MBGS 06

I asked Kanna, the biggest victim here, what should be done about Donau. Back in my world, I would’ve reported him to the police and let the law handle it. But this is another world. And since Evangelin is a noble, wouldn’t it be acceptable to punish a criminal on our own?

“Should we lock him in an underground prison forever?”

Kanna and Hena looked at me. If she wanted, I was ready to make him eat prison food for the rest of his life.

But Kanna shook her head. Don’t tell me she thinks that’s too harsh? Is she an angel or something? No wonder she gets along with Hena. You fool, worry about your own body first!

“How’s your neck?”

Looking closer, the cut on Kanna’s neck was deeper than I thought. A thin red line stretched across her throat like a thread.

Do we have any holy water left at home? If we use that, will it heal without a scar? A scar from glory is fine, but being kidnapped isn’t glorious at all.

“I’m fine!”

Kanna answered brightly. That reaction seemed a little too strong. I was confused for a moment, then I understood.

If you get kidnapped and the so-called villainess saves you and even worries about you, you might feel touched. Kanna is a maid from the Rohanson estate too. Some girls faint just from seeing me, so compared to that, this is nothing.

“Gasp.”

Suddenly Hena turned pale and covered her mouth. She’s not reacting like that because of me, right? Her gaze was fixed behind me.

What’s behind me? Oh no—Donau!

Didn’t I take the knife from him? I quickly turned my head—and saw something I never expected.

I thought Donau would rush at me with the knife. Instead, he was the one who got stabbed.

“Did you see that?”

“Yes. He stabbed his own neck.”

Kanna confirmed it.

Donau had killed himself. Since the only thing in his hand was a knife, he must have used it to stab his own throat. Not his wrist—but his neck? Did he hate the idea of facing punishment that much?

Criminals always try to escape punishment by killing themselves! Even in another world, it’s the same.

“Sorry. He ended up dying.”

I wanted him to taste true justice…

“It’s okay. This is enough for me.”

Kanna’s eyes sparkled. Her bright smile looked completely refreshed, as if she had already let everything go. She really is generous.

“Thank you for saving me.”

She was polite too.

Wait. It’s not just her manners that are bright.

“Is it just me, or is it getting brighter?”

Oh no—fire! The place is on fire!

Behind Donau, flames had broken out, and the firelight was lighting up the room. No wonder it was so bright even though the windows were blocked and there were no lamps!

Thanks to that, I could see the whole room clearly. In the center was a summoning circle.

Wait. Don’t tell me—that’s the one he stole from me?

Then this fire… Donau must have summoned a fire spirit. So it really was a spirit summoning circle! How did he even manage that? He should have returned the paper or at least told me how to use it! What a shameless criminal!

I quickly grabbed Hena and Kanna and rushed outside. Thankfully, the door had already been broken open. The smoke could escape through it, so it was easier to breathe.

This guy committed one more crime before dying! If there were subtitles, it would say (+arson). Theft, kidnapping, and now arson. A triple crown of crimes!

Luckily, the neighboring houses didn’t catch fire. Maybe they use some kind of fire-proof building material. What kind of quality is this other world using? We should import this technology.

Donau’s house burned fiercely all by itself. It was almost a spectacular sight.

I almost felt like crying.

My summoning circle… It must have burned too.

Rusty walls. A room that smelled of mold. Cold soup. A narrow, hard bed. A tiny window barely two hand spans wide.

That was Kanna’s entire world.

She had been sick since birth. It had been a difficult delivery, and her mother died giving birth to her. If Kanna had taken her mother’s life, she should at least have been healthy—but she wasn’t. She was always on the verge of death.

Her father worked himself to death trying to pay for her treatment. Now her older sister, Hena, had taken his place.

Even after taking the lives of two family members, Kanna still didn’t get better. All she could do now was lie in bed.

She couldn’t even move her fingers. Even breathing was hard. Hena hired a nurse and extended her working hours to pay for it. Kanna worried that she might end up taking her sister’s life too.

But there was nothing Kanna could do. She wished someone would tell her to give up, that there was no hope—but she wanted to live. She wanted to keep breathing this miserable life.

Her sister called it hope.

“Kanna, can you see the people outside? I believe one day you’ll be able to walk like them. I’ll make it happen. So let’s not give up on hope.”

From that moment on, the small window became special to Kanna.

In her unchanging days, the only thing that changed was the view outside the window. The sun rose. Birds flew. Children ran around. The sunset came. People went home for dinner. Night fell.

Kanna added herself to that ordinary scenery. She imagined running, working, and going home like everyone else.

Then one day, something new appeared outside the window.

“You came again today?”

A cat began stopping by during its walks. A golden cat would sit on the windowsill, watch Kanna for a while, and then leave calmly.

When I can walk, I’ll feed that cat. It has a collar, so it must have an owner. Maybe I’ll just give it treats. The cat naturally became part of Kanna’s imagined future.

“Kanna! Kanna!”

And then a miracle came.

“Are you okay? Does it not hurt anymore?”

“I… I’m okay.”

Her voice was hoarse. Her pronunciation was unclear and shaky. But when she said she was okay, Hena burst into tears and hugged her tightly. Kanna’s shoulders became wet with tears, but she quietly hugged her sister back.

Hena found a better-paying job and entered the Rohanson Count’s household. There, a young lady named Evangelin Rohanson heard Kanna’s story and provided holy water.

For a commoner, holy water was something you might only afford one bottle of after saving for half a lifetime. Kanna realized that this was the hope her sister had spoken of. For this single bottle of water, her father and sister had sacrificed their lives.

“For something like this…”

But when she heard her sister say, “I’m so relieved. I’m really relieved,” Kanna’s anger melted away. How could she be angry when the one who sacrificed everything was this happy?

Kanna gradually improved. As she moved her body, her appetite returned. As she ate well, she gained weight. The hope her sister had spoken of had come suddenly, and though it felt strange, she slowly accepted it.

Then she decided to do what she had always dreamed of.

She left the house. She wandered around the neighborhood. Sometimes she just sat outside her door to rest.

She was shy and couldn’t greet the other children or talk to them. But just feeling the warm sunlight and hearing their chatter made her realize she belonged “outside the window” now.

Come to think of it, what happened to that cat?

She had asked Hena to buy treats for it and carried them in her pocket every day, but she hadn’t seen it once. Did it change its route? Surely no one hurt it.

As she stayed outside, her body quickly grew cold. Hena would come home late today, so she decided to go back inside. Just as she stood up, a golden tail flashed at the edge of her vision.

“The cat?”

Hena had told her not to wander around at night—but it was still daytime. I’ll just check for a moment and then go home.

The moment she stepped into the alley, a man appeared.

When she regained consciousness, she was in an unfamiliar room.

Her mouth was gagged. Her hands and feet were tied. How long had she been unconscious? It was dark. After a while, her eyes adjusted.

She thought she was alone—but there was someone else. A man sitting in a chair, deeply focused on reading some paper. He must have been the one who attacked her.

Kanna struggled in anger. But her body, only just beginning to recover, wouldn’t obey her.

“Oh, you’re awake? I’m reading. Could you not interrupt?”

When the man came closer, a foul smell hit her. She immediately recognized it. She had coughed up blood so many times in her life—it was unmistakable. But aside from being tied up, she had no wounds. The smell of blood was coming from him.

“Wait quietly until night.”

He said it while looking at the wall. Kanna forced herself to look in the same direction.

It wasn’t a wall. It was a window covered with wooden boards.

Her mind went blank.

Seeing the boarded-up window shocked her even more than realizing she had been kidnapped. The view outside the window was her hope. But here, there was no hope at all.

Even when the man told her to stay quiet, she struggled harder.

She called for her sister. She cried for help. The man ignored everything.

She searched for hope. She begged to see beyond the window. It wasn’t night yet. When would her sister come home? She would worry if she wasn’t there.

Kanna could do nothing. She felt like the helpless patient she had once been, lying in bed and waiting for her sister.

Her search for hope twisted into curses.

Finally, the sun set, and the night the man had been waiting for arrived. He lit a candle and picked up a knife.

Die. Die. Die.

Kanna didn’t even know what she was saying anymore. The man danced, chanting loudly from the paper he had read dozens of times. Kanna stared at him without blinking.

When he finished dancing, he knelt in front of her.

Now she understood what he was going to do. She had heard him read it over and over.

“The Angel of Light?”

“You’re going to… offer me as a sacrifice?”