WAYSOWD 37

~Chapter 37~

“Eh…?”

“Just like this. If you get thirsty or need the bathroom, I’ll pull the bell rope.”

“Ah, miss…!”

Edel grabbed Buddy’s shoulder, calming her, and nodded.

“Yes, miss. I’ll tie you up properly so you won’t get hurt.”

“Right. That’s better than jumping out the window.”

I pressed my throbbing temple. Is there a curse on the seventh possession…?
This was different from the previous six times I’d died for no reason.
In this life, death seemed to hover nearby all the time, like a warning not to get careless.

My sprained ankle healed cleanly in two weeks. The healer’s visits helped my body recover, and because I didn’t dream for several days, I was able to rest properly.

The problem was Roten. Whenever he looked at me, he had a fit. He refused to meet me alone.

“It seems we failed. I’m so sorry, Baron.”
“Call them again!”
“We already summoned every exorcist available…”

Roten had come back to the mansion four days ago and had been screaming and shouting. Why so sensitive? Did Duke Benjo chew him out?

“Sir Monstera! Send the priests at once!”

“Sigh, Baron… there’s no one left to call. You’re mistaken — the miss isn’t possessed!”

“No, you tell me! Didn’t they say my daughter’s possessed by a demon?!”

The plump middle-aged man stammered, his paunch hanging over his belt. He coughed, accepted the coin Monstera handed him, and slunk away.

“We’ve had dozens of priests come by! They all say she’s never been possessed! No matter how much they insist she’s innocent, you wouldn’t listen!” Monstera shouted, frustrated.

“Even holy water didn’t burn her skin! She recited scripture perfectly, not a verse wrong!” he added.

Roten shook his head like a madman.

“No, the priest who came today admitted Solia was possessed! He said he couldn’t drive the demon out because he was weak. He admitted it, I tell you!”

“Um… I’ll be going now. Well, goodbye.”

After the money-hungry impostor left, silence filled Roten’s study.

I crossed my legs on the sofa and asked, “May I go now, Father?”

“No, not yet!!”

“You keep saying there was a demon in my body, but you still won’t believe me.”
The priests who came to exorcise me were actually moved by how devout I was. Because I knew the doctrine inside and out, they even told me, “If you return to the fold, God would be pleased.”

‘Theology is nothing… I lived in a convent until I died there, so it’s easy.’
In my second life I married Noah and avoided him, skipping meals until I got consumption. I stayed in a convent nursing home until I died at twenty. There was nothing to read but the Bible in that lonely place. I had no memories as a painter then, so I clung to God. Maybe that’s why I learned doctrine better than most priests. I stopped believing afterward, but the knowledge stayed. That’s why I could use it now.

Roten looked like he was losing his mind. He tore at his hair and sobbed, begging me to leave.

“Get a grip, Father.”

I crawled over and took his hand. He wailed and gripped mine, pitiful to look at.

“Weren’t you the one saying I’m possessed? Can I hold your hand and beg like this?”

“Sniff… I was wrong, I was wrong! Please just leave this mansion. Promise me you’ll never show your face here again!”

“You’d be sad if you never saw your daughter again, wouldn’t you?” I teased.

“Yes, yes! Fine! Leave at once! Go off with that Lenister and never come back!”

“Noah already left the mansion. He’ll come back to propose someday,” I said, keeping that a secret. I wanted to toy with Roten a little more.

“He’ll come back! When he does, leave with him! Marry him! Just go and never come back!”

“No way. You want to marry your daughter off to a bankrupt count with no dowry?”

At last, I brought up the dowry. Roten had a nervous stroke.

“I’ll give a dowry! Anything you want!”

“I heard Duke Benjo gave some property… give all of it. I can’t be a countess in debt.”

“All right! Take it! The duke told me to give it!” Roten exclaimed.

“So what will you give me?” I asked bluntly. Roten froze, mouth opening in shock.

“The dowry goes to Noah once you marry… I won’t get a cent.” He blinked, realizing the truth.

“What do you want? I’ll give everything except the arboretum!”

Roten winced and cried a little. I said firmly, “The arboretum.”

For a few moments he was stunned. I made it clear: “I don’t need anything but the arboretum.”

“No! No!! I can give everything else, please—”

“If you give me the arboretum, I’ll leave quietly. I’ll leave as soon as Noah proposes.”

“No!! I couldn’t give that even if they put a knife to my throat!”

Roten shouted like foam came from his mouth. Monstera, the knight captain beside him, covered his ears.

I pretended to think, then smiled innocently.

“The arboretum.”

Yes. I wanted only that.

Roten’s face turned beet-red.

“Hey!! Who do you think you are, asking for the arboretum I’ve tended so carefully?!”

“If you don’t want to give it, fine. I’ll keep coming to the manor anyway.”

I got up from the sofa, fed up with talking. Roten had already backed away a good distance from me.

“I will never give the arboretum! Do you think I’d hand it over? To whom? For what?!” he raged.

“Then do as you please. I’ll do what I want too.”

Roten shuddered. What frightened him most? That the ‘possessed’ daughter would act as the dutiful child and visit regularly? Or that I’d report his embezzlement of the arboretum business to Duke Benjo and the Emperor? Roten paled.

“You—watch your tongue! Don’t blab — nothing good will come of it!” he muttered. He still hadn’t completely lost his mind; he could still be intimidated by my threats.

I bowed slightly and smiled.

“What’s wrong with it being good for me? If I marry Count Lenister, I’ll be married and out of the house. It won’t matter, right?”

He wasn’t dangerous enough to have me executed for his tax evasion. At worst, it took a rebellion to get family executed.

“Father, if that’s the case—”

I knelt by the sobbing Roten and spoke softly.

“Let me manage the arboretum for four years. Leave the title to you. I’ll return it after four years.”

“Wha…? Is that possible?” Roten brightened. He clearly couldn’t bear losing the arboretum.

“Put it in a contract. I’ll manage it for four years and then give it back to you.”

“All right! That can be done!”

If he’d been his old self, he’d have shouted that it was nonsense. But now he feared me—trauma from hitting me with his parasol, perhaps. He didn’t even remember beating me with his belt when I was young.

Anyway, after failing to exorcise the “demon” inside me, he became afraid of me. Then. Now. And probably for the foreseeable future.

“I’ll manage the arboretum properly. Revenue won’t drop. I’ll make sure your share goes to you, and give the Emperor and Duke Benjo their portions.”

“All right, do that. I don’t know much about management, so consult me if needed…”

“Fine. Where are the records of your tax evasion?”

I signaled Monstera to step aside. He bowed with a sullen look and left when Roten said nothing.

Alone with Roten in the study, he hesitated.

“Surely… Father, you’re not suspecting me? If you’re hauled off for tax evasion, who will pay that debt? Do you think I’d betray you?” I asked.

“Uh… well, maybe,” Roten answered surprisingly honestly. He wasn’t completely foolish.

He glanced at me with red-rimmed eyes, then looked at the wall corner as if feeling guilty.