My Body Has Been Possessed By Someone - Chapter 303

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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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Side Story Episode 34
* * *
Every jolt of the carriage sent aches rippling through my entire body.
“Are you in pain?”
“No, just some muscle soreness….”
“Muscle soreness? How did that happen?”
I couldn’t tell Raphael that he hadn’t listened because his eyes had gone wide.
“It’s nothing serious. My muscles just seem a bit tense.”
At that, Kalen, seated across from me, nodded with an unusually serious expression.
“How unfortunate. Shall I help loosen them for you?”
“….”
I blinked at him. Kalen set down the book he’d been reading onto the seat beside him, then smiled gently.
“Shall I?”
What?
What is he going to do?
“Why are you surprised? It’s not something I’ve done just once or twice.”
“What do you…?”
“It seems you truly have lost your memories, given that you don’t know.”
Flustered, I fell silent.
Had rumors of my amnesia already spread? I’d hoped no one would find out… but I couldn’t simply let that cryptic remark pass, so I asked carefully.
“What do you mean by ‘not just once or twice’?”
“Well, what I mean is….”
Kalen trailed off and lowered his hand. Then he grasped my ankle and lifted it, carefully placing it on his lap.
“Wait, what are you doing right now?”
I stammered in alarm, but Kalen paid no attention and removed my shoes.
“Wait, you….”
In that instant, his fingertips traced a long line across my foot.
“…Ah.”
A single gesture sent a tingling sensation racing from my toes all the way up my spine. In other words, it felt absolutely exquisite.
“That’s what kind of relationship we have.”
“Are you talking about a massage?”
“That’s included, yes.”
“But why would Kalen do such a thing? That’s work for servants.”
At that, Kalen’s eyes widened—as if he’d heard something genuinely amusing.
“So your mind really is seventeen. How refreshingly naive of you.”
“….”
My mood instantly soured.
Naive? As if I haven’t seen and done everything there is to see and do? Irritated, I shot back with a sharp edge to my voice.
“You seem to be misunderstanding something. I don’t particularly enjoy massages. I’m quite ticklish, you see….”
“That’s only because you’ve been receiving them from someone who doesn’t know what they’re doing.”
Kalen laughed meaningfully at his own words.
“I’m quite skilled at this.”
His smile was as refined as a nobleman’s, yet his hands worked her feet like a servant’s would—kneading and caressing with practiced ease. The contrast was oddly stimulating.
“You were so satisfied with my work that you’ve rewarded me generously on several occasions.”
“What kind of rewards?”
“If I tell you, will you grant them again?”
Grant them again?
Grant what?
I was utterly flustered. What on earth had I been doing before losing my memory? I couldn’t even imagine.
But one thing was certain….
‘Wow, this really is amazing.’
Kalen’s confidence had merit.
I’d never experienced such an exquisite massage in my entire life. His hands were frighteningly precise—they seemed to know exactly where and how to touch me to bring pleasure.
‘But this is rather strange….’
To receive a massage from a man with my legs draped across his lap in this cramped carriage.
This was hardly something a noblewoman should do with a stranger.
‘My brother would be furious if he found out.’
At that thought, a surge of defiance welled up within me.
‘What does it matter? My brother does far stranger things himself.’
Thoroughly petulant, I decided to simply enjoy this massage.
“So you’re saying we were lovers?”
Kalen paused thoughtfully, his eyes rolling upward for a moment.
“Lovers? No, that wasn’t quite it.”
“Then what were we?”
“A complicated relationship. Honestly, the nature of it hardly matters.”
As he spoke, Kalen’s hands gradually began to move upward. With each ascending touch, my neck grew tense.
“What’s certain is that you needed me….”
Kalen spoke slowly, his fingers tracing a circular path around my ankle. A ticklish, exquisite sensation swept through my entire body. I reflexively gripped my skirt.
“And I needed you as well. With all my heart, desperately.”
“Are you saying it was a transactional relationship?”
“It wasn’t so cold as that. After all, you were quite fond of me too.”
I couldn’t make sense of any of this.
We needed each other and were fond of one another, yet we weren’t lovers? No, that aside….
‘Is this the same person from before?’
Just moments ago, he’d seemed boyishly innocent. He’d felt utterly harmless and safe….
Now he exuded an alluring, seductive charm. Even the air around him felt strangely suggestive.
‘Could he have a split personality?’
Lost in confusion, his hand traced up from my ankle, ascending gradually.
“…Kalen.”
“Yes?”
Kanna bit her lip. A jolt of electricity coursed through her as his hand brushed beneath her knee.
Her toes curled involuntarily, and her mouth grew parched. She ran her tongue across her dry lips.
Kalen urged her gently.
“I’m listening. Please, go ahead.”
But she couldn’t speak. Afraid that strange sounds might escape, she clenched her teeth instead. At that, Kalen let out a soft laugh—as if he knew everything.
“How is it? You’re not feeling any muscle soreness anymore, are you?”
He was right.
Pain had become a distant memory. Each time his delicate fingertips pressed with subtle force, waves of tingling electricity swept through me. My mind seemed to melt away with each repeated stimulus.
I suddenly pushed against his chest, which had drawn so close.
“This… this isn’t…”
“It’s fine. This is what we always do. Your body remembers.”
Even as I thought this shouldn’t happen, another voice within me rebelled.
So what? My brother is the same way.
Actually, my brother is worse…
‘Besides, he’s the one I was planning to seduce anyway. This works out perfectly.’
The moment I made that decision, I surrendered to everything. I let myself be swept away like a leaf caught in a current.
“Kanna.”
At some point when everything blurred, Kalen called my name.
“Do you like the island?”
* * *
So this is how it could unfold.
“Darling, give me a fourth child. Will you?”
Kanna wheedled with a coy smile, but Orsini shook his head.
“No. It would be too hard on you.”
He placed his hand on her swollen belly. Their third child lay within.
“Let’s think about it after the third is born.”
No, no—Orsini slapped his own cheek.
‘I’ve gone too far with this.’
Let me imagine something closer to the present.
Orsini calmed his runaway thoughts. Back to before marriage, to the moment just before they became lovers…
“Would you dance with me?”
Yes, dancing with Kanna. At an ordinary social party, as any couple might.
“Oh, I’m so sorry—I accidentally stepped on your foot…”
“It’s fine.”
It would be nice if Kanna stepped on his foot. He wanted to experience her clumsiness at least once. And then they’d share their first kiss on the Terrace.
‘Yes, that would be our first kiss—mine and Kanna’s.’
Not the kiss of death she’d given him with murderous intent, but a lover’s kiss.
‘And then we’d go straight to the Garden…’
He’d find a secluded, shadowy corner of the Maze Garden and lay Kanna down on soft moss. He’d remove his jacket to place beneath her.
And since her party dress would be difficult to remove, he’d simply tear it away…
‘No, I can’t tear it. It would be difficult to return to her like that.’
Besides, a first experience in such a manner wouldn’t be right. What would Kanna think? She believes Orsini Adis to be a perfect gentleman.
He quickly corrected his imagination.
‘For now, I’ll restrain myself. I’m not a beast, so I can endure.’
It would be better to do it properly after marriage. Where should we go for our honeymoon?
“I’m losing my mind.”
Orsini bit his lip. The fantasy was so stimulating that his entire body burned with heat.
Yet once he’d begun this sweet reverie, he couldn’t possibly stop. So consumed was he that Orsini nearly fell from his horse several times.
Eventually, he dismounted. Conveniently, he was in a forest, and conveniently, there was no one around.
He leaned his back against a tree trunk and gazed up at the sky. Then he fully immersed himself in his fantasies.
“Darling, give me a fourth child. Will you?”
He lingered in that scene for a while before jumping ahead to the Maze Garden. After laying Kanna down on the grass, he would remove her dress…
It wasn’t something a gentleman should do, but imagination was free, so he could indulge as he pleased. As he pleased, as much as he pleased….
‘Damn it.’
Orsini sighed deeply. Throughout the fantasy, he’d been utterly entranced, but as he reached the end, profound doubt washed over him.
The destination was within sight. Just beyond this forest lay the Coastal Village.
Yet he stopped at this crossroads.
Should he continue forward? Or should he turn back? He hadn’t yet decided.
He wiped his soiled hands with a handkerchief, then rose and straightened his clothes. He mounted his horse again.
‘For now, I’ll go. I’ll decide after meeting that man.’
And finally, when he arrived at the Coastal Village, he encountered the person waiting for him.
“You’ve come.”
Orsini stopped his horse. Alexandro Adis had been waiting for him.
“Did you know I would come?”
“His Majesty sent a messenger hawk.”
Orsini ground his teeth. Silvien Valentino didn’t trust him and had tipped off Alexandro Adis.
“That man is dead.”
“What?”
“The Southern Continent Artifact Merchant. He died not long ago.”
Alexandro Adis spoke with a deeply troubled expression.
“I had some issues with him….”
“….”
“We had a quarrel.”
So he’d died at Alexandro Adis’s hands. Orsini asked, utterly dumbfounded.
“You killed a man over a quarrel? What kind of quarrel could possibly warrant that?”
“It was a matter of sufficient cause.”
“…Wait. Is that a wound?”
Orsini’s eyes widened in disbelief. Up close, he could see a long scar on Alexandro Adis’s cheek.
It was the first time he’d ever witnessed a wound on Alexandro Adis.
‘A wound? Who on earth did this to him, and how?’
Could it be that merchant? Just how formidable was this man to have inflicted a wound upon him?
No, setting that aside for now.
“So? Is that artifact merchant truly dead?”
“Yes.”
In that instant, the corners of Orsini’s mouth twitched. He smoothed his lips with his hand to conceal the vulgarity that threatened to spill forth.
“I see. This is quite serious indeed.”
Alexandro Adis regarded Orsini intently before speaking.
“But there’s no need to worry. I know how to resolve this.”
All expression drained from Orsini’s face.
“Then let’s depart.”
“…You’re leaving?”
“Yes.”
Alexandro Adis could read Orsini’s thoughts with perfect clarity. What he was contemplating was painfully obvious. And precisely because of that, I could not entrust this to him.
“We depart at once.”

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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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