Taking Over the Villainess’ Body: 365 Days Left to Live?

As Elder Priest Matthias opened his mouth, he surprised everyone present to the point of becoming speechless.

For he usually spoke slowly and just like any other elderly man, but this time, he spoke as if he was spewing a barrage of words to attack his opponent in a battle called a debate.

“Mythical Bird of Soul Transcendence. According to a legend passed down in the Imparie tribe–Oh, you don’t know what tribe they are? They are a group of people considered to be either half-humans and half-spirit of nature due to their affinity with nature, in some cases they are considered as non-humans. Anyway, continuing where we left off–, these birds are immortal spirits that oversee the world.”

“The gem embedded in their body is the core of their immortality. The bird can choose members of Imparie tribe or very rarely, mortal outsiders, to guard and when their mortal companion’s life was near its end, a ritual can be held in order to bestow a new life to the mortal by fusing them with the bird. The bird typically chooses someone of the qualities that they want to have as their mortal incarnation, and in most cases, both won’t have memories of their previous lives due to the bird’s influence. 

“A little is known of this bird and its purpose, but the Imparie tribe believed that the mythical bird finds immortality to be stagnant and wants their soul to transcend by experiencing a short life of a mortal and undergo the cycle of life and death.”

“It’s believed that there were a lot more of these birds in the past. But the mortal’s greed knows no bounds as they found a way to bypass the system, slaughter the bird, extract the gemstone, and use it to extend their life. Whether this species decided to live in hiding to avoid the ugly mortals or their species has gone extinct due to the mortal’s greed is unknown.”

 

“...”

Everyone blinked.

The info dump is just too much, Elder Matthias! And can you please slow down?

Their brains were simultaneously trying to grasp the meaning behind the words that Elder Matthias spewed just now. 

“My brain hurts…,” Ann muttered.

“Mine too…,” Laura also muttered.

The other people who were too far away from them couldn’t really hear what they were saying, but as for the people who were closer to them that they could hear the two girls’ words, they silently agreed.

 

“In other words…,” Ann tried to understand and reiterate what the elder had said, since this matter involved her the most.

“You’re telling me that we can just slaughter Birdie, extract the gemstone in her, and trap the other soul in the gemstone?!” Ann pointed to Birdie’s head in horror, her index finger trembling.

“FOOL!” Elder Matthias raised his voice in anger over Ann’s foolish conclusion of his lengthy words that he went through such troubles of saying. He made a gesture in the air as if he were smacking Ann’s head, and Ann flinched in response, despite knowing that there was a significant distance between them that the elder wouldn’t be able to reach unless he used some kind of magic or unknown force to smack her…

“Chiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiirrrrrrrppp,” Birdie said in a low, monotonous tone with her eyes looking at Ann with a judgemental look.

As she turned around to look for help from the others, she was met with others’ horrific eyes. 

“Uhm…”

Even Allen and Laura, the two people closest to her, were also staring at her as if she were mental.

Arghh, I am not good with grasping information from someone’s quick speech after all! Moreover, I was completely unprepared! Give me some break please T__T

 

“Ahem,” Allen cleared his throat to break this awkward situation before he calmly spoke.

“In other words, you believed Birdie was this mythical bird that can fuse with the soul we wanted to exterminate in the purification ritual that ended in failure this morning?” 

When Ann heard Allen’s simple explanation, Ann’s expression lit up as if saying, ‘Ooh, finally someone who’s speaking in ‘humanese’—a language that any human can understand!’

 

“At last, we have a smart person here,” Elder Matthias said, causing the others’ expressions to turn ugly.

“Is that even possible to do?” Laura asked.

“Should be,” Elder Matthias curtly answered.

“Then, let’s prepare right away!” Laura was happy to hear that.

“Do you know how the ritual should be held?” Elder Matthias asked.

“Uh…,” Laura hesitated.

If the elder were to ask this, surely it wouldn’t be the same as the regular ritual they were so used to do for exorcism, right?

“Can you please enlighten this little one, oh Elder?” Laura asked.

“Fool!” Elder Matthias suddenly scolded Laura.

Laura staggered a few times backwards, afraid that the elder would smack her head silly after the sudden outburst of anger.

Elder, can you please not scold me without a warning?!

 

“Did you even listen to what I said?” The elder then asked.

“Uhm… Which part?” Laura felt like crying.

“The origin of the legend.”

“It’s… The Imparie tribe, isn’t it?” Laura asked.

“Exactly. They’re the ones who know more about the bird and how the ritual should be,” Elder Matthias nodded.

“Oh, so we just need to ask them, right?” Ann asked with a bright tone.

“………,” Everyone gazed at Ann as if she just had a problem with her IQ.

“Uhm…?” Ann tilted her head in confusion.

Debienne shook her head, “It’s not easy to meet with the Imparie tribe.”

“Why? Are they traveling constantly it’s hard to determine where they are now?” Ann asked.

It was obvious that Laura couldn’t stand seeing her clueless best friend, for Laura immediately hauled Ann aside to quickly give information to her.

 

“Listen Ann, I’m sure you have no clue what the Imparie tribe are like,” Laura said.

Ann nodded with her eyes wide like rabbits’, “Indeed, I don’t have any idea. Aren’t they like the tribes in the modern world? So… a group of people with certain cultural and racial profile that live together?”

“You’re almost correct… but they are quite eccentric here. So…,” Laura started explaining, and Ann listened intently to her explanation.

“The Imparie tribe are a group of people who are believed to be… not humans…”

“Are they like elves then?” Ann asked.

“Not really… Well, they actually look more like humans, but they are believed to be half-human and half-spirit—nature spirit—due to their peculiar power and affinity with the nature,” Laura explained.

“Hmm… Are they physically like humans, or are they like elves with different physiques from humans?” Ann asked.

“Appearance-wise, they are no different from ordinary humans—except for their pale colour.”

“You mean, albino?” Ann raised her brows. As per her understanding, people with albinism have no melanin or the kind of thing that determines the colour of their skin, etc… As such, their skins are so sensitive that exposure to sunlight can be dangerous to them. So, she thought that the Imparie tribe must be people with albinism.

 

Unexpectedly, Laura shook her head.

“No. Appearance-wise, they aren’t like people with albinism… They aren’t sensitive to sunlight either. It’s hard to explain, but you’ll know once you see them. Anyway, they like living close to nature and is closed off to the outside world. They rarely accept outsiders, let alone helping them, especially if it comes to something that should be exclusively theirs.”

In other words, the chance of them helping with the ritual, no, even telling how the ritual should be held, is miniscule.

“…,” Ann was stunned.

Is there no hope after all?

 

While she was thinking, Laura quickly took her hand and brought them to Elder Matthias and the others who were slightly distant from them.

“Now that I’m done explaining, let’s go back and continue where we left off,” Laura said as they went closer to where the others were.

Ann felt surreal, as if she were in a game and during a familiar terminology, the conversation would halt and a pop-up explanation of the terminology would appear.

She found it funnier that the one who became her dictionary here was her best friend in the modern world…

 

“Ahem, sorry for the intrusion. Let’s continue,” Laura said.

“Oh, right! Let me change my question, then. Is it possible for someone with power… Let’s say, the prince or the king… to contact the tribe member or the tribe’s chief to ask them for assistance?” Ann asked.

“That’s hard. They aren’t people who pledged loyalty to any sovereign here,” Allen answered.

When Ann turned to Debienne, Debienne seemed to understand what she was thinking about, so before Ann could even ask something, Debienne explained, “They don’t follow the same religious institution like the temple. It’s impossible to ask for help through the temple.”

Ann was dejected hearing them answering her question with an obvious tone—no hesitation at all!

“Then what do we do?” Ann asked.

“We can try. You have this legendary bird with you. These birds are admired even by ordinary people, let alone by Imparie tribe,” Elder Priest Matthias was the one who answered, unexpectedly.

Oh, Elder! You finally act like an elder priest in my imagination!!

Ann was almost moved to tears hearing the elder’s words.

 

“That is certainly an option. But we don’t know much about these people and…,” Allen furrowed his brows.

“Either we try or we give up now,” Elder Priest Matthias interrupted Allen’s words of hesitation, completely silencing him.

“Is there really no way…?” Laura asked, “Can we, like, persist with the usual purification ritual in case we can’t ask them for help?”

Elder Priest Matthias shook his head, “It’s nigh impossible. Purification ritual is designed to purify one’s body from external soul that latched onto it. In the first place, it’s not compatible for the purpose of driving out the rightful soul inhabiting their original body.”

“…”

“The other option would be to do what malicious spirits have been doing when they possessed someone. They try to erase the original soul that inhabited the body to make it their own,” Elder Priest Matthias solemnly said.

“How to do that?” Ann asked, “Isn’t it what we tried to do through the purification ritual?”

“Try and be a malicious spirit, or we switch to a vile ritual that’s designed for the evil forces that usually try to inhabit another’s body,” Elder Matthias said.

“…”

 

“If that’s possible, we can actually try… right?” Laura asked.

“Well, do you have the heart to?” Elder Matthias turned to look at Ann and asked.

“…,” Ann was stunned.

How can this elderly man guess exactly what’s going on?!

Ann felt like the purification ritual’s failure earlier was due to her hesitation to go ahead with their original plan of exterminating Anne for good.

 

“Then, let’s just explore the option of going to the Imparie tribe and ask. If it doesn’t work out, we can think again later,” Elder Matthias said in a gentle voice that caused everyone present to have goosebumps, for they had never heard him speak in this tone before…

“That sounds like a good idea,” Priest Debienne said.

“I’ll discuss this with Prince Kiehl,” Allen was ready to leave the place and go to the royal castle immediately, but he halted his steps as if he remembered something.

“Would you rather come with me or stay here first?” Allen asked Ann.

“Ah… I—”

“It’s better for her to stay here for the moment so we can observe her condition, lest the vile original soul emerge and cause trouble,” Elder Matthias interrupted Ann’s words.

“…”

With that, it was pretty much decided.

 

Allen parted ways with the rest of them, heading towards the royal castle immediately to report his finding here.

Meanwhile, Ann was advised to stay in the temple for the time being. Faye was obviously accompanying her. As for Birdie… it went without saying that she also stayed, but she was taken by Elder Priest Matthias most of the time, and surprisingly, Birdie didn’t make a fuss of it. Perhaps it was because she finally found someone who admired and respected her so much!

Laura was actually free to return home in that moment, but she decided to accompany Ann out of worry.

Luckily, the temple had vacant rooms and the living condition in the temple wasn’t so bad except for eating vegetarian food.

In any way, they weren’t going to stay in the temple for a long time.

They were waiting for Allen to return with a decision after discussing this with the prince, after all. It should take a day and Allen would return at night the most.

 

And indeed, Allen returned just before time for dinner.

He wasn’t alone however…