MPBAGS Chapter 19

The day after I sent a reply saying he was welcome anytime, the male lead came.

'His initiative is incredible.'

Thank goodness I told the butler in advance to guide guests to the reception room. I was worried the male lead might wait long, so I just roughly combed my hair and went down. If the villainess dressed up to look good, she'd just get mocked with 'Ha! Did you want to impress me?'

When I entered the reception room, the male lead was leisurely drinking tea.

This is my first time here too, so it's awkward. Rather, the male lead seems as comfortable as if it's his own home. This is really role reversal...

I gave a light greeting with my eyes and sat across from him. Henna poured tea in front of me too.

"It's nice to meet you again."

"It's been a while, Sir Gabriel."

Wow. Seeing him again in bright light, he seems even more handsome. I wanted to gush and say 'I'm also happy to see you again. Your face is still handsome. Mr. Male Lead,' but I endured it earnestly.

Let's not make small talk. I mustn't seem like I'm fawning over him.

"So, what kind of problem occurred?"

I sipped my tea while clearly showing that I had no interest in him.

"As for the incident's circumstances, what I said then is everything, and there shouldn't be anything particularly strange about it."

I know you came to see Kanna! I shouted earnestly inside.

Of course, Kanna is currently waiting in her room. We were going to come down together, but Pudding seemed to want to play with Kanna, so I told her to come down if called. Male lead, you should have timed it better with Pudding's walk time!

"If you're worried about Kanna's condition, shall I call the child?"

Successfully laying the groundwork naturally. Wow, where in the world is there such a considerate person?

"Ah, the person who was kidnapped then? She didn't seem to be seriously injured."

Hey! Are you really the male lead? What do you mean not seriously injured! Henna and I were so depressed every time we saw the wound on Kanna's neck.

Originally, I was going to get holy water to heal her, but Kanna said she wanted to leave the neck wound as it was, so we're crying and leaving it alone.

"I came to hear the opinion of Lady Rohanson."

Me? Yes, this is all my fault. I stole the first meeting between the male lead and heroine. If the male lead had confirmed Kanna tied up then, he wouldn't have been so indifferent.

But back then, I didn't even know Kanna was the heroine. How could I leave a tied-up kid in front of me? I'm not a complete bastard!

"We still haven't been able to process Donau Blue's corpse."

"Still?"

According to what I heard from Kanna before, criminal corpses are usually not accepted even by temples, so they're burned and buried without funeral procedures. Under the Sun God's reign, cremation is particularly considered wicked, so criminals are mostly cremated.

Kanna had made a black joke that since Donau was already burned, he'd be easy to dispose of, so I remember it well.

But then, since Donau has no relatives and is a criminal, wouldn't disposal actually be easier?

"Yes. Starting two days ago, opinions began circulating that Donau Blue should be enshrined in the cathedral."

Henna's hand trembled as she refilled my teacup. She was biting her lips tightly to avoid showing it, but seemed to be grinding her teeth at the mention of enshrining a criminal in the cathedral.

If Kanna had heard this story, she would have been hurt too. I'm glad I left her in the room and didn't bring her.

"Why did such an opinion arise?"

"Because that death was strange."

"What's strange about it?"

"Lady Rohanson must have also seen that house burning alone without spreading."

Wasn't that just this world's passive architectural ability? I was incredibly amazed when the fire didn't spread, thinking I should import this technology...

It seems it was an abnormal phenomenon in this world too. Since I don't know the original work, my lack of common sense shows up in places like this.

"Not long after you left, the fire extinguished itself before we could even suppress it. And when we found Donau's corpse..."

The male lead took out a paper from his chest and showed it to me. Since there's no camera, it seems to be drawn as a picture instead, but whoever drew it had terrible skills.

"I drew this to explain, so please understand even if it's somewhat unsightly."

I was speechless. If his handwriting is so good, why is his drawing skill so terrible? Even a kindergartener's drawing would be more presentable than this.

I couldn't scold the male lead that his drawing skills were at the level of something drawn with my toes, so I just laughed it off.

"This is the head and here's the body."

A stick figure would be better. He boldly omitted the limbs. With only a head and body, I couldn't recognize it as a person and thought it might be a keyhole.

"And like this, there were burn marks behind like wings and a halo."

That was supposed to be wings? I thought it was ear-shaped, but looking again, it did seem like angel wings curled up in a circle.

"Looking at it this way, doesn't it look just like an angel?"

No... looking at just your drawing, it looks like a moth.

"So because of that... those who saw the corpse started going around saying Donau Blue received God's blessing."

Nonsense! That's absurd. Why would Donau receive a blessing? He kidnapped our Kanna and then ran away through suicide rather than properly paying for his crimes.

And what? An angel? This is the first time in my life I've seen a kidnapper in a romance novel treated as an angel instead of the heroine.

Why are they calling this moth an angel? Are all things with wings angels?

Oh wait. They said this based on seeing the corpse, not based on this drawing. I forgot because the drawing's impact was too strong.

But the people who saw it were all just knights, right? Then the male lead, being the knight captain, should be able to control them easily. I asked about this point with curiosity.

"Anyway, only Pharalos knights saw it, right?"

"It seems spectators flocked in when security became loose. Originally it was just spreading by word of mouth, but an artist drew that scene as a painting and donated it to the temple, so talk is also spreading in the temple."

The subordinates were negligent in their duties... It seems the male lead isn't particularly majestic or anything.

There were many people watching the fire then.

But why would anyone want to see a burned corpse, and even draw it? Not only did they complete the painting in just a few days, but they even donated it. I don't know who that artist is, but their drive is incredible.

And unlike the male lead, their drawing skills were apparently good. If the temple had only seen the male lead's drawing, they would have been saying "Angel? What? Why did you draw a moth?"

"Because of that, it seems those above have taken interest. Just as things were being wrapped up well, an order suddenly came down to reinvestigate so that Donau Blue's death wouldn't be unjust."

The Pharalos knights were holy knights, and above them would be the temple side. Who could give orders to the knight captain? Since there's no saint or holy person, the high priest? It's definitely a high-ranking priest.

Even in a romance novel world, case manipulation still exists. Although they called it reinvestigation, the meaning is to write a scenario where Donau becomes the victim.

"The problem is that if Donau Blue received God's blessing, then conversely, Lady Rohanson would be blamed for dishonorably manipulating his death."

Right. We testified that Donau kidnapped Kanna and ran away when the fire started. If Donau is treated as an angel, conversely, I become the person who harmed Donau and lied.

Is this also the original story's compelling force? Since I seem to be escaping my villainess fate by building friendship with Kanna the heroine, they want to use even Donau to make me the bad guy?