Queen of the Mad Dog Knights - Chapter 22
Chapter 22 – This is not overwork. This is joy, the joy of labor. (by Shepherd)
Inside a room with a large window, where I can see the clouds high up in the bright sky.
I’m sitting on a patient bed with a golden dog laying down on my lap.
He is resting his head on my lap while muttering ‘The mongrel…’ over and over.
I put a leather bag filled with ice on the golden dog—- Leonhardt-sama’s forehead. He has been struggling to breathe because of his temperature, I hope this could cool it down a little bit
Beside the bed, Mars-sama has been looking at Leonhardt-sama with a disgusted face.
Darius-sama and the others are currently out to call the deployed troops back because I scolded them harshly.
Nearby, Josee-sama, who is wearing a white coat over her military uniform, is currently preparing bath water to cool down her patient’s body temperature.
The water was stored in a large tray.
She drew the water from a waterway that connected to a water source from outside the room.
The gentle sound of water being drawn is refreshing.
It’s summer already, huh?
I could feel the dampness in the air through the fabric of the bed I’m currently sitting on.
By the way, currently, I’m inside the royal castle’s medical facility.
They used to call this place the Royal Clinic, but recently they renamed it to Liselotte Memorial Hospital.
I told them to change the name, but one of the main culprits, Josee-sama, just smiled wryly at my request and completely ignored it.
There are a number of small rooms inside the facility, including the medical examination rooms, the surgery, scanning rooms, and rehabilitation rooms. Aside from that, there are larger rooms like private rooms for inpatients.
In those large rooms, they usually have one bed per patient, but there are also large beds placed inside so that two or three Dog-Kins patients could use them together.
…and for some reason, in every single room, every back issue of the magazine ‘Inudo’ is available.
This magazine is so widespread in this country, it’s horrifying.
Currently, I’m inside a private room on the first floor.
It’s easy to visit and leave this room due to how accessible it is.
The bathwater is also drawn from the first floor, so all the heatstroke patients are being placed here, or so they told me.
I stepped outside and was immediately greeted by a lush garden and a large, round manmade pond filled with clean water.
From the center of the pond, I could see the water flowing.
Josee-sama placed the tray in a space separated by curtains and asked Leonhardt-sama ‘Prime Minister, are you able to get up? I’m gonna cool your temperature down.’
“Leonhardt-sama, are you okay?”
[Kuun]
Leonhardt-sama, in his golden dog form, said, ‘It hurts…’ and rubbed his fur against my lap.
I rubbed his limp body from his neck down to his back.
Then Josee-sama scolded him while having a frown on her face.
“Prime Minister, don’t be selfish. Shall I grab you by the neck and throw you into that pond?”
“Josee-sama, please, it’s fine.”
“But…”
“Leonhardt-sama is like this because of Dashiba…”
Right.
This is that dog’s fault.
To grant the audience that I wished for, Leonhardt-sama had been working really hard to prepare it.
An audience with the Queen is not just a matter of meeting the parties involved.
It starts with selecting them, then the selected parties will discuss their standings and such with their subordinates and reach some sort of conclusion with them before attending the audience.
Everything had to be done perfectly so everyone would be satisfied with the result.
The Prime Minister’s work is hard.
He has to make the final decisions on various matters, giving instructions to the civil servants, ministers, and officials from various places.
Moreover, with the territory increase, problems like coordinating with the Purist Sect to prevent further terrorism from their rogue believers arose, thus making him even busier than he already was.
Leonhardt-sama is an earnest man by nature.
He is always trying to busy himself to the point of overworking himself, resulting in a lack of sleep.
Even though all I’ve been doing is eating.
—-As the result of that.
Leonhardt-sama’s body finally reached its limit.
When he woke up in the morning that day, he felt dizzy and nauseous.
He had some fruits prepared to prevent dehydration, but that day, when he moved to grab the fruits, he saw… Dashiba’s butt instead of the fruit he was looking for…
It must be unpleasant to look at that Shiba’s butt.
The saggy butt of my fat dog.
Below the curled-up tail, something that shouldn’t be shown was shown.
By the way, my dog is a pro on being kidnapped.
Even though it was only recently that he became the Queen’s pet dog, he already got kidnapped twice. Eventually, I gave him a collar with a transmitter and a bell installed.
If it were possible, I would have added a micro-transceiver for more security, but this dog wouldn’t understand my instruction, so I didn’t do that.
By the way, the bell’s function is not for Dashiba to use.
It’s to serve as a ‘mongrel alarm’ for everyone who is suffering from the Mongrel Syndrome.
—-chirin chirin…
A mongrel is coming down the hallway.
They said hearing it was a scary experience.
Was it though?
In any case, the bell is useful, but at that time, the bell didn’t ring at all.
Reason being the hole in the bell was clogged with the Shiba’s hair that had fallen out when the season started to change.
That was the reason why Leonhardt-sama, who was really tired at the time, failed to notice Dashiba, it was simply bad luck.
It just so happened that the guards stationed at the time were all suffering from Mongrel Syndrome, when they ran away from Dashiba, the dog managed to enter through the door and stole Leonhardt-sama’s fruits.
As his owner, I’m really sorry.
And so he acquired the juicy, cool, and tasty fruits.
In his good mood after eating everything, he greeted the large golden dog that was there with a ‘woof!’
Dashiba loves beautiful dogs, but he wouldn’t normally approach large dogs.
I think he was afraid of large dogs.
In any case, at that moment, Leonhardt-sama was so angry that he felt faint for a second.
—-The golden dog is angry.
With that seldomly triggered survival instinct, Dashiba turned around and showed the golden dog his butt again before fleeing.
[Mongrel—!!]
Immediately after that, Leonhardt-sama’s anger exploded and he chased after that Dame-Shiba outside.
He was already exhausted from the domestic affairs he had to take care of and also from the preparations for the audience that I requested.
In addition, he suffered from a lack of sleep and his fatigue was accumulating.
After running around under the sun with unsteady feet, Leonhardt-sama finally collapsed on the ground.
But even after that…
No matter how many times the guards asked him to rest, he refused. Instead, he got up and went to pick me up without saying anything about his condition. He didn’t even eat because he judged that he didn’t have the time to do that.
Huh, what happened to Dashiba?
I heard that he was eventually captured and was about to have his fur trimmed, but because I told Leonhardt-sama to pick me up in the morning, he decided not to do that and carried the Shiba away instead.
After he greeted me in the morning, we left Dashiba under Yoshimune von Kishu-sama’s (the polite Waken from the First Division) care.
A good decision if I may say so.
I’m sure the man would be able to handle Dashiba.
When he received this request, he flashed his white teeth and said, ‘Leave it to me. I will gladly protect (beat him up) and keep Dashiba-sama safe (I’ll also relieve the Prime Minister’s anger while I’m at it).’
“Leonhardt-sama, I’m sorry, if I wasn’t forcing you to hold the audience, this wouldn’t happen…”
[Please don’t be sorry. In the end, I’m the one who benefits from being taken care of by you, I feel like I’m the happiest dog in the world right now.]
“Josee-san, Leonhardt-san is already fine ~ you can grab his neck and throw him into the pond.”
Mars-sama moved to grab Leonhardt-sama’s neck.
In response, Leonhardt-sama quickly turned into his human form and held me by my waist.
W-wait! It hurts!
“Now now, that’s just unfair, Leonhardt-san! What are you doing, burying your face in Her Majesty’s belly like that?! That’s my special privilege to do that, you know?”
“Don’t take her away from me! I want to be in this fragrant paradise forever!”
“That so? Then I’m gonna stab you, okay? I’m not gonna hold anything back!”
“It hurts–!”
When I unintentionally screamed that out, a big silhouette covered my face.
Bam, something that couldn’t be clearly described was done.
The beautiful Josee-sama smiled as she changed her form to a large golden dog. She grabbed the motionless Leonhardt-sama and threw him into the tray.
‘Patient who doesn’t listen should just sleep in peace’, she said.
When I felt relieved after seeing Leonhardt-sama’s breathing stabilized inside the tray, a member of the rescue team barged into the room while shouting, ‘Commander St. Bernard! Emergency!’
She was carrying a huge white furry ball.
No wait, it was a large, fluffy dog.
The dog’s breathing was ragged and it was sticking out its tongue in agony.
“Samoyed, a member of the Seventh Division caught the heatstroke! It seems he was running around below the sun in his dog form!”
“Why wasn’t he wearing a protector? He shoulda known that his breed is sensitive toward heat. I told him to wear it if he insists on working in his dog form.”
“He needed money to gamble on the Wan Slot, so he sold his protector away.”
“Then there is no mercy for him. Throw him into the emergency pool.”
The member of the rescue team carried the huge furry ball, no, the white dog, outside toward the pond.
Then she threw the dog right into it.
“He’ll drown!!”
“Don’t worry.”
Josee-sama smiled at me.
When I looked at him again, the white dog floated up and started swimming as if his previous condition was a lie.
He seemed to struggle a little, but his breathing was a lot more stable.
He eventually reached the edge of the pond and put his paws there, the female rescue team member was waiting there with a bucket.
The bucket was filled with ice.
The wet dog stuck his head into the bucket and started munching on the ice.
‘It’s a special kind of ice with salt and sugar in it’, said Josee-sama.
Leonhardt-sama, who was unconscious in the tray, also munched on the ice when Mars-sama shoved it into his mouth.
“If he was a normal heat stroke patient, I would have nursed him like the Prime Minister, but in his case, he brought it upon himself, this much treatment is enough.”
“Um.”
“I told everyone to not turn into their dog form during summer as the Dog-Kins have few sweat glands in their dog forms, but the high ranking nobles are too prideful to listen. They just ignored my instructions completely, took on their dog forms, and followed in the footsteps of our Prime Minister there.”
‘But still’, Josee-sama continued her complaints.
“Recently the number of patients increased dramatically due to the popularity of the new summer cut.”
“Summer cut…?”
“Emergency!”
Another fainted dog was brought in.
The one who brought him in was a cute-looking dog with a broken nose.
The fainted dog apparently caught the heatstroke as well, but he had a strange appearance…
He’s a tiny dog with trimmed fur.
His whole body kept trembling and he didn’t really look like a normal dog.
“It’s Soldier Chihuahua!”
“Eh?”
[Chihuahua said, ‘I don’t want to be called cute anymore! It’s getting hotter anyway, so I’m getting that manly cut!’ So he got it and he said that it’s comfortable being inside the tank while having that haircut, but as soon as he went out, he immediately got sunburned and caught the heatstroke!]
“This idiot…!”
Josee-sama picked up the Chihuahua and put him in the pond where Leonhardt-sama was currently soaking in.
The pond’s water directly touched his skin.
The other dog went to him while crying and saying, ‘Don’t die! We haven’t even got a girlfriend yet, Chihuahua! …wait, if you do die, I don’t need you to pay your money back, isn’t that actually a good thing for me?’
I think that man is called Pug-sama, a member of the Fourth Division.
Josee-sama glared at them both while preparing some ice for them. She complained,
“Seriously, dog’s fur is a natural shield that blocks out the summer sun and the rising temperature, it’s important for your body you know? Getting summer cuts to allow some airflow is fine and all, especially for the Dog-Kins who only work indoors. Yet those guys, I know that buzz cuts work well in their human forms, but getting a buzz cut in your dog form as well, are you kidding me? Also, why are there a lot of idiots like this in the Fourth Division?!”
She crushed the ice with an ice pick.
I sat on the bed while looking at the ice that quickly turned into powdered ice.
Apparently, there is a ‘manliness’ hype going on right now in the Fourth Division.
It all started when their commander, Rascal von Malamute said, ‘I heard from Borzoi that a man who is not confident about his face and body could gain some more confidence if he plays around with short hair and fur!’
Since those people are all very particular about their hairstyles, apparently they wanted to challenge the limit of their human form’s hairstyle as well as their dog fur’s style.
Thanks to this, the number of heatstroke patients is on the rise.
Moreover, this hype…
It’s spreading nationwide, especially among small Dog-Kins who are always worried about their manliness.
Small dogs always had a complex about larger dogs.
People said that just being large makes you look more manly, which increases your chance of being favored by the ladies.
It’s a common sight to see drunk middle-aged small Dog-Kins yapping at their large Dog-Kin colleague over this matter.
Especially in this country where Sir Wolfhound is being praised as a hero, being ‘as big as Wolfhound-sama’ is the dream of the children. The parents of the small Dog-Kins who declared ‘I’m going to be a Wolfhound someday!’ are always wondering when and how should they slap their children with the bitter cold reality.
That’s where Mazo-sama’s advice comes in.
Seriously, what is he thinking about?
Making a mess of something is the thing the Sixth Division excels at.
Mazo von Borzoi-sama is the commander of that division.
Is he trying to mess with his allies this time?
I suddenly felt a shiver run down my spine.
I should check under the bed to make sure he isn’t there lurking to be stepped down by me.
Then, a question popped out in my head, so I asked Josee-sama,
“Why does everyone trim their fur in the first place?”
“Some of us need our fur to be trimmed regularly, or else the fur wouldn’t stop growing, right, Sir Maltese?”
“Yeah. Me, Greyhound’s Yoch-san and Great Dane’s Apollo-san need our fur to be trimmed regularly.”
“Some of the messenger dogs that run around outside also need to be trimmed, it’s also for their own hygiene, that’s another important thing to take note of.”
She looked toward Chihuahua-sama, who was currently slumped over the edge of the tray with his tongue flicking out and his chin resting on it, and Pug-sama, who entered the tray because he felt that the temperature was too hot. Both of them look so comfortable.
Then she turned her gaze toward Leonhardt-sama who was still floating inside the pond. She crossed her arms and let out a sigh.
Her hair was slightly undone and hung over the nape of her neck, making her look even sexier than beautiful than usual.
Then she muttered ‘For now, we need to seize the entirety of the Fourth Division and that fricker Borzoi.’
“Emergency!”
Another patient was brought in.
This time he was in his human form.
Somehow the man was still holding on to a document while laying on the stretcher.
“Is it another heatstroke patient? Just throw him in the pond!”
“No, It’s Sir Shepherd!”
“What’s with him?”
“He’s overworked and collapsed inside his office!”
“That’s wrong!”
Sir Shepherd, the patient with the document suddenly shouted.
Isn’t he Leonhardt-sama’s right-hand man, Frederick von Shepherd?
He’s a young man who loves his work and always asks me to tell the Prime Minister to give him more work whenever we see each other.
He has dark brown hair and a neat face, however, his face is ruined by his bloodshot eyes from the all-nighters he regularly did.
While boasting that he likes work more than eating meals thrice a day, he thrust his paper to the sky and shouted,
“I’m not overworked! This is my joy! I just got dizzy and fainted from the joy of labor!”
“That’s what we called being overworked!”
“Enough of that! Commander, this man wouldn’t let go of his paperwork no matter how hard I tried to restrain him! I tried to kill him to calm him down, but it didn’t work either! What’s with his unreasonable strength?!”
“The Prime Minister is here, right? Prime Minister! Stop trying to escape from your work! Come back home!! Your work is waiting for you faithfully at home!”
“Stop it–! This guy just doesn’t know how to quit and why didn’t you die from that?!”
The member of the Eighth Division who brought him with the stretcher is angry.
No, wait, why are you trying to kill him?!
Before I could voice that thought, Josee-sama approached me.
“Your Majesty, may I borrow your handkerchief?”
“Huh? Ah, yes, sure.”
Josee-sama took my handkerchief and placed it over Sir Shepherd’s mouth
Then…
“Oh, this smell… Is this heaven? Am I dead?”
“Yes, you are. You are in heaven because you’ve been doing your best to do your work. For now, rest and continue your work later!”
I heard another thud.
The room became quiet again.
Josee-sama instructed the Eighth Division as she moved Sir Shepherd to the bed.
“The civil workers are very stubborn, so try to distract them for a moment, then whack them hard, then you could treat them, that’s how you deal with them. Understand?”
“Yes!”
“Use the same technique whenever you deal with Sir Boxer, Sir Doberman, and Sir Rottweiler, they’ll yield no matter what they do.”
“Yes, I understand!”
Josee-sama looked back at me after nodding toward her subordinates who nodded in obedience to her instructions.
“Your Majesty, may I have the clothes you are wearing right now?”
“…Go ahead.”
I quietly took off my clothes.
This is better than it being stolen as a collection… right?”
In any case, those two men are dummies no matter how you look at them.
Both Sir Shepherd and Leonhardt-sama.
Sure, there were a lot of things that happened in the past few months.
From them discovering me, war with the neighboring countries, and the aftermath of that.
Then there was the war against the purists, the terrorism, the annexation, and various matters in regard to coexisting with the purists.
Also the management of the Liselotte Continent (temporary name).
Every one of those problems needs the Prime Minister’s approval to decide on something and this is the result of that.
The problems piled up so much that it’s basically impossible for a single person or two to handle them.
Couldn’t they just draft more regional nobles to migrate here and help them with their works?
That question crossed my mind, but anyway, my main concern right now is their well-being.
The two of them were placed in isolation for a week to prevent them from working. It’s an emergency measure by Josee-sama.
Josee-sama said that they’ll be thrown into the Eighth Division’s sanatorium and won’t be released under any circumstances during that period.
The Dog-Kins working in the Prime Minister’s office will take care of their portion of the work…
‘Civil officer from the Prime Minister’s office, Chow Chow has collapsed from overwork!’ Suddenly I heard that shout.
I asked Josee-sama to let me help take care of some of the patients who were brought in one after another. They were either collapsing from heatstroke or overworking.
I carried some ice and changed the water. Everyone is having a tough time.
Even the children from the Royal Nursery, the childcare facility of the castle were brought in.
It seemed that the boys also followed the ‘manly cut’ hype and secretly cut each other’s fur before playing under the hot sun.
Mazo-sama’s criminal charges are increasing.
I tried to call him, but he had already left the country for ‘diplomacy purposes.’
What should I do now?
I asked Mars-sama who carried a small bucket of water and a huge bucket of ice by his sides.
“Mars-sama, what do you think we should do to improve this situation?”
“Well, first of all, we should announce that Her Majesty doesn’t like the ‘manly cut’, then we need to work on a new heatstroke policy.”
“Alright, on it.”
“Whoa, wait, slow down, don’t rush it. Did I just say something I shouldn’t have?”
As the beautiful-looking man pondered, I held the handle of the bucket and pleaded to him.
“I want to do my best! But I need Mars-sama’s advice so I won’t bring trouble to everyone! Please, can you help me…?”
“…It can’t be helped then. You are relying on me after all, that actually made me happy.”
I showed my gratitude to Mars-sama, who started laughing, ‘uhehe.’
TL: Iyo