The Possessed Evil Woman Wreaks Havoc - Chapter 148

I pinched Lenny’s nose hard with my hand for daring to doubt me.

“What do you take this Hyungnim for? Do you think I can’t defeat that bastard?”

It was a remark mixed with a bit of bluff.

Of course, in pure strength alone, I couldn’t win.

But the opponent was the stupid Belial. A gap in brute strength was something I could easily overturn.

At least, that’s what I believed.

“…Hyungnim, you say? Wow. Miss Bella, you really do adapt quickly, don’t you?”

Just a moment ago, you couldn’t understand why we called the Mercenary King Hyungnim, could you?

Lenny added with a mutter.

He sounded like he was dissatisfied, but so what?

Didn’t he himself say it? That in the world of mercenaries, the strong take everything.

Which meant, whether they liked it or not, I was their Hyungnim.

I concluded that in my head.

Thud.

The carriage shook again. How many times had it been now?

I scowled and shouted toward the driver’s seat, “You’re terrible at handling the reins. Be careful, before this Hyungnim makes you pull the carriage in place of the horses.”

“…Sorry.”

A sluggish reply came from the driver’s seat.

The owner of that voice was the long-haired man. His name was Jerry.

Among the three mercenaries, he had by far the largest build. Lenny was tall but lean, his frame not carrying much muscle, giving him a nimble look. Jerry, on the other hand, was nothing but muscle from head to toe.

And that height. A whole head taller than most men, and with those muscles added in, he looked intimidating to ordinary people.

Not to me, of course.

Despite his size, he seemed to have a rather mild disposition. Whatever I said, he just accepted it.

In truth.

“Jerry is a man who finds everything bothersome. He’s so lazy he doesn’t want to say a single unnecessary word, so his tone ends up like that.”

From Lenny’s explanation, it seemed he wasn’t actually agreeing, just too lazy to argue.

Even his comrades had long since given up on him, so there was nothing more to say.

The carriage jolted again, but I only shot Jerry a glare at the back of his head and let it go.

Outside the window, the scenery was changing with every passing moment.

We were on our way out of the capital.

There were many who sought the Mercenary King. Since he and his band often took requests that crossed national borders, they frequently moved their base.

We were now heading to the place where he had last been sighted.

‘A war between kingdoms. I heard the Mercenary King took a commission from one side and joined the fighting.’

I frowned.

A demon joining a human war… and not just any demon, but Belial.

Foolish as he was, he was still one of the lords of the Demon Realm.

Should I call it befitting of a demon, or simply pathetic?

For a human, it was like a grown man butting into a children’s brawl.

Belial might not care, but the thought of inciting human deaths never appealed to me.

Still… didn’t Belial once say something to me about his time as the ‘Mercenary King’?

As I was straining my memory, the mercenary sitting across from me asked, “So, Miss Bella. What business do you have with the Mercenary King?”

That man with glasses was Gray.

There were only three of them, so calling him the leader might be excessive, but if anyone deserved the role, it was him.

He looked the smartest of the three, and at the same time, I disliked him the most.

He was the one who had misunderstood me, thinking I was a shallow woman trying to approach the Mercenary King with my face.

That wasn’t the only reason he annoyed me.

Unlike the other two, who showed no wariness at all, his eyes clearly held suspicion toward me.

As if he had seen through me.

Of course, that couldn’t possibly be true.

I gave him a vague answer. “There’s a wish I’ve held for a long time. I think the Mercenary King can help me fulfill it.”

It wasn’t a lie. Maybe not for long, but I did have a wish.

Vengeance against Gabriel.

‘You could call it filial impiety, I suppose.’

But in my case, wasn’t it the father who struck at the child first?

So it was righteous revenge.

Gray mulled over my words, then looked me straight in the eyes and asked, “A wish, you say. Is that wish perhaps connected to your family? For example, do you wish to reclaim the position taken from you by your uncle?”

At those words, I froze. That was a question only someone who knew the identity of the body I had possessed could ask.

I asked Gray, “When did you realize?”

“Just now, from your answer.”

Hah?

How dare he test me like that?

Impudent human. My instincts hadn’t been wrong.

Gray continued, “I already had my suspicions… but the more I thought about it, you simply didn’t remind me of the noble lady Isabella. That made me hesitate. But now, your answer confirmed it.”

I glanced at Lenny and Jerry to see their reactions.

Both of them looked shocked to realize I was Isabella Graham.

So it had been Gray’s suspicion alone.

Well, of course.

The Isabella Graham they imagined… I couldn’t say for certain, since I had never met her.

But surely she wasn’t someone who could press her hand into a wooden table.

Rather, the fact that Gray still suspected me of being Isabella Graham even after seeing that kind of strength only proved he had an unusually sharp instinct.

“So. What do you intend to do?”

I waited for his answer while thinking it over in my head.

What a nuisance this had become. The count’s family had placed a bounty on me, hadn’t they?

The count’s family was nothing to me, but I didn’t have the time to deal with them.

Right now, I needed to find Zachary as quickly as possible.

If I flung the door open and jumped outside… given the amount of power I currently had, I was certain I could escape without a scratch.

There was no way I couldn’t deal with three mere human mercenaries.

In fact, the surest way to keep my whereabouts from reaching the count’s family would be to eliminate the three of them right here.

But just before I acted, I hesitated.

Because if I recklessly took human lives, I felt like one day I wouldn’t be able to look certain people in the eye.

…What kind of demon was I, to hesitate like this?

Not that it was the first time.

I sighed inwardly and waited for Gray’s answer.

When he stayed silent, I pressed him again. “Don’t tell me you’re planning to betray me now. I’m your Hyungnim, aren’t I?”

“…As Lenny said, we’ve known each other for less than half a day. So no matter what we do, it can’t really be called betraying you, Miss Bella.”

The world of mercenaries. Now that I looked at it, it wasn’t so impressive.

Earlier, they’d painted it as a place of pure survival of the fittest, but even with my strength clearly greater, they dared to act so arrogantly toward me.

Gray continued, “But we will not betray you. Getting entangled with nobles in that way holds no appeal for us.”

He said this, then glanced sideways at Lenny.

At that, Lenny scratched the back of his head and said, “So you really are a noble, huh? Though I get you wouldn’t want to give your house name… Anyway! That was ages ago. Can’t you let it go already?”

It seemed there was some history between the two of them.

But that wasn’t the important part right now.

“So, what are you trying to say?”

“How about hiring us?”

Gray said this to me.

I raised an eyebrow. That was an unexpected answer.

Gray went on, “The world outside will be very different from life within your family. I don’t know your circumstances, but having grown up under the protection of your house…”

He trailed off, glanced at me, then tilted his head.

“…Though you don’t exactly seem to have grown up sheltered. Strange.”

It seemed mercenaries had sharper instincts than ordinary humans.

Well, of course. The aura of a demon was nothing like that of someone raised in comfort.

He continued, “In any case. Miss Bella, the outside world will feel very unfamiliar to you. If you hire us, we’ll help you achieve your goal.”

I should have been suspicious from the moment they offered to take me straight to the Mercenary King.

Clearly, they had another motive.

Still, it wasn’t a bad proposal. For different reasons, it was true that I found this Middle Realm unfamiliar.

‘Honestly, I hardly know anything at all.’

A hundred years was more than enough time for the balance of human power to shift completely.

I couldn’t rely on my knowledge of the Middle Realm from a century ago.

While I hesitated, Lenny turned to Gray and demanded angrily, “What are you doing, making decisions without us? Just because you’re our unofficial leader doesn’t mean you can accept requests on your own. And I…”

Lenny glanced at my face as he said this.

He looked troubled. Ever since realizing I was Isabella Graham, he had been sneaking looks at me, clearly uneasy.

Suspicious.

I decided to raise my guard against Lenny, while keeping a calm expression outwardly.

“…Lenny. Haven’t I always told you something? That we can’t live as mercenaries forever.”

Gray leaned close and muttered this in a low voice to him, as if he didn’t want me to hear.

“What? Are you talking about that nonsense, how one day we’ll get some big-shot client and bleed them dry?”

Lenny replied just as quietly.

But.

‘Do those two think I’ve forgotten we’re in the same space?’

Even a normal human could hear them at that volume, let alone me, with a demon’s heightened senses.

I glanced down at my hand. Smooth, delicate, flawless.

No doubt, because Isabella had lived a life untouched by hardship, they underestimated me without realizing it.

Forgetting completely the power I had shown them back at the inn.

I let one corner of my mouth curl up. To think they would dare belittle me.

Had I lost my demon’s nature somewhere along the way? Because suddenly, I felt like playing a cruel little game.

I opened my mouth and said to the mercenaries, “I won’t hire you. But what about serving me as your Hyungnim?”