Welcome! This is the Regression, Possession, and Reincarnation Motel — Episode 9

Elisha's haughty, sweeping fan flourishes came to an abrupt halt.

"What…? Y-you, you dare—!"

"And you're plenty beautiful even now."

"Beautiful…!"

She drew in a sharp breath and glared at Sohee, so flustered by the sudden compliment to her appearance that the words caught in her throat.

"Th-that doesn't matter. What matters is that I'm the real saintess."

But Sohee continued in a perfectly level, analytical tone, her expression unchanged.

"I'm not saying this because I think you were possessed, my lady. I'm suggesting that regression or reincarnation might suit you better."

"What?"

"That saintess did nothing wrong. She was born the true saintess and simply found her way back to the place that was always hers. Which means there's little plausibility in taking that life from her. Honestly speaking, the saintess is innocent, isn't she?"

"I have every right to steal that girl's life!"

Perhaps because Elisha Brown was so terribly thin, her body swayed slightly every time she raised her voice.

"She stole what was mine to begin with! My life! The moment that woman appeared, she took everything that belonged to me!"

"No, my lady. The correct way to see it is that everything returned to its rightful owner. The one holding what wasn't hers was you…."

"Silence!"

Elisha glared at Sohee, her bony fists trembling. It wasn't the least bit intimidating, but it was obvious the consultation would drag on, and Sohee's fatigue meter was already spiking.

A customer was a customer, nonetheless. Only by sending one more guest through Regression, Possession, or Reincarnation could the motel's finances—and Sohee's own return home—draw any closer. She pictured the bottle gourd hanging by the front desk, achingly, woefully empty, and strapped a smile onto her face.

"Elisha, why not skip the possession entirely—end it with regression, or prepare for reincarnation? I'd more strongly recommend plotting revenge against the people who egged you on and framed you, or severing every tie with them and living on your own two feet."

"But the precious things that woman receives…"

"Speaking as a professional."

Elisha's eyes lifted to Sohee. The nameplate pinned to her chest certified her, unmistakably, as the general manager of the RPR Motel.

"Why bother with the Hoe-Bing-Hwan at all when the terms are absurd? If I were you, I wouldn't go there—I'd dissolve. Besides, next time around, or the time after that, you might be born a real saintess."

That was what one of the women who had entered Wicheon alongside her once said. Elisha knew it herself, of course. A supporting character this significant—a villainess this notorious—would almost certainly be promoted to protagonist in the next novel.

'But he won't be there.'

Elisha fiddled with the lone blue diamond ring on her finger.

The first and only token Cedric had ever given her, back at their engagement. If she could just return to him, she intended to pay him back with it.

She would go back—absolutely, without fail—and receive Cedric's love in full. She, the fake, would slip inside the body of the real saintess.

Elisha turned her head away with a fresh prick of hauteur.

"I know my own life better than you do. Possession. Do it."

Sohee carefully lifted the corners of her trembling lips, but the vein bulging on her forehead refused to be controlled in any way.

It was going to be a very long day.

Having eaten a hearty dinner, Sohee entered the consultation room to begin round two.

In this place, one never went hungry even without eating, but when it came to stress, nothing beat eating it away. And Elisha sitting across from her was surely no different.

"Drink up."

A cup of tea Kuku had poured his whole heart into was set on the table.

He hadn't forgotten a thing—milk tea blending rich black tea into velvety warm milk, and even a crisp, freshly baked biscuit on the side. It had been Elisha's favorite food back when she was alive.

The tea could not have arrived at a more welcome moment, and Elisha could not hide her delight—though she scrambled to bury it almost at once.

With a single cup, something deep inside her seemed to melt away along with her body, and Elisha let out a long, unguarded breath.

It was then that Sohee spoke.

"You're this beautiful. Why on earth do you need to possess someone else?"

Elisha, who had been planning to push her argument harder in round two, faltered. She gave an incredulous sniff through her nose, but she was pleased all the same.

'Hmph. You're teasing me, aren't you?'

Rude enough to refuse her a chair at first, and now showering her with praise over her looks. She tried freezing her face into an expression of anger, but the faint flush creeping up her cheeks at the flattery was beyond her control.

"So go with regression or reincarnation. You were born beautiful, so you can't understand how much this matters—but beauty is truly the blessing of all blessings."

"Possession."

"I'm telling you, you lack the justification."

"Possession. Make it happen."

This possession parrot…

Sohee barely loosened her white-knuckled fist and set down her pen.

"To be completely honest with you—possession? Yes. If you tried, it could be done."

Elisha's eyes lit up with interest. But Sohee's answer was resolute.

"But I won't do it. Absolutely not."

"…Are you joking with me right now?"

"Listen carefully to my explanation."

Sohee picked up her pen and jotted two names on a blank sheet of paper—Elisha, and the saintess.

"That real saintess is alive right now, isn't she?"

"Obviously."

"So what happens if you attempt to possess a living person? Her soul would have to leave the body too. It has to go somewhere, doesn't it?"

"…So?"

"It goes to your body, naturally. Which means your soul and the saintess's would simply switch places."

"……"

Elisha said nothing, apparently having never considered that particular complication. Sohee had no intention of backing down either. However much Elisha had been wronged, there was no justification for stealing the body of someone innocent.

'The previous motel managers might have allowed it. I won't.'

Never choose a method that departs from basic moral decency. That was the first principle Sohee had established when she became the motel's manager.

She had already seen it in the work's synopsis—the real saintess had merely returned to her rightful place, and afterward never lifted a finger against Elisha.

The ones truly deserving of revenge were the adoptive father who had egged her on and shoved her into villainy, and his whole wretched crowd.

"…None of that matters to me."

Does it not, now. Sohee thought otherwise. Elisha couldn't even meet her eyes anymore.

"Really? That woman, who did nothing wrong, would suddenly lose her own body—to you?"

"I—I don't care. All I need is Cedric."

"Elisha."

Having chosen love over guilt, she looked up at Sohee with trembling eyes. She had no idea how tightly her own thin, dry hands were clenched.

"Do you really think you could endure it?"

"I can! I told you, I can!"

She screamed it like a curse, but Sohee saw it differently.

Elisha would never get to enjoy a single thing she claimed.

She would imitate the real saintess and begin another life as a fake, tormented by the constant dread that someone, someday, would notice she had stolen the saintess's body.

Elisha managed to steady her breathing, but her voice would not stop shaking.

"Cedric wants the real saintess."

"Then he'll recognize the real saintess. Not you."

Elisha stared at her again, as though she couldn't comprehend what she had just heard.

"Those two are a match woven by fate itself. The more you return, seize the real saintess's body, and clamor for Cedric's love, the more you'll simply be used as narrative scaffolding—another trial the two of them must overcome before they unite. In the end, they'll defy even you and end up together."

"Th-that can't happen."

"And worse—the real saintess will end up owning your beautiful face, too."

A groan escaped Elisha before she could stop it.

"Do you understand now? If there's one thing about you that absolutely must be protected, I think it's your beauty."

Elisha felt her breath catch in her throat. To seize the saintess's body and beg for love, only to be reduced to one more hardship in the story of their love—

"What if—what if I act exactly like her? Perfectly, exactly like the saintess?"

Unable to let go of that last thread of hope, she looked at Sohee.

Sohee quietly lowered her gaze and looked down once more at the file containing the record of Elisha's life.

"You couldn't withstand your adoptive father's pressure, and you held onto that position by force—all so you wouldn't be cast aside again, the way you were as a child."

She raised her eyes from the file to Elisha.

"So of course your heart turned to ash. It only grew worse with time, until eventually you could no longer fake even your expressions or your eyes."

"…!"

She had always been hypersensitive about her fraud being discovered, had practiced gentle smiles, had doubted every kindness anyone showed her. And it was true that she had been perpetually on edge—watching where Cedric went, who he met.

"And yet you're telling me you want to slip into the real saintess's body all over again and deceive everyone one more time."

Sohee looked down at Elisha's trembling hands.

She was this restless and frantic already—and she meant to promise a flawless performance? It might be possible at first, but how it would end was plain to see. She would drown in the fear of exposure, sharpened and suspicious at every turn.

And that wasn't all.

'Frankly, a farce like this would struggle to even trigger a possession.'

For a supporting character on the verge of dissolution to suddenly covet a protagonist's seat and demand possession was close to impossible.

If she drafted and refined the narrative carefully, the chance wasn't strictly zero—but the Hoe-Bing-Hwan was, quite literally, a war of probabilities. Sohee could not stand by and watch Elisha pour every last drop of her Extinction Karma onto so slim a wager.

Her voice, which had gone rigid without her noticing, softened a little.

"Elisha, I'm not telling you not to go back. I only want you to return there and live comfortably, without having to strain and struggle for everything."

Elisha's slender hands had been trembling quietly as she listened to Sohee in silence. The instant Sohee reached out to take them, Elisha slapped her hand away.

When a startled Sohee looked up, Elisha was glaring at her with burning intensity.

"…How would you know?"