5.
The consultation office, warm sunlight rippling through it in the morning.
Lady Leventia was buried deep in the sofa, dead to the world.
Snore—
Fifteen minutes of sound sleep guaranteed by the perk.
Normally, this would be the point where I hurried to loosen up her body, but—
[※ When repeatedly applied to the same target, the effects accumulate.]
“……What the hell is this?”
My eyes refused to leave the line of text I was seeing for the first time.
Nothing had been different from usual.
We’d made light conversation, I’d hypnotized her, confirmed the trigger phrase, and waited until the guest fell into a deep sleep. The same situation as any other time.
And yet it had appeared out of nowhere. An entry that had never existed until now.
“Why did it suddenly show up?”
This was the second time Chloe Leventia had visited my consultation office.
But as for the hypnosis itself, counting last time, this was already the fourth.
Numerically speaking, she had undergone it more times than any of my guests so far.
Was that why?
I carefully reread the message.
[※ When repeatedly applied to the same target, the effects accumulate.]
I still had no idea.
So what was supposed to accumulate?
The effect?
The side effects?
Or both?
“Haa…….”
As I stared blankly into the air, Lady Leventia, asleep against the sofa, let out a languid sigh.
Her face had softened slightly, all tension gone.
She was lying there defenselessly, as if urging me to hurry up and loosen her body.
I looked down at her for a moment, then quietly muttered.
“I should do what needs to be done.”
There was no point agonizing over something with no answer.
In the end, there was only one way to find out.
“Hwehee—.”
I would just have to keep massaging… no, consulting her.
***
After that day, for several days, I deliberately prioritized familiar faces.
It wasn’t as if I did anything grand.
I simply noted down in a notebook how many times each guest had been hypnotized, then after the consultation, sounded them out to see if anything felt different from usual.
“Huh? How was today’s consultation?”
When I asked, Mari blinked her round eyes and asked back.
Perhaps because we had just finished the consultation, her cheeks were flushed red.
“I’m asking whether anything felt a little different from usual.”
“Hmm, well!”
Mari opened her mouth energetically, placed a hand on her chin, and pondered for a long while before tilting her head.
“I’m not sure? Just… my shoulders don’t hurt, my head doesn’t hurt…. Umm, and also….”
“Yes, that’s enough.”
The moment I heard the familiar lines, I cut her off.
After all, Rize had given me pained testimony that if left alone, Mari could ramble on until she reached a hundred points.
Mari tilted her head, looking as if she couldn’t begin to guess the reason for my question.
“But why? D-Did I do something wrong?”
“No. I was asking as a form of self-check, to see whether the guest feels anything different from usual.”
“Aha…….”
When I gave her a suitable excuse, Mari looked strangely relieved.
I don’t know what she’d been worrying about, but well, it was probably fine.
“If you say a different feeling, what kind do you mean?”
When Helen heard my question, she calmly closed her eyes.
As I had with Mari, I gave a brief explanation, and she opened her eyes slightly. When our eyes met, she looked away and said,
“Well. I merely take your words to heart, Teacher.”
That was all she said.
“No other changes?”
“If there has been a change.”
She turned her head slightly.
The tips of her cheeks were pink.
“……I don’t believe so.”
“Whether it feels different from usual, you say……. You ask unique questions.”
After hearing my question, Lady Leventia blinked once, then leisurely crossed her legs.
“Well. If I had to name something, it would be that after the consultation, the counselor asks me whether it ‘feels different from usual’?”
“Not that.”
“Ah, then you can consider there to be nothing in particular.”
Her gaze subtly feigned innocence.
I couldn’t tell whether she truly didn’t know or was pretending not to know despite knowing.
“Truly nothing else?”
“Nothing at all.”
Judging by the way the corners of her mouth rose ever so slightly as she spoke, it did seem like she was teasing me about something, but in the end, I still couldn’t tell what she meant.
…Come to think of it, there was no way I’d get an answer just by sounding them out once or twice like this.
If the person herself couldn’t feel it, it meant nothing, and even if she knew, if she didn’t feel like saying it, I had no way to confirm it.
In the end, long-term observation was necessary.
To do that, I needed to change the way I received guests a little.
Not first come, first served, but a method where I chose appropriately among the people waiting in line.
I felt sorry for the people who had gone to the trouble of lining up, but it was an unavoidable choice for the sake of the records.
Strangely enough, though, the guests were surprisingly understanding.
No, to be precise, it was closer to them starting to act in ways meant to get themselves chosen by me.
“Teacher! These are cookies I baked last night!”
At some point, Mari made it a habit to come with her pockets stuffed full of cookies.
“They’ll spoil if left too long, so please eat them now.”
Helen started bringing a bountiful fruit basket every time.
It seemed even Lady Leventia had no choice against the method of “I’ll choose appropriately.”
“I didn’t realize you still hadn’t bought even a single cup.”
She held out a tea set that looked somehow luxurious.
I didn’t know much, but it was clearly expensive.
“It’s a cup I used myself, but if you need it.”
I wondered if a teacup kept in a silk-decorated box could really be something she had used, but—
“I’ll have to drink here as well, after all. It is no different from improving my own environment.”
…When she put it like that, I couldn’t refuse.
As she said, I hadn’t bought even a single cup until now.
***
After receiving the same faces for a few more days like that, I ended up with a fair amount of records.
I opened the notebook I had been organizing every night.
[Mari: 4th session]
[She brought cookies for me to eat, then ate them herself.]
At the time, Mari handed me the cookies and said, “I’ll just check the taste,” then started eating them instead of checking anything.
When there was only one left, she did place a cookie in my hand and tell me to eat it, but….
“Mari. Acting generous over one cookie is ugly.”
I couldn’t help but say it.
[Helen: 3rd session]
[She said they would be inconvenient to eat and prepared the fruit for me.]
At the time, when I picked up an apple, Helen suddenly took out a fruit knife and said, “If you eat it with the peel, you’ll get an upset stomach.”
The sight of her peeling the fruit with practiced skill was impressive enough, but the problem was that she held the peeled apple not toward a plate, but toward my mouth.
“Ah.”
“……Pardon?”
“Say ah.”
“I’ll eat it myself.”
Just how unreliable did I look for her to treat me like a child?
My stomach hurt just remembering it.
[Chloe Leventia: 7th session]
[When she saw me drinking water, she adjusted the position of my fingers one by one herself and lectured me on how to hold a cup.]
This was a rather fascinating experience.
At the time, she wrapped my right hand with both of hers and instructed me by moving the positions of my fingers one by one, saying, “The index finger goes here,” “The middle finger supports the cup,” and “The little finger faces inward.”
She was especially absorbed when she fixed my little finger inward.
Her expression was one that could almost be called possessed.
“……My lady?”
“Yes?”
When I called her because she was concentrating too hard, she suddenly came back to her senses.
The speed at which she let go of my hand was astonishingly fast.
She probably just got focused while teaching me.
***
Putting aside my thoughts, I closed the notebook.
This and that, all of them were only minor changes.
They weren’t enough to be called meaningful data.
Well, if there were no changes, then it meant I could keep doing things as I had been, so it wasn’t a bad thing.
Jingle—
Just then, the door opened.
“It should be my turn now, correct?”
It was Lady Leventia, who had been waiting outside for her turn.
However, she was a little different from usual.
Starting with her clothes.
Instead of her usual modest white dress, she was wearing a somewhat lighter one… a dress that exposed her shoulders.
And in her hands was a small metal box locked with a padlock.
I didn’t know what it was, but it was engraved with something like a family crest, and it absolutely did not look cheap.
“……What is that?”
“Hoho.”
A smile instead of an answer.
Her hand leisurely tapped on the box.
Tap, tap.
She didn’t answer.
She didn’t sit down either.
She simply stood still, tapping only the box.
Seeing this, even I could tell.
‘She wants me to ask more.’
She could have just said it was a gift. How troublesome.
Grumbling inwardly, I did as she wanted.
“Lady Leventia. May I ask what the box you have brought is, what might be inside it, and whether I am permitted to ask about this fact?”
“?”
For a moment, she looked flustered by my lengthy question, then raised the corners of her mouth and said,
“Are you curious? It can’t be helped, then.”
With that, she took a small key out from her bosom, and—
Click—
Unlocked the padlock.
Inside the box were tea leaves.
Dark-brown, well-dried tea leaves.
Just opening it made a subtle fragrance spread, so it was clearly high quality.
…But what kind of reaction was I supposed to show?
I looked at her.
The tip of her chin was raised.
Her eyes were wide open, as if she wouldn’t miss a single one of my reactions.
Judging by her expectant gaze, she was definitely hoping for something, but….
Honestly, I had no idea.
What reaction was I supposed to have over tea leaves?
‘But black tea is something I drank often enough from tea bags.’
Every time this happened, I felt the gap between me and the natives of this romance-fantasy world.
The value of objects, the standards of etiquette—everything was too different.
Should I just go with something safe for now?
“……They’re tea leaves.”
“They are tea leaves.”
The moment I gave a suitable answer, a crack appeared in her smile.
Her eyes seemed to say, Is that all you have to say?
But I really don’t know.
After letting out a small sigh, she took the tea leaves out of the box.
Then she brought out the tea set she had gifted me herself and began brewing tea.
Elegant hand movements.
She poured hot water, added the tea leaves, and, while waiting, shrugged her shoulders slightly.
In no time, the black tea brewed into a clear red, and its aroma filled the consultation office.
Along with black tea’s characteristic flavor, there was the faint scent of fruit.
High-quality tea leaves really did seem different.
Seeing me sniffing, she gestured for me to drink first.
When I took a sip, warmth slid down my throat and seeped inside.
‘It tastes like black tea.’
I gauged Lady Leventia’s expression.
She was drinking her tea very elegantly.
Her posture was like a perfect textbook example, even down to the angle of her little finger, as if proving there had been a reason she’d grown so heated while instructing me.
Our eyes met.
Smile.
Receiving that gaze, I took another sip.
It was warm and nice, but.
…As expected, I had no idea what I was supposed to say.
The silence stretched on.
Along with the white steam rising from the teacup, I felt an intangible pressure.
Our eyes met again.
She was smiling, but the chill in her eyes seemed to speak to me at any moment.
Now that you’ve had some, shouldn’t you have something to say?
The tea is delicious?
Your skill in pouring tea is somehow impressive?
If that would have been enough, I would have said it already.
As I pondered, I remembered something she had said before.
‘I merely glossed over it by complimenting the tea leaves or the tea set, though.’
……!
Is this it?
“The tea leaves seem to be of excellent quality.”
As I spoke, I checked her reaction.
A chilling air leaked from her deep blue eyes.
Her lips stopped above the teacup, and her eyelids slowly lowered.
As if to say, Is that all?
So that wasn’t it!
“Perhaps because they’re tea leaves Lady Levantia brought.”
A belated addition.
It was merely a difference in the subject, yet she relaxed.
I could see the tension drain from her wrist, which had stiffened along with that chilly air.
“Of course, wouldn’t you say?”
So that was it…!
“Perhaps because this is a teacup Lady Levantia brought, it tastes even better.”
“Well, naturally.”
Once I figured out the answer she wanted, everything went smoothly.
“Perhaps because Lady Levantia brewed it herself, the fragrance is even finer.”
“Hmph.”
A short laugh slipped from the tip of her nose.
Her shoulders lifted smugly, and the fingers wrapped around her teacup moved in good spirits.
Watching her, I thought.
‘I’ll have to make a note of this later.’
[Chloe Levantia: 8 sessions]
[Becomes easier when praised.]
***
Only after making it through that one grueling ordeal did the counseling begin.
Her worries had become far less substantial than before.
Today, it was about how she hadn’t liked the breakfast the maid had prepared.
……Isn’t that something she should tell Helen, not come here for?
In any case, I listened appropriately and activated my ability.
Her eyes slowly closed. By now, her body had grown accustomed to finding the softest part of the sofa.
Knead, knead.
“Huh-heh—.”
Now, just pressing her shoulders was enough to make that pathetic sound spill out. Seeing things like this, it really didn’t seem like the claim that the effects accumulated was a lie….
I decided to think about my concerns later when I wrote them down in my notebook and simply did my job.
Press, press.
“Huh-heeh—.”
***
The counseling ended.
Lady Levantia opened her eyes and stared blankly at the ceiling for a while, then soon came to her senses and straightened her clothes.
“Today wasn’t bad either.”
What kind of counseling she remembered it as still remained an unknown territory.
As she prepared to leave, she slowly looked around the counseling office.
Then she placed a metal box filled with tea leaves on a clearly visible shelf.
So it really was a gift for me.
But.
Click—
“You locked it.”
She, however, locked the padlock again and tucked the key into her bosom.
When I asked her retreating back,
“Counselor……”
She stopped.
“No, sir, do you perhaps have a hobby of drinking tea?”
“No.”
“Do you know how to brew tea?”
“No.”
“Then.”
She did not look back.
Only her head turned slightly to the side.
The side of her face came into view. A flush spread all the way to the tips of her ears. The corners of her mouth were slightly raised.
“I have no choice but to make it for you myself.”
Throughout the conversation, she did not meet my eyes even once, and left just like that with her body turned away.
Jingle—
The door closed.
Only the locked box remained.
“…….”
…Could it be that the tea leaves are too precious?
Is she worried I’ll waste expensive tea leaves by brewing them carelessly?
For someone with so much money, she’s surprisingly petty.
***
After seeing off my last guest, I tidied up the shop.
I opened my notebook and left today’s records, washed the cups, and swept up the cookie crumbs.
Then, suddenly, a thought occurred to me.
During the fifteen minutes they were hypnotized, what kind of memories remained for them?
Their bodies relaxed to the point of growing languid, so if they thought it happened through counseling alone, what on earth did they think they’d talked about with me?
“Well……”
I set down my pen.
“It’s not as if I can know.”
One of my few strengths was that I didn’t worry over things with no answer.
But still, this phrase was not something I could simply gloss over.
[※ When applied repeatedly to the same target, the effects accumulate.]
After all, the perk had never lied to me before.
In other words, it meant that all of them were currently “accumulating.”
Everything, from the very first counseling session to the experiments I was conducting to understand the meaning of that phrase.