The Villainess Returns with a System
Chapter 147: Crazy Bitches

Chapter 147: Crazy Bitches

The five young ladies in the room all stayed silent while Beatrix started crying, jolting back and forth in Vivian’s bed, her body drenched in sweat, and tears flowing nonstop.

Isabella, with all her might, wasn’t even sure she could pull off such a mean one-on-one flawlessly. Edith was terrified, despite the respect she felt from Vivian when she mentioned her pride and self-esteem.

As for Esmeralda, she was crying deep in her heart, praying for someone to stop this madness, but unable to do a thing.

But as a minute passed and Beatrix was still crying, Vivian spoke again. However, there was no anger in her words, no mean words or tough act. Somehow, she sounded very calm and reasonable, as if the before was phase 1 and now it was phase 2.

"You’re not a victim, Beatrix. You’re just sloppy. Maybe it is not your fault, maybe you were not taught right, but goddamn, how sloppy you were! What exactly were you trying to prove by coming here? That you’re dangerous? You’re not. You’re just sad. You are not in control of anything, and coming here was a mistake through and through. I can just murder you and all your guards, make other people wear your clothes, drive out of town, stage an attack, and dump your corpses there, then come up with all manner of excuses for your visit. Simple as that. Even Edith and Isabella wouldn’t testify against me because they know you were just stupid."

No matter how Beatrix cried, raged, and cried again, Vivian wasn’t stopping. She was in the middle of phase 2, and she needed to deliver every word right.

"You see, Beatrix, you haven’t learned right. You let yourself love blindly, and your heart led you astray. I won’t blame you. I was in your place once, and I only had to die to know right from wrong. Luckily for everyone in this room, I am still here. I can tell you from a goddamn experience that your life isn’t something you should waste on fuckers like these who think they can play God with us. All they want is to fuck you, chew you in, and spit you out. If you don’t see that and keep offering yourself to them, you won’t live past 20, young lady."

She then cast one final glance at the exhausted Beatrix and spoke calmly:

"I really can’t believe you were paired together with Edith and me as some sort of Matilda’s rival villainesses or whatever. Edith could handle herself with grace; even I wasn’t that bad. But you... You’re a hot mess, young lady. You can’t handle a thing on your own. You just don’t have the knack for it. Honestly, I don’t think of you as a threat anymore. You’re just... pitiful."

And with those words, Vivian cut Beatrix loose. All the duct tape and rope were simply snapped when Vivian passed her sharp knife at them. The restraints that bound Beatrix through that emotional torture session were all let loose, and even her mouth patch was taken out gently by applying the right force at the right angle.

All Beatrix could do was to get up on her hands and knees, exhausted, unable to speak, and shaken as if she had just weathered a winter storm.

She breathed heavily, but with pain lingering through her throat from all the groaning and screaming. She couldn’t speak a word, and she was in an emotional mess, battered and beaten, but as she saw Vivian, something possessed her, and in a last effort of defiance, she rammed herself against Vivian.

On the other hand, Vivian was totally capable of receiving that body slam and totally subduing Beatrix, but she welcomed it with open arms, literally so. She received Beatrix with a hug, tightened her arms around her, and the latter could no longer do a thing. Now, it was a third and different phase.

"I know that pain," she said and kept holding Beatrix tight, "You’re not broken, Beatrix. You were just never shown how to survive."

"..."

"You’re not even weak at all. You’re strong and vigorous, and you never take it lying down. I don’t think you could even apologise to Matilda. But they are what is truly evil. They used your own strength against you, and oh girl, how it messed you up! If you were to fight back on your own, they’d have done to you what they did to me: found you a pig and shipped you off to the pigsty. They think they are powerful, that they cast down whom they don’t see fit, that they are some sort of Gods."

There was a lot of reluctance and resistance left in Beatrix’s body, but as Vivian was done talking, Beatrix let herself be hugged in Vivian’s soft and warm embrace.

"You won’t go through this alone, Beatrix. Rely on me, and I’ll embrace you even tighter, and I’ll love you and care for you," Vivian said as she kissed Beatrix’s forehead, and started caressing her hair slowly, "You belong to me now. And I take care of my people."

Just like that, all the resistance faded, and Beatrix let her consciousness fade into Vivian’s embrace. Vivian smiled and looked at Edith, before signalling her to approach and making her hug Beatrix from the back. Isabella also came from the side and hugged Edith and Beatrix. Even Esmeralda joined in the group hug with tearful eyes as she whispered to Vivian:

"You’re such a good person, after all. I’ll never doubt you ever again."

☆ ☆ ☆ ☆ ☆

There was little to make heads or tails of that day to Edith Black, who stayed most of it at the Moore Mansion.

Not only was the wild Beatrix completely subdued by Vivian, it was almost like she—who is a real witch—was bewitched instead. The sheer magnitude of such manipulation forced Edith’s eyes open to a new level of character influence and psychological conditioning.

If Vivian were a daughter of House Black, her power and worth in the family would be second only to the Count; she’d even break the centuries-old traditions and rise to the position of heir with that ability alone.

Seeing how tame Beatrix had become, refusing both to speak or leave Vivian’s side even when the Morgan Knights protested at the gate of the mansion to convince their lady to leave this anti-magic place, Edith wanted to have a better understanding of Vivian, and who was a better person to ask other than the one who knew Vivian better than Vivian herself?

"Honestly, that was beyond even me. The fact that she controlled herself so well... even I may get blinded by rage and start throwing slaps. Honestly, Vivian nailed it," Isabella replied.

"What is ’it’?" Edith asked.

"Think, people can be brittle sometimes, but not as sandstone or glass, no... more like poorly made iron. There are three steps to deal with iron. First, you heat; second, you temper; and lastly, you quench. Vivian did just that."

"So the heating was how she pinned Beatrix down: anger, screaming, physical pain," Edith said as she made an understanding of the first messy scene.

"They were barking at each other like animals," Isabella nodded.

"The tempering was the later part; Vivian stopped attacking and started pointing out the shortcomings for Beatrix," Edith thought as she recalled how it was.

"While making her pity herself, feel sorry, and little," Isabella added the part she enjoyed.

"After that tempering came the quenching. I still don’t get how Vivian did that. How did she calculate Beatrix’s actions?" Edith asked.

"Calculate? No, dear. It is just a sense. The metalworker doesn’t calculate; he grows a keen sense for metal. Vivian pushed Beatrix to the point before total collapse, then gave her the thing she needed the most to hold her loose, heated-up emotions together and harden them. That’s how quenching is truly done."

"Which means she remade Beatrix’s feelings into her own image!" Edith said with a shiver running through her skin.

"Heat with trauma, temper with advice, and quench with love. My sister is just perfect, isn’t she?"

"Scary is what she is?"

Seeing how intimidated Edith was, Isabella smiled vividly as they were sitting together in the drawing room downstairs. She leaned on the armrest of her chair and smiled, then asked:

"What makes you scared?"

"What if she were to manipulate me the same way? Isn’t that a valid reason to be scared?" Edith asked with visible concern.

"Goodness! You’re thinking about this too much."

"How so?"

"This comes down to the fundamentals, Edith. There is a stark difference between you and Beatrix. If we were to put it in words, I would call you the rational thinker type, whereas Beatrix is what people would call the crazy bitch type."

"I see. Thank you for seeing me like that, but don’t you think it is a bit derogatory for Beatrix?"

"Hardly; crazy bitches are the best kind of friends to have, in my opinion. The downside is that nobody can handle a crazy bitch other than a crazier bitch."

"Wait! You’re saying that..."

"Yes, Vivian and Beatrix are cut from the same cloth, if you were to look at it right. Both are volatile and would go to crazy lengths in order to take a swing at those whom they hate. One dresses up and goes on killing sprees, and the other is willing to torture herself three days straight just to avenge those whom she holds dear. I tend to think of myself as a capable person, but what them crazy bitches can do is a league beyond capable."

"Well, I’ll be damned!"

The two frenemies shared a sip of afternoon tea together, thinking deeply of their crazy, bitchy friends. Not only was Edith assimilated into the system she was fearful of, but a sense of kinship towards Vivian and Beatrix was growing within her, something so profound yet strange that she could neither fathom nor understand it.