My Possession Became a Ghost Story - Chapter 105

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This chapter was translated by Lunox Team. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
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Despite Saraka’s earnest pleas, Bishop Marik tried to bite his own tongue. Saraka quickly stuck her fingers into his mouth and poured soup down his throat to make him swallow it. After feeding him all the soup, she gagged Bishop Marik again.

‘I’ll have to put away the bread.’

At this rate, she couldn’t even let him chew bread. Blood slowly seeped from where he had bitten down hard on her teeth. Saraka sprinkled holy water she had brought to wash Bishop Marik and treated her hand. Saraka’s recovery ability was exceptionally outstanding, as much as Bishop Marik had coveted it.

Not only the bite marks but even the burn scars completely disappeared the moment they touched the holy water. As the holy water washed away the wounds like erasing them, Bishop Marik stared intently at Saraka’s hand.

“Oh my… I can’t even recreate the burn marks now…”

Saraka looked at her now smooth fingers with a troubled expression. Only the thumb that Bishop Marik had bitten had new flesh growing. Normally, she would have put her hand in the brazier without hesitation, but now wasn’t a good time.

Because the wish Saraka had long awaited was currently in progress, she couldn’t go around with bandaged fingers.

“Bishop. I only want to serve you well, but you keep abandoning your faith, which troubles me.”

Saraka expressed her upset feelings.

“Should I pull out all your teeth so you can never bite again?”

“Mmph… mmph…!”

At those words, Bishop Marik shook his head frantically. He begged to be killed, but when she mentioned pulling out his teeth, he didn’t want that… Well, it made sense since dying would be better than living and feeling pain, so in a way it was a consistent reaction.

Bishop Marik looked at Saraka as if she were some kind of demon. There was no way Saraka, on whom Rahel’s holy water worked so well, could be anything like a demon, so why was he looking at her like that? Above all, this was something she had learned from Bishop Marik himself…

“You did the same thing, didn’t you, Bishop? You said you’d pull out the teeth first because it would be troublesome if someone died by biting their tongue.”

Saraka still remembered the scene of Bishop Marik pulling out her father’s teeth.

Of course, she held nothing but gratitude and admiration for Bishop Marik, not resentment, so she hadn’t actually pulled out his teeth, but if he continued to be this uncooperative, it was worth considering. Perhaps sensing Saraka’s contemplation, Bishop Marik became very docile, as if he had never bitten her hand at all.

Saraka tried to soothe the frightened Bishop.

“You want to die, don’t you? Just be patient a little longer.”

Since Saraka was neither cold-blooded nor a demon, she intended to grant Bishop Marik’s wish someday.

“When I obtain your Achievement, I’ll kill you then, Bishop.”

That would be when Saraka became more ‘Bishop Marik-like’ than Bishop Marik himself. And that day wasn’t far off.

“Until then, Bishop, you can think about how dying would earn you more forgiveness from God.”

Saraka truly looked forward to that day. When that day came, Saraka would no longer be the dirty heretic, the daughter of pagans, but would become ‘Bishop Marik,’ loved by God and respected by all.

Saraka left Bishop Marik in the basement and climbed the stairs. Returning to her room, she covered the entrance to the basement with the bookshelf again. When you’re in the basement, it’s often hard to gauge how much time has passed, so she thought it had become night, but the sun was still looking down at Saraka.

Unable to meet the sun’s gaze because it was too bright, Saraka sat by the window instead. She opened a book to pass time until the afternoon prayer service. Sunlight touched her fingertips. As she slowly read through the text and finished the last sentence, the sun had set in the meantime. Her body felt very cold now that the warmth of the sunlight was gone. Looking at the time, it was almost prayer time.

Around this time, the assistant priest who visited would knock and enter, lighting the candles in the room and wrapping a blanket around Saraka.

“Bishop Marik… You were reading without lighting a candle again. Even if you’re favored by Rahel, you should consider your age. You’ll develop presbyopia soon. You know presbyopia can’t be cured even with holy water, right? You should take better care of yourself.”

The assistant priest, who had confessed to becoming a priest out of admiration for Bishop Marik, took care of Saraka like a grandchild caring for an elderly grandmother. According to what she had heard from Bishop Marik, Harut had also become an orphan caught up in the pagan massacre, and the Temple had taken in the child afterward.

Seeing how the Bishop had particularly cherished the child, he was probably comparing Harut and Saraka for the position of the next ‘Bishop Marik.’ There would be no other reason for Bishop Marik to show interest. However, Harut lacked God’s favor and couldn’t become the Bishop’s replacement.

Instead, Harut was selected as an assistant due to his connection with Bishop Marik. Bishop Marik had told so many stories about Harut that Saraka had to memorize a month’s worth of stories about Harut.

Saraka recalled the gentle tone Bishop Marik used when dealing with Harut and replied.

“Priest Harut. You should say such things to Bishop Javanya, not to me.”

“You’re good at joking too. Bishop Javanya doesn’t read books, so he’s fine. I hate seeing that old raccoon-like bastard mentioned in the same breath as Bishop Marik.”

“Priest Harut.”

“Did I say something wrong? I dislike the former Pararos Knights captain too, but I find Javanya, who sucked all the benefits from Count Gabriel and then attached himself to Bishop Marik, even more disgusting to look at.”

Harut had grown quite insolent, probably because of how much convenience Bishop Marik had provided him. When Saraka remained silent, Harut, realizing he had crossed the line, changed the subject.

“Where did Count Azael go?”

Harut looked around while gauging Saraka’s reaction. He seemed puzzled because the knight who would normally be hovering around Bishop Marik was nowhere to be seen.

“I’ve temporarily assigned him some work.”

It was too early to announce that he was dead. Harut’s face lit up at the news that Azazel was absent, and he pleaded with Saraka.

“Then may I escort you to prayer today?”

“I would appreciate that.”

Because of the veil pressed over his face, Bishop Marik always had a companion when night fell. Although Saraka had good eyesight and didn’t need support, she accepted Harut’s guidance to remind herself that she was Bishop Marik.

“Ah, but there are unusually many Holy Knights at today’s prayer service. Is there a particular reason?”

Harut brought up the topic as they walked along the densely placed candles. Saraka wondered if she had never told Harut about this and explained it to him.

“Today’s prayer service is the last one the Holy Knights will hear before they begin earnestly exterminating the enemy.”

“What?”

“Before going to kill heretics, it’s a place to receive forgiveness and permission from God in advance.”

Harut was speechless. According to what Bishop Marik had told her, Harut was weak-hearted and couldn’t even properly look at pictures of people bleeding. That’s why he couldn’t become Bishop Marik’s replacement.

“…Bishop. If we really receive forgiveness in advance, then killing heretics isn’t a sin?”

To Harut’s foolish question, Saraka answered without a moment’s hesitation.

“Priest Harut. As I’ve always said, heretics are not people. So there’s no need to seek forgiveness for it in the first place.”

Therefore, Saraka’s parents deserved to be killed.

***

The funeral of the Crown Prince and Tenebray was over. The Emperor, who had postponed the funeral until the assassin was found, received Tenebray’s body and held a joint funeral for the father and daughter.

“To hold a funeral for an unfilial child, His Majesty certainly has great magnanimity.”

Of course, this didn’t mean the case was completely closed. The key was finding out how and by what means Tenebray had killed the Crown Prince. The knights were systematically searching through Tenebray’s room like hunting for lice.

“Hey, there’s something here?”

When they moved the bed and examined the floor, they saw a small gap. When they put their hand into the gap, the floor opened. Inside were old books that looked ancient, bundles of papers like letters, and a dead rat carcass.

“…Ugh.”

The knight groaned in disgust.

He thought the rat had hidden in the crevice and died trapped inside, unable to get out, but when he turned the body over, he saw that its belly was split open with stitched marks.

Since human hands had touched it, someone—no, it was certain that Tenebray, the room’s owner, had deliberately put the dead rat in the floor storage.

When they opened the rat’s belly, what appeared to be human black hair and cut fingernails spilled out. Though they were just discarded hair and nails, being inside a carcass made them feel eerie, appearing as body parts severed from a human.

The knight who imagined Princess Tenebray sewing the rat’s belly suppressed his nausea and reported to his superior. Though the source was unknown, occult books and objects that could be seen as traces of sorcery had emerged, so it was certain that Princess Tenebray had fallen into paganism.

“Marquis Wujeta. Occult books have been discovered in Tenebray’s room.”

“…I see.”

Since Tenebray had already been stripped of her royal status, the title of Princess was no longer fitting. However, Muzeta almost snapped at his subordinate to address Tenebray with the Princess title.

“A disgrace to the Imperial Court.”

“No wonder she seemed gloomy; I thought something was fishy about her.”

While others cursed Tenebray, only Muzeta remained silent. The knights under his command whispered among themselves about Muzeta’s listless attitude.

“Why has Marquis Wujeta become so dejected?”

“Isn’t it because he couldn’t be of much help in finding His Highness the Crown Prince’s assassin? Marquis Wujeta has exceptional loyalty.”

“That makes sense. You have a point.”

The speculative comments about Muzeta’s condition from behind were quite audible, but Muzeta himself didn’t pay much attention. In fact, he didn’t even have the leisure to care about what his subordinates were saying.

Muzeta, who had been the Crown Prince’s guard, was assigned by the Emperor’s consideration to investigate the Crown Prince’s death. Even when the Crown Prince died hanging from the chandelier in the banquet hall, he had devoted himself day and night to the search, imagining finding the culprit immediately and slaughtering them by imperial command.

Evangeline Rohanson, who had been imprisoned as a suspect after bringing in a weapon, being covered in blood, and having testimony that an ominous aura from Bishop Marik was felt from her.

And Bishop Marik, who wasn’t at the banquet hall during the incident, so while it was only circumstantial evidence, he was investigating him as the suspected culprit based on the situation.

But suddenly a culprit appeared.

The Emperor announced that Princess Tenebray had assassinated the Crown Prince.

The very next dawn after the wanted order was issued regardless of life or death, Tenebray returned as a corpse, and Muzeta’s morale was not just low but completely shattered.

“Why, they say the Pararos Knights captain achieved the merit. Marquis Wujeta must find that disagreeable.”

When Gabriel’s story came up, Muzeta clenched his fists.

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This chapter was translated by Lunox Team. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
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