Failed Possession Chapter-45

## Chapter 45

—

Elena stopped asking questions and simply listened to Yuri’s story.

The moment *that man* entered Yuri’s body—
it was before he reunited with Elena.

When Yuri had still been living in Aldor.
When he had been living as a low-ranking errand boy in the third-rate gang called Black Snake Faction.

The day the Black Snake Faction was attacked and annihilated,
the day that forced Gordon to send that letter.

Among the attackers who stormed in as a group, one stabbed Yuri in the stomach with a knife,
and Yuri—Elena Heinderga’s childhood friend—died that day.

The possession happened immediately afterward.

The man who possessed him went to Gordon’s general store, informed him of the gang’s massacre, received treatment for minor wounds, and then stayed in Yuri’s house for a month.

During that time, Elena came after receiving Gordon’s letter.

“Yuri… died?”

Elena barely forced her voice out.

She knew what Possessors were.

Beings who fell into the trap of an Evil God and crossed over from another world.
They settled into the body of someone living in this world, killed the original soul, and stole the body.

Normally, the man before her would be exactly that kind of existence.
A monster that killed the “real” Yuri Elena had known since childhood and stole his body… pretending to be him.

The fact that the real Yuri had died *before* the possession confused Elena.

First came the thought—was something like that even possible?
Then came suspicion—was this man lying just to avoid her resentment?

But what if it wasn’t a lie?

If, as he said, Yuri had already died before the possession?

If… if that were true…

“…”

Elena bit her lip hard.

Even so, that didn’t make everything he had said until now any less of a lie.

From the very beginning, this Possessor had lied to her.

He wasn’t Yuri, yet he pretended to be Yuri.

That alone was a horrible lie.

The reason Elena had brought him to her estate in the first place—
was because he was Yuri.

The childhood friend she had grown up with since the Aldor orphanage.

When the other orphans bullied her, Yuri protected her.
The doll still in her room—Yuri had given it to her.
The one who cried while seeing her off the day she left for the Dercia Magic Tower—Yuri.

For ten years, the one who exchanged letters with her—Yuri.
Every time she wrote a letter, the one she worried about—Yuri.

The one she went to meet wearing a white dress and a hat after ten years—Yuri.

The one who lived in that shabby single-room house, worked daily as the lowest member of a vulgar gang, then returned home and flipped through worthless books while dreaming—

The one she couldn’t just abandon, the reason she decided to bring him to her estate—

That was her childhood friend Yuri.

“You…”

The man who greeted her every morning in the living room asking if she slept well,
who sat at the same table and ate with her,
who said “Take care” when she left—

The man who laughed at silly conversations,
went to auctions together,
occasionally ate out,
read books together in the living room,
trained martial arts in the garden every single day,
quietly knocked and brought tea when she stayed too long in the study,
covered her with a blanket when she dozed off—

The man who made her heart race when he said he would leave the estate—

The one who toured villages with her for half a month by carriage,
who gifted her a blue hairpin too pretty for her to wear for fear of dirtying it,
who ignored her shout to run away and stepped forward to kill that hideous old fiend—

“…”

You’re not Yuri.

Elena couldn’t bring herself to say the words swirling in her chest.

He could have lied to the very end.
But he didn’t choose to lie.
Even when told to run, he didn’t run.

Because he thought he couldn’t escape?
Because he thought fighting together gave better odds?

[Run.]

When he was exhausted and couldn’t fight anymore—
she hadn’t heard it directly, but his moving lips had clearly said that.

“Why didn’t you run?”

In the end, that was all Elena could ask.

“I thought I’d regret it if I ran.”

She didn’t know what expression to make.

Her face wouldn’t move properly.
It felt like all her facial muscles had stiffened.

“Regret? What regret?”

“I didn’t want you or Lady Haryeong to die.”

At that answer, Elena unconsciously clenched her robe.

“The Yuri I knew is already dead… that’s… true?”

“Yeah.”

The moment she heard that answer, the trembling in her chest was unbearable.

This conversation filled Elena with intense self-loathing.

It was an extension of the helplessness she had felt on the mountain.

If only she had been stronger.
If she could have killed the Blood Fiend Ghost without Yuri stepping in.

Then—

Yuri being a Possessor would never have been revealed.

Just like before, she could have continued believing purely that this man was Yuri.

Her childhood friend Yuri was already dead.

His death wasn’t caused by this man.

The one who lived with her at the estate—

was the Yuri standing here now.

“…”

Everything had begun with a lie.

If he hadn’t been her childhood friend, they wouldn’t have met.
She wouldn’t have brought him to the estate.
She wouldn’t have devoted herself to him.

And yet—

Elena had liked those days.

She fell asleep looking forward to every morning.
When she woke, she felt happy.

“I… I honestly… don’t know.”

Her emotions wouldn’t settle.

She forced herself to speak between uneven breaths.

“I don’t even know if everything you said is true. But… I know this. You… you lied to me.”

“…”

“I know you… couldn’t help it. But it’s hard to accept. You… you’re not Yuri.”

“Yeah.”

“Then why did you save us? Why… did you tell me to run?”

“Because you’re my friend.”

Her shoulders trembled at that answer.

“Yeah… friend… not a childhood friend, though.”

A short silence passed.

Elena raised her head and stared at the ceiling.

If she loosened her grip on her emotions even slightly, tears would spill out.

“Liar.”

The small mutter broke the silence.

“You’re a liar. You went into Yuri’s body and tricked everyone pretending to be him.”

He couldn’t deny it.

That’s what most Possessors were.

“How… how did it feel?”

Her breath grew rough.

She lowered her face and stared at Yuri with tear-filled eyes.

“Everything… everything was a lie! When I told you stories from the past—about the orphanage, about how you were to me—what kind of face were you making when you answered me…?”

Even if he had ten mouths, he had no excuse.

“You laughed at me, didn’t you?”

Her trembling lips twisted.

She forced a smile that looked like a scar.

“You laughed at me for trusting you completely and pouring everything into you… didn’t you?”

“No.”

Yuri couldn’t hold it in anymore.

“I swear I never laughed at you. I did lie to you—but I never laughed at you.”

“Don’t lie!”

Crackle!

Lightning flared around her.

“You laughed at me! You used me! Pretending to be Yuri—!”

“Please, Elena—!”

“Don’t call me that!”

She screamed, clutching her head.

Sparks kept bursting from her unstable emotions.

Haryeong, standing behind, simply crossed her arms and watched without interfering.

“You… you can’t call me that. You’re not Yuri… not Yuri…”

At last, tears fell.

They evaporated in the current.

“What… what is this? Why did it become like this? I… I…”

The lightning grew wilder.

It felt like she would lose control.

Yuri hurriedly reached toward her.

She flinched and swung her hand.

“Don’t touch me!”

Crackle!

Lightning wrapped around Yuri’s hand.

He bit his lip, swallowing the groan.

The smell of burning flesh snapped Elena back.

She covered her mouth and stepped back.

“S-sorry.”

The lightning vanished.

She stared at his trembling, shocked hand and shut her eyes tight.

“I… don’t know.”

After a short silence, she muttered.

“I know you saved us. You could have kept lying… but you didn’t. But… that doesn’t make your lies easy to accept.”

“…”

“Yuri.”

It was a cruel contradiction.

The real Yuri was dead, yet Elena could not call the man before her by any name other than “Yuri.”
Even while condemning him as a liar and a Possessor, she still had no choice but to call him Yuri.

She didn’t want to call him that.
That name—and that relationship—were just that precious to her, deeply cherished in her heart.

Which was why the betrayal hurt even more.

“And yet… she keep calling him Yuri.”

Clenching his injured hand, Yuri gave a bitter smile.
At those words, Elena hesitated, then let out a short breath.

“I… don’t know any other name, and I don’t want to. You, the Possessor, probably have a real name, but to me… to me, you’re Yuri. A liar, a Possessor, a fake Yuri.”

Tears spilled again.

Were these tears for her dead childhood friend?
Or because the Yuri in front of her was fake?

Elena was afraid to arrive at the exact answer to her own feelings.

“Let’s end it like this.”

So she ran away.

“We’re done here. I… I won’t go back to Lutran with you.”

“…”

“I’m not going to go around telling people you’re a Possessor. I… won’t think about you anymore, and I won’t send letters either. So… I hope you do the same.”

There were still many things she should ask.

The martial art Yuri used to kill the Blood Fiend Ghost.
Even to Elena, a mage, it had looked special—something he had never practiced before.

She didn’t ask.

It didn’t feel like he would answer honestly anyway, and those things would probably just be part of all the lies he had told until now.

“I…”

Yuri let out a long sigh.

“Like you said, I’m a liar. That’s true. I’m not Yuri, not your childhood friend, and yet I pretended to be him and used you.”

“…”

“I lived in the room you gave me. Wore the clothes you bought me. Learned the martial arts you paid for.”

“What are you trying to say…?”

“I’m sorry.”

Elena stared at him without even wiping away her tears.

“I’m sorry for lying. And I’m sorry for taking your childhood friend’s body.”

“…”

“I don’t know how you’ll take this, but… I liked the time I spent at your estate. I liked being with you. That’s why… that’s why I didn’t want you to find out I was a Possessor.”

In the end, he had been exposed like this—

but his feelings were sincere.

“I also…”

I didn’t want to know you were a Possessor.

She swallowed those words instead of saying them.

Elena roughly wiped away her tears.
Her eyes kept drifting to Yuri’s hand, burned by lightning.
When she forced her gaze away, she saw his face.

She was afraid to look at that face, those eyes, for too long.

So in the end, she turned away.

“Goodbye.”

That was the last thing she said.

Most of what she wanted to say stayed buried in her chest.
The childhood friend Yuri who had already died, and the Yuri of now—everything was nothing but confusion to Elena.

Yuri blankly stared at the closed door.

Should he have stopped her?
Should he have begged for forgiveness more?
Or made some pathetic excuse?

He didn’t know.
What the right answer was—or whether there had ever been one.

In truth, Elena’s reaction had been far kinder than he’d imagined.

She hadn’t cursed him with hatred, nor sobbed demanding her childhood friend back.

‘Did she hold it in…?’

He’d seen her swallow her words several times.
Had what she swallowed been resentment like he had expected?

“…Ahem.”

While he sat there lost in bleak thoughts, a small cough sounded beside him.

Yuri came back to himself and turned.

Haryeong was still sitting in exactly the same posture as before, staring straight at him.

“You look like you’re in pain. Are you alright?”

Her gaze went to his burned hand.
It stung, but right now it barely even registered.

“W-what… what is it?”

Her presence, her expression, her stare—it was so unexpected that he stammered.

“Why are you still here instead of leaving?”

“I’m an assassin with tact.”

Haryeong answered plainly. She glanced at the closed door.

“I may be Lady Elena’s guard, but what she needs right now is time to sort out her feelings. If I stayed with her, she wouldn’t even be able to cry properly.”

“…”

“Well, considering how things turned out, you could say I failed as a guard. If I had been stronger, Lady Elena wouldn’t have been in danger, and the fact that you’re a Possessor wouldn’t have been exposed.”

“I also need time alone to sort out my emotions.”

“Unfortunately, you are not my employer, so I don’t feel any particular obligation to be considerate toward you.”

…What kind of woman is this…?

Yuri stared at her, dumbfounded.

“Don’t glare at me like that. Lady Elena said everything she wanted to say. I haven’t finished mine. That’s why I stayed.”

“What are you trying to say? Are you going to call me a liar too?”

“It’s true you’re a liar, but I don’t really care.”

She shrugged.

“You’re not my childhood friend, after all. I don’t know the Yuri from ten years ago. The first Yuri I know is the one walking down the creaky stairs of that old public housing in Aldor. So whether you’re a Possessor or not doesn’t matter to me.”

“…”

“Well, maybe not ‘doesn’t matter.’ I was pretty shocked. But that’s all.”

She fumbled at her belt.

“The reason I’m still in this room—despite you wanting to be alone—is to thank you.”

“Thank me?”

“Yes. My life was saved thanks to you too, wasn’t it? If you hadn’t taken that brave step forward, I would have died to the Blood Fiend Ghost before Lady Elena.”

“…”

“So it’s only proper to express my gratitude. I’m a very moral assassin like that.”

She pulled out a dagger.

Even at a glance, it looked anything but ordinary.

“This is called Black Fang. I never use it for throwing. It’s a dagger I treasure very much. Though technically, if I throw it, it comes back on its own.”

“…?”

“But I don’t throw it because I value it that much. Black Fang doesn’t even need sharpening. Even if you toss it carelessly, it flies on its own and hits the target.”

“You’re… giving that to me?”

“Do you think I took it out just to brag?”

The dagger spun lightly in her hand. She offered it handle-first.

“I’m such a kind assassin that I don’t hand it blade-first.”

“Are you sure I can take this? You said you treasure it.”

“I have another one.”

In her other hand was a pure white dagger.

“…Is that one called White Fang?”

“How did you know? That’s creepy.”

“It’s too obvious…”

“As you said, that one’s White Fang. Together they’re called the Black-White Twin Fangs. Anyone trained in hidden weapons would want these. Take good care of it.”

Yuri quietly nodded and accepted Black Fang.

“Let me emphasize—handle it carefully. Don’t throw it unless necessary. And don’t lose it.”

“Yes.”

“If possible, don’t even use it as a weapon. Always carry it on you.”

“How many times are you going to repeat that?”

“That’s how much I treasured it. Yuri—think of Black Fang as me and always cherish it. I might take it back someday.”

“Take it back?”

“Lady Elena may act like she’ll never see you again, but there’s no reason for me to do that. You never know what life brings. Maybe we’ll run into each other again someday, and if I need Black Fang then, I’ll take it back.”

For life… would that really happen?

To Haryeong, Elena simply looked like she had run away from her feelings. One day, she would surely regret it.

“Separate from giving you Black Fang, I also don’t intend to spread the fact that you’re a Possessor.”

“Thank you.”

“But even if Lady Elena stays silent, Lady Orca will probably suspect you.”

Yuri’s face stiffened.

Heavenly Thunder Orca.

He couldn’t help but be wary of her.

Thinking back to when he met her before, she had probably suspected he was a Possessor even then.

Lacy Yuzha was a Possessor—he was certain of that.
If Yuri could be sure, there was no way Orca wouldn’t be.

Yet she still kept Lacy at the tower and favored her.

“So don’t worry too much. Even if Lady Orca finds out you’re a Possessor, I doubt she’ll harm you.”

“Why do you think that?”

“Simple. You saved Lady Elena. If you died by Lady Orca’s hand, the Elena of now would never try to understand her.”

After confirming Yuri tucked Black Fang into his clothes, Haryeong stood.

“I suppose I should go wipe Lady Elena’s tears now.”

As she moved to leave, Yuri stopped her.

“Haryeong. My memory’s fuzzy… but when the Blood Fiend Ghost died, didn’t he say something to me?”

It was a lie.

He remembered clearly.

He only asked because he was worried she might have heard it.

“Did he leave last words?”

She asked back, expression unchanged.

“I think so… I don’t remember well.”

“Sorry. I was focused on treating my injuries. I didn’t hear any last words.”

She bowed lightly.

“Then, Yuri. If fate allows, let’s meet again.”

The door closed.

Yuri was alone.

‘Was she telling the truth…?’

He stroked Black Fang in his chest.

He couldn’t tell.

“…Whatever.”

He didn’t want to think about it anymore.

So… it’s finally exposed.

Letting out a sigh, Yuri collapsed back onto the bed.

—