My Body Has Been Possessed By Someone - Chapter 226

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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 226
* * *
The worst day of my life.
Kanna Adis stared blankly at the building consumed by crimson flames, her mind churning.
How had things spiraled into this catastrophe?
As dusk descended upon the evening, the Opera Theater—once brimming with distinguished guests—was now engulfed in towering inferno.
The grand hall where countless nobles had savored the performance merely an hour ago had transformed into a hellscape.
“There are people still trapped inside who couldn’t evacuate!”
“Prince Argon hasn’t escaped!”
As I let the surreal chaos wash over me without truly hearing it, my mind drifted back to what had transpired moments before.
“Is it true that your body and Ju-hwa’s have been switched?”
The conversation with Silvien Valentino on the balcony.
“Then I needn’t feel guilty toward you after all.”
Silvien’s eyes had been colder than ever.
That was when I understood.
‘Silvien won’t do.’
It was at that very moment.
“F-fire!”
“Everyone, evacuate!”
A massive explosion erupted, and the inferno began.
It was a conflagration vast enough to consume the entire structure, and I, having been on the balcony, managed to escape with ease.
Silvien Valentino had embraced me and leaped from the balcony, pulling me to safety.
“It’s dangerous. Please return to safety at once.”
In his eyes as he spoke, I glimpsed a peculiar self-loathing, which vanished just as quickly.
He was surely going to find Ju-hwa.
But he already knew it was too late. If he truly wanted to save his betrothed, he shouldn’t have wasted time getting me to safety.
The flames raged ferociously, and sections of the building collapsed with thunderous crashes.
“Prince Argon helped me escape. But after that, he was buried under the rubble….”
I heard a commoner girl, her face smeared with soot, speak these words. I let out a soft laugh.
‘How amusing.’
I could say with absolute certainty:
Prince Argon would die here.
Or rather, he would feign death.
Just as I once had. Tomorrow morning’s newspaper would surely carry a headline story.
【Prince Argon’s Noble Sacrifice… Lost his life saving a young girl… His remains turned to ash in the flames…】
Something along those lines.
‘Without Argon, there’s no conduit to implicate the Imperial Family with the Black Apostles.’
Prince Argon surely understood this and staged his own ‘death’ accordingly.
He would have assumed that if I were in his position, I would stop at nothing to unearth evidence of his connection to the Black Apostles and corner him.
So by feigning death, he buried that possibility.
‘Using Argon as leverage has become impossible. Attempting to draw in Silvien also failed.’
Yet there was one achievement: discovering the Black Apostles’ Hidden Sanctuary.
Originally, Kanna couldn’t share what her puppet saw and heard, but with Seon-hee’s knowledge added, it became possible.
So she knew.
‘Orsini.’
That man was dead.
Right now. In this very moment.
“Ha ha….”
What an absolutely infuriating day. I covered my face with both hands.
‘Why did he have to embrace that puppet when it exploded?’
I had modified the puppet bomb Ju-hwa sent earlier.
I made the toxic gas spread rapidly and widely upon detonation. By now, everyone should be dead from gas poisoning.
Orsini, who took the brunt of the blast at close range, would have suffered the most.
Falling for the exact same method twice—truly pathetic.
But it doesn’t matter.
Whether that man lives or dies.
It pained me to damage Alexandro’s possession, but there was no choice. Wasn’t this actually for the best? If Kalen inherits the position of family head, things would go more smoothly….
Yet contrary to my thoughts, my body was already moving.
‘He might still be alive.’
He is Adis. Alexandro’s son.
‘If I hurry and treat him, he might survive.’
I ran.
Through screaming people, those wailing that their family, lovers, and friends were inside the theater, those standing dazed watching the fire, through the chaos itself—I ran swiftly through the throng.
* * *
Orsini regained consciousness.
‘What happened?’
He pushed himself up. He had no idea how long he’d been unconscious.
Kanna exploded.
Her body burst with a sound, instantly filling the building with pitch-black gas.
That was the last scene he witnessed.
Had he not instinctively drawn upon his power to protect his body, he would have died.
Thinking this, he looked around.
But he could see nothing. Everything was dark because of the black gas.
However, his transcendent senses remained intact, so moving posed no difficulty.
‘Everyone’s dead, it seems.’
In the thick darkness, he felt countless people collapsed around him. The already dead and the dying filled the space.
If he remained here, he too would die.
He stumbled forward, then let out a bitter laugh. He couldn’t help but laugh.
‘Am I an idiot?’
It wasn’t Kanna. He’d fallen for the same deception again.
But I survived again. Since I survived, I can return and….
…return to what?
Orsini emerged from the building and came to a halt.
In that instant, a crushing wave of helplessness struck him like a hammer. Unable to bear that suffocating emptiness, he collapsed where he stood.
Return to what? What awaits me there?
Only a hellish existence.
When did it begin? Every breath I drew brought aching pain. Ever since I came to desperately long for someone, there has been nothing but suffering.
I had come to understand it.
How wretched. How horrifying a life becomes when you cannot obtain what you desire.
Suddenly, my breathing twisted unnaturally.
Another attack.
If I suffer an attack in this ruined state of a body, well… perhaps I truly won’t survive.
That thought didn’t seem so terrible.
Perhaps Kanna Adis might even pity me, just a little.
Clinging to that self-destructive hope, I fumbled through my clothes.
I tried to retrieve the hallucinogen I’d placed in my front pocket, but it was gone. The explosion must have taken it.
“Damn it….”
Orsini cursed under his breath, his head hanging low. Blood pooled in my crimson hair dripped steadily to the ground.
I stared blankly at those red droplets before lifting my head as if entranced.
It’s strange.
I hadn’t taken the hallucinogen….
Yet from that distant place, I could see her.
* * *
Because he’s Alexandro’s son.
That’s what Kanna Adis told herself.
Otherwise, there would be no reason for her to gallop at such reckless speed.
Orsini, whom she had hated so fiercely. Whom she had despised enough to kill….
‘Still, Orsini is Alexandro’s son.’
That’s why. That’s why she rode like this, mad with urgency.
The Hidden Sanctuary lay deep within the Forest. Kanna Adis raced swiftly through the darkened night woods. And then she found him.
In that distant place, beneath the pale moonlight, a man trudging forward.
It was Orsini.
In that moment, relief flooded through Kanna Adis and she exhaled. He was alive.
“Kanna Adis?”
She leaped from her horse and approached; Orsini murmured her name.
“Yes, it’s me.”
Kanna Adis didn’t want him to hear her ragged breathing. Not wanting him to know she had ridden at full gallop to save him, she spoke with studied composure.
“You look absolutely….”
Pathetic.
That’s what she wanted to say…
His appearance was so pitiful that I couldn’t bring myself to reproach him.
‘It’s too severe.’
The upper garment that had touched my doll was shredded beyond recognition, leaving barely a trace of its original form. It was a miracle he was still alive.
I was completely overwhelmed by the sight of Orsini’s mangled body.
It felt different from what I’d witnessed through the doll’s eyes.
It was different from hearing that he’d nearly died.
Completely, utterly different.
“Is this one real?”
He muttered.
“There are so many fakes, you see.”
“This one is real.”
I replied curtly.
“That trap was something I set to discover the Black Apostles’ Hidden Sanctuary.”
“A trap?”
“Yes. You fell right into it.”
“What a foolish thing to do.”
“You know it well. So next time, even if it seems like I’m in danger, stay still. It might not be me.”
“….”
Orsini didn’t answer. He seemed to acknowledge it, or perhaps he didn’t even feel it was worth responding to.
I glared at him and sighed again. No matter how much I despised him, seeing him torn to shreds by the trap I’d set didn’t sit well with me.
I sat beside him and spoke.
“Let me treat your wounds first.”
At that, Orsini raised one eyebrow skeptically.
“You, treating me?”
“Yes.”
“Why? Don’t you want me dead?”
His sarcasm left me speechless.
Now? When he was reduced to tatters like this?
A strange emotion burned hot in my chest. It felt like anger, like irritation.
And yet it felt like something entirely different.
“I’m human too, so I have a conscience.”
“You’re human?”
Orsini chuckled softly.
“I thought you were a viper.”
With those words, Orsini closed his eyes. As his body collapsed forward, I quickly caught him.
“Orsini?”
He fell into my arms, completely limp. I was startled by how helpless he looked.
“Orsini? Are you dead?”
“Not yet.”
Orsini whispered, his head resting against my exposed shoulder. His breath was so faint it seemed it might disappear at any moment.
“Tell me if you’re about to die.”
“What if I do?”
“Then I’ll leave you behind, obviously.”
“You’re cruel.”
“Unless you’re still breathing, I have no interest in dragging around a corpse….”
That was when Orsini’s arm wrapped around her waist. He pulled her close with sudden force.
“….”
Kanna froze in shock.
Thump-thump. Thump-thump.
Orsini’s heartbeat thundered like a drum. It was so powerful that her chest trembled against his.
Kanna swallowed hard. Her gaze drifted downward.
His face still rested against her shoulder. Warm breath scattered across her collarbone, trembling faintly.
And the tension radiating from the arm encircling her waist was so intense….
He seemed to love her desperately.
Her.
The moment she realized it, his emotions crashed over her like a tidal wave.
That overwhelming feeling was impossible to ignore or pretend not to feel. Burning like fire, Kanna trembled violently in surprise.
“This….”
Let go. She was about to push him away with those words when she froze. She had spotted two arrows embedded in his right shoulder.
For a moment, she was utterly bewildered. The strength drained from her hands.
Is this fool an idiot?
She had heard he was a tactical genius, but was that all false? Did he not know how to retreat strategically?
When the enemy’s numbers were overwhelmingly superior, he should have gone to Adis and brought back Knight Guards.
There was no need to stake his life and charge in recklessly. What was so urgent about it….
Yet Kanna could not speak a single word.
She understood. She understood why he had charged so foolishly. Why he had thrown himself into the enemy’s den without hesitation.
Kanna impulsively raised her hand. Her fingers hovered near Orsini’s hair as if to stroke it, wavering in the air.
But it was only a momentary impulse. In the end, her hand touched nothing and fell away.
That was when he spoke.
“Touch me.”
His voice came out hoarse and broken.
“Please touch me.”

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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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