My Possession Became a Ghost Story - Chapter 181

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

Then what did ‘from the beginning’ mean? Before Gabriel could ask again, the topic shifted.

“You look quite satisfied with your current state, but will you just stay here quietly during the sacrifice ritual too?”

Since that topic couldn’t be easily ignored, Gabriel swallowed his questions and focused on the conversation.

“I’d like to be by Evangeline’s side if possible. But… my body is like this.”

More than anything, there was a high possibility that Evangeline wouldn’t bring Gabriel along. While Evangeline would be considering and protecting Gabriel as a patient, Gabriel’s heart would burn black being left alone. Gabriel grasped at Pudding like a lifeline, seeking a solution.

“Pudding. If I made a wish to you, could you heal my body?”

“You’re making a wish to me? Do you know what that means when you’re spouting such nonsense?”

“Yes… I know.”

Gabriel swallowed the rising discomfort again. He knew well what it meant to make a wish to Pudding, to a demon.

It was a choice the original Gabriel would never have made. But Gabriel now knew that to protect something precious, he had to abandon corresponding beliefs.

“Know what.”

As if. Pudding sneered with a subtle look. Gabriel seemed to hear the unspoken words that followed.

Gabriel found it terrible to harm others. When someone asked for help, he would extend his hand without hesitation regardless of who they were. This indiscriminate help had become ingrained like a habit.

Having lived his entire life with such beliefs, it was even harder to bear when others sacrificed themselves because of him.

Someone in the past had declared that Gabriel was born with a good nature. However, Gabriel himself didn’t think so.

Gabriel’s disposition was created through experience. The memory of the child who had saved him and died in his place when no one else could help would never fade no matter how much time passed.

The memory was like shackles to him. His childhood memories not only remained as trauma, but became blind faith that determined the direction of his life.

So Gabriel would hesitate hundreds, thousands of times. But he would agree to sacrificing the innocent.

Because what he would place on the opposite side of the scale was too important, the scale had already tilted at an angle.

“…Because I have my priorities too.”

It was a warning he had once heard from Jelly.

Gabriel learned how to weigh human lives while dealing with Bishop Marik. He moved one step faster than Bishop Marik to purge those called heretics.

At first, he was filled only with guilt and doubt. Did Gabriel himself have such qualifications? Was it right to sacrifice even one human life? He agonized dozens of times over whether one person’s life was lighter than several others’.

Gabriel’s worries didn’t last long. While he was deliberating, he heard stories of entire families, entire small villages being burned down on the pretext of contact with heretics in places he hadn’t discovered. Gabriel belatedly collected the corpses.

Everywhere he went, he heard screams and pleas to be saved. Gabriel killed the scapegoats without hesitation. Their families spewed resentment and curses at Gabriel.

Even hearing the abuse didn’t make him feel bad. At least it was proof that many people were vividly alive.

Gabriel learned that it was better for one person to die bearing all sins than for an entire family to die.

There would be those who would rather die together, so this too was just Gabriel’s position. If it was hypocrisy, then so be it.

Human lives died lightly at Gabriel’s fingertips.

Evangeline found it terrible that Bishop Marik arbitrarily judged human lives, but in fact Gabriel was no different.

If sacrificing the innocent could help Evangeline, Gabriel would wield others’ lives without hesitation.

The lives I sacrificed would be etched in memory and become another foundation that formed him. Yes, this was hypocrisy.

This selfish aspect of Gabriel might resemble the Emperor. Gabriel felt in this moment that he and the Emperor were blood relatives.

“…You’ve become a bit more satisfying.”

Pudding looked at Gabriel with sleepy eyes.

“It’s admirable that you’ve changed, but I can’t heal you.”

The answer that returned was negative. Reading the despair that appeared on Gabriel’s face, Pudding quickly corrected his words.

“Ah, to be precise, it’s not that I won’t do it, but that I can’t.”

“What?”

“It’s not that I don’t want to heal you, I just can’t.”

“It’s impossible?”

“Right.”

Pudding nodded and began his explanation.

“Recovery is Rahel’s divine power.”

This was a fact evident from how holy water, made in the Temple of the Sun God, was most widely used. Gabriel nodded with a devastated expression since it was an undeniable fact.

“To be precise, it’s a power that Rahel ‘monopolizes.’ So beings like me who are Lea’s followers actually can’t heal injured wounds. But we restore bodies through loopholes.”

Though Pudding didn’t bother explaining in detail, Gabriel guessed that human lives would be used to restore a demon’s body.

It was easy to guess since the summoning ritual had demanded human lives from the beginning. Since they hadn’t received the Sun God’s divine power, they took human life to use as nourishment.

“But I can’t use loopholes on you. You’re human.”

Pudding concluded firmly.

“All humans except one were shaped by Rahel. You’re included among all those humans.”

Gabriel couldn’t help but think of Evangeline as the one exception Pudding mentioned.

Was Gabriel mistaken? But if the exception was really Evangeline…

If Evangeline wasn’t created by the Sun God, it would explain the emotions he’d felt so strangely from their first meeting that he couldn’t think of her as the same human.

He remembered the voice asking anxiously if it would be okay even if she wasn’t human. The trembling tone that seemed like crying, making him want to comfort and soothe her immediately.

It was terribly regrettable that he couldn’t wipe her dry eyes that couldn’t even shed tears because his body wouldn’t move as he wished, that he couldn’t clasp her cold hands.

Pudding continued speaking without considering what Gabriel might have deduced from his words.

“Gods are greedy.”

Gabriel momentarily thought Pudding was pitying him, though he knew that couldn’t be true.

“Even if Rahel abandoned you, the Sun God’s influence doesn’t diminish. The fact that natural healing is possible despite withdrawing the divine power of holy water is proof that the god’s influence remains.”

As Pudding said, Gabriel’s body did recover through treatment even though holy water didn’t work on him. If the wounds had remained as they were, it would have been impossible to stay in the temple as a Holy Knight while hiding his constitution.

But still, major injuries like severed tendons couldn’t be healed without miracles like holy water. However, Gabriel thought there was a reason Pudding had brought up the sacrifice ritual to test him.

Though he said he couldn’t heal, there must be a way.

“Pudding, you said my body cannot be restored. Then why did you mention the sacrifice ritual?”

At Gabriel’s question, Pudding’s face hardened. His round forehead split open. A beast’s single eye that had torn through living flesh stared at Gabriel. The face that lost expression and revealed emotionless features was still gorgeous and beautiful, but ironically, nothing human could be found in it.

Who could recognize that thing as the same cat that curled its tail and acted coquettishly in front of Evangeline?

“Gabriel. How far can you go for Evangeline?”

The world flipped upside down instantly. The ceiling existed beneath his feet, and furniture hung upside down above Gabriel’s head. The demon stood stepping on the ceiling.

Gabriel found what entered his vision terribly familiar. Walls where bones and flesh were stuck together had eyeballs densely attached.

It was the scene he had seen beyond the mirror when he first danced with Evangeline. The only difference from then was that unlike Evangeline who had been alone and pure, Pudding blended in as part of the surrounding scenery.

Gabriel realized that the scene he had seen then was shown by the demon. Ridiculously, thinking about it now, it had been the blind demon’s jealousy toward Evangeline.

Gabriel closed and opened his eyes, answering resolutely.

“…I can sacrifice even my worthless life as much as needed.”

Pudding was satisfied with Gabriel’s answer.

“That level of resolve is enough.”

And the demon began working miracles.

“If you remain injured like this, Evangeline will never take you along. But you’re needed for the sacrifice ritual. So I have no choice but to help.”

The demon lightly flicked his hand. Gabriel’s body moved with a thud.

“Ugh…!”

His teeth clenched at the pain that rushed in instantly. The demon, who had no interest whatsoever in anyone’s pain but Evangeline’s, simply continued flicking his hand.

Each time the demon flicked his hand, Gabriel’s body jerked. Thorns sprouted in the blood flowing through his body, stabbing all over like acupuncture needles. It felt like long, thin things were piercing through his hands and feet, sewing them together. Finally, it seemed his head was being drilled through.

“Hah, heu…”

A blade stabbed randomly at his head, then tormented him with sawing motions. His insides churned nauseously. Something hot gushed up from his throat. Gabriel writhed and gasped.

Pain beyond common sense assaulted Gabriel. It was pain no human could endure, yet somehow Gabriel couldn’t even lose consciousness. He wanted to cry out for it to stop.

But Gabriel bit his lips tightly instead of speaking. If this pain was to help Evangeline, he could endure it indefinitely.

Even if he died futilely like this, Gabriel wouldn’t blame Pudding if it benefited Evangeline. Gabriel endured the assaulting pain with such thoughts.

Only after a long while did the pain finally stop. When Gabriel, soaked in cold sweat and barely breathing, came to his senses, the world had already returned to normal.

“Pudding. What is this…”

Gabriel couldn’t finish his words.

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