Chapter 73
Threatening
Ellie followed everyone to the center of the camp, where all the apothecaries had gathered. After the serious incident, none of them had the heart to continue their work. They were all waiting to see the outcome, and when they saw Ellie approach, they all looked at her, and many whispered amongst themselves for her to see.
If it were anyone else, of course, they would surely be terrified by this situation. Suddenly, an unexpected event had occurred and turned her into a suspect for harming others. The people who drank Ellie’s medicine had yet to regain consciousness, and even Lady Celey was still trying to identify the poison in the 10 victims to treat them properly. Unfortunately, there wasn’t enough time, and the equipment available was nowhere near as comprehensive as the herbal and medicine research lab, delaying the aid further.
"These are the people who were injured and drank the medicine you concocted. All of them are unconscious. The poison is still being examined by Lady Celey! However, the preliminary investigation shows that the cause is indeed the medicine you prepared. Do you have anything to say about this!?"
The soldier spoke harshly, his demeanor clearly meant to intimidate Ellie into confessing the truth. Celey watched Ellie intently, her eyes seemingly seeking confirmation from the girl. Ellie stared back at her, and they locked eyes for almost 10 seconds. The soldier grew increasingly frustrated with Ellie’s silence, interpreting it as disrespect. While he was questioning her, she appeared indifferent.
The fury of a man being publicly humiliated drove him to grab Ellie’s arm and yank her forcefully. This unexpected movement caught even Wint off guard.
Ellie’s thin, frail body was dragged forward to where the 10 unconscious soldiers lay in a row. Their faces were tinged green and purple, clearly showing signs of poisoning.
"Look at what you’ve done and answer me! What did you put in the wound healing potion!?" The soldier’s voice was threatening, but Ellie didn’t respond harshly. She simply shifted to move out of his grasp.
"I didn’t put anything in it. Everyone saw that there were only a few herbs used in the concocting process."
"Who knows? You might have hidden poison powder in your dimensional ring! Then, you hand over your ring for us to inspect!" The soldier not only refused to listen to Ellie’s explanation but also came up with a rebuttal for her defense.
Ellie raised her eyebrows in surprise. It was clear this was an unforeseen emergency, but this soldier was very clever. He even mentioned the dimensional ring, as if he already knew who Ellie was.
Ellie’s reputation was indeed well-known among the students, but a plain-looking girl shouldn’t stand out to the soldiers, right? Even if they knew she was from the Setter family, would they immediately think she possessed a dimensional ring and bring it up in this situation?
It’s possible that anyone might think of this, but it would usually take some time. The fact that the soldier immediately countered her argument as if he had anticipated her words was suspicious.
Ellie narrowed her eyes in thought. From the start, she knew someone was using her to undermine the Setter family. Hearing the soldier mention the dimensional ring made it even easier to link this incident to the Setter family.
Reflecting on the past, Ellie was just a girl from a rural area and a scholarship student at that. But soon after enrolling, she became the Setter family’s people. Therefore, the dimensional ring she possessed must have been from the Setter family. With dimensional rings being exclusive to the nobility, combining with her original status, it was easy for anyone to pin the blame on the Setter family for this poisoning incident!
Unfortunately, the plan of whoever orchestrated this was slightly flawed...
As mentioned earlier, after Ellie received time to rest, she entered her secret dimension to accelerate the growth of her plants. Previously, she would have needed to focus intently on channeling magic power to her plants, but with increased proficiency, she could now transfer magic power even with her eyes closed. Additionally, her intent to monitor the surroundings to prevent any further unexpected incidents and to uncover the identity of the mastermind behind this attack led her to use her spore power effectively.
This means Ellie didn’t just witness the suspicious movements of the Camp Leader and Nara, but she had been observing the entire series of events before and after the poisoning occurred!
Initially, when the poisoning happened, Ellie hadn’t expected to be framed. She had been waiting to see who the real target was, since the one responsible, a 1-star level apothecary, had no personal grudge against her. This surprising turn of events left Ellie puzzled.
Suddenly...a 1-star level apothecary framing her... Was that even possible?
"And if I can prove that I didn’t do it, what will you do about these accusations?" Ellie asked the arrogant soldier, crossing her arms and speaking in a calm voice.
The soldier facing Ellie had a flicker of doubt in his eyes before it disappeared. He pretended to be outraged, putting on a grand show in hopes of pushing the plan forward and getting the crowd to punish Ellie quickly.
"What can you possibly prove!? It’s clear that you made this potion, isn’t it? And our 10 fellow soldiers drank it and ended up like this. Do you think you’ll escape this? I don’t think you want to prove anything; you just want to ask for help from the family that ordered you to do this!!"
"Oh...are you implying that I was ordered by the Setter family to poison someone, sir? Are you suspecting the Setter family? How incredibly bold of you." Ellie smiled at the soldier’s foolishness.
"It’s impossible for Ellie to do such a vile thing. I don’t trust the Setter family, but I believe Ellie wouldn’t do this. If you touch her one more time, I’ll fight you to the death!!" Wint, who had been waiting for this moment, immediately showed his concern for Ellie.
In such a crisis, it was the perfect opportunity for him to show everyone that he was so good towards Ellie, and as a friend, he was willing to protect her even at the risk of his own life...
Of course, if this had been before, Ellie would have called him a foolish man, just as she had initially thought. But once she realized he had been acting all along, she knew that he wasn’t as brave as he appeared.
Wint not only waited to see how confident she was but also scanned the area to see if the Setter family was watching. If they didn’t step in to help, Wint wouldn’t either, fearing he would become the scapegoat and ruin his and the Femon family’s reputation. Wint had no intention of letting his family be tainted.
Once he saw the Setter family around, it was clear they wouldn’t let Ellie face danger alone. Coupled with Ellie’s confident demeanor that she had done no wrong, Wint chose this perfect moment to step in.
Ellie couldn’t help but slightly curl her lip at his cunning. Still...his intervention prevented the soldier from approaching her and doing anything harmful, which was a benefit.
Given that it was a win-win situation for both, Ellie chose to ignore Wint’s cunning and focused on the soldier instead.
"Before I reveal everything to everyone, I believe the first thing no one would think is that the Setter family would be foolish enough to poison others. So my first suspicion is that you are trying to frame me to bring the Setter family into disrepute. This...will have severe consequences for you, your wife, your children, your parents, and your entire family."
"So, I advise you to try your hardest to disprove my evidence. Otherwise...if the Setter family and I are proven innocent, the ones who will suffer will be you and your accomplices."
Ellie smiled; it was a smile no one expected to see from the seemingly naive country girl. She now appeared to have changed significantly...
If Lord Aman had a smile like a demon king, then Ellie’s smile could be compared to that of a demoness. Her threat to destroy the soldier’s entire family if she won this battle showed her ruthless side!
All the students were left with their mouths agape. Many had previously thought Ellie was just a foolish girl. They now began to understand why Lord Aman was interested in her. Perhaps...they finally had an answer.
A former office worker knew when to show kindness, be quiet, remain calm, or act ruthlessly, depending on the situation and the person she was dealing with. If someone was good to her...Ellie wouldn’t betray them. But if they were malicious, she would respond in kind. And if they wanted to fight to the death, they had to be prepared for the consequences.
"Y-You! You’re clearly threatening me! Therefore, you must be punished!" The foolish soldier was so terrified by her threat that he couldn’t maintain his composure. Initially, he had only intended to earn a generous amount of gold coins to comfortably support his family. He never imagined his life would hang by a thread like this.
It was true that the Setter family was a powerful one that no one dared to offend. However, his employer had assured him that this wasn’t a direct attack on the Setter family. Previously, the Setter family had no weaknesses, but this was their first. If he didn’t take this opportunity, someone else would.
The supposed weakness was just a poor student the Setter family had taken in. Observing her for half a day, he had only seen a foolish look on her freckled face. It all seemed...she was just someone who had been poor all her life. If she had been under the Setter family’s care, would she have let herself work hard in the sun and rain, ending up with such a face? With this assumption...he saw her only as a large prey. Not taking the job would have been real foolishness!
Who would have thought that this poor girl, who seemed so ignorant, could so easily speak of the life and death of his family? Her demeanor was nothing like when she had walked away from problems so many times before!
The soldier’s anxiety made him want to kill Ellie on the spot. If she died, she wouldn’t be able to prove her innocence, right? He didn’t realize that his fearful reaction to Ellie’s words was making others suspicious of him instead.
"Because you caused the death of my comrades, you shall die with them!!" His large body lunged forward. Wint had been ready, he definitely wouldn’t let the other party take action against Ellie, but his efforts were rendered useless when, suddenly, a young man with distinctive white hair appeared in front of him.
Swish!!
Pwoosh!!
"Ah, arm. My arm! Aagh!!" The soldier’s scream echoed through the camp. Just as he extended his arm towards Ellie, it was severed in a split second before he even got close to her and before he even had time to prepare.
A small breeze settled as the agonizing scream filled the air. The white-haired man sighed, flicked the blood off his sword, and sheathed it, all while the onlookers stared in shock. The man bowed to Ellie with genuine seriousness.
"Apologies for my tardiness. From now on, I won’t let anyone who dares to touch you survive."
"Hmph! Just because you have wind power that makes you a step faster than me, how can you act so grandiose?" Aman followed closely behind, he even wanted to deal with Koross, frustrated that Koross didn’t let him shine and had stolen the powerful image from him.
Koross gave a brief glance before ignoring him. His duty was to protect Lady Ellie, not to cater to the second young lord’s whims...
Seeing Koross’ arrogant demeanor made Aman want to draw his sword and decapitate him. Unfortunately, doing so might get him punished according to family rules... It might be better to plan something to deal with this guy...While standing there, Koross suddenly felt a chill down his spine, as if a knife was pointed at his back. He knew this was his instinct sensing danger, and there was no doubt that the murderous intent was coming from the person whose spotlight he had just stolen!
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