A Villain's Way of Taming Heroines

She ignored the old man who had served the Ziegler family since Eileen's rise to power and walked forward indifferently, "Given their character, there should be someone stronger, wiser, and younger to replace you."

"Miss... Miss, the lord and the lady are not such ungrateful people."

Butler Cain quickly got up and followed Ravenna with a bitter face, "Please believe —"

"Not ungrateful?"

The female scholar who had been away from home for more than ten years sneered, "This is the most interesting joke I've heard in a while."

The old man opened his mouth as if he wanted to explain something, but looking at Ravenna's back, he chose to give up in the end.

"I... I'll lead the way for you. The lord and the lady are waiting for you."

Cain quickly walked in front of Ravenna. His steps were not steady, and no matter how straight he kept his back, he couldn't hide his old age. He was so focused on talking to Ravenna that he didn't even greet Ansel.

Cain's behavior was not fitting for a competent butler. Even if he was overjoyed at reuniting with the young lady, the old butler seemed too flustered.

He led Ravenna and Ansel to the villa in the center of the estate, through the corridor, and to the reception room. Strangely, there were very few servants along the way. Although the Ziegler manor was not as luxurious as the Hydral manor, there were hardly any servants seen cleaning or preparing for work, which was quite odd.

"The lord and the lady are waiting for you inside... I'll take my leave first, miss."

Ansel watched Cain leave, but Ravenna's gaze didn't waver. She stared at the door of the reception room, and no one knew what she was thinking—except for a certain devil, except for the damned fate.

"Do you want me to open the door for you?"

Ansel's voice pulled Ravenna back from her memories. She silently grabbed the doorknob and pushed the door open with an expression of cold indifference.

Inside the room, a couple with matching looks and temperament sat together. As soon as they heard the door open, they almost immediately turned their eyes to the entrance. Compared to the emotionally complex Ravenna, Ansel caught the complex emotions in the eyes of this couple, this pair of parents, at a glance.

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Excitement, guilt, sadness... too many emotions were intertwined, like a tangled mess of vines, making it hard to see the truth beneath the layers of emotions.

"Venna, you—"

"Good afternoon, Mrs. Eleanor."

Ravenna's mother had just begun to speak with great excitement when Ravenna, expressionless, interrupted her: "Please forgive my audacity for my unannounced visit."

An invisible wall blocked the words Mrs. Ziegler had intended to pour out. She looked at her daughter awkwardly, her eyes revealing such vivid sorrow.

"...Sit."

Leiden Ziegler, son of Eileen Ziegler, Ravenna's biological father, a senior lecturer at the Etheric Academy, with his eyes slightly downcast, spoke calmly: "Regardless of your reason for seeking us, let's sit and talk first."

Ravenna did not object, for she had never intended to show hostility. What she wanted to show was only... indifference, the indifference of strangers.

Ansel and Ravenna sat across from the Zieglers. Leiden turned his gaze to the unremarkable young man next to Ravenna and asked indifferently: "And you are…"

"I am Ravenna's... um, friend." Ansel smiled and spoke with ease, telling a lie that was not a lie, "I am quite concerned about her situation, so I took the liberty of accompanying her here. I hope you don't mind."

The implications of his words were significant to the Zieglers, leaving them silent for a moment. Ravenna seized this opportunity to take the initiative:

"I have always been the only one to visit grandfather's grave."

"...What?"

Mr. Ziegler was clearly taken aback by this statement.

"I said, I have always been the only one to clean grandfather's grave." Ravenna repeated, the indifference and alienation in her purple eyes, so similar to her father's, may have hurt her parents.

"From fifteen years ago, until now, I have been the only one cleaning it."

Mr. Ziegler, who had recovered, looked quite upset.

His hands clenched into fists, he stared at Ravenna and said word by word: "So, you only agreed to see us again after more than ten years to reprimand us, is that it?"

"I did not use any tone of anger or criticism, I was merely stating facts."

Ravenna maintained her unsettling calm: "If you think I am reprimanding you, that's your problem, Mr. Ziegler."

"...Heh."

The man suddenly let out a cold laugh: "Hoping for you to change, it seems I—"

"Leiden!"

Eleanor tightly gripped her husband's hand, interrupting him loudly, then turned to look at Ravenna, speaking in a somewhat weak, almost humble tone:

"Venna, we... we are very sorry about your grandfather, we..."

"I don't care whether you feel anything for grandfather's death."

Ravenna didn't care about her mother's submissive attitude, but her tone had changed slightly, becoming colder, becoming... hateful:

"Just as I have given up questioning your betrayal, your plunder, your shamelessness — because the answer is obvious."

The atmosphere in the reception room suddenly dropped to freezing point, no one's face looked good, including Ansel's, although his heart was certainly not the same.

Hydral, who was enjoying the spectacle, was calculating the emotional trajectory of Ravenna, Leiden, and Eleanor under the drive of fate, and even... their verbal exchanges.

He turned his gaze to Leiden, whose face had turned extremely ugly, and murmured in his heart:

[Didn't I give all this to you?]

"Didn't I want to give all this to you!"

Leiden raised his voice in anger: "Money, estates, resources, everything he left for you, didn't I contact you when you came of age, asking you to take it all?"

[Do you think] Ansel lightly tapped his cheek, laughing in his heart [I want to have anything to do with him!]

"Do you think, I still want to have anything to do with him!"

"I only see the result, the result is, I refused these things, and you chose to possess them openly."

"You!" This absurd statement made Leiden stand up, "So you want me to sell everything, you'd rather see others occupy all this, than let me have it, right?"

"Yes." Ravenna answered without hesitation, "Because you're not worthy."

A cruel attack that pierced the deepest part of her father's heart, Ansel sighed in his heart.

As he sighed, Leiden seemed to be extremely sensitive to the word "not worthy". His face was filled with anger, his eyes were ablaze, and his fists were clenched... none of these looked like a father facing his daughter.

"..."

After staring at Ravenna for a long time with those angry eyes, Leiden, who was not tall and even a bit thin, sat down as if he had lost all his strength.

[Ravenna, I really shouldn't have expected anything from you]

Ansel, supporting his chin, murmured to himself, his eyes slightly narrowed.

Then... it was time for the first critical point to arrive.

He leaned his head on his hand and said softly: "Ravenna, I really... shouldn't have expected anything from you, you've gone completely mad, just like him."

At this moment, this father revealed deep helplessness and pain, the heavy sense of powerlessness in his words, even Ravenna felt it very clearly.

A very small, but thought-provoking hesitation flashed through the woman's heart...

The expression of his father didn't look like a disguise…why...

"Mad? Are you sure, Mr. Ziegler?"

Just then, the silent "friend" of Miss Ravenna suddenly spoke.

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