My Body Has Been Possessed By Someone - Chapter 70

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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 70
* * *
A few days before the trial, I spoke with Silvien Valentino.
“His Majesty will surely attempt to reduce Prince Casil’s sentence by any means necessary. He’ll likely propose a compromise that reduces my charges as well.”
“Yes, that’s likely what he’ll do.”
It was entirely predictable. I quickly added, “Please accept that compromise.”
“Please accept that compromise.”
“….”
Watching Silvien Valentino fall silent, I clasped my hands together pitifully and spoke with desperate earnestness.
“I don’t want to go to prison. Please help me.”
Silvien Valentino observed me for a moment as though savoring the sight. It was the first time in recent memory that I had approached him with such pathos.
“It’s only known that Isaac was ordered by Prince Casil to kill me. Few people know he actually attempted to poison the sailors as well.”
Only myself, Isaac, Alexandro Adis, and a handful of his direct Knight Guards.
Because Alexandro Adis had personally ensured their silence, no one else knew.
“If we keep this hidden, and then when he proposes the compromise…”
“….”
“At that moment, we expose this as a new charge and increase only Prince Casil’s sentence.”
Silvien Valentino stared at me intently. Then his lips curved upward.
“Miss Kanna Adis.”
“Yes?”
“Why should I do that? I’m perfectly capable of imposing severe charges against Prince Casil without resorting to such schemes.”
Yes, I knew that. Wasn’t that precisely why I was asking?
“Especially when you’re the one who placed me directly in the courtroom.”
“….”
So he had known all along.
“I was surprised. I never imagined you would drive a dagger into my back, Miss Kanna Adis.”
Silvien Valentino smiled with unprecedented warmth—a smile that seemed willing to tear out his own heart.
He had discovered my machinations far earlier than this moment.
On the day I sent that letter to the Empress. The day he had inspected it and grown somewhat bored with its predictable contents.
For some reason, it felt like forcing a mismatched puzzle piece into place—perpetually uncomfortable.
【The preparation of the medicinal tonic seems it will not be easy.】
That single sentence from the letter refused to fade from his mind.
So he had hypothesized.
The moment he imagined that someone entirely different—someone he didn’t know at all—had written that letter instead of the Kanna Adis he knew.
The answer came far too easily.
That night, laughter had erupted unbidden. He realized he had been thoroughly deceived.
“The Miss Kanna Adis I knew could never have done such a thing.”
“….”
“It seems I have misjudged you.”
I lowered my head and gazed at my feet.
I knew it. Ju-hwa could never have done such a thing. And Silvien Valentino had saved my life.
So I was sorry.
Sorry, but—
In truth, I wasn’t sorry at all.
I lifted my head. I lowered my hands, which had been clasped so carefully together. I no longer wore that desperate expression. I no longer spoke in that plaintive voice.
“You called it a dagger?”
And then I laughed. I couldn’t help but laugh.
“Your Grace, this is nothing to you.”
“What do you mean?”
“Is this a crisis for you?”
….
“No. It’s merely a trifling annoyance, isn’t it?”
Silvien Valentino didn’t answer. Because it was true.
“But Your Grace, that crisis which takes you merely a breath of wind to resolve—”
I paused, then spoke.
“For me, it’s a tempest that shatters my entire life.”
….
“Surely you’re not naive enough to believe Prince Casil will simply leave me be.”
Silvien Valentino surely understood this as well.
Anyone who knew Prince Casil’s nature could have predicted it.
“As long as Prince Casil draws breath, I will continue to face threats to my life.”
For some reason, laughter burst forth.
“And as you know, I am scorned by both my husband and my family, so I will be entirely exposed to that danger.”
As I spoke with bitter sarcasm, Silvien Valentino’s fingertips twitched. It was a reaction he didn’t even notice himself.
“So this is my only chance to protect myself. Is there any other way for me to surpass Prince Casil?”
I shrugged my shoulders.
“You yourself asked about this matter knowing I would be in danger, didn’t you?”
….
“I did exactly the same. Only, I was far more desperate than you.”
What was at stake for me was my life. What was at stake for you was merely the humiliation of being summoned to court.
“In any case, I’m hardly in a position to ask for your help. I was shameless. I apologize. I was shortsighted. I—”
I swallowed those words.
And yet, perhaps.
Perhaps even if he bore no responsibility or obligation toward me.
He might possess some kindness, some mercy to bestow upon me.
Even I recognized it as a hollow and shameless hope.
“You said that if I healed the Eastern Continent traders, you would grant me whatever I wished.”
I stated my demand clearly.
“As you know, the sailors’ health has improved. They will make a full recovery soon.”
….
“So now I shall demand my price.”
Kanna Adis smiled.
“Duke Silvien Valentino. Accept the compromise, and then file new charges afterward.”
After a long silence, Silvien Valentino answered.
“Understood.”
He was smiling. It was a beautiful smile, like a painting.
“I shall follow Kanna’s words.”
* * *
A tempestuous period followed.
“No! I, I did not do such a thing!”
Prince Casil cried out like a madman, denying everything.
“The, the Prince ordered me to do it.”
Aizek testified, trembling with fear.
Honestly, Kanna had not expected him to cooperate to this extent. She had thought he might cling to Prince Casil until the end, sharing the same fate.
‘Who tortured him? They completely broke his spirit.’
Whoever it was, I commend you, torturer.
“H, here is the evidence. A letter the Prince gave me.”
The Judge examined the letter. He immediately summoned someone to verify the handwriting against the Prince’s.
“It matches. It is the Prince’s handwriting.”
“No! I, I did not! I did not do this!”
Prince Casil pounded the desk repeatedly. He struck his chest. He looked as though he would die of injustice.
“You bastard! Where, where do you speak such lies! When did I ever give you such an order!”
“Your Highness, Physician Isaac has already received a greater punishment because of that testimony. Would he have reason to slander you?”
At Kanna Adis’s words, Prince Casil’s bloodshot eyes blazed toward her.
“Then it was you! You orchestrated this!”
“I nearly died while stopping Physician Isaac from poisoning me.”
She pointed to the scar on her neck. As if presenting evidence.
“If this were a frame-up I orchestrated, then I would have thrown myself at Physician Isaac’s blade. I am not such a bold woman.”
“Ah… no!”
Prince Casil shook his head.
“Truly, I did not do this!”
Yet no one in this room believed him. Not even the Emperor. Prince Casil was more than capable of committing such an act.
‘What a fool….’
The Emperor felt all his fighting spirit drain away.
‘A fool, a fool, a complete fool!’
How could he have committed such an act!
Attempting to poison the sailors from the Eastern Continent. Trying to pin the accusation on Kanna Adis, who had been treating them.
It was such a characteristically vicious scheme of Casil’s.
‘If I let this matter slide, I could make an enemy of Count Rasphael de Bor.’
The man who first discovered the Eastern Continent.
A man recognized by the Great King of the Eastern Continent, who now held exclusive trading rights in his grasp. Count Rasphael de Bor.
If the flood of new goods and vast capital flowing from such arrangements caused the Imperial Palace to be cast aside?
It was unimaginable.
The Emperor’s mind turned cold and calculating. The culture of the Western Continent was being transformed by the innovations of the Eastern Continent. Within this maelstrom of shifting customs, evolving lifestyles, changing fashions, and the currents of capital, the Imperial Family alone could be excluded. Could be rendered obsolete.
He could not allow such a fate to befall them.
“Confinement to the Northern Tower would seem most appropriate.”
The Empress spoke with what appeared to be genuine sorrow. Yet the Emperor understood the truth.
In this very moment, the Empress was exulting.

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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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