A Villain's Way of Taming Heroines

Marlina raised her gaze, fixing her expressionless sister with a steady look. Her tone remained remarkably composed as she spoke, “Miss Seraphina, why would you utter such perplexing words?”

Seraphina observed Marlina for a prolonged moment before softly responding, “Marli, you’ve always been more intelligent than me, far more so. Do you believe that even now, you can deceive me?”

“Inothea met her end by my hand,” she continued, releasing her grip on the planning documents, allowing Marlina to reclaim them. Disappointment seeped into her dark red eyes as she spoke, “Do you know what she said in her final moments?”

“She said,” the wolf’s gaze sharpened like a blade, “that she worked for Faust, and that anyone who dared to move against her should think twice.”

“Those desperate to cling to life will say anything,” Marlina replied, slightly bowing her head as she resumed writing in her planning documents. “Do you truly believe such nonsense, Miss Seraphina?”

Seraphina offered no response. As she watched Marlina, who remained utterly calm as if nothing had transpired, an undisguisable sorrow crept across her face.

“…Marlina,” she uttered her sister’s name slowly, her hand resting on the edge of the desk, her voice weary and melancholic.

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“I’m no longer a child. I simply seek answers, and I don’t want you to continue deceiving me like this.”

“Even if the reason is something I could never accept, I still wish for you to reveal the truth to me.”

But Marlina, writing mechanically, showed no reaction. She replied without a hint of emotion, “But I truly have nothing to say, Miss Seraphina.”

Seraphina took a step back, her lips twitching slightly. A forced, unsightly smile appeared on her beautiful face.

“Must I lay out all the evidence before you’ll speak the truth?”

She drew a deep breath, seemingly attempting to mask her expression with cold indifference, to adopt the demeanor of a judge. Yet no matter how she tried, the vulnerability and sorrow in her eyes remained impossible to conceal.

“You claimed it was the Revolutionary Army who caused such chaos in the lower district to free their imprisoned comrades,” she continued. “But they denied this. They said that due to my presence, they had long abandoned all their operations in the lower district.”

Marlina had scarcely opened her mouth when Seraphina cut in coldly, “Are you about to claim this is merely their side of the story? Very well… then answer me, Marlina, what about the group that kidnapped you?”

“Was it truly a ploy to test Faust? Why choose the very day Ansel departed for the capital? Why precisely when I planned to return to quell the riots? Would you have me believe this was mere coincidence?”

Marlina fell silent, ceasing her responses.

Yet Seraphina was far from finished. Her voice escalated, her tone growing increasingly agitated, verging on the brink of losing control.

“I didn’t kill a single one of those people, you know. I wanted to see what would become of them. The moment I left, someone immediately silenced them… But those who did the silencing were unaware of one crucial detail.”

She gestured self-mockingly at her nose. “This part of me is exceptionally keen.”

“Moreover, Marlina, you don’t fully understand just how effective my sense of smell is.”

“I detected lingering aether currents on Doug. He’s an ordinary person – how could he possibly emit aether waves? The only possible explanation is… someone cast a spell on him.”

From that moment, Seraphina began to doubt the supposed kidnapping.

Having intentionally left survivors, she caught the scent of Marlina’s “kidnappers” on Inothea. In her deliberate pursuit of the truth, she naturally extracted the answer from her.

It was all Marlina’s doing. She had purposely allowed the lower district’s gang factions to run amok, continuously exacerbating conflicts, deliberately provoking clashes. Even the progression of the conflicts themselves was under her control.

When and where incidents occurred, which areas should see confrontations, even who should perish – all became predetermined under her cold, dark words.

“Marlina… that day, I spent the entire day with you, still clinging to the illusion that you must have had some profound intentions.”

“I knew I couldn’t compare to you or Ansel in these matters. I believed your actions and arrangements surely had a deeply significant purpose, so I didn’t interfere. I didn’t dare to.”

“And the result?”

Bang!

Her hands slammed onto the desk as she roared, “The result is that you pushed countless people into a slaughterhouse, causing so many families to be torn apart! I merely want answers from you, yet you continue to lie to me!”

“Cliff, Doug, Orr, Dalat… they were all good people, rare souls in this cursed world. Yet because of your incomprehensible goddamn plan, they’re almost all dead!”

The young girl’s fingers dug into the desk, leaving deep grooves. The unsettling sound of splintering wood echoed through the office.

“I promised them… I promised they would all have better lives,” Seraphina murmured, her angry voice turning fragile and sorrowful.

Faced with such an emotional outburst from her closest kin, Marlina Marlowe didn’t so much as raise her head.

She simply continued her meticulous planning, speaking in a calm tone: “You’ve improved so much, Miss Seraphina. Both your heart and your mind have grown immeasurably. Mr. Ansel would surely be pleased to know this.”

“Marlina!”

Seraphina’s fist crashed down on Marlina’s planning documents. Had it been off by even a fraction, it would have shattered Marlina’s hand.

“I’m asking you now, why did you do this?!”

Marlina gazed at the fist that had nearly reduced her hand to pulp for a long moment. She sighed softly, finally raising her head to look at Seraphina.

“Before answering that question, I must clarify something, Miss Seraphina.”

Since Seraphina had already confirmed matters to this extent, there was no need to maintain any pretense. The young girl met her sister’s furious and grieving gaze without a hint of remorse or retreat.

” —If you hadn’t returned, no one would have been sacrificed.”

“In my plan, no one was meant to be sacrificed. Even though this approach would have diminished the effectiveness, I still arranged it this way.”

“It was your sudden appearance that caused everything to spiral out of control,” Marlina stated matter-of-factly.

Seraphina laughed bitterly in her extreme anger: “Are you suggesting this is my fault? You planned to send everyone to the battlefield, claim no one would be hurt, and now you’re pinning the blame on me?”

“Marlina… you’ve lost your mind!”

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