MPBAGS Chapter 52

"Alright! Let's go find them now!

Would it be faster to find Troy and pinpoint the location rather than searching for the kidnapped kids? In this vast empire, there probably aren't just one or two places doing human trafficking, and since this is a story tied to Daisy, Troy must be the key needed to advance the plot. The question is how to find Troy.

Since criminals leave traces of themselves, should we go to the orphanage first? Ah, we can find Troy's belongings and have Jelly smell them, then track him by scent!

Seeing how well he found Daisy, it would be good to rely on Jelly's sense of smell.

"Why are you looking at me?"

"Can you find Troy?"

"Even I can't do that."

I guess not... That's a bit disappointing. Well, this is an episode involving Daisy, so it wouldn't look very cool if Jelly solved the case by sniffing around.

But then how am I supposed to win her favor? Look, Daisy seems disappointed too.

"You too... Now that I look at you, you seem ordinary."

See? She's saying I'm ordinary, meaning I'm not attractive. Or is it not? When someone who seemed extraordinary appears ordinary, does that make them feel more approachable and likeable instead?

Hmm. From my romance novel knowledge, the latter seems more likely. It's not for nothing that tyrants and northern dukes are popular. They're not popular just because they're powerful figures, but because they act like ordinary men overflowing with love only for their female lead.

"Let's go to Ainoa Orphanage first."

"Did I mention the orphanage's name?"

Oops. Didn't I mention the orphanage's name? How should I handle this? It would be awkward if I said I investigated it beforehand.

"You said it earlier."

"...I see."

You can't spit in a smiling face, so I smiled silently and attempted memory manipulation. Fortunately, Daisy seemed to accept it thinking that's what happened. It feels like she's giving me a pass... probably not, right?

Since Ainoa Orphanage was our original destination, we arrived safely without getting lost or confused about directions. In a world without navigation, he finds directions amazingly well. Daisy must have been impressed too, as she stared at the coachman in amazement even after getting off the carriage.

"That coachman..."

"Yeah. It's that coachman from before. Convenient, right?"

It seems like the coachman shares some memories with Daisy and Jelly. What's that about? That's strange, isn't it? A man and woman tenderly promising love and a coachman... A man and woman going for a walk together and a coachman... It's weird no matter where you fit it, so what exactly did the three of them do!

"We rode that carriage when we escaped with him."

Jelly gave a brief explanation. Ah, right. That happened too. A man and woman desperately escaping and a coachman... Yeah, that's not strange. I can clearly picture the coachman's urgent whip-cracking. As soon as Daisy heard Jelly's words, she frowned.

"Calling a person convenient."

"Person? Does that look like a person to you? You're really funny too."

I look like a person too.

But seeing how Jelly acts like that, he must not be human. Whoa, could he be the same species? Must be the same kind, like a werewolf. Knowing he's the same species, he risked danger to help them escape from the slave trader. The coachman uncle was a good person! No, a good demi-human!

While his fellow demi-human friend works hard like this to earn money, our Jelly caught a nobleman and lives without working — it really seems like being born as a rich family's pet is the best. Well, my dream was once to be reborn as a rich family's cat in my next life.

Taking my eyes off the man and woman and coachman... no, the three of them, I looked at the orphanage.

"It's quiet."

As Kanna said, even considering it was early evening, it was unusually quiet and the gas lamps seemed particularly dim, as if they were running out of gas. Being on the outskirts of the capital and this area not being a wealthy district, it seemed like proper maintenance wasn't being done.

Maybe because the lights are dim too, why does it look so eerie? It's like ghosts might appear. I'm someone who would never watch horror movies with ghosts in them, even if it killed me.

It's okay, let's calm down. This is a romance novel world and it's not even a ghost-related episode. Unless the female lead has some setting where she can see ghosts, ghosts won't suddenly pop out. They won't appear, right?

"Kanna, can you see it?"

I was too scared to ask with my own mouth whether she could see ghosts, so I omitted the subject. Ghosts originally cling to you when you talk about them, right? Just thinking about it gives me chills. There's no subject, but our Kanna understands well even when I speak strangely. A romance novel heroine's intuition works hard at everything except romance.

"Yes. I can see it."

What! No, wasn't this just a depressing romance novel? Why does it have a ghost-seeing setting attached! Ghosts are horror, that's genre deviation. I hate it!

"What's that person doing over there?"

I hate ghosts...! Wait, person?

Calming down and focusing on where Kanna was pointing, I could see a dark figure lurking around the orphanage entrance. It was staggering quite a bit, but that was definitely a person. Phew, thank goodness. I thought it was a ghost.

"Troy...?"

Troy? Daisy didn't sound certain, but if she wasn't mistaken, it was definitely Troy. What rapid plot development.

"Jelly."

"Me? Again?"

When I urged him to get active, Jelly resisted. Then who else would do it? Me in high heels? Your future girlfriend? Our flower-like Kanna? Or Pudding who can't even speak human words yet?

Hey, even if you didn't find Troy by scent, you should at least catch him, right?

Jelly clearly showed his annoyance and snapped his fingers, causing Troy's body, who was trying to run away, to stop. The culprit appeared to confess on his own. Now we just need to ask where the orphanage people were sold.

I needed to ask that, but suddenly Troy collapsed forward. Behind him stood Daisy holding a shoe. She seemed to have gone behind Troy at some point, taken off her shoe, and hit his head with the heel.

"You really like hitting people on the back of the head."

Jelly muttered "I hope this guy isn't dead" while checking Troy's head. He was relieved to find that no blood was flowing. But she likes hitting people on the back of the head? Daisy seems to be... quite violent.