My Body Has Been Possessed By Someone - Chapter 73

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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 73
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“Duchess Valentino, you’ve arrived?”
The Empress greeted Kanna Adis with genuine warmth.
“Come now, sit down and have some tea with me.”
“Thank you, Your Majesty.”
The Empress was in exceptionally high spirits. She had every reason to be.
‘Finally, I’ve disposed of that irritating Prince Casil.’
Not long ago, Prince Casil had been publicly executed before the nobility—his left wrist severed.
And just yesterday, he’d been exiled under the pretense of recuperation.
Even if he returned, he would never again strut about with his former arrogance. The Emperor, too, could no longer shower him with such blatant affection.
‘Much of this is thanks to the Duchess Valentino, after all.’
Kanna Adis—truly a woman to her liking. Even now, she’d brought medicine to soothe the Empress’s persistent discomfort. And beyond that.
“Amelia has recovered almost completely.”
The Empress acknowledged it readily.
“To all appearances, there’s nothing wrong with her now. This is entirely thanks to you, Duchess.”
“It is all due to Your Majesty’s generous support.”
“My, how modest you are.”
She could have been arrogant or made demands, yet Kanna Adis never did such things.
‘Yes, I’ve always had good fortune with people.’
I’ve truly found an excellent talent. The Empress smiled, satisfied with her luck.
“Your Majesty, I’ve brought a newly formulated medicine.”
The Empress gestured with deliberate nonchalance.
How long I’ve been waiting for that medicine! I gazed covetously at the elongated bottles and smiled.
“Use it well.”
“It is my honor.”
The moment Kanna Adis bowed her head in greeting.
‘Mm. What a lovely fragrance.’
As the sweet scent brushed against my nostrils, my lips curved upward. That perfume, which I had used before, was so captivating that its aroma could steal one’s senses every time.
‘Moreover, unlike other perfumes, its scent lingers for an extraordinarily long time.’
It was in a different class from other fragrances. Perhaps because it was so exquisite, I’d used it up far too quickly.
Just as I’d been lamenting its absence, the scent drifted past once more, and greed stirred within me anew. The Empress was a woman who had never restrained her desires in her entire life.
“That perfume you mentioned—the one you gave me before.”
“Yes, Your Majesty.”
“It was splendid. I was quite taken with it.”
In the end, it was another request. At this, Kanna Adis bowed respectfully.
“It would be my greatest honor to present it as a gift to Your Majesty.”
* * *
After her audience with the Empress, Kanna Adis sought out Amelia.
“If we observe her condition for a few more weeks and there are no signs of relapse, we may declare her fully recovered.”
“Really?”
“Yes, Your Majesty.”
Tears of joy streamed down Amelia’s face.
“I’m truly grateful. I won’t forget this kindness, Duchess. Or… may I call you Kanna?”
“Of course.”
After finishing our business, I returned home.
‘It’s been ages since I’ve gone out.’
I’d ventured outside for the first time in what felt like forever to meet with the Empress and Amelia.
Ever since Prince Casil’s trial concluded, the Empire had been in turmoil. So I’d chosen to remain secluded for the time being. At least until the commotion died down, I needed to keep a low profile.
‘Father is still in Venice.’
Despite confirming that the sailors hadn’t been infected by the Black Mist, he still hadn’t returned.
‘Should I ask Father about the letter matter when he comes back?’
Perhaps it would be better to let it pass.
‘If it wasn’t Father’s doing, I’d only invite baseless suspicion.’
I deliberated carefully.
Through this ordeal and the brush with death, I’d learned something crucial.
‘I need to live with even sharper awareness than before.’
I am not Lee Ju-hwa.
Perhaps—no, likely—I would live as Kanna forever. So I had to calculate every move with meticulous care.
‘The problem is that my desires contradict each other.’
I wanted to divorce my cold husband, Silvien Valentino.
And I wanted to separate from House of Adis.
Yet simultaneously, I desired power that no one could use to oppress me.
Ironically, the Valentino Family and House of Adis had become shields protecting me in my darkest hour.
‘But I can’t live being suffocated by them. I’m sick of both the Valentino Family and House of Adis.’
I scribbled my priorities onto parchment.
【Desire #1. Divorce/Separation (*unshakeable first place*!)】
Desire #2. Power (enough that even bastards like Casil wouldn’t dare touch me!)>
I decided not to think about minor wishes for now. This was a time for focus and prioritization.
‘No matter how valuable power is, I can’t give up divorce and separation.’
It was unquestionably first place. I’d even marked it with two asterisks.
Divorce and separation were the means to my happiness.
One cannot abandon happiness.
‘So in the end, I have no choice but to build power equal to that of the Valentino Family and House of Adis.’
I didn’t consider whether such a thing was even possible.
If something was truly necessary, then even if it seemed impossible, I simply had to try. By running forward, even if I don’t reach the goal itself, I’d at least get close.
So I had to use my mind relentlessly until the moment I achieved Desire #1. I’d extract everything I could from House of Adis and the Valentino Family without mercy.
‘But what if Father refuses to grant me a divorce in the end?’
What if I had to spend my entire life under my mother-in-law’s abuse and my husband’s indifference?
“Damn it. How horrifying.”
Kanna Adis cursed aloud. The very thought made her skin crawl.
Rather than rot away in misery until death, she might as well abandon everything and flee to the mountains.
Perhaps living in a coastal village of a foreign land—much like the excuse she’d once given Duke Adis—might actually be worthwhile.
‘…It’s plausible, isn’t it?’
The more she considered it, the more plausible it seemed.
Rather than live in squalor, abandoning everything and starting anew in a place where no one knew her name held a certain appeal.
‘Yes, perhaps I should do exactly that. I’ll go to the Yalden Kingdom. They say women have greater rights there than in the Aslian Empire.’
But that was a last resort.
Fabricating a new identity and settling alone in a foreign land would be far from easy.
‘If things go wrong, I could end up even more miserable than now.’
Regardless, the Western Continent was a hierarchical society. Individual strength alone had its limits.
Moreover, she possessed black hair—the symbol of ill fortune—meaning she carried one more shackle than others.
For now—though she despised admitting it—the names Valentino and Adis sometimes afforded her protection.
But if she encountered someone like Prince Casil while living under a new identity in a foreign land?
There would be no escape then.
So the optimal scenario was to divorce safely here and cleanly establish herself as a separate branch of the family.
‘And I absolutely must build my foundation before that happens.’
A divorced noblewoman in the Aslian Empire plummets instantly.
Everywhere she goes, she becomes the subject of gossip—but money, reputation, and power change that equation entirely.
Fortunately, Kanna Adis possessed excellent seeds in the Empress and Amelia.
‘And it seems my reputation has improved somewhat.’
Kanna Adis glanced down at today’s newspaper.
【The Chronic Affliction of Eastern Continent Sailors—Finally Resolved!】
【…Remarkably, the physician who cured this disease is known to be the Duchess of the noble House of Valentino…】
She was confident in elevating her reputation further through medical expertise. However.
‘I lack funds.’
The money she received under the pretext of caring for Lucy Adis amounted to little more than a young noblewoman’s monthly allowance.
‘I need to earn substantial wealth, just in case I must purchase a new identity and flee in the future.’
Fortunately, she possessed several promising ideas for generating income.
One of them was perfume.
The fragrances in this world were excessively primary. They consisted solely of scents extracted directly from plants, diluted, or blended with similar botanical essences.
The result was nothing but ordinary floral notes.
Yet Ju-hwa’s world overflowed with diverse fragrances expressing every atmosphere, emotion, place, and moment in time.
Having used and created such perfumes, the fragrances of this place seemed hopelessly provincial to her.
‘And the Empress must have felt the same way.’
The perfume she’d gifted the Empress was crafted from a combination of freesia, magnolia, lily of the valley, rose, and Virginia cedarwood.
Upon first inhale, it evoked the image of petals trembling in spring breezes—a fragrance that conveyed subtle freshness and sweetness.
‘Having experienced such a fragrance, she could never be satisfied with the ordinary floral perfumes of this place.’
Moreover, perfumes in this era dissipated quickly, but Kanna Adis knew ingredients that could suppress volatility.
‘Adding iris root or tree resin allows the fragrance to linger for extended periods.’
Unlike the simple floral scents of before, this perfume exuded a complex bouquet of fragrances that lingered beautifully on the skin.
Once sales began, it would undoubtedly fly off the shelves. Moreover, in this era, perfume was an extraordinarily expensive luxury—a commodity so costly that only nobility could afford it.
If this perfume were sold not merely throughout the Aslian Empire but to every aristocrat across the Western Continent….
‘I’d be struck by a windfall of fortune.’
I was confident it would become a sensation across the entire continent.
The challenge lay in distribution networks. Few trading companies possessed the capacity to sell across the entirety of the Western Continent.
The Merci Trading Company under Marquis Mercy, the Debor Trading Company managed by Count Raphael and Silvien Valentino, and then there was.
‘The Adis Trading Company.’
Only these few trading companies possessed distribution networks extending to the far reaches of the Western Continent.
‘Merci is the Empress’s maternal family, so I’ll pass on that.’
I had no intention of entrusting everything to the Empress. Placing all my eggs in a single basket would be foolish.
‘And the Debor Trading Company focuses exclusively on Eastern Continent goods, so it’s unsuitable. Besides, I have no desire to become further entangled with Silvien Valentino.’
That left only Adis.
I realized it was time to shift my strategy.
‘I must exploit every advantage available to me before the branch family separation.’
“You are all I have, sister.”
“Rely upon me.”
Yes, he had certainly said that.
A smile played at the corners of my lips.
‘Very well. I’ll grant your wish, Kalen Adis.’
It was time to make use of Kalen Adis.

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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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