MPBAGS Chapter 22

Daisy suddenly fled after talking with me—normally wouldn't someone ask why? Plus, emphasizing he didn't eavesdrop by claiming "privacy protection" was a bit strange.

Could he be the two-faced type? Acting this kind now, but if Gabriel considered me an enemy, he'd be first in line to execute me. Imagining it made Raphaela's smiling face seem frightening. I was uncomfortable with these haha-hoho smiling types anyway.

"Ah. And that young man?"

Raphaela looked at Jelly and asked. Jelly glanced at me, eyes asking what to do.

Let's see...? What should I say? The sub-male lead I snagged? A magic-using werewolf? My household's pet beastman?

"My escort."

"Ah! A knight, then. I didn't realize since you're not wearing a sword."

Didn't think of that. Using a sword would be strange. Jelly's a beastfolk mage. He mainly uses magic and claws instead of swords. Should've come up with a more plausible excuse. How to salvage this? While I worried, Jelly shrugged.

"Well. I'm excellent without a sword."

How smoothly he deflected. Raphaela looked at Jelly lightly carrying the case of holy water bottles in one hand and nodded. Jelly's show of strength proved useful.

"You're heading to the knights' reception room, yes? Then I should return as well."

Raphaela and Uriel led the way. I matched Jelly's slow pace, following behind.

"How do you know Daisy?"

"Who? Ah. Her? Mm... we helped each other out?"

"You didn't bully her?"

"No. I helped her, actually. Got her out and escaped together."

Jelly grumbled that he was the one who got bullied, not her. He seemed to word things carefully with other people nearby.

Fortunately, I could guess the content from just that. When Jelly first appeared, he'd been severely injured, right? How many situations would injure a beastman that badly? Plus, he just said they escaped together.

It was unmistakable. Daisy and Jelly had been captured by slave traders or something and escaped together! Daisy had turned pale seeing Jelly because it triggered those terrible memories. What's it called—post-traumatic stress something.

So was Jelly not the sub-male lead but part of a sub-couple? Near the ending, he'd give up on Kanna and move toward Daisy. This side also had me as the villain. Why two couples but only one villain?

"Cleaned up the aftermath thoroughly too."

He'd apparently dealt cleanly with the slave traders too. Well done there. I patted Jelly's head in praise.

Raphaela had stopped in the distance, waiting for us to catch up. When Jelly and I approached and closed the gap, he looked at me with a complex expression. The superior's subordinate had witnessed the person he thought his commander favored petting another man's head—understandable reaction.

"You're close with your escort...?"

Well, Jelly's my pet... he usually goes around as a wolf instead of human... If I said that, I'd really be branded a species-discriminating slave trader, so I kept my mouth shut.

"Not at all."

I had zero intention of dating Gabriel, but I couldn't afford to fall out of favor with him right now, so I answered firmly instead. Who knew I'd be juggling affections in a romance fantasy world...

Raphaela quietly observed Evangeline Rohanson talking with Daisy. His mouth exchanged meaningless words with Uriel—anyone watching would think Raphaela was engaged in his usual pointless banter. Of course, Uriel, being rather oblivious, didn't notice Raphaela's true nature.

Raphaela knew more truths within the knights than anyone except Gabriel. If Raphaela were as naive as he appeared, Gabriel never would have kept him close.

Raphaela had seen Donau's corpse and knew about the mysterious sigil found within. He knew about the summoning circle and was currently investigating ancient rituals after visiting Rohanson estate.

Raphaela had also been the one to compile Daisy's testimony and report it to Gabriel.

At first hearing, Daisy's testimony seemed unremarkable.

She'd witnessed Father Berga summoning something. It resembled a demon, and the people this demon killed had their throats cut then reattached. They moved as if perfectly alive, indistinguishable from normal humans except for the red line on their necks.

That explained her shock at seeing Evangeline Rohanson's maid, Kanna.

Honestly? With her being Evangeline Rohanson's maid, believing she was dead seemed plausible. After all, Evangeline herself had died and come back to life.

'Lady Evangeline Rohanson's neck...'

Of course, Evangeline's neck was perfectly clean.

The atrocities Daisy claimed Father Berga had committed were horrific enough to make one grimace. He'd gone unpunished until now likely due to the convent's isolated nature and his family's backing. Honestly, should a clergyman blessed by Rahel's grace behave that way?

Other crimes Daisy didn't know about would come to light once they captured and interrogated Father Berga.

However, suspicious points existed even in Daisy's testimony.

Among several issues, what Raphaela found most puzzling was this: How had Daisy, after witnessing a demon summoning, managed to escape safely?

Father Berga wouldn't easily release Daisy knowing so many of his secrets. How had she escaped?

"Uriel, could you escape from somewhere difficult while being watched?"

"A prison, you mean? Then you shouldn't escape."

"...Not a prison. Somewhere else. Like a convent."

Uriel couldn't understand why anyone would be imprisoned in a convent under surveillance requiring escape, but he earnestly considered Raphaela's question.

"Jump out a window? Using trees, up to the third floor should be safe."

"...Right, thanks."

Raphaela rubbed his forehead at the completely unhelpful answer. Daisy couldn't have escaped by leaping from windows like Uriel.

Raphaela turned his attention back to their conversation.

"———."

"You don't... you don't remember my name?"

"—————————."

"...Daisy."

A strange sensation. The two were clearly conversing, but he couldn't hear a single word Evangeline Rohanson said. Moreover, Evangeline wasn't even moving her lips. Yet the fact that she was speaking remained vivid.

Daisy seemed to hear properly—she continued the exchange as if hearing something.

Raphaela could only guess at the conversation from Daisy's responses alone.

Following their dialogue, Evangeline Rohanson seemed not to remember Daisy. When testifying, Daisy had acted as though witnessing trauma.

‘Lady Evangeline was resurrected? I don't know how you heard, but yes. Everyone who attended the funeral saw it. ...Saw the dead young lady come back to life.’

‘The priest who presided over the funeral committed suicide? I'm not even surprised.’

‘I've seen the Lady draw summoning circles. Summoning angels? Angels? If you saw them directly, you couldn't call them that.’

And what she'd witnessed at Rohanson estate.

Daisy claimed to have seen Evangeline summon something. Given Father Berga's case, it was certainly a demon as well.

‘Rohanson estate has many watching eyes. So I went to the convent.’

After that, she'd fled to the convent because the estate had watching eyes. Unlucky to be swept into incidents everywhere she went.

What were these "eyes" Daisy mentioned? Did it mean many people watching? Were all Rohanson estate's servants as loyal as the sisters Henna and Kanna?

The Commander had planned to ask about that, but things got complicated when Daisy clamped up seeing the Rohanson estate maids.

The Commander had tasked Raphaela with the escort to extract more information, but Daisy remained silent the entire walk—no harvest at all.

Then meeting Evangeline Rohanson was unexpected luck. Daisy had been excessively agitated from the moment Evangeline entered her sight.

So Raphaela had deliberately placed Daisy before Evangeline Rohanson, thinking he might extract something more. But with Evangeline's voice inaudible, there'd been no real gain.

"...Sir Gabriel knows."

Moreover, Daisy had apparently confessed in fear that she'd given testimony. The Commander's name coming up suggested she'd admitted making a statement.

He'd only created more problems. Until the man appeared, that is.

A man with black hair and golden eyes—extremely feral-looking. His languid movements resembled a great predator moving leisurely. The man naturally positioned himself behind Evangeline.

"Who's that?"

"Sir Jelly, accompanying Lady Rohanson."

Raphaela stared at Uriel in disbelief. His innocent colleague treated such a ridiculous joke of a name as real and even added honorifics—it made his head throb.

"He was quiet and serious though."

"That Jelly person?"

"He didn't say a single word while the Lady prayed."

And he'd been alone with that suspicious person? Well, technically Evangeline Rohanson was the greater threat. Still, he resented the Commander a bit for assigning the oblivious, innocent Uriel.