My Body Has Been Possessed By Someone - Chapter 169
—————
This chapter was translated by Lunox Novels. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
—————
Chapter 169
* * *
“Tatiana!”
The door burst open without warning. I turned to look behind me.
“Tatiana, I’m hurt!”
A tall man strode in and immediately thrust his hand toward me.
“It hurts terribly. Treat it quickly!”
I examined his wound.
A paper cut, perhaps? A single drop of blood beaded at the surface.
Making such a fuss over something so trivial.
“Your Highness may have grown tall, but you’re still acting like a child.”
Lorenzo reacted sensitively to my remark.
“A child? Watch your tongue. I’m nearly an adult now.”
Had he already reached that age?
I stared at Lorenzo in genuine surprise. He had indeed grown considerably.
Lorenzo, now seventeen this year, had shot up so much in the past three years that I had to look up at him quite a bit.
He was now as tall as Crown Prince Alexei.
‘When I first met him, he was just a small boy.’
He had been shorter than me then, but he’d undergone a dramatic growth spurt. By next year, he would be an adult.
I felt the passage of time anew. Three years had already passed since then.
“I am the personal physician of Crown Prince Alexei. Does Prince Lorenzo not have his own physician?”
“Ah, I don’t care! I want you to treat me!”
But his temperament remained as willful and obstinate as ever.
“Very well. Please sit here and I’ll treat it for you.”
“Really?”
Lorenzo sat down happily, humming a cheerful tune. What was he so pleased about? He was certainly an odd child.
I quietly applied disinfectant to his paper-thin wound.
“….”
Lorenzo gazed blankly at my face as I worked. Sunlight streaming through the window poured across my features.
Lorenzo stared at my bright honey-colored hair caught behind my ear, then slowly let his gaze drift.
Soft-looking cheeks, long eyelashes glistening with the light, slightly parted full lips….
Captivated, Lorenzo swallowed hard. Then he spoke.
“Tatiana.”
“Yes?”
I answered without even looking at him.
“Is that rumor true?”
“What rumor?”
“That you’re Crown Prince Alexei’s mistress?”
I jerked my head up in shock.
“Your Highness, do you even know what that word means?”
Lorenzo’s face flushed crimson.
“Of course I do. I’m old enough to know these things! I’m not a child.”
“Yet it feels like only yesterday you came crying to me in the dead of night after your first wet dream.”
“Hey! Can’t you keep quiet about that?”
Kanna Adis smiled silently.
About two years ago, Lorenzo had come to her in tears in the middle of the night after experiencing his first wet dream.
He hadn’t known what it was and thought he’d fallen ill.
“Damn it, really, don’t you dare bring that up again!”
“Your Highness should mind his language.”
“So tell me already. What is it? Are you really rolling around in bed with Alexei hyung?”
Kanna Adis was startled once more.
This little brat was using such vulgar phrasing about ‘rolling around in bed’?
Did he even understand what ‘rolling around’ between a man and woman meant?
“Good heavens. Your Highness really must watch his language.”
“Curse it all, what am I supposed to do about hearing such words!”
“I am not the Crown Prince Alexei’s mistress. So please don’t be swayed by such baseless rumors, Your Highness.”
“…You’re telling the truth, right?”
“By the way, where did you learn such words? Mistress, rolling around together?”
“Do you think I’m so young I wouldn’t know such things? In a few months, I’ll be an adult too.”
Only then did Lorenzo seem relieved, releasing a long sigh. He muttered as if to himself.
“You better not. I won’t let it slide.”
“Don’t worry. I would never tarnish Crown Prince Alexei’s honor.”
At that, Lorenzo’s brow furrowed.
“That’s not what I meant!”
“Pardon?”
“Ah, damn it, never mind.”
What was wrong with him? Kanna Adis observed Lorenzo carefully.
‘Is he going through adolescence?’
Well, it was certainly the turbulent age.
Kanna Adis decided to be understanding of his strange behavior. After bandaging his fingers, she tidied the bookshelf.
Lorenzo stared at her back as she shelved the books, then suddenly asked.
“Don’t you want to become a noble?”
For a moment, Kanna Adis’s hand froze. But soon it moved again, and she answered brightly.
“Why do you ask such a thing?”
“Mother keeps offering you a title, but you keep refusing. You only want to remain as my brother’s personal physician. Why don’t you want to become a noble?”
Because I want to attract as little attention as possible. Because if I draw attention, my past could be traced.
Kanna Adis swallowed those words.
Instead, she turned around to face Lorenzo. She wore a secretive, enigmatic smile.
“Are you curious about me, Your Highness?”
“….”
Lorenzo stared at her in a daze before suddenly snapping back to reality, shaking his head vigorously.
“No! Not at all! Why would I?”
“I had a feeling you might say that. Your Highness is already so busy, after all. Have you been practicing the dance much?”
“…No.”
“That won’t do. You promised to be Duchess Anelitz’s partner for her debutante ball.”
At those words, Lorenzo’s expression twisted in displeasure.
“I hear that Duchess Anelitz holds Your Highness in very high regard?”
“I don’t care. I’m not interested in Duchess Anelitz. She doesn’t even look like a woman to me.”
“Pardon? But the Duchess is quite a beauty, Your Highness.”
“Hmph, beauty or not, she’s still just a child. She smells like milk and innocence.”
You’re the same age as her. You’re a child too, aren’t you?
I swallowed the urge to tease him with those words.
“Besides, even if she were beautiful, she doesn’t appeal to me.”
“Ah, that’s because of me, isn’t it? Growing up watching me since childhood has left you unimpressed by other beauties.”
Though I’d meant it as a joke, Lorenzo’s face turned as red as a tomato.
“Don’t be ridiculous, you fool!”
With that, he kicked open the door and bolted from the room.
‘His temperament really is….’
I wished Princess Joanna were here beside me at times like this.
I let out a sigh.
I had to be patient. After all, adolescence was when people did all sorts of strange things.
‘Though when I cured his illness, he followed me around like a duckling imprinted on its mother.’
Three years ago, when I first met him and treated his Guillain-Barré syndrome, Lorenzo had opened his heart to me completely.
He followed me so devotedly that I thought he was like a duckling chasing after its mother.
But at some point, his attitude changed.
He grew irritable frequently, and whenever I drew near, he would startle and cry out.
‘Is he embarrassed that I discovered his nocturnal emission?’
Now that I thought about it, the shift in his behavior had occurred right after that incident. He must have been ashamed of the humiliation he’d experienced then.
‘Well, he’s at that age. I should be more careful with him from now on.’
* * *
“You’ve arrived, Tatiana. Please, come and sit.”
Queen Ekaterina smiled warmly and gestured to the seat across from her.
Over the past three years, I had fulfilled everything Queen Ekaterina demanded of me.
Yalden’s medical standards had grown by leaps and bounds.
I had established proper medical knowledge where even basic concepts of cleanliness and sterilization had been absent, written treatises detailing the efficacy of Eastern Continent medicinal herbs—knowledge still unclear in this world—and compiled comprehensive references.
I had also authored detailed papers classifying diagnostic methods, treatment protocols, and disease classifications based on prognosis.
“I have troubling news.”
“Yes?”
“Orsini Adis is coming to Yalden.”
In that instant, my heart plummeted to the depths.
Kanna Adis clenched her fists so tightly her knuckles turned white.
Adis.
Adis, Adis.
That name—the one she had perfectly forgotten, the one she had desperately tried to forget—came crashing down upon her like an avalanche.
“But there is no need for concern. I am merely coming to consult with Yalden regarding matters pertaining to the Black Mist.”
“Will you be coming to the Palace?”
“Yes.”
“…I believe it would be best if I departed to another region for a time.”
“Indeed, I share that sentiment.”
I could not encounter Orsini Adis. Of that much, I was certain.
As expected, Orsini Adis had not perished.
He had survived and returned to Adis, becoming the heir to the family headship in Kalen’s stead.
And that was the end of it.
Orsini Adis had neither revealed my survival nor pursued me.
‘Of course—that man’s nature being what it is.’
He was the one who had been toyed with by my every gesture, who had glared at me with murderous intent even as he crumbled to pieces.
That unbreakable pride, that stubborn obsession, that fierce temperament—it would prevent him from seeking me out.
‘Is it fortunate that he possesses such a nature?’
But if by some chance we were to meet.
‘…I would kill him.’
Not that I would kill him.
But that he would kill me.
I could be certain of this.
Orsini Adis would absolutely attempt to kill me.
“Seek refuge in the Britzk Territory. The Lord of Paelon there is my cousin. Though I am unaware of the full circumstances, I have made my wishes quite clear to him, and he shall conceal you well.”
“Thank you.”
“There may be pursuit, so it would be wise to move without drawing attention. For such clandestine matters, mercenaries would serve better than the Palace’s knights.”
“Mercenaries?”
“Indeed. However, I have employed one called the greatest mercenary on the Continent, so you need not worry about safety. Have you heard the alias—the White-Haired Ghost?”
I laughed along with the Queen.
The White-Haired Ghost.
Though the epithet was rather absurd, it had been earned because the person truly was like a ghost.
A white-haired mercenary who had appeared suddenly one day like a specter had pacified the mercenary world with ghostly skill and successfully completed every contract, or so I had heard.
“Of course.”
“That person shall serve as Tatiana’s escort. But be warned—according to the Servant who arranged this contract, they are of quite an unusual temperament.”
The Queen clicked her tongue.
“Still, their skill is beyond question. So remain at ease and stay in Britzk for the time being.”
“Thank you for your consideration, Your Majesty.”
—————
This chapter was translated by Lunox Novels. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
—————