Chapter 41
Translator: RaidenTL
Chapter 41
Besides, Canna knew now. This was about more than just Pudding. Ugh, if I had known the conversation would turn out like this, I would have sent her away first!
This wouldn’t do. I needed to expose myself to this a little, build up an immunity before Gabriel tried to exorcise me.
“Canna. What do you think? Do you feel betrayed?”
“It’s not particularly important to me,” Canna stated calmly.
What? Not important? Even after I just said I’m a possessor?
“The person who saved me wasn’t someone else—it was you, My Lady.”
Well, that was true… If it had been the original Evangeline, she wouldn’t have saved Canna; she would have been the one to order the kidnapping in the first place.
“What about you? Are you planning to ignore the help the Young Lady gave you?”
Canna shifted the focus to Daisy. No, wait, that was just a business transaction. But faced with Canna's sheer force of will, neither Daisy nor I could find the words to retort.
Is our Canna a professional gaslighter? Is gaslighting a basic requirement for surviving as the female lead in a dark RoFan these days?
“The Evangeline Rohanson you knew is already dead.”
Whoa, Canna… She could still be dormant inside me, you know? Though, considering I woke up at my own funeral, she probably was dead. Still, that was a blunt way to put it. You can’t just dismiss someone who just died so easily, can you?
“…I know that, too.”
But it seemed Daisy had already been completely won over by Canna’s eloquence.
Wait, shouldn’t I be the one having a crisis here? Why do you two look so distraught?
Silence filled the carriage. The fact that we were still a long way from the Rohanson mansion was agonizing. Jelly, please come save me.
* * *
Jelly had returned to the mansion ahead of Evangeline. When he suddenly materialized out of thin air, Mary’s jaw dropped. She fearlessly ran over and started hopping around him.
“Whoa, whoa! You just went poof and appeared! Did you do that thing from before again?”
She had made a huge fuss when he teleported them earlier, and the novelty clearly hadn't worn off. As Jelly waved his hand dismissively, Yulma and Ranon grew wary, pulling Mary behind them. At least the older kids had some discernment. Watching this, Hena wondered why Jelly had brought back a strange man instead of her sister and Evangeline.
“Where are Canna and the Young Lady?”
“They're coming by carriage, the normal way.”
It seemed Evangeline had something to discuss with Daisy. She’ll probably end up coming to the mansion too, right? The Young Lady doesn’t show it, but she seems to have taken a liking to her. Jelly was slightly amused. He figured that if Daisy joined them, Canna might act a little less high and mighty.
“Then why did you bring this person?”
“Do you think I brought him on a whim? It seems your Young Lady intends to take him in. She even said to feed him because he’s hungry.”
“Ah…”
Hearing Jelly’s explanation, Hena nodded in understanding. Considering she had already taken in her and Canna, it seemed the Young Lady was surprisingly willing to accept another mouth to feed.
“Food?”
At the mention of food, Melek, who had been standing there in a daze, finally reacted. He was so starved that drool trickled from his mouth and his eyes were half-lidded.
By all rights, he should have lost control and lunged at the prey before him, yet he was somehow holding back. Jelly smacked the back of Melek’s head, telling him to snap out of it.
“Melek looks hungry. That’s why he should’ve eaten the bread I gave him!”
As Mary tried to get closer to Melek, Hena redirected the child’s attention.
“The Young Lady will take care of his meal later. Mary, aren’t you hungry?”
“I’m hungry…”
“Then let’s go have a snack while we wait for the Young Lady to arrive.”
The quick-witted Hena disappeared with the children. She’s so different from her sister. Canna, under Evangeline’s protection, treated Jelly like a pet dog without a hint of fear, but Hena knew how to read the room and act accordingly.
Right. This is the proper treatment I should be receiving. Satisfied, Jelly turned his head.
“Are you lucid? Think you can hold on a little longer?”
“Maybe.”
Maybe, my ass. Seeing as he didn’t even have the energy to heal a wound inflicted by a mere child, he looked like he was about to starve to death. Meanwhile, the boy who had stabbed him looked as if he were dying of guilt at the sight of Melek’s pathetic state.
“Do you know who I am?”
“Jelly?”
Jelly was certain after hearing that. Not Andras, but Jelly.
“You’re not that Melek bastard, are you?”
Melek smiled faintly.
“I’m just attached to him.”
The people at the mansion were making a fuss about Evangeline coming back to life or a corpse moving, but the real deal was right here. This man wasn’t the real Melek, but something else parasitizing his dead body.
Did the Young Lady take him in because they’re similar in that regard?
“No wonder you reeked so much, being stuck in a dead shell. You don’t even have enough energy to recover your body. You’ve never eaten a human soul before, have you?”
“Yeah.”
This guy was truly on the verge of death. From the looks of it, he’d been surviving on the residual nutrients in Melek’s corpse until now, but he was finally reaching his limit.
He's stubbornly refusing to eat humans, so how am I supposed to feed him? Ha… seriously.
Whatever. The great Lady Evangeline probably had a plan. She wasn’t the type to lie, so there had to be some solution. Surely she won’t shove holy water down his throat to heal him. Jelly’s tongue felt tingly as a horrific memory suddenly resurfaced.
“Why don’t you eat humans?”
“Because I used to be one?”
So the original Melek got killed by a former human and had his body snatched? Serves him right. Jelly wanted to follow the bastard to hell just to laugh in his face.
“How long has it been?”
“About twenty years?”
“Pffft, hahahaha!” Twenty years. Jelly burst into laughter. Only Melek stood there blankly, not understanding the sudden explosion of mirth. After all his posturing, bullying children and demanding offerings, he got taken out by the ghost of a literal child. I’ll have to tell Flauros about this later.
Jelly took a great liking to this new Melek.
“How did you kill him?”
“I was in the same orphanage as Merai. I died after being locked in the basement. When I came to, I was in this body. So, I’m sorry, but I don’t remember how I took over Melek’s body.”
The boy, back when he was human, had been one of the children the demon Melek had toyed with. When the Director locked the basement door to avoid the Temple’s inspection, the boy was the only one left inside.
Trapped there, he grew thinner by the day, eventually dying of starvation. And when he woke up again, he was incredibly hungry.
The original Melek happened to appear before him then. He had likely come for his usual purpose—to occasionally visit the basement to torment the children for fun. Melek was puzzled by the unusual state of the basement that day, and there, he discovered the only soul still pulsing with life.
In that moment, ‘Hunger’ devoured Melek. By the time the boy regained consciousness several days later, he was already inhabiting Melek's body.
The voice, the face—everything was the same. However, even after becoming Melek, the boy was always plagued by hunger.
And twenty years later, he encountered his childhood friend. Merai, who had become the Director, had summoned ‘Melek.’
After hearing the rough summary of the story, Jelly scolded him.
“Why didn’t you just eat her? Not the kids, but that Director. She’s going to be executed anyway, right? Wouldn’t it be more economical to use her as a meal than to just let her die?”
If it were me, I would’ve devoured her out of spite even if my stomach burst. This was why former humans were so soft-hearted.
Still, since they were going to serve the same master now, it was better for comrades to get along. Jelly decided to do his best to be sociable.
“What’s your name?”
“Melek.”
“Not that, your original name. I hate that Melek bastard, so I don’t want to call you that.”
“My original name? I wonder…”
* * *
“A name?”
You want me to give him a name? Me?
I had barely survived the awkward silence in the carriage, only to be confronted by Jelly.
I was going to treat his wounds first, but Jelly insisted there was something more urgent and told me to give his friend a name. No, he has a perfectly fine name, Melek, so why?
“I would like a name like Jelly.”
He had surprisingly cute taste. Jelly absolutely loathed his own name, which was why it was so fun to call him that, but since his friend was asking so earnestly, I felt strangely reluctant.
But then again, it would be discrimination if I didn’t, right? He already had a name, so I could just think of it as giving him a nickname.
What should I call him?
Pudding was because I thought he was just a cat at first, and Jelly was named out of a bit of spite while I was enchanted by his soft pink paw pads. This guy looked like a perfectly normal adult man, but… if he liked names like Jelly…
This wouldn’t do. The only dessert name I could think of right now was Meringue. Meringue and Melek. The pronunciations were similar, so I decided to just go with that.
“Meringue.”
I swear I wasn't trying to be sarcastic. Jelly’s friend… no, Melek… no, Meringue seemed to genuinely like it, which made me wonder if I should have put more thought into it. But oh well, dessert names are all pretty much the same.
“But why did you ask for a name when you already have Melek?”
“Actually, I’m not Melek.”
Then what are you?
“I’m just borrowing this body…”
Borrowing? Wait. Are you a possessor, too?
If he knows he’s Evangeline’s body and knows the title of the work, does that mean he knows the entire original story?
I should ask him everything I’m curious about.
“Could you tell me what you know about the Rohanson mansion?”
“Pardon? Oh… yes. First of all, the building is very antique. The gardens are spacious and look good for walks, the surroundings are quiet, and the employees keep their silence. It seems like a good place to live.”
Wait.
It felt like we were talking past each other. I asked him to explain the original novel, so why was he suddenly giving me a real estate review? A chill ran down my spine.
Something was suspicious. I should test him.
“You said you died and came back to life. Where did you live originally?”
“Ah. Did I not mention it? I’m from the same Ainoa Orphanage as Merai.”
What?
I had asked indirectly, and the answer I received was beyond my imagination.
“By Merai, you mean that Director?”
“Yes. That’s right.”
How could someone from this world also be a possessor?
I did have some doubts. No matter how common possession was in the RoFan genre, usually only one possessor appeared per story. Of course, there were cases with two, like being possessed into a possession story, or being possessed along with someone you had a bad relationship with to stage a revenge drama.
And I had made a huge mistake. People who read novels naturally think of book transmigration when they hear the word ‘possession,’ but if you think about it logically… being possessed by a ghost is a much more famous concept.
It seemed Melek was a ghost.
I suddenly wanted to run away. I can handle the thriller genre just fine, but I’m particularly weak against horror movies with ghosts.
“What about the original owner of the body?”
“Ah. Jelly said he thinks he’s dead.”
“Does Jelly know you’ve possessed him, too?”
“Yes. Jelly says he prefers me over the original Melek.”
Melek nodded. Well, that was a relief, at least. I had been agonizing over how to tell a friend that a ghost had possessed their acquaintance. But if Jelly could say something like that, they probably weren’t that close to begin with. Were they just acquaintances who knew each other’s names because they were both beastkin?
And then, Melek briefly told me his story.