A Fortune-telling Princess - Chapter 183

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This chapter was translated by Lunox Novels. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
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“Of course it is. Everything I am exists there.”
I spent my entire life performing. I loved acting and believed it was my calling. I never doubted for a moment that I would continue performing until my dying breath.
So isn’t it natural to feel regret and longing?
“As I suspected.”
Dorman nodded very slowly, his face still bearing that faint smile, as though he had already anticipated my answer.
“Then… if you had the chance to return, would you take it?”
“Are you seriously asking me obvious questions? Are you trying to provoke me? Why do you keep scratching at wounds by bringing up the impossible?”
“Haha.”
He laughed again.
Something is truly strange today. I have no idea why I keep spouting such meaningless words.
‘What did he hear out there?’
I shot him a bewildered glance, but he seemed to have nothing more to say, simply rising from his seat with that composed smile.
* * *
“Damn it! This wretched hell!”
The man lying on the floor quickly pushed himself up.
He wiped his head. Fresh blood smeared across his hand.
“Damn! My head!”
As he opened his eyes wide in undisguised fury, a figure came into view. A woman in her mid-thirties.
She looked equally wretched. Her hair was disheveled and her clothes were torn to shreds.
Visible through the gaps in her garments, her entire body was covered in wounds and bruises.
“You! You bastard!”
But the moment the man saw the woman, curses spilled from his lips. Had she finally lost her mind today? This was the first time she had resisted his beating.
Caught off guard by her unexpected resistance, he stumbled and slipped on a bottle of liquor rolling across the floor, crashing down.
His head struck the table, and he lost consciousness for a moment. Now that he had come to, rage surged through him.
How dare she lay hands on her husband!
“You need to die today to come to your senses!”
The man strode toward the woman.
It seemed she had been resisting because she hadn’t been beaten enough lately. Today, he would end this once and for all!
“Huh?”
But something felt off.
Normally, she would tremble at a single shout from him, but now she didn’t even seem to hear it, her expression remaining vacant.
Had she already been frightened into losing her senses?
“Hey! Are you ignoring your husband right now…!”
The man, who had been shouting again, suddenly froze. Something had caught his eye.
Someone was lying on the floor. Blood pouring from their body.
When the man saw that person’s face, his mouth fell open in shock.
“Why am I…?”
The one lying there was himself.
“What… what is this!”
Only then did the man sense something was wrong and look around frantically. But no one responded to his voice.
“Hey! What in the world is happening?!”
I swung my hand at the woman out of habit, but nothing occurred. My hand simply passed through her body as though she were nothing but air.
“This… this can’t be real.”
The man’s expression went blank once more.
“Could it be… am I dead?”
Bewilderment swiftly transformed into despair, and that despair soon ignited into fury.
After all, it was this woman who had shoved me and sent me tumbling!
“You… how dare you…!”
In that moment, the woman who had been sitting helplessly on the ground slowly rose to her feet and headed somewhere.
The Kitchen.
Was she truly thinking of eating at a time like this?
While he continued to shout and curse profusely, she reappeared.
A blade was clutched in the woman’s hand.
“Hey! What are you trying to do…!”
Before the man could finish speaking, the woman drove the blade into herself.
“Ahhh!”
Startled by the sudden act, he stumbled backward.
“You… you!”
Watching as the woman became a spirit like himself, her form separating from her body, the man immediately lunged toward her.
“Arkbil. Age thirty-eight.”
A jolt ran through him.
Yet in that instant, an unfamiliar voice echoed. His entire body froze as though seized by invisible chains, all movement ceasing abruptly.
Turning slowly, he saw two men he had never encountered before. One of them spoke again.
“Arkbil. Age thirty-eight. Is that correct?”
“W-who are you people?”
“Answer.”
“…! Y-yes, that’s right.”
The monotone voice caused Arkbil’s body to tremble inexplicably. He could offer no resistance whatsoever.
The other man standing beside him offered a faint smile and took a step toward the newly formed spirit.
“Age thirty-three, Anze, is that correct?”
“…Yes.”
The woman nodded weakly, a beat too late. Her expression was one of complete resignation.
The man drew closer and gently held her limp hand, offering comfort.
“You have endured much hardship.”
At those words, the woman’s head snapped up, her gaze fixed upon him. Her eyes wavered ceaselessly, as though searching for an anchor.
“Even through such terrible suffering, you bore it with remarkable strength.”
“That…”
“Yes, it must have been so difficult.”
At these tender words she had never heard before, tears suddenly cascaded down the woman’s face.
The man gently held her hand once more, his warmth offering solace.
“You will face judgment in the Underworld. However, do not be overly concerned. Unlike what humans believe, God does not punish all who take their own lives unconditionally.”
The Cult regarded suicide as the gravest of crimes, but the reality was somewhat different. The reason behind the suicide had an enormous impact on the judgment.
“U-ugh…”
At the man’s words, the woman burst into tears and nodded repeatedly.
“I hope you find peace going forward.”
The man gently squeezed the woman’s hand one last time, then waved his hand lightly. With that, the woman’s form rapidly vanished in a flash of light.
“You too shall face judgment.”
“O-of course!”
Arkbil, the man who had been staring blankly at the spot where the woman disappeared, felt the cold voice of a Reaper pierce his ears.
Snapping back to awareness at that sound, he shouted with great confidence.
Come to think of it, there was no reason for him to fear these beings. They were merely those who escorted souls.
“The one who killed me is going to face judgment and go to a good place, so naturally I should too!”
At the man’s brazen demeanor, Reaper Habel added words in an uncharacteristic manner.
“Originally, you were headed straight to hell without judgment.”
“…What?”
H-hell?
“However, long ago your wife offered sincere prayers to God on your behalf. It is thanks to that you receive judgment at all.”
Though that wouldn’t change the fact that he was still destined for hell.
Swallowing the rest of his words, Habel waved his hand quickly toward the bewildered man. In an instant, the man too vanished from that place.
The fear trembling in the man’s eyes at the last moment was not his concern.
“Senior!”
Once the soul guidance was complete, Reaper Kin approached Habel cheerfully. True to her naturally bright disposition, her face was full of smiles.
“It’s been so long since we worked together—I’m so happy! I hope the next assignment is like this too. Guiding two souls simultaneously from the same location!”
“…”
To Kin’s excited chatter, Habel offered no particular response. He merely maintained his silence with an indifferent gaze.
“Is something wrong?”
Kin lowered her tone and asked carefully.
Habel was always taciturn and carried a heavy atmosphere, but today it seemed even more pronounced.
Yet he usually at least acknowledged greetings properly.
“I thought you’d be in a good mood.”
“Me?”
Only then did Habel show a reaction for the first time.
“Yes, I heard some very good news recently? They say Dorman will be returning soon? That’s wonderful news!”
Among the Reapers, the administrator Dorman was quite popular.
He was always cheerful and, unlike other administrators, did not look down on the Reapers. His flexibility was also remarkable, and he often helped Reapers in difficult situations.
When he was dismissed long ago, everyone was quick to express their regret. Some even launched petition campaigns to save him.
It was hard for anyone to believe that he, who made no mistakes in everything and was quite thorough in his own way, had committed such a grave error as placing a soul in the wrong location.
Some even spread rumors that he had deliberately caused a major incident out of doubt in his administrative role and was cast out.
In any case, after that incident he had been dismissed and completely withdrawn from his administrative position, but now he had finally resolved everything and was returning.
Those who should have already known this fact did know it. Yet wasn’t Habel’s atmosphere, of all people, seeming strange?
Among the Reapers, Habel was exceptionally renowned. Whether senior, junior, or superior in rank, few could engage him in proper conversation.
There was no other reason for this—he simply refused to acknowledge others.
Whoever spoke to him, he would ignore them outright, as though their words never reached his ears. Yet there was one person he alone had ever followed: Dorman.
“Is there perhaps some complication with Dorman’s return…?”
“He may not return at all.”
“I beg your pardon?”
“….”
“No, why? What happened?”
For one who had been stripped of position to return was never a simple matter.
Dorman’s exceptional abilities during his tenure as administrator had made even this possible.
But for the matter to fall through? What could have possibly occurred?
“Did Dorman refuse?”
Was that old rumor true after all? The one claiming he had deliberately made a grave mistake to be cast out because he despised the administrative role.
Yet Habel seemed unwilling to elaborate further, his lips pressed into a thin, resolute line.
‘Dorman! What are you saying right now!’
‘What?’
‘You would abandon that opportunity for the sake of a mere human?’
‘Not a mere human—a human whose life was ruined by my mistake.’
‘Haven’t you already paid sufficient price for that matter! So why…!’
‘Sufficient. And who decided what constitutes sufficient?’
‘Dorman!’
“….”
Recalling the conversation with Dorman from not long ago, Habel exhaled a long, silent breath.
Then, quietly, he vanished from that place.

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This chapter was translated by Lunox Novels. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
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