My Possession Became a Ghost Story - Chapter 90

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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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If it hadn’t been for Bishop Marik, Tenebray would have been summoned by the Crown Prince today as well, becoming a target for his anger and receiving corporal punishment. When she returned from being punished, that foolish Jeremiah would probably say something envious about how nice it was that father and daughter were spending time alone together.

That was the extent of Tenebray’s position in the Imperial Palace. So it was certain that Lady Rahel had taken pity on Tenebray and sent Bishop Marik, her representative, to extend a helping hand. Bishop Marik knew Tenebray’s circumstances and willingly became her ally.

Understanding Tenebray’s heart that wished to kill her own blood, he not only gave her absolution to kill her father and sister but even created a stage for her to put it into practice.

Saraka poured holy water on Tenebray’s back, which had been carved open with a blade, and empathized.

“I feel the same way. Bishop Marik changed my life too.”

Saraka was originally a heretic’s child who deserved to die, who should have burned to death with her father, but Bishop Marik had secretly rescued her.

Bishop Marik had saved Saraka because he needed a child without status. At that time, Bishop Marik, whose body was becoming increasingly frail, realized he would die soon.

But Bishop Marik was at the height of his power from the heretic massacres, and he didn’t know what kind of upheaval would occur if it became known that Bishop Marik had died from illness.

So he thought that even if he died, ‘Bishop Marik’ should remain as a healthy symbol of the Temple, and he began selecting and raising a young child as ‘Bishop Marik’ – that was Saraka. He deliberately created burn scars on Saraka identical to his own, made her memorize his memories, and taught her his speech patterns and habits.

Bishop Marik collapsed before the education was completely finished and was now no different from a vegetable. There were no more teachings, but Saraka lived as Bishop Marik according to the predetermined plan. Living by stealing another person’s life – looking at it this way, Saraka and Tenebray had truly many things in common.

Although there were several other relatively safe methods to use as a starting point for resuming the heretic massacres, the reason she took the risk of killing the Crown Prince might have been because Saraka saw herself overlapping with Tenebray. Of course, there was certainly also the fact that the Crown Prince had been hostile toward the Temple.

Looking at her back, now completely healed and smooth, Saraka announced that the preparations were finished.

“Lady Tenebray, it’s all done.”

At Saraka’s words, Tenebray raised her body. The bedsheet she had been lying on was damp with blood that had spread through it. When Tenebray touched her own back, instead of the bumpy texture, she felt smooth skin.

“My back is really smooth now… Now all the preparations are complete!”

Tenebray cried out in ecstasy.

Putting on the nightgown she had secretly stolen from Jeremiah and wearing the emerald necklace, she stood before the mirror. Removing the cloth that she had always kept covering it because she hated seeing her scarred appearance, it seemed as if Jeremiah, who looked exactly like Tenebray, could be seen beyond the mirror. Tenebray placed her hand against the mirror.

“From now on, I will live as Jeremiah.”

And Jeremiah would become Tenebray, bear false accusations, and die taking on all the humiliation that Tenebray had experienced. Tenebray, filled with excitement, extended her hand into the empty air, took a pose, and began dancing the waltz she had danced to the Crown Prince’s funeral march. This dance was for lovely Jeremiah.

Who would be good for the next turn? Oratorio, who received the Emperor’s favor and despised Tenebray without even treating her as a sibling? Or Grandmother, who ignored the age-old prophecies and arbitrarily kept Tenebray alive to establish her own authority, then watched and condoned her granddaughter living a life worse than death while being abused by her son?

Actually, the order wasn’t important. Whoever came first, she would kill all of these lovely family members.

“Father died as he always wished, with everyone looking up to him, and Jeremiah will die having her lovely name stolen. I’ll kill Oratorio by chopping off that head she carries around so haughtily. Grandmother will have the Emperor’s position she valued more than family cruelly taken away and die wrapped in all kinds of evil rumors just like I did…”

Tenebray danced while telling Saraka her wishes and plans in a singing voice.

“Do you want to become Emperor, Lady Tenebray?”

Saraka, who had been listening to Tenebray’s wishes, suddenly asked upon hearing about killing all the royals.

“I don’t particularly have that goal. But after I kill everything I want to kill, I’ll be the only one left to become Emperor.”

Then Tenebray hesitated at a figure that suddenly came to mind.

“No, that’s not right. I heard I have an uncle who went missing.”

“A missing uncle?”

Saraka pretended not to know and asked back. It was publicly known that the youngest prince had died from difficult childbirth immediately after birth, and it didn’t seem likely that the Emperor, who didn’t reveal his inner thoughts even to family, would have told Tenebray the truth. So she was very curious about how Tenebray knew the truth.

Tenebray gracefully stepped and readily told what she knew.

“Yes. I heard it from Father.”

The source of Tenebray’s information was an unexpected person.

The Crown Prince used Tenebray like an abandoned well. Since he beat Tenebray while releasing all kinds of stress, there was no way Tenebray wouldn’t know about it.

“It seems Father happened to be nearby when His Majesty was giving birth to the youngest prince.”

Saraka, pretending not to know, listened intently to a story she had never heard even from Bishop Marik.

“He went there because he was curious about the sibling who was about to be born, but instead he overheard His Majesty ordering the child to be killed. Feeling like he had heard something he shouldn’t have, he ran away from that place. But lo and behold, there was no sibling’s corpse in the coffin at the funeral. And later, seeing His Majesty searching for a young child, he realized that someone had spirited away his sibling.”

“Did His Highness the Crown Prince know who had spirited the child away?”

Tenebray turned only her head to look at Saraka while in her waltz pose, then lowered her hands as her excitement cooled.

“Yes. He didn’t tell me, but he knew. That’s why he was always pathologically afraid that his sibling would appear and steal his position.”

Unlike just before when she had been excitedly dancing the waltz, Tenebray’s face was rapidly darkening. Even though she wanted to become Jeremiah and had stolen and worn her nightgown and necklace, when recalling the past, she seemed to return to being Tenebray tied up in the basement. Tenebray stroked her now-smooth back. Even though all the wounds had been healed, her whipped spine still stung.

“Most of the scars on my back were caused by Father’s fear of the youngest prince.”

The Crown Prince knew more truths than expected. If he could hear the Emperor’s words, he would have known that Bishop Marik was there together, and would have naturally realized that Bishop Marik had spirited the child away.

Being someone with great lust for power and greed for the Emperor’s position compared to his abilities, he would have feared that the Temple that had spirited away the youngest prince would stage a rebellion and enthrone his brother as Emperor. Saraka understood why the Crown Prince had shown hostility toward the Temple and Bishop Marik all this time.

Moreover, the ominous rumor that twins bring death was added. Tenebray’s existence spurred the Crown Prince’s anxious delusions, and the Crown Prince abused Tenebray to relieve his impatience and anger.

“Do you think the missing youngest prince is still alive, Lady Tenebray?”

Tenebray shook her head.

“No. Seeing that he hasn’t appeared until now, perhaps His Majesty eventually found and killed him? What a pity. Since we’re both similarly abandoned, perhaps Uncle and I might have gotten along quite well.”

“Well…”

Saraka trailed off, thinking of Gabriel at those words.

***

Gabriel held his head in his hands. Unlike his confident promise to Evangeline that he would get her out of prison quickly, the situation was turning very unfavorably.

First, there was the matter of the dagger. Gabriel’s opinion that how could she use a sword she herself had brought in as a murder weapon when it would obviously make her suspicious was extremely reasonable, but aside from that, they blamed her for bringing a sword that could be used as a murder weapon to the Crown Prince’s birthday banquet in the first place.

The fact that the sword had no blade was ineffective since the people who had inspected the items happened to be members of the Pararos Knight’s Hall under Gabriel’s command, and they were even accused of being accomplices who helped bring in the murder weapon.

So Gabriel remembered the story that Evangeline had received the sword from the Viscount and next went to find Rohanson Viscount.

The Viscount’s mansion had locked its doors tightly and was controlling communication with the outside, but through Gabriel’s persistence, a meeting with the Viscount was barely arranged.

“Viscount, I would like to hear an explanation of where you obtained the sword.”

When Gabriel interrogated with a much more fierce expression than he had shown in front of Evangeline, the Viscount trembled his feet anxiously.

“I received it as a gift.”

“A gift? From whom?”

“From Viscount Hükel.”

However, Viscount Hükel claimed that the sword he had gifted to the Viscount was one with a proper blade, and came out brazenly saying that this situation where his gift given to Rohanson Viscount as a gesture of friendship had become the murder weapon that killed the Crown Prince was too horrible.

“This completely looks like we turned a blind eye to Evangeline.”

“Captain. They say Viscount Hükel’s recent donations collected for starting charitable work are suspiciously large.”

“Those following Bishop Marik made considerable donations.”

The charitable work that Viscount Hükel started was building Temple buildings. Since it was charitable activity for the Temple, it wouldn’t be strange for people under Bishop Marik to appear on the list of donors.

“Bribery money.”

Moreover, the people Viscount Hükel had recently been fawning over and approaching were Rohanson Viscount and Hosaquin Duke, both of whom were Evangeline’s blood relatives. Gabriel could picture in his mind how the sword had been passed from Viscount Hükel to Evangeline.

It was Gabriel’s mistake. Even knowing that the Temple side, especially Bishop Marik, was interested in Evangeline, he had completely fallen into the trap.

Since they couldn’t prove that what Evangeline had brought in was a bladeless sword, they had to find another method. As Gabriel was pondering deeply, a knight under his command expressed dissatisfaction.

“Captain, but is there really a need to save Evangeline even while making an enemy of the Bishop?”

“What are you saying! Just imagining Evangeline unjustly imprisoned in that cold prison makes my heart feel like it’s being torn into a thousand, ten thousand pieces!”

Michel, who had been listening to those words, flared up. Perhaps because it was a problem involving Evangeline, he was very enthusiastic, unlike his usual lethargic approach to knight’s hall life.

“…Don’t tell me you’re helping Evangeline because of that crazy bastard Michel Schmittiana?”

“Of course not.”

Gabriel refuted, but his fierce glare at Michel showed no signs of cooling. In their eyes, Gabriel would probably look similar. There weren’t many who followed without question in helping Evangeline. At most, including Michel, there were Rafaela and Uriel.

“Then what exactly is the reason? Captain, do you know that these days the Pararos Knight’s Hall is being treated like carrion-eating crows? I’m ashamed of the insignia I’m wearing these days.”

Gabriel’s reputation had been declining daily since getting involved with Evangeline. It wasn’t enough that he was being pointed at as a sincere young and beautiful knight who had been bewitched by a witch and was playing in her skirts, but now the knight’s hall was embroiled in scandal for helping bring in the murder weapon, so for knights with strong pride, the shame would have been unbearable.

As Gabriel was choosing his words about how much he should tell them, perhaps having run out of patience, the knight roughly tore off his insignia and threw it onto the desk.

“Right now other knight’s halls are following the Bishop and struggling to prevent the revival of heretics, but I don’t know what we’re doing.”

With those words, the knight left the room. Only the Pararos Knight’s Hall insignia with pure white wings on a shield remained on the desk. Gabriel had also heard news that Bishop Marik was using the Temple’s knights to carry out heretic massacres in earnest. However, Gabriel’s reason for not mobilizing his subordinate knights wasn’t for Evangeline’s sake. Just as with past heretic massacres, this time too it wasn’t for entirely good reasons, so he simply didn’t want to make his followers do dangerous work.

“He’s a traitor, shall I kill him?”

When Uriel, who had been watching the doorway intently, tried to draw his sword, Gabriel pressed down the end of the sword hilt to prevent him from drawing it. When Uriel came on too strong instead, the previously tense atmosphere lightened a bit.

“Captain. I won’t storm out like that ungrateful bastard, but I want to hear the reason too. I don’t want to follow blindly.”

The reason Gabriel was helping Evangeline…

“You know well that Evangeline and the magic circle are related. We’re just investigating heretics in our own way.”

Gabriel said that the ownership of the magic circle belonged to him after all, and he simply wanted to understand the being that commanded demons. And to stop those who carried out massacres in the name of God, he needed Evangeline, who stood at the opposite pole.

“Is that really all? Without personal feelings?”

That was all Gabriel could tell them. It was obvious that knowing more details would only be poison.

If he had to find another reason, it would probably be due to weak guilt. Hadn’t Evangeline been imprisoned without resistance because Gabriel had demanded she stay quiet while he was away from the banquet hall? Thinking of Evangeline imprisoned in that unsuitable prison naturally made his brow furrow.

The cold, dark prison seemed too harsh a place for Evangeline to stay. Her particularly delicate appearance and the stories of her frailty made him worry despite knowing Evangeline’s true nature.

He had to hurry to find the real culprit who killed the Crown Prince and clear Evangeline of the charges against her.

It was important to hear about the situation at that time. Gabriel thought of Baroness Toten, who had been constantly by Evangeline’s side. Since meeting outside would draw unwanted attention, he had no choice but to visit the Toten Viscount’s Estate. Perhaps because Rider was recovering well, Toten Madam readily permitted the visit.

“Toten Youngshik’s health seems to have improved tremendously.”

“…Yes. Thanks to Evangeline.”

Rider was in the garden playing with a maid while tending to the horses. Had he recovered enough to go horseback riding already, when it hadn’t been long since his recovery?

Mrs. Toten drew the curtains so the outside couldn’t be seen, then ordered the butler to dismiss visitors. After the butler greeted Gabriel and left the room, Gabriel noticed it was an unfamiliar face—the butler must have changed during the years he hadn’t visited.

“I’m sorry for boasting that I would stay by Evangeline’s side instead of Count Gabriel, yet being of no help at all.”

Baroness Toten felt too ashamed to face Gabriel and offered her apology.

“The Viscountess did her best. Evangeline seemed relieved that Miss Hena was able to return safely to the manor.”

“I’m glad that at least was of some help.”

Since Mrs. Toten seemed to feel guilty about not being able to help Evangeline at all, Gabriel deliberately mentioned Hena to give her credit.

“So according to you, madam, these are all the people who met with Evangeline during the banquet.”

The original purpose of having Evangeline attend the banquet was to awaken those who had been influenced by Donau’s paintings. Therefore, the people Mrs. Toten mentioned weren’t much different from those Gabriel already knew. Mrs. Toten was about to nod silently in agreement with Gabriel when she opened her mouth as if remembering something.

“Oh, come to think of it, I forgot about the servants.”

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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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