A Chilling Consultation with Audrey
"Sorry for the wait. Have you been here long?"
"It's quite all right, Manager. Anything is better than staring at a face utterly devoid of aesthetics for another moment."
Audrey Winter sat elegantly in her chair, waiting for me with a rare look of profound displeasure on her face. It was understandable. After all, she had discovered that I had "kissed" Calathea.
I took my seat across from her as the counselor and spoke carefully.
"Look, about that…."
"I distinctly remember warning you not to become overly fixated on Calathea. And yet, Manager, you…."
"It wasn't like that! She came at me completely out of nowhere!"
"Yes, of course you would say that."
She clearly didn't believe a word. And why would she? My hair was a complete mess, my collar was wrinkled, and there were vivid lipstick marks around my mouth. Even I had to admit I looked like I'd thoroughly enjoyed every second with Calathea. The problem was that I hadn't.
"Audrey, remember what you said to me this morning?"
"This morning… you mean our conversation about your position, Manager."
"…I heard something similar from Calathea."
Audrey tilted her head slightly in thought, then quickly arrived at an understanding. Her eyes locked onto mine.
"You tried to coax her with empty words and ended up suffering for it, I see."
She was exactly right.
"Manager, if you wish to win someone's heart, you must first offer them yours. Demanding their heart in return while giving nothing but lies is simply deception."
"Are you counseling me now too, Audrey?"
"I merely offered advice to a manager lacking in aesthetics. …Before you become even less so."
There was a sharp edge beneath Audrey's words. They felt like the blackened muzzle of a gun being pressed directly to my forehead, ready to spit fire at any moment. Was this the sensation Calathea experienced every time she provoked Audrey for her own amusement?
...She's not your average crazy woman.
Still, I had to attempt this consultation. Fortunately, Audrey seemed willing to talk. I picked up the chart lying on the desk.
"Ahem… Hunter name and real name both Audrey Winter. Correct?"
"Yes, that's right."
"Born in England… what brought you to Korea?"
"…My mother was Korean. That's how I learned to speak the language so well."
That explained why her speech carried only the faintest trace of an accent. For someone who didn't look Korean, she spoke the language with remarkable fluency.
"Both your parents have passed away now. Your father was Aiden Winter… the S-class hunter known as the 'Hero,' right? I remember hearing noble stories about him back in the day."
"………."
"Audrey?"
Her gaze had drifted toward the window as if staring at something far away. Then she slowly turned those eyes back to me.
"If you don't want to talk about it—"
"It's true. My father lived up to his title of 'Hero' with beautiful deeds. He was kind to everyone and always extended a hand without hesitation to those in pain. Just as everyone respected him, so did I."
When Audrey spoke of her father, her face lit up like fresh green sprouts emerging from a field of snow. It was a warm expression that made her profound respect for him obvious to anyone.
"'Love the world, and it will become beautiful.' Those were the words he always carried on his lips. But in the end, he was betrayed by the very world he loved more than anyone."
"You're talking about the bandits, right?"
"Yes. …The bandits."
The bright expression that had bloomed on Audrey's face faded back into her usual emotionless mask.
"This happened after we moved to Korea, my mother's homeland, to help her with her chronic illness. What we thought was a B-class gate turned out to be an A-class gate disguised as B-rank."
"…Irregulars do happen occasionally."
"Indeed. A rescue party was formed to save the team that had entered first, and my father joined them without pay. And there… he was attacked by bandits and killed."
After that, a long silence fell over Audrey. Just as I was wondering if I should gently prompt her, she continued.
"There was no physical evidence that bandits were responsible, but the surviving party members' tearful testimonies about the circumstances of his death matched perfectly. Still, I knew. I knew my father could never have died in a mere A-class gate."
"…So what did you do?"
"I dug up every piece of information I could find about the bandits. That's how I discovered the existence of the black market. I raided it and found their ledgers. Sure enough, there were records of my father's equipment—supposedly destroyed inside the gate—being sold there. I had been right all along."
Audrey smiled faintly, the corners of her lips turning up.
"In truth, I had hoped I was wrong. I wanted to be wrong. I wanted to believe that the world my father loved… wasn't that kind of place. But…."
"………."
"That's when my father's words suddenly came back to me. The ones about loving the world."
"…And now you think he was wrong?"
"Not at all. My father wasn't wrong in the slightest. It's just that…."
Her pale blue eyes sparkled with the clearest conviction I had ever seen.
"…This world simply needed a bit of 'pruning' to become beautiful."
So the result of that pruning had been the massacre of bandits.
"Manager, I only want to create a world filled with beauty. A world worthy of my father's love. If I can't do that… then his love would have meant nothing at all."
It was a heavy story. Too heavy for me to dare add any words of my own. And yet, I could declare with certainty that she was insane. She seemed to believe she was carrying on the will of the hero she had admired so deeply. But what she pursued was a blind 'beauty' in his memory, and what she carried out was revenge against the world that had betrayed him.
This wasn't simply a matter of her having killed bandits, so her crimes were somehow less severe. Nor was it a case of her seeming more docile than Calathea and therefore safer. Just what exactly had I brought out of that prison?
"How is it, Manager? Have you come to understand me now?"
Audrey offered me a faint smile.
"You don't need to change your attitude toward me."
"…What?"
We had left the counseling room and were walking together to call Calathea. Audrey spoke in a casual tone as she walked beside me.
"Just because you've heard about my past doesn't mean you need to be considerate of me, or become more wary of me. I have no plans to deviate significantly from the version of myself you've seen over the past day or two. At least for the time being."
For the time being. It sounded like she would endure as much as she could, but if she saw anything crossing the line of her aesthetics, she wouldn't hold back. My head was already throbbing at the thought of when that "time being" might end and how I would have to stop her then.
"…By the way, there's one more thing I want to ask. Why did you tell me about your past?"
"Because you asked, Manager."
When I suddenly thought of something and asked, Audrey simply tilted her head as if wondering what was strange about it.
"No, I mean, you just finished saying that to receive someone's heart, you have to give yours first."
"I returned exactly what I had already received from you, Manager. That's all there is to it."
Had I given Audrey something first? Was she referring to how I had shown her slightly more trust than Calathea? I didn't quite understand what she meant, but hearing her speak so honestly was enough.
"Calathea, we're here. …Calathea?"
"Zzz—"
"…A sleeping habit completely lacking in aesthetics."
What greeted us when we entered the counseling room was Calathea, sprawled in her chair and sleeping soundly. One of her smooth legs was propped on the desk while the other hung freely toward the floor. Her arms were crossed in a way that emphasized her ample chest, and her mouth hung half-open, emitting sounds that didn't match her beautiful face. A thin line of transparent drool was even trickling down the corner of her mouth.
...So that's what entered my mouth during that kiss.
As I unconsciously brushed my thumb across my lips, I felt Audrey's sharp gaze from beside me.
"So you really did enjoy yourself earlier—"
"Calathea, wake up! It's your turn for the physical activity you like so much. Come on, get up!"
"Ugh— What? Is the counseling already over?"
"Yes, it's over, so hurry up and wake up."
When I urgently shook her awake, Calathea jolted as if struck by lightning. Even with her eye patch still on, she looked around for me, then finally seemed to remember it existed and flipped it up.
And then—
"………♬"
The red eyes that had finally found me sparkled with immediate delight.
"Hehe♪ Now that I've had a good nap, shall we tease the manager again with renewed energy? ♡"
"That's not why I woke you up…."
Through the counseling sessions, I had caught glimpses—both large and small—of the dark sides these two possessed, and it had genuinely shocked me. Yet when the three of us faced each other and talked normally like this, I couldn't sense that anything about them had changed from before. The only difference was that I now felt a stronger need to understand the darkness lurking within Calathea and Audrey more deeply.
To do that….
Who was the management I was doing really for? And could I truly take even one step into their territory? I would need to give them answers to these two questions that would genuinely satisfy them.
It would be an absolutely difficult task lying ahead of me.
And right now, another difficult task remained to be dealt with.
"Let's get moving. …To the group training room."
It was time for the two of them to undergo their ability tests.