MPBAGS Chapter 60

Daisy rushed inside urgently. Fortunately, it seemed like the kids had been found safely. Daisy took the boy and girl with her and retreated, avoiding the director. All the other children were huddled together in the corner, so why were only these two out in danger?

The director seemed to be in his final desperate struggle, having noticed our arrival. He had been wielding a knife, and someone was already injured.

There was a person with chains on his arms and eyes covered - it looked like he had been imprisoned to be sold as a slave too.

"Melech?"

"Do you know each other?"

"Yes, sort of. But something seems different about him?"

Moreover, it seemed like Jelly knew this person. Was he someone he knew when he was kidnapped by human traffickers? Or could he also be a beastman?

"Same species?"

"Huh? I suppose so, if you had to classify it that way?"

The answer was apparently that he was a beastman who had also been kidnapped together. This revealed to the whole world that the director was involved in Jelly and Daisy's kidnapping incident too.

"Troy, you obstruct me until the very end."

Like a thief crying "thief," look at how she's trying to make Troy the bad guy when she's the one who did wrong. Isn't that gaslighting? Domestic violence.

The director, with no intention of admitting her wrongdoing, stabbed Troy with a knife and captured him while we were distracted. How could she take her own son hostage?

Moreover, Troy alone seemed insufficient, so it looked like he was trying to win over Jelly's friend. He was whispering something I couldn't hear well. Jelly, whose hearing was as exceptional as his sense of smell, summarized the conversation for us.

"He's trying to tempt him with food right now."

What? He'd fall for something like that?

"He looks starved."

He might actually fall for it. Starved? The director must have kept him hungry without giving him food. Then the hungry sounds I heard earlier must have been from this man called Melech, not the children.

There's nothing more miserable than being threatened with food. I stopped Jelly's friend before he could completely fall for it.

"Are you hungry?"

The director is really despicable. As if she's the only one with food. I have some too! I bought tons of bread to give to the children. There's an armful of it if we just go to the carriage.

"I'll take care of feeding you. So you don't need to force yourself to eat right now."

"What are you doing? Melech!"

Fortunately, I seemed to have appropriately cut off the director's gaslighting. Melech rebelled against the director, and the backlash came my way.

"Didn't you come to save me?"

"That was the original plan, but the situation has changed."

Did she plant a bug? How did she know I originally intended to save her? Oh, come to think of it, spirits relay people's words and such. She must have heard about it that way.

If Daisy had known the director was such a rotten person, she wouldn't have asked me to save her. But now the situation is different.

But where did she put that useful spirit while wielding the knife directly? There should be things like wind cutters. Of course, I wasn't suggesting she use them on us.

"Have I been abandoned?"

Was she talking about being abandoned by the spirit? But even I would abandon someone and run if my contractor was a human trafficker.

"Yes. You failed to meet the standards."

Looking at novels, spirits are so pure and have high standards.

"So stop now."

The director finally realized she had been abandoned by the spirit and escape was blocked, so she started crying loudly. The children Daisy had been protecting quietly came out and retrieved Troy from the director.

"Kanna, you take care of that child and the kids."

Was it Mary? Kanna took the child's hand and headed to the corner. It would be best for Kanna to go since I might cause a scene if I went.

Jelly also took care of his friend. Then should I take the director? I'm not going to get stabbed, am I?

Then Daisy approached. Right, I have Daisy. If we both handle the director, the chance of getting stabbed is cut in half. But Daisy said something completely different.

"Why didn't you save Troy?"

What is she asking? That girl Mary came out and drew the aggro! She was drawn to the aggro too.

I was hurt, but I decided to understand since Daisy's heart must be in turmoil right now. That didn't make the hurt feelings disappear though.

"It wasn't in our agreement."

Of course, business and personal matters should be kept separate. I decided to shamelessly act like Troy's protection wasn't specified in the contract conditions, worried that Daisy might renegotiate the payment for not saving Troy.

"Do you want to save him?"

"Yes. I want to save him."

"Fortunately, I have holy water. Just one bottle though."

Since I was going out with Kanna, I brought one bottle of holy water for emergencies, worried about getting caught up in incidents. Yes, exactly one bottle. The problem is there are two patients here.

I'd like to split it half and half if I could, but I don't know what settings were given to the holy water, but apparently that's not allowed. They say exactly one bottle can only be used for one person.

So only one person between Troy and Jelly's friend can use the holy water. What is this life-or-death branching point! It's too heavy!

I couldn't make the choice.

"Daisy, you choose. Between Troy and that man, who should we give the holy water to?"

When I tossed it to Daisy, she glared at me as if asking whether I called that a question.

"Just kidding."

I withdrew my statement with tears in my eyes. Right. I'm the villainess, so whatever happens, I'll choose.

Daisy would naturally choose Troy, right? Right. Between a beastman with incredible recovery and a dying person, the latter was indeed more critical.

I fed the holy water I had carefully kept in my bosom to Troy. The bleeding stopped immediately. In a few hours, flesh would grow back and the wound would heal completely. The holy water's performance is really incredible. No wonder it's so expensive.

And I decided to definitely treat poor Melech who wasn't chosen later.

"Is it okay that I can't treat you right away?"

Just in case, I decided to notify him personally. Honestly, isn't it already enough that I saved him?

"...Yes. It's fine."

Jelly's friend answered obediently. My conscience hurts.

"May I follow you instead?"

"Do you have nowhere to go?"

Jelly's friend nodded. No place to return to? Some sad backstory unfolded in my head. Due to slave traders indiscriminately capturing people, he lost his hometown and his family was scattered. Let's not pry into details since it would be rude.

"I don't mind."

Jelly's friend seemed satisfied. But if I take a robust adult man with an eye covering, won't more strange rumors be added? But it's a bit scary to tell him to take it off. I haven't even treated his injuries, and if I tell him he can't see on top of that, I might die of guilt.

"Melech, are you hurt...?"

When the troublemaker child approached and said such things, it felt like my conscience was being slashed. This won't do, let's not dawdle here and quickly take him to get treatment.

There was some rope cut on the floor, so I used it to tie up the director.

"Be careful, it's dark!"

Supporting the two injured people and being careful not to let the children get hurt, we left the basement. The director volunteered to guide us, but I didn't trust her so I refused. Instead, Jelly sniffed around again to find the way. We quickly found the stairs going up without getting lost.

"How did this break...?"

The director muttered helplessly while looking at the secret passage that had been torn open and was no longer secret. I just pushed it lightly though? Wasn't it just old and the wood had rotted?

"We're out...."

"Wahhh, I was scared."

The children, who had been trapped underground for who knows how long, burst into tears of relief upon reaching the surface. Even Daisy, who had been comforting the children not to cry, teared up.

Leaving the crying sounds behind, I looked around the room. Where did the kid who was baking bread on the summoning circle disappear to?

"Pudding?"

I couldn't distinguish between the children's crying and the cat's meowing, so I didn't know where Pudding was. I couldn't tell the children who were crying from emotion to stop, so only I was troubled by the crying sounds. I told him to wait right here, so where did he disappear to?

At least he's not just a stray cat but a beastman cat who understands words well, so that's fortunate.