WTRM 09

Chapter 9

Elisha’s haughty fanning suddenly came to a complete stop.

“What…? You, you dare!”

“And you’re pretty enough even now.”

“Prett…!”

She sucked in a sharp breath and glared at Sohee. The sudden compliment about her appearance had caught her so off guard that she was rendered speechless.

“Th-that isn’t important. What matters is that I’m the real Saintess.”

But Sohee continued speaking analytically, without the slightest change in expression.

“No. I’m telling you this because I think you should go through regression or reincarnation rather than possession.”

“What?”

“That Saintess did nothing wrong. She was simply born as the real Saintess and went to take her rightful place. So there isn’t enough justification for taking her life away from her. Honestly, that Saintess isn’t guilty of anything, is she?”

“I have every right to take her life away!”

Elisha Brown was so thin that her body swayed slightly whenever she shouted.

“She took what was originally mine! My life! After that woman appeared, she stole everything that belonged to me!”

“No. It would be more accurate to say that everything was returned to its rightful owner. The one who had been holding on to something that wasn’t hers was Elisha herself….”

“Shut up!”

Elisha glared at Sohee, her thin fist trembling. She wasn’t threatening in the slightest, but it was obvious that the consultation was going to drag on, and Sohee’s fatigue was already skyrocketing.

Still, a customer was a customer. The more people she could send through 회빙환, the closer the motel would get to financial stability—and the closer Sohee herself would get to returning home.

With an image of the nearly empty gourd in her mind, she forced a smile onto her lips.

“Elisha, why don’t you just finish things with regression without possession, or prepare for reincarnation instead? I would recommend preparing your revenge against those around you who encouraged you and framed you, or simply severing those ties altogether and surviving independently.”

“The precious things that woman received….”

“I’m telling you this as a professional.”

Elisha suddenly looked at Sohee. The name tag on her chest clearly identified her as the general manager of the Reincarnation, Regression & Transmigration Motel.

“Why would you go through 회빙환 for such ridiculous conditions? If it were me, I’d rather disappear than go there. And you might be born as the real Saintess in the next novel, or perhaps the one after that.”

A woman who had entered Wicheon with her had said that.

Of course, Elisha knew it herself. A supporting character and villainess with this much importance would probably become the protagonist in the next novel.

‘But he won’t be there.’

Elisha fiddled with the only blue diamond ring she possessed.

It was the first and last token Cedric had given her at their engagement ceremony. If only she could return to him, she was willing to pay even this as the price.

She would definitely go back and receive Cedric’s love in its entirety.

As the fake me, by entering the body of the real Saintess.

Elisha turned her head away again with a prim expression.

“I know my own life better than anyone. Make it possession.”

Sohee carefully pulled up the corners of her trembling lips, but the vein bulging on her forehead was completely beyond her control.

Today is going to be a very long day.

Sohee had a hearty dinner before entering the consultation room to begin round two.

People here didn’t feel hungry even if they didn’t eat, but when it came to relieving stress, nothing beat eating.

And the same probably applied to Elisha sitting in front of her.

“Have some.”

A cup of tea that Kuku had prepared with great care was placed on the table.

She hadn’t forgotten to include milk tea made with rich black tea blended into smooth milk, along with crispy baked biscuits.

They were Elisha’s favorite foods from when she was alive.

Elisha, who had desperately wanted that tea, couldn’t hide her delighted expression.

Though she quickly concealed it.

With a single cup of tea, she felt as though something inside her, along with her body, was slowly melting away. Before she knew it, Elisha let out a deep sigh.

That was when Sohee opened her mouth.

“You’re this beautiful, so why do you want to possess someone else?”

Elisha, who had intended to argue a little more forcefully in the second round, hesitated.

She snorted as though she found it ridiculous, but she was pleased nonetheless.

‘Hmph. Is she making fun of me now?’

At first, Sohee had been so arrogant that she hadn’t even pulled out a chair for her, yet now she was showering her with compliments about her beauty.

Elisha tried to harden her expression as though she were angry, but she couldn’t help her cheeks turning slightly red at the praise.

“So go through regression or reincarnation. You may not realize how important this is because you were born beautiful, but this really is the greatest blessing of all.”

“Possession.”

“I told you, you don’t have sufficient justification.”

“Possession. Do it for me.”

This possession fanatic….

Sohee barely managed to relax the fist that had instinctively tightened and put down her pen.

“To be honest, possession—yes, if we tried, we could do it.”

Elisha looked at her with interest.

But Sohee answered firmly.

“But I can’t do it. I absolutely won’t.”

“…Are you kidding me right now?”

“Listen carefully to what I’m about to explain.”

Sohee picked up her pen and roughly wrote Elisha’s name and the Saintess’s name on a blank sheet of paper.

“The real Saintess is alive right now, correct?”

“Of course.”

“What do you think will happen if we attempt possession on someone who is alive? Her soul would have to leave her body too. She would have to go somewhere else.”

“…So?”

“Obviously, she would go into your body. Then your soul and the Saintess’s soul would be switched.”

“…….”

Elisha seemed unable to say anything, as though she had never considered such circumstances.

Sohee didn’t want to back down any further, either. No matter how wronged Elisha might have been, there was no reason to steal the body of someone who was innocent.

‘Maybe the previous motel managers would have done it, but I won’t.’

She would choose a method that did not stray from basic moral common sense.

That was the first principle Sohee had established after becoming the motel’s manager.

She had already seen it in the work’s introduction, but the real Saintess had merely reclaimed her rightful place and had never done anything to harm Elisha afterward.

The true people she should seek revenge against were only her adoptive father and his group, who had encouraged her and pushed her into committing evil deeds.

“…That doesn’t matter.”

Well, Sohee didn’t think so.

Elisha couldn’t even meet her eyes anymore.

“Really? That woman, who hasn’t done anything wrong, would suddenly lose her own body.”

“I-I don’t know. I just need to have Cedric.”

“Elisha.”

Having chosen love over guilt, she raised her trembling eyes and looked at Sohee.

She didn’t even realize how tightly she was clenching her thin hands.

“Do you really think you could endure that?”

“I can! I can do it!”

She screamed as though shrieking in desperation, but Sohee thought differently.

She wouldn’t be able to enjoy everything she had taken.

She would begin living a fake life all over again while pretending to be the real Saintess, constantly anxious that someone might discover she had stolen the Saintess’s body.

Elisha barely managed to steady her breathing, but her trembling voice did not calm.

“Cedric… wants the real Saintess.”

“Then he will recognize the real Saintess. Not you.”

Elisha looked at her again as though she couldn’t understand what she had just heard.

“The two of them are bound together by a relationship that is like fate. The more you return, take over the real Saintess’s body, and beg Cedric for his love, the more you’ll simply be used as part of the story that brings those two together. In the end, they won’t be able to overcome their fate, and they’ll end up together again.”

“Th-that can’t happen.”

“And the worst part is that the real Saintess will even take your beautiful face.”

A sigh escaped Elisha before she could stop it.

“Do you understand now? I think we absolutely have to protect at least your pretty face.”

Elisha felt as though her breath had been knocked out of her.

Even if she took the Saintess’s body and begged for love, she would merely be used as an obstacle in the love story between those two.

“What if I… what if I act exactly like the Saintess?”

She looked at Sohee, unable to let go of the last thread of hope.

Sohee quietly lowered her eyes and looked once again at the file containing Elisha’s life record.

“You couldn’t withstand the pressure from your adoptive father, so you forcibly held on to that position.”

She lifted her eyes from the documents and looked at Elisha.

“Because you didn’t want to be abandoned again, just like when you were young.”

“……!”

She had always been sensitive because she was afraid people would discover that she was fake. She had imitated a gentle expression and doubted the kindness of others.

It was true that she had always been on edge, constantly worrying about where Cedric was going and whom he was meeting.

“And yet you want to enter the real Saintess’s body again and deceive everyone.”

Sohee looked at Elisha’s trembling hands.

She was already this anxious. And she thought she could put on a perfect performance?

Perhaps it might be possible at first, but Sohee could already picture how it would end.

Elisha would become anxious about being discovered as a fake and grow sensitive to everything around her.

And that wasn’t all.

‘To begin with, forcing something like this makes a successful possession extremely difficult.’

For a supporting character who was supposed to disappear from the story to suddenly covet the protagonist’s position and attempt possession was nearly impossible.

Of course, if the story were embellished and refined, there might be a possibility.

But 회빙환 was, quite literally, a battle of probabilities.

Sohee couldn’t simply stand by and watch Elisha spend all her karmic debt of annihilation on such a low probability.

Sohee unconsciously softened her previously rigid voice.

“Elisha, I’m not telling you not to go back. I just want you to live comfortably if you return there, without having to struggle so hard for anything.”

Elisha’s slender hands trembled as she silently listened to Sohee.

Just as Sohee was about to reach out and hold both of her hands, Elisha slapped her hand away.

Startled, Sohee raised her head.

Elisha was glaring sharply at her.

“…How did you know?”