In the days that followed, Shera was in a good mood. Everything was going according to her plans. She was leisurely waiting for Cece to be sentenced before she could dole out her next move.
Sitting on a comfortable sofa in a VVIP room of Imperium City's most luxurious bar, she was having the time of her life.
However, there was one annoying thing.
[Master, as I said several times before, you have to pass the humanity test. And scheming is definitely not going to help you do that.] Tazja said desperately. In the past few days, Shera had been making several plans to go against the Qin family.
But no matter how many times it pleaded, Shera would ignore it. Sometimes it almost thought she didn't hear it.
Just like right now. She was currently sipping on a glass of wine merrily and ignoring its ramble.
[Master, you have to pass the humanity test in five months. If you don't, you will have a worse ending than any other villain ever has.]
"That's five months away. Why are you so anxious?" Shera was displeased that the little thing kept trying to persuade her.
[Five months is not a lot...] Tazja was hopeless. Her virtue progress was too slow. She had only earned a few measly points in the virtue spectrum in the last few days. Did she really expect to be termed as virtuous in five months?
Worst of all, Tazja didn't have the option to force her into completing missions. Shera was too strong.
"Alright. I'm not talking about this anymore." Shera dismissed.
Why was the world this way?
One could be hurt and wronged over and over and no one would even lift an eyebrow, much less care.
If she didn't retaliate, she would be termed as weak and useless.
Yes, she had been weak and useless in the past. But now that she was doling out her revenge, she was being termed as an evil villain.
Everyone thought she was vile and inhumane. The system thought that way too, or it wouldn't be here.
Even the author of this book had termed her a villainess and given her the antagonist tag.
As if that wasn't cruel enough, she even had to complete some weird missions or have a supposedly horrible ending.
Since this system was meant to make villains better people, why didn't it go to the Qin family? Why would it stick to her?
[That's because Major Diable thought you can still be a nice person.]
Shera was shocked when Tazja suddenly spoke. 'Who is this Major Diable that the stupid little thing keeps mentioning?' she wondered. Then she rolled her eyes. "A nice person? Oh please don't be naive. From what angle do I look like a nice person?"
[You have feelings. That's enough evidence that you were once a nice person and you can be again.]
"Alright. I'm not having this discussion anymore. Be gone." Shera said, lifting her wine glass to her lips.
Who said she had feelings? That system must be broken to think that way. She knew that she was evil... and she didn't care.
Tazja had just disappeared when the door to the private room opened.
Shera didn't need to look to know who had walked in. She downed the remaining content of her wineglass and refilled it. "Look what the wind blew in."
Leo took a look at her then glanced around the room.
It had been customized to suit her tastes, so it had a dark theme and dim lights. He was surprised there was even light to begin with.
But the more surprising fact was that there was only one sofa in the whole huge room, and it was a love seat. It was obvious that she didn't want company.
He frowned a little. Why can't she drink at home then?
"You want to join me?" She asked, glancing up at him with what looked like a scheming smile. "Come, sit beside me."
Leo gritted his teeth and walked over. It was hard to accept that he had to sit that close to this woman.
Whatever. He was here to discuss business and he definitely couldn't do that while standing. It was just sitting. It wasn't like she could bite him or something.
"Handsome, what would you like to drink? I'll buy it for you." she coaxed as soon as Leo was beside her.
"I'm not here to drink."
She slung a hand over his shoulder like it was the most natural thing to do. "What do you want then?"
He shrugged her hand off in slight annoyance. Women didn't usually behave like this! "I am here to discuss business. Something's gone wrong with the project." he sighed when he saw her blank stare. "You must be drunk. I guess we'll have to talk about it tomorrow."
"Who is drunk?" Shera laughed. "I'm still sober enough to talk business. Tell me, what happened? Is your family trying to retaliate against me by attacking the project? They do know that you would lose out too, don't they?"
"But you drunk..." Leo was about to say that the bottle of wine was almost empty when he saw the brand of the wine she was drinking. He had to blink his eyes and take a better look.
What-in the world?!
"You are a monster." his voice trailed off in disbelief.
She was drinking Portifié! That was one the world's strongest wines! She had drunk so much of it and not only was she still awake, she was even sober?
Was she even human? It was not that no one could drink it, but after a few sips, one would be staggering drunk at the very least no matter how well they could hold their liquor. He was even starting to consider the possibility that she had poured some of it away.
Shera knew what he was thinking and grinned silently. There was a foreign object in her brain. Of course, there had to be changes in her body. This was just one of them. Obviously, she wouldn't tell him.
She changed the subject instead. "Talking business is boring. Why don't we do something more... interesting?"