As Kayden hid behind Morgan’s back, she dusted off her clothes and gave Sera a small smile.

“It’s been a long time since we met. I hope you don’t normally blast your clients with magic since then.”

“Ah, but you see, your way of entry draws a thin line between intruder and client, so I hope you don’t mind me rightfully practicing self-defense.”

A tense silence ensued as the two women stared each other down. Kayden, Elaine, and Max held their breath as neither one of them dared to move nor make a sound.

‘Is a fight about to break out? If there is, my master’s bound to win. Although the therapist’s level is pretty high, there’s no way she could Now that I think of it, I have never checked Master’s level.’

However, before he could begin his attempt at appraisal, the two women laughed, breaking the tense atmosphere. Sera adjusted her glasses and pulled the cowering Elaine off of her.

“Elaine, you don’t have to worry. She’s a friend. And no, she’s not gonna hurt you.”

“Really? She just appeared out of nowhere! Who is she, anyway?”

Sera walked up to Morgan and bumped her shoulder with hers, “You’ve probably heard of her before. She’s the sole A-ranked adventurer in the city after all.”

Elaine pondered for a moment and her face lit up upon figuring it out. The expression didn’t last for long and devolved into an expression of disgust.

“The Raging Alcoholic? That’s not a good influence on children…”

Hearing the title of the A-ranked adventurer, Max finally snapped out of his daze. As the lord of this city, he had to display respect to those that had helped this city, especially if they were powerful. He smoothened out his clothing and stood upright, before performing a noble’s bow, right hand on his chest while the left hand on his back. He spoke with a courteous voice.

“As the city lord, I thank you for all you've done for this city. I hope you aren’t offended by the slight against you just now,” He stood up once more and continued, “May I know your reason for coming? Miss… Morgan?”

“Just Morgan is fine.” She said as she scratched her head out of embarrassment. Judging from her reaction, one would think that she wasn’t used to nobles greeting her, which was odd for an A-ranked adventurer. After all, in this world where might makes right, it was natural for the weak to submit to the strong, and weaker nobles are no exception.

“Ah!” Kayden figured it out. ‘Being praised so much for her efforts by a noble when her only ‘effort’ is drinking all day must be embarrassing her. Hah!’ He couldn’t help the mocking grin that crept up onto his face. For all the years of embarrassment he had to go through for his drunk master, carrying her to her room amidst stares and shamelessly avoiding tabs, he was finally seeing some payback.

It quickly earned him a jab to his ribs though, but it couldn’t keep a lid on his joy.

“Don’t smile at me like that! I know what you’re thinking!”

Kayden laughed, unaffected by the fact that he was in the presence of the rulers of this city, while Morgan gripped his wrists to continue to argue her point. Elaine looked on with horror at the blatant lack of respect in their presence, while Max kept a polite smile that upon closer inspection, was very strained.

“HAHAHAHA—STOP IT! You’re gonna ruin my beautiful face!”

“The only face here beautiful enough is mine!”

Sera observed the master-disciple duo, whose argument had devolved into a series of cheek pinching and ear pulling. She recalled the day when she had met them, and their interactions back then as compared to now were like the difference between night and day.

“… Your relationship has improved by leaps and bounds since I last saw you,” Kayden and Morgan froze and stopped their fighting momentarily to look at her. “You know, as a therapist, nothing could make me happier than seeing my clients happy.”

Morgan had her eyes shine for a split second before her face became slightly red. She smiled.

“It really has, hasn’t it?”

Kayden sensed an opportunity and buried his face in his hands and forcefully shed some tears. It would make his act more convincing. He lifted his face, wiped the tears running down his cheeks, and spoke in an emotional tone.

“Ah. That sure was emotional. It was nice to see you again, Miss Sera. We just wanted to thank you for all you’ve done for us. Master, it’s time to go back, we wouldn’t want to interrupt the nobles, do we?”

Morgan looked back at Kayden. “You’re right. Let’s go— Wait a second…” Kayden tensed up when Morgan stopped to correct herself. “We came here for therapy! Sera! Please help him!”

“F#ck.”

***

Kayden had come here before, and the room looked exactly as it had six years ago. He looked at the woman sitting across from him, holding a clipboard and pen in her hands.

She had circular, gold-rimmed glasses and dirty blond hair that was tied into a tight bun. Her hair now had some gray streaks, and her face grew more wrinkles, but overall, she still looked quite young.

“Welcome back, Kayden. It’s been a long time, hasn’t it? I remember the times when you were still a kid. You grew even taller since then! It’s hard to recognize you now if not for your hair and eye color, you know? I’m sorry for hitting you with that spell before.”

“I-I’m fine. But isn’t the city lord’s wife a healer? She could have healed me.”

Sera pursed her lips, before continuing. “Elaine must still be shocked about the incident. She also doesn’t have the best of impressions of your master. Do forgive her, I’ll try my best to get her to heal you once we’re done. She can be quite stubborn.”

Kayden thought about it for a while, before nodding to himself. “Indeed, I don’t have the best of impressions of my master myself.”

“Oh really?” Sera’s eyes twinkled as she leaned backward. “Back when it seemed like a fight was about to break out, you looked very confident in your master’s ability.”

“Ah, t-that was…” Kayden couldn’t come up with an answer. He had been confident that his master would win, which meant he had a good impression of his master if he ignored all the negatives.

“I mean, she’s the only A-ranked adventurer here you know? Of course she would win!”

Sera laughed. “A ranked adventurers aren’t necessarily the strongest people around in this city. There are plenty of powerful people that aren’t adventurers,” She held up her clipboard and pen, “Now forget about that! Let’s get into the reason why you’re here in the first place. I heard that some things have been going on lately.”

“Ah.” Kayden rolled his eyes. “That.” He spread his arms wide as he explained. “Look, I’m not going crazy or anything. I know that I may have talked to myself a bit, but that’s perfectly normal! People talk to themselves all the time! Like in the mirror, when reflecting, or reminding themselves. There’s nothing wrong with me!”

“Kayden, that isn’t the only thing you did. From what I heard from your master, you had sudden blindness, threw your potion at someone, and even groped someone you knew? She seems to think that you have some pent-up stress, you know?”

Kayden grew irritated. His entire day had been the people around him telling him he’s gone crazy, even when he’s clearly not. All of his problems stemmed from the annoying ‘features’ of the System, not him.

“T-those were just accidents! My master is wrong, I don’t have any pent-up stress! Don’t make me sound like some kind of deviant!”

“Your master’s worried about you, Kayden. You know that she would be very troubled if you were to regress to how you were like back then.”

Kayden was about to continue defending himself but chose to shut his mouth. Back then, huh? He hung his head and the frustration faded from his eyes. The room was silent for a while before Kayden spoke up.

“I’ve changed. I’m no longer the boy from before, and I will never regress to the old me.” As the conversation steered toward a sensitive subject, Kayden sought to change the topic. He gestured towards the white curtain that cordoned off a part of the room.

“You all right with me having a therapy session right here? Won’t it affect him?”

He was referring to Matou, who he had a grudge with.

“You don’t have to worry about that. Besides, he cannot understand us.”

Kayden was confused but didn’t ask any further. After a short period of awkward silence, Sera spoke up.

“I apologize if I brought up some bad memories. Let’s move away from this topic. I’m growing a little parched, would you like some tea?”

“N-no, I should be the one to apologize. Um, I guess I’ll have some.”

Sera smiled as she stood up and went to work. In a little over five minutes, she managed to brew a kettle full of tea. It made the room smell really good, a mixture of sweet, floral, and earthy, and it did wonders for Kayden’s nerves. She poured it into two ceramic cups on saucers and pushed one towards him.

“I got these special tea leaves directly imported from the Kingdom of Arcadia recently. Why don’t you try some? Apparently, it’s good for calming nerves.” She said with a relaxing smile.

Kayden picked up the steaming cup and put it to his lips. He allowed himself to take a sip, but it immediately scalded his tongue.

“Ow!”

[User has taken 2 damage!]

[User has taken enough damage to cross the 25% damage threshold.]

[Now entering a combative state]

[System scan was successful!]

“Oops! Sorry! Force of habit!” A voice buzzed in his ear, but Kayden wasn’t listening. A blue screen had appeared before his eyes and what he saw horrified him.

Name:

???

Title:

Therapist. Wolf in sheep’s clothing.

Level:

34

Health:

275/275

Mana:

604/661

Job:

Therapist

Torture Specialist

Status:

None

“Torture specialist!!!” He nearly spat out what little tea he drank.

‘So that’s why she has the ‘Wolf in sheep’s clothing’ title. Who would expect a therapist to do that sort of thing?’

“How… How did you know that?”

His face paled as he just realized he had just made a terrible mistake. He cursed himself for his big mouth and looked over at the therapist, only to find that she didn’t look angry at all, it was just an expression of mild surprise.

Kayden remembered back to the times when he was younger. Any lie he told to his therapist would have been found out almost immediately, thus, he didn’t try to go this route. Instead, he opted for a half-truth.

“Recently, I awakened the ability to appraise things. Ah, I’m not trying to pry into your secrets or anything!” Kayden held out his arms as if to protect his face. “It just sorts of came up automatically.”

Sera had on a thoughtful look and seemed intrigued. “Oh, really? It must be very powerful then if it could find out about people’s past professions.”

Kayden slightly lowered his arms. “You aren’t angry?”

“Why would I? It’s sort of an open secret in my family.” She placed down her clipboard and took a sip out of the now not-so-hot tea. “My blessing and magic allow me to get into a person’s mind, which makes it suitable for extracting confessions from the most tight-lipped of people. It’s also suitable for being a therapist,”

“I don’t think it’s my blessings that are the problem, but rather, what I choose to do with it. Just because I was born with the blessing to get into people’s heads doesn’t mean I’m evil,” Sera smiled as she recalled a long-forgotten memory. “Ah, I seem to remember telling you this back then. Now you know why I said so, it’s because of personal experience.”

Kayden lowered his arms fully and sighed. “Yeah okay. I’ll cooperate the best I can so both of us can be done.” Kayden jabbed his finger in the direction of the curtain. “You need to attend to him as well, right?”

“Yeah. Thank you for your understanding,” She picked up her clipboard once again, “Now, let’s begin with the questions, shall we?”