My Body Has Been Possessed By Someone - Chapter 249
—————
This chapter was translated by Lunox Novels. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
—————
Chapter 249
* * *
“Ah.”
A gasp escaped Kanna Adis’s lips.
She rushed toward the source of the explosion, only to find Ju-hwa slumped against the wall, lifeless.
‘Truly?’
Dead just like that?
“Hey.”
After standing motionless for a moment, Orsini Adis grasped her shoulder.
“Look at this.”
She glanced sideways. The thread wound around his wrist was stained crimson like blood.
“…Give it to me.”
Kanna Adis extended her hand. Orsini Adis understood immediately. He retrieved the glass vial she had given him—the precious gift he had been holding—and handed it over.
Kanna Adis uncorked the vial and poured its contents directly over Ju-hwa’s shoulder.
In that instant, a soft crumbling sound.
Ju-hwa’s shoulder crumbled into sand.
“What is this?”
Orsini Adis’s expression twisted sharply.
“This was a doll?”
Without answering, Kanna Adis poured the substance onto Ju-hwa’s arm again. Once more, the bone and flesh disintegrated into sand.
“Ha.”
Laughter spilled forth.
“Ahahaha!”
Kanna Adis burst into hearty laughter.
Then she abruptly turned serious.
“Yes. It was a doll.”
“…Have you lost your mind?”
“No. I’m perfectly sane.”
What I had believed to be Ju-hwa all this time was not human. It was merely an extraordinarily intricate doll.
Even I could not have crafted such a perfect doll.
The only person capable of creating such a doll would be…
Then, the doll’s eyes suddenly opened wide.
Their eyes met.
“Hello.”
Time seemed to stop.
Within that uncanny moment, Kanna Adis met the doll’s gaze. She barely parted her lips.
“Mother?”
“Yes.”
In that instant, Orsini Adis’s eyes widened dramatically.
Mother?
‘What on earth is she saying?’
Yet he held his tongue and listened intently to their exchange.
Kanna Adis asked.
“…Ju-hwa?”
“She is here.”
Each time the doll’s lips moved, sand cascaded down in fine streams.
“Her heart carries deep wounds, and she is receiving treatment.”
“….”
“But she has improved greatly now. Do not worry—I am protecting her.”
Understanding washed over me like the tide, slow and inexorable.
So that was it.
For twelve years, Ju-hwa—the one whose body had been swapped with mine—had been there all along.
‘Thank goodness.’
I was grateful that what I had fought was merely a doll, not the real Ju-hwa, and that the real Ju-hwa had been under Mother’s protection all this time.
But….
‘What about me?’
Kanna Adis bit her lip.
How pathetic. What good did such weakness accomplish?
Besides, the doll’s body was crumbling into sand before my eyes. I could not afford to waste time on meaningless words.
Kanna Adis pressed forward with cold precision.
“What is your intention?”
“Yeon-woo still struggles. It seems he has not forgotten you.”
The sudden remark left me speechless.
“I asked what you were thinking.”
“But do not worry. Time will heal all wounds. Seon-hong, Toto, my husband, and I—we are all doing well.”
“I don’t care about any of that!”
I could no longer contain myself and cried out.
I had forgotten. I had completely erased it all.
From the moment I learned that this woman had abandoned me and departed alone to that other world, I had never once yearned for her or that place.
“Stop speaking nonsense and answer my question!”
Kanna Adis clenched the crumbling sand in her fist and screamed.
“Tell me. What is your plan? What possessed you to do this? And….”
The last words were nearly a shriek.
“And what curse did you place on Alexandro Adis?”
Even as I shouted, I knew the truth.
There was no time to hear the full answer. This was nothing but venting my rage.
A brief silence fell. Above it, my ragged breathing echoed harshly.
“Still so spirited. You are truly my daughter….”
Was it the end?
As wind swept through the window, the doll’s face crumbled into sand and collapsed.
And then she vanished.
Kanna Adis stared blankly at the sand before letting out a hollow laugh.
Still so spirited? Truly your daughter after all?
“Ahahaha!”
When fury runs too deep, laughter is all that remains.
I experienced the truth of those words firsthand, my shoulders trembling as I laughed.
“Kanna.”
In that moment, a firm grip seized my shoulder with sudden force.
“Compose yourself.”
I slowly lifted my head. My gaze met his—weighty and unyielding.
Uncharacteristically grave, uncharacteristically tender. Like someone genuinely concerned for my wellbeing.
That look scraped across my insides in an instant, throbbing with an ache that bewildered me. Caught off guard, I lashed out impulsively.
“Get your filthy hands off me.”
Orsini Adis raised one eyebrow. I struck his hand away from my shoulder.
“Don’t touch me. You’re repulsive.”
“Is that so?”
“Yes. Of all people, why—”
Why you?
In this worst of moments, why must you be at my side?
Not Raphael, not Alexandro Adis, but you—the one I despise most—
A cold smile formed on my lips. In the moment I felt most utterly alone, I realized I was not. I could never be alone.
Orsini Adis. That dog-like creature who would chase me to the very ends of the earth.
“I can’t stand the sight of you.”
Orsini let out a scoff, responding with indifference.
“Of course. Naturally you would.”
“Orsini Adis, I truly despise you. You sicken me.”
“Keep talking.”
“If anyone but you were at my side right now, I wouldn’t care who. Why must it be someone like you?”
Orsini’s expression remained composed, but his jaw tightened with each word I spoke. His fists clenched until they trembled, yet he endured.
But the moment he opened his mouth to respond with feigned indifference—
Thump.
I leaned my face against his chest.
In that instant, Orsini forgot every word.
I felt his rigidity through my entire body as I leaned into him. I knew I was behaving like a madwoman, yet I did not care.
I had no strength left.
No strength to speak. No strength to support myself.
“….”
After a long moment, I heard him swallow hard. His breathing came in careful, measured increments, as though afraid this moment might shatter.
Yet my heart thundered so violently that it was absurd.
Is this fool truly an idiot? Has he already forgotten all the curses I hurled at him moments ago for no reason?
“Orsini.”
“What?”
“You like this that much?”
“…Shut up.”
“Impressive. At this rate, your ribs are going to shatter.”
“Damn it, then let go.”
The moment Kanna Adis moved to rise, he hastily pulled her back down.
“They won’t shatter.”
Kanna Adis burst into laughter. At her blatant mockery, Orsini’s face flushed crimson with shame and humiliation. He muttered savagely.
“Devilish woman.”
Yet his trembling fingertips stubbornly continued to press against her hair.
‘This fool is amusing.’
Was it because this man was so ridiculous?
Strangely enough, my mood had improved somewhat.
* * *
Arzenian gazed at himself in the mirror. Then he reached out and touched his short hair.
“What are you doing?”
Argon suddenly appeared from behind.
“Why are you touching your hair?”
“Just like that.”
At the vacant response, Argon narrowed his brow. Had the shock been that severe?
‘Well, it makes sense.’
If Argon hadn’t appeared at that moment, it would have been truly dangerous. Argon recalled what had just transpired.
“Hello?”
Ju-hwa—no, the Ju-hwa puppet, and the puppeteer beyond it smiled, and in that instant, Argon trembled with exhilaration coursing through every fiber of his being.
That woman was Seon-hee.
The woman Largos Adis had been so obsessed with.
“Both of you have only days left to live. Enjoy them well.”
With those words, the puppet reached the end of its lifespan and crumbled.
That was the end of it.
They had barely eluded the Adis pursuit and now hid themselves here, in the Hideout.
“There isn’t just one Research Laboratory, so don’t worry too much. Let’s move to the next location soon.”
Argon tapped Arzenian’s shoulder lightly.
“But it’s fine to take our time. I do enjoy waiting for a beauty.”
“There’s no need to wait. Let’s move to the next location immediately.”
Arzenian rose to his feet. Then, together with Argon, he headed toward the heart of the Capital.
“The Royal Family, step down!”
“The Isaberk Imperial Family must step down! We need no rulers tainted by the Black Apostles!”
Arzenian pressed his robe deep and wove through the crowds. As he walked, avoiding the procession of protesters screaming at the top of their lungs.
He suddenly came to a halt.
Argon turned to look at him and asked.
“What? What’s wrong?”
If fate existed, it would be something like this.
The moment Arzenian’s gaze fell upon the woman before him, he felt the touch of divinity for the first time in his life.
“Mother, let’s slip away through the other passage. All right?”
“Yes, Lucy. I think that would be best.”
A mother and daughter with violet hair. The pair, accompanied by a Guard Knight, walked past in pleasant conversation.
Argon spoke.
“Lucy Adis, then.”
“…What did you say?”
“The youngest daughter of Alexandro Adis.”
In that instant, Arzenian clenched his teeth. He nearly burst into laughter.
“Ha!”
But he could not contain it. His crimson lips split into a wide grin. His hands trembled violently.
‘Lucy Adis?’
After centuries of studying and obsessing over the “foreign substance,” Arzenian’s eyes could discern it with perfect clarity.
Lucy Adis.
That girl was a child born of mingled blood from two worlds.
Exactly the sort of existence Arzenian had so desperately desired—yes, like Kanna Adis.
And I encounter such a being the moment I lose Ju-hwa’s puppet?
By mere coincidence? Like a miracle?
Laughter spilled from me in fits and starts. The shock of realization made my skin prickle.
There was no such thing as fate.
No divine touch either.
‘I’ve been played with all along.’
By Seon-hee and by Alexandro Adis.
Since when had I been dancing in the palms of their hands?
‘Those two—they weren’t hating each other. They were deceiving my eyes and cooperating.’
I had always been puzzled. I could not fathom why Alexandro Adis exerted every effort to protect Kanna Adis.
But now… I think I understand.
It was love. It had to be love.
Otherwise, there was no way he would commit such madness in the name of protecting Kanna Adis!
‘Use that girl as a sacrifice instead of Kanna, is that it?’
Not a bad arrangement.
That girl is younger than Kanna, weaker, and lacks the mad dogs circling obsessively around her.
I gladly took the bait Alexandro Adis had cast. It was a dead end anyway.
“Argon, Princess Lilienne is staying at the Adis Mansion now, isn’t she?”
“That’s right. The divorce isn’t finalized yet.”
Arzenian smiled.
Of course, calling it a dead end was premature—I still had weapons planted within the Adis, and they were extraordinarily powerful ones.
I had planned to save it for the very end, for the final moment of all.
“Princess Lilienne has something she must do.”
—————
This chapter was translated by Lunox Novels. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
—————