APIBAGS Chapter 44

At least you're happy, Daisy. That's something.

"Did you get to speak with them properly?"

"Yes... The butler told me that my lady had asked for the children to be looked after as much as possible. Thank you."

Yesterday, when she'd told the butler that Daisy was coming back to work, he'd been enormously surprised. Since Daisy would have quit because of how terribly Evangeline had treated her, her wanting to return was apparently startling enough.

And when she'd mentioned bringing three children along with her, he'd asked in a trembling voice whether she'd kidnapped them. She'd genuinely been possessing this body for a while now. Why was Evangeline's villainess image showing absolutely no sign of improvement.

Only after she'd explained the children's situation did the butler accept it. She'd almost asked whether a villainess doing something kind bothered him. Of course, being a cultivated person who respected her elders, she didn't actually say it.

"My lady, a letter from Sir Gabriel."

Should I open it. Debated. Opened it anyway. Another letter in his usual elegant cursive. The content was nothing special—he'd like to join her for afternoon tea. Two o'clock. Checking the clock, she had plenty of time.

"Let's get ready."

Her heart wanted to dress casually, but she needed to look good, so maximum effort it was.

With three people helping, the time needed dropped considerably. When she'd first transmigrated, she hadn't even had a dedicated maid. Now she had three.

She was managing the rofan lifestyle fairly well, all things considered.

"You look truly radiant today as well."

As Kanna said—Evangeline had always been beautiful enough to carry the villainess title, but today she was even more so. Perhaps because Daisy had originally served Evangeline, her skill at dressing people was genuinely impressive. She'd produced accessories from somewhere she hadn't known about and arranged them on her.

When preparations were finished and she was lounging about, a servant knocked at the door.

"My lady, Sir Gabriel has arrived."

Going down to the drawing room with Daisy, she found Gabriel rising from his seat.

That look. Every single time.

She was the one who'd put all the effort in, and yet he wasn't falling behind in the slightest. The kind of man who wouldn't make a sound if stabbed inclined his head pleasantly.

"Lady Rohanson. I trust last night was restful."

No, I didn't sleep a wink, you idiot.

"Thanks to your assistance, I rested very well."

"I'm glad to hear it."

She settled into her seat across from him, and Gabriel resumed his. She watched him sidelong. He looked exactly as he had yesterday—not a flicker of disturbance, perfectly composed. It was almost enough to make her doubt he'd actually heard from Daisy that she was a soul-thief.

No. Don't let your guard down. That composure might be a ploy to catch her off-balance.

"The children have been settled in the temple orphanage, as I mentioned. Troy will be staying for a while to help with odd jobs. It isn't an establishment that would be troubled by ten more children, so please don't worry."

Gabriel opened with the practical update.

"This is an entry pass to the orphanage for Miss Daisy. The temple orphanage is access-restricted, so she'll need to carry it at all times."

"...Thank you."

He'd had a pass and a map made so Daisy could visit whenever she needed. Troy had kept the borrowed gold untouched on his person and was going today with a knight escort to repay the debt—they'd already departed together, so they'd probably arrived by now. No moneylender would dare cheat or bully with a holy knight standing right there, so it was a very sensible arrangement.

And once the preliminary investigation of the director and the basement was complete, Troy planned to donate the orphanage building to the temple.

"The priest who was Merai's associate will be dismissed today."

The other associates—nobility and merchants—were beyond the temple's direct reach, but he'd pass their information to the imperial palace first.

Given the class-hierarchy nature of rofan worlds, they probably wouldn't face serious punishment. But since the male lead was stepping in, maybe they'd at least get hit with aggravated sentencing.

"Merai's crimes are too grave to avoid a death sentence."

Not burning at the stake. Just beheading, apparently.

One side: dismissed from his position. The other: executed. The same crime—trafficking children—with wildly different penalties. But given what was visible on the surface, Merai's conduct was worse, which made a sort of sense.

"The Merai matter should conclude roughly like this. I'll update you as things develop."

"It must have been a great deal of work. Thank you."

If Gabriel hadn't come yesterday, she would have had to handle all of that herself. Thinking about it that way, he looked briefly like an angel. Really—how had he wrapped up that much in a single night? She'd just been lying there failing to sleep. Was this the capability of a male lead perpetually working overtime?

Gabriel took a sip of tea once the summary was done.

Ah. Here it came.

Her heart kicked hard.

What was he going to say? Surely he wasn't going to start flinging holy water and shouting back, demon—that would be a character collapse, wouldn't it. Was he just going to go straight for her throat, then? Handcuffs—no, rope—and march her off under arrest—

Gabriel was taking his time. The pause of a mid-broadcast commercial break, precisely when she could least afford it.

"And the reason I came to visit so suddenly yesterday was..."

The pace she hated most. Honestly, even a beating is better received quickly—just say it.

"I know this is abrupt, but would you do me the honor of being my partner?"

Just please don't kill me.

"...Partner?"

What was that supposed to mean all of a sudden.

What. Suddenly. A date invitation, here? Going to a ball together, dancing—was that what this was?

She had been fully braced for something in the thriller-shock-suspense genre, and Gabriel had abruptly switched lanes to romance.

Was he serious. He was going to pretend not to know she wasn't Evangeline?

No—he was probably biding his time for the perfect moment to expose her. Did he think she'd sit around in suspense until he got around to it? Rather than spend every moment in dread of when the reveal would come, she'd rather say it herself right now.

When you're cornered: strike first.

"You know I'm not Evangeline—and you're asking me anyway?"

She was so floored she'd brought it up herself before deciding to.

Gabriel lowered his gaze. His lashes fluttered.

Who exactly was he pulling that on.

He didn't even know what a possession story was. If someone's dead body suddenly started running on a different soul, the appropriate response was to call it a ghost or a demon, surely. He was a holy knight, for goodness' sake.

"Yes. I'm quite aware."

Gabriel's fingers traced the handle of his teacup.

So he was asking even knowing she was a possessor.

Embarrassing to say out loud, but Gabriel seemed to like her even more than she'd thought. He'd gotten to the point where it didn't matter who she was. Of course she did manage her own little fish farm, but—what a pushover.

All that overnight worry evaporated. What exactly had she been trembling about all day. The fish was already caught.

"To be more precise—I would like you to attend the upcoming social functions as my partner."

"Why, suddenly?"

The answer that came back was more than she'd anticipated.

Her summoning circle was circulating among the wealthy by word of mouth, it turned out.

He seemed worried about it being misused if left alone. Well—both the priest and the director had used it inappropriately, so that tracked. His plan was apparently to move through society with her and identify suspicious individuals.

But did catching spirits actually require her.

She couldn't let people use her summoning circle freely, obviously. But she didn't even know how to perform a proper summoning herself. How was everyone else successfully completing these rituals.

A chilling thought arrived. What if her spirit affinity was, in fact, catastrophically nonexistent.

So you just drew the circle and called out and that was all it took—and she had failed every single time. Maybe the reason Gabriel was asking for her help was because her presence actually lowered spirit summoning success rates, or something equally grim.

"Because when you're present, the drawing's influence becomes muddled."

Confirmation kill—landed. The coup de grâce.

Her eyes stung.

This was genuinely too much. The grief of not knowing the source material. The grief of the translator cutting out on her occasionally. And now zero spirit affinity on top of all of that. Even for a villainess, this was downright heartless.

"And there is also the matter of deflecting suspicion regarding your identity."

Right. This was a rofan world, and perhaps because Evangeline was a villainess, situations sometimes came together perfectly even when she wasn't doing anything wrong. One wrong step and rumors would spread that she was commanding spirits.

Donau had acted as if he'd been commissioned to kidnap by her. There had been a summoning circle drawn in Daisy's orphanage too. If she hadn't been there with them, all the blame would have been neatly transferred to her.

Being with Gabriel would at least reduce that kind of suspicion. Gabriel was an upright, incorruptible holy knight.

"If that's the case, then I'm happy to. Gladly."

And Gabriel hadn't known whether she was a demon or a ghost, yet he'd covered over the transmigration and stood on her side. She didn't forget debts easily.

They'd made a satisfying deal—and then Daisy carefully raised an objection.

"Um... My lady, you haven't had your debutante yet..."

What? Wasn't a villainess supposed to already be reigning as the flower of society?

The thick cluster of lights had thinned as Gabriel descended, until by the time he reached the underground it had become the kind of dark where a lantern was not optional.

The underground—beyond the reach of sunlight, beyond the sight of God—was a fitting place to carry out ugly work. Perhaps that was why the empire had an unusual abundance of cellars. The Grand Temple was no exception. What Gabriel had come looking for was the holding room: a space given primarily to the detention and interrogation of criminals.

"Bishop Jabaniya?"

"We meet again."

There had been an earlier visitor.

Two priests, Bishop Jabaniya, and a middle-aged woman in a white veil received Gabriel with every appearance of warmth.

"Knight Commander. It has been some time."