22.
“Why don’t you go on? About our family.”
Clatter—
Chloe’s teacup trembled violently.
Barbarians.
Lacking refinement.
Not even knowing the etiquette of giving gifts.
As if recalling the words she had just spat out, Chloe’s eyes rolled wildly.
At last, she managed to open her mouth.
“Oh, my…?”
Awkwardly, yet with desperate effort, Chloe smiled with her eyes.
“I was just now… speaking about a collateral family in the North, wasn’t I?”
“……What?”
“After all, the Sinclair main house is the greatest noble family in the Empire.”
Wow.
To think she could change her stance that quickly.
While I was inwardly admiring her, Chloe continued.
“How could the family of someone as kind and wonderful as you, Teacher, possibly lack manners? Ha, haha….”
After that, she practically poured out words.
How an empress from some dynasty had been from the Sinclair family.
How they had maintained the Empire’s peace through exchanges with the peoples of the North.
Family history even I didn’t know.
Did one have to memorize things like this to be well-versed in high society?
It felt like people lived in an awfully exhausting world.
Veronica gave a hollow laugh, as if dumbfounded by Chloe’s behavior.
“Look at you trying to change your words now. How ugly.”
“Ugly, you say…. I’m merely relieved the misunderstanding has been cleared up.”
Then Chloe looked at me.
Right?
Yes?
It was a misunderstanding, wasn’t it?
Her gaze was so desperate it seemed to be saying all of that.
I felt sorry for her, so I went along with it.
“I’m truly glad the misunderstanding has been cleared up.”
“Right!”
At those words, this time Veronica looked back and forth between Chloe and me.
Her expression was displeased.
She immediately turned toward the door.
“Well, fine. Isaac, wear it from now on. It seems there are many people who don’t know who you are.”
Apparently satisfied in her own way, she left with light steps.
Watching her, I was left speechless.
Hadn’t you played a part in getting me kicked out of the family?
On top of that, you were just caught doing something strange to my pillow.
Why is that person walking out like she won?
While I resolved to set her straight someday,
Veronica had already disappeared beyond the door.
A short while later.
Chloe, who had been watching her go, approached with an awkward smile.
“Teacher…?”
“Yes.”
“…Why didn’t you tell me sooner?”
There was a faint resentment in her voice.
Perhaps because of how humiliating the situation just now had been, there were even a few tears gathering at the corners of her eyes.
“Uh, well… I didn’t really have the chance to mention it.”
“When I was slandering your family, you must have been laughing at me inwardly.”
“Pardon?”
“Chloe Levantia, how dare you insult the Sinclair family. You rude thing. You must have thought that.”
I absolutely did not.
I’d just stayed quiet because, having been kicked out, it felt awkward to bring up the family name.
Of course, I couldn’t say that as it was.
For now, I had to reassure her first.
“Not at all. Why would I laugh at you, Lady Chloe?”
“But….”
“Even if everyone in the world thought that way, at least I did not.”
After hearing my answer, Chloe’s expression softened a little.
A short but deep sigh of relief.
This was probably what she had wanted to hear.
I decided to add a bit more.
“To begin with, carelessly flaunting my family name isn’t to my taste.”
“…….”
“This is a counseling office where people come to share their worries, not a place I made to elevate myself.”
For a while, Chloe stared at my face without saying a word.
Her eyes looked as though she was carefully thinking something over.
Then she picked up the bracelet lying on the table and fastened it around my wrist.
“You have to wear it from now on, all right? Understand?”
When I nodded, only then did Chloe head toward the door.
Just before placing her hand on the handle,
she looked back and said,
“You were hiding your status and saving commoners in a back alley like this.”
“Pardon?”
“Because it was the right thing to do. That’s why you did it.”
Wait a second.
How did you arrive at that conclusion?
As I stood there blankly, she continued with an expression of self-conviction.
“I didn’t even understand your profound intentions, Teacher… and spoke so carelessly.”
No.
My intentions weren’t quite that grand.
While I was wondering how I should correct her, Chloe bowed deeply.
“As expected, Teacher, you are a far greater person than I thought.”
Jingle—
With those words, she left the counseling office.
Left alone, I scratched my head.
‘Well, I suppose there’s no problem.’
No matter what she misunderstood, the facts didn’t change.
In the end, I was merely the fourth son of a ducal house who had been exiled.
Judging from Veronica’s words, my exile might be revoked, or it might not, but….
More importantly, wait.
She left so naturally that I missed it again.
Why did neither of them pay the counseling fee this time?
When did I ever agree to settle it with a gift?
…Thinking that I would absolutely collect it next time, I ended the day.
***
The next morning.
The person standing in front of the mirror felt a little unfamiliar.
The ebony suit Veronica had given me.
The crimson symbol of Sinclair embroidered on the chest shone.
Her claim that it had been altered to fit my physique hadn’t been empty words; it fit me perfectly.
If I didn’t wear it, Veronica would probably say something.
And once I actually put it on, it looked rather impressive, so I decided to wear it from now on.
I went down to the first floor and opened the door.
As expected, there was a line today as well.
Several maids.
And various noble young ladies.
But the moment they saw me, the atmosphere of the line changed completely.
“T-Teacher…!?”
Standing at the front was Marie.
I could see the cookie box in her hands trembling.
Her eyes had gone round, her mouth half open as she cried out,
“Today, you really look like a noble young master!”
That would be because I am a noble.
But since I couldn’t just suddenly reveal that, I smiled as usual.
The counseling that began after that
had nothing particularly noteworthy.
It was just a little burdensome how Marie approached me with even more sparkling eyes than before.
You’re too close, Marie.
Your chest is touching me.
After sending Marie off,
the next guest was Lady Fleur, the viscount’s daughter.
As always, she walked in with her fan covering her mouth and a prim expression on her face.
Then, upon seeing the crest on my chest, she sharply drew in a breath.
“T-That outfit…… Could it be from the Duke of Sinclair’s family…?”
“Ah, my older sister told me to wear it.”
“Your older sister!?”
Lady Fleur’s face instantly turned pale.
She was probably remembering it.
All the outrageous behavior she had shown at first, thinking I was a commoner from a back alley.
She covered her face with her fan, but the hand holding it was trembling.
“Ha, haha… No wonder you seemed so refined….”
Flattery subtly slipped in.
After that, instead of counseling, it became more like a background investigation.
“As far as I know, the youngest of the Duke of Sinclair’s family….”
“I heard he became independent, so perhaps….”
“There will soon be a ball, so if it would be all right with you….”
If I kept responding, there would be no end to it.
I cut her off at an appropriate point.
“I’m just a counselor.”
“Ah, ahaha… Of course.”
To think a single set of clothes could have this effect.
As for the maids, perhaps because they couldn’t distinguish my exact status from the crest alone, they treated me much the same as usual.
Only the admiring looks in their eyes had grown even stronger.
But the noble young ladies were different.
They began saying things that were practically flattery.
Some even asked about my schedule for debuting in high society.
I had no lingering attachment to my family.
Still, if the halo was this useful, perhaps borrowing it for a little while wouldn’t be so bad….
“That’s what I ended up thinking.”
***
Several days later.
I opened the door to begin business.
But something was strange.
The alley was far too quiet.
It wasn’t that there were no people.
The young ladies, the maids, they were all still there.
It was just that none of them could open their mouths, and they were all pressed close to the walls with their heads lowered.
‘What is this atmosphere?’
The mood was somehow solemn, so I looked more closely and saw a suspicious group approaching from the far end of the alley.
People wearing armor that resembled nun’s habits.
And in the middle of them, there was one woman dressed in an actual nun’s habit.
She slowly walked this way.
A dark religious habit.
A thick leather belt cinched tightly around her waist.
Silver chains hanging down below it.
She looked like the very symbol of asceticism, without the slightest disarray.
However.
‘Just because the clothes are like that doesn’t mean the person looks that way.’
Even though her nun’s habit was fastened all the way up to her neck, it didn’t hide anything at all.
Her figure was the kind that forcibly drew the eye.
Was this the clothes’ fault, or the person’s?
While I was glancing over and thinking that, she had already arrived in front of me.
Beneath eyes slightly lowered, a gentle voice flowed out.
“Would this be Isaac Sinclair’s Psychological Counseling Office?”
“That’s correct.”
I still hadn’t changed the signboard.
Yet this person I had never seen before knew even my family name accurately.
“I’m glad I found the right place.”
After saying that, she turned around and looked over the people behind her.
Then, very calmly, she asked,
“Where should I stand in line?”
I shifted my gaze.
Most of the crowd in the alley had vanished, and all that remained were a few maids with their heads bowed as if in prayer.
…Looks like all today’s customers have flown away.
In that case, I couldn’t send this person back.
I had a business to run, after all.
“It doesn’t seem there is a line. Please come in.”
“Then excuse me.”
The knights who had followed her surrounded the outside of the counseling office as if standing guard.
She entered.
Before taking a seat, she swept her gaze around once.
The narrow counseling office.
Two worn sofas and one table.
It was an interior anyone would call shabby, but she sat without saying a word.
In the midst of it, she saw the lapis lazuli bracelet on my wrist and smiled lightly.
Then, with a reverent smile, she introduced herself.
“Serena Justina Armenis.”
Then she quietly added,
“The fifteenth Listener, who serves the word of the Lord.”
Listener.
It was a title I had never heard before.
But it was surely a position that held some meaning.
Otherwise, there would be no reason for people to tremble like that.
“I am Isaac Sinclair.”
She seemed to know already, and there was no longer any reason to hide it, so I gave my surname as well.
After we had introduced ourselves, I thought,
For now, it should be fine to assume she came for counseling, right?
At a glance, she was clearly no ordinary person.
But once she had entered this place, a guest was a guest.
In that case, I had to say it.
That line I hadn’t used in a while.
“First, please tell me. What is troubling you?”
At my words, she briefly closed and opened her eyes.
A faint fatigue showed within her reverent gaze.
“It is my calling to convey the word of the Lord.”
She continued calmly.
“But from time to time, I feel that there are places my words cannot reach.”
“Is that so?”
“Even if I listen to thousands of voices, there is no one who listens to mine. Even if I offer tens of thousands of words of comfort, what returns to me is only another lament.”
Then, clasping her hands as if in prayer, she spoke to me.
“If you’re a counselor, surely you understand, don’t you?”
No.
I don’t, actually.
I couldn’t exactly say that, so I nodded for the time being.
At the same time, I studied her carefully.
Her hands, neatly folded.
Not the slightest tremor in them.
Her breathing was steady, and her gaze did not waver.
And that gaze was directed solely at me.
…It was burdensome.
‘I’ve never met someone this composed before.’
Chloe and Helen had been fairly calm during their first counseling sessions, too.
But as the conversation went on, I could feel them trembling to some degree.
Naturally so, since they were in the middle of talking about their troubles.
But this woman named Serena had none of that.
As if she had sat in this kind of place countless times before.
Ah.
Then perhaps that was what she meant?
“When you listen to other people’s stories for a long time, fatigue is bound to build up.”
I offered a suitable response.
“Because the one listening ultimately has to endure that much pain as well.”
“You understand quite well.”
Serena smiled faintly.
This was my chance.
I naturally activated my ability.
[Perk: Hypnosis has been activated.]
In a few seconds, she would fall asleep.
As always.
…Except.
“When that happens, impious thoughts sometimes seep into one’s heart.”
Serena continued in a peaceful voice.
“Thoughts like, perhaps my words have no meaning at all.”
“…Huh?”
“Counselor, have you ever felt that way?”
What is this?
The person whose eyes should have been closing was far too fine.
No, she wasn’t merely fine.
She seemed even clearer than before.
Without blinking once.
She was continuing to speak in an exceedingly clear voice.
At that moment.
A familiar translucent window appeared before my flustered eyes.
Along with an unfamiliar message.
[※ Sacred protection detected. Hypnosis will be suspended.]
Sacred protection.
Suspended.
A notification I had never seen once since obtaining this perk.
Maids, noble young ladies, even the eldest daughter of a ducal house—none of them had lasted more than a few seconds.
Yet this woman was looking at me as if nothing had happened, wearing a merciful smile.
Serena Justina Armenis.
The Fifteenth Listener who upholds the words of the Lord.
I didn’t know what it was.
But that quiet smile sent a chill down my spine.