Chapter 22
Daisy ran away suddenly while talking to me—normally, wouldn't you ask why? Moreover, it was strange that she kept emphasizing she hadn't eavesdropped, going on about privacy protection.
Could she have a duplicitous nature? Right now she acts so kindly, but if Gabriel decides I'm an enemy, she'll be the first to step forward and execute me. Just imagining it, Raphaella's smiling face became a bit frightening. Originally, I'm uncomfortable with people who laugh like that, all haha hoho.
"And what about that spirit over there?"
Raphaella asked, looking at Jelly. Jelly glanced at me, asking with his eyes what he should do.
Right...? What should I say? The sub male lead I snatched up? A werewolf who uses magic? My household pet beast-person?
"He's my guard."
"Ah! So he's a knight. I didn't recognize him since he wasn't carrying a sword."
I didn't think of that. Using a sword would be strange. Jelly is a beast-person mage. He mainly uses magic and probably uses claws instead of a sword. If I was going to make an excuse, I should've come up with something more plausible. How do I salvage this? While I was worrying, Jelly shrugged his shoulders.
"Well. I'm excellent even without a sword."
He replied quite smoothly. Raphaella nodded after seeing Jelly lightly holding the box containing holy water bottles with one hand. Jelly's show of strength had its use.
"You're going to the Knight Order's reception room, right? Then I should return with you as well."
Raphaella and Uriel took the lead. I followed slowly behind, matching Jelly's pace.
"How do you know Daisy?"
"Who? Ah. That girl from earlier? Hmm... a relationship where we exchanged some help?"
"You didn't bully her?"
"No. I told you I actually helped her. I got her out and we escaped together."
Jelly grumbled his answer, saying if anything, he was the one who got bullied. It seemed like there were other people nearby, so he was speaking somewhat indirectly.
Fortunately, that was enough to guess the content. After all, Jelly was severely injured when he first appeared. How many incidents would cause a beast-person to be hurt that badly? Plus, he said they escaped together just now.
This is undeniable. Daisy and Jelly were captured by someone like a slave trader and escaped together! Daisy must have recalled those terrible memories when she saw Jelly, which is why she turned so pale. I think this was called post-traumatic stress or something.
Then was Jelly not a sub male lead but part of a sub couple? Now near the ending, he gives up his feelings for Kanna and moves on to Daisy. I'm the villain here too. Why is there only one villain when there are two couples?
"He cleaned up the aftermath neatly too."
In the meantime, it seems he even neatly handled the slave traders. Good job on that. I patted Jelly's head as praise.
Raphaella stopped and waited when she saw we weren't following from afar. As Jelly and I approached and the distance closed, she looked at me with a face full of complicated emotions. It made sense—she witnessed someone she thought was her superior's romantic interest petting another man's head.
"You seem close with your guard...?"
That's because Jelly is my pet... Normally he goes around in wolf form, not human form... If I said this, I'd probably be labeled as a slave trader who discriminates against other races, so I quietly shut my mouth.
"Not at all."
I have absolutely no intention of dating Gabriel, but since I can't afford to get on Gabriel's bad side right now, I answered firmly instead. To think I'd be managing a harem in a romance fantasy world....
***
Raphaella quietly observed Evangeline Rohanson talking with Daisy. Though she was exchanging meaningless words with Uriel, anyone else watching would think Raphaella was making her usual pointless jokes. Of course, Uriel, who was currently conversing with her, was also rather oblivious, so he didn't know Raphaella's true nature well.
Raphaella was the one who knew the most truth within the Knight Order, aside from Gabriel. If Raphaella had been as innocent as she appeared, Gabriel wouldn't have kept her by his side in the first place.
Raphaella had seen Donau's corpse and recognized the mysterious emblem found within it. She also knew about the curse array and was currently investigating past curses after visiting the Rohanson mansion.
It was also Raphaella who had organized Daisy's testimony and submitted a report to Gabriel.
At first glance, Daisy's testimony seemed normal.
She saw Priest Vera summoning something. It looked like a demon, and the people killed by that demon had their heads severed and reattached. And they acted perfectly fine as if they hadn't died, indistinguishable from normal humans except for a red line drawn on their necks.
That must be why she was so startled when she saw Kanna, Evangeline Rohanson's maid.
Honestly, since she's a maid belonging to Evangeline Rohanson, I might have believed it even if told she was a dead person. After all, Evangeline herself had died and come back to life.
'Evangeline Rohanson's neck...'
Of course, Evangeline's neck was perfectly clean.
The atrocities committed by Priest Vera that Daisy described were terrible enough to make one frown. The reason he had been safe until now was probably due to the closed nature of the monastery on the outskirts and Priest Vera's family backing him. Really, should a clergyman who received Lady Rahel's grace act like that?
Other crimes Daisy didn't know about would be revealed by capturing and investigating Priest Vera.
However, there were still suspicious parts in Daisy's testimony.
Except for a few things, what Raphaella found most questionable was how Daisy, who witnessed the demon summoning, managed to escape safely after seeing it.
It didn't seem like Priest Vera would easily let Daisy go when she knew so many of his secrets. How did she escape?
"Uriel, if you're being watched in a place hard to escape from, can you run away?"
"Are you talking about a prison? Then you shouldn't escape."
"...Not a prison. Somewhere else. For example, a monastery."
Uriel didn't understand why someone would be trapped in a monastery under surveillance and need to escape, but he thought about it diligently to answer Raphaella's question.
"Jump through a window? If I use a tree, I think I could safely reach the third floor."
"...Thanks."
Raphaella held her forehead at the completely unhelpful answer. Daisy wouldn't be able to escape through a window like Uriel.
Raphaella listened to the two people's conversation again.
"———."
"D-do you not know my name?"
"—————————."
"...It's Daisy."
It was a strange sensation. The two were definitely having a conversation, but she couldn't hear what Evangeline Rohanson was saying at all. Moreover, Evangeline wasn't even moving her lips. Yet the fact that Evangeline was speaking was vividly clear.
Daisy seemed to hear properly as she continued the question and answer session as if she had heard something.
Raphaella had no choice but to guess the conversation from Daisy's words alone.
Following their conversation, it seemed Evangeline Rohanson didn't remember Daisy. When Daisy gave her testimony, she acted as if she had witnessed trauma.
"You mean Lady Evangeline came back to life? I don't know how you heard that, but yes. Everyone who attended the funeral must have seen it. ...The scene of the dead young lady coming back to life."
"The priest who officiated that funeral committed suicide? That's not surprising either."
"The summoning array? I've seen what the young lady was drawing. Summoning an angel, you say? An angel? If they saw it directly, they wouldn't be able to say such a thing."
And what was witnessed at the Rohanson mansion.
Daisy said she saw Evangeline summoning something. She said considering Priest Vera's case, that too must be a demon.
"There were many watching eyes at the Rohanson mansion. That's why I went to the monastery."
After that, she went to the monastery to escape because there were watching eyes at the mansion. Getting caught up in incidents wherever she goes—what bad luck.
What exactly were the 'eyes' Daisy mentioned? Did it mean many people were monitoring? Were all the servants of the Rohanson mansion as loyal as those sisters Hena and Kanna?
Originally, the captain was going to ask about that, but things went a bit wrong when Daisy closed her mouth after seeing the Rohanson mansion's maids.
The captain told Raphaella to dig for more information and assigned her to see them off, but there was no harvest at all as Daisy remained silent while walking.
Meeting Evangeline Rohanson during that time was unexpected fortune. Daisy was overly agitated from the moment Evangeline Rohanson entered her view.
So Raphaella deliberately placed Daisy in front of Evangeline Rohanson. She thought she might be able to dig out something more. But since Evangeline's voice couldn't be heard, there was no particular harvest.
"...Sir Gabriel knows."
Moreover, Daisy seemed to have gotten scared and even confessed that she had given testimony. Seeing the captain's name come up, it seemed she had revealed the fact that she had testified.
Just made a mess by scratching where it didn't itch. That was the situation until a man appeared right after.
He had black hair and golden eyes—an extremely uncanny man. His slow movements were like a large predator moving leisurely. The man naturally stood behind Evangeline.
"Who is that?"
"He is Lady Rohanson's companion, Mr. Jelly."
Raphaella looked at Uriel in disbelief. Her head throbbed because of her innocent colleague who actually thought such a joke-like name was real and even added an honorific.
"He doesn't talk much and is quite serious."
"That person named Jelly?"
"He didn't say a single word while the young lady was praying."
He was alone with that suspicious person too? Of course, strictly speaking, Evangeline Rohanson was closer to being the dangerous one. But I started to feel a bit resentful toward the captain who assigned the clueless and innocent Uriel to this.