Chapter 41
Moreover, Kanna knows now. Pudding can be set aside for now. Ah, if I'd known it would be a story like this, I would have sent Kanna away so she couldn't hear!
This won't do. Before Gabriel performs an exorcism on me, I need to develop some immunity first.
"Kanna. What do you think? Do you feel betrayed?"
"It's not particularly important to me."
Kanna stated her opinion calmly. What? Not important? Even though I'm a possessor?
"The one who saved me wasn't someone else, it was you, Miss."
That's true... The original Evangelin would have been the one who ordered the kidnapping, let alone saving Kanna.
"What about you? Are you planning to pretend you didn't receive help from the Miss?"
Kanna passed the baton to Daisy. Wait, that was just payment, wasn't it? But neither I nor Daisy could bring ourselves to refute Kanna's forcefulness.
Our Kanna is too good at gaslighting. Is gaslighting a basic skill required to survive as a female lead in these exhausting romance fantasies these days?
"The Evangelin Rohanson you knew is already dead."
Wait, Kanna... She might be sleeping inside me, you know? Considering I woke up at the funeral, she's probably dead, but still. That's too much truth-bombing. And you can't just easily cast aside someone who just died from your heart like that?
"...I know that too."
But Daisy seemed to have already been completely swayed by Kanna's rhetoric.
But isn't the most troubled person right now me? Why are you two more distressed than I am?
The carriage was filled with silence. It was painful that we still had a long way to go to reach the Rohanson mansion. Jelly, come save me.
***
Jelly returned to the mansion first, leaving Evangelin behind. When a person suddenly appeared from empty air, Mary opened her mouth wide in surprise and fearlessly ran near Jelly, jumping up and down.
"Wow, wow! You appeared all of a sudden! Is this the same thing you did just now?"
Even when she was transported via teleportation earlier, she made a fuss, and it seems it's still amazing to see again. When Jelly waved his hand dismissively, Yulma and Ranon showed wariness and hid Mary behind them. It's fortunate that the older children have some discernment. Watching this, Hena found it strange that Jelly brought back only one strange man instead of her sibling and Evangelin, and asked.
"What about Kanna and the Young Lady?"
"They're coming by carriage like normal people."
It seemed like she had something to say to Daisy. She'll probably enter the mansion too, right? She doesn't show it, but she seems to secretly like her. Jelly felt a bit pleased. He thought if Daisy came in, Kanna might be a bit less arrogant.
"Then why did you bring this person?"
"Do you think I brought him on my own? Your Young Lady seems to be taking him in. She said she'd even feed him since he's hungry."
"Ah..."
Hena nodded as if she understood after hearing Jelly's explanation. Like with taking in Hena and Kanna, the Young Lady was surprisingly willing to accept strays.
"Food?"
At the word "food" during Jelly's explanation, Mellek, who had been staring blankly in a daze, reacted. Saliva was dripping from his mouth from the torment of hunger, and his eyes were half-rolled back.
If he was starved to this extent, he should have lost all reason and lunged at the prey right in front of him, but he was somehow holding back. Jelly struck the back of Mellek's head, telling him to come to his senses.
"Mellek must be hungry. So let's eat some bread I brought!"
When Mary tried to approach Mellek, Hena diverted the child's attention.
"This person's meal will be taken care of by the Young Lady later. Mary, aren't you hungry?"
"I am hungry..."
"Then let's wait for the Young Lady to arrive and have some snacks in the meantime."
Hena, who was good at reading the room, took the children and disappeared. Looking at it this way, she's really different from her sibling. Kanna, while under Evangelin's protection, treated Jelly like a pet dog without fear of anything, but Hena acted while carefully observing the situation.
Right. This is the proper treatment I should have been receiving. Satisfied, Jelly soon turned his head.
"Are you conscious now? Can you hold on a bit?"
"Maybe."
Maybe? Seeing as there's not even enough energy to heal the wound a mere child inflicted, he looks like he'll starve to death soon. The one who stabbed him looked like he'd die from guilt watching Mellek in this state.
"Do you know who I am?"
"Jelly?"
Jelly was certain from the answer. Not Andras, but Jelly.
"You're not that Mellek guy."
Mellek smiled faintly.
"I'm attached to this body."
The mansion people were saying Evangelin came back to life, that the corpse was moving, but the real one was here. This guy wasn't the real Mellek but another being parasitizing the dead Mellek.
Did the Young Lady take him in because of that similarity?
"So you're possessing a dead shell, that's why this stench is emanating. Not enough nutrients to recover the body either. You've never eaten a human soul, have you?"
"No."
This guy is really going to die soon. It seems he was holding on with the nutrients in Mellek's body until now and was reaching his limit.
"Seeing as you're not recovering, it's serious. Ha... really."
He refuses to eat humans, so how am I supposed to feed him until he's full?
I don't know. The great Evangelin Young Lady will have some method. She's not someone who lies, so there must be some solution. Surely she won't shove holy water down his throat to restore him. At that thought, a terrible memory surfaced and Jelly's tongue tingled.
"Why don't you eat humans?"
"Because I was originally human?"
So the original Mellek died at the hands of someone of human origin and even had his body stolen? Serves him right. I wanted to go to hell and mock him.
"How long has it been?"
"About 20 years?"
Pfft, 20 years. Jelly burst into laughter. Only Mellek, who didn't understand why Jelly suddenly started laughing, stood there blankly. After tormenting children and receiving offerings while acting so high and mighty, he got done in by a real child. I should tell Flauros about this later.
Jelly really liked this new Mellek.
"How did you kill him?"
"I was in the same orphanage as Merai, but I was locked in a basement and died. When I came to, I was in this body. So I'm sorry, but I don't remember how I took over Mellek's body."
When Mellek was still human, the boy was one of the children the demon played with. When the director locked the basement door to avoid the temple's inspection, the boy was the only one left alive in that basement.
Locked in the basement, the boy grew thinner day by day, suffering from hunger until he died. And when he woke again, the boy was extremely hungry.
Mellek appeared before him by chance. He probably came that day with the same intention as usual, to torment and play with the children in the basement. Mellek was puzzled by the different scene underground, and there he discovered the only soul that was fluttering and leaping about.
At that moment, 'hunger' devoured Mellek. When 'Mellek' came to his senses after several days, he was already in Mellek's body.
The voice, the face, everything was the same. However, even after becoming Mellek's body, the boy was always tormented by hunger.
And 20 years later, Mellek encountered his childhood friend. Merai, who had become the director, summoned 'Mellek'.
After hearing the story roughly, Jelly scolded Mellek.
"Why didn't you just eat him? The director, not the kids. He's going to be executed anyway, isn't he? Isn't it more economical to be used as rations than to just die?"
If it were me, I would have eaten him out of resentment even if it meant bursting from being too full. This is why human-origin beings are so soft-hearted.
But since we'll be serving the same master now, it would be good for comrades to get along. Jelly decided to be as sociable as possible.
"What's your name?"
"Mellek."
"Not that, I mean your original name. I hate that Mellek guy so I don't want to call you that."
"Original name? Well..."
***
"Name?"
You want me to give you a name? Me?
I barely endured the silence and got off the carriage, but now Jelly was the problem.
I was going to treat the wounds first, but Jelly said there was something more urgent and asked me to give his friend a name. Wait, he has a perfectly fine name called Mellek, so why?
"I want a name like Jelly."
Your taste is quite cute. Jelly hates his own name intensely, so it's fun to call him that, but when his friend voluntarily asks for one, somehow I didn't want to do it.
But if I don't give him one, that would be discrimination, right? He has his own name anyway, so let's just think of it as giving a nickname.
What should I say?
At first I thought Pudding was just a cat, and Jelly was named that way due to a slight desire for revenge and being bewitched by soft pink jelly. This one seems like a normal adult male, but... if he says he likes a name like Jelly...
This won't do. The only dessert name coming to mind right now is Meringue. Meringue and Mellek. The pronunciation is similar too, so let's just go with this.
"Meringue."
I'm absolutely not being sarcastic. Jelly's friend... no, Mellek... no, Meringue seemed to like this kind of thing, so I thought maybe I should have thought about it a bit more. But dessert names are all pretty much the same anyway.
"But why did you ask me to name you when you have the name Mellek?"
"Actually, I'm not Mellek."
Then what are you?
"I'm just borrowing this body..."
Borrowing it? Wait. Are you also a possessor?
Mellek knew the title and also knew Evangelin, so he must know the entire original work, right?
I need to ask Mellek about everything I'm curious about.
"Can you tell me what you know about the Rohanson mansion?"
"Yes? Yes... First, the building is quite classical. The garden is large so it looks good for walks, the surroundings are quiet, and the staff members maintain silence so it seems like a comfortable place to live."
Wait.
Something's not connecting in our conversation. I asked for an explanation about the original work, so why is he suddenly giving his impressions about the mansion? A chill ran through me.
Something's suspicious. Shall I probe a bit?
"You said you died and woke up. Then where did you originally live?"
"Ah. Did I not tell you? I'm from the Ainoa Orphanage, same as Merai."
What?
I asked indirectly, but an answer beyond imagination came back.
"Merai, as in that director?"
"Yes. That's correct."
Why is it the same world?
Something seemed off. No matter how prevalent possession is in romance fantasy genres, usually only one possessor appears in a work. Of course, there are cases with two. Either they possessed into a possession work, or they possessed together with someone they had a bad relationship with and act out a revenge drama.
And I had made a very big misconception. Readers might think of book possession first when they hear 'possession,' but thinking about it common-sensically... ghosts possessing people is more famous, isn't it?
Mellek must be a ghost.
I suddenly wanted to run away. I may be good at thriller genres, but I'm weak when it comes to horror movies with ghosts.
"What about the original body owner?"
"Ah. Jelly said he seems to be dead."
"Does Jelly also know you're possessed?"
"Yes. Jelly says I'm better than the original Mellek."
Mellek nodded. That's a relief at least. I was worrying about how to tell his friend that a ghost possessed him. But since he's saying things like that, they probably weren't that close to begin with. Maybe they just knew each other by name since they were both beast-kin.
And Mellek briefly told his story.