My Body Has Been Possessed By Someone - Chapter 74

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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 74
* * *
“What?”
Kalen’s movements halted mid-training.
“What did you just say, Alick?”
“The Duchess of Valentino has requested an audience with you.”
Had Kanna ever sought him out first before?
She was the one who always drove away the Kalen who came to find her, rejected him, cast him aside. So why was she suddenly looking for him now?
‘Why now?’
Just when I had finally steeled myself.
Kalen pressed his lips firmly together. Recently, he had endured ridicule and rejection unlike anything he had experienced in his entire life.
All of it had come from Kanna.
What was the most recent rejection?
“I wish you would ignore me.”
“If I were to harbor feelings for you, it would surely be nothing but abhorrence.”
“I don’t want to waste my emotions hating you.”
The moment those violent words struck him and he returned to his room, a hollow emptiness had chilled him to his very core.
Even now, I could not say with certainty whether the emotion that lashed through me then was humiliation, rage, or despair.
‘It seems her relationship with Silvien Valentino has improved.’
I had ears to hear as well.
The tale of Silvien shooting an arrow at the Crown Prince to save Kanna, and his acceptance of the Emperor’s compromise to lighten her sentence—it was so renowned that there was hardly anyone who did not know of it.
After chasing after her so persistently, it seemed he had finally won her heart.
‘Yes, good for them.’
My feelings toward Kanna had been half pity and half guilt. That was what I had believed.
So I no longer wished to be swayed by such meager emotions.
“What shall I tell the Duchess?”
Kalen shook his head at the Butler’s question.
“Tell her not to wait.”
“Yes, understood.”
After the Butler departed, Kalen swung his sword again.
Yes. Why had I hesitated all this time when it was so simple?
‘From now on, I will not see her. I will not involve myself in her affairs.’
I should have done this long ago. Much sooner.
* * *
Do not wait.
When the Butler conveyed Kalen’s words, Kanna nodded obediently. Perhaps he truly was occupied with pressing matters, she had thought.
But when that same response repeated for the third day, there was no denying the truth.
Kalen was deliberately avoiding her.
“No, I’ll wait.”
When the answer came again today—”Please do not wait”—Kanna simply settled herself onto the sofa.
“I’ll wait here. Tell Kalen that for me.”
“Yes, madam.”
I flipped through a book I’d brought in advance, passing the time. After three hours, raindrops began pattering against the window.
Kalen returned five minutes later.
“….”
The moment he opened the door and stepped inside, Kalen froze.
Had he been caught in the rain during training? His body was lightly damp.
“What are you doing here?”
“I was waiting for you.”
“I thought I had the Butler convey that you shouldn’t. It seems he failed to do his job properly.”
“No—I decided to wait regardless.”
“That’s precisely what I’m saying.”
Kalen strode in with long steps and filled an empty glass on the desk with whiskey.
‘Oh, he’s been training hard, I see.’
I studied his back. Beneath the rain-soaked shirt, perfectly sculpted muscles were visible.
‘Well, an Adis is an Adis, after all.’
I’d never realized it because I only ever saw him handling paperwork, but he was an exemplary student when it came to training as well.
“From now on, if you have something to tell me, please do so through the Butler.”
Kalen drained the whiskey in one gulp, then turned around.
“I have nothing to discuss with you.”
“….”
“So please don’t seek me out again.”
He raised the hand holding the glass, pointing it toward the door. It was a dismissal.
“Leave, Kanna Adis.”
* * *
‘What am I to do about this?’
I sat by the window of the Research Laboratory, gazing out at the world beyond. A torrential downpour fell with aggressive force, as though it might shatter the earth itself.
‘What should I do about Kalen?’
That was my sole preoccupation.
I pondered earnestly how to move this useful chess piece most efficiently.
There were no other sentiments involved.
When Kalen regarded me with that cold gaze, when he cut me off and told me not to come, when he drove me from his room.
I felt no surprise whatsoever.
Naturally, there was no hurt to be found.
‘Yes, that’s how Kalen Adis should be.’
Rather, it felt familiar.
The strange version of Kalen from recent days had simply reverted to the original brother I had always known.
‘What’s clear is that he’s feeling guilty, perhaps because he’s grown older.’
That’s why he’d been acting uncharacteristically submissive and seeking reconciliation not long ago.
Though it was guilt that would surely fade soon enough.
‘Just as I thought. It was wise not to take it seriously.’
But right now, Kanna Adis needed that kind of attitude. Yet the guilt had vanished at the worst possible moment.
‘Then I simply need to create it anew.’
The answer was clear.
Kanna Adis rose from her chair. She scanned the row of medicine bottles lined up and selected one.
‘This should suffice.’
Kalen Adis. I need your guilt right now.
For that, a sacrifice was necessary. A very small one.
* * *
Had the rainy season begun? The downpour had continued for days.
Kalen Adis swung his sword in the indoor Training Grounds. Perhaps because his mind was turbulent, the blade’s edge felt duller than usual.
The Butler had come to find him just moments ago and said this:
“The Duchess of Valentino has come to visit again today.”
At those words, Kalen Adis was taken aback.
Despite being turned away yesterday, she had returned—he had not anticipated this.
Yet his resolve remained unchanged.
“Send her away from the room. Ensure we do not cross paths when I return.”
Moreover, Kalen Adis deliberately extended his training time. It was to avoid meeting Kanna Adis.
The absurdity of his own decision struck him.
To evade her, to refuse to meet her, to alter his scheduled routine on a whim.
What was he so afraid of?
‘Is that it? Am I afraid?’
Kalen Adis drove his sword into the ground with a sharp thrust.
Sister—no, Kanna Adis. Was losing composure before her truly so terrifying?
‘I must keep my distance from her.’
What was she doing to him? Mere childhood guilt could not serve as an excuse.
‘Perhaps I should expel her from the Adis Mansion?’
Yes, that would be best.
Then he could return to his former, unshakeable routine.
Kalen Adis wiped the sweat from his brow and gazed out the window. Night had already fallen.
By now, Kanna Adis would have surely grown tired of waiting and departed.
With that thought, he opened the door, and a cold gust rushed in. The sound of rain crashed against his ears.
Kalen Adis opened his umbrella and stepped forward.
“….”
Yet after only a few steps, he stopped. In the torrential downpour, someone stood waiting.
The moment he recognized who it was, the back of his head throbbed. He was that startled.
“Kalen.”
It was Kanna Adis.
“Are you done now?”
She brushed her wet hair back with a listless motion.
“I’ve been waiting for you.”
Kalen Adis’s breath caught.
Realizing belatedly that it had stopped, he exhaled roughly.
His lips, rigid as stone, barely moved.
“Here…?”
Kalen Adis’s trembling gaze traced down her hair—the few strands clinging to her pale cheeks, her lips drained of color, her clothes drenched through and through.
For reasons he couldn’t fathom, Kalen Adis found himself staring at her in a daze of bewilderment.
Had it truly become this difficult to conjure words, to form a single thought?
“What are you doing?”
Then Kanna Adis laughed weakly.
As she blinked, raindrops clinging to her long lashes fell, tracing the curve of her cheek before seeping past her lips.
“I told you. I’ve been waiting for you.”

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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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