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Chapter: 7
In truth, she hadn’t noticed it for very long.
Thanks to the accumulation of internal energy in her dantian, her senses had become sharper, allowing her keen sense of smell to detect a familiar scent.
It was the musty odor of toxic sap.
A smell very similar to that of a deadly poison herb called Cho-oh.
And that scent was lingering around Dimitri.
“How do you know it’s poison?”
Isabella asked, and Karina smiled faintly.
“Do you want to come over and shake hands with Dimitri?”
“….”
Isabella pressed her lips tightly together.
Ignoring her, Karina looked up at the duke.
“I grew up in the countryside, so I’m familiar with poisonous plants from a young age. By chance, I smelled something similar on Dimitri.”
Whether the owner of this body actually grew up in the countryside was another story.
She had just covered her tracks with a plausible lie, saying she was adopted after being taken in from an orphanage—after all, she couldn’t exactly claim to be the sect leader of the Cheonma Shin religion.
“So according to you, Dimitri is the one who killed Ben?”
The duke said matter-of-factly. Karina stared at him.
“No.”
Her unexpected answer made the duke frown in curiosity.
“There must be an accomplice.”
Karina’s confident words caught the duke’s interest.
“How do you know that?”
“It’s difficult to kill someone instantly with just a small amount of poison on one’s hands. But if you use scent, that ability can be amplified.”
It was also the method of Hwan Eummagong, one of the four subordinates she had commanded.
And among them, the one with an ability related to scent…
All eyes turned toward Isabella.
Flustered, Isabella shook her head.
“I-I don’t know anything!”
The duke’s calm gaze fell on Isabella.
She turned pale as she shouted:
“I only helped because Dimitri asked me to! I never imagined that idiot would do something like this!”
Karina crossed her arms and watched Isabella dispassionately.
“Do you think timid and gloomy Dimitri would kill someone all on his own?”
“Don’t you know that gloomy people are the most dangerous?”
Karina shrugged and looked at Dimitri.
“You tell me. Did Isabella really have nothing to do with this?”
Hesitating with hunched shoulders, Dimitri finally spoke slowly.
“I-I just wanted to test my abilities. Since Isabella considered everyone my rivals, she advised me to test on the weakest and least useful one. Hmm… I’m not sure about the scent. I don’t know if Isabella helped me through scent…”
“Who helped you?!”
At that moment, the duke, who had been quietly observing, tilted his head with boredom.
“So it’s still true that Dimitri killed Ben. Whether Isabella participated in the murder directly is uncertain, but it’s clear she triggered the incident.”
The duke stood up, as if there was nothing more to hear.
“Dimitri is expelled. Isabella will be confined to solitary for two weeks. She cannot participate in training, but she will take the exam next month as scheduled. That will conclude this matter.”
Two weeks in solitary and then an exam?
Called “confinement,” but it was basically a guaranteed failure.
Shivering, Dimitri was dragged away by the attendants. Behind him, Isabella collapsed to the ground.
Karina watched them indifferently.
‘I wasn’t a sect leader of the Cheonma Shin religion for nothing.’
Now, she was just a pitiful little runt, but once she commanded powerful subordinates like Mancheon Doksu, a master of poison techniques, and Hwan Eummagong, who used sophisticated internal martial arts and musk.
Had her internal energy been sufficient, she could have sensed this sooner—but even in her current state, recognizing such methods was no problem.
At that moment, a familiar voice reached her ears.
“Thank goodness, Karina. I knew you weren’t the culprit.”
Ariel approached with a gentle smile.
She really was a nice girl, but she had a sharp side too.
Well, surviving in a place like this required a bit of cunning.
Karina replied nonchalantly.
“I’m hungry. It’s almost mealtime, right?”
“Yeah! Let’s go straight to the dining hall.”
Ariel took Denian’s hand and followed Karina.
Behind them, Duke Batius was watching silently.
Only a week remained until the next exam.
As usual, the children training in the field witnessed a strange sight.
A unit of armed soldiers was marching along the main road next to the training grounds.
Even at first glance, they were clearly elite warriors.
But unlike the warriors she had seen in her past life, the cumbersome armor they wore looked inefficient and stifling.
Ariel leaned close and whispered, as if she knew something.
“Oh my, do you see that emblem? That’s the Red Hawk Mercenary Corps!”
“The Red Hawk Mercenary Corps?”
Karina gave a questioning look, and Ariel’s excited expression brightened.
“You don’t know the Red Hawk Mercenary Corps? They’re the most famous mercenary group in the empire! It’s said that even the strongest warriors who don’t belong to the four great ducal families join them!”
So basically, they were strong fighters.
Intrigued, Karina scanned the corps.
She wasn’t sure if these warriors cultivated internal energy, but she could sense a power similar to it.
Judging by the aura, there were quite a few at the pinnacle of their abilities.
Normally, even in the largest sects, having more than five pinnacle-level experts is rare, and supreme experts are only one or two at most.
Yet most members of this mercenary corps were near the pinnacle.
The rumors about their fame were not exaggerated.
Her gaze landed on a man struggling to carry a huge pile of baggage at the back of the corps.
“What are you doing, rookie? Fall behind and you’ll run 100 laps!”
“Yes! Hehe! Coming through!”
The man stumbled under the weight, smiling obsequiously.
Karina’s expression flickered with curiosity.
Why did she feel a familiar energy from this baggage carrier?
Had she met him before?
No… who would she know here?
Her thoughts were interrupted as she had to focus on training at the instructor’s command.
The next day, instead of the regular instructor, a stranger appeared in the training field.
Together with the obsequious baggage carrier from yesterday.
“I’m Eric of the Red Hawk Mercenary Corps, and I’ll be overseeing your training. This is my subordinate, Largo.”
“Hehe, nice to meet you,” said Largo, scratching his head nervously.
Where had she seen that obsequious man before?
The aura felt familiar, but faint.
Then, Largo and Karina’s eyes met.
The man had reddish-brown hair and a striking, slender appearance.
Largo seemed to sense something from her as well, his expression puzzled.
“Today, we’ll first assess your individual skills. Largo, distribute these to the trainees.”
Largo lugged heavy iron pouches across.
As Karina’s turn approached, Largo came closer.
Karina drew on her internal energy, just in case.
Largo’s eyes widened as if he sensed something.
So he recognized her… specifically, her energy.
Which meant…
Largo was unsure, holding the iron pouch in front of her, and then the familiar energy hit her strongly.
This energy… was unmistakably that of Doopyeong, one of the four subordinates she had in her past life.
A supreme master of the martial world, feared by all, and a disciple of the sect she had once led.
‘Doopyeong… why are you here…?’
No, more importantly,
Where did the hulking brute, half-covered in iron, go?
And why had he appeared as this slender handsome man?
Largo’s emerald eyes shimmered through his red hair, tears brimming.
With that face and expression, his eyes were dazzling.
And then, he spoke, moved:
“Leader…!”
Hearing the title from her past life, Karina was startled.
She immediately sent a silent voice message.
[Speak in silent voice.]
‘With that slightly dull head… yep, definitely Doopyeong.’
Silent voice allowed communication directly to a specific person without others hearing.
With sufficient internal energy, it was easy to use, though the amount of energy affected its effectiveness.
While she couldn’t converse for hours this way, short exchanges were possible.
[Leader! Are you really the leader?]
[For now, yes.]
Doopyeong—now Largo—spoke in a trembling voice:
[How did the runt who couldn’t even get a bowl of porridge turn out like this?
