A Villain's Way of Taming Heroines

"Extend?"

Ansel raised his eyebrows slightly: "You think I plan to end this game on my own? No, no, no... Ravenna, it's not me who will end this game."

Ansel stood up and walked out of the restaurant, with Ravenna having no choice but to follow. Ansel's recent words had given her a sense of relief, but also an indescribable fear.

If Ansel was not the one to end the game... then who would it be?

The young Hydral arrived at the entrance of the restaurant, where the owner was smoking a clay pipe, looking distressed across the street at another eatery.

"What's the matter, boss?" Ansel struck up a conversation with him, "Your business seems to be doing quite well."

"Well? Haha... this is the best it's been in days."

The owner chuckled bitterly: "That place across the street, run by the Pelican Trading Commerce, has taken all the customers in town. At first, when we weren't getting our ingredients from the Pelican Commerce, they lured away our customers with low-priced dishes made from high-quality ingredients.

By the time we had to follow suit and get our supplies from them, it was too late to compete with their low prices."

"A restaurant's reputation ultimately depends on the skill of its chefs."

"But where can you find so many skilled chefs? Most people can't even taste the difference."

The owner dejectedly threw his pipe to the ground, stamped it out, and sighed: "The Pelican Commerce's place is cheap and the ingredients are good, that's attractive enough. If I hadn't been here for five or six years and had many regular customers, I might already be green with envy to the point of madness."

Saying this, he rubbed his cheeks vigorously and managed a strained smile: "Actually, I'm almost mad. The Pelican Commerce has started to raise their prices, but can we not buy from them? If we don't, where else can we find so many ingredients of the same quality? That would be even more expensive! But if this continues... who knows how high those guys will raise the prices?"

The man turned to look at his own shop, his expression showing a hint of reluctance: "Old Kahn told me that if I agree to come under the name of the Pelican Commerce and give them a fixed share of the income every month, I could get ingredients at a cheaper price... If I want to keep going, I guess that's the only way."

"So you're saying, you have to hand over the restaurant you've run for so many years?" Ansel asked in surprise.

"What else can I do, go bankrupt and close down?" The owner sighed, "We're actually one of the lucky ones, still having a chance to make money... The farmers are the ones who are really suffering, their crops rotting in the fields, and in the villages outside the city, another farmer hanged himself yesterday." Enjoy new tales from m-v l'-NovelBin.net

Ansel expressed his condolences and then headed towards the gate of the small city.

Ravenna, hurrying to keep up with Ansel, was shaken by the restaurant owner's words.

Not just... the farmers?

"Does it seem strange to you?" Ansel, walking ahead of Ravenna, suddenly said, "That a restaurant that could benefit from cheaper, higher-quality ingredients has fallen into such a dire state as described by the owner?"

Before Ravenna could respond, Ansel continued:

"You're too naive, or rather... too self-righteous, Ravenna."

Ansel halted his steps, turning to look at Miss puppet, who had completely lost her air of genius and appeared as a child, bewildered and helpless. His smile was mocking as he spoke with irony:

"Your vision of transformation is a leap forward for the world, akin to the metamorphosis from the mundane to the transcendent. So how... should it be realized? Do you think that this matter is like the formulas you write in your research, where you simply fill in a number and automatically obtain a flawless answer?"

He was no longer gentle, no longer patient, and no longer offered Ravenna any guidance or instruction, but coldly and indifferently pointed out her mistakes.

This pure and extreme contrast had left Ravenna unable to recover since a moment ago.

Even though Ansel no longer addressed Ravenna as "Helen," she still spoke in a slightly panicked manner: "Father, I didn't—"

"You didn't? But you clearly don't understand anything, do you?"

The young man roughly pinched Miss puppet's cheek, his face showing such pronounced disdain from his superior position, his attitude was almost like... "I'm fed up with playing house with you."

"Do you think the production of food will only affect farmers? Do you know how many industries are tightly bound to food, fluctuating with its production?"

"Do you know when a commerce completely monopolizes all resources without any threats, the terrifying control it will have in that industry and related industries?"

"Do you know how many workers are in these industries, and what impact these fluctuations will have on them?"

"Do you really think..."

The serpent revealed his cruel and fierce face, spewing venom at the helpless puppet:

"That without the intervention of extraordinary beings, with the rules restricted by me, just producing enough food will ensure that everyone can eat?"

After staring at the trembling and contracting pupils of Ravenna for a long time, Ansel suddenly laughed:

"Very good."

He affectionately bent down, pressing close to Ravenna's cheek, whispering: "What I've been looking forward to is exactly how you look now, dear Ravenna."

"Fear, panic, cluelessness, powerlessness. It seems that my previous attitude towards you has caused some misunderstandings, but for me, it was just for fun, don't forget—"

"Three years ago," Ansel gently bit her earlobe, an action so intimate yet causing Ravenna's heart to ache.

"You abandoned me."

"..."

The petite scholar's violet eyes dimmed in an instant.

All the affection, passion, and tireless guidance that Ansel had shown her, which had made her so engrossed and dependent, were torn to shreds by his few words now.

The intense shock left her mind blank for a moment, and just then, fragmented memories struck her mind like splitting lightning, bringing with them an unbearable, intense pain.

["Can you believe that a soul can be shaped, Ravenna?"]

["The foundation of the extraordinary, the unique source of each extraordinary being, it... can be molded, created."]

["— The most outstanding alchemist can even achieve this."]

"Uh... Ahhh!"

Myron had never told Ravenna that the recovery of memories could be so painful, so unbearable.

It didn't feel like the recovery of so-called memories, but rather, being infused with… fragments of a soul?

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