The best kind of revenge

Purple opened her mouth but no words came out. She wanted to say no, but she knew she couldn't. She was not being forced into anything - she knew that if she rejected this mission, she would only be kicked out of La Rose Noire at the very most. In fact, it was not even a sure bet that Shera would be mad at her. She might just sneer and get someone else to do the task. Even so, she felt obliged to follow Shera's every instruction like the minion she had willingly made herself. So she accepted the mission and respectfully left Shera's study.

Shera watched her back as she exited and stared at the door for a few seconds after it was closed behind Purple.

She tore her gaze away from the door with a frown. The girl probably had something on her mind. Did she not want to do it? If she felt she was being forced to do this then it wouldn't be nice...

[Obtaining points for the following virtue: kindness.] Tazja announced out of nowhere.

"May I know how you came to the weird conclusion that I'm being kind?" Shera asked the little lioness that had invaded her brain without a prompt. She had grown accustomed to it so she was not shocked.

[You care about Purple, don't you? You think her opinion matters and are thinking of getting someone else in her place if she is unhappy about it.]

"You're overthinking." Shera scoffed. Like she would care about anyone. She was just thinking of the possibility that she 'might' be slightly lenient to Purple because of how hardworking and dedicated the latter was. More importantly, this mission would only be completely successful if the girl was willing to do it. Cedric was an easy target but she could not overlook anything. She was just being cautious. It had nothing to do with kindness.

Tazja still went ahead. [You have obtained 10 points.]

Shera rolled her eyes.

[Now that we're at it, can you explain why you are plotting against Cedric Qin? You do know this will affect your score in the...]

"The humanity test, yeah right. You don't need to remind me." Shera interrupted with a sneer. "You should be grateful that I'm even letting you limit what I can do." Heaven knew she so badly wanted to set the Jade Mansion on fire, burn them to ashes and be done with it. Yet here she was considering doing only things that wouldn't add to her vices.

"If you're thinking of saying something against it, just keep it to yourself because I swear, no one and nothing is going to stop me from destroying the Qin family. Not even you and that Major Diable you keep mentioning. Who is that anyway?"

Tazja sighed but said nothing more about it. Indeed, Shera had not killed Cece. Nor had she accused her falsely. She had only reported a criminal to the police, which was in fact a good thing. She should have earned many points for that, but her motive behind it was revenge, which was a vice, so it evened out.

As for Cedric; whatever the scheme was going to be, Shera was not planning to do anything illegal to him. So should that be a virtue or a vice? Tazja had a hard time placing it. It would ask Major Diable later. Which reminded it to answer Shera's question. [Major Diable is like the equivalent of presidents to you humans. Only, he is much more powerful and knowledgeable and can control the life or death of humans as well as mental guides. His major role is to deal with villainesses. That's why his name is Diable.[1]]

"Oh." Shera shrugged. Just that? Tazja had made it sound so mysterious.

___

Just as Leo and Shera had predicted, the Qins were looking for an opportunity to strike.

They knew that unreasonable people like Shera would never miss the chance to strike while the enemy was at their lowest.

As this was the Qin family's lowest moment, they were constantly on the look out.

On Cece's funeral, they heightened security and even hired several more details just in case. Apparently, they expected Shera to try and ruin even such a solemn occasion.

Little did they know, Shera was not even paying attention to them. The best kind of revenge was to let the enemy sit on edge for days and not make a move ; and when they finally let their guard down, to strike them so hard they would not be able to rise.

Shera was of course watching the proceedings on her iPad. She was not in a hurry. What happened with Cece was only a prelude. When the timing was right, the real battle would truly begin.