My Possession Became a Ghost Story - Chapter 146

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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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This is because Hazel is a good person. Just like how she came to the dining room to help the butler after hearing he looked unwell. Just like how she couldn’t refuse to serve me despite all the terrible rumors circulating.

 

That’s why I had no choice but to use Mabuka as an excuse to keep Hazel close. Losing Rico was enough when it came to losing good people around me.

 

Since the ‘rat’ has entered Rico’s body, Mabuka is exposed to the most danger. Mabuka is a young child, so there’s a high possibility she won’t notice the difference between the ‘rat’ and Rico. We need to protect and care for Mabuka, but Kanna and I can’t always be attached to her, so I’d appreciate it if you, Hazel, could protect Mabuka.

 

I asked her to bear with it for a while as Rico would do his best to resolve things as quickly as possible. Kind Hazel nodded at the request to care for the weak.

 

Still, I let out a sigh of relief at the thought that I had saved one person.

 

The sun rose. The morning sun was exceptionally bright. So bright that the outlines of things I had tried not to see and turned away from during the night became excessively clear. Like the fact that I had to deal with Rico, for instance.

 

Fortunately or unfortunately, the time to subdue Rico wasn’t right now. The ‘rat’ had disappeared after Hazel discovered its identity. Pudding reported that Rico’s presence couldn’t be felt within the duke’s estate. Was it planning to level up somewhere and return? But since Agera, whom the rat cherishes most, is at the duke’s estate, Rico will return.

 

Of all people, the host had to be Rico… I couldn’t help but praise the ‘rat’s’ sense in choosing hosts. Rico, who has the duke’s trust and is the mother of Mabuka, whom I decided to protect.

 

Rico was also the person I had the most interaction with in the ducal household, excluding the duke and his wife. I had barely gotten her on my side, only for her to instantly turn into an enemy. And due to circumstances beyond her control…

 

If the host had been someone else, I wouldn’t have felt the slightest guilt about disposing of them. I would have gone to capture them right away the day Hazel came to my room in tears.

 

People I hadn’t experienced directly were nothing more than letters written on parchment. Even if they were sacrificed, all that would stain me would be a few drops of ink at most.

 

However, I had conversations with Rico and knew that she cherished her daughter terribly. Not only that, but I had heard all about what kind of hardships Rico had endured in the past.

 

It was too difficult to resolve to harm Rico. She’s just a character in a novel, so I should just close my eyes and deal with it… But would only black ink stain my hands when I dispose of Rico?

 

“Sister Hazel, I’m hungry…”

 

“Oh, r-really?”

 

Seeing Mabuka whining about being hungry like a child and Hazel only watching my reactions made me feel even more troubled.

 

Since I had told them not to leave the room if possible, Hazel couldn’t even think of going to the dining room and just fidgeted. Or maybe she didn’t want to go to the dining room because of the shock of seeing Rico.

 

Since I couldn’t let them starve, I laid out the refreshments Kanna had prepared. Mabuka’s eyes sparkled at the feast of bread, cakes, and cookies.

 

“They’re all sweets…”

 

“Lady Evangeline loves sweets!”

 

This was one of the rumors about me that Kanna had spread throughout the ducal household. If even Mabuka knew, then everyone must know. Fortunately, Mabuka also liked sweets, so she didn’t whine about wanting meat. We also promised to brush our teeth or gargle with holy water after eating sweets. It was truly luxurious dental care.

 

“My lady, um… you’re surprisingly good at taking care of children…?”

 

It was natural. At the Rohanson Estate, there was little Mary who wasn’t afraid of me.

 

“Ironically, yes.”

 

I looked at Mabuka with a troubled expression.

 

I didn’t bother explaining my circumstances to Hazel. My attitude of being more affectionate toward Mabuka would seem quite deceptive to Hazel.

 

But that didn’t mean I could just leave the rat alone. I couldn’t just leave Rico alone, swept up by personal emotions. I didn’t like the idea of just leaving things as they were and catching the temple’s attention, and there was a high possibility that the ‘rat’ obsessed with Agera would increase its hosts and the estate’s people would get involved again.

 

Now was the opportunity when everything could be cleanly finished by just catching Rico. And fundamentally, I didn’t like it calling itself Amaranth.

 

Even if more than black ink would splatter on me when I harmed Rico, I planned to catch Rico. Mabuka might sharpen her blade and come looking for me for revenge when she learns the truth later.

 

I left Mabuka with Hazel and exited the room. I was armed with Pudding on the left and Kanna on the right. Since Pudding was still in human form, it was actually more like flowers in both hands.

 

The duke was in his office early in the morning. And as soon as I arrived, he opened the door as if he had been waiting. I entered, puzzled.

 

“…You’ve come.”

 

The duke looked very haggard. I thought the conquest was complete, but he avoided me as if his favorability had been reset. How uninterested in me must he be to not even ask who this person with tremendous looks standing beside me is?

 

“Who is this person?”

 

But I had to ask the duke. Beside the duke, instead of the absent Rico, was some unfamiliar woman. Kanna whispered to me quietly that she was seeing this person for the first time. Since Kanna would have memorized all the faces of the ducal estate’s people while distributing holy water, this meant she was truly an outsider.

 

Was there business with an outsider this early in the morning? Especially when demons clearly exist, the duke allowed this visit?

 

Moreover, I became even more puzzled when the duke didn’t issue an order to leave even after I arrived.

 

“Do you know what happened last night?”

 

I was about to tell the duke about Rico. I hinted to the duke that this wasn’t a story for outsiders to hear. However, the duke still didn’t send the woman away and only swallowed hard.

 

When I glanced at the woman, she looked at me with displeasure and disgust. She wasn’t wearing priest robes, but was she from the temple?

 

“As expected, you are the culprit!”

 

Culprit? What was she talking about? The woman shouted incomprehensible words by herself, then ignored my bewilderment and turned her gaze to the duke.

 

“Your Grace, please hand over Evangeline Rohanson.”

 

“…I cannot do that.”

 

“She is a heinous cultist. She’s a despicable person who tried to offer my family to demons, so why are you protecting her?”

 

Cultist? Calling me a cultist and heretic, she was definitely a priest.

 

It seemed Bishop Marik was desperate to catch me. When the duke stubbornly refused to hand me over, the person presumed to be a priest fumed and berated the duke.

 

He was one of only three dukes in the empire, yet the priest looked down on him greatly. Actually, this was predetermined from when Bishop Marik was above the emperor’s head.

 

“I thought Your Grace had long ago recognized Evangeline Rohanson’s wickedness and cast her out. So I believed you would naturally cooperate, but it seems you’ve been bewitched by demons in the meantime.”

 

At the Crown Prince’s birthday celebration, the duke had openly thrown a wine glass at me, advertising our broken grandfather-granddaughter relationship, so she must have come thinking he would naturally cooperate. But in the meantime, I had completed the duke’s conquest. It was fortunate I had conquered him in advance.

 

Bishop Marik’s faithful limb glared at me for a while, threatened to return, and left. Seeing those murderous eyes made me feel like I really was some wicked existence. However, even after the priest disappeared, the duke couldn’t brighten his expression at all.

 

“Why did the priest suddenly come?”

 

Was she planning to threaten the duke about Agera using sorcery and then take me away the next day? If forced to choose between the two, the duke would choose Agera without a moment’s hesitation.

 

That was my speculation, but the answer from the duke was completely unexpected.

 

His tone was very heavy and slow. So I couldn’t understand those words immediately.

 

“…Last night, urgent news came that the Rohanson Estate was completely burned down.”

 

“Pardon?”

 

I doubted my ears. I asked again, but the duke couldn’t bear to repeat the terrible news. So I had no choice but to piece together the fragments of words I heard into a sentence.

 

Last night, Rohanson Estate, completely burned.

 

At that moment, I recalled the story of a noble family that was completely burned by Bishop Marik with not even one child surviving. What had been merely a device to support Bishop Marik’s evil deeds now became a sharp blade piercing through my body.

 

Burned? But Jelly was at the estate. I didn’t bring Jelly along for no reason and only brought Pudding. I had hoped Jelly would protect the estate.

 

“If the estate burned… sister…”

 

Shocked Kanna gasped and trailed off. Could someone have been hurt? At the estate were Hena and Daisy, Dolline, Mary, and Daisy’s siblings like Yulma. They were all people I had taken in.

 

I should go to the Rohanson Estate immediately to check. Before I could even call Pudding, the duke stopped me.

 

“They say holy knights are surrounding it, so it would be better not to go.”

 

“Did Bishop Marik pull some scheme?”

 

“…”

 

I thought the duke’s silence was affirmation. However, after hesitating for a long time, the duke responded to my question.

 

“The arsonist is Evangeline Rohanson—you.”

 

This time I couldn’t even ask again.

 

“Someone came forward who witnessed you committing arson. The person’s testimony cannot be dismissed as unreliable…”

 

Meaning the testimony was credible and adopted as is. It must be the viscount, right? Who else but Rohanson Viscount would be such a figure?

 

I knew best that I was innocent. I had no reason to set fire to the Rohanson Estate in the first place.

 

The Rohanson Estate had memories with my mother…

 

‘Memories?’

 

At that moment, pure white snow fell before my eyes. I clapped my hands to catch the snow. Worried the snow might escape, I slightly opened the gap between my hands to peek inside. Instead of crystals, I saw white petals. Only then did I realize what I had caught were cherry blossom petals.

 

Sprouts emerged from the ground. When I raised my head, my view opened with the clear blue sky. Above me I could see a huge cherry tree. A cherry tree with lush cherry blossoms that looked even larger than the one I had seen at the Rohanson Estate.

 

The surroundings were gentle spring. Outside, servants walked around. I tried to climb the tree but was caught and stopped by a maid. Having no choice, I picked up flowers that had fallen to the ground. I brushed away ants targeting the flowers.

 

Then I ran with my arms full of flowers. I climbed the stairs up and up to the third floor. When I kicked the door open, a radiant woman inside looked at me with wide eyes. Soon her eyes curved into crescents.

 

I placed flowers in the hair of the woman who seemed about to melt from affection. In return, she hugged me tightly as if to crush me. After being held in her soft embrace, I tickled the woman out of embarrassment. The woman laughed with a sound like mine, then fell backward while holding me.

 

Crack. I felt like my neck was breaking. Something was holding me. Cough, I coughed as I couldn’t breathe.

 

Two feet floated in the air.

 

I am floating. The cherry tree bit my nape like a mother beast.

 

What strangled my neck was mother’s pure white bedsheet. I tore the blanket to prepare rope.

 

Cherry blossoms fell and fell and fell to decorate my coffin.

 

Ants crawled up my body in a line. Ants crawled over my eyes. Ants.

 

“Evangeline.”

 

Ah.

 

Air rushed in and I took a big breath. My lungs greatly swelled and deflated.

 

I came to my senses at the sound calling me. I frowned at my throbbing head. What was I just thinking about? Ah, right. I was deducing the identity of the culprit who set fire to the estate. Someone came forward testifying that I set fire to the estate.

 

“However, the testimonies are conflicting. Several people say it wasn’t you but someone else who set the fire.”

 

At first I thought the viscount was giving false testimony, but that wasn’t it. There wasn’t just one or two witnesses. Hearing that much, it wasn’t difficult to guess who the culprit might be.

 

“Rico is the culprit.”

 

“Ricoradka?”

 

The duke, who still didn’t know Rico was the host, was puzzled by the suddenly mentioned name.

 

If it wasn’t something Bishop Marik fabricated but witnesses existed, wasn’t there one being who held a grudge against me and had been absent yesterday? It was a moment when it became obvious where the ‘rat’s’ footsteps, whose whereabouts couldn’t be found during the night, had headed. Moreover, as I already knew from Hazel’s incident, the ‘rat’ was good at mimicking others.

 

“Rico is the only remaining host in the ducal estate. Yesterday Hazel witnessed that Rico was the host and fled to me to confess. I tried to catch Rico but couldn’t find her whereabouts since it was nighttime.”

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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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