My Body Has Been Possessed By Someone - Chapter 42

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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 42
* * *
“Damn it.”
Left alone after Amelia’s departure, the Empress gnawed at her fingernails with mounting frustration.
She had believed this opportunity would allow her to eliminate Amelia, that blemish upon her reign—yet it had slipped through her fingers.
‘How infuriating!’
Clearly, that poison had proven defective.
She had gone to considerable trouble to procure it, assured it could kill with absolute certainty!
‘Yet it proved utterly ineffective! I shall never rely upon their resources again!’
For now, she would have to let the matter rest.
Should Princess Lilienne die again in these circumstances, suspicion would inevitably arise that someone had orchestrated a deliberate assassination.
Currently, the incident was attributed to Kanna Adis’s medical negligence. And conveniently, Kanna Adis herself languished in prison.
‘For now, I must bide my time and wait for the opportune moment.’
…Now that she thought about it, Amelia had not scratched her skin even once during their encounter. Despite having discontinued her usual medication.
Had she not previously wailed that without that medicine, the itching would drive her to madness?
Suddenly, Kanna Adis’s words echoed in her mind—that she could cure the itching entirely.
‘Could it be? Was she truly healing Amelia? That dermatological condition no one else could cure?’
If so, it would indeed be fortunate…
Yet the Empress could not bring herself to fully believe it.
Too many times before had she thought the condition cured, only for it to resurface.
‘Then what shall I do about Kanna Adis?’
With Amelia alive, the murder charge would naturally dissolve.
But allowing her to live left an uncomfortable unease.
Had she not already been used as an important chess piece once before?
Her existence could become a liability in the future.
‘Yes, there could be unforeseen complications. Kanna Adis must be eliminated.’
After all, it remained true that Amelia had nearly died. She could be accused of attempted murder and executed.
The Emperor would surely support such a course without reservation.
He harbored inferiority toward Adis and Valentino Duchy. She had long since recognized his constant hunger for opportunities to humiliate them.
Just as the Emperor understood the Empress well, so too did the Empress understand the Emperor.
‘Yes, just as His Majesty moved according to my wishes before, he shall do so again. With a few subtle provocations, I shall have him condemn her for attempted murder and execute her.’
As she allowed herself a satisfied smile at this resolution.
“…Hmm?”
A sudden itching sensation on her forearm made her glance downward.
“W-what is this!”
When had this appeared?
Red blotches had risen across her forearm!
“Ahhh!”
The moment she noticed, it began.
Suddenly, an unbearable itching spread from her neck across her face, chest, and back!
The Empress shrieked, her trembling hands tearing at her dress buttons with desperate violence.
She rushed toward the mirror.
“…!”
What she witnessed there.
Her own reflection—a horrifying sight covered in dozens of crimson welts.
“No, no, noooo!”
The skin affliction that had plagued Amelia had transferred to her!
* * *
Morning arrived, yet the execution was not carried out.
The same held true the following day.
Not only was there no execution—food and water, previously forbidden, were delivered to me.
Two more days passed in this manner.
Throughout that time, I waited with genuine delight.
‘The Empress’s skin condition—the incubation period has passed, so symptoms must have appeared a few days ago by now, and she’s surely beginning to realize that no medicine works.’
The Empress would believe she’d been infected by Amelia’s affliction, but that wasn’t the case.
Her skin condition was never contagious to begin with.
‘What did she expect, carelessly accepting perfume from others?’
I had tampered with the fragrance I gifted the Empress not long ago.
Specifically, I had added a substance that would cause rashes and itching to flare up at intervals unless she regularly consumed the antidote I created.
In other words, the Empress would spend her entire life begging me for the cure.
Otherwise, she would be covered in hives from head to toe, and if that condition persisted, she would suffer from an unbearable burning itch across her entire body.
Death would likely be preferable to such agony.
No Physician could alleviate the suffering, so the Empress would eventually turn to me as a last resort.
‘This is what happens when you carelessly attempt to take lives, madam.’
I didn’t consider it cruel.
Wasn’t this degree of mercy quite generous, all things considered?
It was at that moment.
“Duchess of Valentino Duchy.”
A Knight Guard approached. It was the same one who had escorted me here not long ago.
The instant I met his respectful gaze, I understood.
Everything had unfolded exactly as planned.
“Please forgive the discourtesy from before, Duchess.”
The Servants following behind the Knight Guard carried a new dress, shoes, earrings, and a necklace. These were surely gifts for me.
He opened the barred door and respectfully handed me the dress.
“Her Majesty the Empress requests your presence. Please grant us the honor of serving you.”
His manner was far more deferential than before.
* * *
“Duchess!”
It was exactly as I had anticipated.
The Empress’s entire body was flushed crimson, wracked with unbearable agony.
There she was, thrashing about on the bed with tears streaming down her face. I bit the inside of my cheek to suppress my laughter.
“Hurry! Look at me at once!”
The Empress’s breathing came in ragged gasps, as though her last breath might escape at any moment.
It seemed as though she might simply expire right then and there.
Perhaps, in truth, death would be a mercy!
At first it had been merely an itch, but with each passing moment, a searing pain—as if her very flesh were being branded by flame—had intensified into something unbearable.
No Physician, no remedy had been able to cure the Empress.
Nothing, no matter what was attempted, could make this agony cease!
‘It hurts so terribly!’
For two days now, the Empress had endured this violent torment with eyes wide open, teetering on the very edge of madness.
“Duchess, please hurry!”
The Empress reached out desperately, seizing my wrist with a rough grip and crying out in a voice hoarse with anguish.
“Please! Examine me at once!”
She had forgotten entirely that I had been confined in the Underground Dungeon for days, that she had beaten me savagely, that she had even intended to have me killed.
Before this suffering, nothing else mattered—nothing at all!
“Your Majesty….”
“Hurry! Why do you delay!”
Now that I looked more closely, my eyes were terribly hollow.
My lips were cracked and parched, my skin deathly pale.
Ah, only then did the Empress notice that my condition was poor. Yet.
“If you do not examine me at once, I shall have you punished!”
What does her health matter when I am suffering like this!
The Empress trembled, her eyes brimming with tears.
It was utterly different from the act of madness she had feigned in the Prison. Utterly different from those false tears.
This was genuine.
She could no longer maintain any semblance of composure.
She truly seemed on the verge of losing her mind!
“You, you improved Amelia’s skin condition, did you not! So you must be able to cure me as well. Is that not so?”
“*Cough*….”
“Say that it is so!”
“*Cough, cough*.”
Yet I merely coughed, my eyes glazed and unfocused.
I looked as though I might collapse at the slightest touch—a pitiful patient by any measure—but the Empress felt only rage. All her usual dignity, all her composure, had been swept away behind the tide of unbearable agony.
“What are you doing! Get your wits about you!”
“Your Majesty… I apologize….”
And then, with a soft thud, I lost consciousness entirely!
Utterly useless!
“No! No, even if it kills you, you must treat me before you die!”
The Empress seized my shoulders and shook me frantically in her desperation. But I remained truly unconscious, not even a twitch of my brow betraying any awareness.
“You wretch! Are you mocking me? Open your eyes at once!”
In the end, the Knight Guard, who had been watching this cruelty with vacant eyes, quickly approached and tried to stop her.
“Your Majesty the Empress, please compose yourself. The Duchess has lost consciousness.”
“Wake her! Splash water on her face if you must, but wake her!”
Hiss, hiss.
The Empress’s breath came in hot, ragged bursts.
I’m in this much pain, suffering this much—and she dares to faint?
“Bring water at once! If she doesn’t wake from the water, then burn her skin with fire until she does!”
Everyone stared at the Empress with expressions of horror.
Hair disheveled, eyes bloodshot and crimson, breath pouring out like that of a demon.
She looked completely mad.
“…Tsk.”
In that instant, the Empress’s rampage ceased.
That sound.
Just now, that sound was….
“Tsk, tsk.”
It was like a thunderbolt. A deafening crash of thunder and lightning.
In reality, it was only a very small sound, yet it tore through the Empress’s eardrums.
Her fingertips convulse. Her lips stiffen rigidly.
The Empress slowly, very slowly turned her head.
No—in truth, she didn’t want to turn it. She didn’t want to see.
“What in the world are you doing?”

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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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