A Villain's Way of Taming Heroines

The young Hydral smiled. "Though she can't match Seri in intuition, she is, in fact, sharper in this regard. I've taught her some things, and she's learned a great deal on her own. It's only natural she wouldn't let go easily."

"Perfecting the Revolutionary Army's justification... it's not easy to cover all the details and doubts—how long did it take?"

"About half a day."

"Not bad," Ansel said with a look of approval. "Using that Revolutionary who escaped from the dungeons to bind Seri, who trusts you implicitly, was a masterful move."

Though his words were full of praise, Marlina's body trembled slightly.

"Mr. Ansel…" she said with difficulty, "I'm sorry for deceiving Miss Seraphina like this."

Ansel's eyes narrowed almost imperceptibly. "There's no need to apologize to me, Marlina."

"Ah—" Realizing her mistake, Marlina quickly corrected herself, bowing her head even lower. "If the opportunity arises in the future... I will confess everything to Miss Seraphina."

Hearing this, Ansel withdrew his meaningful gaze and chuckled. "What I mean is, this is, in fact… my intention. You haven't done anything wrong; you just didn't do it perfectly. In reality, it's not even that you didn't do it well enough. Such coincidences are beyond your control."

Had everything been within Marlina's control, there wouldn't have been such a tragic outcome, nor would there have been any casualties. Unfortunately, the Revolutionary escaped the dungeons at that precise moment, avoided capture, successfully fled Dispute Fortress, and just so happened to encounter Seraphina.

It was indeed... unavoidable.

Ansel's words brought a slight brightness to Marlina's eyes, her voice becoming as soft as cotton. "But, before you and Miss Ravenna left, you wanted me to keep the lower district under control."

The blond youth rested his chin on one hand, smiling at Marlina. "And you still dared to go through with this?"

"Please forgive my presumption."

At this moment, Marlina felt no fear; rather, she felt an overwhelming sense of peace. She quietly met those sea-blue eyes for a brief moment before quickly looking away, her voice shy and soft.

"I stubbornly believed that you, Ansel, needed me to do this. Even if I failed, I was confident I could prevent Miss Ravenna and Miss Seraphina from connecting this to you, so I went ahead."

"Stop talking like you're giving up on yourself," Ansel said, patting her shoulder. "You are Seri's most important sister. She wouldn't want to accept that answer."

The gentle smile on Marlina's face froze for an instant. "I... I will, Mr. Ansel—"

"Ah, and one more thing."

Ansel raised his head and pinched Marlina's chin, making her look him in the eyes.

"To me, you are already a mature and capable assistant. There's no need for such self-sacrifice. If there's a problem you can't handle, I don't mind you relying on me." Read the latest on My Virtual Library Empire

"Ah... I..."

Despite having been alone with Ansel countless times and even serving him in various ways, Marlina still felt like a lovesick girl in this situation, completely at a loss.

She bit her lip, trying to suppress the flush on her cheeks. Her soft, melodious voice was like the gentle whimper of a fawn.

"I will, Mr. Ansel. If I can, I will rely on you."

Ansel looked into Marlina's eyes, which seemed to be veiled with a misty sentimentality, and suddenly asked, "Marlina, do you know why I'm gradually transferring these responsibilities to you?"

Marlina wouldn't let her personal feelings cloud her judgment too much. She quickly snapped out of her sweet reverie and contemplated Ansel's question.

Mr. Ansel has made me understand the world's sickness, the absurd distortion between mortals and the extraordinary, even letting me personally attempt to correct it. Why is that?

Is it because I can feel Ansel's pursuit? No, that's not it. Ansel wouldn't have let me do this just because he valued that. He might not even care about it.

"In the ancient Celestial Conquest Dynasty, mortals were nothing more than slaves, playthings, and even... livestock for the extraordinary beings." Ansel gently closed Marlina's notebook and said softly, "The empire founded by the first emperor altered this state, making mortals citizens of the empire.

Even though, in the end, they were merely tools to please the emperor, it was a marked improvement from the blatant and cruel domination of the Celestial Conquest Dynasty. At least the empire allowed most mortals the dignity of being human and the possibility to realize their life's worth."

"Now, with the empire on the verge of collapse, I have been contemplating how to establish a system that goes even further..."

Ansel had been pondering this since three years ago, precisely after Ravenna's inadvertent revelation made him realize that destiny's goal was to overthrow the empire and create a new world. This realization had set him on this path.

This was the source of his rift with Ravenna—fighting against the devil of destiny, denying everything destiny expected, and naturally rejecting the changes Ravenna sought to promote. He aimed to create a better, but certainly not destiny's desired, empire that could stand for millennia as a rebuttal to this supreme existence.

"Better" was not necessary, but it was to avoid the emergence of new heroes. Essentially, this was still a struggle between Ansel and destiny, unrelated to the structure of the world and society.

"But it is difficult."

Even without Ansel saying it, Marlina understood his meaning and knew what he was going to say next. She didn't truly know what Ansel was fighting against, but even so, this monumental task of confronting the world miraculously aligned perfectly with fighting against destiny. The girl clenched her fists slightly, striving to keep her voice steady.

"You are alone in this, with neither the experience of predecessors to draw from nor any assistance in this matter... Miss Ravenna and Miss Seraphina—they..."

"They have their own principles and convictions," Ansel said with a gentle smile, not troubled by this fact but rather accepting it cheerfully. "If they were to obey me unquestioningly, they wouldn't be Seri and Ravenna."

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