23.
[※ Sacred protection detected. Suspending hypnosis.]
It was a message I had never seen before.
Until now, once hypnosis activated, no one had been able to resist it.
But for the first time, someone had appeared on whom it would not activate at all.
A reverent smile.
An unwavering gaze.
Suppressing the chill running down my spine, I forced my expression under control.
‘……Stay calm.’
I was flustered.
But I couldn’t let it show.
From her point of view, I might simply look like some strange man getting shaken all by himself.
“Counselor, have you ever felt that way yourself?”
First, I had to answer the question she had just asked.
Normally, this was the point where I would have glossed it over with hypnosis….
‘What the hell am I supposed to say?’
When I thought about it, this was actually normal.
Counseling was supposed to be done through words, after all.
Everything I’d done until now had essentially been a scam.
The problem was, did I have a way with words?
It wasn’t as if I had none at all, but honestly, I was uneasy.
There was a clear difference between talking after gaining a certain amount of goodwill through hypnosis and starting from scratch.
But I couldn’t just send this woman away, either.
All of today’s customers had already been blown away.
Serena Justina Somethingnis.
I didn’t know exactly who this woman with the absurdly long name was.
But if she had even brought a knight along as an escort, she couldn’t be of ordinary status.
Maybe I could make a killing this time.
‘And it’s not as if I have no methods at all.’
The psychology class I’d once taken as a liberal arts course.
It hadn’t been fun, but there had been some plausible-sounding ideas.
The Barnum effect.
The phenomenon where, if you say something that applies to anyone, they believe it is about them.
I’d learned that it was a trick used by swindlers, but there was no reason a counselor couldn’t use it too, was there?
Everything depended on how you used it.
Having finished thinking, I leaned back in my chair and opened my mouth, pretending to be as composed as possible.
“Well. When one sits in a place where one listens to others’ stories, it is only natural to occasionally fall into such emptiness.”
First, offer some plausible sympathy.
“But what matters right now is likely not my story.”
Then naturally shift the topic.
“Lady Serena.”
“Yes.”
“Outwardly, you are always composed, but inwardly, do you not sometimes feel anxious?”
Serena blinked lightly.
“To some extent… I suppose.”
A lukewarm answer.
But she did not deny it.
I could take it that she had bitten the bait, at least.
“There must also be moments when you cannot easily trust others, and so you cannot reveal what is truly in your heart.”
Serena’s shoulders twitched slightly.
“You have sharp eyes, Counselor.”
Was it… working?
This woman’s reactions were so calm that I couldn’t tell properly.
She merely smiled serenely.
Politely, yet somehow keeping her distance.
As if she had already heard such words countless times.
‘This won’t do.’
I needed to go in a little more specifically.
Come to think of it, she had called herself a “Listener.”
A role that listened.
Of course, it probably wasn’t meant in only that literal sense.
If it were, there would be no reason for an escort knight to exist, nor for the alley to be emptied.
In any case, what was clear was that this person was no ordinary individual.
‘Then the opening to dig into is obvious.’
After calculating inwardly, I opened my mouth.
“Lady Serena.”
“Yes.”
“When one spends a long time in a position where one listens to the worries of others.”
I adjusted my posture and continued speaking.
“There must have been nowhere for you to speak of your own story.”
Serena’s fingers fidgeted on her knees.
A reaction clearly different from before.
“Even as you offered comfort, have you not sometimes had such thoughts?”
“…….”
“They will come again tomorrow with the same worries. So what, in the end, is the work I am doing?”
Serena’s breathing grew heavier.
If she was in a position where she listened to others, I guessed she must have felt such doubt at least once, so I threw the words out there.
“……That is true.”
For the first time, her answer came a beat late.
“And one more thing.”
I looked straight into her eyes and said,
“The Lady Serena that others see and the self that Lady Serena knows are likely quite different.”
This time, her gaze wavered.
The cross at her chest swayed faintly with her breath.
Her breathing had grown a little deeper than before.
It had merely been a shallow inference that someone who only listened to others’ troubles would have a gap between their outside and inside.
But Serena said nothing for a long while.
It was time to drive in the final wedge.
“Sometimes, you must imagine this as well.”
“……?”
“Yourself standing somewhere else, in a place other than where you are now.”
Serena’s lips moved.
A tiny motion, as though she had been about to say something and swallowed it back.
“……Counselor.”
“Yes.”
“That is.”
Her words trailed off.
For the first time.
This woman’s words hung in the air without finding an end.
After a moment, Serena let out a small breath.
She lowered her prayer-clasped hands and quietly leaned back against the sofa.
Her once-straight posture had loosened into something much more comfortable.
“This is the first time. Hearing something like this.”
What remained in place of reverence was simply the relaxed expression of a single person.
“To think you could look this deeply into me when we have only just met.”
“To some extent, such things are bound to show. Is that not true for you as well, Lady Serena?”
“Haa…. Lady Levantia did not mention you for nothing.”
She knows Chloe?
It would be a bit awkward to ask, so it was better to let it pass for now.
In any case, from that conversation onward, Serena began speaking with a much more relaxed attitude.
From deep worries to trivial ones, often adding the phrase, “This is the first time I’ve said something like this.”
I served as her conversation partner for quite some time,
then cut the conversation off at a suitable point.
“I think this will be enough for today.”
Serena slowly rose from her seat.
Smoothing the wrinkled fabric of her habit with her hand, she asked,
“That was a type of conversation I’ve never tried before.”
I wasn’t sure exactly what she meant, but judging from her expression, it didn’t seem bad.
Then it probably meant she was fairly satisfied with the counseling, right?
Of course, calling it proper counseling was a little questionable.
As Serena headed toward the door, she noticed the consultation fee notice written in the corner of the wall.
My small handwriting.
[Consultation Fee: 2 coins]
Of course, no one had ever paid only exactly that much and left, but the set consultation fee itself was roughly that.
Seeing it, Serena tilted her head slightly, then soon smiled benevolently.
“How austere.”
Was poverty a virtue in religion here too?
Then it must be a compliment.
Serena laughed softly and placed coins on the table.
Clink, clink.
“…….”
Then, wearing a reverent smile, she left through the door.
Through the window, I could see her moving away with the knights.
With blank eyes, I looked down at the table.
Two copper coins.
“……….”
For the first time, I had received the exact listed price.
Even Mari had paid three coins, at least.
Tch.
It seemed the church in this town was terribly stingy.
***
The sunset was dyeing the inside of the carriage red.
Leaning against the swaying seat, I quietly gazed at the scenery outside the window.
The narrow road of the back alley became a broad avenue.
At its end, I could see the cathedral spire.
Naturally, memories of the day of my investiture came to mind.
‘Serena Justina Armenis.’
‘Yes.’
‘Become the Lord’s ear.’
‘Yes.’
‘Fifteenth Listener. At the end of confession, there shall be rest.’
At that time, I had been filled with glory.
The calling bestowed by the Lord.
I had sworn that I would gladly bear its weight.
And then, the days that followed.
Listening to the confessions of believers.
Listening to the petitions of nobles.
Listening to the reports of the knightly order.
A life spent listening to others all day long.
That was the place the Lord had granted me.
Thousands of times, I told them.
That everything would be all right.
Tens of thousands of times, I prayed.
That the Lord’s blessing would dwell with them.
I had always treated them with sincerity.
Yet there was no one to hear my confession.
As though there were no one in this land who believed that even a noble saintess could have anguish.
And yet today, for the first time, I was asked a question.
‘What worries do you have?’
Worries.
That word quietly struck a corner of my heart that I had tried not to look into.
At first, they were merely ordinary words.
That while I was restrained on the outside, I was anxious within.
That I could not easily trust others.
To someone like me, who had heard countless confessions, words of that level could not possibly reach deeply.
But that person’s next words were different.
‘There must have been nowhere for you to speak of your own story.’
A corner of my chest went cold.
‘This person will come again tomorrow with the same worries. So what, in the end, is the work I am doing?’
My heart seemed to stop for a moment.
It was something I had never once spoken aloud.
An emotion I had believed impossible to explain in words.
Whether the work I did truly had meaning.
He brought out that doubt before I did.
‘The Lady Serena that others see and the self that Lady Serena knows are likely quite different.’
Saintess Serena.
The things hidden beneath a reverent smile.
He had pointed them out.
‘Yourself standing somewhere else, in a place other than where you are now.’
That was an impious thought.
But I could not bring myself to say that I had never imagined such a thing.
Perhaps I should thank the Lord.
For forgiving an impious person like me and allowing such a meeting.
‘Lady Serena.’
Yes.
That was what he called me.
There was no way he did not know what the Listener meant.
Then it meant he had called me that despite knowing.
Because he wished to treat me as a person.
The carriage stopped.
Stained glass stretched in a long line beneath the spire.
It was the cathedral.
The carriage door opened.
The sister-knight stood guard with a solemn expression.
I wondered if there was any need to be so vigilant even inside the cathedral, but that too was her duty, so I had to respect it.
I slowly stepped down from the carriage and headed for the cathedral entrance.
The sister-knight fell in step beside me.
“Saintess. How was the counseling?”
“It was not bad.”
The sister-knight matched her steps to mine.
After glancing around once and confirming that no one was present, she spoke in a low voice.
“That is not what I meant to ask.”
A cold gaze.
They were not the eyes that had been protecting me until just moments ago.
“The charge of heresy raised against Isaac Sinclair. Does the Saintess believe it to be true?”
I did not answer for a moment.
The sunset cast a long shadow beneath the cathedral spire.
The unidentified curse spreading among the nobles of the Empire.
And the rumor that someone was curing it.
Whether that was a miracle.
Or a deception only the one who had spread the curse could perform.
Determining the truth of that was my calling this time.
Without stopping my steps, I answered calmly.
“I felt no wicked energy.”
After a moment, I added one more thing.
“However, I believe I must meet him once more before I can be certain.”
The sister-knight quietly lowered her head.
If we met again, we could talk.
I would be able to hear that person’s voice once more.
……But.
If he was someone who had fabricated it all.
If he had spread the curse and then claimed to be its healer himself.
“Agnes.”
The sister-knight flinched.
“For the next visit, prepare the instruments of judgment.”
Even without an answer, I knew.
That she would surely do so.
As I entered the cathedral, I clasped my hands together.
Lord.
Please let him not be a false one.
For the Fifteenth Listener is also the Fifteenth Judge.
And before You, I do not wish to show that side of myself.