The Monsterologist

Fio looked very serious as she tugged on my sleeve.

“Hmm? What is it Fio? Nature calls?”“No. Theo mark territory.”“Hmm?”

I thought about it for a moment.

“You think I should go around with Shiro and Hippolius and mark our territory?”“Yes.”

Fio nodded.I suppose it was supposed to be my job if I was the boss.

Earlier, I had told Fio that she did not need to do this.But she clearly thought I had said this because she was not the boss, but I was.

“I don’t need to do it either. Besides, it’s not effective when humans do it.”But then Fio shook her head.

“It is. It is, Theo.”“Wou.”

Even Shiro agreed.Apparently, he had gotten bored of chasing after Hippolius’s tail.

“No… You two may think that, but it really has no such effect.”

It would not count as marking anything.

“Yes.”“Wuff.”

But Fio and Shiro seemed very serious.

“Theo stinks.”“Wuff.”“What….”“Scare.”“Ruff!”“Oh, uh…”

They were saying that my body odor was so bad that it would count as marking the territory.Um, well, that was kind of a shock.

“Kelly. Can I ask you something…”“What is it? I am quite busy right now investigating Hippolius’s bottom.”“Kyuo…”“Hippolius doesn’t seem to like it, so please stop that.”“Is that so? I suppose it cannot be helped.”

One good thing about Kelly was that she stopped immediately when learning that they don’t like it.‘I’m very sorry,’ Kelly said as she patted Hippolius.And then she walked towards me.

“What is it that you wanted to ask, Theo?”“Yes, I want you to answer me honestly… Do I smell?”“I wouldn’t say that.”“Really?”“What’s this all of a sudden? An Adventurer shouldn’t care about such things.”

If you were an Adventurer, it was common to not be able to take a bath for several days.

“No, it’s just…”

And so I explained everything to Kelly.

“I see. Perhaps it’s not about your body, but your urine. Isn’t that right, Fio and Shiro?”“Yes.”“Wuff.”“What…”

That was also awkward.

“It’s that bad…”

Maybe I was ill.

“Theo! Marking!”“Wuff!”“All right, all right. Though, it’s not like it’s going to work.”

And so due to Fio and Shiro’s insistence, I finally bent.I went a short distance away from the others and urinated.And then I returned to the others.

“Wuff!“Auu!”

Fio and Shiro wagged their tails with satisfaction.Perhaps it was something to do with being wolves, no, demon wolves.I wonder if they would want me to do it every time we went for a walk.I would not like that at all.

Shiro was one thing, but Fio needed to learn about toilets.And in order to do that, we needed to hurry up and create a water system.

“All right, we should return now and eat lunch.”“Kyui-kyui.”“Wuff!”

The beasts and Fio were very happy. They must have been hungry.

“Kelly, we’re leaving now… Uh, what are you doing?”“Hmm? I thought I would look into this urine that smells so terrible.”“Hey, stop that. It’s filthy.”“No, it is not. I’ve even heard of people using it to clean wounds on the battlefield.”“We’re not on a battlefield. And more importantly, it’s embarrassing for me.”“I see. Then I won’t do it. …But it did not smell that bad.”

Apparently, Kelly had already smelled it.Perhaps monsterologists had different senses than the rest of us.And she just saw waste as a material for studying.

It was difficult for normal people like myself to understand, but such types did exist.And I could see that it was true that monsterologists would not be able to learn much if they were unwilling to get close to the droppings of magic beasts.

“Well, Kelly. Let’s go back and eat lunch.”“Aye, very well.”

And so we walked slowly back to the base.

‘I’m going for a short while!’“Ah, that’s fine. But come back for lunch.”“Kyuo!”

And then Hippolius ran off somewhere.As Hippolius was very strong, I didn’t worry about it going off alone.

“Wuff-wuff!”“Shiro. Wait.”“Wuff?”

Shiro tried to follow Hippolius, but I stopped him.Sometimes Hippolius would want to be alone and run at full speed.And Shiro was not able to keep up when Hippolius was that fast.

“Shiro, come back to the camp with us.”“Wuff.”

And then Shiro followed us obediently.He and Fio began to run in circles around Kelly and me.

“Shiro is…”“Is what?”“Probably not a subspecies of white demon wolf.”“Then what is he?”“I don’t know. I’ll need to observe him a little longer.”“I see. Well, tell me when you know.”“Of course.”

And then she looked at Fio.

“As for Fio, I would also like to study these people with beast ears.”“But surely that’s not in your field as a monsterologist?”“I was originally a biologist. The monsterologist is just one side of me, nothing more.”

Apparently, Kelly studied all life, so it was only natural that she should know a lot about monsters as well.

“Well, when you put it that way, it sounds very impressive.”“Doesn’t it?”

Kelly puffed out her chest proudly. And before I knew it, she was grasping a mysterious creature in her right hand.