Chapter 6
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Translator: penny
Chapter: 6
Chapter Title: My Papa
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Those counselors who were far more experienced and renowned than me, having counseled Yunhwa until now.
Only after this first session ended without incident did I finally understand why they had all washed out.
'Papa is... a role only a man can fulfill.'
Cheok Yunhwa always remembered her father, who silently watched her with distant eyes, more than her mother who beat her until she was covered in blood.
He hadn't abused her directly, but he was the one who turned a blind eye to her suffering and only pitied her.
In this reversed world, men were seen as more emotionally inclusive and warm beings.
Cheok Yunhwa had probably longed for a 'papa' who surpassed the embrace of that father figure since childhood.
In any case, as her temporary 'papa,' I held her in my arms and patted her back.
The shock symptoms had already subsided, and her nervous system, rampaging from excessive stress, had calmed down as well. Yunhwa quietly fell asleep in my arms.
It was probably a relaxation response from the momentary release of her trauma.
Or... perhaps simply because it was 'papa's embrace.'
I carefully laid her on the sofa and quietly left the counseling room.
Only then did one of the Moonlight Sword House executives who had been waiting outside approach.
It was Yoo Soyun, a B-Rank Hunter and one of the executives who had accompanied her from the limousine just moments ago.
She clasped her hands over her chest as if deeply moved, her eyes sparkling, and exclaimed,
"W-Wow...!"
"...Yoo Soyun-ssi?"
"Wowww... A-Amazing! Counselor Kim Seungbin! The other counselors usually lasted five minutes at most, ten if they were lucky, before getting chased out... but you were in there for three whole hours!"
"Oh, really?"
I pulled out my phone to check the time and realized night had already fallen deep.
I must have lost track of time while focusing inside.
And at that fact, Yoo Soyun lifted her head sharply as if in awe and declared,
"You'll do the next session too, right?!"
"...I couldn't get a firm confirmation since the patient fell asleep midway, but I did make a promise, so it should be that way."
"She even slept?! The Guild Leader hasn't had a proper night's sleep since that day, always looking exhausted... This is truly a relief!"
And so, I became the only psychiatrist among the many Cheok Yunhwa had summoned who successfully booked a 'second session.'
Even on the way back after the counseling, I traveled wearing a transparency artifact bracelet for secrecy, and when I arrived home, I was left stunned by the amount paid for the first session.
An amount even specialist psychiatrists rarely saw as annual income.
To receive such compensation for just one session—it didn't feel real.
But now wasn't the time to get excited.
The patient's treatment wasn't cured yet, and as her counselor, I had to bear responsibility worthy of that reward.
More important than the reward received now was... how to 'understand and heal' Yunhwa more deeply in the next session.
As a counselor, as a mental health expert, and above all, as the 'papa' she wanted.
That dawn, I couldn't sleep, lost in such worries.
Psychiatric counseling usually spaces sessions at least three days apart.
Because the patient needs time after counseling to process the emotional aftershocks on their own and reflect on their changed mindset.
And exactly three days after the first session.
Cheok Yunhwa was finally getting a proper night's sleep for the first time since the Incheon Dungeon incident.
The nightmares that had made her wail in the darkness were gone, replaced by someone's embrace enveloping her.
A sturdy, warm body heat.
A broad back shielding her from monsters.
It was the image of papa she had longed for so desperately.
Three consecutive nights of deep sleep.
She surrendered her body to the sensation of comfort and greeted the morning.
But the moment she opened her eyes, the first thing that came to mind was... the unforgettable 'black history' from three days ago that she desperately wanted to forget.
"What the hell... did I do that day?!"
The memory still lingered in her mind.
Calling a man she'd met for the first time 'papa,' clinging to him, crying, and falling asleep.
And she was probably older than him!
As that scene resurfaced in her brain, Cheok Yunhwa's face flushed beet red, and she clutched her head.
"Ughhh... No matter how I think about it, this is not okay! P-Papa, of all things... I have to cancel the second session!"
But every time she pulled out her phone to cancel the appointment, she ended up quietly turning off the screen again.
Because she didn't want to push papa away.
Papa wasn't an unpleasant presence; he was the 'safe existence' she'd missed.
Torn between her emotions and her pride, she let out a sigh and made up her mind.
Still, she had to go out today...
So the guild members wouldn't misunderstand.
It was burdensome that rumors were spreading about the Guild Leader not leaving the counseling room for days, so she finally decided to show her face after three months.
Like a hikikomori daughter venturing out for the first time.
Yunhwa changed clothes and prepared to head to the Association's first-floor lobby.
But then.
"Y-You can't do this here! Guild Leaders...!"
"Oh? A mere low-rank Hunter blocking us three?"
"Has the Moonlight Sword House lost all sense of hierarchy from top to bottom?"
"Daring to bar the way of us esteemed leaders of the three great guilds?"
The sight that greeted her as soon as she opened the door.
This was clearly the top floor of the Association, accessible only to S-Rank Hunters.
In the middle of the lobby, three women were brawling with Moonlight Sword House guild members, grabbing hair.
They were the leaders of the other three of the four great guilds who, back when Moonlight Sword House had suddenly risen to become one of the four major guilds, had come picking fights under the pretext of hazing, calling her disrespectful, only to be thoroughly crushed and retreat.
But now, facing them again, their faces held a strange confidence.
"Oh~ Guild Leader Cheok Yunhwa. Long time no see? How have you been?"
"...You're the other guild leaders of Korea's four great guilds. As heads of organizations, shouldn't you always monitor your subordinates' movements with responsibility and make appropriate judgments... What exactly are you doing here, gathered as three?"
A twitch.
But... from what she'd heard, this woman was supposed to be in such a vegetative state that she needed counseling.
The guild leader who had spoken first faltered at Yunhwa's unexpectedly fine—no, typically sharp-tongued response and closed her mouth, stepping back.
But if they were going to back down like that, they wouldn't have come here in the first place.
Next, the guild leader who emphasized 'tradition' and had once tried to extort money from her under the guise of hazing stepped forward and demanded,
"Hmph! That's what we should be asking you, Guild Leader Cheok Yunhwa. Why did you skip last month's meeting of Korea's representative four great guilds?"
"...! R-Right! That was such an important event—why didn't you come? And this top floor... As far as I know, it's a place only for prestigious Hunters who've mentally collapsed, right?"
"No way... Is Korea's face and esteemed S-Rank Hunter Guild Leader Cheok Yunhwa really in such a fragile state?! Oh my goodness..."
At those words, even the Moonlight Sword House guild members who had been trying to eject the three guild leaders froze in surprise and halted.
And Cheok Yunhwa herself, who had just spoken, couldn't continue for a moment.
'How the hell did the information leak from where...?'
No, thinking about it, amid cycling through so many counselors, the fact that nothing had leaked until now was the real miracle.
More importantly, just how much did these women know about her?
The Moonlight Sword House guild members, unable to just watch, lunged toward the three guild leaders to protect their own.
But.
"Gale!"
"Urk...!"
"Arghhh?!"
"Everyone!"
Even if they'd all been beaten to a pulp by Yunhwa at least once, that was only because she was overwhelmingly strong.
It wasn't because these three were pushovers.
They were, after all, leaders of Korea's representative four great guilds.
Just as there's a difference in class even among A-Rank Hunters, a single gust of wind bursting from one of their fans sent all the Moonlight Sword House guild members flying back, rolling on the floor.
At the sight of her family-like comrades being tossed aside, Yunhwa ground her teeth.
And yet.
Tremble, tremble...
"Huh? What's this?"
"Guild Leader Cheok Yunhwa~ We just roughed up your kids, and you're staying silent?"
"Strange? I thought you'd kick or punch us flying like last time, but why so quiet today~?"
"...!"
Her fist... wouldn't clench.
An infuriating, tremblingly unjust situation.
She should be smashing one into those three old hags' mouths, but her body... wouldn't obey.
The moment she tried to exert force.
The past traumas she thought she'd forgotten revived like wounds torn open.
A life never once receiving love from her parents.
Regardless of her race or origins, the past where she'd crushed countless families to climb this far.
All of it clawed back to life, squeezing her guts under those women's pointing fingers.
"What are you doing right now?"
"Huh?"
"Eh?"
It was then.
"P-Pa... No, Kim Seungbin-ssi?"
That's right.
Today was exactly three days after the first session—the day of the second session.
This time, not late evening like before but around lunchtime, so Kim Seungbin had arrived at the top floor early under the pretext of being her 'attending physician.'
But the scene unfolding before his eyes was clearly abnormal: three old hags swarming a patient who wasn't fully stable yet, eyes gleaming like they'd been waiting for this moment.
As a psychiatry specialist who had even interned in a psych ward during university, he instantly grasped how malicious this situation was.
And there was no reason to be polite to such troublemakers.
Psychiatric counseling wasn't a service job.
"Have some shame, you... aunties."
"W-What...? A-Aunties...?"
"How dare a man..."
"Hey, you punk! This is why men are so ignorant! Do you even know that's a misogynistic term?!"
"...? Then what? Looking at your faces, menopause seems long past, and you couldn't have not married at that age, so should I call you 'madams'?"
Crackle.
Two words that could scratch the itch of old, ugly, barren, stinking 'holes' that couldn't bear children anymore.
Auntie.
And madam.
His intent was crystal clear, but... the provocation worked.
Veins bulged on all three guild leaders' foreheads, and finally, one grabbed the civilian by the collar and hoisted him up.
Provoking Hunters like this.
By normal standards, it was a mad act not worth risking one's life for.
But.
'My patient isn't fully recovered yet.'
If they knew that and poked anyway, no matter who they were, there was no reason for her counselor to endure it.
So he went for it first and saw.
Grab.
"Don't."
"Cheok... Cheok Yunhwa?"
"Yunhwa-ssi?"
In an instant, Yunhwa wedged between them, gripping the wrist that had seized Seungbin's collar tightly.
And then...
"Don't touch papa."
Crunch, crackle.
"Arghhh?!"
She unleashed a dangerous aura and twisted the old woman's arm at an impossible angle, crushing the bones to pulp.