"MALENA!"
A sudden shout, and it was her full name being called.
Sitana's obviously over-the-top reaction startled Malena, scattering the young girl's heart full of gratitude and joy. Before she could even speak, Sitana had already grabbed her hand and forcibly dragged her out of Anselm's study.
Anselm watched Malena's bewildered expression, and eventually locked eyes with her apologetic, beautiful gaze. He offered a silent smile and a gentle nod, only turning to sit in the large chair behind the desk after seeing her look of relief.
"Young Master, it seems there's no room for compromise this time," Savile remarked, materializing and vanishing as he typically did.
"There was never any room for compromise from the beginning."
Anselm glanced at the few documents on the small table beside him, and Savile promptly brought them over for him.
"You must have noticed her odd behavior, Savile."
"Indeed," the old man slightly bowed his head, "Based on all the available information, Miss Sitana should not harbor such immense animosity towards you."
He paused, then continued in a matter-of-fact tone, "Even if there was initially some, after your several lessons, it should have transformed into the most basic respect."
Anselm read the documents that Malena had processed carefully. The girl from the border village had unexpectedly beautiful handwriting, and within just two days, her use of language in writing was also quite appropriate. No one would believe that such documents were written by a village girl.
But Anselm would believe it, for he was aware of the tremendous effort this girl had invested to change her fate. In all the stories he had witnessed about Sitana, the contrasting personalities, actions, and outcomes of these sisters... was both ridiculous and cruel, enough to render one speechless.
"Savile, are you familiar with a certain method of dog training?"
Anselm did not respond to the old butler's query but instead brought up a very peculiar topic.
He picked up a quill pen and began to revise and annotate Malena's documents, writing comments, all the while leisurely saying, "After giving an order, deny any action the dog takes. Bound by the constraints of loyalty and intelligence, the dog will only find itself deeply confused and bewildered, and will not consider that the owner might be the one at fault."
"As time goes on, it will constantly doubt itself and be unable to respond subjectively to any command. Once this state is reached, the dog trainer will then provide comprehensive and meticulous guidance, along with rewards, leading the dog, which has utterly lost faith in itself, to develop boundless obedience and..."
"--dependence."
Savile wore a contemplative expression, while Anselm, who was writing detailed annotations for Malena, continued, "Of course, humans and dogs are different, but this method still holds a very, very high value for reference."
"To destroy an existing self..."
The young Lord Hydra chuckled lowly as he added a small compliment to his annotations.
"It only requires an environment devoid of any recognition and support."
*
Malena was practically dragged all the way to their room and didn't even get a chance to ask what was going on.
It wasn't until Sitana, panting, slammed the door shut that this sister, who was always a bit timid at heart, cautiously asked, "Sita... what's happening?"
Sitana, who kept taking deep breaths, stared intently at Malena for a long time before suddenly blurting out a question:
"Has he done anything to you?"
"...Are you angry over something that couldn't possibly happen?"
As Malena let out a sigh of relief, she also found it somewhat amusing: "Lord Hydra would never do anything to me. What's on your mind, Sita?"
"I —"
Sitana opened her mouth, looking at Malena's increasingly fair and delicate, luster face.
Her sister was a great beauty, much more beautiful than herself, and Sitana had always thought so.
Even in the village, where her skin was often rough and sometimes even cracked from the cold, she was still very beautiful.
But now, if you were to randomly pull someone off the street, they would assume Malena was the daughter of some wealthy family, not a village girl from a remote area.
All of this was hard-earned, and the tranquility and happiness on her sister's face were so genuine.
The anger and grievances that Sitana had wanted to pour out were all stuck in her chest, making it difficult for her to speak.
"I've got lot of things to tell you, things I ain't sharing with that jerk!"
The young girl huffed, "You got any idea how powerful I've become after this trip?"
Malena observed her sister's adorable and smug demeanor, and also noticed the bandaged areas on her body. She felt both relieved and pained, beckoning to her with a wave of her hand, indicating for her to come sit beside her.
Sitana giggled and hurried to sit beside her sister, occasionally swaying her body to gently nudge her shoulder against Malena's.
"I'll start with a big secret... I worked it out on my own, well, I kind of figured it out! You definitely haven't heard this, Lena."
The young wolf whispered mysteriously, "Do you know which big shots I've gotten involved with on this trip?"
Malena thought for a moment and tentatively answered, "Is it the Grand Duke of Graytower?"
"Exactly, it's—"
"...Eh?"
The girl blinked a couple of times, looking somewhat stunned at her sister.
"Ah, well..." Malena said, a bit embarrassed as she touched her cheek, "Because Lord Hydra gave me this job, I've read a lot of materials in his study about Scarletfrost. It mentioned that the current de facto ruler of Scarletfrost is the Grand Duke of Graytower... Since you said it's a big shot and it's related to Scarletfrost, so the only big shot above that, I thought... must be him."
"Oh... oh! So you've already looked at the information beforehand! That's fine then."
"Yes, thanks to Lord Hydra."
Sitana felt much more at ease, but was also quite displeased by Malena's last remark.
However, she quickly put on a "look how amazing I am" expression, lifting her chin and recounting the events at Howlingwinds Castle, with some selective and embellished details.
"Lena, Lena, do you know what that sly jerk, Hydra, is really up to?"
She stuck her nose up, extremely proud as she said, "I know exactly what's going on! He can't fool me!"
This time, Malena felt a bit troubled and frowned, thoughtfully repeating a few key phrases that Sitana had mentioned. "Assassination, Viscount, Grand Duke of Graytower... Mercy, death?"
Sitana watched her sister's extremely conflicted expression and became even more proud and smug.
Then, just a few minutes later, she saw Malena's eyes suddenly light up, and she blurted out, "Was the assassination at that banquet orchestrated by Lord Hydra? And is the Grand Duke of Graytower helping those two viscounts escape to expose Lord Hydra's arrangements and make him lose the people's support in Scarletfrost?"
Sitana, thinking, impossible.
Her proud expression just froze on her face.
"No, this, you—" The young girl jumped up in disbelief, "How did you guess that? That's impossible!"
"Lord Hydra has a lot of information about the Scarletfrost Earl and his cohorts, and I've gone through it all."
"So I know the relationship between those two viscounts and the Scarletfrost Earl, and with your description, Sita... it's not hard to guess."
--The truth was just as it was. What Anselm initially explained to Sitana was essentially connecting all the existing facts. It's just that Sitana couldn't believe that someone would have themselves assassinated, while Malena quickly grasped this crucial point.
Under Sitana's incredulous gaze, Malena awkwardly averted her eyes: "It's not that I'm particularly smart... it's Lord Hydra. I've told you, Sita, he can show us a much broader world. Even just a simple paperwork job, he's willing to let me freely access so much intelligence... He's the benefactor we need to repay with all our heart, Sita!"
"What are you talking about!"
Lord Hydra, Lord Hydra, Lord Hydra...
The reverence and longing in Malena's words and expressions, the intense and sincere emotions, made Sitana unable to suppress the irritability in her heart any longer.
"Even after all this, after he's deceived us like this, why do you still admire him so much?!" Sitana exclaimed in disbelief, staring at Malena, "He's a liar! Using such methods to win everyone's praise and loyalty, don't you find that jerk disgusting at all?"
"...Sita, you—"
Malena was taken aback for a while before she came to understand that her sister's personality was just like that. But she knew deeply... if Sitana couldn't accept even this, then she would never be able to stay by Anselm's side for long.
The usually meek sister mustered her courage and, with utmost seriousness, not in a persuasive manner, but with a rebuttal and even critical attitude, spoke to Sitana:
"Stop being so childish, Sitana."
Facing the furious yet incredulous stunned gaze, Malena, while her heart was nervously twitching, continued to grit her teeth and firmly said:
"You're sixteen years old now, no longer that twelve-year-old little girl. You should understand that not everything in this world needs to be divided into right or wrong, good or bad."
"Yes, Lord Hydra deceived us, but so what? He used that deception to gain our support, and then what? Has he done anything to betray the support we've given him?"
"Has he exploited us without any limits like the Scarletfrost Earl? Has he colluded with those despicable nobles and bureaucrats? Up until now, has he ever done anything purely out of malice to harm you and me, to harm us ordinary people?"
With facts to back her up, Malena's voice grew increasingly resonant and powerful: "No, he hasn't done any of those things. He could have continued his deception to engage in those dirty and vile acts, but has he? Sitana, do you know how many documents piled up in his study waiting to be processed in these two days? Do you know who has been maintaining the stability of Scarletfrost after the Scarletfrost Earl's death?"
"You don't know! Your eyes can only see the hypocrisy you despise, only that incredibly evil Hydra in your biased mindset!"
"Go out and take a look, look at the gifts piled up in the courtyard, ask anyone on the street, ask them how they view Lord Hydra, ask them if they see him the same way you do, Sitana!"
Malena looked into her sister's eyes and, after letting out a slight sigh of relief, softened her tone and said, "So, don't harbor so much resentment towards Lord Hydra anymore. He won't always indulge you. Don't make any more mistakes, Sitana."
After saying this, Malena suddenly felt a very uncomfortable sensation.
In the next moment, tears welled up in Sitana's eyes and streamed down.
"GET OUT!"
She angrily roared at Malena, "WHY AREN'T YOU ON MY SIDE? YOU'RE MY SISTER! WHY ARE YOU SPEAKING UP FOR THE JERK I HATE?"
"Sitana, you—"
"Malena, you really should see the face you were making in the study with that jerk... and how you looked just now when you brought up his name. You got a thing for him huh? Wanna be like those woman who bat their lashes at Hydra, to be his lover?"
"SITANA!"
These outrageous words made Malena furious, and the girl who had never truly scolded her sister before raised her hand and, somewhat out of control, slapped her across the cheek.
"Do you even know what you're saying? How could you say such things!"
Even after slapping her, Malena regretted it immediately, but she was still extremely angry and disappointed, speaking sternly in this manner.
"……"
Sitana covered her cheek and didn't speak.
And from those cold, dark red eyes, Malena saw emotions she had never seen before.
Hatred.
The young wolf, with tears in her eyes, turned around without hesitation and ran out the door, leaving Malena alone, at a loss.
In fact, just as Sitana had not yet truly understood Malena's heartfelt concerns.
Malena also did not understand what her absurd, unreasonable, and self-centered sister had encountered after waking up from her coma today.
—When Sitana asked why she had been targeted for assassination, she heard with her own ears from Anselm, who never lied to her, that the assassination was arranged by him.
Who would be willing to show any leniency to someone who wanted to kill them?
And the poor Sitana, even went to the lengths of hiding this incident to spare her sister, who was now enjoying a better life, from any distress.
Only what she received in return was such heartless and cold criticism, as well as... a slap in the face.
Author's Note:
ps:
Today's total word count is again quite excessive, nearing 7K, but I just can't feel comfortable if I don't write it all out (scratching my head).
Although the process... might seem a bit twisted (even though I enjoy writing it), it might make some readers uncomfortable, but trust me, after it's all over, everyone will have a bright future, absolutely!
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