“From now on, Miss Batori will slowly, very slowly, head toward the deepest place within yourself. Toward where your thoughts and heart reveal themselves truthfully. There is nothing to be afraid of. On the contrary, it feels comfortable, warm.”
To be honest, the sight of the goblin girl with hazy eyes seemed slightly dangerous.
If I posted a photo online or somewhere right now, I had a feeling that all sorts of… strange comments would definitely appear.
Of course, I had absolutely no intention of doing anything so wicked.
In the first place, there was no reason for me to go out of my way to share such a cute sight with others, right?
“Miss Batori has been worrying a great deal because of your ability recently. Isn’t that right?”
“Yeees….”
“It’s an ability that grows stronger by drawing people’s attention, but receiving that attention is so, so difficult, and you always end up wanting to run away, so it’s troubling, yes?”
“Yeeees….”
Batori answered my words obediently.
Setting aside that I needed some preparation just to use hypnosis, in this entranced state, it was honestly quite a useful ability.
Because I could get answers this easily to most ordinary questions.
“Then, could it be that Miss Batori truly, truly hates people’s interest or their gazes?”
“That is….”
“It’s merely burdensome?”
“Yes….”
With a gentle voice.
I continued speaking in a voice that even to my own ears sounded similar to a radio host performing ASMR.
“Then, if people’s attention became less burdensome, wouldn’t subduing bad people as a hero become much easier as well?”
“I think sooo….”
“I think so too. Miss Batori is an incredibly talented person, and I’m certain you can do even better than you are now.”
“Hehe….”
It hadn’t even been a few hours since I met Batori.
But definitely… I thought she was a pure, innocent person in many ways, and usually this type was very, truly susceptible to hypnosis.
To the point that accidentally saying something dangerous would become a serious problem.
That was why I had decided to engrave exactly two things—only two—in Batori’s mind beforehand.
The first was, naturally, related to the issue Batori had requested to resolve.
“Therefore, Miss Batori, starting today, you will slowly, little by little, grow more accustomed to people’s gazes than before.”
“Reeeally……?”
“Yes. People looking at Miss Batori is absolutely, absolutely not because you are ugly or bad. It’s because Miss Batori is cute, pretty, and cool. That’s why they’re looking at you. You don’t have to be so scared. Slowly, slowly, you will grow accustomed to people’s gazes.”
“Yeeees….”
In the end, fear of people’s gazes had been the biggest issue.
That was why, quite apart from her ability, she kept shrinking back, and because she couldn’t distinguish herself, the cheering and attention had faded.
I thought that if I just slightly, very slightly corrected those thoughts of Batori’s and pushed her forward, she would definitely improve, which was why I said these things.
Actually, I could have gone even stronger.
‘People love you tremendously.’
‘If people say anything bad, you can completely ignore them.’
‘Don’t care about others’ gazes at all.’
Saying things to that degree was one possible method, but when using hypnosis, it was important to induce change slowly through lighter words rather than deliberately intense ones.
Anyway.
“Understood?”
“Ye-s….”
For now, the first task was finished, but there was still one more thing that needed to be imprinted in Batori’s memory through hypnosis.
Honestly, I wasn’t sure if doing this was right.
Still, she was… an adult woman.
Although she was a tiny goblin shorter than even me, I couldn’t help but feel this was a bit too much.
…After all, following a woman she’d met less than thirty minutes ago all the way to her house.
No matter that I was an employee of the Association, lying down on the bed and entrusting her mind was something I seriously thought was far too careless.
Even though I was the one who had facilitated all this.
To the extent that I worried about this tiny goblin who was much smaller than short me.
“…And when someone you’ve just met suddenly asks you to do something, you must think before answering.”
“Yeees…?”
“No matter how much their identity is guaranteed, if they say suspicious things right after meeting you, you should be at least a little suspicious. Understood?”
“Yeees….”
“Phew…….”
And so, I cast the second hypnosis.
To the extent that worries remained despite that… but still, wouldn’t she manage?
Since she was a low-tier hero who seemed to have potential.
Mhm.
After inputting what needed to be input like that….
“Hehe.”
“Hyaah…….”
I began touching the goblin horns of her lying still with cloudy, unfocused eyes.
I had touched them before, but I really loved that uniquely smooth sensation.
Since memories after falling into a trance like this would disappear from her head anyway, and she would absolutely never remember me touching her horns like this.
“Uhyaaaak………!”
“Uhuhuhu….”
I let out a slightly nasty laugh and spent time until Batori woke up.
*
At dusk, the consultation with the goblin girl Batori ended without trouble.
After the hypnosis ended, I smoothly put her in a taxi and sent her home. About a week had passed, and in the meantime, I had been consulting heroes ordinarily.
Nothing as in-depth as with Batori.
Just roughly light interviews, that sort of thing?
In the first place, there were over two thousand heroes in City D alone, so it was inevitably too much for the Association’s Welfare Bureau to provide perfect care for each and every one.
Unless they applied separately like Batori, it was just a matter of checking their recent state through really light conversation of about five or ten minutes.
Even that was practically unnecessary if the person found it bothersome to come out.
“Charlotte, that E-rank hero you were in charge of last time. She’s been tearing through her work, you know?”
“I’m finding out daily through texts. I know well. Just two hours ago she was bragging about catching a criminal in an alley.”
“Huhu, as expected of our Welfare Bureau ace?”
“But the matter itself wasn’t that difficult. She’s probably a hero who would’ve grown well even without me.”
“Is that so?”
“Yep.”
The team leader, perhaps having nothing to do, started making small talk with me, but….
I was in a situation where I couldn’t concentrate much on that conversation.
The reason was… actually nothing much, and since I had absolutely nothing to do today, I had just been busily browsing a beastkin hero gallery and looking at photos.
I wanted to go around myself with a camera and take photos of cute, pretty beastkin girls, but unfortunately it was work hours, so I had to stay quietly at the office, and it was a day without even any business trips.
I had no choice but to stare at the monitor like this.
“Ehh….”
The team leader looked at me and sighed.
But… but even so, the team leader was in a situation where she absolutely could not scold me right now!
Of course, that didn’t mean I held unchecked power or anything like that.
It was just, just that I had already finished all my tasks for today, and the truth was I had nothing more to do here, so I had no choice but to be like this.
“Bored, want to go shopping?”
“…Team leader, are you crazy?”
…But this was something I hadn’t expected.
I didn’t think I was a completely normal person either, but I had never seen a team leader suggest going shopping during work hours in my entire life.
No, logically speaking, how could anyone during company hours….
“This time there’s a black beret that suits your silver hair perfectly; I’ll buy it for you.”
“Oh.”
“Anyway, you have nothing to do, right? And the others have little work today too, so everyone has been staring at monitors and resting since earlier. Let’s call it early leave at my discretion today. How about it?”
“Oh…….”
I’ll admit it.
Team leader.
You truly are a god.
I nodded and decided to accept that proposal.
I was bored at the moment, and the hat I had bought last time had fallen to the ground due to some crazy person’s elbow on my way to work, then got stepped on by others’ shoes, over and over… until it lost its shape.
“Shall we go?”
“Yes! Yes! Team leader!”
“Oh my.”
Anyway, that’s how I ended up going shopping with the team leader in broad daylight.
Actually… usually spending personal time like this with a team leader or company superior was a bad thing in many ways.
Quite apart from such general truths, I didn’t particularly have bad feelings toward our team leader; rather, I recognized her as quite a good person, so I didn’t think much of it.
In the first place, she’s young, pretty, capable, and has a good personality, right?
Seeing that she allowed early leave for most of the Welfare Bureau simply because today was a leisurely day and everyone had already finished work, she was a god, invincible, practically an object of worship.
“Team leader, but why are you asking me to go shopping together all of a sudden?”
“Ah, um… actually, shopping isn’t the real goal.”
“Eh.”
…The god has fallen.
What is this all of a sudden…?
I couldn’t help but look at the team leader, no, the team leader with an incredibly flustered expression.
“Uh… um… there’s a hero you need to meet, you see? So… I arranged a separate meeting…? Because of that, haha….”
“Wha…….”
No way.
You said early leave.
Suddenly, this, what on earth…?
Not only my green eyes but even my small hands began trembling like crazy.
No, my leaving work….
My early leave!!!