Chapter 97
Translator: RaidenTL
Chapter 97
Jelly hesitated as he reached for my hand, clearly mindful of my injury. You know, it actually hurts more when you treat it so delicately. Everyone knows a wound stings less when you ignore it.
"Does it hurt a lot?"
"I'm fine. I'll just splash some holy water on it or something."
"Haha, you have a macabre sense of humor."
Jelly chided me for joking in a situation like this. What? I wasn't joking.
Puzzled by his reaction, I suddenly remembered that Evangeline had died of illness. I first opened my eyes in a coffin, and since no one ever brought it up, I tended to forget. Ah, right. Just like Ryder, Evangeline was one of those people holy water had no effect on.
But then, why did the Count force so much holy water down my throat after I possessed this body? In the beginning, I assumed he was just trying to help Evangeline recover, but there was no way that trash would ever care that much about his daughter.
Besides, as her biological father, he had to have known holy water didn't work on her. It wasn't like he was clutching at straws out of love, like Madame Toten... Was he treating me like an evil spirit, just as Bishop Marik did? I suppose I deserved it for stealing his daughter's body, but the Count had no right. The Countess, on the other hand, could curse me out all she wanted.
"Master, I've found the Princess."
After a long moment of concentration, Jelly finally located her.
"The scent of blood is overwhelming. It seems that bastard Astaroth was right—she's on the verge of death," Jelly reported.
If we had holy water, we could treat her on the spot, but we'd just escaped from prison. We had nothing. For now, our only option was to get to her as quickly as possible.
Jelly snapped his fingers, and my vision blurred for an instant. Seriously, teleportation is such a cheat. We arrived in what seemed to be the same forest. The scenery was so identical I couldn't tell how far we had traveled.
"Oh dear," Jelly muttered, his voice devoid of any real concern.
We had found the Princess this time, but there was a problem: Gabriel was with her. Was I too late?
Azazel had already stabbed her once. Surely Gabriel hadn't delivered the finishing blow...? She's your niece! And she's almost certainly a scapegoat in some larger plot. To hell with the imperial decree—you can't kill her!
I rushed forward to stop Gabriel, but my foot came down on something squishy. Lifting my boot, I saw a person sprawled on the ground beneath it. I was so startled that for a second, I thought my possession was ending and my soul was about to ascend.
Several knights lay collapsed on the ground, wearing the same uniforms as the men who had thrown me in the dungeon. They were Imperial Palace Knights. A dying princess couldn't have taken them all down, which meant this had to be Gabriel's work.
If that was the case, they weren't dead—just unconscious. Paladins didn't go around killing people, after all. He must have subdued them to save the Princess. Right?
Gabriel never intended to kill the Princess. The tension bled out of me in a rush. Come to think of it, if even I could figure out what was happening, there was no way the story's male lead couldn't. He probably even knew the secret of his own birth. Did I go through all this trouble for nothing? No, saving a life was worth the effort.
While I was still frozen in shock from stepping on someone, Jelly had already sauntered over to Gabriel and started a conversation. I quickly hurried to join them.
"...Lady Rohanson."
"Yes, Sir Gabriel? You called?"
Gabriel spoke my name without even turning. Had he sensed my approach? Could he really identify people by their footsteps alone? A skill truly befitting a male lead.
"Evangeline."
"Yes, Sir Gabriel."
He called my name again, and this time, he turned to face me. Why did he look so surprised when he was the one who called out first? Had he not expected to recognize my footsteps either?
Ah, that wasn't it.
Gabriel's eyes were shimmering. It was only then that I realized they were brimming with tears. I'd always thought his eyes were like a clear blue sky, but today, they were a trembling lake. Who gave him the right to reflect the sky and mislead people like that?
"Please... save the Princess."
Gabriel looked at me with desperation in his eyes. I'd seen that look before. When I saved Canna, when Daisy returned, when the orphans clung to me, and when Madame Toten came to find me—Gabriel wore the exact same expression.
And I had never once turned them away. Perhaps it was to avoid the villainess's gruesome fate, or maybe it was just a whim. Or perhaps I pitied them, wondering how desperate they must be to cling to someone like me—a person who saw their entire world as nothing more than ink on paper.
"If that is your wish, Sir."
Seeing that he looked as if he might shatter at the slightest touch, I could only offer him a comforting smile.
Gabriel gave a faint, relieved smile. I silently begged him not to cry, but the tears welling in his eyes finally spilled over, a single drop tracing a path down his cheek. It was just one tear; he probably didn't even realize he was crying.
I looked away, unable to watch him any longer. I try to act tough, but here I am, turning into a complete softie just because Gabriel is crying. I'm such an easy target. Of course, Canna was the only one in this world who knew it. The 'villainess' label was so powerful that even when she chanted "My lady is kind" like a mantra, no one believed her. Ah, Pudding used to nod along, too. No wonder I couldn't help but favor those two.
A glance at the Princess confirmed her condition was critical. She was sprawled limply on the ground, her breaths shallow gasps. The clothes around her flank were stained dark red, evidence of a deep stab wound to her side. I tore away the fabric to examine it. It was far too deep. That piece of trash, Azazel. How could he do this to a child? He wasn't just suffering from eighth-grader syndrome; he was a certified lunatic.
"What about holy water?"
"It's useless. Mr. Jelly said it doesn't work..."
An ornate vial lay on the ground, its glass cracked as if it had been dropped. Was the Princess also cursed with a body that rejected holy water? Jelly, completely indifferent to Gabriel's tears or the dying princess, was fiddling with the broken vial. He must have pricked himself on a shard, because he was now rolling on the ground, clutching his finger.
The Princess was dying right beside him, and he was making a scene over a tiny cut. The situation was already giving me a headache, and his exaggerated theatrics made me want to smack him. It wasn't even a real injury—with the holy water on the shard, it would have healed instantly. What a drama queen.
Perhaps awakened by the commotion, the Princess's eyes fluttered open. She looked up at me.
"An angel...?"
In this world, angels, not Grim Reapers, were said to escort the dying, so it was a line I heard fairly often. Still, the fact that she was hallucinating meant her condition was dire. Afraid she might slip away before we could even find a way to treat her, I called out to keep her conscious.
"Lady Tenebrae? Lady Jeremia?"
Madame Toten had said the twin princesses could be told apart by their necklaces, but this one was so stained with blood I couldn't see it. Logically, it should have been Tenebrae, the one with a warrant out for her arrest. But the words about Azazel stabbing Jeremia echoed in my mind.
"...I am... Jeremia."
Right. It was Jeremia. A warrant was out for Tenebrae, so why was Jeremia the one who was injured? I'd have to treat her first and ask questions later.
Since holy water was useless, we needed a doctor, fast. In this absurd world, plenty of people couldn't be healed by holy water, so despite the existence of a supposed panacea, the number of doctors was surprisingly high.
Just then, Jelly, still clutching his finger, finally stopped his tantrum. He frowned and shook his head. "This body is finished. It's a wound from Azazel, so it won't heal naturally. Since holy water has no effect, no doctor can fix it either. All they can do is stitch up the outside. The only thing keeping her alive right now is sheer willpower."
As if she'd heard him, Jeremia gasped. "I... I don't want to die..."
A heavy, moist wind settled around us, feeling incredibly oppressive.
As if searching for a lifeline, she flailed a hand through the air before her fingers closed around mine. It was my injured hand, but I didn't flinch. Her skin was burning hot. In that moment, it felt... it felt as if the person before me was real, a living being who had torn herself free from the pages of the novel.
I had no talent for saving people. I wasn't some divine physician, and my role wasn't that of a Saintess who could spam healing spells like in a video game. So what could I do? All I had was money, but holy water was useless. My reputation as a villainess only inspired fear. I was useless. I really picked the wrong body to possess... Possess? Ah, right. I was a transmigrator.
And transmigrators are experts at possession.
I needed an empty body. And I knew someone with experience entering one... Melek! That was it, there was Melek!
"We need to move," I said.
Gabriel scanned our surroundings and nodded. The forest was vast, but the Emperor's knights were searching it thoroughly. We could be discovered at any moment.
"Jelly, take us to the Rohanson Mansion."
Even when I was locked in that dungeon, I'd wanted to go home so badly, but I had endured it. I never imagined I'd return like this.
Gabriel carefully lifted Jeremia into his arms. Having exhausted the last of her strength, she had lost consciousness. Only faint, shallow breaths proved she was still alive. Yet, as if her desperate plea echoed in her grip, her small hand held fast to mine.
Taking one last look around, I saw that one of the knights was awake. He was lying flat on the ground, blinking and staring right at us. When our eyes met, his face went white. He was so paralyzed with fear he didn't even think to shut his eyes and play dead. It would be a problem if he reported that I'd escaped... Just as the thought crossed my mind, Jelly smacked the knight on the back of the head.
The knight's eyes closed once more. It was a trend Daisy had started.
"He won't be talking now," Jelly said confidently. I had no idea what kind of magic he'd used while hitting him, but if Jelly said so, I had to believe him.
Jelly snapped his fingers, and the forest dissolved into my bedroom. He immediately vanished to fetch Melek.
I had expected the room to be empty, but Canna was curled up asleep on the sofa. I'd given her the Countess's room to use so she could be comfortable, so why was she sleeping here? I knew exactly why—she was guarding my door out of worry. A wave of warmth mixed with pity washed over me.
Perhaps her uncomfortable posture kept her from sleeping deeply, because her eyes fluttered open.
"...My lady...?"