Chapter 45
Chapter 45
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Translator: Vine
Chapter: 45
Chapter Title: Shattered Illusions
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Elena stopped asking questions and simply listened to Yuri's story.
The man who had entered Yuri's body—it had happened before his reunion with Elena.
Back when Yuri was living in Oldor, scraping by as a lowly member of a third-rate outfit called the Black Snake Gang.
On the day the Black Snake Gang was raided and massacred, forcing Gordon to send that letter.
One of the attackers who had stormed in stabbed Yuri in the gut with a sword, and Yuri—Elena Haiderga's childhood friend—died that day.
The possession happened right after. The man who possessed him went to Gordon's general store, reported the massacre of the Black Snake Gang, and got treatment for his minor wounds. Then he spent a month at Yuri's place.
It was during that time that Elena, having received Gordon's letter, came looking for him and they met.
"Yuri... died?"
Elena barely managed to squeeze out the words. She knew what possessors were.
Beings who fell into the traps of evil gods and crossed over from other worlds. They inhabited the bodies of people living in this world, killing their original souls and seizing their flesh.
In most cases, the man before her would be one of those. A monster who killed the "real" Yuri that Elena had known since childhood and stole his body... pretending to be Yuri.
The fact that the real Yuri had died before the possession confused her. Was that even possible? Or was this man just lying to dodge her immediate resentment?
But what if it wasn't a lie? What if, as he claimed, the real Yuri had already died before the possession? If that was true...
"..."
Elena chewed her lip. Even so, it didn't make everything he'd said up to now true.
This possessor had lied to her from the start. Pretending to be Yuri when he wasn't—that alone was a horrific lie.
The reason Elena had brought him to her mansion in the first place was because he was Yuri.
Her childhood friend from the Oldor orphanage days.
It was Yuri who protected her from the other orphans' bullying, Yuri who gave her the doll still in her room, Yuri who tearfully saw her off when she left for the Derusia Magic Tower.
It was Yuri who'd exchanged letters with her for the ten years after, Yuri who'd worried about her with every letter he wrote.
The one she'd met in her pristine white dress and hat was her childhood friend Yuri, reuniting after a decade.
It was Yuri who'd lived in that shabby single room, toiling daily as the runt of a lowly gang, then coming home to flip through worthless books and dream his dreams. It was that childhood friend Yuri who Elena couldn't bear to leave alone, compelling her to bring him to her mansion.
"You..."
The man who'd greet her every morning in the living room with "Sleep well?" and share meals at the same table, telling her "See you later" when she left.
The man who'd laugh over trivial chatter, go to auctions with her, occasionally dine out, read books together in the living room, train in martial arts in the garden without fail, quietly knock and bring tea if she lingered in the study, cover her with a blanket if she dozed off at her desk for a break, and make her heart race by saying he was leaving the mansion.
The man who'd traveled by carriage for a fortnight, sightseeing villages, gifting her a blue hair pin too pretty to ruin by wearing it, ignoring her cries to run, stepping forward, and slaying that hideous old demon.
"..."
You're not Yuri.
Elena couldn't bring herself to voice the words swirling in her chest. He could keep lying to the end. But he hadn't chosen to. He'd ignored her pleas to flee.
Because he couldn't escape? Because fighting together as three gave better odds?
[Run.]
When she was exhausted and couldn't fight anymore. She hadn't heard it directly, but his moving lips had conveyed that meaning.
"Why didn't you run?"
In the end, that was all Elena could ask.
"I'd regret it if I did."
She didn't know what expression to make. Her face wouldn't cooperate. It felt like all her facial muscles had frozen solid.
"Regret? What regret?"
"I didn't want to see you or Ha-ryeong die."
At that answer, Elena unwittingly clutched her robe.
"The Yuri I knew is already dead... Is that the truth?"
"Yeah."
The moment she heard it, the turmoil in her chest was excruciating. This conversation plunged Elena into bitter self-loathing. It was an extension of the helplessness she'd felt on the mountain.
If Elena had been stronger, if she'd killed the blood demon without Yuri stepping in.
Then the truth about him being a possessor never would have come out.
She could have kept seeing him purely as "Yuri," just like always.
Her childhood friend Yuri was already dead.
And it wasn't this man's doing.
The one who'd lived with her in the mansion was the current Yuri.
"..."
It had all started with a lie. If he weren't her childhood friend Yuri, she never would have met him, brought him to the mansion, devoted herself to him.
But Elena had loved that daily life. She'd gone to bed each night looking forward to morning, waking with happiness.
"I... I honestly... don't know."
Her emotions wouldn't settle. Elena steadied her quickening breath and stammered on.
"I don't even know if everything you're saying is true. But this much I know. You've... been lying to me all this time."
"..."
"I get that... you had no choice. But it's hard to accept. You, you're... not Yuri."
"Yeah."
"Then why did you save us? Why tell me to run?"
"Because we're friends."
Elena's shoulders trembled at the reply.
"Right, friends... friends, yeah, not childhood friends."
A brief silence fell. Elena looked up at the ceiling. If she loosened her grip on her emotions even a little, tears would pour out.
"Liar."
Her soft mutter broke the silence.
"You're a liar in the end. Entering Yuri's body, fooling everyone by pretending to be him."
An irrefutable truth. Most possessors were like that.
"What the hell did it feel like?"
Her voice, laced with ragged breaths, grew rougher. Her gaze dropped from the ceiling. Elena stared at Yuri with eyes brimming with tears.
"Everything, all of it...! It was all lies. When I talked about the old days. Our childhood, the orphanage, how I was, how you were to me...! When I poured out those stories, what the hell did you feel responding...?"
A question he had no answer for, even ten mouths wouldn't suffice.
"You were laughing at me, right?"
Her quivering lips twisted. Elena forced a smile on her tearful face, but it looked like a scar.
"You didn't even suspect your lies, I fell for them completely, pouring myself out to you—you must've laughed. Right?"
"No."
Yuri couldn't stand to hear more and blurted it out.
"I swear I never laughed at you. It's true I lied to you, but I never mocked you."
"Don't lie!"
Crackle! As her furious shout erupted, currents of electricity surged around Elena.
"You laughed at me! You used me...! Pretending to be Yuri when you're not...!"
"Please, Elena...!"
"Don't call me that!"
Elena screamed like a banshee, clutching her head. Crackle, crackle! Her uncalming emotions kept spawning electricity. Ha-ryeong, who had stepped back, crossed her arms with a blank face, not daring to intervene.
"You, you can't call me by that name. You're not Yuri... not Yuri..."
Tears she couldn't hold back finally flowed. They evaporated on her cheeks amid the currents.
"What... what the hell are you...? Why did it end up like this? I, I thought of you as..."
The currents grew wilder. It felt like she couldn't be left alone any longer. Yuri hurriedly reached for Elena. She flinched in shock and swung her hand at him.
"Don't touch me!"
Crackle! The electricity from her gesture engulfed Yuri's hand. Yuri swallowed a groan, biting his lip hard.
The acrid smell of burning flesh snapped Elena to her senses. She clamped her mouth, stumbling back a few steps.
"S-Sorry."
The crackling currents vanished. Elena stared at Yuri's trembling, electrocuted hand, then squeezed her eyes shut.
"I... don't know."
After a brief silence, Elena muttered.
"I know you saved us. You could've kept lying... but you didn't. But... that doesn't make the lies you told me easy to accept."
"..."
"Yuri."
It was a cruel contradiction. The real Yuri was dead, but Elena couldn't call the man before her anything but "Yuri." She'd condemned him as a liar possessor, yet she still called him Yuri.
She didn't want to. It was a name and bond so precious, weighing so heavily on her heart.
That made the betrayal sting even more.
"You're still going to call me Yuri."
Yuri gripped his aching hand, forcing a bitter smile. At his words, Elena hesitated, then let out a short breath.
"I... don't know any other name for you, and I don't want to. You possessors have real names, sure, but to me... you're Yuri. Liar, possessor, fake Yuri."
Tears flowed again. Were they for her dead childhood friend, or sorrow that the current Yuri was fake? Elena feared pinning down her emotions exactly.
"Let's end it here."
So she ran.
"We're done. I'm... not going back to Lutran with you."
"..."
"I won't go blabbing that you're a possessor. I won't think of you, won't send letters. So... you do the same."
There was more she wanted to ask. The martial art he'd used to kill the blood demon. Even to Elena, a mage, it had looked extraordinary—something Yuri had never trained in before.
She didn't bother. He probably wouldn't answer honestly, and those were part of his lies anyway.
"I..."
Yuri let out a long sigh.
"You're right, I'm a liar. Fact is, I wasn't Yuri, wasn't your childhood friend, but I pretended and used you."
"..."
"I lived in the room you gave me, wore the clothes you bought, trained the martial arts you bought."
"What are you trying to say...?"
"I'm sorry."
Elena stared at him, not even wiping her streaming tears.
"Sorry for lying, sorry for taking your childhood friend's body."
"..."
"I don't know how you'll take this, but... the time I spent at your mansion was good. Our relationship was good. That's why... I didn't want to be exposed as a possessor."
Even though it ended up like this—his feelings were genuine.
"I..."
Didn't want to know you were a possessor.
She swallowed the unspoken words. Elena rubbed at her falling tears. Yuri's burned hand kept catching her eye. Forcing her gaze away, she saw his face.
Fearing to look too long into those eyes, Elena finally turned away.
"Goodbye."
That was her last word. Most of what she wanted to say stayed buried in her chest. The dead childhood friend Yuri, the current Yuri—everything confused her.
Yuri blankly stared at the closed door. Should he have grabbed her? Begged forgiveness more? Spun some pathetic excuse? He didn't know. What was right, if there even was a right answer.
Honestly, Elena's reaction was far gentler than he'd imagined. No venomous curses, no sobbing demands to bring back her friend.
'Holding back?'
He'd seen her swallow words several times. Were they the resentments he'd imagined?
"Ahem..."
Lost in gloomy thoughts, a cough sounded beside him. Yuri belatedly snapped to attention and turned.
Ha-ryeong sat in the exact same pose as before, staring at him.
"You look like it hurts. You okay?"
Her gaze went to his burned right hand. It stung, sure, but in this moment, pain barely registered.
"W-What?"
Her presence, expression, stare flustered him into a stutter.
"Why haven't you left?"
"I'm a perceptive assassin."
Ha-ryeong replied. She glanced at the closed door with her usual blank face.
"I'm Elena's bodyguard, but right now, she needs time to sort her emotions. If I stay, she can't even cry freely."
"..."
"Well, with things turning out like this, you could call me a failed bodyguard. If I'd been stronger, Elena wouldn't have been in danger, and your secret as a possessor wouldn't have slipped."
"I need time alone to sort my emotions too."
"Unfortunately, you're not my employer, so I don't feel obligated to accommodate you."
What kind of woman is this...? Yuri glared at Ha-ryeong in disbelief.
"Don't glare like that. Elena vented plenty alone, but I still have things to say. That's why I'm staying."
"What do you want to say? Going to call me a liar too, Ha-ryeong?"
"You are a liar, but I don't care much."
Ha-ryeong shrugged and continued.
"You're not my childhood friend, right? I don't know the Yuri from ten years ago. The first Yuri I knew was coming down the creaky stairs of that rundown Oldor tenement. So whether you're a possessor or not doesn't faze me."
"..."
"Hmm, not entirely unfazed. I was pretty shocked. But that's it."
As she spoke, Ha-ryeong patted her waist sash.
"The reason I'm still in your 'leave me alone' room is to thank you."
"Thank me?"
"Yes. You saved my life too, didn't you? Without your brave step forward, I'd have died to the blood demon before Elena."
"..."
"Having received such grace, it's only proper to give thanks. That's how moral an assassin I am."
She drew a dagger from her sash—clearly no ordinary blade. Ha-ryeong held up the palm-sized dagger like a trophy.
"This is Black Fang. I never use it for throwing—it's my favorite. Though it does come back on its own, so throwing works fine."
"..."
"But I don't throw it because I treasure it that much. Black Fang never needs sharpening, flies true even if tossed roughly—super convenient."
"You're giving that to me?"
"Why else would I pull it out to brag?"
Black Fang spun in Ha-ryeong's hand. She offered the bladeless hilt to Yuri, chin raised.
"I'm such a polite assassin, handing over the non-blade side."
"Can I really take it? You said it's precious."
"I have another."
Indeed, her left hand held a pure white dagger different from Black Fang.
"Is that one's White Fang?"
"How'd you know? Creepy."
"Too obvious..."
"As you said, this is White Fang. Together, Black and White Twin Fangs. Any martial artist trained in covert arts dreams of owning them, so treasure it."
Yuri nodded meekly and took Black Fang.
"I'll stress again: treat Black Fang preciously. Don't throw it lightly. And don't lose it."
"Got it."
"Better yet, don't use it as a weapon—just carry it on you always."
"How many times are you gonna emphasize?"
"That much I treasured it. Yuri, think of Black Fang as me and cherish it always. I might want it back someday, so keep it with you."
"Someday?"
"Elena acted like she'll never see you again, but I have no reason to. World's unpredictable. We might cross paths, and if I need Black Fang then, I'll take it back."
Never again, really? Ha-ryeong mulled her own words. To her, Elena was just dodging emotions now—she'd surely regret it eventually.
"Separate from giving you Black Fang, I won't blab you're a possessor either."
"Thanks."
"But even if Elena keeps quiet, Orca will suspect about you."
Yuri's face stiffened. Heavenly Thunder Orca Derusia. He had to stay wary of her.
Recalling his old meeting with Orca, she'd suspected he was a possessor even then.
Rayshi Yuz is a possessor. Unconfirmed, but Yuri was certain. It made no sense otherwise.
If Yuri was sure, Orca surely was too. Keeping her in the tower, favoring her as a disciple candidate—Orca didn't seem hostile to possessors.
"Eh, no need to worry too much. Even if Orca learns you're a possessor, she won't harm you."
"Why do you think that?"
"Simple. You saved Elena. If Orca killed you, current Elena would never forgive her."
Ha-ryeong confirmed Yuri tucked Black Fang away, then rose from her chair.
"Guess I should go wipe Elena's tears now."
Yuri, mulling her words, stopped her as she headed for the door.
"Ha-ryeong. My memory's fuzzy, but when the blood demon died... didn't it say something to me?"
A lie. Yuri remembered the blood demon's dying words clearly. He asked anyway—worried if Ha-ryeong had heard.
"Did the blood demon leave last words?"
Ha-ryeong asked with her usual face.
"Something like that, but I can't recall."
"Sorry, Yuri. I was focused on tending my internal injuries then, so I didn't hear any last words from the blood demon."
Ha-ryeong bowed politely.
"Then, Yuri, until fate brings us together again."
The door closed, leaving Yuri alone.
'Was that true...?'
Yuri stroked Black Fang in his bosom, pondering. Hard to tell if Ha-ryeong spoke truth or lied.
"..."
Honestly, he didn't want to dwell on it.
Exposed after all.
Yuri sighed and flopped onto the bed.