MPBAGS Chapter 117

Pudding had found Tenebrae using his clairvoyance and impulsively rushed off alone.

"Master. He went by himself."

I know... Jelly and I stared helplessly at the spot where Pudding had disappeared.

No, if you found her, shouldn't we have gone together at least? It could be dangerous, so how could he go alone! Pudding was young, so he probably didn't know how dangerous the world could be.

Well, it's normal for kids to insist on doing errands by themselves. I should have noticed earlier when he was straining himself, saying he'd find Tenebrae on his own...

"Let's follow him."

Still, it was fortunate that at least Jelly was with me. When Jelly snapped his fingers, we teleported to where Pudding was. Just me and Jelly.

"What about Sir Ante?"

"Someone needs to guard the prison too."

That's true. Since my dress is left in the prison, I trust that Sir Ante will tactfully put on the dress and pretend to be me. Romance novels always have episodes like this. I nodded and looked around.

"...A forest?"

The place we had moved to was a dense forest. Pudding should have moved here after finding Tenebrae, but Tenebrae herself was nowhere to be seen—had she run away again?

Speaking of which, a forest... Tenebrae must have escaped the imperial palace in that short time.

Such excellent escape skills shouldn't have been used for killing her biological father, but should have shone as a fleeing heroine, I was about to lament, when I spotted the familiar top of a castle in the corner of my vision.

She hadn't escaped the imperial palace—she was just in the forest behind the backyard. I take back what I said about her being a fleeing heroine. To think she only ran as far as the backyard. She'll be caught by the male lead within a day.

So Tenebrae was nowhere to be seen, and Pudding... had Pudding also chased after Tenebrae? I had Jelly lead the way as we followed Pudding's trail. The forest was quite large, so I thought it would be hard to find them, but fortunately we were able to find Pudding before too long.

"Pudding."

"Don't come any closer."

I approached asking if he had found Tenebrae, but Pudding cut me off firmly. He disappeared by himself just now, and now he's telling us not to come closer? Our cat must be going through puberty! I didn't even give birth to Pudding, but tears welled up in my eyes from the hurt.

It's useless to raise a pet beastman with all your love and care. Hurt, I kept my mouth tightly shut and stayed quiet, when I heard footsteps approaching through the bushes—it wasn't just Pudding there.

I thought it might be Tenebrae, but what appeared through the bushes was some tall man. He was wearing similar clothes to Gabriel, so he seemed to be a holy knight.

"I wondered where that cute bell sound was coming from, and it was you after all. How did you manage to find where I was?"

The man smiled brightly at Pudding. When he was still, he looked like a pious young man, but as soon as he smiled, sharp teeth and a forked tongue were revealed from inside his mouth, completely changing his impression 180 degrees. His neat, handsome impression changed dramatically.

"You're stupid for not noticing when the fishy smell is so strong."

Pudding also bared his teeth and was on guard. I wondered if his comment was unnecessary, as a fishy smell reached me too with the man's appearance. Blood was dripping from the sword the man held, so that smell was definitely coming from there. *Hik* Where did he go to cut someone?

"You also reek of beast smell. Plus, whatever you ate, you even smell rotten."

I was momentarily indignant at the man's words. Rotten smell—what nonsense is this bastard talking about! Our kids are fragrant because the servants of the Rohanson estate wash and comb them with their souls! Pudding and Jelly are living solid perfumes! I was busy refuting in my mind because I was scared of the sword the man held, but Pudding, still young and fearless, continued to taunt.

"Shut your mouth. Rotten smell is better than fishy smell anyway."

"Is this uncharacteristic bickering and wagging of your tongue because of your master?"

From his mentions of beast smell and bell sounds, he clearly knew that Pudding and Jelly were beastmen—he was definitely one of their kind, but their relationship seemed very hostile despite that.

Why was he here in the first place? Seeing that he's in the forest now, he's either chasing Tenebrae or helping her... I was trying to figure out which side he was on when the man's gaze suddenly turned to me. S-startling! I thought my heart would drop. The man smiled slyly and greeted me pretending to be polite.

"This is the first time I'm meeting you directly like this. My name is Azrael Astaroth."

Maybe because I had just heard him speaking arrogantly to Pudding, his attempt at politeness felt rather slimy. He had a similar way of speaking to Gabriel, but I couldn't understand why it felt so different. Come to think of it, Gabriel has a refreshing quality, perhaps thanks to the male lead buff. Azrael didn't stop there and approached me step by step. With each step, blood droplets fell to the ground, leaving a trail.

"I was quite shocked even when passing by, but seeing you up close, you're even more stimulating to beings like us. I can see why Flauros tucks his tail and submits."

Fla, Flau... what? I don't know what nonsense he's talking about. Plus, I don't know what kind of unsuccessful flirting this is supposed to be. And that's not how you use informal speech mixed with formal speech!

Azrael reached out his hand as if to caress my hair.

"How dare you reach out to...!"

Pudding rushed forward angrily, and Jelly also reached out as if to stop him.

"Stop."

At my voice, not only Azrael but also Pudding and Jelly, who were coming toward me, stopped their movements. How touching that they're worried about me, but I can handle this much myself—they're both overreacting. I could do self-defense techniques too.

When I firmly grabbed the wrist of Azrael, who was trying to touch my hair, he whined that it hurt.

"Ugh, what strength..."

As if it hurts. Do beastmen all have severe reactions to pain, or do they have a low pain threshold? I put even more strength into my grip. I was annoyed that he was trying to touch someone else's body without permission, so I had to say something.

"You're the same species as Pudding, right?"

"...You could say that."

From his vague response, he's not the same type of cat. Since his tongue is forked, maybe he's a snake?

"Then why are you acting so arrogantly toward me?"

I'm Pudding and Jelly's guardian. Acting arrogantly and flirting with a friend's guardian—this bastard. Should I just pickle him in alcohol?

We were having a staring contest when Azrael's pupils shook wildly, perhaps flustered by my direct hit. You think it's a bit wrong too, don't you? I thought he might have understood now, so I let go of his hand, but Azrael staggered backward, covered his face with his hands, and started giggling. Did he go crazy from too much shock?

"Haha, hahaha... You're really amazing."

Azrael stopped laughing after a while and became serious again. I felt a sense of déjà vu—this was similar to the method I had used when performing my villainess act against Donau. Was this how Donau felt back then? Now that I'm on the receiving end, it's really scary...

"Now I understand why these guys bare their bellies and submit to you. But I'd feel wronged to be treated the same as those toothless guys. If someone is above my level, I’ll make sure they get dragged down into the dirt where they belong.”

Now I get it. If Pudding is going through adolescence, then Azrael has eighth-grader syndrome. Actually, I could believe it if you told me he wasn't a snake beast-person but a lindworm about to evolve into a black flame dragon.

"I'm the type who plays with people, not the type to be dominated—I hate that. So I want to devour you right now... If I use my full strength, wouldn't that pretty vessel of yours at least get a crack?"

Azrael said this while pointing his sword at me. Just a moment ago Azrael had seemed creepy, but now instead of being scared, I felt a little embarrassed. Friend, have you heard of secondhand embarrassment? I think mine just hit rock bottom. I wish someone would unfold my curled-up hands and feet.

"You'll regret it."

I sincerely advised him. He might not know it now in his edgy phase, but once he grows out of this eighth-grader superiority nonsense, he'll be lying awake every night cringing at these memories, kicking his blankets in mortification until they're shredded.

"How thoughtful of you to even give advice."

Azrael sneered, not knowing I was worried about him. Well... during that period, even if someone tries to stop you, it doesn't reach even your ears. His vertically slit yellow eyes blinked boldly.

"So you'll play with me, right?"

Azrael swung his sword. I couldn't react quickly and just stared blankly, when someone strongly pulled my shoulder and I barely avoided the sword. Perhaps from shock, I was a beat slow in understanding what was happening to me. Ah, it was Jelly who saved me.

"Lady Evangeline!"

Pudding's shrill shout sounded muffled as if underwater.

"That crazy bastard dares to swing a sword at who..."

Jelly retreated while protecting me, and Pudding rushed at Azrael.

"Flauros. Could you please not interfere between us two?"

"It's disgusting, so please don't associate Lady Evangeline with the likes of you."

"The likes of me? Acting arrogant when you can't even beat me."

So he calls Pudding "Flauros." Is that Pudding's real name? I felt uniquely irrational for calmly searching for Pudding's real name in this situation.

It was the same just now. Even when Azrael swung his sword at me, I was strangely unafraid. I was confused enough to wonder if I had left my amygdala at home when I was transported here.

Maybe it was because it didn't feel real. This was still inside a novel, and Evangeline was just fiction. Even while eating, sleeping, and living daily life, I often had such thoughts, so just because a villain with an adolescent grandiosity complex pointed a sword at me didn't mean I would suddenly feel a life crisis and become alert. Yeah, that's why.

Perhaps because of that, even watching the fight between Pudding and Azrael unfolding before my eyes, I could only think it was like an action game. I was having such peaceful thoughts like "Our Pudding is a mage, but he's holding up well in close combat against a warrior" when it happened.

"Ugh...!"

Suddenly Pudding staggered. Blood trickled from Pudding's tightly shut eyes. Just like in the prison earlier when he overexerted himself, he shed bloody tears—his body didn't seem fully recovered yet.

Azrael showed no mercy and tried to continue attacking Pudding, who had lost his sight. The tip of the sword aimed at Pudding was red. This is going to be bad, isn't it? Before that thought could finish, my body moved on its own. I stepped in with my back to Pudding and caught Azrael's swinging sword with my hand to block it. It was truly an impulsive act I committed without knowing it myself.

"...It hurts."

It hurt like hell. Because it hurt, I suddenly came to my senses. So this is why people pinch their cheeks to check if it's a dream or reality...! Come to think of it, I could have asked Jelly to save me, so I deeply regretted why my weak self had stepped in front of a sword.

Blood dripped onto the ground. Azrael's eyes were shaking as if hit by an earthquake—he seemed very flustered too. I could replace the "Why are you coming out from there" meme with the expression Azrael was making now.

"So your blood is red too."

Yet he still maintained his concept with his lines—that was impressive. Then what, would my blood be blue? I can't tell if Azrael is spouting edgelord-like lines, or if an edgelord is spouting Azrael-like lines—it's reached an indistinguishable level. Wrong, Azrael has just become an edgelord itself.

When I let go of the sword I was holding, Azrael stepped back.

"Blood..."

Pudding seemed shocked that I got hurt trying to save him. With burst capillaries and bloody tears, his eyes flashed—he looked ready to rush over and bite someone's throat. The irrational Pudding staggered forward.

As Pudding approached Azrael, the atmosphere changed and the surroundings darkened. I thought clouds had covered the moon and looked up at the sky, only to make eye contact with a giant eye.

Did I see wrong? I rubbed my eyes and looked again, but the giant orb floating in the air didn't disappear. The bloodshot pupil stared intently at Azrael. Am I still half asleep? No, my cut hand hurts too much for that. I wondered if I was seeing things from blood loss, but Jelly also seemed to see the eye and gasped softly.

"Wow. Pudding is really angry..."

Pudding? Ah. Pudding must have cast illusion magic. He lost his rationality and his target setting went awry, dragging us into it too.

Huge wings spread from Pudding's back. If the wings had been made of white feathers, I would have gushed about how our cat was an angel, but since what tore through his flesh were made of flesh and countless eyeballs embedded in the meat, I could only hold back nausea. If it was a device to exploit a weakness by targeting Azrael's trypophobia, it was perfectly successful.

But why wings of all things? Does our Pudding have an interest in fallen angels or something? It seemed like eighth-grader syndrome was contagious too. Contagious eighth-grader syndrome—what a social menace.

If the eyeballs set the mood, the real thing started now. Flames rose from Azrael. Since they didn't spread to the surroundings or produce smoke, that was also an illusion. However, Azrael couldn't distinguish properly and groaned in pain, thinking his body was really burning.

"Hot, it hurts, it hurts."

Azrael rolled on the ground. The fire was so hot that Azrael's flesh melted and his form became distorted.

"Who did you dare to hurt, you need to pay the price."

Pudding, who had been watching quietly, wasn't satisfied and crushed Azrael's hand.

Awakening due to a comrade's injury is also a cliché, but Pudding's was severe. It's fortunate this is inside a novel—otherwise he'd be arrested for excessive response.

"That mean little cat bastard."

It wasn't just me who felt that way—Jelly was also disgusted. Our Pudding... so he had been acting coy and cute with me all this time, but he's actually mean-natured. Jelly clicked his tongue and turned my head toward him.

"If you watch too much, that guy will hate it, you know? He's already trying to show only his well-packaged side, but he seems to have lost his reason right now. And you should only see good things, master."

He was grinning widely while joking, as if appealing that his face was the good thing to look at. Well, if I keep watching, it would probably be bad for my mental health too. I decided to ignore Azrael's screams.

"Is your hand badly hurt?"

"No. It's fine."

For catching a blade with bare hands, the wound wasn't that serious. It was bleeding, so it looked bad, but it was just like a big paper cut. Azrael must have pulled back his strength when he saw me intervene.

Still, a cut is a cut. This was the second time I'd been hurt since being transported here. The first time when I got stabbed by a splinter on the wooden floor while drawing a summoning circle, it hurt enough to bring tears to my eyes, but it was incomparable to catching a blade with bare hands.

"I didn't expect you to step in between, master."

I didn't know that either.

Jelly examined my hand. Perhaps due to the illusion's influence, the grass rotted away where my blood had dripped on the ground. I wrapped a handkerchief around it for emergency first aid. It was only after Jelly tied the handkerchief that Azrael's screams finally stopped.

The illusion disappeared, so there was no giant eyeball or wings visible. He must have used his body during that time, as the back of Pudding's clothes was torn. It was precisely at the same position where the wings had emerged.

Azrael was panting on the ground in a tattered state.

Pudding wasn't satisfied even after shattering Azrael's mental state. Looking at Azrael with bloodshot eyes, he seemed to want to chop Azrael into grains of sand too. But Azrael's mental strength seemed already broken...

"Azrael."

"I hurt you. What should I do? I'm excited and overwhelmed, but I feel like I've committed such a grave mistake that my heart is trembling. Why? I feel so sorry and apologetic that I want to cut off my neck and offer it to you. What did you do to me?"

He cast illusion magic, you bastard. Azrael was confused, pulling at his hair.

"Did you repent for hurting me?"

I reached out and stroked his cheek to tell him to come to his senses. I couldn't slap someone who had gone insane from excessive mental damage.

"I'm afraid. I feel so hideous for having harmed you that I'm afraid."

He seemed to have developed trauma and couldn't escape from his guilt.

Azrael found my hand dreadful and was disgusted, yet far from shaking it off, he buried his face in my hand. Why, why is he like this...? When I pulled my hand away in surprise, Pudding immediately kicked Azrael in the stomach as if he'd been waiting. Violence against someone who doesn't resist is perfect venting... I'm sorry our cat is so jealous.

I didn't feel guilty since Azrael had brought it on himself in the first place. Even before attacking us, his sword was covered in blood from cutting someone else.

Wait. He didn't kill someone, did he?

"Azrael. Whose blood was on your sword?"

Pudding stomped on Azrael's head as if telling him to answer. Our Pudding, since he can't chop him into sand grains, he's planning to bury him in sand.

"Jeremia."

"Jeremia?"

Not Tenebrae but Jeremia? Why was Jeremia in the forest where we came chasing Tenebrae? When I asked back, Azrael corrected himself.

"No. Was it Tenebrae?"

Azrael giggled while buried in sand.

"Did you kill her?"

"If she's lucky, she might still be alive."

Saying she might be alive if she's lucky means he inflicted serious wounds.

Whether it was Tenebrae or Jeremia wasn't important. The problem for me was that both of them were Gabriel's nieces. I had come chasing Tenebrae because I was worried that Gabriel might commit fraternal murder, blinded by the desire to acquit me.

I haven't told Gabriel about the secret of his birth yet. I should have told him during the last visit if I knew this would happen. It was a disaster from momentarily forgetting the novel's law that you shouldn't postpone important conversations. Of course, I wasn't entirely without the desire to secretly take the princess away and get help investigating the truth of the case.

"I need to go to the princess."

I got up and gathered my energy.

"I'll play a little more before going."

Pudding's anger didn't seem fully resolved. Azrael wasn't just an edgelord cosplayer but a real crazy person who swung swords, so there must be several people who actually suffered harm. Since Pudding and I, Pudding's master, were among those victims, I understood why he was so angry. Plus, Jelly had said that they were bitter enemies. To think such a person is a holy knight—the world is ending.

"I'll go ahead, so have a good conversation and come back."

"Yes. I'll definitely return to Lady Evangeline."

Pudding smiled brightly, then looked at my injured hand and frowned sadly. Pudding took my wounded hand and rubbed his cheek against it cutely. If his face had been clean, I would have pushed him away saying blood would get on it, but since he was covered in blood just like me, I let him. Pudding's cuteness was powerful even with blood smeared on his face.

"And Lady Evangeline. You don't need to get hurt trying to save someone like me."

Pudding licked my wound like a cat. Is it disinfection?

"But then you would have gotten hurt."

I don't know about other people, but how could I just stand by when our house cat was about to get hit by a sword? But Pudding refuted my words.

"Just let me get hurt. It's better for me to die than to let Lady Evangeline get wounded. Even that stinking snake went crazy from the fact that he hurt Lady Evangeline—how much more would I?"

Jelly nodded vigorously in agreement.

"To hurt Master—die and apologize, Pudding."

Pudding ignored Jelly's words.

What came to mind from Pudding's words was Gabriel. Was Gabriel the same? Did he hate me getting hurt more than dying, so he took the glass in my place? The favor that had only felt uncomfortable now touched me in a new way. Pudding seemed to know I was thinking of someone else and tapped my hand to get my attention.

"Remember. I exist for you."

With those words, Pudding issued an eviction order. It's usually Jelly's role to be chased away by Pudding, but experiencing it myself left me feeling empty. It was like the sense of loss when a pubescent son puts up "Do Not Enter, Do Not Disturb" signs on his room door. If Pudding is the son, what is Jelly? Obviously he's the unemployed uncle preparing for job interviews.

"Jelly, let's go first. Can you find the princess?"

The job-seeking uncle nodded.

"With Astaroth's influence dead, I think I can find her."