My Body Has Been Possessed By Someone - Chapter 220
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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 220
【Alexandro Adis is at home right now.】
At Argon’s words, Princess Lilienne shook her head firmly.
“Tell my brother’s messenger that he seems to have lost his touch. He should get his head on straight.”
* * *
Kanna Adis stepped into the corridor as she left Orsini’s Office. Then, at some point, she stopped short in surprise.
“…Kalen.”
At the end of the corridor, Kalen stood leaning casually against the wall.
“I’ve been waiting for you, sister.”
His voice was disturbingly docile.
“Shall I show you to your room?”
* * *
“Sister, have some wine.”
“Thank you.”
He perched lightly on the edge of the desk and smiled.
“Here is the report on Concubine Teresa that you requested before.”
Kanna took the paper and began to read. Then she was startled.
‘She was remarried?’
Before her marriage to the Emperor, Concubine Teresa had a husband.
‘He died in an accident, and afterward she married the Emperor.’
Born and raised in a quiet rural village, she became a dancer, married a musician from the same theater troupe, was widowed years later, and soon after caught the Emperor’s eye to become a concubine.
“If you need it, sister, I will reclaim the family headship.”
…What?
Kanna set down the paper she had been reading. Then she turned her head toward him.
“Do you understand what that means?”
“Of course.”
“Orsini won’t willingly surrender the headship right now. In that situation, there’s only one way to claim it.”
“The head’s death.”
Kalen spoke the answer and tilted his wine glass.
“Whenever you wish, sister.”
He was now saying he would kill his own brother.
“We may need to employ somewhat cowardly methods, but that’s what assassination is, isn’t it? Besides, you can create various types of poisons, sister….”
“Stop, Kalen.”
Kanna cut off Kalen’s words abruptly.
“That’s not happening. Never think such things again.”
Orsini was Adis. Alexandro Adis’s Adis.
Perhaps in the past she would have felt differently, but now she had no desire to harm what belonged to Alexandro.
And of course, Kalen failed to understand her emotional state.
“Why not? You clearly hated your brother enough to want him dead, didn’t you?”
Just as Kanna was about to answer, there came a knock. Knock, knock.
“O-over there.”
In that instant, I nearly dropped my glass.
“M-may I c-come in?”
It was Lucy Adis.
I had known we would meet eventually, but I wasn’t emotionally prepared for it yet.
“Should I have her removed if it’s inconvenient?”
When Kalen asked indifferently, I shook my head.
“No. Lucy, come in!”
Exactly five seconds later, the door opened cautiously.
I received a fresh shock.
Three years. For a child, that was an eternity.
“You’ve grown so much.”
“Oh, you’ve become even more beautiful, sister. You’re like the goddess of the moon.”
“Thank you.”
And silence descended. In that awkward stillness, I searched for words.
“Have you been well all this time?”
“Y-yes. And you, sister?”
“I’ve been fine. How’s your health? Are you in any pain?”
“I’m healthy. And you, sister?”
“So am I.”
I hesitated for a moment, then opened my arms wide.
“Come here, Lucy.”
Lucy rushed forward as if she’d been waiting for this. I pulled the small girl into a tight embrace.
“I’m so glad you’ve been well.”
“Y-yes, you too, sister…”
Lucy was still such a good child. So good that she asked nothing. She didn’t press for answers.
“Tell me how you’ve been, Lucy.”
“I’ve been well. I read books, took lessons, grew flowers…”
We talked for a while. Time passed. As the conversation began to wind down, Lucy spoke hesitantly.
“Sister, um…”
“Yes?”
“It’s about me.”
Lucy glanced nervously at Kalen and gripped her skirt tightly. Kalen had been silently observing us the entire time.
“Oh, it’s nothing, really.”
“What is it? Tell me.”
After urging her several times, Lucy finally spoke with great difficulty.
“Mother has been very ill, and… could you perhaps see her?”
I was momentarily at a loss for words.
Now that I thought about it, I had met her in the past.
Alexandro Adis’s Maid. Lucy’s Mother, who had bathed me and applied sweet fragrances to my skin.
“Of course. Bring her to the Valentino Estate.”
“Thank you so much, sister.”
After Lucy left, I found myself enveloped in an odd sensation.
‘What happened between her and that Maid?’
From what I’d seen in the past, the two of them shared a relationship as plain and unremarkable as master and servant could be. How had such a thing come to pass?
Just then, Kalen quietly approached and sat where Lucy had been.
“How curious.”
“What is?”
“I’ve never seen you flustered and flustered before. It seems you have a weakness for children, sister.”
Flustered? I tilted my head.
“I’m not sure what you mean.”
“Anyway, sister.”
“Hmm?”
“Why didn’t you keep your promise?”
Somewhere along the way, his smile had vanished entirely, replaced by a raw, defiant edge.
“I went back quietly, trusting only your word that a week would suffice.”
“….”
“But no matter how long I waited, you never came. Not even a single letter—isn’t that too much, you damned sister?”
His tone turned vicious in an instant, and I narrowed my brow. This was….
“…Ren?”
At those words, Kalen blinked, then smiled politely once more.
“That couldn’t be.”
It was an incredibly swift shift. Kalen rubbed his temples firmly and muttered.
“My apologies. I was confused for a moment. Sometimes I….”
“…I understand. It’s fine.”
“Please forget what I just said. I’m simply grateful that you’ve returned safely, sister.”
“….”
“I’ve suffered nightmares every night of you disappearing forever, but those end today. Now I feel like I can truly live.”
His face as he spoke those words looked utterly exhausted.
‘Well, with that temperament, he waited without doing anything.’
I knew what happened when Kalen didn’t restrain himself. After a moment’s hesitation, I gently patted my own lap.
“Come here and rest for a moment, Kalen.”
“Pardon?”
“You look tired.”
Kalen seemed to understand the words a beat too late.
With an entranced expression, he leaned against my lap and held his breath.
I began to stroke his head as one would soothe a child.
As I touched his white hair—hair that had turned prematurely gray—I thought to myself.
‘Kalen is dangerous.’
He always had been, but now he was far more so.
Dealing with someone as straightforward as Orsini was actually easier. His nature was stubbornly unyielding, but at least he wasn’t the type to scheme in the shadows.
‘Kalen is the complete opposite. He only appears docile on the surface, but I can never tell what he’s truly thinking.’
Which meant I couldn’t afford to lose control for even a single moment. And now was the time to treat Kalen well.
“If something similar happens next time, exercise the same patience and wait as you did now. Understood?”
Kalen didn’t answer. He couldn’t.
Every fiber of his being was concentrated on my head. The one who had been desperately savoring each caress of my hand closed his eyes. And then….
‘Wait.’
No, that couldn’t be.
‘Is he… crying?’
The fabric of my skirt where his cheek rested began to grow damp.
“….”
I pretended not to notice my clothes becoming soaked with tears.
A sniffle. But when he wiped his nose, I could no longer ignore it.
“Kalen… why are you crying?”
“I apologize.”
He exhaled with trembling breath, his eyes squeezed shut. Fat teardrops fell in succession.
“I’m sorry to you, my lady. I committed a grave sin in the past, yet you treat me with such kindness.”
Well, he was the one who had imprisoned me on that island.
Even as I thought this, my heart softened slightly.
His hair had turned white as an old man’s, and the sight of him lying on my lap, sniffling, was utterly pitiful. His mind was even unstable.
“Stop crying. You’re not a child.”
Then Kalen wrapped one arm around my knee and whispered softly.
“I wish I could die right now. Like this, resting on your lap….”
“Stop, stop that.”
I grabbed Kalen’s ear firmly and pulled him up. He rose with a tear-stained face.
“Call Ren instead.”
“No. You’ll regret it.”
“Why?”
“He’ll be disrespectful like before. Furious, he’ll bite your lips.”
“…Then never mind.”
I waved my hand dismissively and changed the subject.
“I need to meet Duke Valentino. I want to approach him naturally—is there a party he might attend?”
He then asked while wiping his wet face.
“Why suddenly meet your ex-husband?”
“I have something to discuss with him.”
Kalen seemed to think for a moment before speaking.
“Then let’s go to the opera tomorrow. Duke Valentino will be attending the performance with his fiancée.”
His deliberate mention of the fiancée was transparent, but I paid it no mind.
“The opera?”
“Yes. It’s a theater sponsored by Concubine Teresa. The premiere is tomorrow, and since the Concubine has sent invitations, many nobles will attend. The Duchess of Adis is also scheduled to attend tomorrow.”
Kanna Adis nodded.
“All right, then. That’s what I’ll do.”
Princess Lilienne’s words were simple. If so, there was a considerable chance that Argon would come as well.
Silvien Valentino, Ju-hwa, and Argon. It seemed this would become a gathering place.
‘Then I need to prepare.’
After sending Kalen away, I left the room. I intended to head to the Research Laboratory. Even though she had vanished, the laboratory remained preserved as it was.
I walked through the Corridor, lost in thought.
‘Concubine Teresa is sponsoring the Theater?’
Concubine Teresa rarely engaged in public activities.
A woman who had never even hosted a single tea party was now sponsoring a theater and sending invitations to the nobility?
‘Concubine Teresa must surely be one of the Black Apostles.’
If so, that performance might be connected to the Black Apostles. Perhaps there….
“…Huh?”
The moment I turned my head absently and glanced out the Window, my footsteps stopped abruptly.
A single Window visible beyond the glass.
A faint light was burning there.
‘Why there….’
That Room was one Alexandro Adis had forbidden anyone to approach.
Light was streaming from the old Bedroom where Seon-hee’s traces remained.
In that instant, a strange sense of déjà vu washed over me.
When was it? It seemed like something similar had happened before….
Perhaps, in the past.
Thump-thump. Thump-thump. My heart raced wildly. Before I knew it, I was running like a madwoman.
Crash!
The moment I finally reached the Forbidden Room and threw open the door, gasping for breath, wind poured across my face.
“Ah….”
Before the Window. Beneath the curtain fluttering violently, a man stood.
In that moment, everything froze, and even my heart seemed to stop. I watched the scene without blinking once.
The wind that had blown fiercely subsided, and the billowing curtain settled quietly.
The next instant, a large hand suddenly emerged. It swept away the curtain that covered his body in one motion.
At last, we faced each other.
Disheveled crimson hair, and beneath it, emerald eyes.
It was Alexandro 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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