MPBAGS Chapter 20

"I ask you, my lady. Is everything you told me the truth?"

"The truth..."

The male lead also seemed to view me as a suspicious person. No, he definitely thinks I'm suspicious. This is him testing me because he thinks I know something. But since Kanna already made excuses, I can't change my story now.

"Let me ask in reverse. Do you think I told lies, Sir?"

From what I asked Henna and Kanna, people in this world don't know that spirits actually exist. They exist but seem to have rock-bottom recognition. In this situation, if I said Donau summoned spirits, how much would they believe that!

But is this the last chance? Should I just tell them? Ah! Damn! If it were a world where only spirits were actively operating, I would have said it!

The male lead didn't answer immediately and kept silent, then slowly opened his mouth.

"I don't think Donau Blue received God's blessing. However, I know well that his death was strange."

So you're saying that even though Donau is a bad guy even in death, I'm still better? You'll take my side, so speak honestly.

What if I speak and just get backstabbed and end up in prison? No, they might call me a witch for driving the angel-treated Donau to death. Then it's either beheading or burning at the stake. No, why did it escalate! Wasn't I supposed to avoid death flags by becoming friends with the heroine?

As I hesitated about whether to speak honestly, the male lead looked at me intently.

"I want to help you."

"You want to help me?"

Why is the male lead trying to curry favor with a villainess? Is he grateful because he saw me save Kanna?

"Yes. I dare to... to you."

The male lead lowered his eyes. Could he be being shy?

No, surely this isn't the route where 'I'm just a villainess who wants to live comfortably, but why are you doing this to me!' We decided to be rivals fighting over the heroine last time. Well, I decided that by myself... Come to think of it, it's unfair? You glared at me like I was a ghost.

The male lead's voice, which seemed like it wouldn't waver even if stabbed with a sword, trembled slightly. This definitely seemed like a flag was planted. Looking back at my romance novel experience, it was certain.

This is ruined! I think the male lead fell for me while I was trying to escape being a villainess. Am I stupid?

"How stupid. Not knowing your place."

Right. I should have known my place well. I underestimated villainess possession novels too much. But we only met once. Isn't that male lead just a face-chaser? To be fair, most romance novel characters were face-chasers anyway.

Anyway, it's ruined. I thought I only stole the heroine's affection, but it seems I stole the male lead's attention too.

Yes, I understand because it's a romance novel. But the problem is that my villainess escape plan that I worked on for two nights has become trash. Yes, what's the use of me working hard on planning? The fastest and most certain way is to become the heroine.

But I don't want to date the male lead? He's a paper doll, and I'm a person.

"I'm not interested in you."

Oops. Thinking I had to shake him off quickly, I used 'I'm not interested in you.' I'm really stupid! At this level, my subconscious must have wanted to star in a romance novel. Now that I've planted a flag, if I try to distance myself from the male lead, he'll cling to me instead.

"Yes. I guessed that you're not interested in people."

The male lead answered as if stating the obvious. What's this reaction? When I say I'm not interested, shouldn't he come out with something like 'How dare you not show interest in me?' And saying I'm not interested in 'people' sounds a bit strange.

But the strangest thing is that the male lead shows no lingering attachment even though I said I wasn't interested. Wasn't he attracted to me? Did I misunderstand? But to accept it so meekly, do you *eat rice mixed with social cues? What are you, some kind of mind reader? Usually characters who are this oblivious to social cues get roasted by readers in the comments section.

"But it doesn't matter. I'm just curious about you."

Look at this! See this! I knew this would happen! Don't underestimate my experience of once living buried in romance novels!

The male lead said such cheesy words without any movement, as if sugar water flowed instead of blood in his body. Rather, I felt like I was getting goosebumps listening to it. Of course, since romance novel people's blood also flows in Evangeline's body, I didn't actually get goosebumps even hearing such embarrassingly sweet lines.

Romance novels are scary. As I trembled inside, the male lead changed the subject as if being considerate and continued with supplementary explanations of the drawing.

Looking at the moth drawing again brought peace to my mind.

"This circle. We didn't know until we removed the corpse, but this wasn't a halo but closer to a pattern."

The male lead pointed to the crooked lines that looked like a moth's antennae and took out another paper. It's broken, so why is this a circle?

And I was shocked to see the newly produced paper.

'Crazy, what is this! This is my summoning circle that Donau stole!'

I thought it burned with the house!

It's a tearful reunion. I was so moved, but looking again, I realized something was strange. The annotations attached below were gone and the paper looked new...

"This is that pattern. After I copied it, I burned the drawing on the ground."

Ah, this is also what the male lead drew.

Wait. You drew this too? You drew this identically, but why did you draw a moth earlier? Are you a science major?

I calmed down my excitement. What's important isn't the male lead's drawing skills.

So this isn't my paper but what the male lead copied from what Donau drew on the ground. The original burned. Then I'll never be able to read the summoning spell. I had given up thinking it was gone, but now that only the drawing came back, I felt empty. Goodbye, Spirit King...

"By any chance, does the painting where the artist drew Donau's corpse have this pattern clearly drawn?"

"Except for the parts covered by the body, it's identical."

How dare they spread around someone else's otherworldly cheat key. I got annoyed at the faceless artist, then cooled down. Since part of it is covered and I failed too, they probably can't summon spirits without the summoning spell anyway.

The male lead seemed to be done with what he had to say. Now he was just staring at my mouth, waiting to see what I would say.

I pondered while looking at the male lead's unnecessarily handsome face and the summoning circle, then decided to just tell him. Of course, I wasn't swayed by his face.

"I didn't go looking for Donau because Kanna was kidnapped. It was because he ran away with my drawing."

"You mean this?"

"Yes."

"My lady."

Henna called me worriedly. Don't worry! I'll package it well and tell him.

I need to get that paper back too. There's no benefit in antagonizing the male lead. He said he'd take my side, so I might as well trust him and just tell him.

Looking at the situation, the male lead seems to have fallen for me, so at least he won't try to destroy me. Rather, this makes me trust him more.

"Please, would you explain to me what this pattern is?"

"It's a summoning circle."

"What does it summon?"

"Well..."

Of course, I can't honestly mention spirits, so I'll be a bit roundabout and vague... What should I say instead of fire spirits?

What do these otherworldly romance novel people believe in? The Sun God Rahel? This is almost at the level of a sacred kingdom. There's no other way. Let's just say that.

"It seems to summon angels."

The male lead looked at me intently, then slowly nodded.

You really believe that? You don't believe Donau received God's blessing, but you believe he summoned angels? Are you believing it just because the person you like said it?

Are Isekai romance novel male leads seriously this easy to fool?

Translator Note: "눈치로 밥 말아 먹음" - literally "eating rice mixed with social awareness/cues" - meaning someone is so socially aware/perceptive that they live on social cues alone