At that time, due to her nervousness, Ann had walked around that her back was facing Allen. To make it worse, Allen chose exactly this time to avert his gaze away from her and hang his head down, nervous to hear Ann’s next words.

Ann felt like she was trapped in a box inside herself, because all she could do was watch.

No matter how she tried to move any part of her body, it won’t obey.

No matter how she tried to scream, her mouth won’t open.

Her body, no, Anne was currently gripping the knife tightly with her expression twisted in hatred. Her eyes were full of murderous intent as she walked at the same pace as Ann towards where Allen was, approaching him from behind.

 

No, no, no!!

What are you doing?!

Stop it!!!

Ann screamed as she helplessly watched…

She was feeling dizzy as her chest felt hot with emotions that didn’t belong to her. Even as she took in those emotions belonging to the real owner of her body, she couldn’t just agree with what Anne was trying to do.

 

Is this the end?

Because of me, the story was about to go off its original route, so the game forced the original villainess to take her body back, in order to correct the course of the story?

Is this… where my life will come to an end?

When she was dead before, she passed away unexpectedly and without her even conscious of what was going on. But now, as her second death was looming, she could clearly feel the horror of such thoughts, and her will to live was actually stronger than what she thought it was. Even if this life she had was one that was built after taking over someone’s life, she still wasn’t willing to let it go.

But what could she do in this instance?

Nothing!

The frustration and despair Ann felt at this moment was way greater than any other that she had experienced.

 

“The truth is…?”

Not hearing his wife continue her explanation, Allen finally lifted his head as he asked. He then turned around to look at her—

The moment Anne heard Allen’s words, her movements quickened as she lifted her hand that was holding the knife, aiming it at Allen’s neck.

Coincidentally, when she just started to swing the knife, Allen had already seen her and noticed her intention.

Allen managed to block the incoming attack; his eyes widened as he looked with disbelief at the woman before him.

The same body, the same face, yet… How could she be this unfamiliar?

The expression on her face as well as the gaze in her eyes were so alien.

This… wasn’t the woman he loved!

 

“You… So everything was a lie all along?” Allen asked as he tried to snatch the knife away from Anne’s hand, but Anne wouldn’t yield. She strengthened her grasp on the knife.

“You should’ve just died!!”

The same voice, yet the tone was so harsh and full of hatred.

Allen couldn’t make sense of what was happening. Be as heartbroken as he was, his first priority should be to disarm her and subdue her.

 

Anne used her other hand to put away Allen’s hand that was blocking her, but before she could do that, Allen caught her other hand with his left hand.

“…tch!”

Anne clicked her tongue before she bit Allen’s hand that was holding her right hand. This happened so quickly that it caught Allen off guard. The pain from her teeth caused him to reflexively let go of her right hand, and in that moment, Anne managed to continue her knife swinging.

 

No, no, I have to stop it!!

Ann exerted all of her mind and effort in order to stop her body that was already out of control, but still, it was to no avail.

 

Just as she was about to submit to despair, a mysterious light shone from Allen’s chest—to be more exact, from the magical stone on his necklace, blinding the two of them unexpectedly.

In that moment, Ann finally was able to feel her hands back, and very quickly, she stopped her hands before tossing away the knife to the other side of the room.

 

*clink* *clink*

The metallic sound of the knife falling to the floor resounded within the room.

The next moment, Allen opened his eyes to see his wife standing before him, doing nothing. The gaze that was full of murderous intent and hatred was now gone.

Before he could say anything, tears dripped from Ann’s eyes, surprising him.

 

“Ru…n…”

Ann was finally able to talk this time, so she quickly said with her hoarse voice.

She knew that her regaining the control of her body was just temporary, and though she didn’t understand the mechanism, she could tell that the ‘protective charm’ that she had gifted to Allen on a whim actually helped her.

 

“…?” Allen could only look at Ann with a questioning gaze, not understanding what was going on.

“Is someone using their black magic to control you?” He asked, as this was the only explanation that he could come up with.

“No…,” Ann’s voice shook as she felt that she was already losing control over her right hand. Her right hand was trembling, moving in whatever direction that she hadn’t commanded it.

Since she still had control over her left hand, Ann quickly locked her right hand’s movement with her left.

 

“Quick, run… I can’t hold her… any more than this…,” Ann said, still with tears dripping her cheeks.

Actually, the main reason she cried was because of her pent-up frustration rather than sadness. Coupled with the current situation where she was losing control over her own body, her tears overflowed even more.

“Her? What do you mean?” Allen asked.

“…kh!”

Perhaps since Anne was the rightful owner of the body she inhabited, her right hand overpowered her left as it grabbed the hair pin that was decorating her head, intending to use it as a weapon to harm Allen.

 

Seeing this, Allen quickly held her right hand and finally decided to knock Ann out by pressing on her acupoint. In no time, Ann lost her consciousness and the last thing she felt was how Allen’s arms supported her weakening body before it could collapse to the ground…

 

 

***

 

The moment Ann opened her eyes again, she found herself in a strange place. She couldn’t really make sense of her surrounding, so she tried to look at her own body and felt as if she was back in her original body.

Though it was odd, she somehow didn’t find it questionable. It felt as if she was in a dream as she reflexively walked around.

 

*sobs*

*whimper*

As she walked, she soon heard a girl’s crying voice, so she approached that voice.

 

She soon found a girl who was weeping on the floor, with her back facing her. Based on her appearance, Ann thought that she was a girl around seven or nine of age.

“Uhm, why are you crying?” Ann bent her body and extended her hand, about to touch the girl’s back to comfort her and ask, when the purple haired girl suddenly turned around and swung her arm to smack Ann’s approaching hand.

 

“Go away! You’re annoying!! This is my body!!!”

In the next moment, at the same time as the yell could be heard, the little girl that was still crying on the ground a second earlier had now transformed into that of an adult whose appearance Ann was familiar with—it was none other than the villainess of the game she had played before. The real Anne was standing before her.

 

Ann was stunned at first, but after realizing what was happening, she quickly yelled back at Anne, “Well, this is mine now!!!”

“Impudent! You thief!!” Anne was enraged as she lunged to hit Ann.

“I didn’t ask for it, but I can’t just stand by to watch as you destroy the life I’ve been trying to build!!” Ann tried to block Anne’s incoming hits.

“YOU are the one who’s destroying my life!!”

“No, you don’t know where you’re headed to with that kind of attitude. I know, and I’m trying to avoid that, but it’s so that I can continue to live, not you!”

“This is originally mine; you never had any say about it since the beginning! Get lost!!”

“I can’t!!”

 

The two were locked in a heated debate as Anne was trying to struggle free from Ann’s grasp, wanting to smack that hateful body thief away for good.

In that moment, Ann could hear the faint, familiar voices that came from who-knows-where.

 

“Arlea-sama!! Wake up!!”

“Chirp!!”

“You still owe me an explanation.”

The beautiful voice of a young girl that she loved, the crisp and high cry of the weird bird that attached herself to her without any rhyme nor consent, and the low voice of a man whose words were hateful, yet his words contained a concealed emotion that was rare to be heard.

 

“I will go back, you can stay here forever!!” Ann shouted.

“Oh yeah? Just you see! I will get back my body, and you won’t be able to do anything again, just like before!! Resistance is futile, you see? Why don’t you just drop it now and save us from all the troubles?”

“Even if you can do that, even if the probability I can resist you is close to zero, I… I will still fight you!”

Ann yelled at the top of her lung and at that time, her ‘body’ got a surge of power that she didn’t even know she had.

And as she managed to not only block Anne’s hands, but also overpowering her, the next moment—