“Um, Amelia-ssi.”
“Yes.”
What question should I ask? Whatever question it is, I don’t want to ask something too related to Amelia-ssi’s private life. But since I’m already hypnotizing her, it’s also true that I want to hear a somewhat constructive answer. What question wouldn’t reveal Amelia-ssi’s private life while she doesn’t normally tell me, and would benefit us all? After pondering, I barely opened my mouth.
“H-how is work?”
“It’s shit.”
Her answer came immediately. Of course work would be shit but… Amelia-ssi was a bartender who came here from Lithuania. Even when rude customers came, she’d stabilize the situation with her characteristic calm atmosphere, and she was quiet and kind, so much so that some among the staff found it frustrating that she didn’t get angry.
However, she was generally very calm and was someone who wouldn’t even put profanity in her mouth. For her to say ‘shit’…. Would it be possible to ask in more detail? I gave a bitter smile and asked once more.
“What aspects are shit?”
“All the bastards who come here are filthily ugly. Too many bastards with armpits that smell like rotten onions come. I didn’t know this was a place run by the mafia. And why don’t British people wash properly with water when doing dishes? It’s so disgusting that they only soap and wipe with a cloth without rinsing with water. I’m a bartender but bastards who seem 20 years older than me keep making passes at me. It wasn’t like this in Lithuania, but in Britain, men are overall fucking ugly.”
I was surprised by her candid statement. I didn’t know she’d speak this long. I never dreamed Amelia-ssi thought such things normally. So things she consciously thought about normally really come out like this.
‘Then if I hypnotize the Boss, rather than just answering, his true personality comes out like this?’
Suppressing my swelling chest, I took a deep breath. Already in my mind, an image formed of the Boss obediently spreading his legs as told and straddling me, terrifyingly denouncing me while inserting the penis himself in response to the question ‘Please tell me how you normally think of me.’
“Huuu….”
About to smile foolishly because just the thought made me want to get erect, I realized the ladies were still sitting in front of me and closed my mouth. I shouldn’t show such an ugly thing in front of ladies…. Even if they have no awareness. Thinking that made me feel sorry for the women before me. In the end, I used them as hypnosis rehearsal for the Boss, so I thought I should listen to their inner thoughts at this opportunity and improve their work environment a bit.
“Th-then Amelia-ssi, about the men being ugly…. I, I can’t help that but…. I’ll do something about the dish-washing problem, yes….”
Though she can’t hear, I said that while nodding.
*
The atmosphere at ‘Manon’s Pleasure’ is good these days. It might be partly due to relief that the Boss passed over it without saying anything, but I was working to give this bar more direct help. I actually wasn’t the type to have conversations with employees normally. It’s not that I’m originally the type who doesn’t talk for no reason…. Rather, it was because ‘Manon’s Pleasure’ had many female employees, and I thought talking with me would cause them harm.
I learned for the first time after coming to Britain that I’m ugly. In my hometown, there weren’t many people who would tell me about my face, but only after meeting the Boss did I learn what my face objectively looked like. According to the Boss, I’m not just tall but my body protrudes here and there making me look dull, my eyes are too sharp, my expression is gloomy and sinister. He kindly informed me that I have a fierce, ugly face that women would absolutely hate.
Since women’s hearts aren’t important to me it was okay, but if I talked with a woman for no reason, customers would joke about what relationship we had, and they too tended to be startled or unable to make proper eye contact when I spoke to them, so I stopped talking to them. I’m not interested in women anyway, and I didn’t want to make things unnecessarily uncomfortable in a professional relationship.
So to me, hypnosis was a fairly grateful tool. Not only could I use it on the Boss, but I could also hear employees’ usual thoughts.
And thankfully, I was able to gain valuable harvest through practice.
Unlike what I told Amelia-ssi, I was also able to solve the ‘ugly customer problem.’
“Manager…!”
At Barbara-ssi’s call, I looked where she was pointing. There was Amelia-ssi and a man sitting in front of her.
“Wh-what’s going on…?”
“That customer came all last month…. I thought he wasn’t coming for a while….”
As she trailed off, I nodded.
“D-don’t worry. I’ll handle it….”
At those words, Barbara-ssi’s face brightened. Looking at the bar, a man whose face was obviously bright red was grabbing Amelia-ssi’s wrist and not letting go. The Boss’s directive when customers who hit on them like this came was not to intervene.
Customers who damaged property or stole had to pay the price even if they sold their organs, but ‘let it slide appropriately’ was what the Boss used to say.
However, I once warned a customer who tried to touch regular employees rather than hostesses, ignoring the Boss’s words. Unfortunately, that customer was the Boss’s acquaintance, and I barely received forgiveness by getting severely whipped by the Boss in front of the customer.
‘Elbeek? Since your head is fucking bad, I’ll tell you again. In a bar, women’s bodies are like drinking snacks. Just touching them makes customers buy drinks. So a fucking bastard who steals customers’ snacks should be fucking beaten, right?’
He said that and laughed pleasantly.
‘If this matter reaches my ears one more time, I’ll whip you like today. And I’ll rub coarse salt all over it. When I get tired of you squirming like a salted earthworm, I’ll throw you into the sea.’
Just hearing that ominous voice gave me chills. But from the sight of the Boss hitting me with a whip instead of a club, I felt something…. erotic, so I think I was able to endure that day.
Now, even when that voice comes to mind, I don’t feel fear. I went to Amelia-ssi’s side with a refreshed heart. As I approached, the man flinched and looked up at me.
“What the fuck. Did you come to watch as an employee?”
“N-no. Customer, i-it’s just that, we’re preparing a special event these days….”
One of the advantages of working at this bar is that fairly diverse customers come. Though they all have in common being slightly drunk, Saint Sophia Island was originally a place where customers from all over Europe came for tourism. And the age group that came most often was the 20s to early 30s, similar to the Boss. Since there was an overflow of subjects to practice on, I….
“First, could you stand up for a moment? Let’s go out together briefly.”
“……”
“Come on.”
“……Yes….”
I had reached a level where I could hypnotize most people with just my eyes.
“This way.”
Leading the instantly dazed customer, I headed for the back door. Glancing back, Amelia-ssi was mouthing ‘thank you.’
“Now, you had a very enjoyable time today. Of, of course, it’s not like you played with Amelia-ssi or anything. R-right. Y-you had fun dancing to the music coming from our club. Alone. Got it?”
“……Yes….”
“And you drank a lot. T-take out the money you decided to spend here today.”
“Yes……”
The man obediently took out two fifty-pound notes from his wallet. Since it was obvious the Boss would come talking about sales again if I sent all the customers away like this, I couldn’t send them back empty-handed. Though it’s not much to call a substitute, I was doing something slightly good for these people with the techniques I learned from the book.
“I received the money well…. Um, from now on I’m going to give you orders. You’ll forget the fact that I gave you orders, and you’ll follow my orders every day from now on. Got it?”
“Yes……”
I took a deep breath. I had stock phrases that combined my usual lifestyle habits and what the female employees told me during hypnosis. I recited the words I’d already said several times to customers who visited here.
“F-from now on, you will wash your entire body including your hair with soap once a day. After showering, you must spray shower cologne or deodorant. Comb your hair every morning. Wash T-shirts and shirts worn for more than two days. Clean your room once a week with a vacuum and wet mop. Increase vegetables in your diet. Vegetables excluding potatoes. Eat one large bowl a day of green vegetables like cucumbers or cabbage. Brush your teeth three times a day without fail. Jog for more than 30 minutes about three times a week.”
“Yes……”
“…Good…. Then I’ll say them one by one again, so repeat after me as I say. Got it?”
What I learned while reading the book was that lifestyle habit correction through hypnosis was also possible. By entering the ‘behavioral compliance state’ through hypnosis and giving orders like this, simple behaviors could be modified except in very extreme cases.
‘Though it says there are cases where the effect doesn’t last long depending on the person….’
If they live cleanly even for a few days, at least the people around them will be happy. Thinking that, I completed the command.
“Now, go home. A-and don’t come looking for Amelia-ssi anymore. Forget all memories of following me and me saying these things.”
