Chapter 22
Translator: RaidenTL
Chapter 22
Daisy had been talking to me one moment, then bolted the next. Normally, wouldn't someone ask why? Besides, his whole act of emphasizing our privacy while chattering on felt a little suspicious.
Could he be the “schemer” type? The kind who acts all friendly now, but the moment Gabriel marks me as an enemy, he’ll be the first in line to carry out my execution. Just imagining it made Raphaella’s smiling face seem terrifying. To be honest, I’ve always been uncomfortable around people who smile so easily.
“Ah. And who might this young master be?” Raphaella asked, his gaze falling on Jelly.
Jelly glanced at me, his eyes asking for instructions.
Right… what was I supposed to say? The second male lead I snatched up? A magic-wielding werewolf? My pet beastkin?
“He’s my escort.”
“Ah! So you’re a knight. I didn’t recognize you since you aren’t wearing a sword.”
I hadn’t thought of that. It would be weird for him to use a sword. Jelly was a beastkin mage, after all; he was far more likely to use magic or his claws than a blade. I should have come up with a more plausible excuse. As I fretted over how to salvage the situation, Jelly simply shrugged.
“Well, I’m skilled enough even without a sword.”
He played along smoothly. Raphaella nodded, his eyes taking in how Jelly was effortlessly carrying the chest of holy water vials with one hand. Jelly’s casual show of strength had actually come in handy.
“You’re heading to the knights’ reception room, correct? Then I should accompany you.”
Raphaella and Uriel took the lead. I followed behind, matching Jelly’s slower pace.
“How do you know Daisy?” I asked quietly.
“Who? Oh, that girl from before? Um… we’re acquaintances. We helped each other out a bit.”
“You didn’t bully her, did you?”
“No! I’m telling you, I actually helped her. I got her out of there, and we escaped together.”
Jelly grumbled, asking if I wasn't the one who usually bullied him. He seemed to be speaking in riddles because others were nearby.
Fortunately, it was enough for me to piece things together. Jelly was severely injured when I first found him. What could hurt a beastkin that badly? And he’d just said they escaped together.
This had to be it. Daisy and Jelly must have been captured by slave traders or something similar and managed to escape! Daisy must have turned pale because seeing Jelly brought back those horrific memories. Post-traumatic stress, I think they call it.
Wait, so Jelly wasn’t the second male lead, but part of a sub-couple? By the end of the story, he’d give up on Canna and end up with Daisy. And I’m the villainess in this scenario, too. Why are there two romantic pairings but only one villainess?
“I took care of the aftermath cleanly, too,” Jelly added.
So he’d even finished off the slave traders. Well, good for him. I reached up and patted Jelly’s head in praise.
Up ahead, Raphaella had stopped and was waiting for us. As Jelly and I closed the distance, he looked at me with a complex expression. It was understandable, considering he thought I was pursuing his superior, only to witness me affectionately petting another man’s head.
“You two seem… quite close for an escort and his charge.”
That’s because Jelly is my pet… and he usually walks around as a wolf, not a person… If I said that out loud, I’d probably be branded a slave trader who discriminates against other races, so I kept my mouth shut.
“Not at all.”
I had absolutely no intention of dating Gabriel, but I couldn't afford to get on his bad side right now. I answered firmly, trying to sound convincing. To think I’d be playing the field in a romance fantasy world…
* * *
Raphaella quietly observed Evangeline Rohanson as she spoke with Daisy. To any onlooker, it would seem he was just exchanging idle chatter with Uriel, cracking his usual pointless jokes. Of course, Uriel himself was rather oblivious and had no idea of Raphaella’s true nature.
Aside from Gabriel, Raphaella knew more of the truth than anyone else in the order. If Raphaella were as innocent as he appeared, Gabriel would never have kept him by his side in the first place.
Raphaella had seen Donau’s corpse and knew of the mysterious crest found within it. He knew about the spell circles and had been investigating ancient sorcery ever since their visit to the Rohanson mansion. It was also Raphaella who had compiled Daisy’s testimony into a report for Gabriel.
At first glance, Daisy’s testimony seemed straightforward. She had seen Priest Berga summoning something that looked like a demon. The people killed by that demon had their heads cut off and then reattached, after which they acted perfectly normal, indistinguishable from living humans except for a thin red line across their necks.
That must have been why she was so terrified when she saw Canna, Evangeline Rohanson’s maid.
Honestly, was it just because Canna was Evangeline Rohanson’s maid? He felt he could almost believe Canna really was one of the dead. After all, Evangeline herself was rumored to have died and come back to life.
‘On Evangeline Rohanson’s neck…’
Of course, Evangeline’s neck was perfectly clean.
The atrocities Priest Berga committed, as described by Daisy, were horrific enough to make one’s skin crawl. The only reason he had remained safe for so long was likely due to the isolation of the peripheral monastery and the backing of the Berga family. How could a clergyman blessed by Lady Rachel act in such a way? The other crimes Daisy was unaware of would surely be revealed once they captured and interrogated Priest Berga.
However, there were suspicious parts in Daisy’s statement.
The point Raphaella found most puzzling was how Daisy, who had witnessed a demon summoning, managed to escape safely. It seemed unlikely that Priest Berga would have simply let go of someone who knew so many of his secrets. How did she do it?
“Uriel, if you were being monitored in a place that was hard to escape, could you get away?”
“Do you mean a prison? Then you shouldn’t try to escape.”
“…Somewhere other than a prison. A monastery, for example.”
Uriel couldn’t fathom why someone would be imprisoned in a monastery, let alone need to escape, but he gave the question serious thought.
“By jumping out a window? If I used the trees, I think I could make it down safely from the third floor.”
“…Right. Thanks.”
Raphaella rubbed his temples at the completely unhelpful answer. Daisy was no Uriel; she couldn’t just jump out of a window.
He turned his attention back to the two women.
“———.”
“You… you don’t know my name?”
“—————————.”
“…It’s Daisy.”
It was a strange sensation. The two were clearly having a conversation, yet he couldn’t hear a single word Evangeline Rohanson said. Furthermore, her lips weren’t even moving. And yet, the impression that she was speaking was undeniable. Daisy seemed to hear her just fine, continuing the back-and-forth as if nothing were amiss.
Raphaella had no choice but to guess at the conversation based solely on Daisy’s words.
According to their exchange, it seemed Evangeline Rohanson didn’t remember Daisy. This was odd, considering Daisy had reacted as if seeing her triggered a past trauma.
“You heard Lady Evangeline came back to life? I don’t know how you heard, but it’s true. Everyone who attended the funeral must have seen it… the scene of the dead young lady coming back to life.”
“The priest who presided over the funeral committed suicide? That’s not surprising.”
“I’ve seen the young lady drawing spell circles before. You say she was summoning an angel? An angel? You wouldn’t say that if you’d seen it yourself.”
And then there was what she had witnessed at the Rohanson mansion. Daisy claimed she saw Evangeline summoning something and, given her experience with Priest Berga, insisted it must have been a demon.
“There are too many eyes at the Rohanson mansion. That’s why I went to the monastery.”
After that, she had fled to the monastery, only to be swept up in another incident. What rotten luck.
What exactly were the “eyes” Daisy mentioned? Did she simply mean there were many people watching? Were all the servants at the Rohanson mansion as loyal as the sisters, Hena and Canna?
Originally, the Commander was supposed to ask about that, but the plan went awry when Daisy clammed up upon seeing the Rohanson maids. The Commander had tasked Raphaella with seeing her off to dig for more information, but Daisy had remained silent the entire walk, yielding no results.
Meeting Evangeline Rohanson had been an unexpected stroke of luck. Daisy had become excessively agitated the moment Evangeline entered her field of vision. That was why Raphaella had deliberately maneuvered Daisy in front of her, hoping to learn something new. But since he couldn’t hear Evangeline’s voice, he had reaped no real harvest.
“…Sir Gabriel knows.”
Then, it seemed a terrified Daisy had confessed to Evangeline that she had given testimony. Judging by the mention of the Commander’s name, she had likely blurted out everything.
It felt like he had only made matters worse. At least, that was the case until the man appeared.
He was a seductive-looking man with black hair and golden eyes. His slow, deliberate movements were like those of a great predator moving at its leisure. The man naturally took his place behind Evangeline.
“Who is he?” Raphaella had asked.
“That is Mr. Jelly, Lady Rohanson’s companion,” Uriel had answered.
Raphaella looked at Uriel in disbelief. His head throbbed. How could his colleague take such a ridiculous name seriously, even adding a formal title to it?
“He was quiet and quite serious,” Uriel added.
“That man named Jelly?”
“He didn’t say a single word while the young lady was praying.”
He was even alone with that suspicious person? Of course, strictly speaking, Evangeline Rohanson was the more dangerous element here. Raphaella felt a surge of resentment toward the Commander for pairing him with the hopelessly naive Uriel.