My Body Has Been Possessed By Someone - Chapter 91

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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 91
* * *
Several more days passed after I consoled Lucy.
Chloe remained bedridden, Isabel wept daily, and the servants whispered ominous words among themselves.
And then I received a summons from the Emperor.
‘Why me?’
A foreboding sense of dread washed over me.
I desperately wished to avoid it, but the Emperor’s command was not something one could refuse.
“Claude Azel, I’m going to the Imperial Palace. Please prepare the carriage.”
“Yes, Duchess Adis.”
For the first time, I called upon the escort knight Kalen had assigned to me.
‘Surely nothing serious?’
My nerves were on edge. What could possibly warrant such a summons?
‘This doesn’t feel like good news.’
* * *
“You are to go to Paeylon Island.”
No wonder I’d sensed something ominous.
I stared blankly at the floor before lifting my gaze to meet the Emperor’s hollow eyes.
‘Paeylon Island?’
Paeylon Island was the very place where Orsini had vanished.
“Forgive me, Your Majesty, but I find myself confused on one point.”
“What is it?”
“Though I am of Adis blood, I have not received the sacrament. Therefore, I cannot manifest holy power as Orsini, Kalen, and my father do.”
“I am aware. I do not expect you to stand against the Black Mist on the island.”
“Then…?”
“Your reputation precedes you. You cured Princess Amelia’s skin affliction and resolved the mysterious plague that afflicted the Eastern Continent traders.”
I should have felt proud, yet an inexplicable unease settled within me.
“Paeylon Island experienced strange phenomena long before the Black Mist appeared.”
“Strange phenomena?”
“It is said that during a particular season each year, the islanders fall into collective madness.”
The Emperor gazed out the window, where rain fell steadily.
“Now happens to be that very season.”
Thunder cracked across the sky.
“When the rainy season arrives, the villagers suffer collective madness, or so they say. Does that not strike you as peculiar, Duchess Adis?”
“…Yes.”
Indeed, it was peculiar, and I could only acknowledge it.
If such an occurrence repeated itself at the same time each year, it certainly suggested the possibility of a disease.
“Such a bizarre affliction would require a renowned physician such as yourself. Go there directly and investigate.”
Then he added:
“This is an imperial decree.”
* * *
“Kanna!”
Had she heard the news?
The moment I arrived at the estate, Chloe rushed to greet me.
“I heard you’re going to Paeylon Island. Please, I beg you—find Orsini!”
“No, I’m not—”
I’m not going there to find Orsini. Whether that man died there or not, I couldn’t care less.
“Orsini couldn’t possibly be dead! Right? He must be alive!”
“….”
“That’s just how Orsini is! He’s always so headstrong! He’s definitely somewhere on the island drinking himself senseless, isn’t he?”
“….”
She certainly knows her son well.
I wanted to say as much, but Chloe’s expression was so grave that I held my tongue.
Tears streamed down Chloe’s face as she cried out.
“Please, find Orsini for me. Will you? Then….”
“Mother. Duchess Adis.”
I smiled and cut off her words.
“Do you not know who I am?”
Chloe stared at me blankly.
“I’m Kanna Adis.”
“….”
“Kanna Adis. You don’t remember?”
The Kanna whom you and your son tormented so viciously.
I let out a laugh. There was no need for further words. I pulled my hand away from Chloe’s grasp.
“I’m going to investigate the village’s affliction by order of His Imperial Majesty.”
“….”
“As for anything else, I’m not sure I’ll have the time. I really couldn’t say.”
I wanted to speak more harshly, but I exercised restraint.
‘She’s Kalen Adis’s mother, after all.’
And Kalen Adis is a most useful chess piece. It’s not yet time to discard him.
So I offered her these words instead.
“Have faith in Orsini.”
Words I didn’t mean.
“He’s not the type to die in some foreign place, is he?”
A thoughtless remark, carelessly thrown out.
“You’re right… yes. Your words are right. Kanna, you’re right.”
“….”
“My son, Orsini. Yes. I must have faith in Orsini. He’s worthy of that faith.”
Oddly enough, Chloe seemed to find comfort in those words.
‘What was I thinking? I shouldn’t have said anything.’
If I had known it would truly be comforting, I wouldn’t have said it.
Kanna Adis grew displeased.
* * *
My companion to Paeylon Island was the escort knight, Claude Azel.
“Don’t worry about safety, Duchess. I’m more than capable of handling myself.”
Claude smiled brightly even in such circumstances.
“More than capable?”
“Of course. If I had gone to Paeylon Island with Lord Orsini, my comrades wouldn’t have been completely wiped out.”
….
When Kanna Adis stared at him intently, Claude furrowed his brows as if troubled.
“Oh dear. My apologies. That was a joke.”
“No need to apologize to me.”
“No, no, I’m sorry. Lord Kalen even warned me to be careful, yet here I am.”
Claude scratched his head.
“I’m such a frivolous fellow. I made a joke when I shouldn’t have.”
“Honestly, you do.”
“I thought so?”
“Yes.”
“I get criticized for it often. I’ve been told more than once that if I don’t watch when and where I joke, I’ll be stabbed to death on a dark road.”
Kanna Adis let out a soft laugh.
“Who says such things?”
“My dead comrades from this incident.”
Claude shrugged his shoulders.
“I still don’t understand why Lord Orsini sent such a letter.”
All the knights have been annihilated, but absolutely do not send reinforcements.
“He sent such a strange letter and then went silent….”
“I’m not going to find Orsini.”
Perhaps he harbored such expectations.
Kanna Adis spoke firmly.
“So there’s no reason to waste time searching for Orsini.”
“Ah, of course. Don’t misunderstand, Duchess.”
Claude smiled knowingly.
“Lord Orsini is surely going about his business without incident.”
….
“So there’s no point wasting time looking for him.”
Kanna Adis found herself at a loss for words. Unexpectedly, Orsini seemed to receive tremendous trust from his knights.
‘Ugh, that gleaming faith. How irritating.’
Though displeased by this, I found Claude quite likable regardless.
‘His personality is unusually genuine.’
His comrades had died, so he must be sadder than anyone, yet he showed no sign of it. Instead, he threw out jokes.
Moreover, she showed no discomfort whatsoever regarding her own black hair and dark eyes.
It wasn’t a mere pretense—she genuinely seemed to harbor no concerns about it.
‘I rather enjoy this carefree type.’
Opinions would certainly be divided, but for me, it was favorable. Had she been the endlessly serious sort or someone who sank into melancholy, we would have clashed.
‘Claude Azel, was it?’
His temperament resembled Seon-hong’s as much as his gaze did.
I found Claude Azel even more agreeable.
‘Perhaps we might get along quite well.’
* * *
As I traveled, my thoughts turned to Paeylon Island.
‘It’s only recently been discovered.’
Paeylon had never originally been Imperial territory.
The island’s native inhabitants had lived in isolation from the outside world, but roughly two hundred years ago, an Imperial nobleman stumbled upon it by chance. The Emperor at the time deemed it too valuable to leave alone and simply annexed it as Imperial domain.
‘In the end, they took it by force. This is a world where brigands run rampant.’
Yet about a century ago, a devastating plague swept through the island, killing half its population.
However, the Empire offered no aid whatsoever—they simply abandoned the island to its fate, or so I’ve heard.
All the while, they continued their banditry, collecting taxes without fail.
Unsurprisingly, Paeylon Island harbored a clear animosity toward the Empire.
“You must always exercise caution on the island, Duchess Adis.”
Claude Azel spoke with a cheerful smile.
“The people of Paeylon Island have remarkably low loyalty toward the Imperial Family. Furthermore.”
“Furthermore?”
“There is currently a High Priest residing on the island.”
This was news to me. A High Priest—a senior cleric of the Grand Temple—was on Paeylon Island?
“The inhabitants of Paeylon Island have long suffered from a form of madness, as you know?”
“Of course. That madness is precisely why I’m being sent there.”
“Yes. Upon hearing of this affliction, the High Priest declared he would save the island and entered it himself.”
“Given that I’m being dragged there, it seems the High Priest hasn’t succeeded in his salvation yet.”
“Yes, not yet.”
A High Priest—surely someone of considerable rank within the Grand Temple.
‘I wonder if he’s similar to Raphael?’
Courteous, taciturn, inflexible, upright, and naive.
‘Perhaps all the clergy in this world are like that.’
Thinking of Raphael, I found myself curious about what sort of person this High Priest might be.

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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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