MPBGS 2

Chapter : 02

“Let’s turn everything upside down!”

Maybe the diary I couldn’t find yesterday would show up. I already searched Evangeline’s room, so I should search the other rooms.

This is the toilet, this is the bathroom, this is the drawing room, and—ah! Here it is!

The door was stiff and hard to open, but it seemed to be a storage room. Some things were covered with cloth, and there were wooden boxes filled with miscellaneous items instead of paper ones. Wow… how would they even move all this when relocating?

The things covered in cloth were all paintings. While looking around, I also found paint, so it seemed Evangeline had painting as a hobby. There was even a bookshelf, so it looked like the room doubled as a studio and a reading room. No wonder the curtains were drawn.

I ignored the paintings and started examining the books. I can’t read the letters, but a diary would be handwritten, so it should look different, right?

And then—I caught a big one.

The cover was pitch black, which was a little strange, but this was definitely handwritten. There were even smudges where the ink had spread. And judging by the numbers written on top, it was a hundred percent a diary.

While flipping through the pages quickly, something strange suddenly fell out.

A note?

I picked up the paper.

“A summoning circle?”

A circular design with geometric patterns.

This was definitely a summoning circle!

A summoning circle came out of this crazy diary!

Seeing this made me realize the place I’d transmigrated into must be from an older-style novel. These days, people don’t really make contracts with non-human beings anymore.

I didn’t hesitate.

I’m going to draw the summoning circle.

Whether a spirit appears or a dragon appears, I’ll draw it first. A villainess needs at least one ability to protect herself.

Luckily, there was paint. There wasn’t an empty canvas, and I couldn’t find suitable paper, so I decided to draw it on the floor. Anyway, these things are always drawn on the floor.

In case the paint ran out while I was drawing, I chose the red paint since it had the most left.

The brushes were completely stiff and wouldn’t bend, so I just dipped my finger in the paint.

First a large circle, then triangles, stars… and lots of letters.

While drawing diligently, my hand got pricked by the wooden floor. Thankfully a splinter didn’t get stuck, but it started bleeding. Why did something like that hurt so damn much?

So I drew the rest with one of the hardened brushes.

It was uncomfortable, but manageable.

I should’ve used this from the start. When you’re stupid, your body suffers.

“Finished!”

It looked a little crooked and strange, but it was done!

I thought something dramatic would happen immediately like in novels—like something popping out—but nothing happened.

Do I have to chant a spell after drawing it?

There was indeed a spell written beneath the fancy summoning circle on the paper…

But what’s the point?

I can’t read it!

Since it would be a waste after drawing it, I guess I’ll just try saying whatever.

“Spirit King? Spirit? Dragon? Hello…?”

Nothing happened.

“Um… I’d like to make a contract with something. Anyone willing to come out?”

Begging pathetically didn’t help either.

I guess I really need to chant the spell.

I should learn the letters first and try again.

What kind of garbage world is this where even summoning is impossible if you’re illiterate?

***

Count Rohanson looked down at the maid in front of him.

Even though she wasn’t a criminal, Daisy had her eyes tightly shut, trembling as she bowed her head.

Considering that Count Rohanson was not a particularly harsh employer to his servants, she seemed far more frightened than necessary.

But it was understandable.

For the past two days, Daisy had been attending closely to Lady Evangeline.

Whatever was inside that body, the outward appearance was almost identical, so she must have glimpsed fragments of the young lady in the Count as well.

Knowing this, Count Rohanson did not scold the maid.

The Daisy standing before him had been very close friends with his late daughter regardless of status, which was why she had willingly volunteered to serve that thing.

Count Rohanson slowly opened his mouth.

“So. What did it do?”

“It asked about Lady Evangeline. How old she was, what her family was like. What food she liked or what habits she had. And… it acts as if it has really become the young lady. When I told it that the young lady usually went for a walk at eight, it said it would do the same. It took out the young lady’s clothes and went walking…”

Her freckled, cute face twisted.

Her tightly closed eyelashes trembled.

Daisy spoke as if confessing to a priest, the words spilling out like a confession.

Her angry shouting gradually weakened and faded.

It was as if it wanted to become Lady Evangeline.

She couldn’t finish the sentence because she realized she had become too emotional.

After all, no one would hate that thought more than Count Rohanson—the father of Evangeline.

“It didn’t even care that the maids who saw it fainted.”

That wasn’t all.

Daisy remembered Lady Evangeline watching as a maid was dragged away with her mouth covered.

The maid cried desperately for her life.

But the emotion in those red eyes watching her… was clearly disgust.

It was the same contempt one would show toward a writhing worm on the roadside.

The Lady Evangeline Daisy knew was not like that.

That fragile girl might fall ill herself, but she could never even speak harshly to others.

If she truly wanted to become the young lady, she shouldn’t have looked at people with such contempt.

Don’t look at people like that.

Afraid their eyes might meet, Daisy lowered her head.

But… is it still looking at me right now?

“And then suddenly, it said it wanted to learn how to read.”

“Letters?”

Daisy nodded.

“It said it had amnesia and couldn’t remember letters, so it asked me to buy books.”

Since Daisy had promised to attend to it, she couldn’t leave to buy the books herself, so she briefly stepped out just to relay the message to someone else.

But when she returned, the room was empty.

Thinking it had run away somewhere with the young lady’s body, she searched the entire fourth floor.

And then she noticed the last room at the end was open.

It was a room the young lady had never allowed anyone to enter.

They had left it alone because they couldn’t find the key.

She briefly wondered how it had managed to open a locked room.

The door was slightly ajar.

If she opened it further, it would make noise.

Then she would receive that contemptuous gaze too.

Holding her breath, Daisy peeked through the crack.

It was definitely holding a book.

“It said it couldn’t read and told me to buy books, but that must have been a lie to send me away. When I came back, I saw it reading. And then… and then…”

What happened afterward returned vividly.

The more she wanted to forget, the clearer it became.

“Blood was dripping from its finger. I think it used that blood to draw patterns on the floor. Just looking at it made me feel uncomfortable.”

When it drew with its finger on the floor, there was a harsh scraping sound.

Like fingernails scratching violently across wood.

“And after finishing it, it muttered something. The only word I clearly heard was… ‘contract.’”

She couldn’t hear well.

Daisy pressed her ear closer to the door.

Then she accidentally pushed the door slightly.

She prayed it hadn’t noticed.

But their eyes met.

Terrified, Daisy shut her eyes tightly.

And that was all she saw.

“A contract….”

Count Rohanson stroked his chin.

A blood-drawn pattern. A contract.

No matter how he thought about it, it didn’t seem like a good situation.

Some kind of sorcery?

His heart was already burning with worry because of the thing inside his daughter’s body.

Could another monster appear after being summoned with blood?

Count Rohanson sighed.

This all happened because his daughter had committed suicide.

The temple refused to conduct the funeral, and the body could not even be properly laid to rest, which allowed an evil spirit to inhabit it.

The problem was that even holy water couldn’t drive it out.

Since there was no solution, the only thing they could do was keep watching it.

He was about to encourage Daisy to endure a few more days when he suddenly found it strange that the maid still had her eyes tightly shut.

“But why have you been keeping your eyes closed?”

“Why? Because I’m scared, obviously. That thing has been staring at me the whole time, Count.”

Daisy asked as if she found him strange.

Staring?

The Count suddenly turned his head.

And his gaze met a cluster of staring eyes looking back at him.

***

I had been chosen by a three-eyed leopard-pattern cheese cat.

What is this other-world quality…?

Why is even the cat extraordinary?

I don’t know where it came from, but when I woke up, it was lying on the bed with me.

Is it a cat raised by the Count’s household?

I should ask the maid who comes to attend me.

But this is a different maid from last time.

Well, they must rotate shifts since they’re busy.

“Are there many cats in the Count’s house?”

“Cats? We killed them all a long time ago.”

Killed them all?

The maid explained it was because diseases spread through cats.

It seemed something like the Black Death had spread here too.

Meow.

“…Don’t you hear a cat?”

“I don’t hear anything.”

“That’s strange… it sounds really close.”

I desperately pretended not to notice.

Of course it sounds close!

No! Baby, don’t cry!

If you cry, they’ll find you!

You’ll die!

Thankfully, the maid left without searching the room.

Wow, my heart almost dropped out.

I used to be the kind of person who opposed adopting pets without family permission…

I even hated those posts like “My dad used to oppose cats, but now…”

But what does it matter now?

I’ve become the person who secretly picked up a cat without family approval!

But they said they kill them!

If there was a disease, its family must already be dead.

If I let a priest and a doctor examine it properly and then raise it… would that be okay?

They wouldn’t kill the Count’s daughter’s pet, right?

First, I should get the Count’s permission.

He’s in his office, right?

Thankfully, I remember roughly where the room is.

I went down the stairs to the second floor and knocked on the door.

The butler came out.

“I’d like to see the Count.”

“I will ask him.”

The butler returned quickly.

“I’m sorry, my lady. The Count says he is busy right now and cannot see you.”

“Really?”

Wow.

What a terrible villainess dad.

His daughter came back from the brink of death, and he didn’t visit her once. I should have known when we never even ate together.

I even came to see him myself and he won’t meet me?

Isn’t that just an excuse?

“No, but if you have something to tell him, you may tell me instead.”

The butler bowed deeply.

What kind of person was Evangeline that an old man bows ninety degrees to her?

I placed my hand on his shoulder to tell him to stand up, and he flinched in surprise.

Hey, I’m not going to hit you!

“I want to keep a cat.”

“A cat…?”

“Is that not allowed?”

“No….”

Yes!

Permission granted!

I walked back happily with light steps.

“Your name is Pudding!”