Rehabilitation Therapist for the Broken Warrior

“Hero Sion Lorel. You need to return to your former self. Before the Gate reopens two years from now.”

Two years… It was a carefully chosen number when I fabricated this lie.

If it was too soon, the hero’s rehabilitation would be impossible, there would be no point in starting treatment, and the words would lack credibility.

If it was too far away, it might be difficult to perceive it as a real threat.

In any case, since I had to push the atmosphere and recommend rehabilitation treatment, I needed to create a somewhat urgent situation, so the deadline I barely settled on was two years.

And with this much time, I’d have enough time to think about what to do when the actual two years arrived.

“……”

Sion lifted her still-empty scarlet eyes and stared at me silently and carefully.

It felt like the air was freezing.

According to the novel’s description, those who met her eyes felt like they were facing the warm sunlight.

If I had ever actually felt that feeling even once, maybe receiving this gaze now would be even more exciting.

“How can I believe that?”

“I can prove it. That I’m a Regressor.”

“You know everything about the past, present, and future?”

“Yes. I can prove it right now.”

Right now.

That was an important point.

Because I didn’t know the future.

Sion had already told Nao, her closest companion, that she wouldn’t appear anymore.

She wouldn’t want to spend a lot of time on someone like me or meet me again later.

So it’s better to sympathize with that psychology and say I’ll prove it right now.

I had to avoid going in the direction of proving it by predicting what would happen in the future.

“I haven’t seen it in this life, but I can tell you what you’ve been through.”

I could talk about the past all I wanted.

I knew what adventures Sion had been on and what she had been through.

Would it work? Would Hero Sion Lorel believe me?

“I want to turn away and say it’s nonsense, but it’s hard to ignore. But it’s also hard to believe… I’ll ask you just one thing.”

“Yes, anything.”

“I have a question after hearing what you just said. I’ll decide whether to listen to more based on your answer.”

Just one thing… I expected more questions, but that didn’t seem to be the case.

“You said you were a Regressor.”

“Yes.”

“Someone who has lived in this world once or more. Being a Regressor is just that, right?”

“That’s right.”

“But just now, you said, ‘I haven’t seen it in this life, but I’ll tell you one thing I experienced.’”

“I did.”

So far, it felt like a verification process.

Was the question she was about to ask the real one?

Sion raised her head.

It was different from her previous attitude, where she had been drooping powerlessly and only looking up at me with her eyes. She faced me directly.

“Being able to tell me what I’ve been through as a Regressor… Hope Harvey, were you traveling with me in the previous world?”

‘!’

The ‘things Sion experienced’ that I would use to prove my words later were things I had read in the book.

Since I had observed them from outside the book’s world, it wasn’t something a Regressor living inside the book’s world would normally know.

So that’s how Sion took what I said.

For a Regressor to say that, they must have been her companion in their past life. It was a plausible and natural deduction.

In that case, my answer was naturally,

“……That’s right.”

I acted like her companion.

I felt anew that I could go this far, and I averted my gaze as if I couldn’t meet her eyes anymore.

Because of that, I couldn’t see what she looked like.

Would this work…

“……”

Silence followed. After a moment, Sion spoke quietly.

“Follow me.”

A clear and concise voice.

After saying this, Sion turned around and headed somewhere.

‘Facing me directly earlier, and what she just said…’

Her words just now, telling me to follow.

It felt like they were words with clear intention, not the soulless words she had been spitting out until now.

Had she regained some of her will?

Will to rehabilitate was essential for rehabilitation, so it was a positive sign, but being able to start rehabilitation didn’t mean she would actually do it.

From now on, the process of making Sion trust me and persuading her to receive rehabilitation treatment remained.

“Come in.”

The place she headed to was a small mansion on the outskirts of the Empire’s capital.

It was not far from the Empire’s National Cemetery.

When the mansion door opened, a modest-looking woman who seemed to be an employee greeted Sion impassively.

“You’re here quite early, Lady Sion.”

“What are you talking about, Serin? I’m later than usual.”

“I received a message from the Princess that you would have dinner with her.”

“I refused.”

When Sion said she had refused firmly, the employee called Serin showed a troubled expression.

“Is, is that so? Dinner isn’t ready yet… Can you wait a little?”

“No. You’re done for today, so please return to the annex.”

“Yes?”

The mansion was small in scale, but it was still a mansion. It seemed there was a separate annex where the employees lived.

Only after hearing the words to return to the annex did she seem to notice my presence and raised her head.

“Now that I think about it, this person is…”

“Don’t be curious and go in.”

“Ah, yes…”

The employee bowed her head deeply, hurriedly left the door, passed us, and headed to the annex, and we went straight into the mansion.

Since it was a Western-style mansion, we entered the house in a wheelchair or with our shoes on, and Sion went into the living room, guided me to the sofa, and continued the conversation.

“A companion from a previous… no, a former life… I still can’t believe it.”

“Actually, I didn’t intend to go that far.”

“We were companions, but you’re not treating me comfortably?”

“It might… be difficult for Sion to accept.”

I was racking my brain and using all my imagination to come up with lines for each word.

What would a real Regressor say?

“If that’s acting, you might be better suited to be an actor than a doctor.”

“Should I try that next time? If it’s a talent Sion acknowledges, it’ll be certain.”

“Shall we test it right now to see if there will be a next time?”

“Those words…”

“I can kill you, Director Hope, right here, right now.”

What? Did she just… say she’d kill me? The hero?

“You look surprised. Because I’m a hero, no. Do you think I can’t do it because I was a hero?”

An unforeseen situation.

I had planned to persuade Hero Sion to receive rehabilitation, but she could still use her Authority, and she was saying she would use it to kill me.

Had I been too complacent with the hero?

No, the Sion Lorel I knew wouldn’t kill someone so easily…

“Director Hope Harvey. You said you were a doctor. I think you’re a good person… But if what you’ve said so far is a lie, you’ve crossed the line far. So from now on, please tell me with your life on the line.”

The pressure she was exuding now was definitely not a bluff.

Just a moment ago, she had been dragging around a dying body, having lost all motivation and being no different from a corpse with no function or will, but was she really planning to kill me if necessary?

“Tell me. What is it that you haven’t seen… no, haven’t seen in this life, but that I’ve experienced? Give me proof that you’re a Regressor and that you traveled with me in a previous life.”

“……”

It would be really funny if I gave the wrong answer here and got killed.

But that wouldn’t happen.

The most certain proof I needed now. I knew something that no one in this world could possibly know unless they were part of the Hero’s Party.

“What I’m about to say is…”

It was…

“It’s what Airi said last.”

“What?”

Airi of the back alley, who was the rogue of the Hero’s Party.

What Airi Harmony said last just before she died after taking a fatal blow for Hero Sion.

This was something that only Sion, Nao, and Hanamana, who were the Hero’s Party in this world, knew.

“Airi Harmony. What that child said last was…”

“W-wait a minute!”

“Sion. Do you remember the day we first met?”

“Ah, aah…!”

“You were like the sun even then.”

“Stop…”

“To illuminate me, who was born and raised in the darkness, this world had prepared…”

“Stoooooooooooooooooooop!!!!!!!!!!!!!!”

A voice that seemed to tear the ears apart.

When I started acting as Airi, Sion clutched her head and screamed loudly, making the whole mansion reverberate.

“Airi… Airiiii… Aah, Airi!!”

Soon, she trembled as she held her head with her arms, then her posture completely collapsed, and she eventually slid out of her wheelchair and fell to the floor, covering her face and starting to sob.

“I’m sorry… I’m sorry, Airi… I’m sorry I couldn’t protect you. Airi… Airi….”

Watching this scene, I couldn’t say anything. However,

‘Aah, Sion… That Hero Sion Lorel is in such despair…!’

I felt an uncontrollable excitement boiling up in my chest.

I was… recommending rehabilitation to Sion to see more of this kind of appearance.

But at the same time, I was a rehabilitation doctor.

It was my job to save Sion from these kinds of symptoms.