You Promised To Divorce Me - Chapter 27

I expected such a question from him.

‘It’s weirder not to notice.’

I called Lennox, breaking the magic of the bracelet. And he clearly witnessed the strange disturbance on his own.

“I waited because I thought you were reluctant to talk.”

As Lennox said, I was hesitant to bring up this topic the whole time I was in the carriage to the Duke’s mansion.

No wonder I couldn’t say Carinne’s name.

Every time I tried to spit it out, my voice wouldn’t come out.

The reason for such displeasure was fear. An instinctive and unconscious urge to escape from a fearful object.

“I’m sorry,” I mumbled in the teacup I was drinking.

“What?”

“I was going to tell you earlier, but I couldn’t open my mouth.”

My gaze slipped down. The tea reflected my nervous face.

I anxiously rubbed the flower on the surface of the cup when his answer came back.

“That’s nothing to be sorry about.”

I rather felt brave by the insignificant response. I carefully brought up the subject.

“A sorcery to change your body with another person? Have you ever heard of its practice?”

His ruby eyes slightly grew bigger.

“Changing bodies? Does it mean that the souls can be exchanged?”

“That’s right.”

“It’s my first time hearing it.”

He leaned, supporting his elbows on his hard thighs and interlocking his hands.

“I’m sure of it. I saw it with my own eyes.”

“Then you found out who was trying to hurt you?”

Of course.

Somehow, I felt nervous and wanted to open my mouth after taking a deep breath.

No, I was going to open my mouth.

“…Umm!”

“Olivia?”

Lennox looked curiously, but I couldn’t respond.

‘My voice won’t come out!’

My lips were closed as if they were sealed with wax. No sound came out of my mouth as if my throat was completely clogged with cotton. Some unknown great force was restraining my body.

Why? Why all of a sudden?

Shuddering under the pressure on me, I resisted but couldn’t speak. Eventually, I started feeling nauseous.

“Um, ugh…!”

“Olivia!”

When I bowed down and pressed my throat, Lennox hurried to help me even when he was surprised.

“What’s wrong? Are you sick?”

When I shook my head reflexively, the pressure on my body decreased as if it had been waiting.

‘What was that…’

I smacked my lips to explain again to Lennox. But again, I was blocked by an unknown force.

The feeling of being controlled at will was so creepy that no words could explain it.

‘It’s stopping me from revealing Carinne to Lennox.’

At the same time as the vague realization, a dull shock hit me.

‘If Carinne has already cast a spell on Olivia’s body, then…’

At that moment, the pressure on my body started to loosen up.

Considering that Olivia had been drinking the Qualum leaf tea for quite a while, it was a good assumption I made.

I managed to catch my breath and looked straight at Lennox.

“I don’t know who it is.”

When I decided to exclude Carinne’s name, words came out as if nothing was wrong.

“You said you saw it yourself.”

“They were covering their faces.”

It was a clumsy excuse. Lennox’s eyes narrowed but he luckily did not ask anymore.

“However, there was a helper from inside the family.”

The butler of the Brienne family. The man Carinne called Richard.

“You don’t even know who the helper is?”

“…No.”

It was impossible to reveal Richard, and I modified my assumption a while ago.

Carinne’s name was not the only one I couldn’t say.

Feeling the dampness of my sweaty palms, I clenched my jaw.

I remembered the girl watching me run away with a bleak expression. She didn’t want the truth to be revealed. That’s why she had to cover my mouth. She had the ability to occupy a person’s actions.

If what’s happening to my body now is really Carinne’s fault, then…

It was terrible. I felt my heart freeze and all the blood in my body escape to my toes.

‘But if I had a spell on my body, Lennox would’ve known…’

He was the one who noticed at once that Viscount Brienne was under the spell of a marionette.

“Your Highness.”

Pressing down my heart pounding with fear, I asked,

“Can you check if I have a spell on my body?”

Lennox’s face hardened. But instead of asking me why, he quietly placed his finger on the back of my neck. After a while, he opened his mouth to speak.

“It’s clean.”

Phew… With a sense of relief, I let out the breath I was holding in. My heart also began to regain its original beat little by little.

‘That’s a relief.’

Lennox patiently waited while I calmed down.

Moments after, I opened my mouth to continue our conversation.

“I think the criminal can switch bodies with anyone in the mansion.”

“Then it is no exaggeration to say that the entire Viscounty is in their palm.”

I nodded, recalling the conversation between Carinne and Richard.

“…The purpose of the person who made me drink that tea mixed with Qualum leaves, perhaps they didn’t mean to turn me into an evil spirit.”

The sharp man quickly suggested,

“Their purpose was to change their body with yours?”

“I’m not sure,”

I continued as I squeezed my hands.

“However, there must be a necessary condition for the complete transfer of the souls. If it doesn’t meet the conditions, your body will suffer and it can only endure it temporarily.”

“You’re assuming that the victim is required to drink Qualum leaf tea on a long-term basis.”

“Yes.”

“That makes enough sense.”

Lennox was lost in thought with his elbow on his armrest and his jaw clenched.

“The reason they want your body out of all the people…”

His forehead gathered into a frown.

“Do they know that you’re an Epure?”

“I don’t know how they found out the secret,”

I nodded with mixed feelings.

“An ability to exchange souls.”

Lennox’s eyes, which moved quietly as if he was talking to himself, sank heavily.

The situation was not good.

While all my cards were exposed to her, I knew very little about Carinne.

I couldn’t even reveal her to Lennox—the only one who could help.

This was such a disadvantageous fight for me.

“That’s why I came out of the house. I thought it’d be dangerous if I had stayed longer.”

I didn’t know when I would also lose my body.

“Thank you for bringing me here.”

“I only kept my promise.”

Lennox responded to my thanks and handed me the blanket kept in the corner of the sofa.

“Why this…?”

“You’ve been shaking since earlier.”

I was?

Only then did I find my fingers shaking slightly, desperately grabbing the teacup.

How did this man recognize the slight tremors that I didn’t even notice?

“The tea is cold.”

The blanket fell on my shoulders with a rustling sound. It was soft and cozy.

Wrapping the blanket around my shoulders, he said, taking a teacup from my hand this time,

“From now on…”

“…”

“Drink only the right tea.”

The cold tea in the cup was thrown away and replaced with new tea. The teacup in my hand was surprisingly warm again.

His gestures were too natural.

I didn’t even notice him get so close that I could feel his breath.

“If you can’t do that, I’m here to help you.”

My small hands tightened around the cup he handed me.

“As your partner, I’ll be glad to do it.”

The way he spoke was hoarse yet calming.

However, just those words were enough to calm down my anxious mind.

‘…I can do it.’

I may not be killed miserably. I don’t have to struggle alone to survive.

‘I can get away from Carinne.’

Hope pressed down my fear and I raised my head.

‘I can live.’

Instead of giving in to my predetermined fate of destruction. Instead of being dragged by the flow of the original novel that never changed like an absolute proposition.

I looked at the man I chose, who signed a contract with me.

Leaning down with one hand on the back of the sofa I sat on, he was gazing at me.

“So, relax.”

In the quiet room, his whisper was strangely loud in my ears.

“Don’t be afraid.”

“Okay.”

Lennox’s eyes slightly relaxed on mine.

Suddenly, I began feeling hot.

I did not know if it was because of the teacup or the slight graze of his warm touch a moment ago.

*** 

Brienne Mansion.

After the stir, the mansion was filled with bleak energy even in the middle of the day.

It might’ve been because of the person who left the house, but it was not just that.

Someone’s footsteps appeared in the corridor at noon when the sun shone brightly above the head.

The woman who appeared silently climbed the stairs across the central hall as if she was familiar with the place.

The gentle steps were beautiful.

Movements as graceful as the flow of water permeated through her unique attitude after a thorough, long education.

“…”

After a while, the woman stopped at the door of her destination.

Her white and smooth hands held the doorknob and slowly turned it.

Soon after, the tightly closed door opened wide.

The revealed bedroom was not much different from its usual appearance.

Skimming her eyes through the furniture, she spoke in a subdued voice,

“You left quite hastefully.”