My Body Has Been Possessed By Someone - Chapter 37

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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 37
* * *
Clang!
The iron bars slammed shut before my eyes. I stared blankly at the cold metal grating before releasing a heavy sigh.
‘I’m truly imprisoned.’
Princess Amelia was dead, they said.
The cause: poisoning. And I—the physician who had been treating her—was accused of being the culprit.
“Without a shred of concrete evidence, no less.”
I muttered bitterly and sank onto the cold floor.
‘Regardless of the circumstances, to be dragged away and imprisoned on the word of someone in power—it’s absurd.’
This was all because I was merely a duchess in name alone.
I lacked the strength to protect myself. And more than that.
‘There was no one to protect me.’
This world truly was terrifying.
Though I had learned this lesson countless times, survival in this place demanded power—power that belonged to me alone.
That was when it happened.
Clang! The sound of iron bars rattling echoed through the cell.
Pulled from my thoughts, I snapped my head up.
It was the Empress.
“You.”
The Knight Guard accompanying her unlocked the prison door. As it creaked open, the Empress lunged at me like a wild beast.
“You killed my daughter!”
She seized my collar. A vicious blow struck my cheek.
Whether from her nails or the force of the strike, blood began to trickle down my face.
“I entrusted you to heal her, and you—you killed my daughter!”
Unlike her usual composure, the Empress had completely lost her reason.
She screamed like a madwoman, heedless of the guards and jailers watching.
“I trusted you! And yet you, you—!”
But the guards showed no surprise.
Instead, their eyes held sympathy, as if this were the natural response of a mother who had lost her child.
“You killed my daughter!”
Crack!
I shut my eyes tightly. My cheek burned as if torn open, and a ringing began in my ears.
“I did no such thing.”
“Still denying it—!”
Slap, slap. Blow after blow rained down, and I clenched my fists, enduring in silence.
“Every meal consumed by the Imperial Family is tested for poison before it reaches the table! If she was poisoned, the only source could be the medicine you provided!”
“I did no such thing.”
“Then who! How could anyone else possibly poison Amelia! You’re the only one capable—the only one!”
The Empress shook me violently by the collar, her voice dripping with venom.
“Admit it. And apologize! Apologize to my daughter, who died because she trusted you and sought your treatment!”
“That is not what happened.”
“You, until the very end!”
The Empress’s hands trembled violently as tears streamed down her face.
“You killed my daughter, and you stand there so brazenly…!”
But in the next moment, she hastily wiped away her tears. Taking a deep breath as if to regain her composure, she issued a command.
“From this moment forward, not a single meal, not a drop of water shall be given to this prisoner!”
Once the Empress left, Kanna collapsed onto the floor, completely drained of all strength.
‘Like some violent old woman. I always knew her true nature was terrifying.’
It stung.
It throbbed.
It ached.
‘…How sorrowful.’
Strangely, my heart hurt far more than my body.
For being beaten like a beast. For being treated worse than an animal.
‘This is completely different from when I was struck with the rod.’
When my mother-in-law Josephine beat me with the rod, I didn’t feel like this.
‘Why? The rod hurt far worse. Now I’ve only been struck a few times with bare hands.’
Yet strangely, this hurt more. Devastatingly so.
‘It hurts.’
…Mother.
If you knew I was being beaten like this, you would surely be heartbroken.
Father, with his gentle heart, would certainly cry. Sun-hong would be even more furious than me, raging with indignation.
And my boyfriend…
‘No.’
Suddenly, a wave of sorrow crashed over me. Kanna quickly suppressed it.
‘No, don’t search for your family. Don’t search for your boyfriend either. After all, they don’t even know I’m Kanna. So don’t search.’
So don’t even think of them.
Thinking of them only makes me weak.
‘Hold yourself together, Kanna. In this world right now, there’s only me to rely on. If I collapse, everything ends.’
This was something I had anticipated anyway.
So there’s no need to be consumed by fresh grievance.
‘Everything will be fine anyway.’
Truly.
‘It will be fine.’
* * *
After meeting Kanna, the Empress went directly to Amelia.
She needed to confirm it.
Whether her daughter was truly dead.
Whether she was truly, truly, truly dead.
I had to confirm it with these eyes myself.
Perhaps the Physician was mistaken.
But.
“Ah….”
As expected. Tears fell from the Empress’s eyes in steady drops.
Amelia. My daughter.
“Why isn’t your heart beating, Amelia.”
The Empress collapsed beneath the chamber in sobs, grasping Amelia’s hand—still warm to the touch.
“I’m sorry. I’m sorry. I’m sorry for wounding you with cruel words. I’m sorry. Please….”
“Empress.”
A voice from behind.
Though she had sensed his presence long ago, the Empress did not turn around.
“Is Amelia truly dead?”
It was the Emperor.
He gazed down at Amelia, whose heart no longer beat.
“My daughter is dead.”
“Sob, sob—it is all my fault, Your Majesty. I entrusted Amelia’s care to the Duchess of Valentino….”
“I have heard the account.”
A thin veil of anger seeped through the Emperor’s murmured words.
“How could you commit such an act, Empress.”
The Emperor was genuinely appalled.
To entrust the treatment of Imperial blood to one who was not even a Physician.
And to none other than Kanna Valentino, whom everyone shunned!
“I… I must not have been in my right mind. I was surely driven to madness by the thought of curing Amelia’s affliction. This is entirely my fault, Your Majesty.”
The Emperor offered no comfort.
For he secretly agreed with her words.
Would she have committed such a foolish act unless she had lost her mind?
‘The Empress is not a foolish woman.’
Cruel and venomous, perhaps, but never unintelligent.
The Emperor did not love the Empress, yet he knew her nature intimately.
And so this incident had shocked him profoundly.
For the Empress had acted in a manner utterly unbecoming of herself—foolishly.
‘Yet what is done is done.’
The Emperor surveyed this chaos, searching for any advantage he might extract from it.
To seek profit was as natural to him as breathing—a habit cultivated through his reign.
And he found it.
“A trial shall be held tomorrow.”
“…Pardon?”
The Empress stared up at the Emperor in a daze.
The Emperor, having already completed his calculations, spoke with measured composure.
“Conveniently, the Valentino Duchy and House of Adis have entered the Black Mist. While they’re cut off from the world, it would be best to conclude all matters before their return.”
“But…”
“The Princess has been murdered. I have more than sufficient justification to act decisively.”
What on earth was he saying?
The Empress stared at the Emperor with that expression.
“I shall hold a trial and pronounce a death sentence upon Kanna Valentino.”
The Emperor was not a man to let an opportunity slip through his fingers.
Even if that opportunity had been forged by his own daughter’s death.
It was precisely because he had lived this way that he had ascended to the throne.
“Kanna Valentino murdered a member of the Imperial Family. Neither the Valentino Duchy nor House of Adis can escape culpability for this crime.”
Valentino and Adis.
Descendants of the Holy Knights. A bloodline sometimes regarded as more noble than the Imperial Family itself.
Their very existence had been a thorn in the Emperor’s side his entire life. And yet.
‘Yet the Western Continent needs them.’
They could never be destroyed, but… it would be satisfying to humiliate them once.
Then they, and all the realm watching them, would come to understand.
Who held the leash of the noble Holy Knight houses.
This was an opportunity to topple their honor and elevate the Imperial Family’s prestige. To accomplish this.
“The trial shall be held publicly.”
A public trial where commoners could attend and observe.
There was no better stage than this.
“I shall entrust my authority to you, Empress. You shall preside over the proceedings.”
“…Me?”
“Indeed. However, do not charge the Valentino Duchy or House of Adis with any crime—pronounce the death sentence on Kanna Valentino alone.”
“…”
“I shall have a word with the Chief Justice, so do not worry.”
Before the common people, he would make the eldest daughter of House of Adis, the Duchess of the Valentino Family, a laughingstock.
That alone would be sufficient to insult both houses.
The Emperor patted the Empress’s shoulder gently.
“Take heart, Empress. You have Prince Crescent, do you not?”
“…”
“Princess Amelia has not caused you grief for some time now, has she? Think of her as unfilial and forget her. It would be for the best—for you, for Crescent, and for the Imperial Family itself.”
With those words, the Emperor departed.
The Empress stood motionless, her gaze fixed upon his retreating form.
All the while, thick tears streamed down her cheeks.
Drip, drip.
Endlessly.

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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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