MPBAGS Chapter 31

I didn't recognize her immediately—she wasn't wearing her usual nun's habit—but when I looked closer at her features, it was definitely Daisy.

This wasn't even near the orphanage. Why was Daisy sitting here in the rain, looking miserable?

"How did you recognize her?"

It was raining and must have been hard to make out.

"Jelly recognized her."

Ah. I nodded in understanding. Last time too, when I nearly got lost at the temple, Jelly had found the way. This time he probably tracked her by scent. That's werewolves for you—it's all about that sense of smell.

So was this an event, then? Jelly discovers Daisy dejected in the rain and rescues her, building romantic tension.... Daisy must have been a character meant to appear briefly in the original story's epilogue or side story as a sub-couple with Jelly. And now I'd become the character interfering with their love because I'd wrecked the original plot.

Right.

"Jelly. Will you go out and bring her in?"

"Me? It's cold. I don't want to."

Jelly burrowed into a fur coat that appeared from god knows where. Where did that come from? Don't tell me he secretly slipped it into our purchases at that clothing store earlier. That would be just like him. Well, buying one coat wasn't a big deal, but...

Wasn't it a bit much to refuse because he was cold? Was this guy really the sub-male lead? A werewolf, a mage, with that roguish appearance—the complete package—and his destined partner was sitting in the rain, but he threw a tantrum about not wanting to go out? No, wait. This wasn't Jelly's fault. This was all my fault for monopolizing routes and twisting the flow.

This was too annoying. I'd just go myself. I'd make a good impression on Daisy and clear my past sins.

"Miss, I'll go instead."

"It's fine. Stay with Pudding."

I handed the sleeping Pudding from my lap to Kanna, got out of the carriage, and opened my umbrella. I really needed to thank that clothing store owner who'd given me this umbrella. I hoped he'd made it home safely.

I walked purposefully forward and stopped right in front of Daisy. Her lips were blue—how long had she been sitting out here in the rain? She'd collapse with a fever tomorrow at this rate. I tilted the umbrella toward Daisy.

Daisy seemed to think I was just a passing stranger and immediately apologized, saying she'd move out of the way. Who was she even worried about right now?

"Daisy."

Whether she recognized my voice or simply because I'd called her name, Daisy—who'd been half out of it—slowly raised her head.

"Evangeline... My Lady. How are you... how are you here...."

She'd been trembling last time too, and she was still trembling now. Just how terrible had pre-possession Evangeline's personality been? She'd just implanted trauma in a perfectly normal person.

The depressing part was that cleaning up the mess fell to me.

"I was looking for you."

Finding her really was a miracle. If I hadn't come with Jelly, I would have been waiting at the wrong orphanage while Daisy sat in the rain all day. This was why romance fantasy protagonists spiraled out of control with one wrong step. It really hit home that this was a romance fantasy world.

Now I needed to coax Daisy into opening up. First, I should get her into the carriage and take her to the Rohanson estate.

I was about to help her up when Daisy suddenly grabbed my skirt tightly.

"I have a favor to ask. You said you'd grant me a wish."

What? Oh. Right, I'd definitely said that before we parted. I'd meant to compensate for the bullying and make a deal to keep her from spreading stories about what Evangeline had done.

I was about to ask what favor when a good idea suddenly occurred to me. Actually, not good—a bad idea.

I'd been planning to propose something first, but Daisy had beaten me to it by saying she had a favor to ask. Plus, she'd already badmouthed me to Gabriel and Henna, so the scales weren't balanced.

So instead of granting a wish unconditionally, I should say I'd grant her wish if she told me what she'd said to those two.

"Sure. But there'll be a price."

It felt like I was living up to the Evangeline name for the first time in a while. I'd abandoned my conscience long ago, so this was fine. Yep.

"You know what I want, don't you?"

As if she'd know. I was just asking her to say something, anything. Evangeline obviously seemed like the type to demand massive amounts of gold! Become my servant! That sort of thing. So I'd pretend to ask for something huge, then scale it down later to just asking about the conversation, and she'd think that's all? and spill everything!

"I'll... I'll give you myself."

Cough. I nearly choked despite not having eaten anything. That... that was pretty huge too.

Wait, Daisy was still scared of me—why was she offering herself? Don't tell me the suspension bridge effect got mixed with romance fantasy plot devices.

"So please, please help me."

I couldn't tell if Daisy's face was wet from rain or tears. Her desperate voice made whatever I'd been about to say stick in my throat.

"Fine. I'll help you."

I held out my hand, telling her to grab it and get up. After a moment's hesitation, Daisy took my hand.

"Get in the carriage first."

Daisy climbed into the carriage, looked shocked at seeing Kanna, then reached Jelly and seemed to have no shock left—she sat quietly in the corner.

Kanna also shot Daisy a sidelong glance before looking at me as I entered and fussing over me.

"Good heavens, you're soaked."

I was just splattered with a few drops while Daisy looked like she'd been fished out of water, though? It seemed Kanna was treating Daisy coldly because whatever Daisy had said to Henna had put Henna in a bad state.

When Kanna tried to give me the fur coat Jelly had been wearing, I draped it over Daisy instead. Jelly let out a hollow laugh as his coat passed through multiple hands to end up on Daisy.

"Man, your good times are over."

"Shut it, Jelly."

What? Had I misheard? I looked at Kanna in surprise, but she was sitting there looking innocent, as if she'd never said such harsh words. I... I must have misheard, right?

"Long time no see?"

Jelly called out to Daisy. My heart fluttered at the feeling of watching someone else's romance unfold. Daisy didn't answer.

"Ignoring me? After everything we've been through?"

After everything we've been through! After everything! I pretended not to care while focusing all my attention on them.

"We don't really have a relationship to speak of."

"We held hands and ran away together."

"We did not hold hands...!"

Daisy started to raise her voice but closed her mouth. Last time I'd worried because Daisy had seemed so frightened, but seeing them now, they were perfectly matched as a sub-couple. A prickly female character and a smooth-talking male character? A combination with ancient history, naturally.

I'd expected them to keep bickering, but Daisy clamped her mouth shut and the conversation stalled, so I decided to get to the point.

"So what's this favor?"

Daisy clasped her hands tightly.

"I'm... an orphan."

This was the part where she opened up about her past while growing closer to Jelly. Even with me interfering, things were progressing smoothly.

"I was abandoned when I was too young to remember and grew up at an orphanage. Fortunately, the director was a good person, so even now that I'm independent, I sometimes visit the orphanage to see her."

This was all information I'd already heard from intimidating the butler, so I didn't know how to react. If I said I'd investigated her background, she'd despise me for being villainous as expected. I'd better keep quiet and pretend not to know.

"So I visited the orphanage today, and everyone at the orphanage had disappeared."

What? Why was there suddenly a disappearance case in a romance fantasy?

I had one guess. Daisy and Jelly had escaped from slave traders. There was a possibility of a second incident using the same material.

"My Lady, this is my wish. Please find the director and the children."

"Wow, that sounds annoying just hearing about it."

Jelly, you bastard— Why was he stomping all over a perfectly progressing romance route with his own feet?

Actually, thinking about it, Daisy's story ran deep, but the heroine was Kanna. Sub-couples only got together later in the story, so it made sense he wouldn't be interested yet. Jelly, you're going to desperately regret this later.

"Fine. I'll find them."

I glared at Jelly as I answered instead. Jelly was a freeloader at my house anyway, so if I told him to do something, he had to do it. Don't complain about being overworked—it's all for your future.

Since I'd destroyed Kanna's romance route, I wanted to at least properly pair up the sub-couple. I'd find the most amazing person in this world and set Kanna up with them. As for Gabriel, my lifeline depended on him...

But would Kanna even want romance? The way she was acting now, she was the original heroine wrapped around a villainess, shouting "Friendship over love!"

"Do you have any guesses?"

"Troy."

"Troy?"

There was a possibility it was the same place as the slave traders who'd captured Daisy. That's why I'd asked if she had any guesses, but she'd suddenly thrown out a person's name. Was that the slave trader's name?

"He's the director's son. Her biological son. That bastard must have done something to the director and the children."

Daisy went on to explain about Troy.

The kind director's son had been mean-spirited and twisted since childhood. Because the director loved all the children equally, not just her own child, he'd developed an especially severe inferiority complex.

He'd been especially violent toward children the director paid attention to.

"Once he poured hot stew on a friend's arm right before they were supposed to be adopted, leaving a scar that got the adoption canceled."

He'd torment slightly chubby kids by calling them pigs and preventing them from eating, and whenever there was a chance to catch the eye of visiting nobles doing charity work, he'd try to take all those opportunities for himself.

"And he'd say it was fine for him to act that way because he was the director's son. No matter how much the director scolded him, he never changed."

What kind of trash existed in this world?

"When he got older, the director and children couldn't stand it anymore and kicked him out. But he kept coming back anyway, causing scenes telling them to stop 'this kind of thing' and demanding they shut down the orphanage."

And given romance fantasy logic, Troy was probably closely connected to the slave traders. Maybe Troy was even involved in the disappearance of Daisy's orphanage children.

Just wait, Troy. I'd never seen your face, but I'd let you taste a villainess-style beatdown.