11.
A few days passed.
Ever since I’d said the words “my very own Chloe,” the distance between Chloe and me had grown noticeably closer.
“Teacher, I trust you are well again today?”
Jingle—
She entered as she always did, her radiant blond hair swaying.
Normally, it was “Teacher.”
If “my very own Isaac” came up every time, my heart wouldn’t be able to take it, so perhaps that was a relief.
But something about her looked different from usual.
When I fixed my gaze on her, I saw it.
A vivid black ribbon fastened to one side of her hair.
Perhaps because it was a color utterly unlike her blond hair, it caught my eye at once.
She was looking at me with expectant eyes.
Even without her saying it, I knew.
She was asking whether anything looked different.
The problem was, this was surprisingly difficult.
—Oppa, don’t you notice anything different about me?
—Yeah, I do. You’re wearing a ribbon.
—Oh, so you do know.
With those words, my imaginary girlfriend got sulky and went home.
…Is it just me, though?
She’d attached the ribbon in plain sight, so of course I was going to notice it.
The point was that I had to come up with something beyond that.
Was there even such a thing as a compliment you could give someone who came in wearing a ribbon?
Well, I’d have to act as if there was.
After all, I’d chosen to play the version of myself that existed in her imagination.
First, a compliment.
“You look even more beautiful than usual today.”
“…!”
“Perhaps because of that stylish ribbon. It makes you stand out all the more.”
“……!!”
Chloe’s cheeks flushed faintly red.
Her expression looked as though she was desperately trying to suppress the corners of her mouth from rising.
It was probably an answer she liked even more than she’d expected.
“The, the color? Is it a color that suits me?”
“Yes.”
To be honest, I had no idea what exactly it suited.
Still, if you gave praise to someone weak to compliments, you probably wouldn’t be wrong.
***
“I went to a tea party the other day.”
The conversation began over tea.
I listened to her story while drinking tea brewed by her, with tea leaves she had gifted me, in a teacup she had gifted me.
…Now that I thought about it, I wasn’t sure what in this counseling office wasn’t hers anymore.
Ah, I bought the sofa.
I would defend this, at least, to the bitter end.
Because it felt like my territory was being taken over little by little.
“Marchioness Ceylon served tea again.”
“Ah, that tea you said tasted bad?”
“I don’t believe I ever went so far as to say it tasted bad.”
I was pretty sure she had.
If I tried to argue, she’d probably get sulky, so I quietly shut my mouth.
“…I don’t know what you take me for, Teacher. Outside, I am, in the strictest sense, the daughter of a count.”
It was hard to respond to that, so I only sipped my tea.
She watched me for a moment, then smiled brightly again and continued speaking.
“The young lady sitting beside me kept striking up a conversation.”
Then she quietly glanced sideways at me.
Trying to stir up jealousy… wasn’t something she’d do with another young lady, so it was probably just an ordinary story.
Still, I should ask a bit more.
“May I ask what you talked about?”
“It was nothing special. She said I’d seemed cheerful lately. She asked if I’d been going somewhere nice.”
“I see.”
It was a rather dry response, but she didn’t seem disappointed.
After I’d shown her the kind of person she wanted me to be on a regular basis, ordinary conversations were, after all, nothing more than ordinary conversations.
But I remembered it clearly.
The sight of her memorizing the position of every single object with those chilling eyes.
Concerned about a possible contingency, I spoke.
“To your eyes, a toast.”
A cringe-inducing line that came out with no context whatsoever.
When she heard those words, Chloe froze just like that.
Still holding her teacup in place.
She remained motionless, then blinked her blue-gold eyes wide several times before—
“…Oh my.”
She let out a small exclamation.
Her eyes slightly reddened, she closed them as though savoring the line I had just spoken.
“…To hear such words.”
Her voice trembled.
“I truly am a happy person.”
“……”
Seeing someone react this way to another person’s line made me feel oddly uneasy.
Still, if she liked it, then that was fine.
Though I had no idea how long I could keep relying on other people’s words.
***
After that day’s counseling ended.
I saw Chloe off as she left with a satisfied expression, then flopped down on the sofa.
“…Maybe because it’s a famous line, the reaction was good.”
If I’d thrown out a line like that in the real world, I’d have been met with cold stares first.
But in this world, it worked strangely well.
How should I put it? It felt like people’s very way of thinking revolved around romance.
Maybe because this was a romance fantasy, the reaction was definitely different.
“I don’t really remember the original story, though.”
Even what kind of story the original had been was hazy now.
I had read it because the first volume was free.
Since it was aimed at women, I couldn’t make it to the end.
The protagonist and the villainess.
I felt like if I heard their names, they’d come back to me.
But unless I actually heard them, it was impossible.
“I wonder how the plot unfolded.”
No matter how hard I tried to remember, nothing came to mind.
I was someone who had only ever read martial arts novels, after all.
Still, there was one thing I knew for certain.
It had been a fairly famous work.
It had dozens of volumes, and even a webtoon adaptation.
Then that meant a story of that scale would unfold in this world.
“…Well, it probably has nothing to do with me.”
The people responsible for the original story were, in the end, over there.
I was just the fourth son of a duke’s family, someone who might not even have appeared at all.
***
Chloe did not come every day.
She had her own affairs, such as high society and the like.
No matter how obsessive she might be, a count’s young lady couldn’t very well frequent a shabby alley every single day.
On the days she didn’t come, the counseling office was the same as usual.
I chose three among the maids lined up.
Hypnosis, click.
Knead, knead.
Done.
But today, there was a familiar face mixed into the line.
“……”
Tall. Maid uniform. An outfit without a single wrinkle.
The head maid of Count Levantia’s household.
It was Helen.
There was a clear sense of distance between her and the other maids in line.
Since no one tried to stand directly behind her, a space the size of one person had naturally been left empty.
A woman who parted a line through sheer dignity.
Though the direction was different, it reminded me of Chloe, so it was slightly funny.
In any case, I called out the three for today, including Helen, and counseled the first two first.
Zzz—
Knead, knead.
Zzzzz—
Press, press.
After sending off the second maid and opening the door, Helen, who had been waiting, stepped inside with disciplined strides.
I sat on the sofa across from her and spoke as usual.
“Then, shall we begin?”
At that, Helen spoke before she had even sat down on the sofa.
“That is not why I am here.”
“…Pardon?”
Her posture after sitting was not the usual counseling posture.
Her back was straight, but her attitude was somehow businesslike.
She did not have the air of someone who had come to receive counseling.
She took something out from inside her clothes.
A single letter.
A faint fragrance drifted from the neatly folded stationery.
On the place sealed with wax was the crest of House Levantia.
“It is from the young lady.”
“……”
I took the letter.
Even just holding it, I could feel the luxurious texture of the paper.
I broke the wax seal and unfolded the letter.
Neat handwriting.
Straight, proper letters that could have belonged in a textbook.
Its contents struck my heart from the very first line.
“To my beloved Isaac.”
“Not a single waking moment passes in which I do not think of you.”
What is this?
“You are like a star within my heart.”
What in the world am I reading right now?
“Because this feeling is far too overwhelming, I convey it to you in writing, if only like this.”
My face grew hot.
These were words I had never imagined I would see with my own eyes in my life.
Each and every line was a critical hit.
If I stopped here, could I still survive?
I swallowed a sigh inwardly and set the letter down.
Then I felt a silent gaze from across from me.
Helen was looking at me with an expressionless face.
Without moving her mouth or her eyes.
Without saying a single word, only with her gaze.
“Read it to the end.”
“………….”
I picked up the letter again.
“Please do not think my feelings are light.”
“For this feeling did not come into being in merely a day or two.”
“Forever, your very own Chloe.”
My face burned.
The hand folding the letter trembled faintly.
I barely managed to fold it and placed it on the table.
An awkward silence.
Helen still sat in the same posture.
I barely cleared my throat and asked,
“By any chance… do you know the contents?”
“Yes.”
The answer was like a blade.
“The young lady asked me to check it several times.”
Kyaaaaaaak.
A scream burst inside me.
She asked her to check it several times?
That meant she’d read “You are like a star within my heart” more than once.
“Kill me.”
I tried to move the letter off to some corner.
In any case, I had read it all, so now we could begin the counseling.
But Helen did not move.
She sat on the sofa, motionless.
Although her business was finished, she showed no sign of leaving.
“Excuse me.”
“Yes.”
“Now that the delivery is complete, you may go……”
“?”
Helen blinked as though puzzled.
Her expression seemed to say she had no idea what I was talking about.
“I must receive your reply before I leave.”
“……!!!”
***
I am currently writing a love letter.
For the first time in my life.
And with another woman watching, at that.
“……”
The hand holding the pen tightened.
What on earth was I supposed to write?
“Thank you for your letter. Miss Chloe’s feelings have reached me. I hope you remain in good health.”
Wouldn’t that be enough?
A safe, polite, completely problem-free reply.
However, after reading it from beside me, Helen said one thing.
“The expression is weak.”
“…Is that so?”
“If you take into account the sincerity of what the young lady sent you.”
The problem wasn’t the young lady’s sincerity, but the fact that I had none.
In any case, I wrote again.
“Reading Miss Chloe’s letter warmed my heart. I would like to share tea with you the next time we meet. Of course, tea brewed personally by Miss Chloe.”
Helen read it.
Then she looked at me.
“It is weak. Teacher, you are the young lady’s ‘star of the heart,’ so in accordance with that……”
Kyaaaaaaak.
Star of the heart.
I had to match the star of the heart, she said.
No, I did intend to act the part, of course.
But honestly, wasn’t the star of the heart too much?
Putting everything else aside, unless you had a romance brain, wasn’t that impossible?
At that moment, Helen briefly turned her gaze elsewhere.
As if recalling something from not long ago.
***
The mansion before departure.
After sealing the letter with wax, Chloe held it tightly in both hands and looked up at Helen.
“Make sure you deliver it, Helen.”
“Understood, my lady.”
“You must. You absolutely must.”
“Yes.”
“You must……!!!!”
It was three times.
As she repeated the same words three times, her cheeks were dyed red.
The dignity befitting the young lady of a count’s household had already been sent far, far away from her face.
She was simply a girl in love.
As Helen placed the letter in her breast, she quietly thought,
…What does she like so much about him?
Of course, judging by what she heard during counseling, he was a better person than expected.
But was he enough to be suitable for the young lady?
She discreetly thought of the counselor.
A man with neat black hair.
His looks were not bad.
“Ahem.”
His manners, though, might be called frivolous.
Not vulgar, but he gave the impression of someone who had never really been taught.
And yet, when giving counsel, he would speak with a grace that made one feel almost distant.
“Ahem.”
Yes. During counseling, it felt as though he became a different person.
The way he listened warmly.
The fervor conveyed through his fingertips.
That strange feeling of wanting to care for him, yet also wanting to rely on him…
“Ahem.”
“Hm? Helen, what are you thinking about?”
“Nothing, my lady.”
Thinking, upon reflection, that he was a surprisingly good man—
and because of that, Helen climbed into the carriage, sorting out the regret that lingered in her heart.
***
Perhaps she had been lost in thought for a moment; Helen’s eyes had been directed into empty air.
Before I knew it, that gaze had returned to me.
She was someone who had personally seen Chloe acting like a girl in love.
Perhaps that was why her standards were high.
“You may use more proactive expressions toward a woman.”
Helen spoke calmly.
“Something like, ‘I want to hold you right this instant.’”
“Th-that’s a bit…”
“Then shall we try writing that she has become the star of your heart?”
Couldn’t you just write it for me instead?
…was not something I could say, so I picked up the pen in a state of exhaustion.
One cringeworthy sentence became two.
My fingers trembled with every line I wrote.
Inside, I was screaming without pause, but—
to pass Helen’s expressionless censorship, I had no choice.
At last.
“…It’s finished.”
I folded the letter.
Utterly drained.
Three counseling sessions would have been better than this.
When I handed over the folded letter, Helen tucked it into her breast with formal courtesy.
“I will be sure to deliver it.”
I let out a sigh of relief.
It was finally over.
The letter was done, and this torturous time was done too.
Once this person left, I could collapse onto my bed and rest without thinking about anything.
But.
Helen did not stand up.
With the letter tucked away.
Still seated on the sofa.
Her gaze fixed steadily on me, waiting.
“Um.”
“Yes.”
“Aren’t you going to deliver it?”
“?”
Helen tilted her head.
With an expression that suggested I had said something strange.
“I do not understand what you mean.”
And then Helen spoke as though it were only natural.
“I need to receive counseling as well.”
Ah.
So you were getting one after all.