A Fortune-telling Princess - Chapter 322

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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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[If it gets dangerous, I’ll enter immediately.]
“Yes, I’m counting on you.”
At Zeno’s words that he would enter her body without permission if a dangerous situation arose, I nodded. I checked the sword at my waist once more.
Even as I did, I didn’t stop walking.
Before long, a large door appeared in front of me, and I hesitated for a moment.
This is the right place, isn’t it? When I turned to look at Amy, she nodded repeatedly.
[This is it! There’s a box with a child trapped inside here!]
I immediately opened the door and stepped inside. Just as Amy said, I could see a small box sitting alone in the center of the space.
It was the same box I’d seen in the child’s memory.
“…sigh.”
Seeing it in person, it was even smaller than I’d imagined. How could anyone lock a person in such a place? I couldn’t help but let out an incredulous laugh.
I quickly approached the box and struck the firmly locked padlock with the sword I’d brought with all my strength.
I wanted to smash the box outright, but I was afraid the child inside might get hurt, so my hands moved very carefully as I broke the lock.
Crack! Bang!
Snap!
The padlock shattered after just a few strikes with the sword.
It was so pathetically easy that I wondered if this really was where the child had been trapped in agony for so long.
Creak.
“….”
Opening the entrance of the old wooden box, I found myself unable to speak for a moment.
“…damn….”
A curse escaped my lips unbidden. I couldn’t even bring myself to reach into the box.
I was afraid the child might crumble.
The inside of the box was truly horrific. The child was nothing but skin and bones. The fingernails had been completely torn away from how much the child had clawed at the box, and the fingertips were so shredded that bone was visible.
I carefully reached out and held my hand to the child’s nose.
Fortunately, the child still had breath. It was faint, barely perceptible, but I could definitely feel a shallow breath.
Whoosh!
I immediately poured my holy power into the child, hoping their breathing would grow just a little stronger.
The torn hands and burst, bruised wounds began to heal rapidly. Only then did I carefully lift the child from the box and cradle them in my arms.
The body felt almost weightless.
‘Bastards….’
Another curse escaped me.
Crack! Bang!
I kicked the box with all my strength and smashed it to pieces.
After this small act of venting, I carried the child to one side, laid them down, and slowly… very slowly gave them water to drink.
But the unconscious child couldn’t swallow at all. So I took water into my own mouth and carefully fed it to the child bit by bit.
Whoosh!
I poured my holy power in once more.
Twitch.
Only then did I feel a small movement from the child’s body. Their eyelids seemed to flutter slightly, but they didn’t open.
“It’s alright… rest now. Everything’s fine.”
Camilla whispered reassurances to the child, her voice gentle and soothing. Perhaps hearing her words, a single tear that I thought had long since dried rolled down the child’s cheek.
[Camilla, someone’s coming.]
“….”
At Zeno’s warning, Camilla lifted the child into her arms and moved toward the corner. She laid the child down carefully there.
Creak!
At that moment, a man entered through the door. It was Aaron—the very person Camilla had been searching for so desperately.
The man’s gaze swept across the space, first landing on the shattered box.
Aaron’s eyes widened rapidly at the sight. He quickly scanned his surroundings.
“What? Looking for the child?”
Camilla regarded him with a cold stare. Then, noticing the young girl standing beside the man, her brow furrowed slightly.
‘What is that spirit?’
Why was she smiling? This spirit seemed different from those who had lost their bodies to possession.
Spirits robbed of their bodies bore no identity whatsoever, their expressions utterly unreadable.
Yet this spirit was smiling with such radiant clarity.
‘What is this?’
As if she didn’t know she was dead… as if she were merely dreaming.
‘Is that his wife?’
Hadn’t Sena told me? Aaron’s wife had once switched bodies while at the Eba Cult.
‘She said it was a young woman’s body.’
Had she obtained a new body already? But how? Without a sacred object?
It was common knowledge that members of the Eba Cult desired the bodies of younger, smaller children.
So there was nothing strange about the new body being that of a child. I was simply curious about the method.
Could it be the power of the sacred object he’d stolen and fled with? Did he possess more than just the ability to control dead spirits?
“You are….”
The man’s eyes widened further as recognition dawned. He seemed to know who I was as well.
‘Of course he would.’
I’d sent a curse his way, so naturally he should know my face.
“I have something I’m curious about.”
Camilla stepped closer to the man and posed her question.
“Why did you try to curse me?”
“….”
Aaron’s expression hardened slightly. How could he deny it? The fact that he’d attempted to place a curse of death and suffering upon her.
He’d sent the child with the greatest resentment, hoping she would writhe in terrible agony before dying. Wasn’t that what he’d suffered at Shinsu’s hands?
“I’ve never seen you before. What grudge could you possibly have against me?”
That was what puzzled Camilla most. As for the act of capturing and killing a child—that was simply madness, and she had no particular interest in understanding it.
What baffled her was why he’d sent such a thing to her, why he’d attempted to curse her at all.
“Did you come alone?”
“What? Afraid I brought an army?”
“…You didn’t come alone, then.”
Aaron’s gaze shifted toward Camilla. He could perceive entities bearing an aura distinctly different from the dead he commanded.
‘Does she also manipulate the dead?’
Perhaps that was why she had entered this cave so effortlessly, despite the dead guarding it.
Still, it was reckless. Had she come here with merely that handful of dead? Aaron found her actions difficult to comprehend.
‘Perhaps….’
She might have underestimated his abilities. She probably thought he merely commanded spirits that cast curses.
“I still haven’t heard your answer. Why did you send that to me?”
“….”
At Camilla’s question thrown at him again, Aaron’s gaze turned toward the child clinging tightly to the man’s side. The child, terrified by the current situation, had buried their face deeply into the man’s leg.
“Because I lost it because of you.”
“Because of me?”
Camilla could see the man’s eyes grow desolate in an instant. She felt his resentment toward her laid bare.
“My family.”
Aaron’s quiet voice continued.
“My happy family… everything crumbled because of you.”
What nonsense was this? Camilla still couldn’t understand his words at all.
How could she possibly ruin the family of someone whose face she’d never even seen?
“If only you hadn’t existed….”
The man’s gaze turned toward the child again. Or more precisely, toward the spirit clinging to the child’s body.
“My daughter wouldn’t have ended up like this.”
“What?”
…Daughter? Camilla’s eyes widened gradually.
‘Could it be….’
That child… that child laughing so brightly there!
“She’s your daughter?”
…You took your daughter’s body?
* * *
Thud.
“….”
Another failure. Aaron swallowed the sigh threatening to burst forth. He feared his wife, who had escaped the dead body, might hear that sound and grieve.
‘This makes ten times already.’
Aaron’s reason for entering the Eba Cult was solely for his wife. To save his dying wife, to obtain a new body for her.
His wife, who had grown increasingly frail and was dying after giving birth, finally obtained a new body and became healthy.
Witnessing this, Aaron devoted everything to the Cult. He was loyal to every task the Cult demanded and never questioned anything.
Saving his wife was enough, and knowing there was a place that would continue to save her was sufficient reason to dedicate his entire being.
But ultimately, the Eba Cult collapsed.
As the Cult’s forces were discovered and disappeared one by one, Aaron had no choice but to select one method to protect his family.

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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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