I’m Trying to End This Possession Chapter 196

“…”

 

“Answer me. The man just now, that wasn’t Lord Ignis, was it?”

 

“You don’t need to know.”

 

Dana glared at Viego. Viego Windsor, whom she hadn’t seen in a while, was just the same as ever. His platinum blond hair was neatly swept back, and his face looked as though it had been sculpted by an arrogant artist. His cheeks were as spotless and clear as clean glass. He ruined other people’s lives as he pleased, yet remained flawless himself…

 

Dana couldn’t restrain herself and slapped him hard. Slap! Once wasn’t enough to vent her anger, so she slapped him again.

 

“I think I have the right to vent this much.”

 

A scratch formed on his reddened cheek. Satisfied with the mark, Dana smiled coldly.

 

“You agree, don’t you, Leader of Daiana Church?”

 

Viego only lowered his gaze slightly and stared at her. Then, he opened his lips and spoke. “So give up.” With a voice like the moonlight on a winter’s night… “You will never achieve anything.”

 

It was truly a cruel thing to say.

 

“So just give up.”

 

“…”

 

Her mind went numb at the sudden words. I can’t achieve anything? Give up? Out of nowhere, to say such an unpleasant thing…

 

Soon, the confusion flared up into anger. Dana exhaled like a fire-breathing dragon. “Why? Do you want to sell holy water that much?”

 

“…”

 

“You want to throw my body into the lake and drink water that has soaked in me?”

 

“…”

 

“Such a pervert… Why don’t you just lick my body instead? Wouldn’t that work better? I can at least offer you my feet.” She was full of sarcasm, but Viego didn’t respond. He seemed to have no intention of continuing the conversation.

 

Dana knew it. There’s no way that man would treat her properly. So she took something out of her skirt pocket.

 

“Do you know what this is?”

 

A bead the size of a thumbnail. It was a black core.

 

“If this explodes, all the land around here will rot away. Not just you, but everyone in the Grand Cathedral will rot and die.”

 

Did he recognize what it was? Viego’s eyebrows stiffened.

 

“Don’t think I won’t do it. I’ve already done it once before.”

 

“…”

 

“You don’t want the sanctuary to be contaminated and turned into an uninhabitable wasteland, do you?”

 

“…”

 

“Then look me in the eyes and say you’ll cooperate.”

 

A moment of silence passed. Viego slowly nodded. “Fine. I’ll cooperate.”

 

In that instant, a strange shiver ran up her spine. Viego was yielding. For the first time, truly for the first time. No matter how lofty he acts, the idea of the rotting land must scare him.

 

It felt like she had recklessly grabbed the nape of something incredibly arrogant. Overwhelmed with satisfaction, Dana smiled and asked, “What happened to Lord Ignis?”

 

“He’s dead.”

 

“Then who was that man just now?”

 

“Your guess is correct.”

 

“…”

 

As expected. Dana took a deep breath and exhaled. “Like me… as Lord Ignis also cloned?”

 

“Yes. He was Grandfather’s most cherished experiment.”

 

“…”

 

Grandfather, so it must be referring to Rodrigo Windsor. He adopted Ignis as his son. Even when Ignis filed for disownment, he never let him go. It was a rare affection among the nobility. He already had two fine sons, yet he was obsessed to a strange degree. There was a reason after all. And Dana could now guess that terrible reason.

 

“Then what was that just now? Did someone possess Lord Ignis’s cloned body?”

 

“Yes.”

 

“Who?”

 

“Grandfather, Rodrigo Windsor.”

 

“…He’s not dead.”

 

At that moment, Dana understood all the resentment Ignis had held long ago. He hated Windsor to the core of his bones. No wonder. He had every reason to hate them. Every reason to want to kill them.

 

To think I would come to understand so deeply why Ignis would commit a bombing against the Daiana Church and the Windsor! I should have stood by him and helped him back then!

 

“Where is he now?”

 

“I don’t know. He’s joined the anti-church leader faction.”

 

“Why… Why does he covet Lord Ignis’s body?”

 

“Probably because he wants to live longer. There’s a limit to how much holy water can extend one’s life.” Viego spoke indifferently. “A young, good-looking, and strong body. He must have raised Ignis by his side for the purpose of transferring into that body one day.”

 

Dana felt nauseated. Wanting to live longer by transferring into a young man’s body?! It was truly, disgustingly revolting. Dana hated that old man, whom she had never even met, more than anyone in the world.

 

“Then what about Lord Ignis? Can he be revived? Like how I, Danaena Rolland, was revived in this body—can he also…?”

 

“It’s highly unlikely.”

 

“Unlikely? Why?” Dana grabbed his arm.

 

Viego shook her off with such speed it stung, but she didn’t even feel embarrassed.

 

“At Saint Graves Island, I killed Lord Ignis, didn’t I? Back then, weren’t you able to revive him in a new body? Just like I woke up in this one…”

 

“This time he died, contaminated by the rotten land. That’s not an ordinary death. Without a miracle, it’s almost impossible.”

 

Unlikely… almost impossible…

 

Dana stared blankly at Viego. He frowned, perhaps annoyed that Dana had grabbed him. But… he didn’t say it was impossible…

 

Dana swallowed her other questions for now. Details could wait. After all, she had something even more important than Ignis’s situation right now.

 

“Yeon Dana. Where is my body?” She needed to find her own body. “And what did you do to my body? Tell me, right now.”

 

“…”

 

“It’s fine if you don’t speak. I have several more black cores, so losing one doesn’t bother me.”

 

“…”

 

Is he calculating? Viego seemed deep in thought for a moment, then raised the hand holding his cane. He brought it toward her.

 

“What are you—” She tried to turn her head away, but Viego used the handle of his cane to lift her chin and make her look at him.

 

Dana was startled. What is he doing? “Move. Why all of a sudden—”

 

“Be still.” Viego spoke quietly, then pressed the handle of his cane against her forehead. The action seemed almost playful, and Dana was flustered.

 

“What are you doing right now?”

 

“You said you wanted to know what happened to your body.” Viego replied indifferently. “I’ll show you. I’ve yielded to your threat.”

 

Show me? How? Dana watched him warily. What is he planning?

 

Was it the effect of her threat? Viego was looking at her with a surprising, almost disconcerting intensity.

 

“You have eyes that look down on time.” His voice was calm.

 

Dana swallowed hard, her throat bobbing. It was unsettling, but fortunately, Viego didn’t seem the least bit interested.

 

“Use those eyes to look back through time. To the very moment you first arrived here.”

 

Right now… is he talking about the insight? He knows about that ability?

 

Dana was stunned. Her head spun. The spot where his cane touched her started to heat up as if it were burning. It was then she realized. That cane Viego always carried—it wasn’t just an ordinary gentleman’s cane. There was something about it that poured a powerful force into her, pulling her somewhere.

 

Her insight was being forced wide open. So she could see the day she first came here. To travel back, back through time… and arrive at a moment in the past.

 

* * *

Dana looked down upon the past.

 

“Please let me out of here!”

 

Not in this life, but a time from a past life that was already gone.

 

“Raios, please!”

 

The time when Danae Windsor begged Raios with tears.

 

“You’re going to live with me here now, Dana. Accept reality.”

 

When Raios smiled and ravaged her as he pleased, Dana realized. This was that time. A life that was already gone, right before she was about to marry Rumie. But she had been kidnapped by Raios and confined in a cabin…

 

“Why? Are you disappointed that I’m not Rumie, that b*stard? Don’t think like that. Just think of it as spending your honeymoon with me.”

 

In the end, Danae Windsor burst into tears.

 

“Just let me go outside, even just once. It’s so suffocating!”

 

“Is it that suffocating?” Raios, as if pitying her, clicked his tongue and wiped her tears. Then he brought his lips to her ear and whispered. “Then cry some more, Dana.” With a voice so gentle, yet unable to hide the pleasure in it. “Your crying face is just perfect.”

 

Crazy b*stard. The curse hovered on her lips.

 

She hates this. Really hate seeing this. This wasn’t the memory she was searching for. She didn’t want to recall such a terrible moment!

 

“If you kiss me first, I’ll let you go for a walk today. But I’ll put a leash on you. Wouldn’t want you running off again like last time.”

 

Dana felt like throwing up. I don’t want to know! So Dana squeezed her eyes shut, not wanting to see it. That humiliating moment when she ended up kissing Raios. The scene where the excited Raios, flushed from her light kisses, embraced her waist and pulled her onto his thigh.

 

“Dana. Hurry up and suck my tongue too…”

 

Disgusting. I don’t want to hear it! Dana quickly fled from that moment in time. She didn’t want to even glimpse Raios throwing himself on her in passion.

 

Back. Go back! Dana rewound time. Further back. Even further into the distant past, quickly!

 

In an instant, countless scenes flashed past her. Like a salmon returning to its birthplace, Dana went back to the very beginning. She rushed past all her past, faster and faster, to the very first moment. Yes, to the very beginning. To the very moment she first came to this world as Yeon Dana.