My Body Has Been Possessed By Someone - Chapter 186
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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 186
“….”
Silvien Valentino gazed down at me with an unwavering stare.
That was all.
Despite witnessing a woman who bore an uncanny resemblance to his deceased wife, not a flicker of emotion crossed his eyes. They remained as serene and cold as the break of dawn.
“Your name?”
He posed the question in a measured voice.
“What might your name be?”
What was I supposed to say?
I pressed my lips firmly together and lowered my gaze.
In that instant, Silvien seized my chin and tilted my face upward, forcing our eyes to meet.
Our gazes locked.
His eyes were an extraordinary shade of blue. He remained devastatingly beautiful—sculpted as if from pure silver—and I felt my resolve crumble in his presence.
No wonder Ju-hwa had lost her mind over him.
“Please tell me your name.”
At that moment, the answer came from behind me.
“Tatiana Evgenia!”
It was Alexei’s voice. Upon hearing it, I felt half relieved and half infuriated.
“What do you think you’re doing, Duke Valentino!”
Alexei rushed forward and yanked me away by the shoulder.
Silvien Valentino regarded Alexei and me in turn without speaking, then tilted his head slightly.
“Tatiana Evgenia?”
“Indeed. As you surely know, she is a woman of considerable importance to me.”
At those words, I wanted to strike the back of Alexei’s head. What nonsense was this man spouting—betrothing himself to another woman today?
“Ah.”
Silvien exhaled a brief exclamation, a moment too late.
“Tatiana Evgenia. The Crown Prince’s personal physician and lover.”
A subtle smile bloomed at the corners of Silvien’s mouth as he spoke.
“Is this the woman in question?”
“She is.”
“I see. My apologies for the intrusion.”
Silvien smiled and stepped back. Yet his gaze remained fixed upon my face, piercing and unwavering.
“Tatiana Evgenia.”
He pronounced my name as though etching it into his very mind.
“It has been an honor to make your acquaintance.”
Silvien bowed respectfully and turned to leave. I watched his retreating figure in silence.
‘Could he truly not have noticed?’
Perhaps he merely believed me to be a woman who bore a striking resemblance to his deceased wife.
He had seen my corpse with his own eyes, after all, and could never have imagined it to be a doll….
Yet even so, shouldn’t he have shown some surprise?
“What are you thinking about?”
Alexei asked sharply as I lost myself in thought.
“Are you feeling nostalgic now that you’ve met your former husband?”
I was speechless. Was he actually jealous right now?
“That is not Your Majesty’s concern.”
“You are my lover. How could I not be concerned?”
“Your lover?”
I responded irritably.
“Your delusion is embarrassing. Are you indulging in some imaginary romance by yourself?”
“Tatiana!”
“Moreover, those are not words that should come from someone betrothed today.”
“Must you keep saying that?”
Alexei no longer apologized. Instead, he sighed as if I were the frustrating one.
“This is a contract between the Empire and the Kingdom, Tatiana. Do not fixate on the trivial word ‘betrothal.'”
“You seem to be misunderstanding. The point is not that. Your Majesty deliberately deceived me and manipulated me. I cannot possibly forgive that.”
“I did it because I was afraid of losing you. Have you not considered that I love you enough to commit such foolish acts?”
“I am considering it foolish.”
“Please, do not be so cruel to me. You are not such a wicked woman.”
I laughed aloud. Did this not make me seem like a villainess who abandoned him?
‘Ah, yes, that is it.’
If he believes me to be a wicked woman, then I shall become one for him.
“If I had truly loved Your Majesty, I would not have released your hand even before such hardship and adversity. But look—where do my hands appear to be?”
I held up my empty hands mockingly before him.
“My hands have released yours, and I have no intention of grasping them again. That is all my love amounted to—merely that much.”
“Tatiana.”
“And do not introduce me as Your Majesty’s lover before others again. It is unpleasant.”
Alexei’s eyes shattered with pain.
“Is it because of Duke Valentino?”
“What nonsense is that?”
“Has your mind changed now that you have met your former husband again?”
“Good heavens. You are full of surprises.”
I shook my head and walked past him. There was nothing more to say or hear.
“I told you I cannot give you up.”
He murmured, watching my retreating figure. His eyes shimmered with yearning.
“I love you.”
* * *
Mere minutes after parting with Alexei, I found myself frozen in place once more.
This time, it was Amelia approaching!
Startled, I quickly hid behind a pillar. My heart could not endure these successive reunions.
‘I must return to my room and hide at once.’
The major figures of the Aslan Empire had all gathered in the Royal Palace. Wandering about at such a time was far too dangerous.
Amelia walked while conversing with the woman beside her.
“I’m worried about Crown Prince Alexei’s lover. Everyone knows he’s completely infatuated with her.”
She was speaking of Kanna Adis.
“What does she even look like? I’ve heard she’s terrifyingly beautiful… They say she exudes such allure that men fall helpless at a mere gesture of her hand!”
Allure? I felt my cheeks burn with embarrassment, and I rolled my eyes.
“Among everyone I know, Kanna Adis was the most beautiful. Could this woman possibly be as lovely as her?”
Sadness tinged Amelia’s voice.
“Ah, you’ve never seen Kanna Adis in person, have you? When you arrived, she was already… dead.”
The woman beside her answered in an innocent tone.
“No, I have seen her.”
My body staggered for a moment.
“I have seen her. She was a very beautiful woman.”
This voice…
“Is that so? You must have seen her portrait.”
I clenched my fists tightly.
It was Ju-hwa.
Ju-hwa was here.
“In any case, I’m concerned. I’ve always been fond of Crown Prince Alexei… I never thought he was the type to take a mistress.”
“Is that so?”
“Yes. I liked that he was a handsome man with little interest in women, but then suddenly he acquired a lover…”
Their voices grew distant. I placed my hand over my racing heart.
‘I never expected Ju-hwa to come here.’
I had thought we would meet eventually, but not this soon.
‘Perhaps it’s for the best.’
I needed to have an honest conversation with Ju-hwa anyway.
Though I knew she had tried to kill me, I could not bring myself to hate her unconditionally.
A perfectly healthy seventeen-year-old girl had entered this body and slowly, yet inexorably, deteriorated over twelve years.
And this body remembered every moment of it…
“Physician Tatiana.”
As I hurried back, I collided with someone once again.
‘Again?’
I had stopped so many times that I was thoroughly exasperated. But fortunately—or unfortunately—this time it was not someone from the Aslan Empire.
“Father Astan.”
He was a priest of the Grand Temple stationed at the Royal Palace, a man who had pestered me several times before, and I immediately felt repulsed.
“How you’ve grown more beautiful in our time apart. Your face seems to radiate light. Have you been using some fine cosmetic?”
“Do you consider that a compliment?”
I replied coldly and moved past him. But he seized my wrist and stopped me.
“Tonight is the Crown Prince’s betrothal ceremony, is it not? It must be a painful evening for you. I could offer you some consolation.”
“I have no need for that. Please release me, Father Astan.”
“Tatiana is impossible for that very reason. Everything else is fine, but her personality is the problem. She’s far too strong.”
He chided her as though scolding a child, clicking his tongue sharply with a sharp tsk.
“Can’t she ever be obedient, even once? Since she lacks that submissive charm, the Crown Prince naturally seeks out other women and leaves.”
Kanna Adis stared at him with hollow eyes.
Anger no longer stirred within me. Instead, recent misfortunes flickered past like a lantern show—fleeting, insubstantial.
The reunion with Ren and Orsini, Yeon-woo’s doll, Alexei’s betrothal, Ju-hwa.
Compared to all that, this was truly nothing.
“Are you even listening to what I’m saying?”
When Kanna Adis offered no response, Astan’s grip tightened. The wrist he held throbbed painfully.
“Where did you learn such arrogance—to not even answer a Priest?”
In that instant, Kanna Adis’s brow furrowed sharply without thought.
The stench of alcohol was overwhelming.
So that explained his reckless behavior today—he was drunk.
“And where, Priest, did you learn such discourtesy?”
“What?”
“If you dislike being disrespected, then don’t approach me. That way, neither of us need be displeased.”
With those words, I wrenched my arm from his grip irritably.
In that moment, my fingernails raked across his face.
“…Ah.”
Astan let out a belated cry of pain. He touched the wound on his cheek with trembling fingertips, then glared at her with eyes blazing with fury.
‘He’s going to scream.’
Kanna Adis exhaled a sigh of resignation.
Tatiana Evgenia’s life was already forfeit anyway—perhaps I should deal with this bastard properly and flee…?
‘…But why is he still silent?’
He did not cry out. Far from it—his mouth remained completely sealed.
Kanna Adis grew puzzled and examined his face.
At that moment, Astan was not looking at her.
His eyes widened enormously, as though he had glimpsed something beyond Kanna Adis. The drunkenness vanished from his gaze in an instant.
‘What on earth could he be seeing…?’
In the next moment, Astan dropped to his knees with a heavy thud. Then he pressed his body flat against the floor.
His back trembled violently. He convulsed like a man seized by terror.
An ominous premonition swept through me.
The Priests of the Divine Temple do not fear even the Emperor. There was only one being in this world whom they truly dreaded.
One, and only one.
“I, I, greet the Divine Spirit…. May divine blessing descend upon this land.”
The entity that had drenched the Divine Temple in blood three years ago.
The apostate priest who had driven out the old Divine Spirit, torn apart the Executors who protected him, executed all the resistant priests, and displayed their severed heads as a spectacle.
The new Divine Spirit who had achieved a bloody reformation.
He stood behind Kanna Adis.
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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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