My Body Has Been Possessed By Someone - Chapter 127
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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 127
“Who the hell are you?”
Orsini’s brow furrowed deeply.
“What gives you the right to interfere?”
Yet Raphael did not so much as glance at Orsini. His gaze remained fixed entirely upon Kanna Adis, and he waited—waited for her command.
Kanna Adis stared at him blankly, her lips parting.
“Yes.”
It was a decision made without hesitation.
“I do not wish to return to Adis.”
In that instant, Orsini’s face twisted into something demonic. Raphael stepped forward. Orsini moved to block his path.
“Who do you think you are?”
“Step aside, Lord Orsini. I shall attend to the lady.”
“The lady? She’s been divorced for how long now, damn it.”
Orsini spat the words with vicious contempt.
“What right do you have to take her anywhere?”
“The lady does not wish to remain in your company.”
“That’s not the damn point! Who are you to concern yourself with her?”
He looked ready to pounce and tear into Raphael like a wild beast. Yet Raphael spoke without the slightest tremor.
“I shall say this once more. Lord Orsini, stand down.”
“Ha…”
Orsini’s lips twisted. Thick veins bulged menacingly across the back of his hand.
The tension promised violence at any second. Kanna Adis moved quickly to intervene.
“Orsini, don’t—”
But Orsini was faster. He hurled a punch directly at Raphael!
“Orsini!”
Fortunately, Raphael twisted his head to evade. He then seized Orsini’s wrist as it swept past and hurled him aside. The massive frame of Orsini was dragged along as though weightless.
Rather than crashing ungracefully, Orsini’s body rotated with uncanny fluidity, landing on the ground. The moment his feet touched down, he surged forward like a ravenous beast.
“Stop!”
Kanna Adis stepped in front of Raphael. The charging Orsini halted abruptly.
His eyes, meeting hers at close range, were truly those of a wild animal—murderous intent radiating from them like blood dripping from a wound.
“Move.”
His presence was oppressive enough to make her toes tingle. Yet Kanna Adis felt no fear. Not even a shred of it.
“You move, Orsini.”
Rather than backing away, she shoved his shoulder roughly. As expected, he yielded to her force, helpless as a paper boat rocking upon the waves.
Kanna Adis understood now.
She understood it all too well.
“What gives you the right to concern yourself with me? What gives you the right!”
She shoved his shoulder again like a blow. He stumbled back another step.
“Wherever I go, whoever I go with—it is none of your concern. You have no right to that.”
“So you’re leaving with that bastard?”
Orsini objected harshly.
“How am I supposed to trust that bastard?”
“I don’t need your trust. And how am I supposed to trust you?”
“…What?”
“I can’t trust you, Orsini. I’d sooner place my faith in a beggar on the street.”
In that moment, I realized my words had cut deeply into Orsini. I could almost hear the sound of his composure fracturing, splintering apart.
It was amusing.
That Orsini would be shaken by this.
Wounded by mere words. Hurt by such a trivial thing.
“So disappear.”
I spoke coldly, then turned away. I grasped Raphael’s arm and walked forward with long, decisive strides.
I felt Orsini’s gaze boring into my back.
“…Hey.”
He called out to me. But I ignored him. I didn’t slow my pace, didn’t even glance back.
“Kanna Adis.”
It seemed he was saying something more.
But it was swallowed by the sound of rain, fading into obscurity. It had to fade away.
I didn’t listen.
I didn’t want to listen.
* * *
How many hours had we walked?
Raphael had said he knew the way out of this Forest. I was grateful for that. Without him, I would have exhausted myself wandering endlessly.
So I simply needed to follow his back.
Eventually, it would all end.
‘What would?’
What would come to an end?
Would anything truly end?
I had thought everything was nearly finished. I had earned more than enough money, and the divorce was finalized. All that remained was the separation from the family.
It seemed like a journey finally nearing its conclusion, but…
‘I was mistaken.’
I had faced countless crises before, and my life had been in danger several times, yet I had never despaired. But now…
I wanted to simply collapse.
My head throbbed. I bit my trembling lips, numb from the cold.
Whether from the shock that felt like it was splitting my life apart, or from hours of walking in the rain—my head ached and my vision blurred.
“Madam?”
I blinked.
‘What?’
Without realizing it, I had leaned my head against Raphael’s back.
The moment I became aware of it, my body began to slip downward. Raphael quickly caught me and steadied me on my feet.
“Madam, are you alright?”
“I’m fine….”
My vision swam. Through the dizziness that made my head spin, I struggled to regain my senses.
“I’m fine. I’m alright, so please let go.”
I had to pull myself together.
Yet despite my will, heat surged through my body. My eyelids grew heavy.
No, this won’t do. If I lose consciousness in a place like this, I might die….
“I assure you, I am well.”
Then, as though he understood what lay beneath my words, Raphael spoke.
“Rest assured and take your ease, madam.”
His voice was firm and resolute.
Perhaps enough to make one want to lean upon it.
Without realizing it, I closed my eyes.
* * *
In that time, I dreamed a fleeting dream.
“Happy birthday, Mother.”
When I was still Ju-hwa.
It was around the time when Ju-hwa was twenty-two years old. For Mother’s birthday gift, I had created a perfume that existed nowhere else in the world.
“Thank you, Ju-hwa. You’re truly the best.”
“Aren’t I? I’m the greatest gift, aren’t I?”
“Yes. I’m so happy you’ve grown up so well. I was so lenient with you when you were little that I thought you’d be hopelessly naive….”
Then Seon-hong suddenly interjected.
“Mother, why didn’t you raise me so indulgently? Why am I the strict one?”
Mother laughed at that.
“I was so busy back then, and I couldn’t give you as much attention when Ju-hwa was a baby. Don’t be jealous, Lee Seon-hong.”
“Ugh. Fine. You two stick together then. I’ll play with Father.”
Then Father, who had been peeling an apple, replied flatly.
“I’m going to play with Seon-hee instead.”
Those boisterous, cheerful moments. Ordinary days for them.
Yet the instant I opened my eyes, they vanished like bubbles. All that remained was a cold that pierced to the bone.
‘I’m so cold.’
I opened my eyes, trembling violently.
‘Where am I…?’
Inside a cramped cave.
Beside me, I heard the crackling of a campfire, and in the distance, the sound of rain pouring down.
“Have you regained consciousness?”
I turned my head weakly. Raphael was sitting beside me.
He too had been caught in the rain during the cold dawn like I had, yet unlike me, he seemed to feel not the slightest chill.
“Are you well?”
“No.”
My jaw chattered uncontrollably.
“I’m so cold.”
I felt as though I might freeze to death.
Kanna Adis wrapped her pallid, chilled body in her arms. Ice-cold. It was inevitable—she was still wearing wet clothes.
“Please remove them.”
At this rate, I would either succumb to a raging fever or die from hypothermia.
“Please… take off my clothes.”
I lacked even the strength to move my fingers, so I could only plead. Or was this more of a command?
It didn’t matter.
Raphael would obey my words regardless.
“And hold me.”
He would surely grant this request as well.
“Hold me. I’m so terribly cold.”
I felt as though I were dying. I needed warmth.
I couldn’t tell if this was from the cold or from loneliness.
“I think I’ll die from this cold.”
Alexandro Adis.
No matter how much I despised him, even if I never regarded him as a father, he was still my father. That’s why I called him father. But now he says he isn’t.
So why was I so devastated by this?
When I had always wished for this. When I had always hoped that the thread binding me to him would be severed forever.
‘No, no. I’m simply shocked. A truth I’ve known my entire life turned out to be a lie.’
“Seon-hee abandoned both you and me—abandoned us—and returned to her own world.”
“She always longed for her homeland. She said she had a young daughter and a husband waiting there.”
But Mother.
Couldn’t she have taken me with her?
Couldn’t she have made me part of her family?
‘Of course not.’
I was an illegitimate child.
Father must have raised Ju-hwa alone while she was missing, waiting for Mother’s return. When she came back, he would have welcomed her with open arms.
If Mother had been burdened with me at that time?
That happy household might never have existed. That’s why Mother, even if it had been possible, would never—absolutely never—have taken me with her.
It was a choice so very like Mother.
Setting objectives, calculating coldly for practical benefit, choosing the best option, never looking back. That was Mother.
I knew her well.
She had taught me to be this way.
I was someone who could be just as ruthlessly pragmatic as she was.
That’s why, in this moment, the ground beneath my feet crumbled away.
“My lady.”
Even rolling in filth would be less wretched than this.
“I must beg your pardon for what I’m about to do.”
I lifted my heavy eyelids. His fingers grasped the end of the ribbon at her chest. He paused there for a moment.
“Please forgive me.”
With that, he pulled the ribbon taut. The knot came undone, and the front of my dress fell open.
Raphael moved with utmost care, drawing the fabric downward while taking pains not to let his fingers brush against my skin.
The damp cloth slipped down across my shoulders and chest, past my waist, and finally shed away like a discarded skin as it grazed my feet.
Yet I felt no shame whatsoever. Nothing at all. Perhaps every nerve in my body was consumed by pain, leaving everything else numb and dormant.
Then came the sound of Raphael unfastening the buttons of his priest’s cassock, followed by the soft rustle of fabric sliding away.
He lifted me effortlessly and settled me upon his thighs. As warmth drew near, I instinctively reached out, wrapping my arms around his waist and pulling him close. Our bare skin met without gap, and our body heat intertwined.
Heat flooded through me. It was so warm.
More. Just a little closer.
But I knew this was wrong.
I knew I shouldn’t share bare skin and warmth with my ex-husband’s friend, and yet I knew, and yet…
No, truthfully, it didn’t matter anymore.
If only I could thaw this frozen body.
If only I could escape this subzero cold, this loneliness of standing alone in the world.
“Is this not unpleasant for you?”
Raphael’s low voice resonated from very close.
“Not at all.”
“Then there is nothing uncomfortable about…?”
“Nothing. Just… like this for a moment.”
And silence descended. Neither of us spoke again.
Crackle, crackle—the embers burned.
In the silence, our breathing became pronounced. The sound of water droplets falling from my hair, sliding across skin. The sound of swallowing. Even the pulse of our hearts.
I breathed slowly.
It was warm.
Only now did I feel as though I might truly live.
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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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