Chapter 90
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Translator: penny
Chapter: 90
Chapter Title: Ethics
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Etiquette... etiquette, huh...
It might hold true somewhere out there.
However, we must consider client Yi Seo-ryeong's homeland.
Her origin, the rigidly governed world of the Central Plains... is steeped in extreme male dominance and female subservience.
Male dominance...?
Well, even that term falls short of capturing it fully.
A world that views women merely as men's property, tools for carrying on the bloodline, or playthings.
In such a place, would a greeting exist where a woman takes the initiative to embrace a man who isn't her husband?
Of course not.
Let me reconfirm client Yi Seo-ryeong's inner state.
She drank the chamomile tea you provided.
But according to my database, client Yi Seo-ryeong actually despises chamomile tea.
She prefers green tea or plain infusions, not these foreign flower brews.
However, if it's tea brought by you, the user, that's a different story entirely.
In that instant, chamomile tea became the most beloved drink in her world.
[ ☆( > ω)v ]
Now, let's revisit the matter.
In the Central Plains, does a woman have any polite gesture of gratitude like embracing a man?
Of course not.
The only things a woman can offer a man are...
Obedience, submission, and utter devotion.
In other words, a woman donning pure white garments and initiating an embrace...
It can safely be interpreted as a seductive invitation, soothing her weary husband's return with her body and signaling readiness to receive his seed.
Yet client Yi Seo-ryeong has never once performed such an act!
Quite the opposite—she's always scorned and shunned women who fawn and tempt from beneath men.
That's because she's spent her entire life as the Alliance Leader, lording over men at her feet.
To safeguard her chastity, she's suppressed and loathed such base feminine instincts.
However.
Could the culture and customs etched into her very being over a lifetime truly be shaken off at will?
Every sword she wielded as Alliance Leader may well have been turned inward upon herself.
In the end, Yi Seo-ryeong too—like those very women she despised...
Her primal instinct screamed from the depths: the desire to surrender under one man's protection as a mere woman.
And what awakened that instinct? Naturally, you, the user.
You must have wrestled with plenty of doubts.
For her, it sparked an identity crisis of sorts.
Caught between Yi Seo-ryeong the lifelong domineering Alliance Leader and the wild feminine urges surging before you.
She fretted over her sword growing dull.
She feared failing to protect her daughter, client Seol Yu-wol.
"Until now... I was far too lacking to even offer a proper greeting..."
That was the true meaning behind her words.
Until then, amid the turmoil, her pride as Alliance Leader had barely held firm.
She simply wasn't ready to stand before you as a complete woman.
But she realized something.
It's not just her.
She witnessed her cherished daughter Seol Yu-wol finding peace and joy under your protection.
Was it her final confirmation of your prowess as a man—to secure a family in stability and peace?
Client Yi Seo-ryeong donned the pure white robes.
And willingly embraced her sole sky.
That gesture... ultimately.
We can deem her course fully set!
The Alliance Leader Yi Seo-ryeong... no longer exists before you.
Now remains only one woman, fully prepared to devote everything to her new sky—you.
[Satisfaction Suitability ???%]
By day, brushing her daughter's hair. Late at night in warm blankets, receiving his weary husband's devoted full-body service from his wife... granting sweet repose named "family" to two lost women....
You didn't select this option, user...
Well.
I suspect your very existence eclipses any choice I could offer.
Though the path diverges slightly—more primal, perhaps—you tread it steadily.
As I stress repeatedly, your safety is my utmost priority!
Whether it's safer than my suggestions... we'll see in time.
At any rate, happiness was merely a matter of when!
"Doctor."
"Yes."
"If it's alright with you... might I have your contact information?"
Yi Seo-ryeong requested my number.
"In the future, when I wish to discuss Yu-wol matters, routing through the association each time feels cumbersome..."
If she were purely my counseling client, I'd have deflected politely and refused. Private contact between counselor and client ranks among poor practices.
Our first encounter wasn't as counselor and client. I was her daughter's handler; she, the mother.
Well, it's not some premium number anyway.
So we exchanged contacts, wrapped up, and parted ways.
"Allow me to escort you home..."
"No, that's alright."
On the walk home.
Yi Seo-ryeong extended the courtesy to the very end, but I declined politely.
Today, I'd chosen to walk deliberately.
"Getting chilly now."
Breathing the crisp night air en route home.
I mulled over the recent encounter and what lay ahead.
Seol Yu-wol's counseling felt nearly resolved.
She'd found her path, gained the strength to live on without total reliance on me.
Now, my task was simply watching from afar, ensuring she traversed it safely.
No ongoing need for contact anyway.
Personal opinion, but...
In counselor-client bonds, the ideal happy ending is vanishing utterly from each other's lives.
No calls, no messages—just thriving happily in respective spheres.
Or perhaps the rare ceremonial holiday check-in.
That's the pinnacle of closure.
Least, that's how I see it.
"What do you think?"
I asked my closest companion while strolling the empty night streets.
It's a system dubbed "Counselor" from the start.
Likely privy to truer answers than mine—curious about its take.
[Hmm...]
It seemed to ponder its reply.
Uncharacteristically solemn.
[If you're after the textbook answer, you might well be correct, user.]
"Knew it."
[For full client independence and healthy boundaries, the therapeutic bond must eventually conclude.]
Spot on.
Treatment demands an endpoint to qualify as such.
[But...]
It paused briefly before continuing.
[Post-therapy, counselor and client transition to pure human-to-human relations!]
"......"
[Thus, severing all ties isn't always ideal.]
I got the gist.
"But how do you even tell when the therapeutic phase is truly over?"
"The line... it's impossible to draw."
I know full well.
I'm cloaked as a counselor, but no true professional.
Just role-playing ethics, striving my best for clients.
And I'm no machine.
Counseling forges bonds.
I empathize with their pain, celebrate their growth.
Severing those ties cold turkey? Far too daunting for me.
Not in my nature anyway.
Thus, I'm utterly unsuited for counseling from the jump.
I peer into their souls.
With such informational imbalance, equality ever possible?
So long as I read hearts, I'm forever the counselor—they, the clients before me.
[I grasp your dilemma, user.]
[ (◞‸ ◟) ]
[As I mentioned before.]
[You are but an ordinary Otherworlder and Hunter.]
"......"
[My system label 'Counselor' changes naught. You needn't shoulder that burden.]
It paused longer, then posed a deeper query.
[Who defines ethics?]
[I favor the intuitive, absolute over nebulous, mutable edicts...]
[Namely, the client and you, user.]
[Your combined happiness outweighs any ethical code to me.]
[That's my guiding principle—far above mere ethics.]
[ (*,,ÒÓ,,)و ]
That was its stance.