My Body Has Been Possessed By Someone - Chapter 96

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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 96
“Your Holiness!”
“Your Holiness, please save my child!”
“My husband has been possessed by a demon again! Please, save him!”
The rational townsfolk prostrated themselves before Rachel with desperate fervor, their devotion bordering on fanaticism.
“Today my sister has fallen to demonic possession!”
“Your Holiness, find the Black Apostles! Discover the apostles who command demons and punish them!”
Rachel gazed upon the clamoring villagers with compassion.
“The Day of Purification approaches. When it arrives, I shall uncover the Black Apostles who wield these demons. Fear not.”
Watching the commotion unfold, I felt profoundly unsettled.
A saint? The Lord of Paelon’s daughter called a saint?
‘And what in the world is this Day of Purification?’
After dismissing the gathered crowd, Rachel explained calmly.
“Once each year, we identify those suspected of being Black Apostles and perform a purification.”
For reasons I couldn’t articulate, her words filled me with dread.
“How is this purification conducted?”
“We hang them upside down from a tree and burn them alive.”
My dark premonition had proven accurate.
My stomach churned violently. The seemingly virtuous facade of Rachel’s expression began to crack and crumble before my eyes.
“So finding those suspected of being Black Apostles—that is your duty?”
“Yes. I faithfully fulfill the sacred obligation bestowed upon me by God.”
The only woman on this island who had never suffered from madness. Moreover, the Lord of Paelon’s daughter.
That alone was sufficient to elevate her to sainthood in this isolated, insular place.
“How do you identify the Black Apostles?”
“I examine all those afflicted with madness and locate the one radiating the most potent demonic aura.”
“You can sense demonic aura?”
“Yes. There is always one who emanates the most sinister presence. That person is the Black Apostle who infects others with madness.”
“I see.”
I bit back the sarcasm threatening to spill from my lips.
This was an ability even the descendants of the Holy Knights from Adis and members of the Valentino Family could not possess. Let alone the priests of the Divine Temple.
“Then you’ve been burning at least one villager each year.”
“Before they were villagers, they were Black Apostles.”
“Yet why does the same tragedy occur every single year?”
Rachel fell silent for the first time, unable to answer.
I pressed forward.
“You purify the land by killing the Black Apostles, so why does this repeat itself year after year?”
“….”
“Have you never considered the possibility that you harbor a deeply malicious delusion?”
“I beg your pardon?”
“Perhaps everything is merely your fantasy. Or perhaps a grave misunderstanding on your part.”
In that moment, Rachel’s expression crumbled. Her eyes trembled faintly. Then.
“Because evil perpetually multiplies!”
Jerome, who had been following behind the entire time, rebutted loudly.
“Please, I beg you to refrain from insulting the young lady! Rachel has never made a single wrong choice.”
He flushed as if he himself had been insulted, defending Rachel passionately.
“Once the purification ritual concludes, those possessed by spirits gradually diminish and cease to appear! Not until the same season arrives next year!”
“Is that so?”
“Yes. That is precisely the evidence that we have found and purified a true Black Apostle!”
When a suspected Black Apostle is burned at the stake, the madness gradually subsides and peace returns to the village.
At least until the rainy season arrives the following year.
As I listened, something felt profoundly off.
‘There’s something here.’
Something crucially important hovered just beyond the edge of my memory.
‘This isn’t mere madness. There’s something more.’
My mind felt like a puzzle scattered chaotically across a table. Yet I couldn’t quite grasp it.
That night, I groaned in frustration right up until sleep claimed me.
‘There’s something. I feel like I’m on the verge of remembering.’
When dawn breaks, I’ll need to examine the villagers more carefully.
There must be a common thread among those afflicted by this madness.
‘Yes, so for now, let me sleep.’
It had been an exhausting day.
* * *
“Sister!”
Ugh.
“Sister, wake up.”
“Be quiet….”
I frowned and burrowed deeper beneath the blankets.
Just a little longer, just a little more sleep.
My entire body felt bound in chains from sheer exhaustion. It had been such a grueling day….
“….”
Wait.
I slowly opened my eyes.
That voice just now—what was it?
“Sister!”
I bolted upright.
A man stood right beside my bed, impossibly close.
I stared up at him blankly.
“What’s with that vacant expression?”
Black eyes. Black hair. Sharp eye corners, slightly irritable brows, a cleanly defined nose, and a fresh impression of someone just past twenty.
My trembling gaze swept across the man’s face.
I couldn’t believe it.
“Se….”
My lips trembled. My breath came in gasps, my breathing ragged and uneven.
“Seon-hong?”
It was Seon-hong.
The man before me was the young man I had called my younger brother my entire life, the one I had cherished—Lee Seon-hong!
“Lee, Lee Seon-hong!”
I bolted from my seat in a frenzy. As I stretched out my hand to grasp Seon-hong’s hand.
He took a step back.
“Sister, don’t do that. Come quickly. Everyone’s waiting outside.”
“Wh, what?”
“Hurry!”
Seon-hong turned and bolted from the room. I stared blankly at his retreating figure before stumbling after him.
‘What is this? What on earth is happening?’
I had no time to drape a shawl over my shoulders or slip into slippers.
Why? Why was Seon-hong here?
Suddenly, reality crashed down upon me.
‘Could Seon-hong have fallen into this world too?’
It was entirely possible.
Hadn’t Ju-hwa suddenly possessed my body one day? Perhaps Seon-hong had experienced the same strange phenomenon and fallen into this world!
At that thought, my entire body trembled. A terror unlike anything I had ever felt before drained the color from my mind.
“Lee Seon-hong! Get back here this instant!”
“Sister, come quickly!”
“Wait, come with me. This place is….”
This place, this world is dangerous!
Then, someone seized my arm and held me back.
“I beg your pardon. My apologies, Duchess.”
It was Claude Azel. He smiled and asked.
“Where are you going? It’s raining heavily outside right now.”
“Let go!”
“But Duchess.”
Kanna Adis cried out anxiously, staring at the spot where Seon-hong had vanished.
“That’s an order!”
Claude was a knight trained to obey commands like a well-disciplined hound.
His grip released. I rushed after Seon-hong in desperation. But keeping pace with someone trained as an athlete since childhood was far from easy.
I chased after him like a madwoman. Anxiety threatened to shatter my mind.
‘Seon-hong can’t. Seon-hong mustn’t.’
He can’t come to this world.
Ju-hwa is enough. I am enough.
I cannot let my brother, my own brother, live in this dangerous world!
“Lee Seon-hong, wait!”
By now, I was already running through the downpour, tearing through sheets of rain. Yet I didn’t even notice that I was soaked to the bone.
“Seon-hong!”
Where are you? Where in the world are you…?
“Meow!”
Ah!
My ears perked up instantly.
That cry—it rang out clearly even through the torrential downpour that seemed ready to shatter my eardrums.
I could never mistake that voice. That cry.
“Toto? Is that you, Toto?”
“Meoooow!”
“Toto!”
My cat!
I bolted toward the sound like a madwoman.
Yes, that’s Toto’s cry. My cat.
My cat who always fell asleep in my arms. Warm and soft, my beloved cat.
“Sister, over here!”
“Meow!”
Then, from behind a distant wooden pillar, Sun-hong waved at me. Beside him stood a cat with cheese-colored fur, completely drenched, staring directly at me.
“Hurry, hurry! Come quick before it’s too late, sister!”
“Meow!”
Our eyes met—Sun-hong’s, Toto’s, and mine.
“I…”
A sob burst forth uncontrollably.
“Hold on.”
Tears streamed down my face, mingling with the pouring rain.
“Hold on. Please.”

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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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