My Body Has Been Possessed By Someone - Chapter 41

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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 41
You are a daughter who must die.
Because of you, who has suffered from that repulsive skin disease for years.
Because of you, who wears a gloomy veil wherever you go, and when the wind blows it away, your monstrous skin is exposed and everyone whispers about you.
His Majesty the Emperor even said this.
“Empress, how can a daughter born of my noble blood be in such a state?”
“Y-Your Majesty.”
“Why does the Princess’s condition not improve? If this continues and we leave an incurable patient in the Imperial Family’s genealogy, what shall we do? I will have no face to show the late Emperor even in death!”
“That is…”
“My bloodline is pure. Not a single one of my relatives has suffered from such a curse.”
“….”
“There must surely be impurity in the Empress’s bloodline. It has passed down to my child.”
“….”
“What will we do if such symptoms appear in Crescent’s children in the future?”
And then, tsk tsk tsk.
He clicked his tongue bitterly.
As if everything was my fault.
As if my blood was filthy.
After those words, His Majesty has not once shared my chambers.
Perhaps he feared that another creature like you might be born.
Do you know how much your existence has damaged my reputation and that of my precious son?
You, a mere daughter, are blocking the path of my son and me!
‘No! This cannot be.’
My son is destined to become the Emperor of this Empire. The most noble person on this continent!
You cannot leave a blemish on my son’s future.
I never believed Kanna Adis could cure Amelia.
Countless physicians have rushed to treat her, yet none have achieved a complete cure.
There was no way a Duchess with merely some parlor tricks could cure her. As expected, Kanna spouted only strange nonsense.
Changing clothes to cotton, not bathing, spouting ridiculous drivel as if it were a prescription.
‘So I obtained a rare poison not found on this Western Continent and gifted it to her, yet you survived.’
How on earth did you come back to life?
* * *
A few days ago.
The day after receiving medicinal materials from the Empress, Kanna Adis prepared a healing salve and applied it to Amelia.
“Would you like to have a cup of tea before you go?”
As I gazed at her intently, Amelia’s face flushed and she stammered incoherently.
“His Majesty gave me a gift. While procuring the Eastern Continent medicinal materials you requested, he seems to have purchased other things as well. A very rare tea, he said…”
“I’d love to.”
There’s nothing wrong with that. Kanna Adis smiled softly.
Amelia’s mood brightened and she chattered away with a radiant expression.
“You thought it through well. This tea isn’t cultivated on the Western Continent at all. It seems it’s incredibly difficult to obtain even on the Eastern Continent. Since it’s extremely expensive and beneficial for health, she said I should drink it alone.”
The moment Kanna Adis saw the tea, her eyes widened.
This was…
“Who gave you this?”
“Hmm? Her Majesty the Empress…”
Kanna Adis couldn’t believe what she was hearing.
‘This is choao.’
Choao.
A deadly poison herb with such a high fatality rate it was once used as an ingredient in execution toxins.
Incomparably more dangerous than the red bean flower that Isabel had played pranks with on Lucy not long ago—it possessed a truly lethal toxicity.
“Did Her Majesty the Empress say anything when she gave you this?”
“She said the shelf life isn’t long… that I must brew and drink all of it within at least four days.”
Within four days, if I consumed this entire quantity.
I would certainly die.
‘How could she give something like this to her daughter?’
Or perhaps she didn’t know it was a poison herb.
Since it’s from the East, she might have heard incorrect information about its benefits and purchased it.
“When did Her Majesty the Empress give you this?”
“This morning… Why?”
“…”
“Is something wrong, Duchess?”
Was it coincidence?
A strange premonition pierced through me like a thin thread, winding on and on.
Right before I was to begin medicinal treatment, early this morning.
She gifted an extremely deadly poison herb?
‘If Amelia had eaten the choao and died, it would have looked like I killed her.’
The strange suspicion that had been tickling the back of my neck all this time began to crystallize into clarity.
Something is wrong. Something is definitely wrong.
‘Now that I think about it, the Empress obtained the medicinal materials quite late. Kalen brought them the very next day after I requested them.’
Did she deliberately delay?
The same person who had been so urgent about Amelia’s treatment?
If she wasn’t deliberately taking her time, was it difficult to obtain the materials?
‘But Kalen brought everything the very next day after I requested them.’
All the medicinal materials Kanna Adis had requested were recorded in the Eastern Continent’s medicinal compendium.
They were all brought to the Western Continent—things that weren’t difficult to obtain if one had power and money.
Would it truly have been difficult for the Empress to obtain them?
Or perhaps…
‘Could the delay have been because she was obtaining the choao?’
This choao.
It was a plant recorded nowhere.
Choho appeared in neither the medicinal herb compendium nor the Eastern Continent’s botanical encyclopedia.
‘It’s not as though poisonous plants go unrecorded.’
The botanical encyclopedia explicitly documented toxic flora.
Yet choho was absent from it.
Why could that be?
Too dangerous? Or perhaps….
‘A plant whose effects haven’t been definitively proven even on the Eastern Continent?’
If that were the case.
If choho wasn’t well-known as a poison on the Eastern Continent. If that’s why it wasn’t recorded in the botanical encyclopedia.
‘…She dared to sell an unverified plant to the Empress? Something not even documented in the compendium?’
The moment my thoughts reached this point, it felt as though ice water cascaded over my head, jolting me awake.
It was strange that someone would sell such a thing, but stranger still that the Empress would purchase it.
Buying something unclear, something not even listed in the encyclopedia.
For her daughter, who was ill and undergoing treatment.
‘And she told her to consume it all within four days?’
Unless she was hoping for a quiet death….
My heart plummeted. One disturbing thought led inexorably to the next.
‘Now that I think about it, that was strange too.’
That Argon came to greet me.
Not her biological son, but the son of a concubine. Surely the Empress and he were distant—so why would she send him?
And she must have known full well that he was the type to draw his sword at the slightest provocation.
‘Think clearly. Reason through this, Kanna.’
Let me assume the Empress acted with full knowledge of everything.
‘If the Princess were to die from poison poisoning.’
It would be a loss for the Princess, but a gain for the Empress.
I too had been rejected for years because of my black hair and black eyes, my appearance.
The Princess, having suffered from a chronic skin condition for so long, must have endured endless scandal.
In other words, she was a liability to the Empress’s reputation.
‘Then, if Argon were to harm me?’
Regardless of the truth, the Empress had been publicly feigning affection toward me. Hadn’t she shown unusual kindness at the party venue?
If Argon were to injure me in such circumstances?
It would give the First Prince grounds for reproach. A minor gain for the Empress.
‘And finally, if I were to cause a medical accident and appear to have killed the Princess?’
That too would benefit the Empress.
In any case, I am the eldest daughter of House of Adis and the mistress of Valentino.
As long as I bear those names, both families can hold me accountable to some degree for my actions.
Suddenly, my skin crawled.
Everything aligned perfectly.
Every scenario benefited the Empress.
Framing me to kill the daughter she wanted dead, using my hands to accomplish what would serve her interests.
To someone so isolated that no one would bother to uncover the truth about her.
So from the very beginning, everything was a trap.
The Empress never truly believed I could cure Amelia in the first place.
“….”
I closed my eyes, then opened them again.
The truth I had just uncovered was no delusion of grandeur. It would have been the real delusion to believe all of this was mere coincidence.
“From this moment forward, please listen carefully to what I have to say, Your Highness.”
After hearing the entire explanation, Princess Lilienne’s expression remained composed.
“I see.”
“Does my account seem like a lie to you?”
“No. I believe you.”
“….”
“The truth is, I’ve known for some time. That His Majesty might one day kill me.”
“….”
“For years now, the way he looks at me sometimes….”
But Amelia could not finish her sentence. Her lips trembled.
“He genuinely finds me shameful. And he sees me as an obstacle to Crescent’s future. An impediment to Crescent, whom His Majesty loves more than anyone else.”
Then she laughed sadly.
“He has decided to remove the obstacle. I’ve simply come to realize that now is the moment.”
“So you intend to accept death quietly?”
“….”
“Your Highness, I want to live. I refuse to die bearing false accusations.”
“Of course I want to live, but….”
“For now, you must die.”
Amelia’s face hardened. I continued coldly.
“The Empress will certainly kill you. She will do so just before the moment arrives when you are no longer a source of shame.”
“…That’s true.”
“Yes. And she will attempt to poison you using this Choo’o at least once. So simply endure it. Or rather, pretend to endure it and demonstrate that it has no effect. Make her abandon any thought of using Choo’o again.”
“….”
“So for now, you must die. Play dead. I have a method.”
There is a potion I created long ago, when I was fourteen.
A potion I made when I intended to end my own life.
One that causes the heart to slow gradually until it stops—or rather, beats so slowly, once every one or two minutes, that it appears to have stopped.
Yet after merely one day, the heartbeat gradually returns to normal. A potion that can feign death for a time but never causes actual death.
Even at fourteen, I lost consciousness for only a day before my mind returned.
I only discovered its precise effects after catching a rat and experimenting on it out of suspicion.
Amelia need only drink it, play dead, and then return to life.
When that happens, the Empress will be forced to devise a new scheme using methods other than Choo’o to kill her, and we will have gained time until then.
Time for Amelia to become a daughter no longer worthy of shame.

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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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