“Hmm….”
A small, hot breath escaped between Luna’s lips at my touch.
Her reaction was a bit more intense than Alice’s, so I carefully withdrew my hand from her ear and took a step back. I then asked her.
“I’m not quite sure if this is… the right thing to do.”
I wore an embarrassed expression and sat back down in my seat.
“I heard from Alice that this method is a pleasant greeting among beastfolk. I wanted to respond to Lady Luna in a way befitting the beastfolk for her courage.”
At my words, Luna’s crimson eyes softened.
“I see… Alice…”
She nodded and continued speaking.
“That’s right… This greeting… among beastfolk, is a compliment and secondly… a pleasant greeting.”
Then, with her cheeks reddened, looking up at me, she added in a very small yet clear voice.
“Please… do it often in the future, Teacher.”
“I will.”
I also smiled in response. And Luna said this was the second-best greeting. I couldn’t suppress my curiosity about this peculiar ranking and added.
“Next time, it would be nice if Lady Luna could personally let me know what the first-best greeting is.”
At my words, Luna flashed a deep, rich smile.
“Ah… the first greeting…”
She brought her white finger quietly to her red lips as if it were a secret and whispered softly.
“That will be later. A little later. I… will definitely tell you.”
Luna replied with a smile.
“Understood. I’m looking forward to it.”
I also smiled pleasantly.
Good. I could conclude today’s counseling like this. Honestly, it seemed it couldn’t have been more perfect.
I had filled in her deep wounds, instilled the courage to face them, and finally, allowed her to unveil herself.
I thought it was best to send her back while holding onto this positive experience.
“Then, may I conclude today’s counseling with this? Since you showed such great courage today, I think it would be good for you to rest a little.”
With a sense of satisfaction that I had wrapped up everything perfectly, I asked her with a gentle smile. However, Luna tilted her head, breaking my expectations.
“No…?”
She returned my question with an innocent smile, as if asking something obvious.
“It’s currently 23 minutes and 23 seconds… 24 seconds. Already… the counseling time is a little less than… S.”
“……What?”
For a moment, I doubted my ears.
“And since I’ve shown you my ears… I also need time to adapt to this appearance.”
Luna added a remarkably reasonable justification, using the reasons I had shared about the counseling.
“Also, I’m curious about your impressions after seeing my true form. Is it like studying how others perceive me?”
The first reason didn’t initially register with me, but the subsequent ones made sense. It was something Luna would naturally be curious about. Rather, it was the most desirable demand one could have as a client seeking to actively confront her own issues without avoidance.
“Oh, yes. I hadn’t realized that far. Thank you for your proactive attitude, dear client. The courage to confront the situation directly is indeed the most critical aspect of all therapy.”
At my heartfelt compliment, Luna’s cheeks flushed faintly once more.
The counseling was not finished yet.
***
I don’t know if the teacher realized it, but.
From the moment she revealed her ears.
Luna had not once taken her eyes off the teacher.
Now, having exposed her most embarrassing self, she was intensely focused on how the teacher viewed her.
With her top-tier beastfolk senses, she was keenly observing every nuance of his gaze.
But the teacher remained gentle and courteous, like a true counselor.
He was different from the nobility of other empires and other men she had encountered throughout her life.
He maintained direct eye contact with her, engrossed in the conversation.
He offered only pleasant smiles toward the rabbit ears she had once thought were a lifetime wound, never casting aside glances filled with curiosity or disgust or any other emotion.
And his gaze never strayed to unnecessary areas like her chest or legs.
Perfect respect for the client.
Impeccably gentlemanly demeanor. Conduct more noble than any noble.
Yet oddly, Luna did not feel relieved.
Instead, a feeling of tightness and anxiety began to rise from deep within her chest.
‘Why?’
Didn’t he say she was beautiful? If so, she wanted proof.
Not just her ears.
But specifically, she wanted him to admire her ears, her chest, her lips.
Luna discovered her longing for the teacher’s gaze.
In her impatience, her hand unknowingly drifted toward the top button of her black shirt. If she undid it like Alice, maybe then he would look at her.
‘Huh?’
Startled by the cold touch of the button, she quickly glanced down at her hand.
It felt as if it weren’t her own.
In a hurry, she brought her hand back to her lap.
‘What am I doing….’
Still, Luna retained a glimmer of reason to control this new feeling.
At that moment, the teacher’s gaze briefly shifted to the clock on the wall before softly returning to her.
It was a fleeting movement that only someone like Luna, a beastfolk, might notice.
And he naturally wrapped his left index and middle fingers with his right palm.
‘Ah…’
That was the unconscious habit he had displayed just before saying he wanted to conclude their counseling in all their previous sessions.
If he was about to say something obvious next…
“…….”
The teacher said nothing. He merely continued to look at Luna with a gentle smile.
He was also being considerate.
Since Luna had just insisted on wanting to continue the counseling a moment ago.
He adjusted his plan and waited until she first said it was alright.
Sure.
Continuing may not have been a courtesy to his consideration.
Luna spoke up first.
“Teacher, thank you so much for today’s counseling. This is enough.”
At her words, the teacher nodded as if he found it satisfying.
He was smiling, but there was not a hint of relief or annoyance that counseling had finally ended.
Instead, he maintained a demeanor reminiscent of praising Luna.
Feeling her heart warm at that final consideration…
No.
“Yes, I also had a good time.”
With the teacher’s farewell, today’s counseling concluded.
He stood up from his seat as if to see me off and turned his gaze toward the door.
Then his gaze shifted to his bag sitting on the right. For just a moment, his expression showed surprise followed by a faint distortion.
‘What’s wrong…?’
However, the teacher, as if nothing had happened, continued with a soft smile.
“Thank you for your hard work in today’s counseling. The next home visit will be on Friday. I’ll see you on Friday.”
“…Yes, thank you, teacher.”
With that, Luna left the counseling room, simultaneously using camouflage to conceal her ears.
She didn’t want to show them to others.
As the door closed and Luna was left alone in the hallway, she immediately moved on.
She turned the corner and leaned her back against the cold wall, where no one was around.
Then, she blankly looked down at her hands.
“What the….”
Luna’s hands were holding nothing.
Clearly, clearly, the vanilla macarons that Alice had received before were definitely present in her hands earlier.
But Luna had not received anything.
So it wasn’t merely about wanting to eat macarons.
She wanted to eat the macarons that the teacher had given her.
To have them handed directly from his hand, melting in her mouth, savoring the taste.
“Why… didn’t he give it to me…?”
A voice full of childlike disappointment slipped from her lips before she even realized it.
‘Did I do something wrong….’
Had she bothered the teacher too much?
‘At the end, did I push too hard….’
That shouldn’t have happened…
With a heavy heart, Luna trudged back to the lounge of the Union Guild.
She felt even more drained than before her counseling session.
She carefully opened the lounge door.
Many people were still present.
And in the most comfortable sofa in the center, Alice was still seated.
Next to Alice, who was absorbed in a smartphone game, was the now-empty vanilla macaron bag that she had received earlier.
‘…….’
Luna cautiously approached that spot.
Alice seemed unaware that her sister had returned, focused on her game.
However.
– Sniff, sniff.
Alice’s nose twitched.
Her fingers, which had been playing, momentarily froze.
She slowly turned her head back, like a herbivore sensing a predator.
And there stood Luna.
Alice’s crimson eyes widened. She, too, was startled.
From her sister, she sensed a dangerously sweet scent she had never encountered before.
Hiding her shocked expression, Alice asked in a serious tone.
“Sister… did the counseling go well…?”
“Yes.”
However, Luna did not seem particularly interested in her younger sister’s question. She weakly sank into the seat next to Alice.
‘Is this a misunderstanding?’
Alice tilted her head in confusion and returned her gaze to her smartphone game.
It was then that a man stood up from the noble resting area across the room.
“A citizen of the Empire should never neglect mental health management.”
It was Rian, the second son of a count from the Empire.
The other nobles who usually accompanied him seemed to have gone on a mission collectively.
Perhaps because of that, he no longer needed to be conscious of others’ gazes.
He walked gracefully toward Luna.
Luna knew.
This was the same person who usually looked at her with a burning gaze mixed with sexual desire.
And it was no different now. His eyes were persistently scanning from the top of Luna’s head to the tips of her toes.
“Beastfolk.”
He called her with a contemptuous title.
“What change could come from listening to the words of a commoner jester speaking of mental health…?”
Rian continued with a confident expression.
“If you wish, I, the noble one, could teach you a glorious method to correct that unstable mind of yours.”
Under normal circumstances, Luna would have simply ignored him with a blank expression and slipped away. Alice would then have interjected with, “Get lost, idiot.”
However.
However, at this moment, Luna’s feelings were ‘very’ displeased.
Moreover, this time it wasn’t directed solely at her.
It encompassed insults toward herself and toward her one and only teacher.
A swirling sense of loss, deficiency… and anger.
All these chaotic emotions twirled precariously within her.
Rian’s arrogant remark was like pouring fuel onto the chaotic flame of her emotions.
Just as Alice was about to rise from her seat, Luna’s head slowly lifted.
In her crimson eyes, there was no sign of resignation or sorrow.
Instead, she was smiling softly with the corners of her mouth lifted.
Yet, her eyes were utterly void of joy.
Luna spoke softly, as if asking a question.
“The best way to distinguish between commoners and nobles in the Empire is by the use of magic, right?”
Luna tilted her head as if genuinely curious and followed up with her next question.
“Then, if you were to crush both hands of that noble person, rendering them unable to use magic ever again…”
Her voice was exceedingly pure.
“Would that person, from that day onward, become a commoner?”
A profound silence enveloped the lounge, halting all noise.
The sound of coffee cups being set down, voices mingling with conversation—all vanished as if by magic.
All the hunters present turned to look at Luna.
Rian’s face drained of color, becoming stark white.
In her crimson eyes was not the typical Luna, but the flicker of a predator ready to pounce.
Unperturbed by his terror, Luna merely added with clear eyes.
“I just suddenly became curious.”
And, watching the entire spectacle, Alice showed an astonished expression at that side of her sister.
And on the other side.
In Yuseonwoo’s counseling room.
“How did it come to this…?”
Yuseonwoo stared at a macaron.
The moment he opened his bag to give it to Luna, he noticed it.
A significant crack on the top of the macaron.
“I can’t give her something like this.”
Under normal circumstances, it wouldn’t have mattered…
But for a gift commemorating the perfect first step she took in breaking through her trauma, it felt too disappointing.
His ego as a counselor wouldn’t allow it.
With regret, Yuseonwoo tore open the macaron bag.
“I’ll just make something better next time.”
He muttered to himself, popping a macaron with a rich strawberry scent into his mouth.
‘She must like strawberries, right?’
Thinking that.
