"Marlina!" came the sudden exclamation, calling her full name.
Startled by Seraphina's evidently overwrought reaction, the gratitude and joy brimmed Marlina's heart scattered, but before she could speak, Seraphina had already seized her hand, forcibly dragging her from Ansel's study.
Ansel observed Marlina's bewildered expression, finally meeting her apologetic, beautiful eyes, and silently nodded with a gentle smile. Only after she displayed a relieved countenance did he turn and sit in the large chair behind his desk.
"Young lord, it seems there is no room for compromise this time," said Saville, who always appeared and disappeared without a trace.
"There was never any room for compromise from the beginning."
Ansel glanced at the documents on the small table beside him, which Saville then handed to him.
"You must have noticed her unusual behavior, Saville."
"Yes," the old man bowed slightly, "According to all available information, Miss Seraphina should not harbor such immense malice towards you."
He paused, then continued in a matter-of-fact tone, "Even if she did initially, it should have turned into basic respect under your guidance."
Ansel carefully read the documents Marlina had prepared. The girl from the remote village had surprisingly beautiful penmanship, and within just two days, her written language had become appropriate. No one could believe that such documents were written by a country girl.
But Ansel believed, for he knew how much effort this girl had put into changing her fate. In all the stories he had witnessed about Seraphina, all contrasts of the sisters' personalities, actions, and outcomes … were all ridiculously cruel, leading to its reader's silence.
"Saville, do you know a method of training dogs?"
Ansel asked, initiating a peculiar topic instead of answering the old butler's question.
Picking up a quill, he began to revise and annotate Marlina's documents, writing comments while leisurely saying, "After giving an order, negate any action the dog takes. Due to loyalty and limited wisdom, the dog will only feel infinite confusion and bewilderment, never considering that the master might be wrong."
"In the long run, it will endlessly doubt itself, unable to respond subjectively to any command. Once this effect is achieved, the dog trainer can provide thorough guidance and rewards, making the dog, which no longer trusts itself, infinitely obedient and..."
" — dependent."
Saville appeared thoughtful, while Ansel, who was writing meticulous notes for Marlina, continued, "Of course, people and dogs are different, but this method still has a very, very high reference value."
"Destroying an individual's self..."
The young Hydral chuckled softly, adding small praises to his annotations.
"It only takes one environment devoid of recognition and support."
*
Marlina was dragged all the way to the room without a chance to ask what was going on.
It wasn't until Seraphina slammed the door shut that her usually timid sister, gasping for breath, cautiously asked, "Seri... what happened?"
Seraphina stared at Marlina for a long time, taking deep breaths, before suddenly blurting out, "He didn't do anything to you, did he?"
"... You're angry over something that couldn't possibly happen?"
Marlina breathed a sigh of relief, but also found it funny. "How could Lord Hydral do anything to me? What are you thinking, Seri?"
"I —"
Seraphina opened her mouth, looking at Marlina's increasingly fair, tender, and glossy face.
Her sister was a great beauty, much more beautiful than herself, Seraphina had always thought so.
Even when they were in the village, her skin was always rough, and even occasionally frostbitten, but it was still very beautiful.
But now, anyone on the street could tell that Marlina was a young lady, not a village girl from a remote village.
All of this was hard-won, and the relief and joy on her sister's face were so real.
Seraphina had originally wanted to vent her anger and grievances, but now she was stuck in her chest and couldn't say anything.
"I have a lot of things to tell you, but I don't want to talk to that guy!"
The girl hummed, "Do you know how powerful I've become since I went out this time?"
Marlina looked at her sister's proud and complacent look, and also saw the several places where she was wrapped in bandages. She waved to her sister, relieved and distressed, and motioned for her to sit next to her.
Seraphina giggled and ran to sit next to her sister, shaking her body from time to time to touch her shoulder.
"Let me tell you a big secret first... I guessed it myself, no, I calculated it! You definitely don't know, Marli."
Miss Young Wolf said mysteriously in a low voice, "Do you know what big shot I'm involved with this time?"
Marlina thought for a moment and tentatively replied, "Is it the Duke of Gray Tower?"
"Yes, it's —"
"... Huh?"
The girl blinked her eyes twice, looking somewhat dazed at her sister.
"Ah, this..." Marlina felt a little embarrassed and touched her cheek. "Because of the work Lord Hydral gave me, I've read a lot of information about Red Frost Territory in his study. It mentioned that the actual controller of Red Frost Territory is the Duke of Gray Tower... Since you said it was a big shot, it was related to Red Frost Territory, and the bigger shot above it, I thought... it should be him."
"Oh... Oh! So you've read the information in advance! That's okay."
"Well, thanks to Lord Hydral."
Seraphina was much more relieved, but also felt very unhappy because of Marlina's last sentence.
But she soon put on a "I'm so great" look, and recounted what happened in Howling Wind Castle, selectively and embellishingly.
"Marli, Marli, do you know what that guy Hydral is doing?" She raised her nose and said proudly, "I know exactly what he's up to! He can't fool me!"
Marlina was somewhat hesitant this time, furrowing her brows thoughtfully as she repeated the key words that Seraphina had mentioned. "Assassination, Baron, Duke of Gray Tower... merciful, death?"
Seraphina watched her sister's conflicted expression, and her proud and complacent look became even more pronounced.
A few minutes later, she saw Marlina's eyes suddenly light up, and she blurted out, "Lord Hydral was behind the assassination at the banquet? And the Duke of Gray Tower was going to help those two Barons escape, in order to expose Lord Hydral's plan and make him lose the support of the people in Red Frost Territory?"
Seraphina's brain stopped working.
Her proud expression froze on her face.
"No, this, you..." The girl couldn't believe it and jumped up in place. "How did you guess that? This is impossible!"
"Lord Hydral has a lot of information about Count Red Frost and his followers, and I've read it all."
"So I know about the relationship between those two Barons and Count Red Frost, and with your description... it wasn't hard to guess."
— The fact is just this simple. Ansel's explanation to Seraphina was just connecting all the existing facts. However, Seraphina did not believe that someone would hire an assassin to kill himself, and Marlina quickly realized this key point.
Under Seraphina's incredulous gaze, Marlina looked a little embarrassed and averted her eyes: "It's not that I'm smart... it's His Excellency Lord Hydral. I told you, Seri, he can show us a wider world. Just a simple paperwork job, and he's willing to let me access so much intelligence... he's the benefactor we need to repay, Seri!"
"You're saying what!"
Lord Hydral, Lord Hydral, Lord Hydral...
Marlina's respect and longing in her words and expression, that so intense and sincere emotion, made Seraphina unable to suppress her inner restlessness.
"Even though he did this kind of deception to us, why do you still admire him so much?!" Seraphina looked at Marlina in disbelief, "He's a fraud! Do you not feel disgusted by that guy who uses that way to deceive everyone's praise and loyalty?"
"...Seri, you — "
Marlina was stunned for a moment, then she realized that her younger sister's personality was like this, but she knew... if she couldn't accept this kind of thing, Seraphina would not be able to stay with Ansel for long.
The usually timid elder sister gathered her courage, and with a serious, refuting, and even criticizing attitude and manner, she said to Seraphina:
"Don't be so childish, Seraphina."
Facing the angry and incredulous gaze, Marlina continued to bite her teeth while her heart twitched, and her voice became more and more powerful:
"You're sixteen years old now, not the little girl you were at twelve. You should know that not everything in this world needs to be divided into right and wrong, good and bad."
"Yes, Lord Hydral deceived us, but so what? He used this deception to gain our support, and then what? Did he do anything that betrayed our support?"
"Did he exploit us like Count of Red Frost did? Did he collude with those despicable noble bureaucrats? Has he done anything to hurt you and me, and hurt us ordinary people out of malice?"
With the support of facts, Marlina's voice became more and more powerful: "No, he hasn't done anything like that. He could have continued to deceive us and do those dirty things, but did he? Seraphina, do you know how many documents were waiting to be processed in his study in the past two days? Do you know who has been maintaining the stability of Red Frost territory since Count Red Frost's death?"
"You don't know! Your eyes only see the hypocritical and hateful things, and only that evil Hydral in your paranoid mind!"
"Go out and see, go see the gifts piled up in the yard, ask anyone on the way, ask them how they view Lord Hydral, ask them if they are like you, Seraphina!"
Marlina and her younger sister looked at each other. She slightly relaxed and spoke in a slower tone, "So, don't hate Lord Hydral so much anymore. He won't always indulge you like this. Don't make mistakes again, Seraphina."
After finishing this sentence, Marlina suddenly felt very uncomfortable.
The next moment, tears welled up in Seraphina's eyes.
"Get out of here!"
She roared at Marlina in anger, "Why aren't you on my side? You're my sister! Why do you have to speak for the guy I hate!"
"Seraphina, you —"
"Marlina, you should have seen your expression in the study when you were facing that guy... and just now when you mentioned his name, do you like him? Do you want to be like those women peacocking Hydral and be his lover?"
"Seraphina!"
This outrageous remark made Marlina lose her temper. The girl who had never really scolded her younger sister before raised her hand and slapped her cheek, somewhat uncontrollably.
"Do you know what you're saying! How can you be like this!"
Even after slapping her, Marlina regretted it, but she still said in a very angry and disappointed voice.
"..."
Seraphina covered her cheeks and said nothing.
And from those cold, dark red eyes, Marlina read an emotion she had never seen before.
Hatred.
The tearful young wolf turned and ran out of the door without hesitation, leaving Marlina alone and bewildered.
In fact, just like Seraphina had not yet fully understood Marlina's good intentions, Marlina also did not understand what her absurd, rude, and self-centered younger sister had experienced after waking up from a coma today.
— Asking why she was targeted for assassination, Seraphina heard from Ansel, who never lied to her, that he arranged the assassination.
Who would be tolerant of someone who wanted to kill them?
And poor Seraphina, in order not to let her sister who had a good life worry about it, deliberately concealed this fact.
What she got in return was such ruthless and indifferent criticism, and... a slap.