Her stiff neck creaked as she looked for the source of the voice. The administrator, sitting in a plush armchair in one corner of the room, gestured as if he had been waiting. After greeting him and approaching, Olivia asked about the condition of the little ones in the cage, trying to fulfill her duty as a healer.

“They weren’t this excited during the last examination, so what exactly……”

“I discovered a good medicine, you see. I was told that feeding them this would make my little ones healthier and braver, so I’ve been consistently giving it to them, but for the past few days they’ve been like this—not sleeping and causing a commotion among themselves. Is it a side effect?”

The administrator stroked his chin and spoke with a grinning face. Though he kept muttering about being worried, his words didn’t seem sincere. After all, someone who truly cared about their animals wouldn’t easily feed them unknown medicines. And Olivia already knew that his reason for giving them medicine wasn’t really ‘to make them healthier and braver.’ The administrator’s record was quite illustrious in that regard.

Her chest felt tight. Her hands trembled holding the bag, and her insides felt burning hot with helplessness. But for now, treating the screaming little ones was the urgent priority.

“Please show me all the medicine you gave them.”

Olivia took the suspicious medicine from the administrator and began analyzing its components. There wasn’t enough time for a thorough analysis, but identifying the main components to calm them down was the priority. If she didn’t quickly calm the little ones who were fighting and biting each other in their excited state, some might die. Olivia checked the components with the reagents she brought and even resorted to tasting them herself when uncertain.

“What if it’s dangerous? How can you taste it yourself? You’re such a valuable talent……”

“Medicines that might be dangerous! Huff, don’t feed them to these little ones either!”

“My, my. I’ll be more careful next time.”

Even when Olivia glared at the administrator and spoke in an uncharacteristically firm tone, he just shrugged with a smile. She had lost count of how many times she had heard that same response. By now, she was beyond upset—she was angry, with tears welling up, causing her to turn away sharply from the administrator’s face.

Olivia quickly mixed the antidote with snacks the little ones usually enjoyed. Judging by their fighting behavior, their sensory sensitivity seemed to have increased. Their aggression had risen as well, and their instincts appeared stronger, so she hoped their fixation on food had also increased as she pushed the food mixed with the antidote into the cage.

Bang. As soon as she pushed in the food, a beast lunged and crashed against the bars. Olivia flinched reflexively, momentarily freezing in place. Being able to understand animal language didn’t mean she could control them at will, nor did she have the ability to win a fight against a fierce animal. So naturally, she felt fear when faced with beasts that had become aggressive due to excitement.

“Barry, Rain. Don’t fight. I’ll give enough for everyone. You’ll feel better soon.”

But Olivia suppressed her startled heart and spoke to the beasts in her usual kind, calm voice. They seemed too agitated to understand her words, but she spoke with hope that they might calm down even a little. She pushed dishes of snacks one by one toward the beasts that had gathered, looking ready to tear each other apart.

“This is why I like our healer. So brave and diligent. Haha. Should I let you right in?”

“……Please open the door when I tell you to.”

A mock disguised as praise came from behind. His undisguised amusement felt somewhat nauseating. He’s a person who didn’t even bother to pretend to be virtuous. Olivia tried to ignore the sneering administrator and focused on the changing conditions of the beasts as they ate the snacks.

Fortunately, after some time, the antidote seemed to be working as the animals’ movements slowed and they began to collapse on the floor one by one, appearing calmer. However, they all had severe injuries from fighting amongst themselves, and it was uncertain when the drug’s effects might wear off, so it wasn’t yet time to feel relieved.

“Please open the door now.”

As soon as the cage opened, Olivia entered and approached the nearest beast that had collapsed and was panting. It pained her to see the puppy, who would normally boast a body larger and more magnificent than hers, lying limp. As she approached and gently stroked its fur to make her presence known, the beast, initially growling sensitively, recognized her and gradually became docile. It seemed its mind had somewhat returned.

“Are you okay? Can you tell me where it hurts?”

“Grrrr. Woof!”

—Grrrr. My legs feel numb. My head hurts and my paws are tingling.

This was a moment when she was grateful for her ability to understand animal language. Being able to hear directly where and how they hurt greatly helped in providing accurate treatment. Olivia quickly ground a few more herbs and put them in the beast’s mouth, then began treating the bleeding wounds.

—I want to stop fighting.

—I don’t want to fight. It hurts when I get injured.

—I hate pain.

As she calmly treated them one by one while listening to their stories, Olivia finally couldn’t bear it anymore and stood up abruptly. The voices of the collapsed little ones whimpering weakly were too heartbreaking.

“I told you before not to use them for dogfighting gambling.”

“Did I? Ah! Now that you mention it, I think I might have heard something like that!”

“You ‘think’ you heard it, and that’s it?”

“But I believe I also told you? That dogfighting is my hobby and, more importantly, a business venture to raise development funds for our territory. It’s all for the benefit of territory residents like yourself, that’s what I’m saying.”

It was all nonsense. With the amount of taxes he collected each year, how could he claim to need money from dogfighting? And despite talking about development, the administrator hadn’t actually initiated any projects for the development of the territory.

While traveling to and from the mansion for these forced visits, there were things she saw and heard whether she wanted to or not. Just seeing the mansion becoming more lavish each time and the administrator’s growing assets made it obvious where the money was going.

The administrator, who didn’t even bother to act virtuous in front of Olivia, didn’t try to hide his corruption from her either. Even the ordinary people of the territory had all heard rumors about the administrator’s ill-gotten wealth.

“What, are you dissatisfied? Even if you are, what does it matter? What can you do about it?”

The sneering administrator was disgusting to look at, but frustratingly, his words reflected reality. Even if Olivia knew how the administrator was unfairly profiting in the territory, there was nothing she could do to stop it.

The administrator was the person with the most absolute power in this territory and, considering the entire empire, a powerful figure who enjoyed the emperor’s protection. She didn’t even have the comfortable thought that the empire’s emperor was being deceived and unaware of the administrator’s corruption. So there was nothing that Olivia, who’s just a somewhat capable healer from a small village in the territory, could accomplish by reporting the administrator’s wrongdoings.

I’m upset.

Biting her lips, Olivia turned at the sound of whimpering and groaning. Having brought the dogs when they were young and consistently entrusting their care to her, Olivia had grown quite attached to them.

But seeing this chaos every time she visited, despite treating them repeatedly, left her feeling drained and helpless. The thought that they might be even more severely injured next time made her question whether her current treatment was even the right approach, filling her with overwhelming doubt.

But she couldn’t ignore the little ones who were looking at her and telling her they were in pain, so Olivia rubbed her stinging eyes with the back of her hand and focused on tending to the injured little ones’s wounds.

The injuries were more serious than expected, and there were more injured animals than anticipated, so her stay at the mansion lasted longer than planned. Originally, she could have finished the examination and returned within half a day, but today that seemed impossible.

“Ah, Ricky was supposed to come this evening……”

Remembering the appointment she had made last week, Olivia quickly wrote a letter. According to Kale, Ricky’s condition had improved significantly, and if he had taken his medicine properly, it shouldn’t be a serious situation, but she included a few things to check just in case and added the date when she thought she could return from the mansion. She also added that if any problems arose with Ricky before her return, they should write down his condition in detail and send it along with any herb from the cottage.

After lying that she urgently needed certain herbs and asking for the letter to be delivered to the boy at the cottage, Olivia was only relieved after confirming that the administrator’s servant had left the mansion.

‘Let’s resolve this situation quickly first.’

Olivia spent the night sleepless in the cage, disinfecting wounds and monitoring the little ones’ condition until late into the night.

* * *

Lick lick. Something soft and moist tickled her face. After spending several days without sleep, focused on treatment, Olivia was finally able to doze off curled up in a corner once the little ones’s condition had somewhat improved. How long had she been dozing? When she gently opened her eyes at the ticklish sensation, she met a pair of round, pitch-black eyes.

“Whoa? You startled me……”

As Olivia flinched in surprise, the large beast, perhaps feeling sorry, nuzzled its moist nose against her affectionately. Seeing that it now had the strength to walk, albeit with a limp, Olivia felt her hardened heart melting and embraced the neck of the beast showing her affection.

“Good morning.”

“Woof!”

In response to Olivia’s morning greeting, several replies came simultaneously as if competing, especially the beast she embraced. Despite being much larger than Olivia, the beast tried to nestle in her arms like a puppy, causing her to topple backward.