Killing the Possessor - Chapter 95

“W-Why is this happening—?”

Flustered, the young lady repeatedly placed her hand on the orb and quickly pulled it away. Her frantic movements and the shaking orb clearly revealed her anxiety.

But unlike when others touched it and the orb reacted violently, now it remained completely still, emitting no light at all. No matter how many times she tried, it was the same—almost as if it was broken.

As the spectators murmured among themselves, Count Midas calmly asked for a moment’s space. The moment Ailrose stepped back, he placed his hand on the orb.

Crackle. The orb, which had seemed broken, suddenly emitted a fierce light. Red beams lashed repeatedly across the Count’s palm like whips.

“My goodness!”

“Then that young lady must be—”

Removing his hand from the glass, the Count clicked his tongue and looked at Ailrose. Her face was pitifully pale under his sympathetic gaze.

“I-I’m not! Really, I’m not!”

She denied it firmly with waving hands, but it seemed no one believed her. Instead, people began piecing together reasons why she must be possessed.

“No wonder you sometimes seemed to forget etiquette. Remember? You even tried to eat torcello with a fork last time.”

“I heard you quit the academy after your riding accident, but now it seems that might have been a cover story to hide something.”

“Quitting just before graduation instead of taking a leave of absence is strange. Does Viscount Feren know? He seemed so happy when you woke up.”

“How could he? If he knew, he wouldn’t have stayed silent. He’d be devastated to hear this news.”

“You must have had some help hiding it all this time. Surely from those rebels? What was their name… Hongin?”

The conversation eventually turned to Hongik Ingan. While much about the group was shrouded in secrecy, it was common knowledge that some forces aided the possessor.

No wonder. The imperial court branded them as anti-royalist and anti-noble. When the possessed first appeared, their main goal was to overturn the unfamiliar class system. That wasn’t entirely false.

It was so bad that a father once suspected his own son of treason simply for speaking politely to a servant, and dragged him off to the police.

“P-Please believe me! I was born and raised in Harent and have never left Parensha! I truly don’t know why the orb did that!”

Tears welled in Ailrose’s eyes as she desperately gestured to assert her innocence, but the surrounding gazes only grew colder.

I glanced at Wyner. Just like before, he was indifferent, if anything, even less interested.

With a bored expression, he looked away from the lady and accidentally met my gaze, furrowing his brow as if puzzled by my strange look.

That idiot can’t seriously be unaware that the woman now suspected was the same one he was passionately involved with until recently, right? He’s not suffering from face blindness.

“I think we need to call the investigators.”

At that moment, one of the guests made a dangerous suggestion. Coming to my senses, I tore my gaze from Wyner and urgently looked at Ilui. After all, in the original story, Ilui Hope was the female lead who would save the victim cornered like this.

But the Ilui before me wasn’t Kim Hee-mang; she nervously twitched her fingers and trembled uncontrollably. Though her eyes remained fixed on Ailrose with a hint of hope, her expression showed more fear—fear that Ailrose might actually be possessed by an evil spirit.

Biting my lower lip hard, I realized that if things continued like this, there would indeed be a sacrificial lamb as the chapter title—’Witch Hunt’—foreshadowed.

What should I do, then? How in the world…?

“I’ll try contacting the police. They’ll handle the Public Security Bureau…”