Chapter 143: Counseling Log (2)

“Are you seriously asking me that question?”

Physician Seo Jae-pil just smiled gently at her retort.

“Hahaha. My apologies if I’ve offended you. In that case, would you be so kind as to tell me what your side effect is?”

Xiao Hong, who'd been scowling, let out a small sigh before answering.

"It’s bulimia."

"Oh my... that must be really tough for you."

Xiao Hong looked genuinely surprised at Seo Jae-pil's reaction. "You really think so?"

Everyone who'd heard about Xiao Hong's side effects before had basically shrugged it off like it was nothing.

After all, a compulsion to eat seemed trivial compared to the side effects of other Demonic Arts. But this physician from the Pure Mind Hall was different; he seemed to be trying to understand her struggle.

“Isn’t it true that anything in excess is worse than not having enough? Repeatedly overeating is just as harmful to the body, so bulimia is most certainly a damaging side effect.”

"That's not even the worst part. For a martial artist, binge eating disorder is absolutely devastating."

Maybe because she'd finally found someone who actually got it, Xiao Hong started venting all the frustration she'd been bottling up.

"If I try to train after stuffing myself, I just end up puking my guts out. My body can't digest anything properly. And when you keep overeating, you obviously gain weight, and when you gain weight, it screws with your martial arts. The real problem is, when I gain weight and my skills get worse, I get angry at myself, and when I get angry, the binge eating gets even worse."

“I see. It sounds like a truly vicious cycle.”

"And that's when I can actually get food. When there's not enough to eat around here? That's when I feel like I'm going insane. When other people feel a little peckish, I feel like I'm losing my goddamn mind."

Her rant just kept rolling after that.

Her ambition and her desire to excel in her work were just part of her natural disposition.

The problem was that the stress from all that drive allied with her binge eating disorder to make her life hell.

Whenever work wasn't going well, her stomach would start acting up, demanding food.

But if she actually ate what she wanted, she'd gain weight and screw up her martial arts.

And if she really lost it and gave in to the binge eating? She could literally eat herself to death from overeating. Her binge eating disorder was a side effect of her Demonic Art, so it didn't know the meaning of moderation.

Xiao Hong was basically fighting a war with her body over food every single day.

As she vented for a while...

"Phew."

Xiao Hong started chugging the tea that had already gone cold.

Watching her, Seo Jae-pil calmly asked, “So, your feelings for Disciple Il-mok have nothing to do with the side effects of your Demonic Art?”

"Pfft!!"

The sudden mention of Il-mok made Xiao Hong spit out her tea.

Even with tea splashed all over his face, Seo Jae-pil let out a sigh of relief.

‘Phew. At least the log is safe.’

In that split second, he had lunged to shield his notes from the spray.

"I'm so sorry!"

“It’s quite all right. Hahaha. It seems my question was a bit too abrupt.” Seo Jae-pil replied, casually wiping his face with a cloth.

Xiao Hong watched him and thought for a moment.

‘The rumors are already everywhere, so denying it won't convince anyone. But I can't exactly tell him it's a mission from the Chief either.’

After thinking it over, she had no choice but to lie.

"Yes. It has nothing to do with side effects, it's just my personal preference."

Seo Jae-pil nodded and started writing in the records he'd barely managed to save, muttering to himself.

"Preference for young men is unrelated to Demonic Arts. Got it."

"......."

Xiao Hong's face turned even redder than when she'd admitted to having a binge eating disorder.

***

After that, Seo Jae-pil's counseling sessions continued.

"Nice to meet you, Diciple Ju Seo-yeon."

"Nice to meet you, Physician Seo!"

Ju Seo-yeon entered the room with a bright smile, but the moment she finished her greeting, her head started whipping around, scanning the inside of the infirmary.

Seeing her somewhat distracted behavior, Seo Jae-pil smiled. “I hear you wish to become Disciple Il-mok’s attendant?”

Only then did Ju Seo-yeon's wandering gaze return to Seo Jae-pil.

"That's right, Councilor. I absolutely have to become Young Master Il-mok's attendant."

Her answer matched what Seo Jae-pil had been told.

According to Instructor Eun Ryeo, Disciple Ju Seo-yeon also has feelings for the young master.

Recalling the information he'd gotten from the instructors earlier, Seo Jae-pil asked, "May I ask why?"

But the answer he got was completely unexpected.

“Because that’s the only way I can be with Lady Jin Hayeon, Physician Seo.”

"Jin Hayeon... ah, you mean Young Master Il-mok's current attendant? The one from the Hidden Guard Pavilion?"

"Exactly! So you know about Lady Jin Hayeon too, Physician Seo!"

Ju Seo-yeon’s eyes were now sparkling with an intensity that dwarfed her previous demeanor.

She went on and on praising Jin Hayeon, while Seo Jae-pil's eyes sparkled as he scribbled down the counseling content.

It wasn't that he'd been influenced by Ju Seo-yeon and gotten interested in Jin Hayeon himself.

‘Is it admiration or infatuation? A fascinating gray area worth researching. In any case, Disciple Ju Seo-yeon’s feelings for Miss Jin might also be a side effect of her Demonic Art.’

It was simply his mad scientist instincts kicking in.

To satisfy his medical curiosity, he asked, “Hmm. Would you mind telling me about the Demonic Art you practice, and its side effects?”

But once again, the answer was not what Seo Jae-pil expected.

"It's called Mad Spirit Wind Demon Spear, and I was told the side effect is becoming easily distracted, but…”

Perhaps because the topic had shifted away from Jin Hayeon, Ju Seo-yeon didn’t even finish her sentence before she started looking around the room again.

Seo Jae-pil didn’t comment on her distractible behavior.

‘Hmm. It seems the side effect isn’t simply distraction. It’s more likely that her focus becomes so completely absorbed by one thing that she appears scatterbrained about everything else.’

He watched her with his eyes gleaming with interest.

After his first session with Ju Seo-yeon concluded, a female student entered the infirmary holding a fan to the lower half of her face.

“Ohohoho.”

"Nice to meet you, Disciple Bang Mi-hwa."

“Ohoho. The pleasure is all mine.”

She answered haughtily, snapping her fan shut with a sharp thwack.

"To be honest, I am only here because the regulations state that I must have a consultation. I personally do not believe I need one.”

"May I ask why?"

“I am perfect simply by virtue of being me, why would I need this kind of counseling? Oh! I'm not criticizing you, Physician Seo. I’m sure your services are necessary for all the poor souls who need to manage their hearts after falling for me. Ohohoho.”

"......."

Even though Seo Jae-pil hadn't asked about her Demonic Art and its side effects, he somehow had a pretty good idea what her Demonic Art and its side effects were

But counseling was counseling. And since an excellent research subject had come to him, Seo Jae-pil tried to keep the conversation going.

"So what do you do in your free time when you're not training?"

“Did you at least hear about the side effects before you started learning the art?”

But it was hard to call what followed a conversation.

“Ohoho. I spend my time gazing into a mirror or practicing my acting. They say looking at beautiful things calms the soul, don’t they? And watching my beautiful self, or watching my beautiful self act, fills me with nothing but joy.”

"I did hear about the side effects. That I would fall in love with myself, was it? But that’s not a side effect, is it? How could anyone not love someone as beautiful as me? Hohoho. This must be why Young Master Il-mok has fallen for me as well.”

It was a veritable festival of delusion. If Il-mok had been there, he probably would have felt dizzy, claiming his own Demonic Art was about to go haywire. But Seo Jae-pil’s reaction was quite different.

‘Hahaha! The Hall of the Demonic Way really is an interesting place!’

He was overflowing with research subjects.

Of course, the main headquarters had plenty of crazy people too, but the atmosphere was different. The martial artists at headquarters were mostly older, so it was tricky to get them to open up about their inner thoughts.

But the apprentices at the Hall of the Demonic Way were still young, so most of them showed their raw emotions without filtering. And even when they tried to hide things, they weren't skilled at it, so he could easily dig deeper.

***

By the time all of his year-mates had finished their first consultations, Il-mok went to the infirmary again.

"I heard you also conducted counseling with Instructor Xiao Hong."

"That's correct."

“It seems she’s realized she’s under suspicion. Did anything strange come up during the consultation?”

Il-mok asked with an uncomfortable expression.

For some reason, Xiao Hong, who had been so brazen in her advances, had suddenly backed off.

Of course, Seo Jae-pil didn't reveal what he'd learned.

"Nothing particularly suspicious so far."

He didn’t feel the slightest pang of guilt for lying.

‘It was also the Eighth Young Master who decided that counseling content shouldn't be shared with others, so he should understand.’

The person who'd given him justification was right there in front of him, that young genius.

It's just that in the past, it had been temporarily allowed because there were people targeting the Eighth Young Master.

And more importantly…

‘If I told him the truth, I wouldn't be able to continue my research. Hehehe.’

Every movement, every psychological shift of the instructors and cadets in the Hall was a data point for his research.

And since the Eighth Young Master was at the center of it all, he had a duty to observe how things would unfold without his interference.

"...Something feels off."

Il-mok still seemed suspicious of Xiao Hong, so Seo Jae-pil opened his mouth to change the subject.

"Hehehe. Actually, after conducting counseling with students, instructors, and various people from headquarters, I've discovered one particular symptom, Young Master."

"What is it?"

“Not everyone has it, but it appears frequently. It’s… how to put it? Like they don’t listen to a word anyone says? No, it’s more that they only seem to hear what they want to hear.”

Bang Mi-hwa was the most severe case, and there were quite a few others showing similar symptoms, including Dokgo Pae and Ju Seo-yeon.

For reasons he couldn't fathom, those with the most severe cases also happened to be the ones closest to Il-mok. He brought it up casually.

"I'm thinking of researching this condition, but I'm having trouble coming up with a concise term to describe it."

"A symptom where they only hear what they want to hear? Hmm."

Il-mok thought for a moment.

‘I feel like I heard about this when I was Seo Ji-hoon?’

Soon, Il-mok was able to recall the term.

"How about calling it confirmation bias?"

“Oho. A bias in how one confirms information.”

"Or conversely, you could see it as only accepting biased information to confirm what they already believe."

"Indeed, you truly are amazing, Young Master! Hehehe."

Seo Jae-pil was praising him like it was brilliant, but Il-mok finally felt something was fishy.

It wasn't about Seo Jae-pil.

‘Wait a minute, why is this place filled with nothing but confirmation bias patients?’

Il-mok could easily find the answer to his own question.

‘...I guess it's natural when you combine a cult with Demonic Arts.’

People with firm beliefs tend to show confirmation bias. This is especially true if they believe in cult doctrines that have nothing to do with logic. It'd be weirder if they didn't have confirmation bias.

Add Demonic Arts that cause mental illness on top of that, and it's like putting a cherry on top.

It was a structure where even normal people would inevitably develop confirmation bias after spending a few years here.

"I really need to get out of here..."

"You mean the Hall of the Demonic Way?"

Il-mok nearly flinched when Seo Jae-pil responded to his muttering.

Desertion meant apostasy, which could get his head chopped off.

So Il-mok quickly made up an excuse.

"After graduating from the Hall of the Demonic Way, I'm thinking of going to other regions for the sake of the Divine Cult."

"Other regions... Ah! Are you planning to visit the Central Plains where the unbelievers live?"

"Exactly. We need to spread the word of our Divine Cult there too, don't we?"

It was an excuse he’d cooked up on the spot to avoid being labeled a traitor, but the more he thought about it, the more it sounded like a damn good plan.

‘I might be young, but I’m the Heavenly Demon’s disciple. If I go, I’ll probably start as a branch master. It’ll be far from the main headquarters, so they won't be able to keep a close eye on me. It would be the perfect place to hole up in a quiet branch and just chill.’

He even had the perfect pretext.

‘I could say I'm going to the Central Plains to gather information and get revenge on the Flying Dragon Pavilion Master who killed Uncle Tae-hyeon.’

Revenge was revenge, but first he'd enjoy as much peace as possible, then look for the right moment to get his revenge.

‘Great. It's a perfect plan! Once I graduate from the Hall of the Demonic Way, I'll finally have peace!’

While Il-mok was grinning as he imagined his happy future...

Seo Jae-pil was also picturing his own future.

‘The Young Master will graduate from the Hall of the Demonic Way in one year and five months, so I can follow him then. Hehehe.’

After studying crazy people—no, people suffering from Demonic Arts—Seo Jae-pil thought he needed to compare them with people who hadn't learned Demonic Arts.