My Possession Became a Ghost Story - Chapter 262

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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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As I listed the scattered clues in my mind, I felt like there was something I was missing. It felt like one very important puzzle piece was missing from the center.

If I could just fill in that one missing piece…

While lost in thought, I heard an irritating noise.

“Y-you demon…!”

When I shifted my gaze, I saw Donau had grabbed a bottle. His hands were visibly trembling. Was he planning to strike me with that thing?

“D-die!”

Sure enough, Donau charged at me, swinging his hand. I lightly stepped back, and the bottle cut through empty air. He had swung so forcefully that Donau’s body lost balance and staggered.

The bottle slipped from Donau’s hand and fell to the floor. The sound of the glass bottle shattering echoed sharply through the narrow space. Broken pieces scattered everywhere. Having failed his surprise attack, Donau trembled and looked flustered.

“Th-this is… I mean…”

His face turned pale and he couldn’t even make a proper excuse.

“I-it was an accident…”

As if there was no need to listen further, Azazel struck the back of Donau’s neck with his sword sheath, knocking him unconscious.

“See, I told you. It would be better if he were dead.”

Azazel looked back at me and shrugged his shoulders.

Since it was his own doing, I couldn’t think of anything particular to say to Azazel. At least he didn’t kill him, so by Azazel’s standards, he had shown mercy.

I looked down at Donau’s limp body. Look at him hastening his own death by making a fuss with a bottle. …Even after coming back to life, nothing about him has changed.

At the same time, a flash of light streaked through my mind.

‘…Wait a moment.’

Coming back to life?

Those words echoed in my ears and struck my consciousness. The missing piece was finally filled in, and the gears began to turn and mesh together.

“Azazel.”

I called Azazel’s name quietly.

“…Can Lea bring dead people back to life?”

At my question, Azazel’s eyes narrowed. His characteristic golden pupils held a strange gleam.

“She can bring them back.”

Azazel answered slowly. His follow-up words were chilling.

“Though they’re nothing more than shells moving without souls. Well, I suppose that’s still a kind of resurrection, isn’t it?”

I knew this well too. Because Lea had shown me directly.

Lea had once killed a raven before my eyes and brought it back to life. The raven that was revived under Lea’s touch certainly seemed alive. It flapped its wings and made sounds. But I couldn’t feel any life force from it. It was merely a doll imitating what it had been when alive. I couldn’t sense any vitality or warmth. It only mechanically mimicked exactly what it had been like when alive.

Lea cannot touch souls.

That is solely the domain of the Sun God, Rahel.

That’s why when Amaranth prayed to have a child, Lea couldn’t create new life directly, so instead she summoned me from outside this world to complete ‘Evangeline.’

I pointed at Donau.

“Then how do we explain the Donau before our eyes?”

“Well… because time was turned back… wait, time?”

Azazel’s face, which had been answering carelessly, hardened. He too had recognized the contradiction in this world.

‘Can Lea really turn back time to bring people back to life?’

By reversing time, the dead had come back to life. But that wasn’t something Lea could do. What was happening in this world exceeded Lea’s domain.

“We… didn’t actually return to the past?”

Azazel spoke with difficulty. His voice was full of trembling. It contained all the confusion Azazel was feeling.

We had been operating under the wrong premise from the beginning. I thought Lea had turned back time to grant my wish. But if that wasn’t the case…

“Azazel.”

“What?”

“Now I understand why you specifically sought my cooperation.”

This time, Azazel was right.

This world is strange.

It’s so absurd I could laugh bitterly. Perhaps it was such a simple conclusion that I had unconsciously denied it all this time.

“This isn’t reality.”

The words spoken to me by the one borrowing Bishop Marik’s body suddenly came to mind. He had told me to find rest, to sleep peacefully. Borrowing those words, this place is.

“Inside a dream.”

The moment I quietly declared this, I felt a gaze watching me. Just like the saying that you shouldn’t mention that a place is a dream while inside the dream. Fortunately, unlike the urban legends, Azazel didn’t suddenly turn serious and glare at me.

“…A dream?”

Azazel just muttered with an expression of disbelief. Far from turning serious, he blinked as if he’d heard incomprehensible nonsense.

“Evangeline. I understand wanting to deny reality. I feel the same way. I’ve often wished it was just a dream. Mostly because of you, though.”

Though Azazel’s tone was close to sarcasm, I didn’t respond. Instead, I quietly met Azazel’s eyes. Only then did Azazel, recognizing the seriousness, take my words seriously.

“No, really?”

I nodded patiently.

“So what you’re saying is…”

Azazel stopped speaking and took a deep breath. His voice was cracked.

“You wished to save that knight, but since our god couldn’t fully revive the dead… so she created a fake world and pretended to grant your wish?”

I averted my gaze.

“That’s possible.”

It was an ambiguous answer.

Azazel’s speculation was also quite plausible.

If we assumed Lea had created this elaborate model garden to deceive me, everything that had happened so far would be explained. A false world that perfectly mimicked reality to make it seem like I had regressed.

‘But…’

One thing bothered me.

The being that had warned me through Bishop Marik’s body. That clear, eerily benevolent voice and strange presence. That definitely wasn’t Lea’s.

‘If it wasn’t Lea.’

It suddenly occurred to me.

‘Could it be?’

Wasn’t there one being who would call me an illegitimate child?

I slowly opened the window. Cold air seeped into the room. I raised my head and looked up at the sky. An artificial blue expanse spread out. High in the cloudless sky, the sun shone brilliantly.

Facing the sun, I realized something strange. Though it was more intense than any light, it wasn’t blinding to look at with the naked eye – an unrealistic radiance.

I had looked at the sky so many times, yet it was puzzling why I only realized this now.

Azazel followed my gaze and looked up at the sky. His face instantly hardened.

“Ugh… what is that…”

Rather than a sun, it felt more like an eyeball peering through a hole punched in a wall.

“Rahel.”

The moment I called the name, the giant sun blinked. As if confirming that the answer I had found was correct.

***

‘Rahel…’

The sun was looking down at me without the slightest disturbance.

The light was still brilliant, and even the cityscape spread beneath it seemed perfect at first glance. I realized anew how intricately this world was woven.

All of this wasn’t a simple illusion. It wasn’t a shallow, easily broken mirage, but rather like a massive trap made by cutting reality itself.

It’s not wrong to say so. He said he had prepared rest for me.

I understand why this ‘dream’ was staged as if Lea had granted my wish and made me regress.

‘Rahel wants to keep me trapped here.’

That’s why when Azazel said we should go back, he modified Azazel’s memory and recreated Saraka. To eliminate the ally called Azazel and prevent me from thinking about escaping anymore.

‘But that’s still just an imposter.’

Dreams tend to feel like a mess once you wake up.

‘Dreams end when you wake up.’

Since I had already realized this world was fake, I had to escape from here as soon as possible.

The problem was the method. The only thing that could serve as a hint was Azazel…

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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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