My Possession Became a Ghost Story - Chapter 116

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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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Nigella glanced around and added a word to join in the servants’ chatter.

 

“Miss Rohanson must resemble Lady Amaranth quite a lot.”

 

“If you had seen Lady Amaranth, you would have been shocked by how similar they are. Not only the Viscount’s Wife, but even I mistook her for our young lady returning alive.”

 

When Duke Hosaquin decided to sever ties with his daughter, he burned all of Amaranth’s portraits in the manor, so Nigella didn’t know what Amaranth looked like.

 

Nigella thought it wasn’t strange for a daughter to resemble her mother’s face, but she couldn’t understand why everyone was making such a fuss. She nodded half-heartedly and turned her gaze away.

 

The Viscount’s Wife and Evangeline seemed completely absorbed in their own world, as if they couldn’t hear the servants whispering. Miss Rohanson, with her elderly white hair flowing down, was very calmly keeping the demented Viscount’s Wife company, showing no fear.

 

“Amaranth. Shall we go shopping together tomorrow with Mother?”

 

“If you’re feeling well tomorrow.”

 

“Then I should get plenty of sleep today!”

 

The sound of gentle conversation and the Viscount’s Wife’s girlish laughter filled the greenhouse. It was truly the first peace in a long time at the Hosaquin Viscount’s Mansion, which had been filled only with screams and crying since the Viscount’s Wife suffered her stroke.

 

Perhaps it was because she was exhausted from running around busily to cover the aquarium just moments ago. Standing still and basking in the sunlight while watching the peaceful tea party, her tension seemed to ease and her heart felt warmly relaxed. A drowsiness that made her temporarily forget even being scolded by the butler spread throughout her body.

 

Eventually, Nigella dozed off.

 

The moment her consciousness became hazy, a rustling sound by her ear made her heart drop as if falling, and her mind snapped awake with a jolt.

 

If she was caught dozing, she would surely be scolded by the butler again. Nigella straightened her body as if she had never dozed off. She hoped no one had noticed, but there was someone watching Nigella.

 

Nigella felt a gaze observing her. Since the Viscount’s Wife and Evangeline were in the middle of conversation, it must be a colleague standing beside her.

 

‘But was a colleague’s gaze this persistent and gloomy?’

 

Her toes curled, and an inexplicable chill ran through her. A creepy ominousness gnawed at Nigella’s nerves. Someone was quietly staring at Nigella from behind, from head to toe.

 

Unable to bear it, Nigella glanced sideways, but there was no one in the greenhouse looking at her.

 

Then what was that gaze she had just felt? The maid standing next to her turned around when Nigella moved restlessly and silently mouthed “Why?” It seemed she didn’t realize that Nigella had briefly dozed off despite being right beside her.

 

Nigella thought it was strange but shook her head. She could only guess that their gazes had simply crossed.

 

‘I really shouldn’t doze off anymore.’

 

Nigella, attributing everything to drowsiness, made a firm resolution and looked ahead. The ridiculous tea party was still in full swing. Perhaps because she was now awake, the scene that had felt peaceful just moments ago seemed strangely different, as if by magic.

 

One was a demented old woman who thought herself a girl, with no trace of past elegance to be found, and the other was a being so close to an ideal that it was questionable whether she could be considered human.

 

The upper-class ladies casually conversing with rats’ corpses right beside them felt as disgusting as monsters. Soon, strange noises began mixing into their conversation. It was the rustling sound that had awakened Nigella earlier.

 

She looked around again to find the source of the sound, but everyone was maintaining proper posture.

 

‘Then… where is that sound coming from?’

 

It was a sound coming from very close by. When the rustling sound came again, Nigella turned her head toward the direction of the noise.

 

She saw the cloth-covered aquarium. The moment she remembered what was under the cloth, Nigella felt indescribable terror.

 

There was no wind inside the greenhouse to move the cloth. So it must be the sound of something moving inside the cloth. Nigella heard the sound of claws scratching against glass.

 

Water splashing, something tapping the glass, and for some reason the cloth rustling. Since she couldn’t see it directly, her fear doubled.

 

Could the rats in the aquarium still be alive and moving? Or perhaps something even more horrible…

 

Crash!

 

Just as Nigella’s imagination was becoming more concrete, a sharp noise suddenly rang out. At that moment, all the noise in Nigella’s ears disappeared.

 

Thinking the Viscount’s Wife had started having another fit and thrown a plate, she looked over in alarm, but the culprit was unexpectedly Miss Rohanson. Despite sounding so sharp and loud, it was actually just the sound of Miss Rohanson’s teaspoon hitting her cup while stirring tea.

 

Miss Rohanson, who had put down her teaspoon, tapped the cup handle with her fingertips as if bored.

 

‘So it was this sound.’

 

Nigella let out a sigh of relief. The sound she had just heard was coming from Miss Rohanson. It had only sounded particularly loud because Nigella was tired. Of course, dead rats couldn’t move. She had even seen them dead with her own eyes.

 

Nigella felt reassured and continued watching Evangeline.

 

The other sounds were the same. The water sounds were from pouring and stirring tea. The rustling sound of the cloth moving was just from dress hems moving.

 

‘She’s just confusing people unnecessarily.’

 

Nigella briefly harbored resentment toward Miss Rohanson for frightening her, but when she met those bright red eyes, her heart sank with a thud. Miss Rohanson smiled mockingly as if she knew what Nigella was thinking, and pointedly set down her cup.

 

And even though Miss Rohanson wasn’t tapping her cup, the sound of glass tapping started again.

 

Scratch scratch, tap tap tap tap, rustle rustle.

 

Scratch scratch scratch, tap tap tap tap tap, rustle rustle rustle.

 

The sounds grew even louder than before. Nigella looked at Miss Rohanson in confusion, then looked around. Sure enough, the sounds were coming from inside the tent.

 

She felt like if she removed the cloth, all the rats would be looking at her. Could that be the gaze Nigella had felt? At the thought of that scene, she felt chilled and her breathing became rapid. Her heart pounded violently. She felt short of breath and dizzy.

 

Nigella covered her ears because she didn’t want to hear the sounds anymore, but the noise was still loud. Even though her palms were covering her ears, nothing seemed to change for some reason. Unless it was coming from inside her head, it couldn’t be this clear…

 

“Nigella?”

 

The servants were confused seeing Nigella suddenly covering her ears and showing strange symptoms.

 

“Are you sick somewhere?”

 

“Quick, quickly take Nigella outside.”

 

Just when they thought the Viscount’s Wife had recovered, now Nigella was the problem. The Viscount’s Wife had finally calmed down, but they were afraid she might have another fit upon seeing Nigella.

 

Since their priority was always the Viscount’s Wife, getting Nigella out of the Viscount’s Wife’s sight came first.

 

As they tried to help her outside, Nigella began muttering something.

 

“The rats, the rats… must have come back to life.”

 

“Nigella, what are you talking about? Get a grip…!”

 

The servants tried to cover Nigella’s mouth, fearing the Viscount’s Wife might react to hearing the word “rats.” Nigella avoided their hands and shouted loudly.

 

“Can’t you hear this sound? They’re scratching inside!”

 

And Nigella felt something like a small ball of fur brush past her feet.

 

“Eek…!”

 

Nigella panted and struggled.

 

‘It’s a rat! A rat that came back to life escaped from the aquarium!’

 

The sharp noise must have been the sound of glass breaking. The rats that broke the aquarium were running around and brushed against her feet.

 

“They’re all dead things. You saw them too…!”

 

The maid shook Nigella’s body and quietly scolded her. Nigella felt very wronged. Why won’t they believe me? Didn’t they hear the sounds? Then she just needed to show them.

 

Nigella pushed away the maids supporting her with her arms and rushed toward the aquarium.

 

“Nigella! What are you…! Stop her quickly!”

 

“Take the Viscount’s Wife outside!”

 

Having thought they just needed to calm Nigella down, they finally realized the situation had become serious and hurriedly tried to take the Viscount’s Wife out of the greenhouse. The servants instinctively knew they would be severely punished once this commotion reached the butler’s or the duke’s ears.

 

Originally, the number of servants attending in the greenhouse was only five for security purposes, and since three of them were escorting the Viscount’s Wife and Miss Rohanson out of the greenhouse, only about two people were actually available to stop Nigella.

 

“She’s too strong…!”

 

Whatever strength had surged through her, two people weren’t enough to stop Nigella.

 

Nigella grabbed the edge of the cloth. Without hesitation, she yanked the cloth away. The fluttering cloth settled down and revealed what had been hidden.

 

Everyone who saw the aquarium inside the cloth gasped in unison. There was something unexpected inside.

 

“…Wh-what is that?”

 

Someone covered their mouth at the bizarre sight they witnessed.

 

What was in the aquarium was a very well-crafted human-shaped statue. As if sized to fit the aquarium, various parts had been carved separately, with parts of the statue placed one by one in the aquarium. If they were taken out of the water and assembled, they would form a complete statue.

 

While everyone else thought it looked like art pieces displayed separately, only Nigella showed a different reaction.

 

To Nigella, what was in the aquarium looked not like broken statue pieces but like a person. Then long, slender fingers swam in the water and tapped the aquarium tap tap tap.

 

“…Yes! This was the sound I heard!”

 

Nigella realized the identity of the sound that had been hitting the glass and pointed at the aquarium with excitement.

 

“It was the sound of this person hitting the glass!”

 

Her strangely confident and joyful tone, inappropriate for the situation, made listeners feel chilled. The maid who had been holding Nigella let go and backed away from her. To her, what was in the aquarium certainly resembled a person but was clearly just an imitation sculpture.

 

“Nigella, are you crazy? You suddenly pulled off the tent, and now you’re looking at this and calling it a person? This is just a statue. Are you really insane?”

 

The maid shouted with a deeply furrowed brow.

 

“A statue? You’re the one who should look properly! Look at that! It’s moving!”

 

Nigella screamed at her colleague who was treating her like a crazy person, pointing at the aquarium. But there was no way a statue could move.

 

They thought Nigella had caught the Viscount’s Wife’s madness and was seeing things. Under the gazes treating her like a crazy person, Nigella felt frustrated and disheveled her hair as if tearing at it.

 

While the other servants remained frozen, the Viscount’s Wife staggered toward the aquarium. Everyone was too stunned by the bizarre sight to have the presence of mind to attend to the Viscount’s Wife.

 

The Viscount’s Wife approached the aquarium closely and pressed her palm against the glass as if trying to squeeze inside, peering into the aquarium.

 

“Ah… Ama, Amaranth…”

 

The Viscount’s Wife muttered with tears welling up. Having lost her speech, she repeated her daughter’s name like someone who had learned only the single word “Amaranth.”

 

‘Amaranth…?’

 

Nigella examined the features of the head wrapped in long threads. She understood why the experienced maid had marveled at how much Amaranth and Miss Rohanson resembled each other.

 

It was somewhat eerie to think the young lady sitting properly at the table resembled what was in the aquarium, but it couldn’t be helped since they looked alike and even the creepy feeling was similar.

 

“Amaranth… Please… open your eyes.”

 

The Viscount’s Wife pleaded desperately.

 

It seemed like she was calling the pieces in the aquarium her daughter, and the maids watching couldn’t hide their looks of disgust. They didn’t even seem to think they should stop the Viscount’s Wife.

 

Nigella snapped back to her senses as if cold water had been splashed on her the moment the Viscount’s Wife called out her daughter’s name. The gazes looking at the Viscount’s Wife were exactly the same as those that had been looking at Nigella just moments before.

 

Like the Viscount’s Wife, had Nigella really gone mad too?

 

What was in the aquarium wasn’t a person?

 

Since there was nothing connected below the neck, it didn’t give the impression of being human, but to Nigella it still seemed alive. Rather, if anything, Evangeline looked more like a taxidermied sculpture.

 

But logically, there was no way a person who died 7 years ago could be preserved so perfectly, and there was no reason for a corpse that had already been buried to be in the Rohanson Mansion.

 

Unlike her mind working logically, her five senses still screamed that what was in the aquarium was human. Wait a moment. What should have been in the aquarium was neither a statue nor a person.

 

“Where did the rats go…?”

 

Overwhelmed by the bizarre scene, the question that should have naturally occurred to her came belatedly.

 

The servants present here were the ones who had personally moved the aquarium and covered it with cloth to prepare for the Viscount’s Wife’s tea time. In other words, they were the ones who had seen that what was contained in the aquarium was rat corpses before covering it with cloth. No one had left their position, yet no one knew why the contents had changed.

 

“Nigella. Wasn’t this your doing?”

 

Her colleagues even suspected that Nigella might be the culprit who had removed the rat corpses and played this grotesque prank. Since she had flipped over the cloth and was the only one showing a different reaction, it was natural to suspect Nigella. Even Nigella herself found herself suspicious.

 

She couldn’t even understand why she herself had thought the rats had escaped and tried to check under the cloth. It was as if she had been possessed by a demon. This moment should have been a dream, but the terrible sense of reality reminded her it was not.

 

‘If this isn’t a dream, have I gone mad too?’

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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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