I’m Trying to End This Possession - Chapter 281

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

Chapter 281

Danae Grants had fled from the Imperial Palace.

Lumiere relocated her to a small, peaceful foreign village, then declared he would return to Lyos once more.

“Are you really going?”

“I am His Majesty’s retainer. It’s only natural that I return.”

She knew the relationship between Lyos and Lumiere was extraordinary. Perhaps that was why. Lumiere seemed unable to abandon Lyos until the very end.

“Lyos won’t leave Lumiere alone.”

“I know. He’ll certainly be angry, but I must endure it.”

“…What if he kills Lumiere?”

At those words, Lumiere smiled.

“Emperor Justio likes me far more than Your Highness thinks. So please don’t worry.”

“Still…”

“Well then, farewell.”

And so Lumiere departed once again.

And when she disappeared, Lyos stopped the war.

He would behave, so please come back, he would never act selfishly again, so please come back, he would never do what she told him not to do again, so please just come back, he was suffering as if dying, he begged while scattering telegrams across the entire continent.

Danae Grants’ heart softened. Lyos was clinging to her even while suffering continental humiliation.

‘Perhaps he’s changed. Maybe he really won’t wage war anymore.’

Yes, maybe he’d finally come to his senses.

The faithful and kind Lyos of old. Maybe he’d returned to the Lyos of those days.

She returned to the Imperial Palace with that faith, but…

“Lyos Grants, you liar!”

The moment she returned, Lyos began confining her in earnest. He imprisoned her at the very top of the western tower, posting strict guards from the tower’s lower floors all the way to the top floor.

So she could never escape again. So no one could steal away his lover.

“Liar!”

“Elder Sister also betrayed my trust, didn’t you?”

“Release me, Lyos! And what did you do to Lumiere?”

“Do you like Lumiere that much? Enough to abandon me and elope with Lumiere?”

“You fool! It’s not like that! I left because I wanted you to stop the war!”

“How can I believe that? I don’t trust the words of a traitor.”

And Lyos started another war.

Danae Grants was certain.

Lyos had become a warmonger. She didn’t know what had driven him to such madness, but now it was irreversible.

One day, Lyos came to make a confession.

“Shall I be honest? I will continue waging war. For 10 years, 20 years, 100 years, 200 years, I’ll keep going. Until the Ramun faith disappears from this world, until all believers of Ramun are gone, no!”

Lyos shouted with bloodshot eyes.

“Until Ramun disappears from this world!”

She knew this was his true intention.

Lyos was prepared to wage religious war for a lifetime if necessary. The promise he’d once made to her to end it within two years. That had been nothing but a lie!

Then there was only one way.

For Danae Grants to become a hostage of the Ramun faith.

‘His Holiness Pope Justio will surely help me.’

If she became a hostage of the Ramun faith, Lyos would eventually have no choice but to stop the war. Because.

Because Lyos loves me.

Love.

Love…

Is this really love?

Is this still love?

Imprisoning me at the tower top, turning everything around me into a sea of blood, soaking the continent in blood—is that it?

Could that violent thing still be love?

No. This is no longer love. It could no longer be love.

Lyos and I certainly had something called love, but when, where, how did that love disappear?

‘I must leave. Only if I become a hostage of the Ramun faith will the war end.’

But she was trapped at the tower top, and this tower had over hundreds of guards. Escaping from here was realistically impossible.

“Have you been well all this time?”

Until Lumiere came to find her, it certainly was.

“It’s been a while.”

Lumiere, soaked in blood, opened the heavy iron door at the tower top.

Smiling so calmly, as if he’d entered this place so easily, speaking so lightly it was hard to believe he was someone who’d broken through hundreds of guards.

“You must be frustrated being trapped at the tower top, shall we go for a walk?”

Danae Grants never wanted to fall in love again. Love had ruined too many things.

Really, she didn’t want to do that anymore.

“Lumiere!”

But she couldn’t stop herself from running to him and embracing him. The moment she was held in his arms, Lumiere also pulled her into his embrace.

That moment felt like eternity, but…

In the end, that was all.

They soon separated from each other.

“Shall we go?”

“…Yes.”

That was the first and last time they embraced each other.

If she had known it would be the last, she would have held on a little longer.

No one knows the future, it’s like a sandcastle that could crumble at any moment.

They fled, avoiding Lyos’s pursuit.

It was truly a perilous and difficult journey. Lyos even mobilized the Imperial Soldiers to track them down.

“Once you cross here, you’ll be in the Papal Court’s territory.”

The cloud bridge connecting mountain to mountain. There had been truly many hardships in reaching this place that crossed between the Papal Court and Empire’s territories.

“Lumiere.”

“Please go quickly.”

“Come with me. Please.”

“You know there’s more than one or two pursuers chasing us. They might try to cut this rope while we’re crossing the bridge. One of us must stay here to block this place.”

Lumiere spoke gently but coldly.

“His Holiness the Pope is waiting. He promised to protect Your Highness safely, so please go quickly and become a hostage. Only then will the war end.”

Perhaps they might have loved each other.

But they never once revealed those feelings aloud. Not even their fingertips touched easily.

What were we back then?

In that timeline, we were neither lovers nor friends nor siblings.

“Once you cross this bridge, there will be a horse tied to a tree.”

“Come with me, Lumiere, please.”

“Take that horse and go straight down the mountain, His Holiness the Pope will be waiting.”

“I absolutely won’t go alone!”

As she continued clinging to him, Lumiere sighed. He spoke very firmly, as if cutting her off.

“I betrayed Emperor Justio to stop the war. So stop acting spoiled and leave quickly.”

At those resolute words, Danae Grants had no choice but to leave him and cross the cloud bridge. Watching Danae Grants’s retreating figure, Lumiere murmured.

“…Actually, that’s a lie.”

In that life, he never spoke of love.

But Danae Grants knew.

“Everything I have done until now was because I couldn’t bear to see Your Highness cry.”

There were things in this world that could be understood without words.

“So please don’t cry anymore.”

Lumiere, who had been watching Danae Grants cross the cloud bridge, turned around.

Atop the sheer cliff. He could see the Emperor who had finally arrived, leading a great army and glaring down at them.

Lumiere couldn’t help but smile.

It was the Archer Corps.

He could have at least shown the mercy of using guns.

The Emperor seemed truly enraged to the very tips of his hair.

He intended to pierce Lumiere’s entire body with arrows, killing him slowly and painfully, then thoroughly desecrate even his corpse beyond recognition.

That much would go according to his will. Only that much.

The arrows came flying.

Lumiere raised his head high. The sky had darkened. Arrows like torrential rain blocked out the sun like clouds. It was truly a wondrous sight that displayed the majesty of the Imperial Army.

Fortunately, Danae Grants had just safely reached the end of the cloud bridge.

Lumiere fulfilled his final duty by severing that bridge.

And at that moment, Danae Grants looked back. She saw the arrows pouring down like a storm.

“…!”

No.

Danaina Rolland screamed.

Now, within the vision she was witnessing, just as Danae Grants was screaming.

“No!”

No.

“No!”

No.

“No!”

Fear washed over her. Her mind went blank.

Even though she already knew this scene. Even though she had already seen this scene.

Even though this was a past that had long since flowed away.

“No, Lumiere, Lumiere!”

Even though she already knew the ending of this story.

She wanted to stop time. She wanted to block the flood of pouring arrows.

But time flowed as predetermined. The arrows traced parabolic arcs and poured down like a tide, and without a single gap—

“No, Lumiere!”

They pierced densely throughout Lumiere’s entire body, and everything came to an end.

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