My Body Has Been Possessed By Someone - Chapter 119

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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 119
I rose from my seat. I could no longer bear to share the same space with Silvien Valentino.
“I’ll prepare the documents at home. If there’s anything else to discuss, send a messenger.”
As I yanked the door open, I collided with a Maid approaching with tea.
I let out a bitter laugh.
“Bringing tea, are we? Is it for the Duke?”
“….”
“I do hope you haven’t tampered with his.”
With that, I swept past her without pause.
“The tea, I’ve brought the tea, Your Grace.”
The Maid, reading the tension, set the teacup upon the table. She bowed and withdrew hastily.
The sound of my footsteps fading into distance. Then came the sound of the Maid closing the door and departing. And then silence.
Stillness descended.
Silvien Valentino sat motionless, staring ahead. His gaze fixed only upon the space where she had been, the opposite side where Kanna Adis had existed.
In the heavy silence, a faint fragrance of tears lingered.
Silvien Valentino remained unmoving for a long while. Like a breakwater enduring endless waves, he did not waver.
Then, at some moment, he reached out his hand. Passing his own cup, he lifted Kanna Adis’s teacup. He took a sip.
After the tea touched his tongue and slid down his throat, Silvien Valentino set the cup down again.
His lips twisted.
It was salty. Bitterly, unbearably salty.
* * *
“Where do you think you are….”
As I walked briskly, I encountered Josephine. But I passed her without listening.
“Kanna! I’m speaking to you…!”
A hand seized my shoulder forcefully. I turned with a grimace.
“Don’t lay your hands on me.”
Josephine scoffed.
“Then you shouldn’t have come to my estate in the first place. How dare you crawl in here like this?”
Josephine had been waiting for this day. The day she would meet Kanna Adis.
The humiliation she had suffered at that girl’s hands—the fire still burned in her chest.
To have been shamed before the Princess herself, to have had her household thrown into chaos, and now to have the audacity to set foot here!
“I’ve thrown away all your belongings. So never show your face here again!”
Ah, that’s right. I let out a soft laugh. So there were possessions of mine in this place after all.
“Who gave you the right to throw them away?”
They may have been trivial, but they were mine—Ju-hwa’s belongings.
She had swept them away like garbage.
“What?”
“They’re my possessions. Yet you disposed of them without even asking my consent.”
“Your possessions? You had things here?”
Josephine burst into laughter.
“Everything in this estate was purchased with Valentino money! Yet you act as though it belongs to you? It all belongs to House of Valentino!”
“Which is precisely why it’s mine, Count Elester.”
What? Josephine’s expression clouded over.
What had Kanna just said?
“As the mistress of House of Valentino, I purchased these items with Valentino’s money—naturally they belong to me. Furthermore.”
I stepped forward, fixing Josephine’s bewildered gaze with a cold smile.
“Every coin I spend comes from the dowry Adis provided when I married into this house.”
“….”
“How dare you dispose of my belongings? By what authority?”
“Y-you insolent….”
“Insolent? Who’s calling whom insolent?”
I spoke with cutting precision.
Perhaps it was the aftermath of the raw emotion I’d hurled at Silvien Valentino. Perhaps it was the weight of all the suffering Ju-hwa had endured.
I felt as though my fury might consume me entirely.
I no longer had the patience to maintain pretense, to speak in elegant circumlocutions.
“You’re the insolent one. What was your maiden name? I can’t even recall it. The fact that it doesn’t occupy my mind tells me your family must be utterly insignificant and shabby.”
“You…!”
“So I understand your desperation. Your husband is gone, your new son is indifferent, your maternal family is beneath notice—now you’re reduced to retiring to some back room to embroider in solitude, aren’t you?”
“How dare you—silence yourself!”
Josephine’s lips trembled violently. She raised her hand high.
I seized her descending wrist roughly and twisted it with force.
“Ahhhhh!”
“I’m afraid I won’t be accepting blows meekly anymore.”
“L-let go! What are you doing?! Seize her at once!”
Josephine thrashed about, screaming at the servants around her.
“Seize Kanna immediately!”
“B-but madam….”
“Now! Disobey and you’re dismissed!”
Threatened by her command, the servants approached and seized my arms. At last, my grip released. A searing pain radiated from my wrists as they burned hot.
How dare she!
Whack! Josephine’s hand came down across my cheek.
“You insolent creature. Say that again if you dare!”
Again—whack!—she struck the other cheek. Yet her fury remained unslaked, and she shrieked.
“Get out! Never set foot in this estate again!”
I let out a hollow laugh and twisted my body violently, wrenching my arms free from their grip.
The servants, struggling to hold me by force, hesitantly released their hands.
In that instant, I struck Josephine’s cheek.
Whack! Her face snapped to the side.
The air froze.
I felt the shock ripple through everyone present. But instead of stopping, I struck her other cheek again.
Crack!
Then came a silence as heavy as death itself.
The servants, and even Josephine, were too shocked to utter a word. Josephine touched her cheek slowly, staring at me in disbelief. She couldn’t comprehend what had just happened.
“You’re… insane.”
Josephine’s voice trembled. Blood trickled from her split lip.
“Yes, that’s right. With people like you swarming around, how could I possibly remain sane?”
“And you think you’ll escape this unscathed!”
“Whether I escape unscathed remains to be seen. But one thing is certain.”
I stepped closer. Josephine immediately retreated.
Chills ran down Josephine’s spine. The way I approached her with that bright smile—I truly looked mad!
“If you lay a hand on me even once more, it won’t end like this.”
“…!”
“Want to find out how far I’m willing to go? Feel free to hit me again. I have very little left to lose anyway.”
At that moment, my gaze shifted past Josephine.
Silvien Valentino was descending the stairs. I felt the servants tense once more at his appearance.
“…”
Silvien’s expressionless face fixed upon my swollen cheeks. Not wanting to remain any longer, I turned and left.
“S-Silvien!”
Josephine struck her chest as if wronged.
“Did you see? Kanna Adis committed violence against me!”
“Yes, I saw.”
Silvien Valentino answered coldly. At his response, tears streamed down Josephine’s face.
“How could she commit such an unfilial act? She’s disrespecting me because her husband is absent! If your father were still alive…”
“Perhaps.”
Silvien Valentino cut off Josephine’s words abruptly. His voice was utterly devoid of warmth.
“It seems you’re merely reaping what Count Elester has sown all this time.”
“…What?”
Could he possibly be taking my side?
An ominous premonition struck her, but Josephine immediately denied it. It couldn’t be. After all these years of ignoring me, he wouldn’t suddenly defend me now!
“You didn’t hear the terrible things Kanna said to me! Do you know what kind of abuse she hurled at me?”
“I heard.”
“…What?”
“Every word of it was true.”
Josephine stared up at Silvien Valentino in a daze. Then she froze completely.
His cold blue eyes held contempt, disdain, and even a hint of anger.
“Was there anything I said that was untrue?”
“S-Silvien?”
“It seems your judgment has deteriorated with age. I believe it would be best for you to recuperate somewhere with better air.”
At those words, Josephine’s mouth fell open.
Surely not… it couldn’t be…
“Silvien, you’re… you’re not trying to cast me out, are you…?”
“There is a villa in Cletin. It is a refined place, so you will have no difficulty spending your remaining years there.”
“Silvien!”
Josephine seized his arm and clung to him desperately.
Cletin—that desolate land at the northern edge of the realm. Famous for its bitter cold, a remote countryside where few souls ventured. And he meant to bury her there!
“Why are you doing this, Silvien! Surely this isn’t because I disciplined Kanna!”
But Silvien paid her no further mind. With a gesture to the servants, they approached and pried her from his arm.
“The journey is long. It would be wise to prepare at once. Depart immediately upon completion of your arrangements.”
It was not a suggestion. It was a command.
“Escort the Countess.”
“Yes, Your Grace.”
Josephine was seized by the servants and dragged away. Nothing took precedence over a Duke’s decree.
“Silvien! Silvien!”
Josephine’s voice pursued him from behind.
It grated upon his ears so unbearably that he feared what he might do if he heard more. He quickened his pace and returned to his bedroom.
Breathing became difficult. The suffocation was unbearable, so I seized the cravat strangling my neck and tore it away.
It did not ease.
“You are a man of great affairs, after all.”
“The ostracism a woman like me endures, the suffering experienced within these beautiful walls—such things must have seemed trivial to you.”
“My pain must have appeared insignificant in your eyes.”
A laugh escaped me.
But it vanished as quickly as it came. My lips grew parched and dry.
I could not laugh.
What I had said to Josephine was sincere. Kanna had spoken no falsehood.
Not a single word.

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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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