My Possession Became a Ghost Story - Chapter 171

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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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“…The butler of the Hosaquin Ducal House?”

“To be precise, I should say the demon inside Rico set the fire. Demons can borrow other people’s faces, you see.”

Gabriel must have been acquainted with Rico since he had visited the duke’s mansion before. He seemed curious about what exactly had happened, but this wasn’t the right place to explain everything.

Rico bowed politely to Gabriel who recognized him. It was the bizarre sight of Gabriel greeting Gabriel—something you couldn’t see even if you paid money for it.

Still, it wasn’t difficult to tell them apart. Truly, if you lined up Gabriel and Rico and asked someone to identify who was who, they could distinguish them without hesitation.

I knew Rico’s stolen appearance had an uncanny quality different from the original, but seeing him directly compared to Gabriel made the stark difference feel obvious.

“Looking at it this way, they feel quite different.”

When I muttered quietly, Gabriel tilted his head.

“Do they? …To me, they look chillingly identical.”

From a third party’s perspective the differences were visible, but to the person involved, they appeared remarkably similar. Come to think of it, when Rico had transformed into Kanna too… I felt the uncanny quality, but Kanna herself was horrified and frightened.

Was it fear at the appearance of something that shattered one’s uniqueness? Or perhaps the feeling of having one’s identity stolen by something that looked perfectly identical?

In any case, the ghost stories about dying or going mad when encountering a doppelganger didn’t circulate for nothing.

“Different? Wait, wait a moment….”

The comment about not being similar seemed to strike Rico as serious. Rico’s ‘Gabriel’ stared intently at Gabriel as if dissecting him, then suddenly lifted his head as if he’d found the answer.

What did he figure out? As I watched curiously, Rico began copying Gabriel’s wounds exactly. Starting from the ankles and gradually moving upward to reach his face.

Cuts appeared on his flesh along with dried bloodstains. It felt like watching a time-lapse video of Gabriel’s suffering. All those wounds were inflicted after meeting me…. Somehow it felt like I was pushing Gabriel into hell just to save myself, and my chest tightened painfully.

“How about now…? Do I look like Count Gabriel?”

Rico asked while watching my reaction. When I didn’t answer immediately, Rico turned his eyes to Pudding. Pudding looked at Rico’s appearance with admiration.

“Pretty high level? At this degree, even the servants of the divine wouldn’t recognize the difference, right?”

Since even Pudding acknowledged it, Rico seemed to expect my answer too.

Sorry to Rico who had reproduced the wounds, but the difference I’d noticed between the two wasn’t about injuries. If you ever faced Gabriel’s gaze looking at me directly even once.

If you glimpsed the fragments of emotion revealed so breathlessly and openly, you’d surely feel the disparity in that stark difference. However, even trying to explain that ticklish fact, my mouth wouldn’t open.

So all I could talk about was the uncanny quality of Rico’s mimicry.

“If you don’t observe closely, you won’t notice.”

I softened my words about how crude it looked compared to the original. Rico sighed with disappointment.

“I thought I could do better. It was easier than imitating Lady Rohanson though….”

“Me?”

“Yes. Well… the sensation from when I was a host remains. When I try to imitate you, my lady, I always feel resistance as if I’m going against some principle, so it was a bit difficult.”

So that rat bastard who claimed to be my mother endured the resistance that came from wanting to mess with me, committed arson, and even went around being tyrannical on top of that.

“But why did you transform into my appearance?”

Gabriel glanced at Rico and asked after a pause. He seemed to be wary of Rico, not having heard the full situation properly.

I wanted to ease Gabriel’s tension with even a light joke, but now wasn’t the situation to spout nonsense like ‘two handsome men means double the joy.’

“Rico will remain in prison in place of Count Gabriel.”

Before coming to get Gabriel, I had asked Rico’s permission in advance. To use the rat’s ability and stay as Gabriel’s substitute.

It was practically closer to coercion than a request. Rico willingly accepted his role as if making proper atonement, even though he wasn’t the one who set fire to the Rohanson Estate.

“So, my lord, return with me.”

Was Gabriel’s destination the temple? Since we were heading to the Hosaquin Duke’s mansion, saying we’d return together might not make sense. But regardless of the destination, where Gabriel should be wasn’t some damp underground place where not a ray of sunlight entered.

“Together with my lady….”

Gabriel savored my words as if tasting them. His physical condition was a mess, and without holy water, perhaps his wounds couldn’t even be healed, yet what was so moving about my belated words….

Gabriel looked up at me. He didn’t even blink. I couldn’t understand why he was looking at me so tenderly.

Gabriel seemed lost in sweet words, then suddenly snapped back to reality as if waking from a dream and shook his head.

“But if Bishop Marik were to discover this, it would be very dangerous.”

Gabriel said with concern for Rico. He couldn’t even move his limbs properly, yet who was he worrying about.

And… I knew well enough that Rico would be in danger if caught by Bishop Marik.

What should I say to Gabriel? That I was just using Rico’s life, which had to be taken anyway, more usefully? That it was just buying time, so it didn’t matter if he was caught?

But I couldn’t tell Gabriel, who cherished human life, that I was using a person’s life like a tool.

When I weighed Gabriel and Rico on scales, the direction the weight tilted was predetermined. However, even the premise of weighing lives would be disturbing to Gabriel. He was sacrificial enough to offer his own body without hesitation to protect the people of the estate.

“I’ll be much safer with intact limbs than a knight who can’t even lift a finger due to injury.”

As I remained silent despite having a predetermined answer, Rico spoke up instead.

“Is there a need to invite danger unnecessarily?”

“The knight’s injury happened because I became the cause of it all.”

“Getting hurt in preparation for contingencies is enough with just me….”

“Sir Knight. If you remain in prison, that would be exactly what holds back Lady Rohanson.”

Rico cut off his words decisively. As soon as I was mentioned, Gabriel closed his mouth as if struck in a weak spot, then replied like an excuse.

“I… have no intention of becoming my lady’s shackles. I don’t even have such value to my lady.”

The way he spoke while trembling his eyelashes was quite pitiful. Hearing Gabriel’s self-deprecating words made my conscience sting as if stabbed by a sharp weapon.

Worthless. There was certainly a time when I thought so.

Like everything else in this world, Gabriel too felt like nothing more than a character from a novel to me.

From appearance to actions, speech, and beliefs—I considered everything to be a crafted character. What was carved in black lines on white paper, crawling out and telling me it felt emotions, was merely laughable.

It felt like my own value was being diminished and I was falling to the same fate, which was rather disgusting and irritating.

But the situation had changed. Though I didn’t want to admit it…, I had given quite a bit of my heart to Gabriel. I realized it when I felt anger upon receiving the letter that Gabriel was injured and imprisoned.

To become aware of emotions only after losing them—was I some romance novel male lead instead of the female protagonist, I wanted to argue with myself.

Perceptive Rico used that as his basis.

“Lady Rohanson… was very angry when she heard the news that you were imprisoned, Sir Knight. If it were me, I wouldn’t pour such emotion into a meaningless person. At least from my perspective.”

From my perspective too. By the way, didn’t I just say something embarrassing about cherishing Gabriel? I’m sure Gabriel seemed to like it too—is my memory completely confused?

Why doesn’t he believe my words? If Jelly were here, he’d already be laughing, asking if I got dementia at such a young age.

“That you cherish me… wasn’t empty words to comfort me then.”

Ah. He didn’t trust my words from the beginning. He must have thought it was just lip service for his injured self.

Gabriel was certainly a shining person even apart from me. So Gabriel didn’t need to cling to me.

Even excluding my personal feelings, Gabriel was a valuable person. If someone upright, oriented toward good, and willing to sacrifice his body for others wasn’t valuable, then who else would be precious.

Fortunately, he seemed to accept Rico’s words to some degree. Though it felt slightly odd that he seemed to trust Rico more than me.

“But… even so, I don’t want to sacrifice someone else in my place.”

Gabriel remained stubborn even after hearing Rico’s words. Yet he seemed reluctant to sacrifice Rico in his stead.

“I’m no longer human, so it’s fine. Having been a demon’s host, I can use magic like this as you can see, so I’d be safer than a knight who can’t even move his body.”

Rico hurriedly added words lest Gabriel object.

“Above all, I’m afraid I might lose consciousness and harm my daughter while staying at the ducal house, so I’d rather be locked up far away for peace of mind. If I can help Sir Knight and Lady Rohanson while doing so, that’s even better.”

Eventually, Rico revealed his situation—that he had already become a demon’s host and was currently in a state of temporarily regaining control from the demon, so he could lose consciousness again at any time.

Gabriel finally acquiesced, but he clearly still harbored the thought that he wasn’t worth saving. Ultimately, he accepted Rico’s sacrifice because he judged that side to have much greater advantages.

I even made Rico do the convincing of Gabriel to sacrifice Rico. My conscience kept tormenting me, demanding I stop because it hurt and asking me to take care of it. There were three people in the narrow prison, and I was the only bad one among them.

“Can I tie him up now?”

Pudding rattled the chains and asked if it was okay to restrain Rico. Somehow I felt relieved. The one cat we had also resembled its human companion, or maybe it was because of adolescence—anyway, its personality was quite bad. Thank goodness. I wasn’t the only one whose humanity hit rock bottom.

Pudding chaining up Rico looked inexplicably very excited. When Gabriel said Pudding looked happy, wondering if it was just my eyes, the answer came back that it was vicarious satisfaction.

Vicarious satisfaction? For a moment I thought I’d misheard. Could our kid have some hard-to-understand preferences? …This is all because of adolescence.

Pudding’s unwelcome hobby ended quickly. Rico bound in chains looked exactly like Gabriel when we first encountered him in prison. Though the person had changed, since the underground was dark, discovery would be delayed.

Gabriel quietly called me.

“…My lady.”

“Yes, Count Gabriel.”

Though I answered when called, no words followed, so I turned toward Gabriel. Gabriel, who had been looking at his own wretched, restrained form, turned his gaze to me. Gabriel hesitated and wavered before opening his mouth.

“…There are scars to distinguish me. Not simply scars from injury, but something like markings.”

“Markings?”

“…Yes.”

Gabriel closed his eyes as if ashamed to reveal his shame. When his eyes opened again, they held the light of resignation.

Gabriel moved his arm slowly. His fingers wouldn’t move properly, so his intended actions kept going awry. Gabriel continued speaking while fumbling.

“They said it was a marking to distinguish royalty.”

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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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