Taming the Protagonist

Chapter 59: Hydra’s Script

Anselm propped his chin, admiring the sisterly affection at the door.

He was pleased at Hitana’s gradual growth through pain, not… well, maybe a little delighted by the twisted dynamic.

In truth, this ring belonged to Count Chishuang, not Anselm. He had merely arranged, via Saville, for it to catch the greedy little wolf’s eye when she was looting gems.

Regardless of its owner, the ring was the core of Anselm’s plan.

Even if Count Chishuang hadn’t owned it, Anselm would’ve found a way to acquire one or had his father craft something with the same effect.

Though simple in function, it would shatter Hitana’s everything—not just making her see herself clearly.

This was about the final stage of her training and Anselm’s… realization.

“Hitana, what’s wrong?”

Marina looked at her sister with concern.

Though inwardly annoyed at her recklessness and rudeness, she no longer reacted strongly.

She had accepted reality and found a goal to strive for, no longer lost.

[So, Hitana, no matter how absurd you are, I won’t care anymore. You’re someone Lord Hydra acknowledges, so I don’t need to, nor have the time to, care about you.]

[After all, you never cared either.]

With that thought, Marina reached to touch Hitana’s shoulder, but… her hand met air.

The girl with trembling eyes stepped back, her lips parting slightly, saying nothing.

“…Hitana?”

Sensing something off, Marina finally felt a trace of worry, but as her inner voice voiced that concern, Hitana grabbed her shoulders, silently shoving her out.

Bang!

Hitana slammed the door shut without explanation, panting heavily.

“Why so flustered, Hitana?”

Anselm smiled, deliberately glancing at the ring on her finger: “Oh… you put that thing on. Didn’t I say you needed to be mentally prepared?”

Hitana clutched her finger, ignoring the knocking and calls from outside, saying nothing, only staring at Anselm.

The young Hydra shrugged, tapping the desk with a curved finger: “Speak freely. Marina can’t hear.”

“…What is this thing?”

Hearing this, Hitana relaxed slightly.

She didn’t want Marina to know she’d just… heard her thoughts. Not at all.

“What exactly is it?”

“I checked it when I brought you back. It’s probably a little trinket of Count Chishuang’s, recovered by the Chishuang family and kept in their treasury.”

Anselm answered leisurely, not lying. Everything he said was “true,” just omitting some details.

If Hitana asked, he’d answer truthfully.

But at this moment, Hitana wasn’t thinking that far.

“It lets the wearer hear the thoughts of anyone with a lower extraordinary rank and sense their emotions.”

“And when facing someone of a higher rank…”

Anselm stood, approaching Hitana as she slid down the door to the floor: “You could hear them if I allowed it. Otherwise, I’d only feel constant harassment.”

“I…”

Hitana’s already fragile reasoning, shattered by Marina’s thoughts, was in chaos.

She gripped the ring, muttering with downcast eyes: “I don’t want to hear this stuff. Help me take this ring off, right now.”

“Take it off?”

The devil’s lips curled slightly.

He leaned down, whispering in Hitana’s ear: “Why take it off? Don’t you want to hear what others think of you?”

“I don’t want to!”

Hitana shouted at first, then, as if afraid Marina would hear, lowered her voice: “I don’t have that… vile hobby.”

“No, no, Hitana, it’s not that you don’t have that hobby. You’re resisting because you can’t control it.”

Few in this world can resist the temptation to peer into others’ minds.

Hitana hadn’t yet embarked on that path of defying all, standing supreme.

Now, she was just a sixteen-year-old genius girl, unlike her original timeline.

She hadn’t faced hardship but had immense resources and a powerful backer.

This made her highly sensitive to others’ opinions.

She could scoff at disdain and hatred, but before those judgments were voiced, good or bad, she absolutely “wanted to hear.”

Most people are like this, but Hitana was especially so.

“It’s not some high-level Ether device. It’s not hard to control.”

Anselm lifted Hitana’s delicate, fair hand, gently rubbing the ring: “Removing its locking restriction isn’t difficult either. Any decent alchemist in Chishuang Territory could do it.”

“So…”

The wicked Hydra bared his fangs once more.

[Which will you choose?]

The voice in her mind made Hitana shudder.

She raised her head to meet Anselm’s gaze, and the young noble’s smiling face eased her tension.

Realizing the issue wasn’t too serious… her heart began to stir.

If, if I could really choose whose thoughts to hear…

I’m not saying I want to pry into anyone’s mind! I just want true answers to some questions!

Hitana hated thinking about complicated things. Though her instincts told her much, they couldn’t let her peek into others’ minds.

If she had this thing…

As her heart stirred, a flash of the intuition she trusted so deeply sparked through her mind.

[Why does it feel… like this is part of Hydra’s plan?]

The thought struck her, and everything about the ring replayed in her mind.

—It suddenly appeared when I was looking for the Shadow Crystal.

Hydra specifically warned me about it after bringing it back, then it mysteriously vanished for days, only to reappear now.

Is this… a coincidence?

Hydra seems to know a lot about this ring, but why didn’t he explain it clearly, only vaguely saying to “be mentally prepared”?

As her doubts grew, making her increasingly suspicious, another thought arose in her heart, almost defiantly contrary, utterly irrational, and clearly born from her core self.

—But Hydra wouldn’t harm me.

If he wanted to hurt me, would he need to go to such trouble?

This willful, reckless nature, so often despised, effortlessly crushed the sudden whims that occasionally disrupted her thoughts.

Hitana Lansmarlos was that kind of person, an unyielding egoist.

This was the rich fruit of Anselm’s relentless training, reaped through absolute sincerity.

Unless something monumental, earth-shattering enough to break Hitana’s spirit, occurred, even fate itself couldn’t shake Anselm’s place in her heart.

The young wolf girl brainstormed for a long while, then gritted her teeth and looked up at Anselm: “You’re sure you can teach me how to use it?”

“When you train, how do you absorb the Ether stored in magic crystals and spread it through your body?”

Anselm still held Hitana’s hand. The young wolf’s fingers were long and delicate, with distinct but not prominent knuckles, making her hand beautiful yet not overly soft.

“Like… this and that.” Hitana didn’t know how to describe her usual training method—a genius’s unique struggle.

They don’t need principles; they just think about completing it, and it’s done.

Anselm wasn’t troubled, only smiled: “Then follow your instincts… focus on the ring. Feel it? The Ether in your body is being absorbed by it, then radiating outward in all directions.”

Hitana closed her eyes, sensing as Anselm described.

In less than two seconds, her eyes snapped open, brimming with joy: “I felt it! That's easy?”

“To turn it off, stop the Ether from flowing to the ring. To hear someone’s thoughts, focus the Ether radiating from the ring onto a specific target.”

Following Anselm’s instructions, Hitana tried it out.

She went through the process but, with no test subject, couldn’t confirm if it worked.

Anselm’s gaze flicked to the door: “Marina’s still outside.”

“Oh, Lina!”

Snapping back, the good little sister only now remembered she’d rudely shoved her sister out.

She hurriedly turned to open the door.

“…”

Marina, waiting quietly outside, hands clasped at her waist, stood with poised elegance.

Her gaze briefly passed over Hitana’s hand held by Anselm, then she smiled gently and gracefully: “Done talking with Lord Hydra, Hitana? You’ve delayed us quite a bit.”

“…Huh? Oh… wait—”

It really works! I can’t hear what Lina’s saying anymore!

Hitana sighed in relief.

She met her sister’s gaze, that gentle, refined face unchanged from her memories, yet somehow… inexplicably foreign.

Should I try it—

No, no, absolutely not on Lina!

Hitana immediately cut off that thought.

She wanted to scratch her head, then realized Anselm was still holding her hand.

Blushing, she yanked it free and awkwardly lowered her head to leave: “W-Well, I’ll go then.”

“If you get hungry, find Miss Merry. I probably can’t join you for lunch or dinner today, Hitana.”

“…Oh.”

The girl’s eyes drooped, a bit sad.

She didn’t like feeling alone.

Marina said nothing, only watched Hitana disappear down the corridor before stepping into the study and softly closing the door.

“Lord Hydra.” Marina’s smile was gentle and proper. “Shall we continue working?”

“I thought you’d first ask what was wrong with Hitana.”

Anselm looked at the girl breaking free from her cocoon, his eyes increasingly satisfied: “She was acting strange, wasn’t she?”

“That’s not my place to overstep.”

Marina lowered her head slightly: “Right now, I don’t have the qualifications or strength to compare with Hitana.”

That made Anselm laugh heartily: “So you mean, one day—”

“Yes, one day.”

The girl placed her hands over her heart, looking directly into Anselm’s eyes with devout yet fervent, humble yet confident words:

“One day, I’ll gain the power and authority to earn your recognition, to repay your kindness and trust.”

Anselm, watching that pure soul gradually take on his colors, gazed pleasurably at her dark red eyes, so like Hitana’s, his tone rising slightly:

“Is that all?”

The confident, beautiful Marina froze, her ears reddening. She instinctively looked away, her voice turning soft and charming:

“…No, it’s not, if you—”

“Good, let’s stop there.”

Anselm stepped forward but didn’t make any excessive physical contact under Marina’s nervous gaze.

He only adjusted her hair clip, straightened the collar of her plain dress, and placed his hands on her shoulders.

“This is perfect. I like your purity, Marina.”

“Before your ambitions are realized, I hope you can keep this purity.”

“After all, you and I don’t need anything extra to bind us, do we?”

In Anselm’s eyes, there was no teasing, no flirtation, no romantic ambiguity—only the purest trust, recognition, and encouragement.

“You’re not someone who needs to prove your worth or repay kindness that way.”

The devil who loved toying with hearts, yet was always utterly sincere, gently patted the girl on the verge of becoming his devotee, saying with supreme confidence:

“Even if no one believes your bold claims, I’ll be the witness to your ambitions.”

“Oh, and one more thing.”

Hydra chuckled lightly: “Call me Anselm from now on. ‘Lord Hydra’ is too formal, don’t you think?”

Marina had to close her eyes briefly, not wanting to show any loss of composure before Anselm.

“Yes, An…Selm… sir.”

The ordinary Marina replied with bowed head, steady and calm, without a trace of girlish shyness: “I won’t fail your expectations, I promise.”

“Good, then let’s get back to work. I’m planning a speech in six days. Can you complete your task before then?”

“Of course.” Marina answered without hesitation or reluctance. “I’ll finish even sooner.”

No one could imagine that a month ago, this village girl could stand here so calmly, wielding

authority over all Chishuang Territory’s nobles, making such a promise to the feared Hydra.

Marina couldn’t have imagined it either, which is why she valued this—everything—more than her own life, and even more… the Anselm who gave it to her.

[I’ve already given you so much, Hitana.]

[Even if I don’t deserve to have Anselm to myself, I won’t let you be the first.]

The girl, with black flames faintly burning in her eyes, made this audacious vow in her heart.

Here, Anselm, fully aware of all that had transpired, sat back at his desk with a smile.

Chishuang Territory was steadily falling into order under his management, with fewer documents for him to handle.

At the same time, in this grand play nearing its climax, the adjustments and corrections he needed to make were almost done.

My dear Hitana, everything is ready for you.

The stage, the actors, the props, and… my meticulously crafted, perfect script.

Die in the flames ignited by contradiction and collapse.

And I will grant you an unparalleled rebirth.