The mystery of Yuri’s ability at maximum output was finally solved.
The condition was none other than me.
It seems that Yuri can only reach maximum output when healing me.
‘But why me of all people?’
That didn’t mean the matter was completely settled.
Why me?
Of all the people out there, why does she only reach maximum output when healing me?
I couldn’t figure out the reason at all.
“Only when treating me does she reach maximum output… Do you have any guesses as to why?”
“Ah… uh… I-I’m not sure…! Thank you so much for your cooperation today! I’ll be heading back to the dormitory now!”
“What? I thought you were staying at the mansion tonight.”
“Something urgent just came up! I need to leave right away! No need to see me off! I’ll find a carriage myself!”
“…”
Thud, thud, thud.
She packed her things in a hurry—almost unnaturally so—before dashing out of the office as if fleeing.
Her head had been bowed the whole time, making it hard to see,
but as she exited, I caught a glimpse of her face through the strands of her hair.
It was completely red.
What’s with her?
Yuri bolted across the yard toward the front gate.
I watched her retreating figure for a moment before calling Sylvia.
“Sylvia.”
“You called for me, my Lord? A master who enjoys being strangled by a much younger girl.”
“…So, you were watching.”
“Yes. It’s my job as a bodyguard.”
“I didn’t enjoy it. I merely sacrificed myself for the sake of developing Yuri’s ability.”
“Sure. If you say so.”
“…”
Sylvia sighed, giving me a look of utter disdain.
This girl…?
Has she completely lost her sense of hierarchy?
I had to fight the urge to dock her pay.
“So, why did you call for me?”
“I wanted to ask about Yuri’s ability.”
“If it’s about that, you should check these documents. They contain all the experiments conducted on Yuri’s ability so far. I haven’t memorized all the details, so I’d have to check the files to answer your questions anyway. You’re better off reading them yourself.”
Sylvia handed me a thin stack of documents.
So these are the records maintained by Vermont Security on Yuri’s ability.
Reading through them should provide some insight.
I sat down and began reading carefully.
It wasn’t an extensive report, so it didn’t take long to finish.
However, there was one clear conclusion drawn from the data.
– The output of her ability varies depending on her emotions toward the patient.
– When treating someone she harbors negative feelings toward, output is at its lowest.
– The more positive her emotions, the stronger the output.
“Huh?!”
[The Evil God ‘Kali’ is getting all excited, saying it looks like our healer loves you!]
That meant Yuri no longer hated me.
More than that—she actually had positive feelings toward me.
In fact, the highest recorded output, which hadn’t occurred with anyone else, was only observed when she was treating me.
Did that mean there was no one she liked more than me?
That realization suddenly made me straighten my posture, and an unconscious smile spread across my lips.
“Hah… Is this okay…? What if she ends up liking me more than Mr. Black? That’d be a problem.”
A very real concern hit me.
What if Yuri’s growing affection for Aslan Vermont caused her feelings for Mr. Black to fade?
If that happened, then even when I eventually revealed my identity as Mr. Black, her reaction might be indifferent.
I had hidden my identity all this time just for that moment.
But if I finally confessed, ‘I’m actually Mr. Black,’ and she just responded with, ‘Oh, I see. So what?’—that would be a disaster.
“Hah. Was storming the Vatican too cool after all? I should start trying to look less impressive from now on. Damn, being too amazing is a problem in itself…”
[The Evil God ‘Kali’ protests that it’s not that serious and demands you stop being so dramatic.]
Being too popular with the girls is troublesome.
For the next three years, I need to carefully manage things so that Aslan Vermont’s favorability doesn’t surpass Mr. Black’s.
But that’s going to be difficult… I sighed deeply, even as my lips kept twitching upward.
“Hmm…?”
Flipping through the report.
My gaze landed on a comparison chart showing output levels for different treatment targets.
For thugs she encountered on duty, the output was at its lowest.
For employees she had only a casual relationship with, it was at a normal level.
For Charlotte and Julia, the output was significantly high—not surprising.
‘Her own treatment records show the lowest output…?’
But when I saw that the lowest output occurred when she treated herself, I felt my breath catch.
If the ability’s output increases with positive emotions and decreases with negative emotions—
Yuri disliked herself even more than the thugs she beat up during work.
‘Self-loathing? But why?’
I couldn’t understand it at all.
Yuri was a top student at the academy, excelled in her job, and had good friends.
How could someone like her harbor such self-hatred?
Meanwhile, I, with my rough-looking face, a ridiculously frail body, and a less-than-stellar brain, was living a pretty content life.
It was truly a strange thing.
‘Is this another remnant of the original storyline?’
Now that I thought about it, in the original story, the protagonist, Yuri, was always full of regret.
She regretted being kidnapped along with her friends to the Vermont mansion.
She regretted watching her friends suffer under Aslan’s cruelty.
She regretted Sylvia tearing off her own brand and being left with a terminal fate.
Yuri had done nothing wrong.
Yet, she was constantly drowning in regret.
Even though nothing terrible had happened to her in this worldline, her self-loathing had still carried over, as if copy-pasted from the original story.
She lived in constant fear that her choices would lead to disaster.
Always blaming herself, always prepared to feel regret.
‘She’s like a walking tragedy.’
A protagonist straight out of a grimdark fantasy novel.
Even in academics and work, she did everything flawlessly—never slacking off, never making mistakes.
It reeked of an obsession, a fear of regretting not doing her best.
But in reality, even if she slacked off a little, even if she made a mistake, nothing would really change.
Maybe in the original world, where everything was drenched in malice, things were different.
But here, Yuri didn’t need to be that perfect.
She had friends who would look out for her, adults who would support her.
‘How do I make her realize that…?’
As my head started to ache from thinking, a brilliant idea suddenly struck me.
***
“Hmmm. Something feels off…”
Thump, Thump.
Yuri tapped her foot against the carriage floor, letting out a small groan.
Right before heading to the Vatican, she had sent a letter to Mr. Black.
She had been in a rush, so it was easy to misunderstand the contents…
But deep down, she had hoped that Mr. Black would be worried and come to find her himself.
Yet, the one who showed up wasn’t Mr. Black, but Aslan Vermont.
At first, she assumed that Mr. Black had simply asked Aslan Vermont to come in his stead.
But thinking about it more, there were too many suspicious details.
How had Aslan Vermont caught up to her so quickly?
For the letter to reach Mr. Black, for him to then contact Aslan Vermont—it should have taken some time.
Unless they were living right next door, there was no way he could have arrived that fast.
“Hmm? But wait… if Aslan Vermont is Mr. Black, that means Charlotte and Julia must know the truth too, right?”
Yuri tilted her head in confusion.
When Aslan Vermont had brought Charlotte and Julia along, he surely must have given them some kind of explanation.
And in doing so, they would’ve realized that Aslan Vermont and Mr. Black were the same person.
That would mean Charlotte and Julia knew Mr. Black was right beside her… yet they still acted like they didn’t?
They had been deceiving her all this time?
“No way. That means Aslan Vermont isn’t Mr. Black, then.”
No way.
Charlotte and Julia wouldn’t lie to her.
Feeling a bit uneasy, Yuri decided to set her suspicions aside for now.
“Whew. We’re here. Time to get to work.”
As the carriage arrived in front of the Vermont Security headquarters,
Yuri stepped out and stretched.
Another day of hard work.
No mistakes.
Perfect execution.
Better than anyone else.
With those thoughts in mind, she walked inside the headquarters.
Only to be met with something completely unexpected.
“Huh? Count? What brings you here?”
“Yuri, you’re here. You have no shift today. Just observation.”
“…Huh!?”
She found herself in an utterly baffling situation.
