My Possession Became a Ghost Story - Chapter 208

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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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Javanya sold out the people who were forbidden from entering the temple. Since the sacrifice ceremony was originally a political event, commoners could not sit together with them. The temple was already difficult for commoners to enter in the first place.

“Ah… I was foolish and didn’t think that far. You truly are a bishop!”

Seeing the priest look at Javanya with eyes full of respect and fervor, it seemed like quite a plausible excuse even though he had just made it up.

“I’ll come with you too!”

Moreover, the priest was moved and even volunteered to accompany him, which made things a bit troublesome. Though it was unlikely, if by any chance the sun really disappeared, wouldn’t it interfere with opening the door? However, Javanya doubted Gabriel’s words would come true and headed to the main gate with the priest.

Unlike when they were receiving visitors, the door was now firmly closed. The holy knights guarding the front of the door greeted Javanya when they saw him. After casually returning their greeting with one hand, Javanya approached the door closely. Beyond the door, there would be people praying.

He had certainly thought so, but Javanya doubted his ears.

He had expected it to be filled with praise toward God, but what actually reached Javanya’s ears were desperate cries.

“Open this door right now!”

“Please, please give me just one bottle of holy water! Just one bottle!”

“Oh God! Please return my daughter to me!”

“…Mother, our mother was dragged to the temple last month and hasn’t returned! Please give us back our mother…”

“You damn bastards, bring back our father! Father was just a person who worked hard, but a heretic? Stop spouting nonsense, damn it! Bring back our father who died unjustly!”

“Marik! You demon! If you’re not a demon, then what are you!”

Javanya froze in place as if he had forgotten how to breathe.

Where was the praise toward God that he had expected?

Could the knights not hear these sounds?

“I say.”

“Yes, Bishop.”

“What’s happening outside?”

At Javanya’s question, the holy knight scratched his cheek awkwardly. Javanya pressed for an answer.

“Ah… well. While you were away, Bishop, when we tried to close the door, people were trying to enter on their own. We used a bit of force…”

Javanya only now noticed that there was something red on the knight’s clothes. As Javanya stared intently at the bloodstain, the knight made an awkward face and raised his arm. There was a small cut mark on his sleeve.

“There was a scuffle. I treated it with holy water that the priest gave me, so you don’t need to worry.”

The knight answered apologetically, thinking Javanya was worried about him. But what Javanya was actually thinking about were the people the knight had supposedly subdued.

Why did Gabriel come to mind again this time?

That child had come looking for Javanya for help, carrying a child larger than himself on his back. At that time, Javanya had no holy water on hand. Because one incompetent priest had used up the last remaining bottle of holy water they had brought to treat his own wound.

What was different between then and now? What was different between that priest and this knight? How much had Javanya himself changed between then and now?

People had rushed in and were subdued with swords? What would Gabriel have done if he had been in this situation? Javanya suddenly found the answer to the questions he had asked himself in the request Gabriel had made of him.

“I suppose the sacrifice ceremony is about to begin now.”

The bell rang twelve times from the spire that rose piercingly high. It was noon. Javanya heard the people’s cries being buried under the sound of the bells from where he stood.

By now, Gabriel would probably be led by Marik’s hand and placed on the altar. Though they had spent a long time together, Marik’s true intentions were still difficult to read.

Therefore, even Javanya could not guess what would happen to Gabriel.

Javanya closed his mouth as if gagged. He stood guard in front of the door in silence for a long time.

And, just as Gabriel had said, the sun disappeared.

“What is this…”

The priests and nobles inside the temple probably couldn’t see it directly, but Javanya witnessed that moment vividly. Night fell in the middle of the day.

Javanya, who had been quietly watching the place where the sun had disappeared, remembered the promise he had made with Gabriel.

“Open the door.”

“Pardon?”

“Hurry, open the door!”

The knights opened the door at the words of the bishop they respected. Since they couldn’t understand with their own minds the situation where the sun had suddenly disappeared in broad daylight, they followed the words of their superior exactly.

As the temple door opened wide, countless people rushed inside.

Among the people rushing into the temple, rats also ran in together. Perhaps some of them were the voices Javanya had heard.

***

Gabriel got out of the carriage first, and it was soon my turn to get out. As the temple drew closer, Pudding seemed to lose energy and drooped so much that it would be fair to call him liquid now. If I put him in a glass bottle like this, he would probably fit right in.

“Evangeline has arrived.”

The coachman bowed apologetically, saying he was sorry for being late, so I waved my hand saying it was fine.

I had come once before when picking up Kanna and Hena, so was this my first time? Perhaps because my situation had changed, the temple felt much more intimidating than before.

Maybe it was because of the countless crowds gathered in front of the temple. The temple was in an uproar with people praying and whispering about something.

I was worried that as soon as I got out, curses would pour out saying a witch or demon had appeared and chaos would ensue, so I asked Pudding to slightly erase my presence.

I’m sorry for overworking you when you’re already out of it. I tried to pick up Pudding to get out of the carriage, but I couldn’t tell what he looked like – when I lifted my arms, his body just stretched out long. …Do cats normally stretch like this?

I picked up the listless Pudding and quietly climbed the stairs toward the temple.

Even though there were so many people in front of the temple, the path I was walking was quite deserted. This was because the knights were controlling people so that the path from where the carriages of nobles stopped to the temple was completely clear.

Thanks to Pudding, I was walking unnoticed like an invisible person on the deserted path when it happened. Was he some kind of knight captain like Gabriel? A knight dressed more splendidly than the other knights closed the pocket watch he had been watching and put it back in his chest, then spoke.

“It’s time, so close the door.”

“Yes, understood! Close the door!”

“Close the door!”

At that command, the knights began to move in unison. The sight of the knights moving in perfect coordination to close one massive door was quite a spectacle.

I let out a small sigh. I almost had to climb over the wall if I had been a little later. The coachman’s apology wasn’t for nothing.

I thought I should hurry inside before the door closed and quickened my pace, but there was a commotion up ahead. It was right in front of the entrance.

I calmed Pudding, who had reflexively extended his claws in surprise. Since my presence was erased, it probably wasn’t someone who had seen me.

When I squinted and looked closely, people were rushing at the closing door. The knights were stopping the people, but their methods were too rough to simply call it blocking.

There were even knights who drew swords and threatened the people. It was chaos to the degree that I wondered how it had been controlled until just moments ago. Then someone was pushed from the crowd and bounced forward.

He was a man wearing patched cloth, and whether he hadn’t been eating properly, his thin body and face had no flesh, with sunken cheeks.

The man who looked extremely poor immediately tried to run into the wide open temple door, but was immediately stopped by a knight.

“What are you doing!”

“Please, please… holy water, just a little holy water… even just a tiny bit would be good, please share some! My wife is sick and dying!”

The man clung to the knight’s trouser leg and pleaded. Whether he was too thin and weak, even his voice was faint. The man desperately pleaded with the knight in a trembling tone.

It was a heartbreaking story just to hear, but apparently not to the knight. The knight didn’t hesitate and mercilessly swung his sword, slashing the man’s back.

What? Did I see that wrong? I couldn’t understand what I had seen before my eyes, but the knight even kicked and shoved the man who was in pain. People screamed and pulled back.

As the man rolled and fell toward me, I was startled and reflexively caught him. Fortunately, even though the man suddenly stopped, the situation was so chaotic that no one seemed to find it strange.

“Ugh, urgh…”

Whether his back was deeply cut, his clothes were damp. Blood got on the hand that was supporting him. You could just talk instead of cutting a person? Before I could get angry at the knight, forgetting that I wasn’t being perceived, a rebuke came from elsewhere.

“What are you doing right now!”

It was someone who looked quite young. He ran to the man, checked if he was safe, then glared at the knight with sharp eyes. However, perhaps because his presence wasn’t very threatening, the knight instead lectured him condescendingly.

“Priest. I’m just teaching manners to an uneducated person, so it’s not something for you to worry about.”

“Not something for me to worry about? Then I suppose the Bishop would find it worth worrying about.”

At the priest’s words, the knight looked defeated. Bishop? Could he mean Bishop Marik? A priest connected to Bishop Marik? I examined the priest closely, but it wasn’t a face I knew. The knight, who had grimaced deeply, soon sneered at the priest.

“Priest Harut seems to have a talent for making big deals out of trivial matters? Well, Bishop Marik has cherished and raised you since childhood.”

“What did you just say?”

“Isn’t that right? You may not know, Priest, but this was ordered by Bishop Marik.”

“The Bishop told you to harm people?”

“Haha, what are you saying? When did I harm a person? I merely stopped a heretic who was trying to invade the temple without permission.”

The knight spoke mockingly, and the priest closed his mouth tightly as if at a loss for words. I looked at the priest with curious eyes.

For someone who grew up under Bishop Marik, he seems surprisingly level-headed…

While quietly listening to their argument, I took out holy water from my chest.

I had brought holy water, but I didn’t know I’d use it this way. I took out two bottles and first put one to the lips of the man who was bleeding and losing consciousness.

It would be most effective to apply it directly to the wound, but I couldn’t undress him in this situation.

By the time I had emptied the entire bottle of holy water, the man seemed to have regained consciousness to some degree. The man blinked his eyes wide and looked at me in confusion, not understanding what was happening. Then he saw the holy water and was surprised, his eyes widening.

“Could this be…”

“Shh. Drink it first.”

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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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