_Besides, now Kanna knows too._ I'd deal with Pudding later. If I'd known the conversation would go this far, I would have sent Kanna away with the children!
_This won't do._ Before Gabriel performed an exorcism on me, I needed to practice. Build up some immunity.
"Kanna, what do you say? Do you feel betrayed?"
"It doesn't matter to me," Kanna said calmly.
_What? It doesn't matter?! I just told you another spirit has taken up residence inside me!_
"It wasn't the old Evangeline who saved me," Kanna added, her voice steady. "It was you, my lady."
I found myself nodding involuntarily. After all, the real Evangeline wouldn't have saved Kanna—she most likely would have ordered the kidnapping herself.
"And you?" Kanna turned her gaze to Daisy, her eyes sharp. "Are you going to pretend you don't know how the lady helped you?"
"Well, it was just a business deal..." I started, but under Kanna's pressure, neither Daisy nor I could mount a proper objection.
_Wow._ Kanna was a master of manipulation! Did you really need brainwashing skills to survive dark romance novels these days?
"The Evangeline Rohanson you knew is dead," Kanna stated flatly.
"Well, Kanna..." I tried to object. _She could be slumbering somewhere inside me, right? Although, judging by the fact that I woke up at my own funeral, she probably really is dead. But why so bluntly? And is it really possible to just erase from memory someone who just died?_
"...I know," Daisy replied quietly.
It seemed Kanna's eloquence had already won her over.
_But I'm the one in the most difficult situation here! Why are you both so calm while I'm panicking?_
Silence fell over the carriage. The wheels creaked against the cobblestones, and I became acutely aware of how much longer it was to the Rohanson estate.
_Jelly, save me!_
---
## — The Estate —
Jelly returned to the estate, leaving Evangeline behind. Mary, stunned by the sudden appearance of a man out of thin air, fearlessly ran up to him and began bouncing around excitedly.
"Wow! Wow! You just appeared! Did you do it the same way as before?" she chirped, recalling the recent teleportation. Apparently, the sight still seemed miraculous to her.
Jelly waved her off dismissively, and Yulma and Lanan, bristling protectively, pulled Mary behind them. At least the older children had some common sense.
Hena, who had been watching this scene unfold, asked in surprise why Jelly had brought a strange man instead of Evangeline and Kanna.
"Where are Kanna and the lady?"
"They're riding in a carriage like ordinary people," Jelly replied. "It seems they need to talk to Daisy. She's coming to the estate too, you know. Even though she doesn't show it, I think she actually likes it here."
Jelly was in high spirits. He hoped Daisy's presence would tame Kanna's arrogance somewhat.
"Then why did you bring this man?"
"You think I brought him here by choice? Your mistress decided to take him under her wing. He said he was hungry, so she promised to feed him."
"Ah..." Hena nodded understandingly. Remembering how the lady had taken in both her and Kanna, she realized Evangeline was quite willing to welcome new members to the household.
"Food?" At that moment, Melek—who had been in a kind of stupor until now—reacted to the word. His mouth watered with hunger, and his eyes rolled back slightly.
He was so starved he should have pounced on the first morsel he could find, but somehow he held back. Jelly, trying to snap him out of it, gave him a sharp slap on the back of the head.
"Melek seems hungry. Why didn't you eat the bread I gave you?!" Mary wanted to approach him, but Hena gently intercepted her.
"The lady will take care of his food. Mary, aren't you hungry?"
"Hungry..."
"Then let's have a snack while we wait for her."
Sensing the tension, Hena led the children away. She was truly nothing like her sister. Kanna, under Evangeline's protection, acted as though she could do anything—treating Jelly like a misbehaving puppy. Hena, however, was far more cautious.
_This is the treatment I deserve_, Jelly thought with satisfaction. Then he turned to Melek.
"So, have you come to your senses? How are you feeling?"
"It seems so," Melek answered weakly.
_It seems so..._ Judging by the fact that he didn't even have the strength to heal the wound inflicted by the child, he was on the verge of death from starvation. And Lanan, who had wounded him, was now overcome with visible remorse, watching Melek suffer.
"Do you know who I am?" Jelly asked.
"Jelly?"
This answer confirmed everything. Not _Andras_, but _Jelly_.
"You're not the real Melek," Jelly concluded.
Melek smiled weakly.
"I possessed him."
The estate's residents had whispered that Evangeline had come back to life, that her body was moving... and here it was, the real answer. This man wasn't the true Melek, but someone else who had taken over his corpse.
_Perhaps the lady decided to take him in precisely because of this resemblance?_
"That's why you stink so much—you're just a shell filled with rot. And you lack the nutrients to regenerate." Jelly wrinkled his nose. "You've never fed on human souls, have you?"
"No," Melek answered.
So he truly was on the brink of death. It seemed he'd been surviving on whatever nutrients remained in Melek's body, but now those reserves were depleted.
"If you can't recover, things are bad." Jelly sighed heavily. "Sigh..."
_He refuses to feed on people... What should we feed him?_
_Well, the all-powerful Lady Evangeline will surely have a solution._ She wasn't the type to make empty promises, so there must be some way out. _Just hope she doesn't try giving him holy water to drink..._
Jelly shuddered, remembering those terrible moments from the past. His tongue even tingled at the memory.
"Why don't you eat people?"
"Because I myself was once a human being."
"So the real Melek died at the hands of a man, and you took possession of his body?" Jelly chuckled maliciously. "Serves him right!" He'd gladly visit hell just to laugh at that bastard.
"And how long ago was that?"
"About twenty years, probably."
"Ha-ha-ha! Twenty years!" Jelly burst into gleeful laughter. Melek looked at him in confusion, not understanding the source of such mirth.
_This braggart, who mocked children and accepted sacrifices, ended up dying at the hands of a child!_ He'd have to tell Paimon about this.
Jelly decided he quite liked the new Melek.
"And how did you kill him?"
"I was in the same shelter as Merai... They locked me in the basement, and I died there. When I woke up, I was already in this body. So, forgive me, but I don't remember how I took over Melek's body."
When Melek was still human, he had been one of the children the demon toyed with. When the headmistress locked the basement door to avoid the Temple's inspection, the boy was left there alone.
Locked in that darkness, the boy wasted away from hunger day after day until death finally claimed him. When he woke again, he was *terribly* hungry.
And then Melek appeared before him—the demon, come to torment the children as usual. Melek was surprised by the strange atmosphere in the basement and noticed a single, trembling soul waiting there.
At that moment, "hunger" consumed Melek.
When "Melek" awoke days later, he was already inhabiting the demon's body.
The voice, the face... everything was the same. But even in Melek's form, the boy remained constantly, ravenously hungry.
Twenty years later, Melek encountered his childhood friend. Merai, now the headmistress of the orphanage, invited "Melek" to live with her.
After hearing this story, Jelly began to scold him.
"Why didn't you eat her? Not the children—the headmistress! She was facing the death penalty anyway! Isn't being eaten better than just dying? Much more practical!"
_If I were you, I'd have eaten her even if I burst from gluttony! That's why humans are so weak-willed!_
"Well, since we serve the same mistress now, let's be friends," Jelly suggested, attempting to be sociable. "What's your name?"
"Melek."
"No, your *real* name. I don't like that bastard's name."
"Real name? Well..."
---
## — A Name for the Dead —
"A name?" Evangeline struggled out of the carriage and immediately encountered a new problem—courtesy of Jelly.
She'd wanted to treat Melek's wounds first, but Jelly declared there was something more important: they needed to give his friend a name. But he already *had* a name—Melek! Why would he need another?
"I want a name similar to 'Jelly,'" Melek said hopefully.
_It does have a nice ring to it._ Jelly hated his own name, which was precisely why he enjoyed when others used it. But since Jelly's friend was asking her to come up with a name... she wasn't exactly feeling inspired.
_But if I refuse, would that be discrimination?_ Fine. He had a real name, so this would just be a nickname.
"What should we call him?"
She'd initially mistaken Pudding for a kitten, and Jelly had gotten his name from his pinkish paws and his desire for petty revenge. This man was fully grown... but he wanted a name like "Jelly"...
_No, that won't work._ The only thing coming to mind right now was "Beze." Meringue and Melek. It sounded similar enough.
"Beze."
Evangeline hadn't meant to mock him at all. Jelly's friend—Melek—no, *Beze*—seemed genuinely pleased.
_Maybe I should have thought a little harder?_ Although, all dessert names sounded somewhat alike anyway.
"Why do you need a new name if you already have Melek?"
"Because I'm not Melek," Beze replied simply. "I'm just using this body..."
_Using it?_ Wait. _You possessed him too?_
Beze knew her situation. So did that mean he was familiar with the plot as well?
She needed to question him thoroughly.
"Tell me what you know about the Rohanson estate," Evangeline asked carefully.
"Hmm? Well... the building is very old. There's a large garden—quite nice for strolling. It's peaceful around here, and the staff are quiet, so it seems like a pleasant place to live."
_Stop._
Something wasn't right. She'd asked him to describe the novel's plot, and he was describing the estate itself. Evangeline felt a chill creep up her spine.
_Something's suspicious here._ She needed to investigate further.
"You said you died and came back to life. Where did you live before that?"
"Oh, didn't I mention it? I'm from the Ainoa shelter, just like Merai."
_What?!_
She'd asked the question casually, but received a completely unexpected answer.
"Merai... is the headmistress?"
"Yes, that's right."
_Why are they from the same world?_
Suspicion coiled in her chest. Even in the romance genre, where soul possession was commonplace, typically only one character from another world appeared in each story. Of course, there were exceptions: someone might possess a character in a book about soul possession, or two enemies from a past life might inhabit bodies to seek revenge against each other.
And she'd made a critical mistake. Readers, when they heard about spirit possession, immediately thought of being transported into a book. But if you thought about it logically... wasn't it far more common to hear about *ghost* possession?
_Melek is a ghost._
Evangeline wanted to flee. She loved thrillers, but ghost movies had always terrified her.
"And what about the real owner of the body?"
"Ah, Jelly said he seems to be dead."
"Does Jelly know that you possessed him?"
"Yes. Jelly said I'm better than the real Melek." Beze nodded earnestly.
Well, at least that was something. She'd already been worrying about how to break the news to Jelly that his friend had been possessed. But judging by his words, they hadn't been close—just acquaintances, connected only by their shared nature as beastmen.
Beze told his story briefly.