A Fortune-telling Princess - Chapter 323
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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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A black ring.
It was a sacred relic that he had taken full responsibility for managing within the Eba Cult. Since its functions were not entirely known, he had also undertaken the investigation into it.
He fled the Eba Cult with his family, taking that ring with him.
‘The power to manipulate dead souls.’
The only ability Aaron had revealed to the Church regarding the ring’s functions while managing it was this one. There were several other functions, but he deliberately kept them hidden.
He did not know if they might be needed later. And his premonition proved correct.
‘I can implant a dead soul into the body of another corpse.’
This ability was precisely why Aaron stole the black ring when he fled the Church.
The power to seize a dead soul and place it into the flesh of another corpse!
The moment Aaron realized that the Eba Cult had crumbled and could no longer provide his wife with a new body, he stole the black ring and fled immediately.
But…
Thud.
Implanting his wife’s soul into a new body proved far more difficult than he had anticipated. Young women, children… he killed countless people and used the black ring’s power, yet every attempt ended in failure.
‘At first, there was a response.’
Certainly, when his wife’s soul first entered the corpse, her eyes opened and her hands moved.
Thud.
But soon after, her body went limp like a puppet with severed strings, and her soul slipped back out. It was as though the flesh and spirit were incompatible.
‘The body doesn’t match…’
Aaron fixated on this fact. And his thoughts spiraled toward a single conclusion.
What if it were blood kin—flesh and blood connected by kinship?
“…
His gaze kept drifting toward his own daughter.
A daughter born with a frail body, just like her mother. Had the Eba Cult remained intact, his daughter too could have obtained a new body.
In the end, Aaron made a choice.
* * *
‘So in other words…’
…he murdered his own daughter—who was perfectly alive and well—with his own hands, just to implant his wife’s soul into her?
“Wow.”
A madman. A complete lunatic.
For the first time, Camilla could not suppress her shock. She had seen plenty of insane people in this world, but never one like this.
‘And now he’s blaming me?’
He’s blaming me? He killed his own daughter and now claims that what happened to his family is all my fault? What kind of absurd logic is this?
“If you had not interfered with the Eba Cult, none of this would have happened.”
Had the Church remained safe, there would have been no need for him to commit such an act—killing his child to place his wife’s spirit within her.
Of course, his choice had succeeded. What had failed repeatedly before now worked without any rejection—his wife’s soul entered his daughter’s dead body without resistance.
‘Only, she could awaken only when the child slept.’
But it did not matter. His wife… had not died.
“So you cursed me for that? Because I was the one who destroyed the Eba Cult?”
“If you had not existed, my family would have remained happy until the very end.”
And he received a prophecy. A prophecy that she—Camilla—would once again destroy the happiness of his family.
From the dead souls bound to him, he learned news that made him resolve to dispose of her.
“Yeah, I heard your bullshit loud and clear.”
Camilla let out an incredulous laugh. It was absurd—the perpetrator playing the victim.
So it’s fine for others to die just so your family can be happy? You don’t even understand why the Eba Cult should never have existed in the first place.
“Why did you keep killing children?”
There wasn’t just one or two child spirits clinging to the man.
Countless children, all bound together by resentment—no different from the one who had come to me before—clung to him. How many had he killed in total?
“We need their life force.”
“Life force?”
“To prevent the child’s body from decaying, we need the life force of another.”
That desperate yearning for life, that burning desire to live—the life force born from it!
Only that could keep the child’s body from rotting. We needed that life force, the brilliant light that shines strongest in the final moment before death.
“And so the spirits of the dead become my strength.”
My daughter gains powerful life force, and my own strength grows ever greater. There was no reason not to use it.
“…Ha.”
Camilla fell momentarily silent, watching the man casually confess his deeds without a shred of remorse.
‘That level of shamelessness is almost impressive.’
How could he be so brazen? Camilla clicked her tongue lightly.
Either way, she now understood the situation well enough. There was no need to listen to more of his drivel.
“Give me that child.”
Aaron pointed to the child collapsed behind Camilla. Seeing the child breathing steadily, Aaron let out a long sigh.
“Without that child, my wife and daughter will die.”
“…Are you insane?”
Was he calling that persuasion? Camilla regarded the man with renewed disbelief.
“Are you planning to kill my wife and child again?”
“Wow….”
Playing the victim again. As if his wife and daughter would die because of me.
The absurdity of it made laughter bubble up uncontrollably. Yet her eyes grew colder and colder.
“Zeno.”
Camilla called out quietly to Zeno. When words wouldn’t work, there was only one answer.
‘Time to beat him down.’
Camilla picked up the sword she had used to break the lock moments before.
“You’ll regret this.”
Seeing her move, Aaron quickly pushed the child clinging to him far away to the side.
“Aaron….”
“Don’t worry. It’ll be over soon.”
“Okay.”
Aaron reassured the child calling out to him in a trembling voice, then exhaled a long, silent sigh.
After today, the child’s body would begin to decay. He had to dispose of that collapsed child by the end of today, no matter what.
‘I should have killed her long ago.’
Aaron shook his head lightly. He regretted not killing her sooner.
Camilla—wasn’t it reason enough for death that she had merely touched their family?
He should have listened more carefully to the warnings of the dead, who spoke in unison that she would become his greatest obstacle.
Their words were not wrong. Was she not attempting to destroy his work once more, to ruin our family’s life again?
“Go.”
Aaron issued a command to all the spirits circling around him.
“It is prey.”
Devour it completely. Leave nothing behind. Not even the soul….
Kiiiiiii—
Ihiiiii—
The moment the man finished speaking, the ghosts circling him lunged toward Camilla in unison.
“Tsk.”
Seeing this, Camilla clicked her tongue lightly. Didn’t this man also know from the rumors?
Whoooosh!
That she wielded holy power. Camilla swiftly drew upon Arena’s holy power.
Fuuuush!
“…?”
But in that instant, a massive veil of darkness unfurled before Camilla.
Yes, a veil of darkness.
A rippling, deep black veil blocked the path of the spirits approaching Camilla.
And soon the veil advanced steadily toward where the man stood, ultimately sealing him and the spirits entirely within the black veil.
Aaron struggled desperately to push back the black veil, but to no avail.
‘What is this?’
Camilla stood dazed, watching the sudden turn of events. What was that black veil? Something about it felt strangely familiar…?
“Are you alright?”
“…!”
In that moment, a voice far too familiar reached her ears.
“Arsian.”
It was Arsian himself.
* * *
“How did you know to come here?”
Camilla blinked repeatedly at Arsian’s sudden appearance. She was still astonished and amazed that he had shown up here.
All this time, with his training in magic, swordplay, and everything else, she had barely seen his face properly, and yet he appears like this out of nowhere?
“From Sena.”
“Sena? Ah….”
When Amy told her that she had found the man, Sena was there with her as well.
She had been so distracted that she hadn’t paid proper attention, but the child had been by her side even when she left the note.
She was certain that the girl had witnessed everything and returned to the Sorpel Household to inform Arsian of the truth immediately.
“What is that?”
Camilla pointed to the black veil still containing Aaron and the spirits.
I’ve spent quite a long time with Arsian, yet I’ve never witnessed anything like this before.
It was as though sound itself had been severed—nothing could be heard from within, no indication of what was transpiring inside.
“Darkness.”
“Darkness?”
At Arsian’s terse reply, Camilla cast him a glance tinged with surprise.
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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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