Chapter 317: 317

Leonard stared at Michelle, staging as Ana, for a while before he finally realized the loophole in her words. “They must have left behind spirit remnants!”

Ana raised a brow. “What’s that?” she asked.

In reality, Michelle knew, but she decided it would be more believable if Ana Ostrich didn’t know, since she never really cultivated.

Leonard was surprised that she didn’t know, but he also considered her lack of cultivation and understood it. “Anyone who uses spirit energy leaves behind remnants of it in the surroundings as they walk. And those remnants change depending on the mood of the owner. But they can always be tracked back to their owner because of the element and pattern of the spirit energy within them.”

Ana tilted her head. “And how would that prove who the culprit was?” she asked.

“Well, if someone beat you up, they had to be in a state of unrest, maybe even with killing intent. That can be seen from the spirit remnant. We just need to find such a remnant at the place where you were found. Then, we can trace it back to the culprit,” Leonard explained.

Ana narrowed her eyes. She seemed convinced but still suspicious.

“This spirit remnant doesn’t prove who beat me. It just shows who was nearby,” she finally said.

Leonard shook his head. “Don’t forget it also shows the emotional state of its owner. I don’t need to prove they beat you up. Just that they were there with hostility.”

“They will say I manipulated the remnant.” Ana was still suspicious of the method. “Then everything will be against me.”

Leonard flicked a finger over Ana’s forehead. “With how weak your spirit veins are, everyone knows that would be impossible. Also, then, there would also be your spirit remnant. As far as I know, with your weak level of cultivation, you have never left one before.”

Hearing that, Michelle froze for a moment. But as she was lying down and controlling herself, the motion was so subtle no one noticed.

She realized that, unlike Ana, who didn’t leave behind spirit remnants, she didn’t know whether she left them behind. If they found her spirit remnants, they would suspect her. Or it would at least make them think it was someone else who beat her up. A stranger.

And since Ana was conscious when they found her, with no wounds that should cloud her consciousness, she would be questioned about who beat her up, because it would suddenly concern the safety of the whole group.

A stranger capable of silently beating someone up, even if it was the weakest member of the group, was a threat.

Thinking about that, Michelle felt like slapping herself. How could she have overlooked her own spirit remnant?

She manipulated the spirit remnants of the two sisters to make them ones with killing intent. But she forgot to wipe her own.

Or even check if she had one.

After a while, Leonard left the tent, determined to investigate. Quickly, Michelle convinced the healer watching over her that she wanted to go for a walk, that she was bored of lying in bed. And to her surprise, the healer agreed.

Stepping out of the tent, as if just looking around, Michelle directed her gaze toward the tree where Alexander was hiding.

Alexander, having heard her conversation with Leonard, knew what she wanted. She wanted him to make sure the Ostrich family couldn’t find her spirit remnants.

But he just sat back. He wouldn’t mind if Michelle’s identity was exposed. She would just have to disappear from their watch.

Seeing Alexander’s smugness, Michelle placed her hand on the back of her neck. To others, it looked like she was just stretching, but in reality, it was a threat: “Go check it, or I’ll break the Shadow Pact.”

Alexander’s eyes narrowed. He knew Michelle could and would do it without any problems. But he liked the fact that they were bound by the pact.

So he disappeared from the tree.

Satisfied, Michelle went for a walk.

After some time, Leonard came back with an investigation group, his face dark. Michelle was expecting that, so she wasn’t surprised.

“Come with me!” he told Michelle before heading toward the tent where the two sisters were staying.

Michelle obediently followed, waiting for a show. She knew she didn’t have to do much. She had already prepared everything beforehand.

And things did indeed go as she planned.

Leonard accused the two sisters of cornering and beating Ana up, leaving her alone in the forest.

They tried to defend themselves by saying they were being framed, but Leonard countered them.

He didn’t go alone to search for the spirit remnants, so he had enough people to prove that Elen and Leonia were present at the place where Ana was beaten.

The spirit remnants contained clear killing intent, so the two must have had some bad intentions.

Also, the two went for a walk shortly after Ana disappeared and came back after a long time. Then, it wasn’t long until Ana was found. There was no way someone else could have beaten her up.

Especially since there were no other spirit remnants.

The two sisters couldn’t defend themselves against such proof. It was absolute against them.

Staring at them from the side, Michelle concealed a smile. Their confused faces were quite fun to watch.

Especially when she remembered how the girls were acting before, when they tried to corner her.

Of course, Michelle wouldn’t let them do that. And, out of boredom, she even took off her disguise mask, letting them see her real identity.

After that, she caused invisible wounds on their bodies.

For example, she dislocated their joints, left them like that for a while, before setting them back.

Like that, Michelle entertained herself for a while before altering their memories. She made it so they remembered beating Ana Ostrich up, never once seeing Michelle Grace.

Then, she made them leave.

The two regained their consciousness when they were already on the way back, not even noticing that until then, they were just walking like puppets.

They started laughing and talking, satisfied with how they taught Ana a lesson.

Michelle didn’t feel guilty for framing them. They were planning to hurt her, so she had them punished for it. Even if it was just an intention.

In the end, Leonard and the children of the Ostrich family decided on a punishment.

For bullying and harming a weaker person, they couldn’t stay unharmed.

Of course, many would like to send them back, but that wouldn’t be accepted by the elders. If it wasn’t a murder, the children of the family would proceed to go to the academy. They wanted to raise as many skilled cultivators as possible.

So, as a punishment, it was decided that the two beautiful ladies would no longer ride in a carriage but behind the last carriage, directly on beasts.

And not any beasts, but the only non-feline beasts. Two fast horses.

It sounded like not all that bad of a punishment, but in reality, for two pampered young girls in skirts, it was terrible. Their backs started to ache. As the horses trotted, they felt every step deep in their joints and bones, feeling completely shaken up.

Michelle was quite satisfied with the punishment. The journey forward would be a good few days, with no more stops. The girls would be sore and bruised by the end of it, maybe even after falling off the horses a few times.

Also, that wouldn’t be their only punishment.

Since the headmaster and second headmaster of the Ostrich Academy were from the Ostrich family, Leonard would inform one of them. Then, if the girls got accepted into the academy, they would receive a punishment decided by their respective teachers.

And the teachers of the Ostrich Academy were all eccentric. Some were strict, some strange, and a few were so scary that even the headmaster was respectful toward them.

So a punishment by any of the teachers would be even worse than riding on horseback.

After the punishment was decided, the children of the Ostrich family went to their tents. Evening was coming, and they had to set off to the academy early in the morning. They were in front of the final part of the journey passage to the academy, and there, there would be no place to rest. It was a dangerous part of the mountain, so they wouldn’t stop.

Michelle wanted to go to her own tent, but she was told she would share a tent with one of the healer girls, in case she showed signs of having more problems from the beating.

Michelle wasn’t happy after hearing that, but she didn’t complain and obediently went to sleep.

In the morning, the group set off to the academy.

Michelle got onto the carriage, sitting by the window. Without the two girls glaring at her, it was much more peaceful than before.

The two boys were still in the carriage, but unlike Elen and Leonia, they weren’t planning anything against Ana. More than mocking her, they were pitying her. Especially after they saw her after she got beaten.

At first, they had quite the negative opinion about her, but seeing that going to the academy only brought her a beating, they understood she had a life more troublesome than theirs.

She couldn’t resist beatings or protect herself.

At least, that was how they viewed her. Even though the reality was much different.

Michelle was far from being a helpless little girl unable to protect herself.

Source: Webnovel.com, updated by NovelKeep