# Chapter 37
I don't know what's going on, but they've reconciled, right?
Watching Daisy and Troy hugging intensely, an uncomfortable feeling settled in one corner of my heart.
Troy isn't a third-rate villain supporting character but appears to be Jelly's love rival. While those two are building up such a touching narrative over there, our Jelly doesn't seem to feel any sense of crisis, just yawning away in the back.
Oh my, I can even see her fangs. She wouldn't look this bored even when watching a boring drama. That guy's going to regret it intensely later—is he going to be okay?
"It's okay, the children will be safe. The Young Lady will find them for us."
"Her?"
And suddenly attention focused on me.
"Yes, I promised."
Daisy looked at me desperately. I owe Daisy in my heart, there are things I need to hear, and even if I wasn't entangled in such matters, hearing that children have disappeared, my conscience wouldn't let me stand by and do nothing.
"Thank goodness..."
Troy visibly relaxed. Why does he trust me so much when we've just met? Is it that thing? That feeling when our department's trashy boss fights another department, they seem reliable?
But, I said that without thinking—how am I supposed to find them?
The most suspicious person, Troy, wasn't the culprit. The director? I was missing a mystery genre cliché. Well, Troy appearing as the culprit would have been too quick anyway.
Let's not forget this is inside a novel. No need to overthink it.
'Let's think carefully.'
Applying the current situation to a romance fantasy, this is a sub-couple's narrative, right? Daisy, who has trauma from human trafficking, gets betrayed by someone she trusted but overcomes it and grows one step further.
Then the hint is this summoning circle? I wondered why there was a summoning circle here suddenly, but I could make a plausible deduction.
In the original work, probably the person Daisy asked for help wasn't me but Jelly or Kanna. So when they came to help, they saw this painting and realized the mastermind was Evangeline.
Kanna saw the painting when she was kidnapped by Donau, so she could deduce it at once.
Wow. Then if I hadn't come to help Daisy, the villainess's reputation would have been even worse? The original story's plot force is really scary...
Anyway, I haven't told them about the painting, so the director must have seen the painting hanging in the temple, just like the monastery's priest. It's a good thing it burned down even if only now.
"Jelly, can you smell anything?"
"No. The air is heavy and dizzying, so it's even hard to breathe."
I felt a similar sensation when entering this room. Then this is definitely that.
'Wind spirit!'
The director must have summoned a wind spirit to erase the scent. If Jelly plays an active role in this episode, the incident would end too early, so they nerfed Jelly so she can't use her abilities.
Therefore, the culprit is inside here!
Of course, this doesn't mean there's an accomplice among these members, but that they're inside this building. There's probably a secret passage somewhere.
If they had taken the children far away, there would be no need to use a spirit to confuse the scents.
And in this situation, the most suspicious thing is that wardrobe.
Usually places like bookshelves or wardrobes are secret doors, right? But a rat just jumped out of the wardrobe. It didn't go back to where it came from but was scratching at the door. The rat definitely came into the wardrobe through another passage.
"Young Lady?"
I felt the inside wall of the wardrobe carefully. Any buttons or something? I touched it thoroughly but found nothing, so I pushed the door with force. Then the wardrobe wall fell backward.
Do secret passages normally open this crudely? Anyone seeing this would think I broke it.
"What is this..."
I knew this would happen! Beyond the broken wall, there were stairs leading underground. As expected of being in a novel, when applying clichés, things progress smoothly.
Wind blew from underground. What is this foul smell? Jelly, sensitive to smell, roughly covered her nose and muttered.
"With such a terrible smell, why didn't we notice?"
Probably because the spirit was blocking it. Wind spirits sometimes use this kind of ability.
"Could they be down here?"
"Probably."
I said that, but I was almost certain. A hidden door appeared? Then they're one hundred percent down there.
"Make sure to take the documents before going down."
When spirits and magic clash, the building might not survive, and we might not be able to collect them later, so it's better to secure evidence in advance.
At my words, Kanna unconsciously picked up a file folder, hesitated briefly, then handed it to Daisy. It seems she's worried she might make the same mistake of getting the papers I gave her wet.
"Thank you..."
Daisy hugged the documents tightly as if crumpling them. Nothing else needed? I looked around and Pudding jumped out of my embrace with a bounce.
"Pudding? Don't you want to come with us?"
Pudding nodded and baked bread on top of the summoning circle. Well, we did drag a child around too much.
"Then guard this place well for us."
Escape well if it's dangerous. I stroked Pudding's chin and took candles.
"Then let's go down."
We went through the wardrobe in single file.
"To think there was a place like this underground..."
"I didn't know either."
The candle flame flickered. It was very dark with not a single point of light entering, so I held the wall and carefully descended the stairs. Fortunately, it wasn't too deep. About one floor's difference?
"I smell soup, faintly."
At those words, I recalled the cooking utensils found in the orphanage dining hall. So that wasn't an offering to ghosts but food cooked to feed the children underground. Since they eat below, only traces of cooking remained above.
Then the sounds of hunger were also heard from below? The underground wasn't that deep, so sounds would definitely leak upward sufficiently.
"They really were here."
"Should we split up and search?"
Once it became certain the children were there, Daisy and Troy seemed to become anxious.
"No."
I understand their feelings, but absolutely not. If we split up, we'll obviously get attacked and injured.
The director might use spirits to harm us. But on our side, we have a werewolf magician with both physical prowess and martial ability!
"There's no need for that. Jelly, you know where to go from here, right?"
I don't know the principle, but Jelly's sense of smell seems to have returned since we opened the secret passage, so I can leave the guidance to her from here.
"The scent is spread too widely to distinguish clearly, but I'll try."
Jelly also recognized the seriousness of the situation this time, and instead of complaining about herself, she quietly nodded and took the lead.
"It's bigger than I thought. Seems to be about the size of the orphanage building's belly."
The underground was quite spacious and also dark. There were candles hanging on the walls here and there, but they were so faint they would go out with one breath, so they weren't helpful.
"Is it here? Or over there?"
Because of that, Jelly also seemed to be losing her way. The place Jelly guided us to was a room with beds. Things that might be accessories or toys were scattered on the beds, and seeing that, Daisy teared up.
"These are the children's things."
They were locked underground and lived here. We passed by the bedroom again and followed Jelly. And not far, Jelly stopped.
Jelly had stopped and was looking inside. Have we arrived?
***
Yulma felt no pain even after closing her eyes. Did Ranen succeed?
"Ugh..."
At the director's painful groan, Yulma slightly opened her eyes. However, what unfolded before her eyes was a completely unexpected scene.
The man the director brought was restraining the director from behind as if hugging him. The director's hands were stopped, hovering in the air. The man was gripping his hands tightly, causing sounds of pain to leak from the director.
The director soon let go. Yulma quickly pulled her body back, and the blade fell to the floor with a clang.
"Yulma... can I open my eyes now?"
"Absolutely not! Who told you to speak? Don't ever look back and quietly cover your ears!"
It seemed the children's patience had reached its limit, so Yulma shouted. They didn't just hear that clang, did they?
"Can't you let this go?"
The director threatened, but Melek didn't budge. Yulma was dumbfounded. Knowing he could gain the upper hand like that, why did he stay quietly tied up all this time?
Either way, if that man sides with the children, subduing the director would be much easier.
Then Ranen wouldn't have to get blood on his hands... Right, Ranen! Yulma hurriedly checked on Ranen. Ranen was sitting down as if drained, with something red smeared on the knife he was holding. Blood?
But the director is fine? Yulma soon saw Melek's back and was horrified. Blood was gushing from Melek's waist.
Melek had taken the blade instead to protect from Ranen's attack while stopping the director.
That idiot, stabbing an innocent person and shaking like that, how was he going to handle the director?
Only the director, unaware of this fact, was furiously angry at Melek. Acting passively all this time, why is he stopping him now? As if protecting the children. A demon doing such things!
"Merai. Please stop."
The director paused for a moment. It was because he felt like he had heard those words before. A long time ago, yes, about 20 years ago...
While the director was confused by déjà vu, Yulma made a quick decision.
The door is open. She couldn't be sure if the man was truly on the children's side, but either way didn't matter. Of course, if he's on our side that's good, and even if he's on the director's side, he's injured so he won't be able to chase the children.
In this gap, the director. Yulma met Ranen's eyes. Fortunately, Ranen seemed to have quickly emerged from panic. Yulma and Ranen counted.
They would do it when three seconds passed. Three, two...
"Yulma, Ranen!"
And before counting the final number, uninvited guests burst into the room. No, are they saviors?