14.
After that day.
The counseling office never grew as noisy as it had before.
There was still a line.
Only, everyone stood in it quietly.
The maid at the end of the line fidgeted with her hands for no reason.
Only a few days ago, it had been chaos.
When had it changed like this?
She thought back carefully.
Come to think of it, it had not been a completely sudden change.
At first, it had been one person.
“So why must I stand in line?”
A blond young lady whose name she did not know.
While waiting, she had been irritable.
As though the very act of waiting were an insult.
Yet after being called in and then coming back out, her reaction had been entirely different.
“Surely it is only right to stand in line, is it not?”
A docile voice.
She had even bowed toward the closed door of the counseling office before leaving.
The next day had been similar.
“You mean I might not be able to go in even after standing in line? Does that make any sense?”
A silver-haired young lady who had been snapping at the front of the line.
She, too, spoke modestly after receiving counseling and coming out.
“It is for the teacher to decide whom he receives as a guest.”
And today.
The entire atmosphere had changed.
There were no young ladies stepping forward to complain as they had before.
No, to be precise, there were.
Only now, those very young ladies were personally stepping in to organize the line.
“It is a rule, so would it not be right for all of us to follow it?”
“We ought to do as the teacher says.”
The maid was staring blankly at the scene when—
Tap, tap—
Someone touched her shoulder.
When she turned around, a noble young lady wearing lace gloves stood there with a hesitant look on her face.
“…I heard one must stand in line here?”
“Yes, yes! That is correct!”
The maid hurriedly bent at the waist.
She might not be the mistress she served, but a noble was still a noble.
Whenever someone like that addressed her up close, her body would stiffen like this.
The noble young lady stood behind her.
Soon after, other noble young ladies gathered one by one behind her as well.
No one voiced a complaint.
By now, the atmosphere had shifted so that everyone accepted the need to stand in line.
Jingle—
With the familiar sound of the bell, the counseling office door opened.
The counselor looked over the front of the line.
“This lady, and this lady here.”
The two young ladies who were called looked satisfied.
The counselor’s gaze slowly moved farther back.
Then his eyes met the maid’s.
“And lastly, that person.”
The maid blinked twice.
“…M-me?”
The counselor nodded.
Then he quietly approached and spoke in a voice low enough that the others could not hear.
“You’ve been coming for several days, haven’t you? Thank you.”
Thump.
At those words, her heart gave a great leap.
What was this?
Had he been watching her all this time?
Her face grew strangely hot.
The maid quickly lowered her head.
“…N-no, not at all….”
The words barely made it out.
Both her cheeks flushed in an instant.
In the end, she entered the counseling office without raising her eyes.
Because if she lifted her face now, she felt as though everything would be revealed.
Because she felt as though this heart, pounding at that one kind remark, would be revealed in full.
***
I looked down at the line outside the window.
The orderly waiting line was quickly dispersing.
Those leaving looked disappointed.
But no one got irritated or protested as they had before.
Lady Fleur had acted as an evangelist for me.
And in between, I had deliberately taken on some troublesome customers as clients and—
“Hypnosis, click—.”
—done that to them.
Now the problem was something else….
“The maids have really decreased.”
In the past, most of the line had been made up of maids.
The regulars centered around Mari and Lise.
In truth, they had practically been the ones to build this counseling office for me.
Now, at most, one or two were mixed in among the young ladies.
The reason was obvious.
If they stood in line, there were nobles in front of them and nobles behind them.
Standing in the same line and waiting in the same position must have felt burdensome in itself.
Thinking about it, I felt a little sorry.
Lately, I had been managing things with an especially heavy focus on the nobles.
They might feel as if they were being pushed out entirely.
“Should I expand the shop someday and separate the courses?”
A counseling course.
And a massage course that only loosened up the body.
I felt like that side would run to some extent even if I hired staff for it….
I set aside my idle thoughts and opened my notebook.
Today’s clients were two young ladies and one maid.
The maid was, as expected, similar to the other maids.
Overwork, lack of sleep, muscle pain, and so on.
The problem was, as always, the young ladies.
Headaches.
Yesterday, the day before, and every single one of them without exception.
All the young ladies except Chloe had mentioned the same symptom.
“…Isn’t this a bit too many?”
No matter how I thought about it, it was strange.
The symptoms were too concentrated in one area.
It was laughable for me, who wasn’t even a doctor, to dig any deeper into it, but….
“I do feel like there’s something there.”
I closed the notebook.
I could look into this properly somehow later.
It was not something I could do right away.
…And it was not as if I was the one in pain.
***
In front of the mirror.
As the maid fixed my hair, I furrowed my brow.
A pain that felt as though it were stabbing into the inside of my head.
A sickening headache.
At first, I had thought nothing of it.
During the social season, it was common for one’s body to suffer from fatigue.
I had thought making a fuss over such a thing was something only ordinary people did.
But the pain did not disappear.
If anything, it worsened with each passing day.
In the end, I called a doctor.
Since the body of the eldest daughter of the Sinclair ducal house was more precious than anyone else’s in the world, I called the doctor with the best reputation.
But what came back was a pathetic answer.
“You are suffering from overwork.”
Overwork.
What a convenient word, indeed.
You don’t know the cause, so for now it is overwork.
Perfect for incompetent fools to hide their incompetence.
“My lady, the tea party will begin shortly….”
“As scheduled.”
I took a brief deep breath and controlled my expression.
I could no longer avoid the tea party.
If I did, rumors worse than news that I was in poor health would spread.
I had no intention of becoming prey for some worthless rumor.
The tea party venue was the same as always.
Familiar faces, familiar smiles.
As I cut through the center of them and entered, one of those waiting cautiously asked,
“Are you feeling a bit better?”
Was she from some baron’s family?
Considering there was no name worth remembering, she must be no different from someone of low birth.
“…To some degree.”
I slowly shifted my gaze.
A face barely managing to smile while pressing against her temple.
A face with eyes closed to endure the pain.
Looking at them made me feel less displeased.
Because it made me feel as though I was not the only one in pain.
But today was different.
Everyone looked comfortable.
Over natural smiles, they exchanged the hollow conversations typical of a tea party.
For a moment, my insides twisted.
Why?
Why was I the only one unchanged?
“I am relieved to see everyone’s complexion looks good.”
I lightly tossed out the words, burying the thought, Though you all acted as if you were dying before.
“Ah, are you referring to that?”
At those words, one young lady slightly raised her voice.
Sparkling eyes.
A relaxed expression, as if a bad tooth had been pulled.
How utterly hateful.
“There is a counseling office in the back alley.”
A counseling office.
That story again.
I had heard it from the maid.
I had heard it in social circles as well.
These days, it was a rumor that came up so often my ears ached from it.
“When you go there, your headache gets much better. The teach… no, the counselor said I seem to be burdening my mind too much.”
“I heard something similar. And I heard Lady Levantia goes there as well.”
“…Lady Levantia?”
At that name, strength entered the hand holding my teacup.
Of all people, that woman.
An opponent I could not carelessly disregard.
A person who always lived up to her name in society.
That was why she grated on my nerves even more.
If even that woman had moved, then this could not be dismissed as a mere baseless rumor.
“The fact that one has to stand in line is a bit much, but the effect is certain.”
The young ladies laughed lightly.
Comfortable laughter.
I could not laugh along.
Because it felt as if another nail had been driven into the inside of my temple.
Moreover.
Stand in line?
Do you people not even realize how unsightly you are?
But I had no leeway to put such words into my mouth.
This pain pressing down on my head made even keeping my eyes open an ordeal.
***
The next morning.
I put on an overcoat plainer than usual.
The carriage was not the family’s either.
A hired carriage.
It was the bare minimum measure to stop unnecessary mouths from talking.
“To think I have been made to come to a place like this.”
I frowned as I stepped down from the carriage.
A shabby alley.
Damp stone pavement.
Unkempt buildings.
It was not a place where a person should linger for long.
There was already a line stretching out in front of the rumored counseling office.
I stopped walking.
Familiar faces.
Those who had once discussed elegance in ballrooms were now waiting for their turn.
Did they have no sense of shame?
…Of course, I was not much different, given that I intended to secretly stand at the end of them.
“Oh my, it is over.”
“What a pity. Shall we come another time?”
“…They say if you leave a gift, your chances of being called increase.”
The young ladies chattered.
I kept my head lowered so I would not be discovered.
Then, when the surroundings seemed to have quieted, I raised my head, and before I knew it, the line had vanished.
…What?
Where did all the ones who had been here just now go?
I brushed it off and went forward.
Then I saw a man who had come out from inside hanging up a sign.
—Counseling is closed for today.—
My steps halted.
Closed?
When I came all the way here?
The hired carriage, the plain overcoat, the steps I had taken all the way to this unsightly alley.
All of that was to become a wasted trip because of a single wooden sign?
I wanted to argue at once.
I wanted to bring up my family’s name and crush the owner of this insignificant shop.
However.
The moment I did such a thing, the fact that I had come here would be spoken aloud.
A rumor that the eldest daughter of the Sinclair ducal house had caused a scene in front of a back-alley counseling office.
That would be more dreadful than the headache.
I clenched my teeth.
Let us go back.
Today was simply unlucky.
I could come again next time.
…Come again next time?
To a place like this?
I was disgusted with myself.
It was the moment I was about to turn around.
The man hanging up the sign entered my sight.
Black hair.
That color, not at all resembling the vivid red hair of the Sinclair family.
Just seeing it made unpleasant memories surge up.
Father’s study.
The shabby shadow standing in one corner.
The name Mother had not even wanted to put in her mouth.
…No way.
The man turned his head.
Our eyes met.
“……”
“……”
In that instant, time stopped.
A face I could never forget.
The stain that should have been erased from the family.
Isaac Sinclair.
That man, of all people, was here.