"That... can I eat it?"
Mia pointed at the massive, dead black wolf head on the ground, its eyes still wide open. Drool was already nearly dripping down to her chin.
That look was pure, innocent, and filled with the most primal craving for food.
Victor's mouth twitched.
Cannibalism?
Strictly speaking, that head was now just "surgically removed pathological tissue," but the scene was still a bit too horrific.
"No!"
Victor refused sternly without a second thought.
"You are an employee of the Benevolent Heart Clinic. You're a wolf of status now. How can you eat something so unsanitary?"
As he spoke, he pulled a pre-prepared emergency meal from his system storage.
It was a raw steak the size of a washbasin, still attached to a massive bone. It was the finest tenderloin from that unlucky rampage magic boar, kept fresh and juicy by the system's preservation.
"Eat this if you're hungry."
Victor casually tossed the steak over.
Whoosh!
Before the meat could even hit the ground...
Mia, who had been crouching pitifully on the floor, instantly transformed into a silver blur.
She performed a beautiful mid-air flip, precisely catching the steak—which was larger than her own head—in her mouth before landing steadily on the ground.
The entire movement was fluid and filled with a wild aesthetic.
"Wuu..."
Mia growled softly with the steak in her mouth. She found a clean corner and, without using her hands, lay flat on the ground like a real little wolf, beginning to tear into it with her razor-sharp teeth.
Crunch! Crack!
The bone-in meat was crushed as easily as a biscuit in her mouth, making a sound that would set anyone's teeth on edge.
She ate until her face was covered in grease, devouring the meal voraciously without a hint of ladylike poise. her fluffy ears twitched in rhythm with her chewing.
"..."
Elizabeth watched this scene and curled her lip in disdain.
"Crude beast."
She took an elegant sip of the blood plasma in her cup, as if drawing a clear line between herself and such a primitive, blood-drinking creature.
Alice, meanwhile, squatted nearby, watching Mia eat with great interest, seemingly studying the other's bite force and jaw structure.
Victor looked at this bizarre yet harmonious scene and nodded with satisfaction.
A yandere loli nurse.
A tsundere onee-san financial manager.
A ditzy foodie security guard.
Yes, the team composition was becoming more and more complete.
While none of them seemed particularly sane, at least their combat power was the real deal.
Especially Mia.
Looking at those teeth that could chew through bone like potato chips, Victor felt a profound sense of security. The clinic's security issues would likely be a thing of the past.
He even felt that Mia's current ditzy and cute appearance made her the perfect clinic mascot.
Usually, she could act cute and nuzzle his palm, but at critical moments...
"Hm?"
Just as Victor was thinking this, the hairs on the back of his neck suddenly stood up.
An extremely faint yet lethal killing intent erupted without warning from the shadows beside him!
As a forensic doctor who had dealt with corpses for years, he was extremely sensitive to the aura of death.
Something was attacking!
"Watch out!"
Elizabeth sensed it too. She was just about to teleport over.
But it was too late.
A black shadow, fast as a lightning bolt, lunged from the shade of a withered tree.
It was a shadow leopard over three meters long. These creatures were natural assassins, capable of blending perfectly into shadows to approach prey silently before launching a lethal strike.
It had clearly been lying in wait for a long time, waiting for the moment Victor was most relaxed.
Its target was clear—Victor's throat!
Alice's great scissors were only just beginning to lift.
Elizabeth's blood mist hadn't yet fully formed.
Victor only had time to raise the chainsaw in his hand to parry.
Everything happened in the blink of an eye.
Just as those cold, glinting claws were about to tear open Victor's neck...
In that instant—
"Awoooo—!!!"
A roar of extreme fury and possessiveness suddenly exploded.
Mia, who had been focused on gnawing her bone in the corner, saw her clear eyes instantly turn crimson.
She didn't even lift her head.
The moment the shadow leopard pounced, her petite frame vanished from the spot.
It wasn't a teleport.
It wasn't magic.
It was pure speed that surpassed the limits of vision!
Swish—!
A silver afterimage was all that remained in the air.
The shadow leopard, mid-pounce, suddenly felt as if it had been struck head-on by a meteorite.
BOOM!!!
The terrifying force of the impact caused its entire skeleton to let out an overwhelmed moan. Before it could react, a even more horrific power gripped its neck.
Mia.
The beast girl who had been acting cute just a moment ago was now straddling its back.
There wasn't a trace of ditziness or stupidity left on her face. In its place was the cold, brutal madness of a predator at the top of the food chain.
Her hands clamped firmly onto the shadow leopard's upper and lower jaws, her arm muscles bulging and veins popping.
"Roar—! (Don't... touch my... Director!)"
She let out a discordant, beastly snarl.
Then, she violently ripped in opposite directions!
Tear—!!!
A scalp-numbing sound of flesh and hide ripping apart rang out.
The shadow leopard, famous for its speed and stealth, didn't even have time to scream. Its entire head was ripped clean off its neck in the most primitive and savage way imaginable by this seemingly delicate girl!
Blood erupted like a fountain, instantly staining Mia's long silver hair and the nurse uniform she had just put on.
Time seemed to freeze at that moment.
Elizabeth's teleportation movement stalled, her red eyes wide with disbelief.
Did... did she see that right?
In that split second, the speed Mia exploded with was actually faster than her, a vampire known for speed?!
That kind of pure, unreasonable physical explosive power...
Was this really a patient who just had a "brain resection"?
Alice also stopped swinging her scissors. She looked at the blood-soaked Mia—one hand holding a leopard head and the other still clutching her unfinished meat—and for the first time, an excited light of "finding a worthy rival" gleamed in her ruby-like eyes.
This new sister...
She seemed like she could really fight.
Thud.
The headless corpse of the shadow leopard slumped to the ground, twitching twice before losing all signs of life.
Mia casually tossed the leopard head aside like a piece of worthless trash.
The crimson in her eyes slowly faded, returning to that clear ditziness.
She turned around.
She saw Victor staring at her in shock.
Mia blinked, then subconsciously looked down at herself.
Blood on her hands, stains all over her body.
"Wuu..."
She suddenly became flustered, like a child caught doing something wrong by a parent.
She hid the blood-stained hand behind her back while the other still tightly gripped the steak. She lowered her head, not daring to look Victor in the eye.
Her fluffy wolf ears drooped, and her tail—though invisible—was surely tucked between her legs.
"Sor... sorry... Director..."
Her voice was as thin as a mosquito, tinged with a sob.
"I didn't mean to... I got the new clothes dirty..."
"I... I just saw that bad thing wanted to bite you... I..."
She was so anxious she was nearly in tears. It seemed that in her simple brain, "getting clothes dirty" was a far graver sin than "ripping a leopard apart with bare hands."
Victor snapped out of his shock.
He wasn't angry, nor was he afraid. Instead, he walked quickly to Mia and reached out, using his relatively clean sleeve to gently wipe the blood from her face.
"Well done."
Victor's voice wasn't loud, but it carried an unquestionable affirmation.
"You didn't do anything wrong."
"You protected me, and you protected the clinic."
"This is your duty, and it is your achievement."
Mia looked up sharply, her large, clear eyes filled with disbelief.
"Really?"
"Really."
Victor smiled.
He reached out and, just as before, placed his hand gently on the fluffy wolf ears atop her head.
This time, Mia didn't show the slightest hint of wariness. Instead, she squinted her eyes in comfort, a "purring" sound vibrating in her throat as she actively nuzzled her cheek against Victor's palm.
That invisible tail must have been wagging frantically right then.
"Good girl."
Victor rubbed the soft ears, finally gaining a clear understanding of this new employee's role.
Ditzy?
Cute?
Mascot?
No.
That was just a disguise.
This seemingly harmless beast girl was still the rampage magic boar—no, the rampage magic wolf—that dominated the forest at her core. Except now, her claws and fangs were no longer for herself, but to protect the only master she recognized.
Normally, she was the ditzy mascot responsible for acting cute, eating, and wagging her tail. But the moment someone showed even a shred of hostility toward Victor...
She would instantly transform into the most terrifying, most lethal—
Mad Dog War God.
"Alright, stop nuzzling."
Victor withdrew his hand and pointed at the bleeding leopard corpse on the ground.
"Go on, eat that too."
"Don't let good food go to waste."
"Wuu! (Okay!)"
Mia's eyes instantly lit up.
She let out a cheerful cry, dropped the half-eaten pork rib, and pounced like a puppy onto the larger, fresher, and warmer leopard corpse.
Watching this, Elizabeth silently took half a step back, distancing herself from this "colleague" who looked cute but was actually savage.
Alice walked to Victor's side and tugged on his hem, her red eyes shimmering with a faint, imperceptible trace of... jealousy?
"Director."
"Next time a bad thing comes, can I be the one to cut it first?"
Victor looked at these three God-Chosen, each with a vastly different style yet equally powerful, and a confident curve formed on his lips.
He knew.
From this day forward.
In this cursed land, he finally had the foundation to stand his ground.
"Don't worry, Alice."
Victor looked deeper into the forest, as if his gaze could pierce through the layers of mist to see the voyeurs hidden in the darkness.
"We still have... plenty of patients."
"Who will be the next one?"
Rate on N.U.
