My Reflector Is Invincible

12. How far can you follow my orders?

What is the most important thing for surviving in the wild?

It’s food.

There was no other reason why Hunter Jack created the Crisis Detection skill.

[To survive, you must always be suspicious of your surroundings. You never know when or how the enemy will attack.]

[Be especially careful of food given by strangers. There must be a hidden motive behind any unwarranted kindness.]

That’s how the ＜Crisis Detection＞ skill was born.

Even if he hadn’t exhausted himself rescuing the escapees, he would have been fine.

That wasn’t all.

Joo-in learned from Jack not only how to distinguish between poisonous and edible mushrooms and herbs, but also how to use them.

[Your enemies may use poison in the future. So, let’s experience it beforehand.]

[It’s a way to build resistance to poison by experiencing small amounts of it.]

[You can start with the weakest one.]

It was a method of building up immunity by eating weak poisons in advance.

Thanks to this, Joo-in was able to acquire a new skill along with ＜Crisis Detection＞.

＜[Poison Resistance＞ has been created＞

＜Weak resistance to some poisons＞

It didn’t matter unless it was an instant-acting, deadly poison.

That’s why Joo-eun was confidently digging into the soup.

Gulp.

‘It’s nice and piquant.’

＜Resisting the sleeping poison＞

＜[Poison Resistance] is active＞

＜Resistance successful!＞

It was different from the jerky and soup she had roughly eaten at the shelter.

The warmth of home cooking and the mild taste of poison that she felt at the same time.

Her body’s reaction came right away.

Stagger.

Suddenly, drowsiness poured in.

The eyes of the knights eating food next to her closed right away.

“Ugh… Why am I… sleepy…”

Aiden, who was watching the knights next to her, also staggered.

“Sle…epy… troops…”

Thud!

Everyone who was eating collapsed with their heads on the table.

The only ones who were fine were the village chief and his wife.

The soup didn’t only contain sleeping pills.

Zap!

＜Resisting the paralysis poison＞

＜[Poison Resistance] is active＞

＜Resistance successful!＞

Her body froze.

It was clear that sleeping pills and paralysis poison were used together.

‘They’re more thorough than I thought.’

It wasn’t something that ordinary villagers would do.

Of course, Joo-eun knew who the culprit was.

‘In the north, where the King of Knights reigns, there’s only one person who would do such a thing.’

She had suspected it ever since there were no soldiers in the village.

‘Fortunately, the enemies appeared at the perfect time.’

That’s why she pretended to be affected.

Thanks to her resistance, she wasn’t actually affected by the poison, but she would appear to be poisoned.

‘You’re thinking the same thing, aren’t you?’

Joo-eun made eye contact with a man while lying down.

It was Aiden, who collapsed after eating the soup. He was also sending signals to Joo-eun with his eyes.

‘I don’t know who you are… but I’ll make you regret messing with the Edmer family in the north.’

Aiden’s eyes were fierce.

His gaze was murderous, as if he would attack the village chief and his wife right away.

However, it seemed like he was hiding his emotions in order to figure out who was behind this.

By the way, how is he immune to poison?

Is it because of that necklace?

‘That necklace is definitely….’

It was one of the equipment that Joo-yeon equipped to the [King of Knights].

＜Artifact＞

It was an item with special abilities.

The one that Aiden had was special enough to be numbered.

No. 99 ＜Pidoksu＞

The effect is poison nullification.

The owner of the necklace was immune to poison.

‘Because of that, he wasn’t afraid of the poison in the forest.’

The characteristic of the Balentino Saga was that you could bring out the companion characters you raised in the next stage.

Then, you could enjoy their changed appearance over time.

And since I’m the successor to the Duke’s family, I thought I was the only one who could have something like that, because I wouldn’t be considered the successor otherwise.

Thanks to that, the poison didn’t work…

But then, Joo-yeon suddenly thought, ‘Oh?’

‘Wait. If that bastard has that… Can’t I borrow it for now?’

I had to check it out.

Anyway, Aiden had been pretending to be hit as soon as he realized that the knights were reacting strangely.

‘Well, his acting was terrible.’

Joo-yeon burst into laughter.

‘Those who planned this were just asking to die.’

He wasn’t just anyone, but the grandson of the King of Knights.

And he was the grandson who was closest to the next Duke position.

I couldn’t help but look forward to what would happen in the future, since I had angered not only him, but also such a man.

‘By the way, I wonder if Haken and Jack are okay?’

Well, with Jack there, they should be fine.

The crisis detection skill belonged to Jack in the first place.

But then, I heard the voices of the village chief and his wife who had given me the poison.

“He, honey. I think he’s asleep.”

“Shhh! Be quiet. You woman! What if he wakes up because of you?”

“But I’m scared….”

“We just have to do what we were told. Got it?”

“Ye, yes….”

The village chief and his wife whispered in the corner.

After a while, the door of the house opened.

The man who had guided me through the village with the village chief appeared.

“Village chief. What should we do with the two servants in the other house? Should we poison them too?”

“For now, just leave them. They’ll come and take care of it anyway.”

They, too, had been paid off by someone.

And those guys were about to show up soon.

As expected.

“V-village chief. They’re here!”

The door opened and a few more people appeared.

They were masked men.

“What happened to those guys?”

“Y-yes. We put them to sleep with the medicine, just like you told us.”

The corners of the bandits’ mouths turned up.

“Good job. We’ll take care of the rest.”

“Th-then… what about our deal?”

“Of course we’ll keep it. Just like the Count promised, you won’t be plundered anymore. And you’ll get your reward.”

“Th-thank you. Thank you very much.”

The village chief and his wife smiled.

They had made a huge profit in exchange for offering up the successor to the great Knight King.

To think that they would get this much compensation just for poisoning him.

But that didn’t last long.

“Kuaaagh!”

The village chief’s face hardened at the sudden scream from outside.

That voice definitely didn’t belong to Haken or Jack.

“That voice… could it be… Oksana?”

The village chief’s body froze.

But it didn’t end with that scream.

A villager who had been watching the situation from outside ran inside screaming.

Thud!

“V-village chief. Something terrible is happening! They’re… Kuaaagh!”

The villager collapsed before he could finish his sentence.

One of the bandits who had followed him swung his sword at him.

And he wasn’t the only one.

The bandits outside were killing the villagers on sight.

The ones who had promised not to plunder anymore.

“What is the meaning of this! Didn’t you make a deal with us?!”

The bandits looked at him in disbelief.

“Did you really believe that?”

“What?”

“Or did you think we’d just let the Edmer family heir live after bringing him all the way up here to the North?”

“What are you…”

The village chief was genuinely confused.

But the bandits continued, sneering.

“You were blinded by money and messed with a noble. We’re just taking revenge for you despicable fools.”

“Even the Edmer family’s expression of gratitude, you said you received it.”

“……!?”

My goodness. Using them as much as you can and then trying to kill them?

The bandits soon raised their axes toward the village chief and his wife.

“Then…… Thank you for your hard work. Farewell.”

“Don’t feel too resentful, we’ll use the reward from this village and the Edmer family well.”

The village chief and his wife hugged each other.

They tightly shut their eyes, regretting their actions.

That was the moment.

Thud!

The bandit who had raised his axe suddenly collapsed.

Frowning at the sight, one of the bandits next to him shouted.

“Hey, don’t fool around!”

But that was just the beginning.

Thud!

The bandits began to collapse from their seats one by one.

The village chief and his wife, along with the villagers, also collapsed.

“Wh…… What? Why all of a sudden……”

“Drowsy……”

The only one who managed to endure was a single bandit who appeared to be the leader.

But even he wasn’t completely fine.

He was somehow resisting the poison, but his body wouldn’t move.

“Could this be…… poison? But we didn’t eat anything?”

At that moment, a voice was heard directed at the bandit leader.

“Poison isn’t something you necessarily have to ingest.”

“……!?”

The bandit leader looked toward the direction of the voice.

There, Joo-Heon was calmly enjoying a soup as if nothing had happened.

The bandit leader shouted in bewilderment.

“Y, you! How is that possible! You should have been poisoned!”

He had an expression that showed he couldn’t understand it at all.

But Joo-Heon smirked.

＜Reflect＞

If I said it was the power of the Demon King’s skill, would he believe me?

Furthermore, he was becoming more and more used to using it.

He had succeeded in ＜Reflecting＞ the poison to a minimum amount onto the one who seemed to be the leader.

‘I guess this is a success for the power adjustment test.’

Anyway, thanks to his resistance, the poison’s effect wasn’t too great on him.

So he was able to test the power adjustment without any hesitation.

Of course, there was a weakness.

‘It seems that the effect is reduced if I reflect against a large number of enemies.’

The arrows raining down from the labor camp were fine.

The damage was enough to knock out all the soldiers.

But this time it was different.

‘The number of enemies was much greater than the amount of poison I had ingested.’

It wasn’t enough to knock out enough enemies.

So what could be done?

I had no choice but to diligently drink the soup of others. I was able to process all of it only after drinking all the poison in it.

Of course, that wasn’t what was important right now.

‘The village chief and his wife can’t die here. They have to testify to Count Sanderson’s crimes.’

So Jooyeon tapped her fingers on the table.

“How long are you going to be crumpled up on the floor? It seems that the mastermind has appeared, so why don’t you take care of it now?”

Then, Adien groaned and raised his body.

“The mastermind hasn’t been confirmed yet.”

“The culprit is Count Sanderson.”

“……!?”

The bandit captain’s eyes shook greatly.

“What! Count Sanderson has nothing to do with this. In the first place, I never said that he was a count…!”

“Look, you’re confessing that he’s Count Sanderson.”

“……!?”

The bandit captain quickly covered his mouth, but it was no use.

Killing intent poured out of Adien’s eyes.

“Knights. What are you doing. Get up now and take care of those damn things!”

As soon as Adien finished speaking, light shone from the knights’ bodies.

It was the light of ＜Obedience＞ that I had seen before.

Along with that, the knights rose from their seats. Of course, their bodies that had been affected by the poison were still the same.

“We will follow your orders.”

They moved quickly and cut off the arms and legs of the bandits.

Jooyeon whistled at the sight.

‘As expected, the knights of Obedience are hot-blooded.’

One of the fearsome characteristics of the knights of ＜Obedience＞.

It was that they would必ず carry out their lord’s orders as long as they were in a state where they could hear their voices, regardless of the situation.

‘Even if their limbs fall off, they’re the kind of guys who will rush in like berserkers at the command to take care of the enemy.’

It was the same even if they fell asleep or were paralyzed after eating poison.

With a single command, their bodies would move first even in a state of unconsciousness.

To that extent, the orders of their lord were important to the knights of ＜Obedience＞.

‘That’s why there’s a saying that in order to break ＜Obedience＞, you must first kill the lord.’

Finally, the knights rushed outside.

It was to take care of the bandits who were massacring the villagers.

At the same time, Adien glared at Jooyeon.

“How did you know?”

“Know what?”

“Count Sanderson. How did you know he was behind this?”

In an instant, Aiden exuded a murderous aura.

He must have thought this was a trap meant for him.

“Moreover, it seems as though you knew we would be ambushed in advance….”

What on earth was his objective?

Aiden had no choice but to watch Joo-Yeon with caution.

“If you’ve been deceiving us from the start, luring us into a trap…”

“What are you talking about? Of course it was to inform you. Of how perilous the Edmer family’s current situation is.”

“……!”

Aiden’s vigilant eyes shook greatly.

He had known that Count Sanderson had recently been gathering people.

“You’re saying that it’s dangerous for that bastard to be targeting us?”

Joo-Yeon smiled as if he had been waiting for this reaction.

“Don’t think of it so lightly. The fact that he’s attacking so openly means that the enemy’s forces are formidable.”

“That can’t be. In the North, the Edmer family is….”

Well, a prestigious family.

They were respected as a family of heroes.

But that was no reason for them to not be attacked.

Aiden still couldn’t admit it, but it was true that more northern families than he thought had sided with Sanderson.

“Soon… a great war will break out over the throne of the North. If you can’t withstand it, even the lineage of the Sword King will perish.”

“……!?”

According to the main storyline he had experienced so far, this was bound to happen.

That was why Joo-Yeon had waited for those guys to come on purpose.

‘That’s why I used shock therapy. If they’re willing to target the heir of the family, they must realize how dire the situation is.’

Count Sanderson was too formidable an enemy to face alone.

It wasn’t simply a matter of difficulty.

As long as he had his reflexes, the only enemy who could possibly be Joo-Yeon’s match was an enemy on the level of a [Sword King].

In the end, he would be able to defeat him on his own.

‘But there’s no way it’s something I can resolve within three years.’

I’ll probably end up dying before the time’s up.

This wasn’t something I could skip or anything like that.

In other words, what Joo-Yeon wanted was the swift and utter downfall of Count Sanderson.

To that end, he had deliberately made Count Sanderson the enemy of the heir to the Edmer family.

Originally, there shouldn’t have been a fight between the two families here.

But.

‘The soldiers who didn’t show up. And the prepared trap. He’ll probably realize that the enemy’s machinations run deep within the family.’

Having incited the North’s greatest families to fight, all that remained was to drive the wedge in.

Aiden seemed to have noticed that as well.

“So what should our family… no, what should I do?”

“Good attitude. Then I’ll tell you. But before that.”

Joo-Yeon bent down with a villainous smile.

“How far can you follow my orders?”