Spoiler Alert!
The other day at the pig farm was…unpleasant.
You can’t blame the farm manager for being angry, but if the culling didn’t happen, then the swine fever would have spread to other farms and the wholesale markets.
In a daze, you fill out the swine fever report at the office.
You feel a hand on your shoulder.
“It’s not your fault. You shouldn’t blame yourself just because you were in charge.”
Oh, it’s your sempai.
“No, I’m fine. I’m tougher than I look. What matters is ensuring that people are alright after I consider the options available. Textbooks and diagnoses can’t cover everything! Anyway, I have to go back to the pig farm now and continue my observations.”
***
Aaa-chooo!
You’ve just finished loading up the medicines and equipment, so you get behind the driver’s wheel and start the van.
*sigh*
People just don’t understand how many you’ve killed and how many you’ve saved. If only you could save more…
The tunnel’s up ahead…
Hmm? Was it always this dark?
You’ve been driving for some time but you still don’t see any light ahead.
You stop the van, get out and sound the van’s horn.
Nothing.
Should you try walking?
Wh-wh-HOOOOAAAA?!?
What happened to the floor!?
You fall for what seems like hours until you somehow land…somewhere on your feet.
Hrgghkkph!
Your stomach catches up with you and spills its contents.
Highness…?
What’s he talking ab…out?
The man continues to speak as your thoughts trail.
Where…?
Hmm? Did the man just speak Japanese?
“…you understand Japanese. I am Yuris Rawle Maguire, Crown Prince and Acting Prime Minister of my country, the Austra Kingdom. May I ask your name?”
“I…it’s Shingo…Kazami.”
“I’ll get to point, Master Shingo Kazami. Would you lend us your strength for the sake of this country?”
…what?
A Veterinarian in Another World (獣医さんのお仕事 in 異世界, Jūi-san no Oshigoto in Isekai) is a light novel series and manga written by Choco Aozora (蒼空 チョコ, Aozora Choco).
While driving to a farm, the young veterinarian Shingo Kazami is suddenly transported to another world where a prince asks him, an exalted one, for his help in saving the Austra Kingdom from the ills afflicting the kingdom such as diseases and starvation. Despite his reservations, Shingo accepts the request on the condition that he is able to return to Earth at the earliest opportunity. A priestess of the local Hadoria Church, Chloe, is assigned to educate the vet about the ways of her world and protect him from its dangers. He is also assigned two bodyguards, Liz and Nora.
When investigating the growing number of mysterious deaths among the gryphons of the Austra Kingdom’s army, Shingo concluded that the deaths are likely due to poisoning and traces the source to oleander, a plant used to feed the furball rabbits raised as food sources for the gryphons. To solve the problem, he proposes reorganizing the rabbit pastures to keep them free of oleander if they are to be used as gryphon food.
Later, Shingo is sent to the city of Hydra to investigate an epidemic of ghoul fever, a terrible disease that gradually turns victims into ravenous, violent undead. The vet discovers germs in a captured ghoul’s body similar to those that cause rabies. Afterwards, Shingo injects ghoul fever germs into a cow with leukemia, using the cow’s excess white blood cells to gradually create a vaccine for the fever. In the caverns beneath Hydra, Shingo and the others discover a one-headed hydra in hibernation, the source of the fever. The team manages to kill the hydra in a fierce battle, but Nora is killed by one of the creature’s poisonous magic blasts. Shingo is splattered with the hydra’s blood, so he places himself in quarantine for two weeks.
During his quarantine, Shingo realizes that he is only serving the Austra Kingdom’s national interests while its citizens are generally neglected. Feeling guilty over Nora’s death and wanting to use his skills to improve the world for everyone, the vet decides to earn money to commence his own venture by performing missions and selling his own chemicals.
After he is released, Shingo and his team join a hunt for fire rats in the town of Murament. Because fire rats can explode at will, Shingo adds a blood anticoagulant to the grain the rats eat so that they bleed to death instead. Knowing that there was a reason why the fire rats left their natural habitat to attack a town, the vet follows their trail to a mountain basin where a young Earth dragon has taken up residence. With some difficulty and to the amazement of his friends, Shingo befriends the dragon, whom he names Tama.
Meanwhile, word has spread to the neighboring kingdoms about the appearance of an exalted one and some of them will stop at nothing to enlist his services for their exclusive use.
Main Characters
Shingo Kazami (風見 心悟, Kazami Shingo), a 26-year old civil veterinarian and an “exalted one”. Although compassionate and level-headed, he is not naïve and is unafraid of being somewhat ruthless if the end goal is to save more lives. Shingo is very passionate about improving medicine, sanitation and health awareness in his new world, but he knows that this undertaking will be challenging. For this reason, he is willing to deal with those more selfish than him since these people have access to resources that he himself would need. As a vet, Shingo is very knowledgeable about medicines and animal behavior, allowing him to work out why sick animals behave the way they do and using that knowledge to devise innovative solutions with a minimum of fuss. He can also produce modern-day chemicals needed for his work such as disinfectants and painkillers. Because he is an exalted one from another world, Shingo has a limited immunity to the fantasy world’s Laws (magic) and the fantasy world’s beasts are more friendly to him. He has also taken up archery to support his friends in battle.
Liz Vert Sarvy, a 16-year old wolf-beastkin slave knight captain and a bodyguard to the exalted one. Cynical, laid-back and reserved, she has a rather apathetic attitude towards her own life due to living at the beck and call of others for many years. When off-duty, Liz enjoys sleeping and poking fun at others. While working as Shingo’s bodyguard, she gradually learns to relax herself and freely express her feelings. As a slave knight, she was magically bound to Doni, Lord of Hydra, until she was purchased by Shingo himself, who prefers to treat her as a friend. Liz is a highly skilled swordswoman and carries her own longsword Hotarumaru, which has a silver magic stone in its pommel. Her Law is Earth, giving her the ability to manipulate stones and soil for various effects such as creating missiles and walls. Like many of her race, Liz has excellent senses of hearing and smell.
Chloe Lizst Welch, a 15-year old priestess of the Hadoria Church and the chosen protector of the exalted one. Cheerful, kind, patient, well-educated and somewhat naïve, she is completely devoted to protecting her charge. Although well-meaning, Chloe’s faith in the exalted one borders on blind fanaticism at times and her idealism occasionally conflicts with Shingo’s more pragmatic decisions. Hoping to get the veterinarian to stay in her world, Chloe has tried several times to start a romantic relationship with him. As the exalted one’s protector, she wears ornate white robes denoting her honored position and is knowledgeable in the literary and military arts of her world, which she teaches to Shingo as much as possible. When she fights, Chloe uses metal gauntlets studded with blue dragon scales. Her Law is Light, so she can use magic to heal, strengthen and protect others.
Gura and Guri, a baby furball rabbit and a baby gryphon respectively who accompany Shingo on his travels.
Personal Thoughts
Modern-day concepts of animal biology such as germs, vaccines, infections and behavior are exemplified and explained in this story. While a veterinarian’s job is to provide health care for animals, this story shows how the consequences of health and sanitation can be far-reaching for animals and people alike. Not giving animals proper care could lead to an overall reduction of meat and fish and a higher risk of communicable diseases. Sometimes vets have the unpleasant job of recommending a culling in order to save more lives overall, both animal and human. Since human sentience is generally self-centered, we often tend to forget that there’s life beyond our own species and many of us place value only on human life. Animals play an important part of our lives whether we see it or not, from the food we eat to the pets we befriend.
The fact is that we depend more on the Earth’s ecosystem than we might realize. We actually all live in a very specific environment where we must have certain kinds of nutrition, breathable air, temperature ranges and social interactions. Everything on Earth, from animals and plants to minerals and water, is part of a relatively delicate ecosystem that must be maintained to sustain everything in it. Veterinarians play a small but important part in maintaining this balance by caring for animals and using their knowledge to improve our livelihoods. Animals have things in common with us, such as families, emotions and the need to eat, so who can say if we don’t all belong to a common ancestor in the distant past? In any case, we certainly aren’t the only entities on this world!
Moral
Many creatures, including us, live on this world and depend on each other in more ways than we realize.
Isekai Eye 