The effect of that sentence was imdiate.
Every single person nearby beca alert at once.
Luca, who had just arrived together with Asael, stopped where he was.
Asael also stopped.
The two of them had been walking over at the sa ti, and as usual, their eyes had first gone to the sa place, which was Shelia. That was always awkward, because both of them liked her, both of them knew the other liked her, and both of them still had to pretend they were normal around each other because neither one could exactly kill the other over it. Luca was one of the higher guards of the village, while Asael was even closer to Kian, serving as his personal guard and right-hand man. So the two n often had to work together even when their hearts were not peaceful.
Now both of them had arrived just in ti to hear Isabella say the word poisoned.
Naturally, they both beca serious imdiately.
Osiris straightened where he stood.
Cyrus’s eyes cooled.
Zyran’s amusent beca sharper.
Kian’s whole expression turned cold again.
Even Ophelia, who had wanted to see the best in the healer, went still because poisoning was not a small accusation at all.
Zara felt her heart jump.
She had not expected Isabella to say it so boldly.
For one terrible second, the whole place felt like a trap she had stepped into herself.
So she imdiately lowered her head and put on an even more pitiful expression.
"That is not what I an," she said quickly. "I would never think Lady Isabella would hurt . I only ant that after I had the food, my stomach beca upset. That is all."
She sounded so weak and so careful that to an outsider it might even have sounded reasonable.
However, the mont she said it, Shelia suddenly spoke.
And unlike Ophelia, Shelia’s kindness had limits.
"So what?" Shelia said very directly. "What right do you have to complain?"
The room turned to look at her.
Shelia stood there with a calm face, but the displeasure in her eyes was clear.
"You are the one who walked in saying you wanted to join us," she continued. "Isabella took you in with open hands and even fed you herself. And now you are standing here making it sound like the food she gave you is the problem. What exactly are you trying to say?"
Hearing that, Zara slowly turned her head and looked at Shelia.
The mont her eyes landed on her properly, the hatred inside her chest shifted into sothing darker.
Because now that she was looking closely, she rembered.
This was the sa Shelia.
The sa girl she had ruined before leaving.
The sa girl whose body she had made useless.
The sa girl she had paralyzed with her own hands.
Back then, Zara had made sure Shelia would never rise again.
And yet here she was now.
She was alive.
She was standing.
And not only was she standing, she also looked far better than before. Her face had more color, her body looked healthier, and the weak and damaged look Zara rembered was gone.
At once, Zara understood.
Again.
Again it was Isabella.
Of course it was.
Who else could it be?
Who else in this village could change so much with just her arrival?
Who else could heal what should have stayed ruined?
Who else could turn a broken place into this?
Again, everything in this village was Isabella’s doing.
That thought made the hatred in Zara’s chest deepen until even breathing felt unpleasant.
Because no matter where she looked, Isabella’s shadow was there. The walls were stronger because of her. The food was better because of her. The people were healthier because of her. Even Shelia, who should have remained broken and useless after what Zara had done to her, was now standing there looking brighter, healthier, and even more beautiful than before.
How could Zara accept that?
How could she not hate her?
Still, no matter how much hatred burned inside her, she could not show it.
So she lowered her eyes again and continued twisting her words in that soft and careful way of hers. She said she would never dare accuse Isabella of anything. She said she only ant that perhaps her own stomach was weak and not used to such rich food. She said maybe she had eaten too quickly. She said maybe the cold this morning made it worse. She said many things, and each sentence turned and bent like a snake trying to find a hole.
The more she spoke, the more the people around her disliked her.
This was because her words sounded humble on the surface, but once a person listened carefully, it beca obvious that she was still trying to push the matter toward Isabella without openly saying it.
Luca was one of the first to feel that clearly.
He had arrived only monts ago together with Asael, and now the two of them stood there listening with darkening expressions. Luca had already spent enough ti around Isabella to know how she behaved. She could be an, shaless, lazy, dramatic, and even evil when she felt like it, but she did not need to hide behind this kind of crooked speech. So hearing Zara keep twisting her words like this only made Luca feel irritated.
Asael felt the sa.
He usually tried to stay away from Isabella because she was trouble and she loved bullying people, especially him, and because every ti he crossed paths with her, he sohow ended up suffering. However, that did not an he would stand there and let soone else throw dirt at her na. He was Kian’s right-hand man. He protected the people under Kian’s authority, and whether he liked it or not, Isabella sat at the center of all of them now.
So his face went cold too.
Ophelia, anwhile, was no longer looking at Zara with the sa complete trust as before.
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