25.
With Serena coming to the counseling office every single day, this sort of thing naturally began to happen.
“Looks like business has dried up again today.”
I still didn’t know what the title of Saintess meant in this world.
But the result was clear.
When she came, the clients disappeared.
It wasn’t as if there were no nobles or maids loitering near the entrance, but once they saw the knights lined up in front of the shop, most of them simply walked right past.
Wait. Maybe Serena wasn’t the problem—maybe it was those knights?
In any case.
“I’ll have to tell her separately.”
No matter who the problem was, the situation was the same.
No clients were coming in.
And if she was so oblivious she didn’t even realize this might be her fault, I had no choice but to tell her directly.
Even I was bewildered; in all my life, I’d never met someone that lacking in tact.
“……So, going forward, I’d appreciate your cooperation.”
“…Ah.”
It was a peaceful morning.
Serena, dressed in her nun’s habit and chatting about simple day-to-day matters, looked startled.
Her expression became deeply apologetic.
She hurriedly lowered her head and rose from her seat.
Clink—
Leaving the familiar two coins on the table.
Seeing her like that did make me feel rather guilty.
After all, I had essentially made a client feel unwelcome.
But it was frustrating on my end too.
I was trying to save money to move the shop, yet ever since Serena started visiting, I’d barely been scraping by on living expenses.
Still, now that I’d made it clear, surely she wouldn’t drag the knight order here like before.
“Maybe clients will come again next time.”
…There was a time when I thought that.
***
The next morning.
Full of expectation, I opened the door.
“…….”
“…….”
Standing before the door was a female knight with sharp eyes.
She wore a curious outfit, as if armor had been fitted beneath her nun’s habit.
Behind her stretched a long line of female knights.
As I hesitated, the female knight at the front opened her mouth.
“I heard you choose three people from the line.”
“…….”
“Choose, if you would.”
“Um, by any chance, Lady Serena is…”
“She said she felt too apologetic and would be absent for several days.”
Then she sent me a piercing glare.
How dare you make the Saintess feel unwelcome?
She didn’t say it out loud, but her eyes said exactly that.
Just in case, I looked past the line.
To see if there were any other clients.
There weren’t any at all.
They had all fled under the pressure of the intimidating female knights.
‘Haah…….’
Swallowing a sigh inwardly, I chose three at random, starting with the female knight at the very front.
They were all dressed the same, so I couldn’t tell what difference it made anyway.
“Please come in.”
And so began my counseling session with the people trying to run my shop into the ground.
“What troubles do you have?”
“Troubles, you say.”
She rested her chin on her hand.
“None in particular.”
Then why did you come?
Barely managing to hold those words back, I smiled.
“Then shall we rest for a moment and have a chat? I’m only introducing myself now, but I’m Isaac, the counselor.”
“Affiliated with the Church of Saint Justitia. Heretic—”
She stopped mid-sentence and cleared her throat briefly.
“—Captain of the Lily Knight Order, Agnes Valentia.”
And with that, she finished introducing herself.
…Did she just almost say something else?
Even while I pondered that, she showed no sign of speaking first.
As if she had never been interested in counseling from the start.
Then why did you really come…!
Suppressing that thought, I studied her.
Agnes was looking around the counseling office as if her purpose was not counseling, but investigation.
She seemed indifferent to the old desk and sofa.
Tilted her head at the expensive teacup that looked out of place.
Paused briefly at the heart-patterned cushion.
“You keep… quite the shameless object here.”
“It was a gift….”
I had no idea why that was supposed to be shameless.
In any case, if she had no intention of talking, I had one method of my own.
Something I hadn’t used in a while.
Hypnosis.
“Um, Lady Agnes?”
“Yes.”
I casually called out to her and prepared myself.
I was personally curious.
Would hypnosis work on these knights too?
It hadn’t worked on Serena, but Serena was the Saintess.
Whatever kind of knight order these people were, there had to be a difference between a Saintess and a knight.
“Did you have something to say?”
Looking at her as she spoke bluntly, I beamed.
Well, I’d only know once I tried.
[Perk: Hypnosis has activated.]
A familiar message.
I waited for a moment.
Agnes’s gaze gradually grew hazy.
Then, with no blocking message appearing, she fell into the same state as everyone else.
Snore—
Phew, thank goodness.
I’d been a little anxious.
I didn’t know what holy protection was, but if it hadn’t worked on her either, I would’ve been in serious trouble.
Hypnosis worked on most people.
Except the Saintess.
Confirming that fact once more, I walked around behind Agnes.
I kneaded her shoulders.
Pressed firmly into her neck.
It had been a while since I’d given a massage.
“Ngh…….”
I sensed something unusual.
Don’t tell me this woman is the same type too.
“Haahng…….”
The type like Fleur, who let out moans even while asleep.
This one was quite the talent as well.
I thoroughly massaged her body, then withdrew my hands when the time was right.
I returned to the opposite seat and sat down.
Agnes slowly woke from sleep.
With her head lowered, only her eyes flashed.
After scanning her surroundings, she immediately lifted her head and stared straight at me.
Her gaze was sharp.
Like a beast that had sensed something.
“Um, er… is something the matter…?”
Originally, I’d been thinking of guiding the conclusion toward something like, “Please tell the Saintess to come in moderation from now on.”
But flustered by her icy glare, I ended up saying only that instead.
Agnes looked at me for a moment, then leaned back against the sofa.
“……No.”
She slowly rolled her neck and shoulders.
It seemed she could feel for herself that her stiff muscles had loosened.
“You are…… quite good with words.”
“You flatter me.”
She had only been asleep for fifteen minutes, yet she remembered it as if we had conversed.
As expected, I had no way of knowing what I’d supposedly said in her imagination, so I let it pass.
As Agnes left the counseling office, she looked at the note on the wall listing the counseling fee.
“As I heard, you live in honorable poverty.”
Tap, tap.
Two copper coins.
“…….”
In the end, nothing changed just because a knight had come instead of the Saintess.
***
After that, the knight order lined up every single day.
As if it were their duty.
And the one I always saw at the front was Agnes.
“You’ve come again today.”
“I heard you would choose us if we stood in line.”
At first, that was all.
When I asked what troubled her, she would say, “Nothing.”
When I hypnotized her, she would fall asleep just like that.
When I gave her a massage, she would let out moans.
When she woke up, she would say, “You are good with words.”
Then she would leave two coins behind and go.
This repeated every single day.
But after a few days, things began to change little by little.
“That teacup.”
“Yes?”
“It seems to be quite a fine item. From whom did you receive it?”
She spoke first.
The fact that someone who had only looked around was now asking about objects meant, at the very least, that she had grown accustomed to this space.
“A regular client gave it to me.”
“……A regular.”
Agnes’s gaze shifted from the teacup to me.
Her eyes looked as though she wanted to ask something, but didn’t.
Then she closed her mouth and looked away.
In this way, small bits of casual conversation began to increase one by one.
They were too trivial to be called worries, and too brief to be called conversations.
But the fact that Agnes brought them up at all was different from the beginning.
So much so that her first day’s “None in particular” now seemed absurd.
“Counseling is… a fairly interesting thing.”
“You find it interesting?”
“At least more than holding a sword.”
Then she turned her gaze slightly away.
And quietly added one more sentence.
“Though perhaps… that is because it is you, Counselor.”
I didn’t know what she believed I had said, but at the very least, in her imagination, I seemed to be a rather decent person.
As proof of that—
“Please accept this.”
One day, after the counseling session ended, Agnes placed something on the table.
When I looked, it was a knotted ornament tightly woven from leather cords.
It seemed like something meant to be attached to a sword.
“I make them when I have nothing to do during encampments.”
Her face was expressionless as she spoke.
But the motion with which she set it down was stiff.
Her gaze was not on the knot on the table either, but directed toward the window.
She probably just wasn’t used to giving things like this to others.
“It should prove useful if you attach it to your sword.”
And then she slipped out.
Along with leaving two coins behind.
“…….”
I was grateful.
I was, but.
It was completely useless to me.
I didn’t use a sword.
***
I looked out the window.
Today as well, the knight order was lined up in the alley.
There were no other clients.
Which meant today’s projected income would be six coins.
‘This really isn’t right.’
Forget moving the shop; even food expenses were becoming precarious.
Who would have thought that making Serena feel unwelcome would lead to this?
I thought that if I told her directly, the problem would be solved.
Who could have known that the knight order would fill the space left by Serena?
This was an emergency.
So I decided to use my last resort.
A letter I had never sent first before—at last, I would send one first.
First, Chloe.
Since it was my first time writing a letter without Helen, my head went blank.
What should I write?
Should I write something like, “I miss you”?
……Holding the pen, I stared up at the ceiling.
Words Chloe would like.
Words that would make Chloe come running once she read them.
Something came to mind, but my hand wouldn’t move.
‘Ah, whatever. I’ll just write it.’
[To Miss Chloe]
These days, I find myself missing the tea you brewed for me.
The front of the counseling office has been rather quiet lately.
On days like these, I think it would be nice if you came by.
From your Isaac.
By the time I finished writing, my ears felt hot.
As I wrote, it felt like my true feelings had slipped in—though perhaps they hadn’t.
In any case, I really hadn’t sent letters often enough, so this much should be fine.
Next was Veronica.
This one was simple.
[To Veronica]
If you have time, come by the counseling office.
Isaac.
I put down the pen.
Was that too short?
I picked up the pen again.
P.S. I called Chloe too.
Good.
With this, she would definitely come.
I should settle her overdue counseling fees too.
But wait.
If everyone came, would that mean Chloe, Veronica, the knight order, and even Serena would all be out front?
Hmm.
Was I thinking too lightly of this?
‘Surely nothing much will happen from letters like this.’
All I wanted were clients.
Clients who paid properly.