My Body Has Been Possessed By Someone - Chapter 103
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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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Chapter 103
The room was dark, the moonlight faint.
Darkness draped a thick veil over Orsini’s face. Yet his green eyes gleamed with crystalline clarity as he gazed down at me.
“You do know you’re being burned at the stake tomorrow, don’t you?”
“Ah, so that’s what you came to talk about.”
Finally, he’d spoken. I shrugged my shoulders.
“Who knows. Whether I’ll be strung up from a tree or not—we’ll have to wait and see.”
“How carefree you sound. Do you really think someone’s going to protect you?”
I couldn’t help but laugh.
Protect me? Who in this world would protect me?
“Even if someone did protect me, I know for certain it won’t be you.”
“Are you waiting for that brother of yours?”
…
This bastard really knew how to push it.
I wiped the smile from my face. Seeing my expression finally falter, Orsini laughed with satisfaction.
“You want to go to that house with him so badly?”
I clenched my fists. Each word he spoke kindled a burning anger in my chest.
“Stop it, Orsini.”
There were things that should never be touched.
For me, that world was Ju-hwa’s.
“So that’s why you’re so composed? Because you think someone’s coming to take you away?”
“Shut your mouth.”
“Let’s see who this great savior brother of yours is. It can’t possibly be Duke Silvien Valentino, could it?”
I couldn’t respond as I normally would. I couldn’t laugh off his sneering words.
This wasn’t a subject I could dismiss with laughter.
I live trying not to think about the things she loved.
I never want to forget that world, yet at the same time, I don’t want to think about it.
Because I can’t afford to become weak.
Because this isn’t the time to become weak.
I know that the moment I open that precious and heartbreaking box of memories, only transparent loneliness will come flooding in.
Yet Orsini, of all people, was carelessly destroying my desperate efforts.
“Stop talking.”
“Why? Are you going to cry like an idiot again?”
For some reason, my reaction only seemed to infuriate Orsini further. I couldn’t understand it at all.
“Yeah, the way you cried and wailed wanting to go home was quite a sight. Whimpering like an abandoned child, calling for your mother—it was hilarious.”
My face burned hot. My head throbbed.
The more my face twisted, the more my eyes burned with heat, the more Orsini laughed with cruel delight.
“Is your mother waiting for you at that house? The woman who gave you that black hair?”
He leaned down deeply, meeting my gaze from above. His green eyes rippled with malice. And he spoke.
“You won’t be going home.”
Words laced with a venom so potent it could kill.
“You may have entered Adis on four legs, but you won’t be leaving the same way.”
I can’t go home. I can’t go home.
I can’t go.
Can’t.
‘Perhaps… forever.’
That cruel truth cleaved through my body like a blade. The fracturing pain made my lips tremble.
Orsini’s expression as he watched me seemed furious, yet simultaneously delighted.
I slapped his cheek.
Crack!
But Orsini’s face didn’t even flinch. He remained unmoved, as though struck by dust carried on the wind. Instead, he laughed as though thoroughly amused.
“Ah, now I understand.”
He slowly lifted his torso, savoring the way I glared at him as if I might devour him whole.
Hatred. Rage. Loathing. He recognized these as my true feelings.
Only these.
“Adis remains a hell for you, doesn’t it?”
Among all those I had desperately sought, he knew none of their names. Not Kalen. Not Silvien Valentino.
“In truth, even that bastard Kalen must be unbearable to you, isn’t he? Right, filth?”
Filth.
Damn it—the moment that word left my tongue, pain seared through it. It felt as though my tongue was rotting from the tip, but because I refused to acknowledge that agony, Orsini’s sneer only deepened.
“Playing with Kalen while wearing such a pretty smile.”
I’d sooner cut out my own tongue than admit it.
“You’ve been exposed to me.”
With a flick of his finger, he pushed against my furrowed brow.
“Let’s get along from now on. In our home.”
Then he curved his lips upward.
“That is, if you’re not burned at the stake tomorrow.”
I closed my eyes. I took a moment to breathe deeply.
Then I opened them. I smiled brightly, radiantly. Just as he said—the way I smiled when playing with Kalen—beautifully.
“Orsini, are you perhaps… jealous?”
In that instant, his finger touching my brow stiffened rigidly.
I swiftly seized his finger. I gripped it tightly.
“Afraid your beloved sister might leave for somewhere else? Does it anger you?”
Then Orsini burst into a harsh laugh.
“Insane woman.”
“That’s what I wanted to say to you, you insane bastard.”
I roughly shoved his hand away.
“You spouted nonsense, so I simply responded in kind. How is it? Entertaining?”
“…”
“I’m not amused.”
Then he wiped the smile from his face entirely. His voice turned monotonously dull as he muttered.
“You’re really pathetic.”
“….”
“Get out.”
* * *
“Damn bastard.”
After sending Orsini away, I briefly wavered—should I cry this time?
I’d pretended to be composed, but it hurt. It hurt terribly. Orsini had dug straight into my wounds and crushed them.
I wondered if I should cry because it hurt so much, if a good cry would make it better.
‘Damn it, I’m too angry to even cry!’
But the tears that had nearly welled up in my eyes dried just as quickly.
Burying myself under blankets and sobbing wasn’t my style anyway. I preferred cursing the person who’d ruined my mood instead.
‘That bastard Orsini.’
I wouldn’t let this slide. That demonic wretch.
‘I’ll kill him.’
Definitely. Someday. Without fail.
‘I’ll kill you, Orsini.’
But now wasn’t the time to be consumed by hatred.
I gazed down at my own heart from a very high place. And I commanded myself.
Right now, resolving matters related to Rachel takes priority.
‘That’s what matters. Don’t get distracted by cheap emotions and ruin the work.’
I wouldn’t let Orsini ruin my mood either.
‘That’s right. I’ll sleep well tonight. I can’t have nightmares because of that bastard.’
Orsini can’t ruin anything of mine.
Not my plans, not my mood, not my night.
As I thought this and took a deep breath, my turbulent emotions gradually settled. And I sought sleep.
Fortunately, I was able to sleep soundly as I’d wanted.
* * *
At last, the day of the purification ritual arrived.
For the first time in ages, the clouds had cleared to reveal a brilliant sky. A perfect day for a burning, Rachel thought.
“Waaaaah!”
“The Saint, the Saint is here!”
“Please purify the village!”
“Catch the Black Apostles, Saint!”
“Protect our village!”
On that bright, sun-drenched day, the entire village had crowded into the Town Square, their clamor rising to the heavens. Their fervent desire ignited Rachel’s sense of mission with fierce intensity.
‘Yes, their peace rests in my hands.’
The lives and peaceful daily existence of those villagers depended on me.
“Are you the ones who suffered from madness?”
On the platform stood dozens of people arranged in orderly rows.
No one wore a fearful expression. They were confident because they knew themselves to be innocent of the Black Apostles’ crimes.
‘Most of them are probably sincere, though some might be acting.’
Rachel’s gaze shifted sideways.
Beside the platform. A massive tent had been erected there, and beneath it stood the Lord of Paelon, Count Jerome, Knight Guards, Servants, and Kanna Adis.
Ordinarily, she should have stood on this platform with the others, but consideration had been given to her noble status.
Yet no matter how noble one might be, her eyes could not be deceived. The moment her gaze met Kanna Adis’s, her chest stirred with an ominous premonition.
“Miss Rachel possesses no special abilities whatsoever.”
“You’re simply mistaken.”
“Your delusion has killed people.”
Then Kanna Adis smiled softly and stepped out from beneath the tent of her own accord.
‘…What is this?’
Rachel stared intently at her movements.
Kanna Adis was walking up onto the platform on her own two feet. The appearance of the beautiful woman drew everyone’s attention.
Kanna Adis looked down at the assembled crowd and spoke.
“Those of you who know me already understand, but I am a Physician sent by His Imperial Majesty.”
Rachel’s brow furrowed. Yet for some reason, most of the villagers gazing up at Kanna Adis wore expressions of remarkable goodwill.
It was an incomprehensible reaction.
The Island Village people were typically hostile to outsiders, especially to the nobility of the Empire…
‘But why are they looking at her like that?’
The warmth in their eyes stemmed from Kanna Adis having distributed food freely to the villagers over the past several days—a fact Rachel was unaware of.
Kanna Adis continued calmly.
“During my time here, I have conducted a thorough investigation into the village’s affliction and have reached a conclusion. I suspect it will come as a shock to many of you, but…”
Rachel was flustered. Surely this woman wasn’t about to voice those strange words she had spoken to her…!
She wanted to silence her immediately, but the crowd was already fixed upon her. Even the Lord of Paelon himself!
“Before I proceed, allow me to ask one thing. Has anyone in the village suffered from this affliction recently?”
Kanna Adis asked, her composure evident as she surveyed the villagers.
“I suspect there has been no one afflicted, at least not in these past several days.”
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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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