A Villain's Way of Taming Heroines

"What you can do for me..."

Ansel murmured, burying his turbulent thoughts deep within. His sea-blue eyes remained an inscrutable abyss that Marlina could not fathom.

Under Marlina's anxious and hopeful gaze, Ansel smiled faintly, "Do what you can with all your might."

These somewhat vague words caused Marlina to pause briefly, but she nodded firmly, responding with determination, "I will, Mr. Ans…Faust."

So... is this Mr. Ansel's true aim?

To reign in the Western Lands as an adventurer, attempting to change its status quo while searching for Evora?

Marlina also understood that not every place in the Western Lands was like Dispute Fortress. She was willing to believe that there were indeed extraordinary beings willing to selflessly sacrifice for commoners, for her closest companion was such a naive and foolish girl.

Yet, the world's judgment of her had long reflected the harsh reality.

To save and sacrifice for commoners... was deemed naive and foolish.

Changing the status quo between the extraordinary and the ordinary...

Mr. Ansel, how do you plan to accomplish this? Enjoy more content from empire

Marlina had found a new line of thought. The cruel truth of the world made her anxious, but she calmed down quickly, not wasting much time.

Because Ansel was by her side, filling her with faith and strength.

No matter how dreadful this world might be, Mr. Ansel... would try to change it.

Change... Mr. Ansel, you weren't always like this, were you?

In the Red Frost Territory, Ansel never hid his cold methods from Marlina and even went out of his way to explain many things to her. At that time, Marlina had already sensed that Ansel was bearing something incomprehensibly heavy.

From very early on, she had tried to uncover the ultimate purpose behind Ansel's series of actions and plans. But the vast fog and impenetrable web were beyond the understanding of a simple village girl. And Ansel himself... remained a boundless and mysterious ocean to Marlina.

Despite this, Marlina managed to sketch an outline of Ansel's true nature through the fog—his misdeeds were not born from sheer cruelty and malice, but rather from an unknown, overwhelming pressure.

Now, however, that burden seemed to have lifted... no, it had not disappeared entirely. It might still be influencing Mr. Ansel, but he no longer seemed to be as constrained and repressed by it.

Contemplating this, Marlina's eyes lowered slightly as she followed Ansel.

Unlike Seraphina, Marlina, who also emerged from the desolate snowy plains, did not harbor an absolute sense of good and evil.

She was more intelligent, naturally more delicate and sensitive... In her childhood, concepts of good and evil had been mere meaningless terms to Marlina.

Yet, at her core, she still retained the same simple benevolence as Seraphina, though not as fervent and intense as her sister's.

If Ansel chose the path of virtue, if he no longer committed misdeeds under that unknown pressure, Marlina would genuinely rejoice from the bottom of her heart.

— If she were merely a clever girl, if she were simply infatuated with Ansel, it would have ended there.

But the essence of Marlina lies in the fact that… she did not feel joy.

She felt worry, even… fear.

For one long accustomed to committing evil, who hesitated not in his acts of cruelty, whose will and heart had become as cold as steel...

Is this liberation and change truly a good thing?

Emerging from the dark, cold abyss, only to be seared by the scorching sun.

Marlina could not find an answer, but regardless, she would find a way to support Ansel with all her strength.

"Margarete, will being apart from me these few days trouble you?"

The adventurer ahead asked with a light laugh.

"No, Mr. Faust," the slender adventurer behind him responded softly. "I am not so helpless as to be rendered useless, panicked by your absence."

"That is indeed very reassuring."

Mr. Ansel, whether you aspire to be the sun or continue your path in the shadows, I will invariably follow in your footsteps.

I will undoubtedly become your strength.

*

In the midst of the void that is the enigmas, an endless starlight flickers.

When adventurers step through the portal, they are merely transitioning from the prime plane into other planar worlds within the Zero Realm Enigma. The greatest peril in this journey lies in the act of "traversing" itself.

The passage connecting two worlds is… in essence, the boundless Zero Realm Enigma.

To lose oneself in this passage is akin to falling out of the world entirely; finding a way back is uncertain, and this "world beyond worlds" is uninhabitable for any extraordinary beings.

As Flamelle led Seraphina and the others into the Zero Realm Enigma, the then and there quite mature wolf lady could not even gaze upon the existence of the Enigma.

Only the divine species could traverse this endless, shimmering, boundless world.

Amidst the countless eternal stars, there flickered a light... a different kind of light.

It was a flame, wavering like a candle in the wind, yet persistently refusing to extinguish.

"Ephesande... you fucking damn... cunt..."

The voice from within that flame was unheard by anyone. If hatred and fury could be made manifest, this voice would stir a wave of wrath in the Enigma, one that even the endless starlight could not obscure.

Still suffering the agonies of bloodflame, the Elder Princess, barely human in form, muttered in a frenzy:

"Why are you not dead... why... are you not dead!!!"

Evora had long forgotten how long she had been drifting in the Zero Realm Enigma, across different planes.

The varying flow of time and the unchanging eternal burning intertwined, destroying her body and ravaging her mind.

Yet, Evora had not perished; she did not want to die, she could not die.

"I am... the Empress."

Clinging to this one obsession, the Elder Princess whispered in the bloodflame, maintaining the last vestige of her sanity.

"I am the sole Empress of the Empire, I am the eternal, the undying, destined to conquer the entire continent... to make Hydral, the Dragon King, the Summoner... all those self-important scum kneel before me!"

"Hydral... Ansel..."

In the bloodflame, those eyes flared with a blinding, manic crimson.

Was Ephesande's final counterattack part of Ansel's machinations?

During this prolonged agony, Evora had no strength left to ponder this, or to discern truth from falsehood.

— She had entirely convinced herself of one thing: her current suffering was inextricably linked to Ansel; this was the ultimate, malevolent scheme of that demon.

"You must... pay the price!"

Summoning the remnants of her strength, she opened a portal to another planar world. Fueled by hatred and fury, the sun-like being plunged into it, destination unknown.

Evora had repeated this countless times, unaware of what she might encounter, or where she might end up, but never giving up.

There are infinite ambitions, infinite desires waiting for me to fulfill. How can I be destroyed here? I am the Empress... I am the Empress!

I am the Empress, I am... a divine being!

In the next moment, a burst of flame erupted suddenly from the portal she had opened. Astonishingly… that flame did not originate from Evora!

Her previously dazed and lethargic eyes contracted to their limits the instant she sensed that blaze.

"!!!"

The unquenchable fire floating within the endless Enigma vanished into thin air.

The burned madman's whereabouts… became unknown.

*