MPBGS 22

Chapter : 22

Daisy was talking to me and suddenly ran off. Normally, wouldn’t you ask why? On top of that, emphasizing that she didn’t eavesdrop while talking about privacy protection felt a little strange.

Could it be that she has a “revenge-prone” trait? Right now, she’s being friendly, but if Gabriel ever considers me an enemy, she’d be the first to come after me. Imagining that, Rafaela’s smiling face suddenly seemed a bit scary. Honestly, I’ve always been uncomfortable around people who laugh so easily.

“Ah. And your knight?”

Rafaela asked while looking at Jelly. Jelly glanced at me, silently asking how to respond with her eyes.

Well… what should I say? The side male lead I snatched? A magic-wielding werewolf? My pet beast?

“She’s my bodyguard.”

“Oh! So you’re the knight. I didn’t realize because you weren’t carrying a sword.”

I hadn’t thought of that. It would be strange if she were using a sword. Jelly is a beast mage, after all. She mainly uses magic and probably her claws instead of a sword. I should have made a more believable excuse. How should I fix this? I worried, and Jelly shrugged her shoulders.

“Well, I’m excellent even without a sword.”

She responded so confidently. Rafaela nodded when she saw Jelly casually holding a box containing a holy water bottle with one hand. Jelly’s show of strength actually had some use.

“You’re heading to the Knights’ Reception Room, right? Then I’ll accompany you back as well.”

Rafaela and Uriel went ahead, and I followed slowly to match Jelly’s pace.

“How do you know Daisy?”

“Who? Oh, her from earlier? Um… we helped each other a little?”

“You didn’t harass her, right?”

“No, not at all. I actually helped her. I took her out and escaped with her.”

Jelly answered grumpily, as if claiming she was the one who got bullied, but she seemed to be softening her words because someone else was nearby.

Luckily, even that was enough to piece together what had happened. Why? When Jelly first appeared, she was seriously injured. How often would a beast get hurt that badly? And she just said she escaped together with Daisy.

There’s no way around it. Daisy and Jelly were captured by a slave trader and escaped together! Daisy had gone pale because seeing Jelly reminded her of that horrifying memory. This must be what people call post-traumatic stress.

So, was Jelly not a side male lead, but part of a side couple? At the story’s conclusion, she gives up feelings for Kanna and leans toward Daisy. That makes me the villain here. Why are there two couples but only one villain?

“We cleaned up afterward, too.”

Apparently, they also took care of the slave traders. That was impressive. I praised Jelly and patted her head.

Rafaela stopped at a distance when she realized we weren’t keeping up. As Jelly and I approached, she looked at me with a face full of mixed emotions. It made sense—seeing someone she considered an ally in Gabriel’s favor patting another man’s head would cause that reaction.

“You get along well with your bodyguard…?”

That’s because Jelly is my pet… Normally, she’s not human but in wolf form… If I said that, I’d sound like a racist slave trader, so I kept quiet.

“Not at all.”

I have no intention of dating Gabriel, but I couldn’t afford to be on his bad side now, so I answered firmly instead. I never imagined I’d be playing the field in a romance fantasy world…

Rafaela quietly observed Evangeline Rohanson talking with Daisy. She was exchanging trivial words with Uriel, so anyone else would think she was just joking around as usual. Uriel, who was talking with her, didn’t notice Rafaela’s true nature either.

Rafaela knew the most truths in the knights’ order besides Gabriel. If Rafaela had been as naive as she appeared, Gabriel wouldn’t have kept her nearby in the first place.

Rafaela had seen Donau’s corpse and the mysterious inscriptions inside it. She knew about the summoning circles and was investigating past magic after visiting the Rohanson mansion.

She was also the one who compiled Daisy’s testimony and reported it to Gabriel.

Daisy’s account, at first glance, didn’t seem strange.

She saw Priest Berga summon something that looked like a demon, and the demon killed people by cutting off their necks and reattaching them. The victims acted normally, and without the red lines around their necks, they were indistinguishable from ordinary humans.

That’s probably why Daisy reacted so strongly when she saw Kanna, Evangeline Rohanson’s maid.

Honestly, could it be because she was Evangeline’s maid? Even if she were dead, it would be believable. Evangeline herself had died and been revived, after all.

‘On Evangeline Rohanson’s neck…’

Of course, Evangeline’s neck was clean.

The atrocities committed by Priest Berga, as Daisy described, were horrifying. Their survival until now was likely due to the isolation of the monastery on the outskirts and the support of Berga’s family. Really, should a priest blessed by Lady Rahel behave like this?

Other crimes Berga committed, unknown to Daisy, would become clear upon investigation.

Yet, there were parts of Daisy’s testimony that seemed suspicious.

The most puzzling for Rafaela was how Daisy, having witnessed the demon summoning, managed to escape safely.

It didn’t seem likely that Priest Berga would let Daisy, who knew so many of his secrets, go so easily. How did she escape?

“Uriel, could you escape if you were being watched in a hard-to-escape place?”

“Are you talking about a prison? Then I shouldn’t escape.”

“…Not a prison. Somewhere else. Like a monastery.”

Uriel didn’t fully understand why she would need to escape from a monastery under surveillance but thought carefully to answer Rafaela’s question.

“By jumping through a window? Using the trees, you could safely reach the third floor.”

“…Thank you.”

Rafaela pressed her forehead. That answer was of no help at all. Daisy couldn’t escape by jumping through windows like Uriel.

Rafaela returned her attention to their conversation.

“———.”

“You… don’t know my name?”

“—————————.”

“…I’m Daisy.”

It felt strange. They were clearly having a conversation, yet Evangeline Rohanson’s words could not be heard. Moreover, her mouth wasn’t moving. Still, it was obvious that she was speaking.

Daisy seemed to hear her clearly and continued the back-and-forth as if responding.

Rafaela could only infer the conversation from Daisy’s words.

From what she gathered, Evangeline Rohanson didn’t seem to remember Daisy. Daisy acted as though she had witnessed a trauma when giving her testimony.

“You say Lady Evangeline came back to life? I’m not sure how you heard this, but yes. Everyone who attended the funeral saw it… the moment a dead lady comes back to life.”

“The priest who presided over the funeral committed suicide? Not surprising.”

“The summoning circle looked like what the lady drew. Summoning an angel, she said? Angel? If you saw it firsthand, you wouldn’t say that.”

And what Daisy saw at the Rohanson mansion:

She claimed Evangeline summoned something, and given what happened with Priest Berga, it was probably a demon.

“There were many eyes watching at the mansion. That’s why I went to the monastery.”

After that, she fled to the monastery because the mansion had too many eyes. Getting caught up in events wherever she went, her luck was terrible.

What did Daisy mean by “eyes”? Were there many people watching? Were the mansion staff as loyal as sisters Henna and Kanna?

Normally, the commander would have asked about it, but Daisy fell silent upon seeing the Rohanson maids, throwing a wrench into the plan.

The commander left Rafaela to escort Daisy and gather more information, but Daisy remained silent the whole way, yielding no results.

Meeting Evangeline Rohanson unexpectedly was a stroke of luck. From the moment Daisy saw her, she became excessively agitated.

So Rafaela deliberately brought Daisy in front of Evangeline, hoping to glean more. But since Evangeline’s voice couldn’t be heard, there was no further progress.

“…Sir Gabriel knows.”

Moreover, Daisy seemed frightened and inadvertently admitted that she had testified. Given the mention of the commander, she probably confessed that she had given a statement.

It was only making matters worse—until a man appeared.

He was a very sinister-looking man with black hair and golden eyes. His slow movements were like a massive beast moving lazily. He naturally positioned himself behind Evangeline.

“Who’s that?”

“That’s Mr. Jelly, Miss Rohanson’s companion.”

Rafaela stared at Uriel in disbelief. Having a naive colleague who actually believed such a ridiculous name and even used an honorific gave her a headache.

“He didn’t speak much and was very composed.”

“Jelly? That person?”

“He didn’t say a word while the lady prayed.”

He was even alone with that suspicious person? Of course, in comparison, Evangeline was closer to being dangerous. Rafaela couldn’t help but resent the commander for pairing her with naive, clueless Uriel.