Chapter 23 (2/2)

I saw Carinne’s eyes sinking darkly into Mary’s sockets.

Her eyes weren’t cold, but rather they looked submerged inside the swamp of dead leaves and decaying soil.

Maybe it was inside an unknown abyss.

Carinne whispered,

“I might have to push Olivia off this chessboard first.”

***

I did not know how I got out of there.

I retraced my path, thinking only that I had to get away from them.

From some point on, I had been running like crazy.

My heart thumped violently as though it wanted to leap out of my mouth. A terrible pain squeezed my chest, but I didn’t stop running.

I couldn’t stop.

I was so afraid that I jumped two stairs at once to get to my bedroom.

Even the darkness-filled hallway was weak in front of such a fear.

[Olivia!]

When I saw the small bird who promised to stay beside me when I first came to this world, it was only then that I was completely relieved.

[I was looking for you because I couldn’t see you. Where have you been?]

Relaxed, I collapsed on the floor of the hallway like a broken marionette.

[What’s wrong with you! What’s going on!]

He shouted in shock.

I was on the verge of tears because I was very grateful and glad to hear his voice.

[Olivia, it’s okay. Let’s calm down and talk about it.]

I could barely form the words through my grasping breath.

I shook my head, my chest trembling as I breathed out,

“Car…inne… I saw her.”

[Carinne? But wasn’t she coming back from her treatment tomorrow?]

“Mary… it was Mary.”

I fumbled, but that was enough for Ash.

[Oh my God…]

His face grew pale as he covered the back of my hand on the floor with his soft white wings.

My mind gradually calmed down as I felt his warmth.

[Let’s talk about it in detail.]

Ash snuggled me into the room.

I breathed slowly as I sat down on the sofa. Little by little, the tension eased and my head, which was hazy as mud, began to clear up.

‘Carinne is going to get rid of me.’

The engagement between me and the Crown Prince was not an impossible future, unlike the original.

Nevertheless, Carinne did not withdraw her goal of killing me.

Rather, she was trying to change the plan and speed up her actions.

‘Why?’

Because I was an Epure. And I was going to marry Lennox Kravant.

‘Then why?’

Ever since the day I possessed Olivia’s body, the question had been making me uncomfortable throughout.

It slowly appeared on the surface of my mind, after hiding itself in a deep unconsciousness.

Yeah. Maybe I was making a wrong assumption from the beginning.

I had to reflect on everything from scratch.

Carinne’s ultimate goal, for example.

‘Carinne’s wish was to become the Crown Princess, wasn’t it?’

It was necessary to judge her coldly.

If Carinne had planned to become a Crown Princess, she should have let go of me when I was trying to marry Lennox.

But she was still aiming for my death.

‘Then for what…’

The story “Reversed Lady” ended with Olivia’s death. Carinne’s actions after the end were unknown.

This was the only thing I was certain about.

That my existence as an Epure hindered her goals.

For Carinne, I was an obstacle that needed to be ripped off.

As she said, she wanted me to be removed from her chessboard like her opponent’s Knight.

“Ash. Carinne knows that I’m an Epure.”

[Is that true?]

I calmly told him what I perceived in the ‘vacant lot’.

By the time I finished, the sun was rising with bluish light permeating into my room.

Ash asked with a serious look on his face.

[Since when was Mary Carinne?]

“I don’t know. But this isn’t her first time changing her body.”

Carinne would have done that periodically to make sure Olivia was still dancing on her palm.

[It’s highly likely that she changed her body with servants other than Mary.]

I nodded and agreed.

“What’s more, the butler is helping Carinne, so using the employees would have been easier than a piece of cake.”

At this point, everyone in this mansion—whether voluntarily or controllably—was at Carinne’s hands and feet.

[I wonder how they were so meticulous.]

“It would have been a disaster if I hadn’t found Carinne going towards the vacant lot. Thank God-”

I stopped my muttering as a frightening thought hit my brain.

“It can’t be…”

Immediately, I got up and opened the door to the balcony.

The garden—lit at dawn—was full of fresh flowers with dew.

“That’s why they changed my room,” I laughed as I continued.

“So that I wouldn’t find that vacant lot.”

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