

“That again.”

The convenient ones seemed to come at a price.

Thinking that should be the case as he nodded, Gadillas suddenly called out to him.

“Are you keeping it once it’s healed?”

“Eh? …ahh, I don’t know if it’ll be happy to be kept as a pet.”

“”…””

When he said that without thinking, Edallion and Lewis were startled. Edallion’s shock seemed particularly great.

“Eh, uhm, wait… Kuuga-sama… do animals hate being kept…?”

“No, I don’t know about that. I just think that… this guy lived freely as a stray, so I just thought it’s better to let it roam. I’ll ask when it wakes up.”

“I-I see…”

Kuuga scratched his head while feeling awkward toward Edallion, who looked depressed. He made a careless remark without thinking.

It would have been a shock to Edallion, who loved animals and enjoyed keeping them. Regardless of what any human being said, the weight was different when Kuuga, who could talk to animals, said so.

When he looked at Gadillas, he saw from his face that he should leave Edallion alone. When he looked at Uros since Gadillas was useless, he was shown the same expression.

“Ah~… it seemed to have been fed by a servant, so I don’t think it dislikes humans…?”

“Yeah… that’s right…”

Kuuuga thought he should follow through, but it didn’t seem to work. So he left him alone.

After that, even when Kuuga turned into a beast, Edallion was still depressed but finally revived when Kuuga played with him.