Possessing The Obsessive Maniac’s Cotton Doll

“The ritual itself is simple. There are two major ritual magics to be performed. The first is soul binding magic. All you have to do is draw a magic circle and cast a spell. Then the two souls merge. The important thing is the second ritual. It’s dimension shift magic. After the souls are completely merged, he has to go through this ritual to come back to this world.”

“Then, what will happen to the physical body in the other world?”

Mikael, who had been listening to Andrei silently, asked in a calm voice. As he said, the process itself was simple. However, in reality, the result of the ritual would not be so simple.

“Disappear.”

“What?”

“It just disappears. As if it never existed in the first place.”

Andrei spoke calmly, but Mikael was confused. He couldn’t imagine what it would be like for a person who had lived so far to disappear as if he never existed in the first place.

“How is that possible?”

“That’s why it’s magic.”

The answer that came back was simplistic. It was incomprehensible and unfathomable, but the explanation was simple. In simple terms, magic.

However, the reality of making it happen was not so simple. It’s not easy to go through a ritual to make yourself disappear. In fact, it meant giving up everything.

And the fact that Yuri, and no one else, had to do it made Mikael uneasy. He seemed to have many lingering attachments to his original world. Could he really give up everything for him? It’s possible that Yuri could only do the soul binding magic ritual and not do the second step, the dimension shift magic.

His mind and heart were complicated. No words could fully express his feelings right now. Mikael was confused, and his heart was heavy and melancholic.

“Tell me when you are ready, and I will tell you about the ritual.”

“…”

“I say this out of concern, but it shouldn’t be too late. Yuri will be in danger.”

Andrei added in a solemn voice, as if understanding Mikael’s confused mind. But Mikael had nothing to say in response.

Even after Andrei got up first and left the drawing room, he remained still for a long time, as if frozen in place.

* * *

“I’m going to die… ? Why? Why, why am I going to die?”

Yul asked repeatedly in disbelief. Mikael didn’t respond immediately and just lowered his head. At his reaction, Yul’s heart skipped a beat.

“Mikael, tell me. Why am I, why am I dying?”

“Because now… your soul is split, so it’s an unstable situation. So, you could be in danger.”

“My soul is split?”

“It is divided into the other world and this world.”

“Ah…”

Hearing his words, he understood the strange things that had been happening.

Every time he felt a headache, he heard voices from the other world. That would mean he did not die in Korea. But since he was alive in this world, he was now living in both worlds. For that to make sense, his soul had to be in two places, here and there.

“You can only live by putting them together.”

“Then we can put it together.”

“Yes, but…”

Mikael trailed off. Yul looked at him with trembling eyes. Something seemed to come out of his quivering lips at any moment, but for some reason he didn’t say anything.

“Perhaps… you don’t know how to do that?”

“…”

“Is that why?”

“… Mhm.”

""

When asked again, Mikael was forced to lie. He couldn’t bring himself to tell him that he would have to go through the ritual of giving up everything.

“… Really?”

“Yeah.”

Even when Yuri asked again to confirm, he could only answer with a falsehood. How could he tell Yuri the truth when even he couldn’t get his head around it? Mikael knew that the lie was not helping him, but he couldn’t tell the truth. Even if it was just to postpone the moment of decision for a moment, he had no choice but to do this for now.

“Then we just have to find a way! What’s the problem? Mikael will find it, I will help you. Right?”

At Yuri’s plea, Mikael slowly nodded his head. Yuri tilted his head strangely at his expressionless face, but he couldn’t bear to even manage his expression.

“It’s not like there’s anything else you didn’t tell me… ?”

“… There is no such thing.”

“You’re not lying, are you?”

“No.”

“If this is a lie, I will run away… not, I will go on a walk without permission.”

“What?”

Yul curiously mouthed the word runaway, then quickly changed his tune when he saw the murderous look in Mikael’s eyes form in an instant. However, Mikael’s eyes were still sharp. Yul swallowed dryly.

“I- I’ll take a quick walk around the neighborhood lightly and come back.”

“…”

“Well, then only up to the door…”

Gradually, the scope of the runaway narrowed, until they reached the most humiliating point: the doorstep. Still, Mikael’s expression remained fierce.

“Ah, you’re too much! It’s not that I’m going to run away, I’m going to do it if you’re lying! Mikael, were you lying earlier? If not, it doesn’t matter!”

“… Right.”

“So that’s fine then. So no scary faces. In any case, if Mikael’s words are a lie, I’ll tell you where I’m going and run away.”

After holding back and then exploding, Yul offered a compromise.

He even thought to himself what kind of runaway tells where he’s going, he wanted to go out, but decided to pretend not to know. You shouldn’t try to have it your way with a gwanggong. Unless you have three or four lives.

“Naturally, tell me where you are going, and be specific about what time you will leave and what time you will arrive at your destination, and then run away. And when you go, use the carriage from the mansion.”

“Oh, that’s a bit harsh! If you ride in Mikael’s carriage, is that called running away? I’m just going out for a drink!”

“Then take the carriage I called for you instead of the mansion carriage.”

“… What on earth is the difference?”

“A lot of things are different.”

“Fine, let’s say so. Anyway, I dare you to lie to me. I will tell you my destination, report the time of departure and arrival, and run away in the carriage Mikael called for me.”

Yul was dumbfounded, but he admitted that he couldn’t win against Mikael and decided to take it for granted. In the first place, he was far from the runaway he was talking about, though.

“Wait.”

“Oh, what else!”

He had already stepped back enough to back down, but Mikael vomited again, and Yul raised his voice nervously without realizing it.

“We need to set a time to return.”

“Ha?”

He was so stunned that he burst into laughter. If they even set the time to return, how was that running away? The thrill of not knowing when one will return, but Mikael wasn’t going to let him do that.

“Tell me when you’ll be back. I’ll call a carriage for you in time.”

“Huh, goodness, then it’s not running away, it’s just going out. Running away is only meaningful when you don’t know when you will come back. Is it today, is it tomorrow? I’m running away to make you grow thin, and if you know when I’m coming back, who’s going to be thin? Not one bit..”

“I am.”

“You liar! What nonsense is that…”

“Even if Yuri is right next to me, right in front of me like this, I feel anxious and go crazy. It’s already growing thin.”

“…”

There was a sincerity that could not be hidden in his low voice. He wasn’t telling lies to joke or to placate himself. Everything he said was true.

“Why are you so anxious, why? I am here.”

“… I know. Yuri, you are here, why the hell am I so anxious?”

Mikael responded self-deprecatingly. His expression looked so sad that Yul felt his heart throb. He wasn’t even crying, but he seemed to be crying. It was to the extent that his red eyes looked blurry, as if they had been filled with tears.

“Don’t be anxious. If Mikael is so anxious, it makes me feel so sorry. I wonder if I didn’t give you that much faith, so I’m guilty. Of course, I can’t say I did.”

Even as Yul said that, his conscience stung. It was because his own actions had passed through his mind.

Didn’t he try to run away with a diamond ring, begging to go back, even getting drunk and spoiling the original story?

It was so understandable that he was anxious and did not believe in himself, so Yul rubbed his nose in embarrassment.

“Yeah, that’s understandable, but! That was before I fell in love with Mikael. Now that I like Mikael, it has changed. Don’t worry about that, I won’t disappear without Mikael.”

It sounded like an excuse, but he tried his best to make it sincere. Fortunately, Yul’s heart had reached him, and Mikael’s hard face softened just a little bit. After seeing this, Yul let out a sigh of relief and smiled.

Of course it didn’t last long.

Yul glared at Mikael.

“By the way, Mikael, my back hurts too, uh, that hurts too, and I’m just about to die? How will you take responsibility?”

Mikael looked so depressed that he couldn’t bear to speak, but Yul felt that his back was about to break. Of course, he complained of strange pains not only in his back but also in embarrassing parts that were screaming for help.

Yul pounded his back with his fist. It was a sign for a massage, a compress, anything.

However, completely different words came out of Mikael’s mouth.

“Pain is won with pain.”

“Eh… ?”

What kind of nonsense was this all of a sudden? People tell him they are in pain, but what is this reply, ‘pain is won with pain’… ?

A distraught Yul blinked his eyes, but Mikael’s hand reached out to him.

“Wait a minute, Mikael! Wh- what! Don’t take it off, oh don’t take it off!”