Chapter 38
Yulma stopped moving at that moment. Because someone who shouldn't be here had appeared.
"Daisy unni?"
"Heavens, are you hurt anywhere? Thank goodness you're safe."
Daisy, her face tear-stained, hugged Lanen and Yulma. Behind her, Troy came into view. Just as Lanen said, Troy really came to save us?
And seeing the person who entered next, Yulma drew in a breath. Crazy, how can a person look like that?
From her clothes alone, she was clearly a noble young lady. Yet despite looking so frail and sickly, what she actually exuded was an overwhelming atmosphere. If all nobles were like this, it would be a bit frightening.
Since she came together with them, did Daisy unni or Troy bring her?
"Director...."
With the sudden intrusion of new faces, the Director likewise returned from the past to reality.
The helper his weak son had brought was Daisy. The Director remembered Daisy as a lucky child. Always well-behaved and obedient. She had the right conditions to sell well, but since Troy kept interfering, the final impression of Daisy remained just that. A child left over after selling the others.
Since she didn't pose much threat, the Director had left her alone, but never imagined she would join forces with Troy, with whom she had such a bad relationship.
"Troy, you really do interfere with me until the very end."
Really, why is there no one who understands me?
Merai had sacrificed her body beside the Director, yet beside Merai there was no one. Her son, of course, and even the demon didn't move as she wished.
And white clothes fluttered.
The Director saw the angel standing behind Troy. Merai sighed. Praised. Trembled and was moved.
The whole world blurred white. A sensation similar to seeing the paintings hanging in the temple. How noble, brilliant, and authoritative this existence was.
The angel smiled faintly. Merai thought she had received a revelation. The angel was giving a hint to resolve this situation.
That's right. The beloved son before her eyes.
Merai felt along the wall. A blunt sensation in her hand, she carefully gripped it and hid it behind her back.
Right now there are too many obstacles. She had to aim for the moment when others briefly turned their gaze away.
For example, like now.
"Ranen? Yulma?"
"Mary! I told you to keep your eyes closed!"
"I counted all the way to a hundred...."
If Yulma made a misjudgment, it was only that Mary counted very well. Mary only finished counting to a hundred after getting it wrong several times, and then opened her eyes.
As Mary stammered, Yulma shouted like a blaze. Mary, thinking she had committed some great wrong, was preemptively frightened.
And while everyone's attention was focused on Mary, the Director didn't miss the opportunity and lunged at Troy. Sensing something ominous, Yulma hurriedly hugged Mary and covered her eyes.
Thrust!
"Mom...?"
"Hah, hah. Ha, hahahahahahat!"
The Director laughed broadly. It was an expression filled with ecstasy, but tears welled up and streamed down her cheeks, so no one could interpret that expression as a smile of joy.
No one expected the Director to possibly stab her own son. Even the Director herself had no intention of harming her son, so it was natural no one could guess it.
Troy staggered and leaned against the Director. Daisy tried to run out, but Yulma and Lanen grabbed both her arms and stopped her.
"Melrec. I offer my son as sacrifice. Troy must have that much value. Now you'll grant my wish, right?"
The Director whispered to the demon and extended her soiled hand. Melrec, who was barely gasping for breath after being struck by Lanen's blinded sword, swallowed saliva at the appetizing scent. It had been too long since he ate. His body was already weakened and now wounded, so an even more severe hunger swept over him.
Reason was gradually being eroded. The moment Melrec was about to feast on Troy, a clear voice awakened his spirit.
"Are you hungry?"
Without even knowing who was asking, Melrec nodded. The Director dismissed it as a lie, but since becoming a demon, Melrec had truly never had a proper meal.
"I'll take care of the feeding. So there's no need to force yourself to eat now."
The voice was as firm as a command yet somehow gentle, so Melrec decided to follow those words.
"What are you doing? Melrec!"
At the Director's wail, Melrec felt deeply distressed. Merai was clearly still unable to escape from the basement of 20 years ago. Was Melrec the same?
The Director turned her arrow elsewhere.
"You, didn't you come to save me?"
The Director tearfully appealed to Evangeline. Just like that time when she appeared through the painting in the Grand Temple, hasn't she descended now to give an answer? Evangeline answered nonchalantly.
"I originally planned to, but the situation changed."
"Have I been abandoned?"
"Yes. You didn't meet the criteria. So stop now."
Only after being abandoned by the demon and then by the being who was surely an angel did the Director give up everything. The scenery of the basement came into view through Merai's eyes.
Her son bleeding from a knife wound inflicted by his mother, and Daisy, Lanen, Yulma, Mary watching her warily. And other children who blocked their eyes and ears, turning away from Merai.
Merai burst into tears.
She felt viscerally that she had ruined everything.
Noticing the Director had lost her will to fight, Lanen and Yulma pulled Troy away from Merai and supported him. Troy somehow managed not to lose consciousness.
"Thank you, Lanen, ...Yulma."
"Enough. Patients should just shut up."
Unable to say thanks due to conflicting emotions, Yulma cursed instead. Listening to the voices of the two bickering, Daisy examined Troy's wound. The wound was large.
Daisy looked at Evangeline.
"Why, why didn't you save Troy?"
Whether it was Lady Evangeline or the demon Jelly, both could have stopped the Director. Then Troy wouldn't have been hurt either.
"It wasn't in our agreement."
Evangeline answered calmly to Daisy's rebuke.
Hearing those words, Daisy's head spun. That was right. What Daisy had asked to save was the Director and the children.
Daisy realized she couldn't blame Evangeline. Since she couldn't understand human emotions, she was just trying her best to keep what Daisy had asked.
Cursing Troy at first, and hitting him from behind was what Daisy did, so she had no right to curse Lady Evangeline for just watching Troy get stabbed.
"Why? Do you want to save him?"
"Yes. I want to save him."
Does she have some method? Of course, raising corpses like Jelly did was definitely excluded....
"Fortunately I have holy water. Just one bottle, though."
One bottle?
"Daisy, you choose. Between Troy and that man, who will you give the holy water to?"
Raising her index finger and counting, Evangeline pointed at Troy and Melrec, whom Jelly was tending to. When Daisy hesitated, Evangeline withdrew her words.
"It's a joke."
Evangeline raised the corners of her lips like a painting.
Daisy felt bile rise in her throat. If she hadn't heard the last words, the person Daisy would have chosen was certain.
***
Daisy urgently ran inside. Fortunately, the children seem to have been found well. Daisy brought a boy and a girl and retreated away from the Director. All the other children were huddled together in a corner, so why were just those two out so dangerously?
The Director must have been doing her last desperate struggle, knowing we were coming. There was already someone hurt from the stabbing.
With chains on his arms and eyes covered, that person seemed to have been imprisoned to be sold as a slave too.
"Melrec?"
"Do you know him?"
"Yes, for now. But something seems different?"
And Jelly seemed to know him. Were they acquaintances from when she was kidnapped by human traffickers? Or is he also a beastkin?
"Same race?"
"Huh? If I had to judge, yes?"
The answer was that he was a beastkin and had also been kidnapped together. With this, it's revealed to the whole world that the Director was involved in the kidnapping of Jelly and Daisy.
"Troy, you really do interfere with me until the very end."
The thief's feet are prickling, but look at her making Troy the bad guy when she's the one who did wrong. Isn't that gaslighting? It's domestic violence.
The Director, having no intention of admitting her fault, stabbed Troy with a knife and grabbed him while we were distracted. Taking her own son as hostage?
And it seemed like she was trying to recruit Jelly's friend since she would be at a disadvantage with just Troy. She's whispering, I can't hear well. Jelly, whose hearing is as exceptional as her sense of smell, summarized the conversation.
"She's tempting him with food right now."
What? Would he fall for that?
"He seems starved."
He might fall for it. Starved? The Director must have starved him without giving meals. Then the sound of being hungry that I heard must have been from that man Melrec, not the children.
Where else is there something as sad as threatening with food. I stopped him before Jelly's friend completely fell for it.
"Are you hungry?"
The Director is really despicable. No, does she only have food? I have some too! I bought a whole bunch of bread to give to the children. There's an armful just at the carriage.
"I'll take care of the feeding. So there's no need to force yourself to eat now."
"What are you doing? Melrec!"
Fortunately, it seems she appropriately cut off the Director's gaslighting. Melrec resisted the Director, and the sparks flew to me.
"You, didn't you come to save me?"
"I originally planned to, but the situation changed."
Did she plant a bug? How did she know she originally planned to save? Ah, come to think of it, spirits do relay people's words and such. She must have heard through that.
If Daisy had known the Director was a rotten person, she wouldn't have asked to save her. But the situation has changed now, hasn't it?