The Possessed Evil Woman Wreaks Havoc - Chapter 158

“To speak arrogantly without knowing what lies ahead. Your head must be empty.”

I deliberately mocked Belial.

He kept calling me stupid, but honestly, wasn’t that something I should be saying to him instead?

At my words, a twitch appeared around Belial’s eyes.

There were many things I was good at, but the best among them was making others angry.

Taking advantage of the brief delay as his thoughts slowed with anger—

I lunged at Belial.

Thud!

Belial’s body slammed against the hard ground. The moisture still clinging to his clothes soaked up dirt, leaving them a complete mess.

Meanwhile, I remained perfectly fine, not a scratch on me.

Straddling on top of Belial, I looked down at him.

His face staring back up at me was clearly saying—

‘He looks like he wants to tear my head off right this instant.’

But if I backed down here, my head might really be torn off.

I wrapped both hands around Belial’s throat. I didn’t use physical strength, but focused the flow of my magic into my hands.

Belial simply watched my actions in silence.

After a pause, Belial asked me, “Is that all you’ve got?”

He was measuring the magic strangling his neck as he spoke.

I ground my teeth as I replied, “That’s right.”

At that, the corner of Belial’s mouth lifted. “Now I see the source of your recklessness. However, you managed it, you possess more magic than most demons.”

“Aren’t you curious how I did it?”

“Not really.”

Belial gave only a vague answer.

Even under threat, his demeanor remained composed.

He watched me calmly, waiting for me to state my business.

I spoke again, “Belial. I want to make a deal with you.”

“Is this the attitude of someone asking for a favor?”

“Even if I were polite, you wouldn’t accept anyway, would you?”

“That’s true.”

Belial didn’t deny my words.

I continued, “Let me go. You can sense it too, can’t you? If we fought seriously, you’d take damage as well.”

“You overestimate yourself.”

“Call it confidence.”

I shrugged as I said it.

“Anyway, you have an important goal right now, don’t you? Don’t waste your strength on me. Let’s just go our separate ways.”

Belial listened to my words silently.

Since he didn’t deny it, that meant what I said was close to the truth.

I added, “If you agree to my proposal, I might even tell you my true identity.”

If I could confirm he was at least someone I could converse with, I could tell him again.

That in fact, I was Isabella, the Lord of Contract he cherished so dearly.

Well, it would take some convincing to make him truly believe it.

No—that would take a very long persuasion.

But all of my thoughts proved useless.

“Certainly, I am growing curious about who you really are.”

Belial paused briefly before continuing, “But not enough to let you live.”

With that, Belial reached for me.

Without even the faintest hint of killing intent as a warning.

The clean, unhesitating motion left me no time to dodge.

Fingernails elongated and hardened with magic pierced into my abdomen.

Rip.

With the sound of something tearing, his fingertips stabbed clean through my stomach.

I collapsed to the ground.

***

After Belial left.

I cracked my eyes open slightly.

Realizing the presence around me had completely vanished, I pressed a hand against my throbbing belly and pushed myself up.

That was a close call.

I looked down at the wound in my stomach and thought.

Thankfully, Belial hadn’t aimed for my heart.

Probably because he underestimated me.

“Is that all you’ve got?”

As if.

I had deliberately revealed only a fraction of a fraction of my strength.

Perhaps the arrogance unique to demons robs them of caution. Belial hadn’t bothered to check whether my breath had truly ceased.

In any case, escaping that place without a scratch would have been impossible.

‘Still, I didn’t really need to hit Belial on the head like that.’

That only ended up provoking his anger further.

Even so, I had no regrets.

Of course, just because I struck him didn’t mean Belial had suffered any real harm.

‘My mood feels a little better now. That’s enough.’

I looked again at the wound on my stomach.

This level of injury… well, the pain was considerable, but it wasn’t enough to threaten my life.

As proof, the injury healed quickly and soon disappeared without leaving even a scar.

But I couldn’t repair my torn clothes.

After wiping off the blood as best I could, I trudged toward the Silveron camp.

In front of the camp, the Three Mercenary Brothers were waiting for me anxiously.

“Miss Bella!”

Gray shouted the moment he saw me approaching from afar.

All three of them rushed toward me without hesitation. But when only a few steps remained, they froze in place.

It wasn’t hard to guess why they couldn’t bring themselves closer.

I must look absolutely terrible right now.

I spoke to the Three Mercenary Brothers, who were looking at me with worried eyes, “I ended up like this after talking with the Mercenary King. It was quite an enlightening conversation.”

“It doesn’t seem like it was just a simple conversation…”

“This much counts as conversation back in my homeland.”

“What nonsense. It’s not the Demon Realm—no such homeland could exist.”

Lenny let out a dumbfounded laugh as he muttered, unaware of just how close he had come to the truth.

“I’m not hurt. This isn’t my blood.”

I lied with a straight face. Of course, it was my blood and I was injured.

But as the Hyungim, showing weakness would damage my dignity in front of my younger brothers.

“For now, let’s take Miss Bella to the barracks. As discreetly as possible.”

It seemed the Three Mercenary Brothers had been assigned a barracks while I was gone.

Fortunately, the barracks were located on the outskirts of the camp. So we were able to slip inside without drawing much attention.

“Gray, go fetch medicine for wounds, and some bandages. Jerry, find some clean clothes. And brother, let’s check the wound first.”

The moment we entered the barracks, Lenny gave instructions. The others moved quickly according to his words.

Everyone except me, standing there blankly.

I spoke with a sulky expression, “It’s really not my blood.”

“Sigh. Is this the time for that? We need to treat you first.”

No matter how I tried to explain, Lenny didn’t seem to listen.

In the end, I decided to show the wound that had already healed.

“Ah! Hyungnim, are you insane? What kind of girl shows herself off so shamelessly?”

I tried to pull up my shirt to reveal my stomach, but Lenny stopped me, so I failed.

“Either way, you’d have to undress to check the wound, wouldn’t you?”

“Yes, but still! You can’t just whip your clothes off without warning!”

Good grief. What a difficult man.

I did as Lenny insisted and lifted my shirt only slightly.

His eyes went wide.

“There really is no wound?”

“I told you there wasn’t, didn’t I?”

“Then that blood… it really is the Mercenary King’s?”

“That’s right.”

Only after I answered several times did Lenny finally believe me.

He tilted his head once, then asked, “Did you kill him?”

“…No.”

“Well, should I say that’s a relief?”

Lenny let out a sigh of relief as he spoke.

“If you had killed the Mercenary King… well, things would have gotten very troublesome. Every mercenary on the continent would have come hunting for you. Anyway.”

After saying that, Lenny glanced subtly at my face.

“You know you’re nothing like the person you were when you were young? Back then, you seemed much more docile.”

When I was young?

At those words, I tilted my head.

“Isabella. Do you really not recognize me?” Lenny asked.

Recognize him? How could I possibly recognize Lenny?

From the start, I didn’t even belong to this time period, so there was no way I could.

Which meant, interpreting his words just now….

Lenny had known the real Isabella.

For a moment, I was left speechless. I knew almost nothing about this Isabella.

So I couldn’t even guess who the man standing before me really was.

As my silence stretched longer, Lenny finally spoke, “My name is Leonard Dunkeld. Can you recognize me now?”