"Haa..."
The moment I was left alone, a deep sigh escaped me before I even realized I was sighing.
So, let me summarize what happened while I was casually lounging around in the lobby.
Ruby hadn’t listened to a single word the counselor said. Instead, she’d tormented him by throwing all sorts of bizarre questions at him, claiming she was counseling the counselor about his own psychological problems.
And Audrey?
She’d gone on about how the counselor’s questions had absolutely no aesthetic value, then simply shut her mouth and gone silent.
She’d practically taken a vow of silence.
If even counselors who had undoubtedly dealt with more kinds of people than I could count had already thrown in the towel, then whatever had been verbally communicated to me probably wasn’t even the whole story.
"...And now they’re telling me to counsel them myself."
I knew psychological counseling was mandatory before I could return to being a Hunter. And having me handle their counseling instead was probably their way of doing me a huge favor.
Still, I couldn’t help it.
I glanced back and forth between the counseling rooms on either side of the lobby.
Ruby was waiting on the left.
Audrey was waiting on the right.
If I had a choice, I’d obviously rather start with the quieter Audrey.
But, as they say, it was better to get the hard part over with first.
"Oh my, our Manager is here~"
The moment I stepped into Ruby’s counseling room, she greeted me with both legs shamelessly propped up on the counselor’s desk, bouncing them up and down.
A woman with a figure like hers, dressed in hot pants that barely covered anything, sitting like that...
My entire field of vision was practically filled with her pale, smooth legs.
"...Were you sitting like that when the counselor was here too?"
"Hey, Manager, what kind of person do you think I am?" Ruby protested, shaking her head vigorously. "That actually hurts a little."
There was absolutely no way she’d been sitting normally.
"Quite the opposite. I was very kindly counseling him. See?"
Only after following her gaze did I notice the white lab coat she was wearing.
...Wait. Enjoying the story? Read on at g.com.
Don’t tell me she had actually taken the counselor’s coat.
"Turns out, once I really listened to him, his wife was cheating on him with one of his old middle school classmates," Ruby explained with a click of her tongue. "And his useless son doesn’t study at all. He just goes out and plays all day. Tsk... With a family like that, he had the nerve to sit there and lecture me about my mental state? So I kindly advised him to get his own household in order first."
"...So."
"And then, guess what?" Ruby’s lips curled into a delighted smile. "He suddenly burst into tears like a little kid and ran straight out of the counseling room. Perhaps..." She tapped her chin thoughtfully. "Those were tears of repentance?"
He cried because of you, you bitch.
"That counseling must have worked wonders," Ruby declared proudly. "Phew... I really saved a family today. Seriously, should I just quit being a Hunter and become a counselor instead?"
"Don’t."
No wonder one of the counselors had looked like he’d been crying, with his eyes slightly red and swollen.
So that poor man had been the one to deal with Ruby.
I’d have to contact him separately later and apologize.
"So why did you come, Manager?" Ruby asked, resting her chin in her hand. "Didn’t you say you’d sooner die than step into this counseling room?"
"...I never put it that dramatically."
I sighed.
"And thanks to you two doing whatever the hell you wanted, they told me to counsel you myself. So here I am."
"Aha~ So Madness did something too?" Ruby’s eyes sparkled. "You should’ve just come along from the beginning instead of putting up such a fuss. Hmm?"
Aside from the sudden urge to smack Ruby on the head, she wasn’t entirely wrong.
...I shouldn’t leave their side.
It hadn’t even been an hour since we’d separated, and the battle-hardened counselors who had supposedly dealt with all kinds of Hunter bastards had already raised the white flag and surrendered.
If I’d left Ruby and Audrey to interact with other people on their own, I didn’t even want to imagine what kind of damage they might cause.
I barely swallowed the sigh rising in my throat and dropped into the counselor’s chair.
"Fine. I’ll generously give you the counseling you wanted."
But unlike me, Ruby suddenly sprang to her feet.
"Wait, why are you getting up?"
"I’m giving you a present, Manager~"
"A present?"
Before I could react, Ruby forcibly draped the counselor’s coat she’d been wearing over my shoulders, then cheerfully returned to her seat.
"If you don’t wear the coat, the counseling atmosphere just isn’t there."
"...So that’s why you stole the counselor’s coat?" This chapter is updated first at g.com.
"Hey, I told you. He was a man who had no business counseling anyone in the first place."
And the person you just put the coat on is even less qualified.
I gave up on arguing and opened the documents on the desk.
They looked similar to the materials I’d reviewed when selecting members for the convict squad, except this time there was a mass of indecipherable English written all over them, including the diagnosis section.
"Uh, um, so..."
"Zzz..."
A faint snore suddenly reached my ears.
I raised my head.
Ruby had somehow produced a rabbit sleep mask from somewhere and was now leaning back in her chair, fast asleep.
"Hey. What are you doing, Ruby?"
"Mnn... Why are you bothering me, Manager...?"
Ruby barely lifted her head.
"I came here because you wanted me to. So let’s at least do the counseling properly."
"Aren’t you supposed to sleep during counseling?" she mumbled sleepily. "That’s what I did when I was in prison."
"......"
Then what about that counselor you supposedly counseled until he cried and ran away?
I stared at her in disbelief.
Only then did Ruby stop peeking at me from beneath the edge of her sleep mask. She giggled and finally sat upright.
"Ahh... As expected, our Manager’s expressions are the most entertaining~ They’re seriously the best."
"Enough. Let’s just get started."
"Yes, sir, yes, sir~"
"...First, let me make sure the information here is correct."
I lowered my gaze to the counseling chart and slowly read through the details.
"Hunter name: Ruby. Real name: unknown. Is that correct?"
"Ye-es, that’s right~"
Ruby answered with an exaggeratedly innocent expression, deliberately setting aside her usual wicked smile.