"I imagine you very much want to know whose side I am on right now, don't you?"
Raymond gazed into Liliana's eyes, filled with complicated emotions, and bluntly voiced the thoughts currently running through her mind.
This was not some spell or ability that read memories or thoughts, but an unconscious influence and manipulation of a person's mind born from insight into human nature.
In other words, if he wanted to, he could guide her thoughts at any moment.
Besides, Liliana was not the sort of woman who let her emotions cloud her judgment. She was an utterly selfish, refined egoist.
Throughout her long life, men had been nothing more than toys in her eyes, or tools for satisfying her desires and achieving certain unspeakable goals.
She enjoyed toying with the emotions and bodies of men who considered themselves clever and powerful, while also using those men who fell at her feet to extract the greatest possible benefit.
If those so-called "little fairies" of modern society were parasites sucking the blood of men as a group, then Liliana was their super-evolved upgraded version.
Perhaps at the very instant she had been rescued, this woman truly had been excited and filled with gratitude.
But once she calmed down, her mind would immediately regain its rationality and consider the gains and losses from her own perspective.
Family, friendship, love—every last bit of it was bullshit.
If her life were threatened, she would betray and sell someone out without the slightest hesitation.
This was Liliana Vess: intelligent, wise, cunning, self-centered, willing to trust no one but herself, and possessed of a unique charm.
With someone like her, trying to win her over through mere emotion and charm was basically impossible.
On the contrary!
The optimal solution was to establish a clear relationship of