My Possession Became a Ghost Story - Chapter 176

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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 sacrifice ritual was said to be an event where offerings were made to the Sun God.

“Offerings?”

I frowned at the word offerings. This is definitely a romance fantasy novel, right…?

“They don’t actually kill anyone. To be precise, it’s someone who takes on the role of dying.”

Ah. Fortunately, it wasn’t about actually offering people as sacrifices, but just taking on the role of a sacrifice for the event.

The sacrifice ritual Gabriel described was an event that had continued from the past, something you’d find in ancient texts, and was actually closer to a kind of play.

The Sun God loved all life in the world, but considered humans the most special. Particularly, those favored by the god could live lives so long they were nearly immortal. Among them, the one said to be most cherished by the god was a girl named Lea.

The child loved by the god was indeed intelligent and lovable. Lea, born in a small rural village, caught the god’s eye the moment she was born.

Lea’s mother who gave birth to her was blind, deaf, and mute, but the god who rejoiced at the child’s birth bestowed blessings upon Lea’s mother as well, completely curing all her ailments.

Not only that, but the sun didn’t set for a full hundred days in the village where Lea was born. Blessed by the god, Lea’s village became extremely fertile and prosperous. There were even legends that the current empire’s territory began from that very village.

The god called Lea his sister and gave her a portion of divine power. Though born human, Lea became an existence rivaling the gods.

However, as time passed, Lea gradually became more arrogant. Living a nearly immortal life and receiving the god’s favor made everything in the world seem trivial to her.

And furthermore, she began to envy the Sun God. She boasted that if the Sun God didn’t exist, she would enjoy all the power he possessed.

Eventually, reaching the pinnacle of arrogance, she wanted to kill the god and take his place. Lea rebelled against the Sun God, but the god couldn’t bring himself to harm his beloved child.

It was humans who executed Lea in the god’s stead.

People were jealous of Lea who monopolized the god’s favor, and they were afraid that the disappointed god might withdraw his blessings from humanity due to Lea’s misdeeds.

So as a means to continue receiving favor, they offered Lea, who had rebelled against the god, as a sacrifice. Lea was beheaded and died.

The Sun God grieved deeply and personally collected her remains. However, since Lea was not without sin, he imposed the punishment of confining Lea’s soul within his own shadow.

And to those who followed Lea and were created by her, he withdrew all blessings and cursed them so that touching blessings would cause their flesh to melt away in agony.

“By blessings, do you mean holy water?”

“Yes. Those beings are what we now call demons.”

The sacrifice ritual was a ceremony commemorating exactly that event.

The one who had beheaded Lea was the Founder of the Empire. So the sacrifice ritual had continued alongside the empire’s establishment. It was a monumental event for both the empire and the temple. Especially now, with the temple’s influence at its peak under Bishop Marik’s leadership, it would be an extremely important event.

It was such a major event that it was strange I didn’t know about it. But it was natural not to know, wasn’t it? Rohanson Viscount had never once mentioned the sacrifice ritual to me. Since it was an event for the upper class, there was no way the sickly Kanna, who only lay bedridden, would know the details.

It wasn’t an annual event either, but an irregular ceremony held whenever the empire faced particularly many troubles.

Now it was also tacitly used with impure intentions to widely announce and solidify when new power holders emerged. It had become an established fact that whoever took on the role of beheading the sacrifice would ascend to the throne.

“The one who previously took on the executioner’s role is the current Emperor.”

“Then this time’s executioner role will be taken by Princess Tenebray.”

“Yes. That’s likely.”

It held the symbolism of taking on the role of the Founder of the Empire and ascending to the highest position.

“If the executioner’s role goes to the next emperor, who takes on the sacrifice’s role?”

For a simple play, it had tremendous impact, so the sacrifice’s role couldn’t be taken by just anyone either. The most likely candidate was me or Gabriel, whom Bishop Marik found troublesome.

“The criteria for selecting the sacrifice’s role aren’t clear, but this time the role will go to Evangeline.”

Gabriel speculated that I would be selected as the sacrifice. Could it be that Bishop Marik had been eyeing me for this role since the Prince’s Birthday Celebration?

Maybe Bishop Marik’s interest in me from before was because of this? And after calling it a sacrifice and claiming it’s a play, he plans to go “Oops, my hand slipped!” and actually behead me for real.

“He probably intended to use me as bait to make Evangeline comply.”

His deep blue eyes were filled with guilt about being my weakness. Gabriel’s expression struck me vividly anew. He looked infinitely forlorn.

“Since Evangeline ch-cherishes, cherishes me… Of course, Jelly would be used as bait too.”

Gabriel blushed and stammered as he spoke, as if embarrassed to accept the fact that I cherished him. Is he doing that on purpose?

“Now you acknowledge that I cherish you, Count.”

“Of course, it’s not just me, but there’s also Pudding, and Kanna, and also Toten Madam…”

When I spoke teasingly, Gabriel rambled on, continuously mentioning the names of people I would surely cherish.

Right, I have no choice but to cherish Pudding since he’s a pet. Kanna too since I took her in. I was listening to each one when Toten Madam appeared in the list, making me press my forehead and stop Gabriel’s words.

“Please stop.”

If I hadn’t stopped him and left him alone, he seemed ready to endlessly recite the list of my people.

Gabriel pressed his lips tightly shut. His face became even more flushed. It was amazing that he could turn redder than before. His eyes became moist, creating the illusion that tears were even forming.

Gabriel was surely well aware of his appearance’s impact. If I were like some oblivious female protagonist, I’d be asking if he was sick upon seeing Gabriel’s reddened face.

No, Gabriel is a patient, so he is sick. Somehow my stomach felt queasy. Unlike before when I only felt unpleasant, now I was getting embarrassed along with him, my face reddening as well. I hurriedly changed the subject.

“Ten days is quite tight.”

“Yes. I understand it’s a hastily arranged schedule. Even when I was at the temple, they had only roughly set an auspicious date, and proper official documents hadn’t even been issued yet.”

When Gabriel was at the temple meant before the Rohanson Estate even burned down. By now, letters requesting attendance would have arrived.

“I’ll go ask Grandfather if any letters came. Count, you should rest a bit more.”

Gabriel nodded obediently. I helped Gabriel lie down and tucked him in well. Gabriel blushed again in embarrassment, and I couldn’t stand it so I placed my hand over his eyes.

“Evangeline…?”

Gabriel called my name as if he didn’t understand why his vision was suddenly blocked.

He must have blinked in confusion because his eyelashes fluttered against my palm. Does he think he’s a butterfly or something? Why is he fluttering like that…

Did pollen fly over from the wing-flapping, or was someone tickling me with brushstrokes as if testing me?

Somehow I couldn’t bear it and bit my lip.

When I gently stroked his eyes like putting a child to sleep, Gabriel compliantly closed his eyes.

Before long, Gabriel couldn’t endure his ailing body and quickly fell asleep. Gabriel’s breathing could be heard regularly.

I asked the doctors standing outside the room to look after Gabriel and headed to the Duke. I couldn’t needlessly trouble a sick person, so I should do what I needed to do while Gabriel was sleeping.

Even while heading to the Duke’s office, the strange emotion from earlier kept popping up. It crawled around like bugs, making me clench my fists tight.

My nerves kept getting irritated, but what kind of emotion is this exactly?

However, I soon put my thoughts aside at the sight of the office before me. I don’t know. When there’s a problem I don’t know, I shouldn’t just focus on that but solve other problems first. I should also resolve the immediate issue at hand.

***

“Grandfather, it’s me, Evangeline.”

“Come in.”

Today too, the Duke was surrounded by mountains of documents. The Duke’s desk was full of papers.

The accumulated amount was serious. It seemed like there was even more? His face looked haggard as if he hadn’t gotten proper sleep either.

The Duke glanced toward the sofa. That was a non-verbal expression meaning he didn’t want to speak, so I should sit down on my own. They say three years of living in a duke’s mansion and you can recite poetry.

Of course, I hadn’t been here for three years, but I’m a fast learner so let’s just move on.

Sitting in the soft seat, I went straight to the point without unnecessarily beating around the bush.

“Grandfather, do you know that a sacrifice ritual will be held soon?”

“…Sacrifice ritual?”

The Duke’s hand, which had been moving in one stroke, stopped and the flow was interrupted. The Duke looked at me as if he already had a headache.

“Count Gabriel has awakened.”

“…That’s good news.”

“Count Gabriel was the one who brought up the sacrifice ritual. He said it’s in ten days, but haven’t you heard any news, Grandfather?”

“If it’s in ten days, an invitation must have come.”

Seeing him frown, he seemed unaware of the sacrifice ritual.

“Ricoradka, the letters…”

The Duke habitually called for Rico then stopped. I roughly understood why the Duke was surrounded by mountains of documents, working like a ruin from overwork.

It was because Rico, the capable butler, was absent. The Duke hadn’t filled Rico’s vacancy.

Important letters and such would have all been checked by Rico before being given to the Duke. Without someone to do such auxiliary work, the Duke was slow to receive news.

The Duke rummaged through the pile of accumulated letters and pulled one out.

“It was here…”

The Duke roughly tore open the letter and checked its contents. The Duke frowned deeply as he read, then angrily tore up the letter. Not satisfied with that, he threw the torn paper into the fireplace and burned it.

No, I wanted to see it too… Did Bishop Marik threaten him about Agera or something?

I was curious about the contents, but it didn’t seem like he would explain it to me. After fuming for a while, the Duke explained to me with his anger still not subsided.

“The invitation only came to me. Seeing that they sent it only to me while knowing you’re staying at the Duke’s Mansion, it seems your letter went to that damn Rohanson bastard.”

“To the Viscount?”

Oops. I habitually said Viscount instead of Father. Fortunately, the Duke, who despised the Viscount, didn’t point out my form of address and even seemed pleased.

“Right. Officially, you’re that damn Rohanson’s, aren’t you. You’re my daughter’s child, so they could have just sent it to the Duke’s Mansion!”

The Duke grumbled and cursed whoever wrote the letter. My daughter’s child… The word granddaughter must not stick to his tongue very well.

Still, it was somewhat amusing that the Duke, who used to lump me together as a damn Rohanson, now saw me as a pseudo-Hosaquin.

“Are you thinking of participating in the sacrifice ritual? I know where that Rohanson bastard is staying, so I’ll send someone to retrieve the letter.”

How does the Duke know Rohanson Viscount’s whereabouts? Did he put surveillance on him? Even if I asked, the Duke probably wouldn’t tell me. If he had intended to tell me, he would have revealed the Viscount’s whereabouts long ago.

If he knows the Viscount’s location and will even bring the letter, I’m grateful. I nodded at the Duke’s words and answered.

“Since I’ll probably be selected as the sacrifice, I’ll have no choice but to participate.”

The duke groaned and held his head at the mention of sacrifice.

Come to think of it, the previous sacrifice ritual was performed just before the current Emperor ascended to the throne. While Gabriel didn’t know who had served as the last sacrifice, perhaps the duke would know?

“Do you know who served as the sacrifice in the previous ritual, Grandfather?”

“…Yes. I know.”

The duke sighed and paused dramatically. Unless he was planning to insert a 60-second commercial, I wished he’d just reveal it immediately. Finally, the duke opened his mouth to reveal the sacrifice’s identity.

“The previous sacrifice was His Majesty’s younger sister.”

“What?”

For a moment, I thought I had misheard.

“His Majesty the Emperor is truly a ruthless man. You have no idea how much blood he spilled to ascend to the throne. Princess Orpheus, who served as the sacrifice, survived, so she could be called fortunate in the end.”

“Even though she served as the sacrifice?”

“That’s precisely why she was fortunate. His Majesty cherished Princess Orpheus. Those who serve as sacrifices cannot reach for power. He should have eliminated her as a threat to imperial authority, but he was reluctant to kill her.”

This was the same heartless Emperor who had tried to kill his own son Gabriel simply because holy water didn’t work on him. If the duke said this was evidence of his own way of cherishing his sister, I had no choice but to believe it.

Princess Orpheus had decided to spend the rest of her life in the quiet countryside and left the Imperial Capital, and now even her life or death was unknown.

“Now that I think about it, Oratorio resembled Princess Orpheus. His Majesty’s particular fondness for Oratorio might have been influenced by that.”

The duke said this and mentioned that if not for Bishop Marik, Oratorio would have certainly ascended to the throne in the next generation. The duke seemed absorbed in old stories. However, I suddenly had an ominous thought.

“If even royalty can become sacrifices, then Count Gabriel could also be used as a sacrifice.”

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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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