My Body Has Been Possessed By Someone - Chapter 144

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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 144
“I want to be forgiven, even if it takes this.”
Kalen’s eyes held nothing but crystalline sincerity.
“Of course, I don’t expect to be absolved of my past sins with merely this. I simply hope that your anger might ease, even slightly.”
“Stop it.”
Kanna dropped the box onto the desk as though discarding it.
“Kalen, I have no intention of getting along with you. Don’t force forgiveness upon me.”
“But we must continue living together.”
Continue living together? How absurd.
‘In a month, I won’t even be here.’
It was laughable how he spoke with such certainty, unaware of this truth.
“I won’t merely ask for forgiveness with words. I wish to pay the price for my sins.”
“How admirable. Even the heavens would be moved.”
Kanna muttered with bitter sarcasm.
Didn’t this make her seem like a terrible woman for refusing to forgive?
“You said you wanted to pay the price for your sins? Consider what happened recently—when you deceived and used me—as that payment.”
“Yet you still haven’t forgiven me, sister. The price was insufficient. So please, punish me until you’re satisfied.”
“I don’t want to.”
“Sister, please.”
Irritation flared within me suddenly. Didn’t this fool understand what I was saying?
I said no. I clearly said no!
‘Don’t my words mean anything?’
Cursed forgiveness, cursed atonement.
I cared not a whit for such things, yet Kalen pursued them relentlessly, again and again.
My emotions, my will—he never considered them.
What mattered was always Kalen’s desire.
When he despised me, I suffered in agony. When he sought reconciliation, I had to strive to forgive.
Kalen Adis hadn’t changed one bit. Not at all.
Kanna gazed quietly at the face of a man who had lived his entire life selfishly. Then a thought struck her.
If I hate him enough to kill him, why shouldn’t I strike?
We’ll part forever soon anyway. Why not indulge in this catharsis?
“Fine. I’ll grant your wish.”
But this wasn’t atonement. It was purely an outburst born of rage.
“Take off your shirt.”
Even so, I knew I couldn’t do this with a sound mind, so I poured myself a glass of whisky and drained it in one gulp.
In that moment, Kalen removed his shirt and rose to his feet.
“Face the wall.”
Kalen placed his hands against the wall and leaned against it.
Kanna stared at his broad shoulders and the taut musculature of his back as though she could tear them asunder.
‘Damn it.’
I gripped the whip, my lips trembling as I bit down on them.
Now that the moment had come, I hesitated.
Inflicting injury upon someone’s body with my own hands was not an easy thing to do.
If I struck him, Kalen would be satisfied. With each lash, his guilt would diminish.
And someday, he would surely challenge me with, “I’ve endured this much—why won’t you forgive me?” Just as he had done in the Underground Laboratory not long ago.
Thinking of it this way, my own position felt infinitely pitiful.
If I remained in this mansion any longer, I would lose even the right to withhold forgiveness.
‘It’s fine. I’ll be leaving this place soon.’
So he would never be forgiven.
This too was not punishment. Kalen was not paying for his sins. It was merely a momentary outburst, a fleeting catharsis.
Crack!
The whip lashed across his back, leaving a crimson mark upon his skin.
Crack, crack, crack! I struck him repeatedly with all my strength, yet his shoulders did not even flinch.
I furrowed my brow. I had thought beating Kalen would make me feel better, but instead, I felt only disgust.
“Is that enough? Do you feel like you’ve paid for your sins now?”
“No.”
“What?”
“May I speak honestly?”
Kalen’s voice, by contrast, was utterly composed.
“The whip I gave you is a lethal weapon. It tears flesh and breaks bone.”
A lethal weapon? This?
“However, given how mild the pain is, it seems only surface lacerations have formed.”
“….”
“To be honest, it doesn’t hurt much at all. Please, strike harder.”
But I had completely lost my will.
If Kalen sustained a fatal wound…
If I accidentally damaged his spine, he could become paralyzed.
And if that made me feel guilty? That would be exactly what Kalen wanted.
‘I’d rather die than let that happen.’
I hurled the whip into the fireplace.
“Sister, why have you stopped?”
“It’s tedious. You’ve only made me feel worse.”
I grabbed his clothes scattered across the sofa and threw them at him.
“Get out.”
“Sister.”
“Won’t you leave? Should I go instead?”
“….”
Kalen could push no further and quietly left the room.
Perhaps because of such a miserable experience, I poured myself another glass of whiskey, thoroughly disgusted.
‘Just hold on a little longer. Then it will be over.’
Soon, everything will end.
I will bid farewell to this cursed Adis forever.
* * *
The next day, the Alchemy Research Laboratory construction finally completed. I threw myself into experimentation immediately.
“Will this actually work…?”
I was drawing intricate patterns onto a piece of paper the size of my palm.
After sketching a hexagram within a circular boundary, I filled it densely with strange characters I didn’t even recognize myself.
The ink I used was far from ordinary—it was created by melting mana stones and mixing in a few drops of my own blood.
‘This doesn’t seem like it will work.’
According to the book, alchemy wasn’t a power of this world.
In other words, it was knowledge from another realm.
And this pattern was supposedly a conduit for drawing that otherworldly power.
‘Is it like a summoning magic circle? Should I just think of it that way?’
Ordinary people from ‘here’ couldn’t use it, but special cases like me and Seon-hee—’foreign substances’—apparently could.
【That’s why this ancient alchemy book just hung in the Divine Temple like a decorative screen until it came into my hands and finally found proper use.】
There was even a brief note Seon-hee had left.
“This really works?”
After finishing the pattern, I stared at the paper with skeptical eyes.
It claimed that rubbing my blood on this pattern would transmute anything into gold.
‘How could that possibly be true?’
I felt like I was being swindled.
Still, deciding to give it a try, I placed my fountain pen on the paper.
Then I pricked my fingertip with a needle, drew blood, and carefully rubbed it over the pattern.
“Ah!”
In the next instant, I doubted my own eyes. Black smoke began rising from the pattern!
And it was like….
‘The Black Mist?’
Moments later, when the black smoke dissipated, the fountain pen gleamed with a golden sheen.
But it wasn’t merely gold-colored.
It was gold. Real gold.
“It really turned into gold.”
The moment realization struck, a practical sense of relief flooded through me first, almost absurdly.
This was it.
From now on, I could live my entire life without worrying about money!
I flipped through the pages excitedly.
‘But this is supposedly the most basic technique.’
Creating gold was merely the foundation, and this book contained knowledge far more wondrous and shocking than that.
There were patterns not only for transmuting matter into different properties, but also for conjuring elements like fire and water.
There were even sorcerous techniques for creating living puppets—beings virtually indistinguishable from people.
Reading that section sent a chill down my spine.
Transforming matter, creating it, fashioning human-like beings.
To Kanna Adis, ancient alchemy was indistinguishable from the domain of gods.
‘My blood is precious. I must never spill it carelessly.’
The moment that thought crossed my mind, a memory flickered through my consciousness.
The engagement annulment ceremony.
The memory of that moment when I had to offer my blood to enter the Divine Temple.
‘This must never happen again.’
Who could say for certain?
Some obsessed psychopath infatuated with alchemy might steal her blood and commit unspeakable atrocities.
I resolved firmly that I would never, under any circumstances, surrender my blood again.
‘But there are torn pages scattered throughout the book.’
Where had those missing pages gone?
I fervently prayed they hadn’t fallen into the hands of a madman.
That was when it happened.
“Miss, Prince Argon has come to call on you.”
Argon?
I quickly closed the book. After tucking the paper with the pattern drawn on it inside, I replied.
“Show him to the Reception Room. I’ll be there shortly.”
* * *
“My sincerest apologies, Duke Adis.”
Silvien Valentino regarded the Butler in silence. The Butler’s face had gone pale under his gaze.
“Apologies? It seems I’ve been hearing that word quite frequently of late.”
“I am deeply ashamed.”
“As you should be. To make such a fundamental mistake.”
Silvien Valentino could not laugh. This was a mistake far too grave to laugh about.
“You’re telling me you omitted a document necessary for the divorce?”
He let out a bitter chuckle.
“Did the divorce between Valentino and Adis seem so trivial to you?”
“That is not the case….”
The Butler closed his mouth, abandoning any attempt at excuse.
Why had such a mistake occurred? He had delivered the divorce documents while leaving out one crucial piece!
Silvien Valentino, as befitted the patriarch of a great noble house, delegated menial tasks to his subordinates.
For instance, visiting the Administrative Office to collect the necessary divorce documents.
The Butler had received the documents from the Administrative Office, passed them to Silvien Valentino, who then distributed them to Kanna Adis.
From Kanna Adis’s perspective, this was Silvien Valentino’s mishandling.
Silvien Valentino found this situation deeply troubling. Exceedingly so.
“How could the young lady of Duke Adis not be suspicious? She might well believe I’m resorting to underhanded tactics because I don’t wish to divorce.”
“Since the Administrative Office itself was responsible for the omission, I assured them it would not be held against either party in the divorce.”
“As it should be.”
The Butler exhaled a breath of relief.
“Then I shall visit the Adis Mansion at once. I’ll obtain the Duke’s daughter’s signature and——.”
“That won’t be necessary.”
Silvien Valentino rose from his seat. He spoke while donning the overcoat he’d draped across the chair.
“I can no longer entrust such matters to the Butler. I shall handle this personally.”
“Pardon?”
“You’re dismissed.”
Silvien Valentino adjusted his gentleman’s hat as he spoke.
His tone was so gentle that the Butler failed to comprehend immediately.
Yet soon enough, he exhaled a quiet sigh and bowed his head. Indeed, by any measure, this constituted a dismissal.
“It has been an honor to serve you, Your Grace.”
Moments later, Silvien Valentino tucked the documents into his coat and boarded the carriage. He issued an order to the Coachman.
“To the Adis Mansion.”

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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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