MPBAGS Chapter 15

No wonder the girl was so kind! And determined!

Thinking this way, I suddenly understood this situation. Based on my romance fantasy experience, I could even predict how the original story unfolded.

Here we have the villainess Evangeline, the villainess's faithful servant Donau, and Kanna, the younger sister of a maid serving the villainess and the heroine.

Evangeline probably bullied the count's servants regularly, and among them, she particularly mistreated Hanna. The bullying crossed the line and she had Donau kidnap Kanna, Hanna's only younger sister. And by rescuing Kanna from danger, the first meeting event with the male lead occurs!

Even though I possessed Evangeline's body, maybe Donau kidnapped Kanna because of the original story's inertia?

Then it made sense why Donau was spouting nonsense. He kept muttering that he was just doing what I told him to do. Wow... The inertia of the original story is scary.

So did I steal the male lead's appearance scene? Should I have just left it alone? No, but even if they're characters in a book, how could I just stand by and watch that situation?

"Is there anything else you'd like to ask? The young lady looks tired, so we'll be going first."

After finishing her explanation, Kanna cut off the conversation. Her attitude was too cold for dealing with the male lead.

This must also be the influence of me saving Kanna instead of the male lead, right?

The original heroine clinging to the villainess - this is totally a villainess possession story! As expected from a romance fantasy world!

"If any problems arise, please come find the Rohanson Count's house."

I greeted the male lead while inwardly admiring, then turned to leave. Since the kidnapper, victim, and rescuer were all from the Rohanson mansion, I told him to come find us if he got stuck writing his report. Good, one kindness point earned.

Hanna offered to guide us to where the carriage was parked and led the way. I was about to follow Hanna when the back of my head felt prickly. When I turned around, the male lead was glaring at me fiercely.

I didn't do anything particularly villainous, so why is he glaring?

Could he be jealous because Kanna took my side? This is bad. I think I've taken the rival route instead of the villainess route...

"Commander, the fire has been extinguished."

"Good work, Raphaela."

Gabriel, who had been continuously watching the alley where the snow-white doll had disappeared, finally came to his senses at his subordinate's call.

He must have been so absorbed that the fire had been extinguished while he was distracted. The building swept by the fire demon was now so crumbled it could hardly be called a house.

Unlike the woman who claimed to have escaped from the fire but had not a speck of soot on her pristine white appearance, everyone else had worked so hard cleaning up the debris that their uniforms were covered in soot.

"I'm sorry. I couldn't help because I was investigating the young lady."

"It's fine. That fire, it went out by itself."

"What?"

When Gabriel asked, Raphaela scratched his head and explained.

"Really. It was blazing away and then suddenly died down. It was already strange that it was only burning this house without spreading to the surroundings from the beginning..."

Gabriel looked at the debris with a very uncomfortable expression.

Gabriel had thought he was bewitched by a demon when he first saw her. In such a narrow and densely packed slum, when a fire breaks out, it's usual for the flames to spread to the entire surrounding area. That's why he had hurriedly led his knights here for people's evacuation.

He had rushed here anticipating a disaster, but when he arrived, people weren't evacuating - instead, they were watching a house burning alone as if an invisible firewall had been erected.

However, what captured Gabriel's attention wasn't such supernatural phenomena, but the woman standing in front of that fire.

At first, Gabriel thought a statue had been erected among the crowd. Even though it was impossible for such delicately carved marble to exist in this kind of slum.

He failed to recognize it as human because there was nothing that could be called life force in it. By comparison, a broken tree branch would be closer to human.

So when he witnessed the bizarre scene of what should rightfully be dead turning its blood-red eyes toward him and its red mouth speaking human language, he was so shocked he nearly lost his words.

Gabriel disguised his composure and conversed with the woman. As expected, it was far from human.

Whether talking about her servant's death or looking at Gabriel himself, he felt not a single grain of warmth. Just as humans don't care about ants passing by, to the woman, Gabriel was probably only at the level of an ant.

The woman seemed to have some interest in the maid named Kanna beside her. Perhaps because she was receiving attention from something inhuman, the maid's condition didn't look normal either. Her blind and fervent appearance was like looking at a fanatic.

"Commander! We found the body!"

A subordinate shouted loudly. Gabriel confirmed the corpse. Donau, was it? Even after death, the carbonized body with limbs fallen off was exactly like a sculpture.

"This is..."

"Strange. It must be a coincidence, right?"

Behind the corpse with severed limbs, the floor's scorch marks spread like wings, and behind the head, like a halo in religious paintings, it was drawn in a circle around the corpse's head. It was exactly like the halos that would be attached to angels or gods in masterpiece paintings.

"Looking like this, doesn't it look exactly like an angel?"

It wasn't just Gabriel who thought so. Gabriel fell into thought.

An angel... Those ash-made wings would crumble and fall into the abyss before they could even flap. The same with that halo.

To him, the round aureole seemed like it would flicker.