Chapter 84 Spreading rumors to my face, directly criticizing the widow's faults...
People might trap cockroaches in paper cups out of fear.
Cats do too.
To Mainkuhn, Carres was like a giant twin tail locked up at home.
...
It's not even as good as twin tails.
At least the twin-tailed cockroaches can stay in a paper cup for months without eating or drinking! But Kares can't! Mainkun has to feed these weakened cockroaches three times a day after their surgery!
[Me, me, after getting an injection.]
Mainkuhn was terrified. With tears in his eyes, he wrapped the paper cup with tape and used heavy objects to prop up the door.
I understand your desire to quickly gather negative emotions.
[But why won't they even spare their own fears? Waaah!]
"Mr. En?"
The three children waiting behind the door looked completely bewildered as the cat video peeked out from behind the crack.
“We just heard some strange noises… The guest said you fell down, are you alright?”
Linni, being bolder, peeked through the crack in the door and met the leader of the Rose Gang's one-eyed gaze with a complex expression.
"Hiss! That's terrifying, is this your colleague?"
Kares: "..."
Fimini also squeezed in, curious to see:
"Brother En, why don't you invite the guests out for a cup of tea?"
No, children, I am not a guest.
Carles lay half-reclined in the soft blankets, surrounded by supplies the boy had brought with trembling hands: food, water, and toys to keep him entertained. The few fairy tale books he had clearly been putting off earlier were buried underneath.
This should be the most hospitable hospitality a young person could imagine, but you might not believe it...
It was too crowded, and he couldn't turn over. Carles slapped the BJD doll out of the blanket and onto the floor.
I am indeed his prisoner.
"This is the first time I've seen Mr. En bring a friend home... I'm really curious and would like to talk to him."
Mainkuhn: "..."
Sorry to disappoint you! I have no friends; this is a gang leader I kidnapped!
Although strictly speaking, the Rose Society is not considered a gang.
Unable to bear the shame any longer, Mainkuen, with tears welling in his eyes, reached out his fingernails and carefully hooked them around the back of Lynette's neck as she pushed forward.
"…Walk."
He spoke concisely, his words like commands, and the children habitually obeyed him.
"oh."
……wrong!
They took a few steps into the living room before suddenly realizing what was happening.
"Mr. En!"
Why are you mute again?
Mainkuhn: "..."
Stop looking at me with worried eyes, and stop trying to hold my hand, waaaaaah! The amount of medicine that works each day is limited; I can only maintain Tiger Mode for a few hours!
*
Dramas often feature criminals returning to the crime scene, and unfortunately, Mainkuhn was no exception.
But the perpetrator's purpose was not to seek thrills or to gather clues.
"Mimi".
Instead, it was to soothe his heart, which was restless with guilt and anxiety.
As soon as they jumped into the Rose Society's territory, a massive amount of shock and anger, like a pomegranate about to burst open, desperately squeezed into the farmer's fruit basket.
"We should cooperate with the Fontaine Police Force! Let's work together to rescue the boss!"
The one shouting was Thierry, the official liaison between the Rose Society and the guard.
He wasn't a member of the Rose Society; he was a boy from White Song Town who came to Gray River for Kares's life.
"Shut up! Everyone in Grey River knows the guards are all dogs that don't bite! Loyal partners of the Les dealers! Who knows, that brat might be an assassin they sent!"
The one who was yelling was Florent, an advisor to the Rose Society.
"They've disliked the Rose Society for a long time!"
"Then what do you suggest? You come up with a plan!"
Thierry's face was flushed, both anxious and angry:
"That kid has such obvious features, yet no one has ever seen him before! Damn it! He's not from Gray River at all! Where are you Rose Society going to find him?!"
"It's better than letting government lackeys get involved in the affairs of the Rose Society!"
Florent cares about his boss, but he cares even more about the overall image of the Rose Society:
"Do you want Mr. Carles's prestige built up over the years to go down the drain?"
"It's better than death!"
"..."
The little blonde girl sat in the middle of the table, with two adults standing at opposite ends of the table, hurling insults at each other. The harmony of the past was gone, and they hated each other like enemies.
Navia doesn't like this.
“Young Miss, you have seen the prisoner and even had close contact with him.”
After a long argument, the two evenly matched stags finally grew tired. They loosened their entangled antlers and looked down at their calf, which had not yet grown antlers.
"What do you think we should do?"
Huh?
Why are you asking me?
Her hair was slightly disheveled, her hat was askew, and her youthful face was untouched by makeup. Her entire being possessed a natural and innocent beauty, a romantic charm born of youthful naivety.
"Me...me to decide? Such an important matter?"
"Yes, Miss."
More and more chaotic gazes fell upon her, scrutinizing her with pity and coercion.
"Mr. Carles is not here."
"You are the leader of the Rose Society."
"..."
Things happened so fast that Navia was still a little confused about the current situation.
She couldn't understand why the cat-eared boy had suddenly become ferocious and indifferent, a far cry from his timid demeanor.
She couldn't understand why her father, whom she remembered as strong and omnipotent, had suddenly become so weak, like a lamb being carried away.
She couldn't understand these uncles, aunts, and other relatives in front of her, these loving elders who had once doted on her as if she were their own children...
It suddenly became a little scary.
Perhaps Navia had been in a daze for too long, because finally a kind adult couldn't bear to watch any longer.
"Don't treat the young lady like that, she's still a child."
Marcel stepped forward and patted the girl's shoulder with pity:
"Navia, don't be afraid, you can ask me for help... Ah, what is that?"
A fluffy little animal slid between the adults' legs, stomped hard on Marcel's leather shoe with its paw, and then jumped onto the table in front of Navia.
"..."
The cat seemed quite embarrassed, licking its whiskers for a long time in front of Navia before finally giving a slow, deliberate greeting:
"Mimi".
Ah, he is a great gentleman.
Navia reached out and touched its head, stunned.
Claude said you are ungrateful, abandoning your wife and going to Momang Palace to become a patron. Now why are you back in Grey River?
"Gurgle."
The cat lets her pet it, and doesn't resist no matter where she touches it; it's as obedient as a rag doll.
I see, I understand now.
When people are in trouble, they tend to think more and become more sensitive, finding reasons to persevere. People of all ages are like this.
"You knew I was in trouble, so you came to help me, didn't you?"
Under everyone's watchful eyes, Navia asked the cat with a smile.
"Looks like I need to pull myself together."
"...?"
The cat, of course, couldn't answer her.
"hiss--"
That claw strike was so powerful that it took Marcel a while to feel the presence of his foot.
“Young Miss, let me take this beast—cough, your pet—out. It has nothing to do with the current situation.”
"How can you say it's unrelated? Uncle Marcellus, you don't know the truth!"
Contrary to her previous helpless expression, the little girl suddenly stood up from her chair, with determination and resolve, and slammed her foot on the table! She placed her head above everyone else!
"Dear elders, dear brothers and sisters of the Rose Society!"
Her gaze swept over Florent, Thierry, and Marcel, over every face etched with anxiety and anger.
"We all know that our leader, Kares, the father of the Rose of the Thorns, the helmsman of the Gray River Order, and the beacon of Fontaine's dark side! He was caught off guard and was forced to temporarily disappear from our sight by those scoundrels in the gutter!"
"..."
I'm so sorry.
The prisoner, feeling guilty after being denounced, meowed twice and tried to run away, wagging his short tail.
Navia's voice suddenly rose, filled with accusatory anger:
"But! This is by no means a simple offense! This is a declaration of war against our Rose Society, against Grey River, and against the entire underground order of Fontaine!"
"!?"
No, what? Absolutely not!
Mainkun was terrified and froze on the spot. He couldn't dodge Navia's grabbing hand, and his hairy belly was pulled open and displayed like a flag:
"..."
"Everyone, look! This gentleman is a stray pet rescued by the Rose Society. What does he represent? He represents every fragile life in the Gray River that our Rose Society protects!"
Little Navia was still speaking passionately, waving the cat around.
"And that robber! What did he do?!"
"He not only tricked our leader away, but also trampled on the bottom line of the Rose Society! That despicable man! He's so greedy that he won't even spare a cat's food! Our great gentleman, our companion, now has not a single grain of food left! All of it, everything, was taken by that guy!"
Cat: Huh?
No, that was originally mine...
"Damn, it's one thing to steal Carles's food, but why are they even stealing the cat food?"
This robber was truly outrageous. Even the experienced Gray River veteran couldn't help but exclaim in surprise and cast a sympathetic glance at the cat.
"They've really gone too far with their greed."
Mainkuhn: "..."
No, I—never mind, I deserve it, I'll just have to bear with it.
"Is the loss merely a bag of cat food? No! This is evidence of his unbridled exploitation of all the vulnerable in Grey River! It is an insult and trampling on our Rose Society's belief of 'protecting the weak and upholding justice'!"
The girl suddenly pointed towards the gray river outside the door, her small body seemingly containing immense power:
"Think about it! He won't spare the pet's food today, and tomorrow he'll dare to steal the old man's medicine money! The orphan's bread! His greed is a bottomless abyss—men, tell me, tell this greenhorn girl, what should we do now?"
"…revenge?"
Some of the dullards recalled the initial argument.
"Completely wrong!"
Frustrated and disappointed, she threw the prisoner cat in her hand at him.
"Meow!"
"We cannot fight only for personal vendettas! We must fight for order and justice!"
"To safeguard every shred of peace in the Grey River region, we must declare to those rampant bandits—"
"The Rose Society will never give up and will fight against evil to the very end!"
The girl's declaration was like a spark thrown into a frying pan, instantly igniting the suppressed anger in the room. The argument on Florent and Thierry's faces disappeared, replaced by a chilling sense of shared hatred. Marcel's gaze also became serious, and the anxious members around them had a glimmer of justice burning in their eyes.
"We must reclaim justice!" someone roared first.
"Take back the leader! Protect the Gray River!" A chorus of voices rose in response.
"Let those robbers know how powerful the Rose Thorn Society is!"
Little Navia stood on the table, looking down at the newly reunited and unified Rose Society. The immense panic in her heart caused by her father's disappearance seemed to be temporarily suppressed by something heavier called "responsibility".
Sigh, what can I do about being born into this family?
“Find him, punish him, make him kneel before justice, and spend the rest of his life learning reverence—reverence for life and the cost of crime.”
She took a deep breath and pointed to the door:
"action!"
*
Mainkuhn watched the whole thing: "..."
He didn't know how other people would react to being attacked like that in person.
Anyway, he was so embarrassed that he wanted to transform into a rodent and dig a hole for himself.
Occasionally, there was also a sense of confusion when I couldn't understand what Navia was saying.
"Let's do it this way. That way, the people from Fontaine will also be our informants..."
After assigning the last person a job and sending them away, little Navia could no longer maintain her composure and slumped into her chair.
"Dad, where are you? Are you being abused again...?"
“.
The cat jumped onto the table, limping on its hind legs.
[She's recuperating at my house, sister.]
[He'll be finished if I don't take it from him.]
[If only you had believed me from the start when I said he was sick... although I might have gone crazy in a different way.]
"ah."
Navia felt guilty as soon as she saw his limp and quickly reached out to massage it.
"I'm sorry, sir, I was so scared and nervous that I accidentally threw you out... Oh, thank God, it seems to be just a sprain."
"Mimi".
It's okay, I deserve it.
"Using distorted reality to shift the focus, making everyone forget the fear of the leader being captured, and turning it into a glorious righteous war... God, Miss, you did so well, so well, really, a million times better than I imagined."
Miles, who had been standing silently behind her, finally couldn't hold back his tears.
“I was worried you wouldn’t be able to protect your father… My God! Child, you have no idea how dangerous that was! Cort, that ambitious fellow, Romoff, he and the boss have always been at odds, Navia, you actually managed to suppress them all, I’m so proud of you!”
"Really? I'm that good? Miles, to be honest, I was terrified just now, my fingers are still cold."
Seeing him cry, Navia quickly went to hug her old butler and comfort him:
"Don't cry, praise me again! Tell me, who's more powerful as leader, me or Dad?"
"Oh, young lady, it must be you!"
Miles wiped away her tears with a handkerchief and comforted her with a smile:
"When that old bastard Carres gets back, he'll sadly discover, 'Hey, why isn't anyone calling him boss anymore?' Guess what we'll call him? The Rose Guild's boss's father, the boss's dad! Hahaha..."
"Really? I'll remember that. You'll have to call him that once when the time comes..."
"..."
Mainkuen watched with fascination as the two joked and comforted each other, like a grandfather and grandson from a legend.
I really don't know the reason, but after Navia's speech, there was less fear and anxiety in the Rose Society's stronghold, and instead, there was only unstoppable anger, which made the half-demon's blood vessels ache.
[Once Carles' wound has almost healed, we'll find a way to put it back.]
[Although the goal is to collect negative emotions... well, that's enough. We can't keep messing with this whole group of people; it'll cause problems.]
As for why we're not releasing it now...
I'm sorry, the Rose Society's anger is too intense right now, and we can't bear to.
"And another thing, great gentleman, you big bad guy, don't think I didn't see it."
After making Miles laugh, Navia turned around and poked the cat's head.
"Did you deliberately step on Uncle Marcellus's foot? Hey, you troublemaker, you can't do that. He's a good man. Everyone was interrogating me with scary looks, but he was the only one who stood up for me."
"Marcelle may be a good person, but he is definitely not a smart one."
Miles remembered this incident and began to teach again:
“Miss, it’s a good thing you didn’t take his advice or help. Otherwise, everyone would have thought you were a child who couldn’t take responsibility. They would have argued for four or five days to decide who would be the acting boss to rescue Mr. Carles… Haha, maybe they would have just given up on rescuing him altogether.”
[Is it that serious?]
"Is it that serious?"
Both the cat and Navia were startled.
[I knew he was radiating murderous intent.]
"He probably didn't do it on purpose."
...
Knock knock.
There was a knock at the door.
"Navia, it's me! Open the door!"
Uncle Marcellus's joyful voice came from outside the door:
"I've found a lead on the boss!"
-----------------------
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