9.
“I am your very own Chloe.”
“……Pardon?”
Her words were entirely unexpected.
I wanted to say something, but nothing came out properly.
Only a hollow question slipped past my lips.
“Hehe.”
Lady Levantia smiled with her eyes as if greatly amused and turned her head this way and that.
As if she wanted to capture me from every angle.
Left.
Right.
Front.
Even tilting her head slightly, diagonally.
…What are you doing, it’s frightening.
“U-um….”
I barely squeezed out my voice.
Then, as if she had been waiting, she leaned her upper body slightly forward.
Sparkling eyes.
A gaze urging me on.
An expression demanding the next words immediately.
She seemed genuinely excited, but because of that, it was even scarier.
What kind of situation was this.
“Lady Levantia…? What is this situation….”
The address I used as usual.
Words that should have been familiar.
Yet at those words, Lady Levantia’s expression immediately fell.
The smile in her eyes vanished, and her lips pouted.
“What is that?”
“……Pardon?”
“Just a moment ago, you spoke with such passion.”
“No, that’s….”
“You said it, Sir.”
She poked my chest with her finger.
“That I’m special.”
Poke.
“That I’m different from anyone else.”
Poke.
“Your very own Chloe.”
What on earth had I said in her imagination.
“Oh my, could it be?”
She said, opening her eyes wide.
“Are you embarrassed?”
“Yes?”
“Right?”
Then she hid the corners of her mouth behind the back of her hand.
But the smile spreading to her eyes was not hidden in the slightest.
“You said it and then suddenly got shy, didn’t you.”
No, what.
How does that conclusion come about.
“It’s alright.”
She smiled lightly.
“I was a little embarrassed hearing it too.”
Whether that was true or not, her cheeks were faintly flushed.
“I truly didn’t know you would say such things, Sir.”
Where exactly had things gone wrong.
…From the very beginning?
“You look lovely when you’re embarrassed.”
Lady Levantia took a step closer.
I reflexively stepped back.
But it was the end of the sofa.
There was nowhere else to go.
“L-Lady Levantia. For now, please sit down….”
“…Levantia?”
Her eyes narrowed.
“Surely that’s not right?”
Ah, this wasn’t a situation with options.
To survive, I had to match her.
“Uh, Miss Chloe…?”
What popped out of my mouth was practically survival instinct.
Then her sulking face brightened as if by a lie.
“That’s more like it.”
She smiled and sat back down on the sofa.
An expression fully satisfied.
“Since Sir seems embarrassed, I’ll let you call me that normally.”
Normally?
What does that mean.
If not normally, does that mean I have to call her that.
…‘My own Chloe,’ you say?
I’m going crazy.
Regardless of what I thought inside, she already looked pleased.
Smiling brightly and even getting up to head toward the door.
She stopped in front of the door as she was about to leave.
And slowly turned around.
Harboring a laugh that escaped lowly.
“You said it before, didn’t you? As a person.”
This was right.
These were words I had spoken.
Though they were words I had glossed over while explaining the rules.
She spoke clearly, gripping the door handle.
As if answering the question that had entered my heart.
“Look forward to it. I have much to show you as a person too.”
Rattle—
“…….”
The problem was that this feeling existed only in her imagination.
***
After she left, I urgently rummaged through my notebook.
[Chloe Levantia]
[Session 5: When asked if there were changes after the consultation, she played with words]
[Session 6: Gave a cup that looked expensive]
[Session 7: After seeing me drink water, she personally held each finger position one by one and explained how to hold the cup]
[Session 8: The type to become easier when complimented]
To find the cause of the situation that had just occurred, I skimmed the records from the beginning.
And the conclusion I reached.
“……This is no help at all.”
I had written too carelessly.
And I felt it painfully.
Looking back, every single one of these was nothing but a sign of affection.
“Well, if I had to choose, the counselor asking ‘do you feel different than usual’ after the session?”
Playing with words meant she had become that much less reserved.
“I should drink here too. It’s the same as changing one’s own environment.”
This was a declaration that she would come back openly.
And her moving each of my fingers to teach me how to hold the cup,
“She just wanted to hold hands!”
It was obvious she’d be weak to compliments.
Since anyone feels good when complimented by someone they like.
But it couldn’t be helped.
If I wrote down that it felt like that, it would sound so self-absorbed.
So I had jotted it down thinking surely not, but it turned out to be true.
Groaning, I put the notebook away.
I finally reached the conclusion that this was the culprit.
[※ When applied repeatedly to the same target, effects accumulate.]
“What am I going to do about this….”
The fifteen-minute conversation that only she remembered.
The words spoken by the imaginary me inside it.
If those had gradually filled with ‘what she wanted to hear’ as the sessions repeated.
If she believed this memory was real.
How far had the me inside her head gone.
I closed the notebook.
There was no answer.
***
Morning came again.
Before opening the shop door, I paused for a moment.
Should I open it or not.
Honestly, I was a little scared.
Because Lady Levantia seemed to harbor emotions I couldn’t possibly imagine.
But I couldn’t neglect the consultations just because there was no answer.
This was my daily life and a natural routine.
In the end, I swallowed a sigh and opened the door.
Rattle—
“Did you have a good night, Sir?”
I immediately heard a familiar voice.
Right in front of the door was Lady Levantia.
She looked at me with deep eyes, as if she had finally met the person she had been waiting for.
But wait.
I just saw her yesterday.
Is that kind of expression appropriate after just one night?
If we don’t see each other for a few days, will something happen?
“It seems you… came early….”
My words trailed off as my thoughts reached an ominous direction.
Then her gaze briefly shifted toward my lips.
As if waiting for the answer she wanted.
…I suppose I have to say it.
“Miss Chloe.”
“Hehe.”
Only then did she smile in satisfaction.
After that, murmuring sounds were heard.
From the maids lined up.
As if noticing the subtle air between Lady Levantia and me, they seemed to be whispering amongst themselves.
Ah, this won’t do.
Before useless rumors spread, I had to quickly organize things.
I immediately called out three names.
“The third maid from the front.”
“Yes!”
“And Lize.”
“Ah, yes!”
And while meeting her sparkling gaze head-on, I added.
“Last is… Miss Chloe.”
She nodded with a very satisfied expression.
Like someone who had received the desired answer.
***
The first two consultations ended twice as fast as usual.
Coo—
Fiddle, fiddle.
Coo—
Press, press.
I didn’t listen properly, hypnosis snap.
It couldn’t be helped.
Because I couldn’t help being distracted by the humming outside the door throughout the consultation.
“Hum—”
After sending off the second guest and opening the door, Lady Levantia entered as if she had been waiting.
“I’m the last one again today?”
She smiled bashfully and said.
“You must have wanted to see me for a long time, Sir.”
“That’s not it.”
To her, I already seemed to have solidified into someone who liked her too much to bear.
She just brushed off such words lightly.
“Such insincere words.”
Then, while quietly looking at me, she immediately reached toward my collar.
“Excuse me for a moment.”
“…Yes?”
“It’s a bit crooked.”
She calmly straightened my collar, then smiled as if nothing had happened.
Even the fingers that had subtly grazed my neck were as if nothing had happened.
I cleared my throat with effort and said.
“Then, what brings you here today?”
Hearing those words, she slowly sat on the sofa.
After neatly gathering her fingertips, she spoke in a languid voice.
“Recently, someone keeps coming to mind and I can’t sleep.”
“…So you’ve come for a consultation.”
She smiled quietly.
“My heart pounds just thinking about them.”
The consultation with her had practically become a love consultation.
No, this wasn’t even a love consultation.
She was coming to appeal to me in a situation where she had already set the answer.
Feeling burdened by such an attitude, I spoke carefully.
“Perhaps… how about taking some distance from that person for a moment?”
At that moment, the air in the consultation room grew cold.
Her brightly smiling face became expressionless in an instant.
I could see her pupils shaking slightly and her eyelashes trembling.
“Does that mean… I shouldn’t come here?”
Without even speaking in a roundabout way, straight to the point.
Ah, this is dangerous.
I shouldn’t touch this carelessly.
I could tell instinctively.
That if I clumsily touched this emotion, it would become irreversible.
“No.”
I hurriedly waved my hands.
“It was a general statement. Not an opinion on Miss Chloe’s situation….”
“…….”
“I really didn’t mean it that way.”
I tried to fix it urgently.
But her lips didn’t loosen easily.
Her gaze went to the window, but she glanced at me as if she couldn’t help it.
Her sulking was all too clear.
The me inside the hypnosis must have consoled her much more sweetly at times like this.
That’s why she fell so deeply for him.
But the real me didn’t have such talent.
If I don’t?
It can’t be helped.
I had to do that again.
[Privilege: Hypnosis has been activated.]
***
After that day, Lady Levantia visited the consultation shop every other day.
Leaving something each time she came.
“Isn’t the sofa too hard? You should take care of your waist.”
What she held out saying so was a pink cushion with a heart pattern engraved on it.
It was a bit chilling how she licked her lips while saying to take care of my waist.
Next was a small flower vase.
“The consultation shop is too simple.”
She said, looking at the window.
“Wouldn’t it be much better with at least one flower?”
The white flowers whose names I didn’t know were placed beside my desk like that.
The next was a cup.
“I wonder if the tea cup I gave you before might be a bit burdensome for other guests.”
A few ordinary-looking cups.
I could tell even I that the previous cup was a signal to use only between us.
Looking back, the consultation shop had already become full of things she had given.
At first, I took it in stride.
A bit burdensome, but if I thought positively, they were all good things.
The problem was that this wasn’t just a bit.
“Sir. Did you clean today?”
“…Yes?”
One day, while looking at the table, she suddenly spoke.
I couldn’t even guess her intention, so I naturally asked back.
Cleaning?
Was she pointing out that it was dirty?
I hadn’t done it, though.
“Ah, I did it not long ago…. Of course, the seat where Miss Chloe sits is kept especially clean.”
“Then that’s strange.”
Cutting off my words, she smiled softly.
Then, slowly roving eyes.
The cushion.
The flower vase.
The teacup.
And everything else—
After her gaze touched all of them, she slowly opened her mouth.
“They’re in different positions than I remember.”