The Doctor of Monster Town - Chapter 4

Miss Bran said Parsifal had never done anything bad to her.

She hugged her round body tightly. “But whenever I see Mr. Parsifal, I get scared. I don’t know why. He always feels very dangerous…”

At first, I didn’t understand what she meant by “dangerous.”

For one fleeting moment, I even wondered whether Parsifal wasn’t as delicate and defenseless as he appeared.

Could he be…

The tangle of speculation in my mind vanished at the press of a button when I saw him trying to screw a faucet into Miss Bran’s body.

I hurried to rescue the tearful slime. “For heaven’s sake, Parsifal, what are you doing?!”

Parsifal looked as if his actions were perfectly natural. It hadn’t occurred to him that anything might be wrong with them.

“I’m helping you train your employee, Doctor. Don’t you think a faucet would look nicer than her hose?”

I badly wanted to shake his head and see whether any water came out.

No wonder Miss Bran was afraid of him. Wasn’t this workplace bullying?!

Parsifal sounded sincerely puzzled.

“That’s not allowed? She can’t feel pain, so a small modification shouldn’t matter, should it?”

“Of course it matters!”

I told him sternly, “This has nothing to do with whether she can feel pain. Miss Bran is our colleague and our friend. She may not be human, but she’s our equal. You can’t treat her this way. Understand?”

Parsifal blinked and obediently murmured, “I understand.”

I regarded him suspiciously.

Did he really?

Parsifal chuckled.

He closed his hand around mine, then pressed his cheek to my palm, as docile as a harmless little animal.

“Of course I’ll listen to you, Doctor.”

“So if you don’t want me doing bad things, you’ll have to keep your eyes on me at all times.”

Parsifal told me to watch him, and I took him at his word.

As a result, the two of us spent even more time together.

Once Miss Bran’s safety was guaranteed, she finally stopped trembling whenever she saw Parsifal.

But although she had successfully conquered her fear, the customers coming to buy potions collectively sank into panic.

Mr. Fire-Treading Centaur was flirting with me—or what he considered flirting—when Parsifal approached the counter.

The next instant, sensing something, the centaur turned his head.

The moment he met Parsifal’s gaze, his entire body shuddered. Even the hellfire around his hooves went out in fright.

Me: “?”

This time, I questioned Parsifal first. “What did you do to him?”

Surely another burst of inspiration hadn’t made him want to modify the centaur’s body too?

I was beginning to seriously doubt whether we ran a clinic or some evil laboratory…

Parsifal looked innocent. “I truly didn’t do anything this time. They’re simply timid.”

I looked at the centaur cowering by the door, nearly three meters tall, then at the sickly beauty beside me, who probably couldn’t withstand a single punch from him.

I fell silent.

In a flash, I remembered that the first time I visited the flower shop, its owner had seemed afraid of me too.

He had preferred drinking the “poison” I offered him to letting me come any closer.

And now the customers were treating Parsifal with the same terror.

Enlightenment dawned.

“So that’s it…”

The residents of this town were all massive and imposing. Put any one of them in the normal world, and the mere sight would stop a baby crying.

But just as humans feared monsters, did they fear humans whose appearances differed from their own?

I believed I had reasoned out the truth.

While my thoughts raced, Parsifal unconsciously tightened the hand resting on his knee. His face held a smile, but there wasn’t a trace of one in his eyes.

“Doctor, have you misunderstood something? I…”

I patted his shoulder. “I wrongly accused you. They really do seem a little timid. They must be afraid of humans.”

“But that’s all right. Once everyone gets to know you, things will improve.”

Parsifal: “…?”

His fingers, which had nearly pierced his palm, abruptly relaxed. After a long pause, he forced a strained reply through clenched teeth.

“Oh. So that’s… what it is.”

…

Just as I’d predicted, everyone initially looked at Parsifal with suspicion and terror.

But after several days of watching him sit weakly beside me, rarely speaking and scarcely moving, they finally stopped feeling so nervous.

They still didn’t dare greet him on their own, though.

Oh well. That was fine. We had plenty of time.

By now, the clinic had made a name for itself and was rarely short of customers. The employees got along reasonably well too; Miss Bran had finally mustered the courage to eat at the same table as Parsifal.

But just as everything was gradually settling into place, something strange happened.

The clinic appeared to be haunted.