I don't know how it happened, but it looks like they made up.
Watching Daisy and Troy locked in a tight embrace, I felt a strange twinge in my chest.
_It seems Troy isn't some third-rate villain after all, but Jelly's rival for Daisy's heart._ They were playing out a whole drama right in front of me, while our Jelly—seemingly unthreatened—stood behind them and yawned.
_Just a little more, and we'll see fangs._ Even I watch the most boring TV series with great interest when love triangles are involved. This brat would bitterly regret his indifference later. I wondered how it would all end.
"Everything will be fine. Nothing will happen to the children," someone's voice said suddenly. "The lady will find them."
"She?" another voice asked.
And then all eyes turned to me.
"Yes." Daisy looked at me with pleading eyes. "She promised."
I felt the weight of that promise settle on my shoulders. I couldn't just stand by while children went missing. My conscience wouldn't allow it.
"Thank God..." Troy exhaled with obvious relief.
_We barely know each other—so why does he trust me so much?_ Maybe it was like having that nasty department head as a boss. When he's arguing with someone else, you feel strangely safe behind his back.
_Okay, so I blurted out that I would find the children. But how exactly am I supposed to do that?_
The prime suspect, Troy, had turned out to be innocent. The headmistress... that's who I'd overlooked, fixated on detective novel clichés. Although, come to think of it, Troy really had shown up too early in the story to be a true villain.
_Let's not forget—we're in a novel. There's no need to make things so complicated._
I closed my eyes and thought carefully.
If I looked at this from a fantasy romance perspective, this was probably a secondary couple's storyline, right? Daisy, with her kidnapping trauma, faces betrayal again—but she can overcome it and emerge stronger.
So the clue was the magic summoning circle? I'd kept wondering why it was there, but now I had a plausible theory.
In the original story, Daisy probably wouldn't have turned to me for help. She would have gone to Jelly or Kanna. They would have come here, seen this drawing, and realized Evangeline was behind it all.
Kanna had seen a similar drawing when Donau kidnapped her. She would have understood everything immediately.
_Wow._ So if I hadn't come to Daisy's aid, the villain's reputation would have been damaged even further? The power of plot was terrifying.
In any case, I hadn't shown this drawing to anyone. The headmistress, like the priest from the monastery, must have seen it in the church. _Thank goodness they burned that painting._
"Jelly, do you smell anything?"
"No." He wrinkled his nose. "The air here is heavy and stuffy. It's hard to breathe."
I'd felt something similar when I entered the room. _Then everything is clear._
_Spirit of the Wind!_
The headmistress had summoned a wind spirit to mask the scents. If Jelly had used his powers now, the case would have been revealed too quickly—so his abilities were temporarily weakened.
_Therefore, the criminal is somewhere here!_
Not among us, of course—but somewhere in this building. There had to be a secret passage.
If the children had been taken far away, there would have been no point in using magic to throw us off the trail.
And in this situation, the thing that raised the most suspicion was... _that closet._
Secret passages were usually hidden behind bookshelves or inside cabinets. Just moments ago, a rat had jumped out of that very closet. And it hadn't run *into* the closet from the room—it had been scratching at the door from inside. It had clearly entered through a different passage.
"My lady?" Kanna called out to me.
I began feeling along the cabinet walls. _Maybe there's some kind of button?_ Finding nothing, I pushed against the back panel with all my strength.
The wall swung open.
_Are all secret passages really opened so crudely?_ If anyone saw this later, they'd think we'd broken it.
"What is this...?"
_I knew it!_ Behind the wall stretched a staircase leading down into darkness. As expected in a novel, the cliché worked like a charm.
A breeze wafted up from the basement, carrying with it a foul odor that made my stomach turn. Jelly, with his sensitive nose, pinched his nostrils shut and muttered:
"Why haven't I smelled this terrible stench before?"
The wind spirit must have blocked it. Those spirits were capable of such things.
"Are they down there?" Daisy asked, her voice trembling.
"Most likely."
I said it hesitantly, but in reality, I was almost certain. If there was a secret door, the children were definitely there.
"Before you go down, take the documents," I said to Kanna.
_You never know—maybe magic will destroy the building, or we won't be able to come back for them. Better to secure the evidence now._
Kanna instinctively picked up the folder, hesitated for a second, then handed it to Daisy. She was probably afraid of getting them wet again, like last time.
"Thank you..." Daisy hugged the folder tightly to her chest.
_Is that everything we need?_ I looked around. Pudding jumped out of my arms and ran to the magic circle on the floor. We'd already traveled too much with him today.
"Then guard this place," I said, stroking Pudding's head. "And if anything happens, run away."
I picked up the candle.
"Well, shall we go?"
We walked through the closet one after another, descending into the unknown.
"I didn't even know there was a place like this beneath the shelter..." Kanna whispered.
"Me neither."
The candle flame flickered wildly. Pitch darkness surrounded us—not a single ray of light. We descended the stairs carefully, hands pressed against the cold, damp walls for balance. Fortunately, the staircase wasn't long. Just one flight.
"It smells like soup," Jelly said suddenly. "Very faintly."
I remembered the kitchen utensils we'd found in the orphanage's dining room. _So they weren't offerings to ghosts after all—they were food for the children in the basement._ They ate down here, which was why only traces of cooking remained upstairs.
_Then we heard the children's cries from down here?_ The basement was shallow enough that sounds could easily carry through the floorboards.
"So that's where they are!" Daisy's voice rose with hope.
"Maybe we should split up and look?" Troy asked, his expression anxious.
"**No!**"
I understood their feelings, but we absolutely couldn't separate. We could be attacked. Someone could get hurt.
_Who knows—maybe the headmistress will use magic against us._ But we had a werewolf mage with incredible physical strength on our side!
"That won't be necessary. Jelly, can you tell where to go?"
I didn't understand exactly how it worked, but Jelly's sense of smell seemed to have returned the moment we opened the secret passage. Now he could guide us.
"The scent is too diffused. It's hard to determine the direction." He paused, then nodded with uncharacteristic seriousness. "But I'll try."
Instead of complaining, he walked forward. The gravity of the situation had silenced even him.
"It's much more spacious here than I expected," he murmured. "Five times larger than the shelter building itself."
The basement was indeed vast and dark. Occasionally, candles guttered on the walls, but their flames were so dim they provided almost no light. Shadows pooled in every corner.
"Here? Or there?" Jelly hesitated, then turned left. Then right.
Finally, he led us into a room lined with beds. Small beds. Children's beds. Things were scattered across them—jewelry, toys, a torn blanket.
Daisy burst into tears the moment she saw them.
"These are the children's things..."
_So they were kept here, in the basement._
We walked through the bedroom and followed Jelly deeper into the darkness. Soon, he stopped before a doorway.
He peered inside without saying a word.
_Are we there?_
---
## — Yulma —
Yulma squeezed her eyes shut, bracing for pain that never came.
_Had Lanan really managed it?_
"Ugh..." The headmistress's groan forced Yulma's eyes open. But what she saw was completely different from what she'd expected.
The man the headmistress had brought—the one in chains—held her in his arms. Not tenderly. More like he was restraining her, pinning her arms to her sides. The headmistress struggled to break free but couldn't move an inch.
That was what made her moan.
Suddenly, the man's grip loosened. The knife slipped from the headmistress's fingers. Yulma scrambled backward as it clattered against the stone floor.
"Yulma... can I open my eyes now?" one of the younger children whimpered.
"**No!** Who gave you permission to talk? Cover your ears and don't move!" Yulma shouted, terrified the children might hear what came next. Their patience was already at its breaking point.
"Release me!" the headmistress snarled at Melek. "Let go!"
But he didn't budge.
Yulma stared in shock. _If he could immobilize her so easily, why had he been sitting there, tied up, all this time?_
_Be that as it may—if this man is on our side, it will be much easier to deal with the headmistress._
_Then Lanan won't have to..._
_Lanan!_
Yulma spun around. Lanan sat slumped on the floor, exhausted, a knife clutched in her trembling hands.
The blade was covered in blood.
_Blood?_
But the headmistress was unharmed. Yulma's gaze shot to Melek's back—and horror flooded through her.
Blood gushed from a wound in his lower back, soaking through his shirt and dripping onto the floor.
Melek had immobilized the headmistress *and* simultaneously protected her from Lanan's attack—taking the blow himself.
_This idiot..._ Yulma's thoughts raced. _First she hurts an innocent man, and now she's shaking with fear. How was she planning to deal with the headmistress?_
The headmistress, unaware of what had happened behind her, was seething. Why had Melek—so obedient until now—suddenly decided to intervene? It was as if he were *protecting* the children.
_Damn demon!_
"Merai... please stop."
The headmistress froze.
She felt as if she'd heard those words somewhere before. A long time ago. About twenty years ago...
While she struggled to remember, Yulma made a decision.
The door was open. She wasn't sure whose side the man was on, but it didn't matter. It would be better if he were with them, of course—but even if he served the headmistress, he was wounded. He wouldn't be able to pursue them.
_This is our chance._
Yulma caught Lanan's eye. The older girl had recovered from the shock, her jaw set with determination. They began counting silently.
_On the count of three, we run._
_Three... two..._
"Yulma! Lanan!"
Uninvited guests burst into the room.
Or perhaps... saviors?