Chapter 79

“Ma…ri?”

“You’re the reason I lost my arm and my friends. Of course I hate you… Do you know how long I’ve waited for this chance?”

I’d never met her face to face, but there was no way I couldn’t recognize her.

“Kh—ugh, urgh!”

“Die, I said… just die…”

Jang Hyunji.

Her lips twisted grotesquely. I tried to grab the wooden stick pressing on my throat and pry it off, but the body pinning me down with its weight didn’t budge an inch. Strange heat rippled from Mari’s body. Jang Hyunji, no longer pretending to be Mari, must have realized I had recognized her.

“Die! Please, just die! Give it back! Give me that body back!”

“Get out of Mari—kuhk!”

This wasn’t Mari’s strength. Mari couldn’t use magic. She was just an ordinary girl.

But Jang Hyunji was using some power as though she was draining life force or potential.

I kicked Mari’s stomach. All the strength was focused in her grip, so her light body was flung backward helplessly. But the body that had collapsed sprang up like a spring in an instant. I instinctively clenched my fist, but I couldn’t move. She looked at me and smirked mockingly.

“What, what are you going to do to me?”

“Get out of Mari’s body now!”

“Give me that body. That’s all I want.”

Jang Hyunji, who had been pretending to smile, suddenly twisted her face into a snarl.

“Do you think I want to use this pitiful excuse for a body? It’s inconvenient, heavy, disgusting. If it weren’t a temporary stopgap until I get my body back, I’d never use this filthy shell.”

She waved her one remaining arm and stared at her palm.

“Barely any magic either. Truly a worthless character. I need to get my body back fast.”

“Your body isn’t here. It’s over there, that’s your body!”

“That thing isn’t me. I am Florence.”

“You’re Jang Hyunji!”

“No, I’m Florence. I lived as Florence for five years. That body is mine! You know it, don’t you? You know I used it much better than you ever did! The world would be perfect if only you disappeared! Why can’t you understand? So many people would be happier without you, don’t you get it? Can’t you see how much we suffer because of you?!”

The demon spat her words, trembling with a cold fury. Mari’s voice was laced with a metallic rasp. It felt like her throat would tear. Mari would be in pain.

“Then… at least… get out of that child’s body.”

“Don’t be ridiculous. Do you think I waited until today for nothing?”

Jang Hyunji laughed sharply.

“Did you think your allies were growing in number? That everything was going your way because I and Linus stayed quiet?”

Mari’s face twisted into an expression I had never seen before. Don’t break her, please.

We had always only screamed at each other. I had always wanted to see her, but not like this—not with Mari’s face.

“You think you’re the only one who can think? I was struggling to escape that hell too. I told Linus to wait, but I couldn’t wait any longer. I couldn’t stand to watch you strut around like you owned my body, full of your pathetic delusions!”

So Linus’s passivity was because of Jang Hyunji’s influence after all.

“Pathetically, you even borrowed Laila Green’s power to keep me from getting my body back, ha.”

Jang Hyunji sneered.

“I endured the disgust just to keep watching you in my dreams. I swallowed sleeping pills and watched you all day long. Damn that Laila—this is all her fault! She’s not even the protagonist anymore!”

Her once beautiful face twisted with vile delight. Did you think I just sat still, watching you? I’m not like you. I don’t just sit and take it. I’m not a worm like you. If I can’t wait for you to walk into Linus’s hands, then I’ll just kill you myself. Then I’ll take the body.

“If you want to get rid of me, you’d have to kill this child…”

Her greenish-brown eyes looked straight into mine.

“But you can’t, can you? You’re too weak. I saw inside you—I know how much you cherish this girl. She’s the only one who’s ever loved someone like you, isn’t that right?”

That’s why I chose her. Neither you nor your ‘friends’ could ever kill this girl. But I can kill you.

“It’s a shame you found out so soon, but… whatever. You can’t lay a finger on me anyway.”

Jang Hyunji glanced around and grabbed the water bottle Mari had left by the bed. But I was a bit faster. I snatched the bottle from her, and at the same time, Enoch burst into the room and grabbed Mari from behind.

“Let me go! Let me gooo! Who are you! Whooo, let me gooo!”

“What’s going on?!”

“Jang Hyunji’s possessed her!”

Enoch lifted the struggling Mari off the ground. Mari’s feet—no, Jang Hyunji’s, but still Mari’s body—kicked wildly in the air as she twisted unnaturally. No, that’s Mari’s body! Then she bent her one remaining arm at an impossible angle and clawed at Enoch’s skin with her nails.

Enoch tried to subdue her, but it would be impossible without hurting Mari.

I gritted my teeth and lunged forward, driving my fist squarely into Mari’s solar plexus.

“Urgh!”

The greenish-brown eyes flew open wide, then fluttered shut. I reached out to catch Mari’s limp body, but Enoch quickly pulled her away from me.

“Stay back, Florence!”

“But Jang Hyunji is inside Mari! I have to fix it!”

“Don’t let Mari hurt you!”

My whole body went cold. Just then, Keith came rushing in and stood between me and Enoch.

“I’ll have my spirit seal the room. You two go get Laila,” Enoch shouted, holding Mari.

He tossed his earring onto the floor—the one we could use to contact Laila.

“Jang Hyunji has to come back to me, Enoch!”

“If that evil spirit doesn’t dissipate and gets expelled, it’ll go back to its original host!”

Enoch barked at me, startling me into looking up at him.

“Get it together, Florence Love Seymour.”

“I know. I know!”

I answered quickly. He was right. There was no time to waste. I had to save Mari.

“I’ll restrain her as gently as I can. If it’s only a few days, neither her soul nor her magic will be able to escape the spirit prison, so she can’t flee or call for help.”

She wouldn’t be able to call Linus Lindquist either.

I grabbed a blanket and helped Enoch wrap it around Mari as he held her.

“Please take care of Mari.”

“Worry about yourself.”

Before closing the door, Enoch grabbed Keith by the collar and whispered something in his ear. Keith started to protest, but Enoch didn’t listen—he shoved Keith out and slammed the door shut. I watched as the supreme wind spirit Minerva wrapped its fingers tightly around the room, as if it could crush it at any moment.

Keith ran a hand through his hair, swallowing a curse.

“They never give me time to even be drunk.”

“We have to go to Laila.”

I crawled over to pick up the earring from the floor and poured magic into it, screaming Laila’s name at the top of my lungs. But she didn’t answer.

“Laila! Laila!”

『…What? You already contacted me earlier.』

“Laila, where are you? Where are you! Please come back right now!”

『Don’t be ridiculous. I can’t teleport.』

“Mari’s been possessed!”

『Mari? Who’s that?』

“Mari’s… Jang Hyunji’s possessed Mari!”

『Impressive, that woman. She’s finally doing something befitting an evil spirit. Transferring souls isn’t an easy thing to do.』

“We have to save Mari, Laila, please!”

『I told you, I can’t teleport. I’ll give you coordinates, so come get me.』

Then her voice cut off.

“I’ll go. Can you stay here alone?”

“I’m coming too. I’m going.”

I wasn’t going to just sit and wait. I had to do something, anything, if only to keep myself from opening that door.

“I can’t take you along. It’s not close.”

“I’ll do it myself.”

“Hey, teleportation—”

“She did it. I can too.”

If it had been back when I couldn’t use magic at all, maybe I’d hesitate. But now I could. Failing wasn’t what I was afraid of. Even if a part of my body didn’t make it through the teleport and was left behind, it was nothing compared to the pain Mari must be enduring right now.

“Do you even know how?”

“I do.”

Laila had said it wasn’t that I couldn’t do it—I just didn’t know how it felt. I’d never sensed magic or wielded it before in my life, so I couldn’t grasp it. The reason I was stuck at third-class spells wasn’t a lack of magic or knowledge; it was the wall of my own assumptions.

‘Do you really think you can beat Linus like this, Laila?’

‘How could you possibly beat that monster? Don’t be absurd. He’s spent most of his life killing with a sword. Just because you’re a little stronger now and have learned a few tricks doesn’t mean you can win. I’m not trying to make you strong enough to beat him.’

‘Then what?’

‘I’m trying to make sure the commander dies by your hand.’

To do that, I had to make everything I had completely my own.

So she couldn’t use it.

Only after seeing Jang Hyunji possessing Mari today did I finally understand what Laila wanted from me.