A Villain's Way of Taming Heroines

The moment Seraphina’s fist collided with this small piece of armor, the floor of the alchemy workshop was the first to suffer. With the armor block as the center, the entire ground was instantly blasted into a pit with a radius of at least two meters. And this was with Ansel on the side to help Seraphina reduce the impact, otherwise, who knows how big this pit would be.

“…Ah, did I use too much force?”

In the rolling waves of air, Seraphina shook her hand, straightened her waist, and looked at Ansel with some trepidation.

“Damage to the alchemy workshop is normal, don’t worry.”

Ansel reassured her with a smile, “This is not a problem, let’s first see how Ravenna’s armor block is doing?”

Seraphina put her hand on her hip, looked at the metal block in the pit with confidence, “Of course it was hit by me… Huh?!”

She who had just glanced at it and didn’t look again, immediately turned her head to look at the pit again, and then exclaimed in great surprise:

“What’s going on! Why didn’t it break?!”

“…”

Ravenna looked at the armor block in the middle of the big pit, which was cracked in the middle and almost split in two by a punch, and was silent.

She underestimated Seraphina’s strength by one… or even two or three levels. The model established based on the data collected at the first meeting was still too simple and one-sided.

If this wasn’t a mechanical armor created by Ansel, and was replaced by any other “protective gear”, it would have been smashed into pieces by Seraphina’s punch, just as she said.

But Seraphina herself was not satisfied with this result. She picked up the metal block that she had almost blasted into two pieces, and looked at Ansel with a puzzled face:

“Ansel, why can’t I even break this thing?”

Ansel couldn’t help but laugh, “What do you mean by ‘this thing’? You’re not only looking down on Ravenna, but also on me.”

“!”

The wolf lady who reacted had a slight blush on her face, “I, I didn’t mean that, just… ah, I said the wrong thing.”

She scratched her head and stuck out her tongue at Ansel, “Ansel, don’t take it to heart.”

The little metal bug on Ansel’s shoulder slowly flew towards the armor block in Seraphina’s hand. When it touched its surface, it suddenly “cracked” and shattered. Seraphina hadn’t reacted to what was going on, when she saw the shattered metal bug seeping out a bit of glow, silently sinking into the metal block.

“Try squeezing it again.” Ansel said.

Seraphina did as she was told. Because she didn’t directly smash this thing just now, she was somewhat indignant, and her five fingers brutally closed inward. As a result, she had just exerted her strength, and when she felt a little resistance, a small half of the armor was actually directly crushed by her?

“The strength is too low.” Ansel said, “If Seraphina hadn’t directly destroyed the entire structure of the armor, the preset ether could not invade the circuit, and it still needs to be given a demolition function.”

Ravenna frowned, “The difficulty is too high, its volume is too small, the ether circuit that can be engraved is just that little, it is impossible to both have the ability to break the armor and store the ether used to destroy the circuit.”

“What about designing another batch specifically for demolition?”

“That won’t work either, this kind of division of labor is purely a reduction in efficiency, it’s meaningless.”

“Hmm…”

They inexplicably entered the discussion phase like this, and the young Hydral stroked his chin, his eyes suddenly brightened, and he said in a light tone, “Then start with the ether, refine, change properties, assign elements… make changes from multiple aspects—like trying to add elements of chaos, erosion, etc.”

Almost in sync with Ansel, Ravenna nodded, “But I only understand these essences, and I haven’t been able to apply them to reality.”

“That’s not your area of expertise, leave it to your guide friends.”

Ansel stretched languidly, “With this, we can consider our task nearly finished.”

“…Hmm? What?”

Seraphina, who had not comprehended their previous conversation, looked bewildered, “Finished? How is it finished?”

“We’ve been in this alchemy workshop to create alchemical weapons that can counter mechanical armor.”

Ansel moved to Seraphina’s side, his index finger tracing the surface of the armor block, brushing away tiny fragments of magi-metal.

“Now that we’ve confirmed the sample works, and that the third-stage Ravenna can produce, replicating it in the hands of the higher-ups in the Tower of Babel shouldn’t be a problem. The next step is to improve and upgrade the base model. There’s no need for me to provide direction for the subsequent steps, as they don’t require much creativity.”

Ravenna’s ability to create is still limited by her own power, but the reason she is the most suitable alchemist for Ansel is not because of power, but talent.

Only those who can keep up with Ansel’s thinking, who can understand the intent of all his ideas, can turn them into reality.

Ravenna looked at Ansel’s profile, a fleeting daze crossing her eyes.

Just now… just now, she and Ansel were discussing possibilities seamlessly, and in the fastest time, they obtained the optimal solution. For a moment, Ravenna thought she had returned to three years ago.

For a moment, she thought that Ansel’s excitement and joy when discussing those ideas, just like three years ago, were incredibly genuine.

Of course, it was only a moment.

Ansel of Hydral, he doesn’t care about his ideals, he himself has no ideals, he has never looked forward to that brand-new era, that completely renewed future, everything is just a lie he made up to make herself submit.

He puts himself above everything, just like she puts her ideals above everything, they are destined to be incompatible, destined to not walk the same path.

Ravenna stopped talking, her renewed cooperation with Ansel, ended so casually.

“Um… Anyway, Ansel means that we can leave, right?”

“Yes, there’s nothing left for us here.”

“Finally done!”

Seraphina cheered excitedly, “I want to go out for a feast! Being stuck here is really unbearable—”

Boom!!!

The terrifying roar from above interrupted Seraphina’s words.

The girl was startled, looking up in confusion, “What’s happening? Did someone’s experiment explode upstairs?”

Ravenna’s expression changed drastically at this moment, she immediately rushed out of the alchemy workshop, not even bothering about Ansel and Seraphina, which was completely unlike her usual calm demeanor.

“…What’s wrong with her?” Seraphina looked at Ansel in confusion.

Ansel didn’t answer the question, but instead took Seraphina’s hand and said with a light laugh:

“Seraphina, you’re curious about what mechanical armor is, aren’t you?”

“Yeah. Hearing you and that guy talk about it so impressively, of course I’m curious.”

“Then I’ll take you to see it now.”

The young Hydral, recalling the image of that thing from his memory library, said with a meaningful smile:

“Let’s go see the ‘little toy’ I created.”

*

Ravenna, who left the alchemy workshop at the fastest speed and arrived at the place of the roar, saw a large group of scholars from the Tower of Babel.

This place is close to the largest square of the Tower of Babel, all of them are looking up blankly, looking at the colossal object that occupies the square.

A… knight.

A cold and ferocious, angular, iron giant knight.

It’s at least sixty meters tall, its body radiating a cold black iron light, the heavy armor brings a suffocating pressure, but the human form, has a flexibility far superior to that of an alchemical fortress.

“Members of the Tower of Babel, how have you been recently?”

From within this iron knight, came the voice of Conrad of Luminaris, this most outstanding young man of the Etheric Academy so boldly, almost as an attacker, appeared in the square of the Tower of Babel.

“I don’t know if the members of the Tower of Babel are aware of what you are doing, I’m just here to inform you of one thing.”

“The Etheric Academy has completed the masterpiece of this grand play, you… don’t fall behind.”

Like the other members of the Tower of Babel, Ravenna looked up at this terrifying giant without speaking.

However, her silence was not due to this “alchemical weapon” that had never appeared before the public, but due to the Etheric Academy building such a high-quality product in just five days.

This suffocating pressure… Ravenna wouldn’t mistake it, this is definitely not some facade to boost morale.

This is a real mechanical armor, the first stage of the three stages of mechanical armor that Ansel conceived.

[Mechanical Armor·Material Armament]

*

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