A Morning Visit to No. 13
I had planned to enjoy a leisurely soak in the hot springs that evening, but after spending all that time gently stroking and thoroughly washing Founder's long hair, both my arms were completely numb from fingertips to shoulders. Since the Team Leader had clearly only reserved two rooms on purpose, I asked one of the staff members for an extra set of bedding. Thankfully, they brought it out and led me to my room without any fuss.
The room turned out to be right next to Scarlet's—probably arranged with counseling in mind. Exhausted, I didn't even have the energy to do anything else before collapsing onto the bedding.
"...?"
The blanket I was under suddenly started to swell for some reason.
"Already trying to sleep?"
"..!!"
My heart nearly stopped when Founder suddenly poked her head out from under the blanket.
"Ah, ah..."
"Hehe, did I scare you?"
"Haa... That was straight out of a horror movie."
She rolled halfway to the side while still on top of me, using my arm as a pillow as she lay down beside me. I was just grateful she was properly dressed this time. The room was dim, with soft lighting filtering in to mimic moonlight—probably to help us forget we were underground—but her figure was still perfectly clear.
Her long black hair had somehow wrapped around the bedding I was lying on without me noticing. She had slipped under the blanket and climbed into my arms, now gazing at me with those pitch-black eyes that remained strikingly dark even in the low light. They didn't reflect anything, giving off an alien feeling, yet there was something strangely comforting about them when I looked into them for a while.
"Looks like one side came undone nicely."
"If it's Scarlet... well, yes, though it does sting a little to say it went that smoothly."
She had gained the freedom to no longer fear the Stigma's punishment. But for No. 13, there was still no sign of her collar coming off. Even though the time it took for the suggestion to break varied from person to person, only about ten days remained until the one-month deadline. And even that progress seemed to have reset, judging by how severely her anxiety symptoms had flared up again today.
It was frustrating.
"The only one left is No. 13... but we still have time."
While wearing the improved dog collar that Founder had made, the wearer couldn't properly recognize that their actions went against the commands. That was why the Stigma didn't punish unconscious goodwill or compliance. However, there was an exception: when the wearer clearly recognized that they were committing a forbidden act.
Scarlet, perhaps because of her obsession with favor, remembered the command not to show goodwill toward men more clearly than anything else. That meant she had been fully aware she was breaking the order when she asked me to hold her. And at that exact moment, the restraints came undone and the Stigma's command authority transferred to me.
Founder hadn't given a detailed explanation, but from Scarlet's single case, I could roughly guess the specific conditions. It seemed that when the wearer overcame their fear of punishment or brainwashing—learned through the Stigma—with their own will and made their own choice, and when that choice was because of me, the command authority would transfer.
"But that also means their unconscious emotions might become more honest, and feelings they've been suppressing because they weren't even allowed to hold them in their heart could explode all at once."
"Huh...?"
"In that sense, you're pretty well-suited to be the nanny who accepts all that spoiled behavior."
Spoiled behavior...? Nanny...?
Since I had been lost in thought, I didn't catch on right away, and Founder didn't bother waiting for me to understand. She simply jabbed me with an unexpectedly painful remark.
"At least you don't have those nasty thoughts like 'I'm the only one who can truly understand this person,' right?"
"Ugh..."
"With such a gloomy ability, most people would think that way. But instead, because you have this power, you try even harder to listen to the other person's voice."
"...That was a compliment, right?"
"Yeah, it was a compliment?"
I couldn't exactly agree with the "gloomy" part I'd heard from the Team Leader so often, but the idea that I wasn't special... Well, I never thought I was anything special to begin with. Even in front of the girls who liked me and whom I liked, that thought didn't really change. In the end, the only reason I could stand beside them now—different from everyone else—was because I happened to be there as their counselor when they needed one.
There were plenty of men in this world who could be gentlemanly and kind in front of such charming women. That was why I didn't get complacent and kept trying to be someone they could like. Because I could hear the voices in their hearts, I was able to honestly earn their goodwill in proportion to my efforts. In that sense, I considered this ability a blessing. This world wasn't kind enough to reward effort unconditionally, so the fact that my efforts didn't betray me was nothing short of a blessing for someone who had become a counselor.
"...Even if I'm not special, that's fine with me."
So it was okay not to be special. Honestly... if I got any greedier here, I really felt like I'd be punished. I already had four women I was in that kind of relationship with, and with Nero added to the list, that made five. I thought I was already more blessed than I deserved.
"...That's not it."
"Even if it increases more from here, it's fine...?"
"Not that."
"Ah."
Founder, who had told me not to delude myself into thinking I was special, now denied my muttering that it was fine even if I wasn't special. I wanted to hear the reason, but she seemed to be getting ready to sleep. She lowered my arm that she'd been using as a pillow and curled up comfortably while hugging it.
Maybe because it was so quiet around us, the sound of the blanket rustling seemed unusually loud. Now that I thought about it, sharing a blanket like this... I wondered if I'd already gotten used to it without realizing. More than that, though, the conversation had ended so ambiguously that it was really bothering me. There was no way I could sleep like this.
"Umm... No one starts out as a special person."
"Huh?"
Having finally found a comfortable position, Founder stopped fidgeting and hugged my arm tightly as she continued her earlier denial. I was glad I hadn't asked first—I probably would've been called an idiot again.
"But depending on how hard you try, you could become a special person in their hearts, couldn't you?"
"Ah... So that's what you meant."
"Yeah, so..."
Tap.
"You have to do your best tomorrow too, okay?"
When Founder raised her hand and poked the center of my forehead with her index finger, my eyes naturally closed as if a device's power had been turned off. It didn't feel like much time had passed before my eyes opened on their own again, and I found myself waking up early in the morning after an incredibly restful sleep that had cleared both my physical fatigue and my mind.
Founder had disappeared again at some point. Sitting alone on the bedding in a daze, I got up as if responding to the voice that still seemed to linger in my ears and folded the blanket.
'You have to do your best tomorrow too, okay?'
"Hmm..."
After tidying up the bedding and pushing it into the corner of the room, I suddenly remembered my conversation with Observer from yesterday. She had said that if I wanted to express gratitude, it shouldn't be to her but to someone else. That someone was probably Founder.
Thinking back, she always appeared by my side whenever things weren't going well. Even this time, I didn't have any clear memory of her directly reaching out to save me, so my recollection was hazy, but... definitely...
Knock knock knock.
"Ah..."
A knock interrupted my thoughts, which had been about to stretch on. And along with it came a delicious smell. Breakfast?
When I opened the door slightly, a freshly prepared meal—steaming rice and soup with steady white vapor rising from them—was sitting there alone in the hallway, with no one's shadow in sight. Not even a single footstep could be heard... The staff here were really something else.
I was about to bring the neatly prepared, appetizing breakfast into my room when my gaze landed on the diagonally opposite room across the hall—No. 13's door, where an identical meal had also been placed.
...Was she awake? She had taken a nap yesterday, so she might not have woken up early, but if I could have breakfast with her and talk a little, that would be nice. Without any particular reason to just stand there thinking, I soon found myself entering her room while carrying her meal as well.
Only after entering did I belatedly wonder if it was too presumptuous to barge into a girl's room like this. But reminding myself that this was just a counseling room helped ease my discomfort a little.
"I brought breakfast. Did you eat dinner properly yesterday?"
Still feeling a bit uneasy, I voiced my reason for coming as I entered the bedroom where she should be...
"Mmm..."
As expected, her meal remained untouched, and she was still wrapped tightly in her blanket just like yesterday. I couldn't help but let out a sigh.
Recalling how she had thrown up after I rashly tried to connect with her during our first counseling session made me hesitate again. But when I had briefly attempted a connection yesterday to calm her down, her emotions had been closer to a loss of self-esteem from powerlessness rather than the previous gloomy self-loathing, so it had been bearable.
...Above all, thanks to Founder, my mind was crystal clear right now.
Though it wasn't yet counseling time, I carefully sat in front of her at eye level. Only after her dark purple eyes slowly lifted to look at me did I attempt the connection.
"I'll be intruding for a bit again this time."