My villain wants to save himself, but the yandere heroine disagrees

Have I changed the direction of the plot?

The more difficult Litt's life is, the deeper his hatred for his family and himself will be, and the easier it will be for him to be stabbed by Litt, who has awakened the halo of the protagonist.

Moreover, there is indeed no one more suitable to train Leeteuk than himself who knows the direction of the plot.

Humph, a drop of water should be repaid with a spring of water. When I teach Li Te next time, I must always instill this concept in him.

Thinking of this, Orson nodded.

"I understand, Father. I will do my best to teach Li Te."

"Well, I feel much more at ease with your words." Lucius said this, stood up from the chair and patted Orson on the shoulder.

His palm was firm and powerful, and he patted Orson's shoulder, making the latter feel a sense of responsibility as if he had been entrusted with an important task.

Lucius and Orson looked at each other, and after a few seconds, Lucius nodded with satisfaction.

"Okay, go and have a rest. You are tired after a long day. You should start teaching Li Te from tomorrow and try to get him to pass the test before he enrolls in the Imperial Academy."

"Okay." Orson nodded.

When he reached the door of the room, Orson suddenly remembered something and turned to look at Lucius.

"By the way, father, when I sent Leeteuk home today, the servant said that Leeteuk's room had not been cleaned yet. What's going on? Didn't you know about Leeteuk's return a long time ago?"

"Is that true?" Lucius frowned upon hearing this. "I asked your mother to take care of this matter. Maybe she forgot about it. So where is Lit now?"

"I let him rest in my room first."

"Okay, I'll go ask Mary later, you go back first." Lucius nodded.

"Yeah." Orson nodded, then opened the door and walked out.

Chapter 8: Young Stepmother

The Imperial College, as the name suggests, is an academy officially established by the empire.

The empire's education system was divided into two categories, one was schools and the other was colleges.

Generally speaking, before reaching adulthood, people will go to schools in various places to study basic subjects, and after reaching adulthood, those who have the conditions will enter college for further studies.

The academy will teach students various skills. Of course, combat is a compulsory subject in the academy.

Unlike the schools that spread across towns, there is only one college in almost every urban cluster.

The reason is simple. In order to regulate the teaching quality of the colleges, the empire set a very high entry threshold for the colleges. As a result, many existing colleges are funded by local finances, and their income is not enough to cover their expenses every year. They are almost a money-burning machine.

Take Lucius for example. As one of the six dukes of the empire, the Duchy of Antica under his control only has two colleges, and the scale and teaching quality of the colleges are far inferior to those of the Imperial College.

The reason why lords were able to open academies was because of the main function of the academies - to cultivate talents.

Yes, the empire is not as peaceful as most people think.

Thousands of years ago, in order to reward a group of founding heroes who followed him, the founding emperor of the empire granted fiefs on a large scale and established a three-level administrative system of earl, duke, and emperor.

Most counts own a city and the surrounding villages and towns, while dukes directly govern several cities and exercise suzerainty over the counts within their de jure territories.

The emperor himself is similar to a larger duke. In addition to having more direct territories, the emperor exercises suzerain power over the duke and the earls within the territories.

As the saying goes, "My vassal's vassal is not my vassal", the emperor cannot directly command the duke's vassal.

Because of the chaotic feudal order, the empire fell into a hundred years of chaos after the death of the founding emperor. Eventually, five grand dukes were chosen, and these five grand dukes and their families have survived to this day.

They are the Eisenberg family that controls the Duchy of Prussia, the Florence family that controls the Duchy of Naples, the Toulouse family that controls the Duchy of Orleans, the Lisanus family that controls the Duchy of Aragon, and the Petrov family that controls the Duchy of Lucia.

As the territory of the newly promoted Duke Lucius, the Dukedom of Antica was founded because he led the imperial army to conquer all directions twenty years ago.

The empire expanded its territory countless times, and the emperor divided out a part of the territory originally directly governed by the royal family, and combined it with the newly conquered eastern region to form this duchy.

This action broke the delicate balance that had been maintained between the emperor and the dukes. For a moment, several dukes began to win over Lucius.

As a new noble, Lucius cleverly remained neutral in the open and secret struggles, waiting for the right price.

Eventually, he arranged a marriage with William Eisenberg, Duke of Prussia, and when Orson was three years old, he was engaged to William's second daughter, Lienka.

In this turbulent situation, the major local forces of the empire will of course train talents and recruit talents through academies in order to strengthen themselves.

Among the dozens of colleges in the empire, only that one can be named "Empire".

If people refer to "Imperial College" in public, there is only one.

Located in the imperial capital of Saint-Laurent, its full name is the National Imperial College of Saint-Laurent, or simply the Imperial College.

The fact that the academy is named after both the capital and the founding emperor shows how high its status is.

The Imperial Academy is the highest-level institution of learning in the empire, and its predecessor existed before the establishment of the empire.

Because it is supported by the royal family and many famous teachers teach in the academy, the Imperial Academy has always been the most ideal institution of learning for the best and brightest people in the empire. Students who graduate from the Imperial Academy will also receive olive branches from major forces.

Of course, the prerequisite is to be able to graduate successfully under the strict review and screening system.

In order to ensure the quality of students, the Imperial College adopts two admission systems. One is the aristocratic recommendation system, where each earldom can nominate one person for admission every year.

Because there are a large number of nobles in the empire, many nobles will use the recommendation quota to send their family members or confidants to study in the Imperial Academy, because the proportion of students recommended into the academy reaches 20%.

Another way, which is also the admission channel for most students of Imperial College, is through examination.

Every year during the Imperial College's enrollment season, a unified test will be conducted. At that time, aspiring young people from all over the country will gather in Saint Laurent City. In the end, the top 800 students who take the exam will be admitted to the Imperial College.

Of course, since the nobles receive the best education since birth, most of those who can actually pass the test are also nobles.

An exam that can select only 800 candidates from tens of thousands of candidates is naturally not easy.

In the original novel, although Leeteuk had the aura of the protagonist, he only had less than a month to prepare. He failed to pass the exam and was finally admitted with the recommendation of Lucius.

Because of this, he was looked down upon by others in the academy.

I have to say that the task Lucius assigned to me was quite difficult.

He had no idea whether Li Te could pass the exam within a month.

Just then, a maid came over.

Orson had some impression of her, and she seemed to be Mary's maid.

"Master Orson, Madam is looking for you." The maid said this and bowed to Orson.

"Mother is looking for me?" Orson looked at her in confusion, then nodded. "Okay, you lead the way."

Then the maid led Orson to Mary's study.

Since Mary was Lucius' second wife after his wife became a widower, she is only thirty years old this year.

She was born into the Toulouse family of the Duke of Orleans and married Lucius, who was forty, when Orson was ten years old, at the age of twenty-two.

The age gap between her and Lucius was even greater than that between her and Orson.

Considering her family's background and the actual intention behind their marriage, although the relationship between the two can be said to be respectful, Orson always felt that there was still a vague sense of distance between them.

The two of them each had a bedroom and a study at home. Mary and Lucius only shared a bed in the first three years of their marriage. After that, for various reasons, Mary rarely lived in the same room with Lucius.

Because Lucius was born a warrior and his ability to govern the territory was average, and Mary happened to have management skills, Lucius later simply handed over the decision-making power of territory governance to Mary. Mary did not disappoint Lucius' expectations and governed the territory quite well.

Of course, although the territory was well governed, the private treasury in the Duke's mansion had not increased, which always made people suspicious.

When I walked to Mary's study, I saw the servant Randall guarding the door.

He was a handsome middle-aged man, about thirty-four or thirty-five this year, and was one of the personal servants that Mary brought from her family.

"Uncle Randall."

Mori greeted him politely.

Randall looked at Orson with a smile, and then said, "Master Orson, the lady is waiting for you inside."

"Yeah." Orson smiled, then opened the door and walked into the room.

Chapter 9: I hope you understand

Walking into the study, Mary had changed out of the dress she wore to today's party and put on a red long skirt. With her long brown hair and well-maintained skin, she looked like a woman of about 24 or 25 years old.

It has less girlish vitality and more maturity and charm.

"Did the master ask you to go to his study just now?" Mary seemed to be dealing with official documents at first. When she saw Orson coming in, she immediately put down what she was doing, looked up at Orson, smiled, and then said.

Looking at Mary in front of him, Orson felt a little complicated.

It is said that it takes two to tango. In the original book, Orson and Mary teamed up to frame Leete.

If I didn't have this idea now, Mary would not continue to persecute Litt.

"Mother, I was indeed called to the study by father just now." Orson nodded.

"Yeah." Mary nodded and continued, "What are you talking about? About Leete?"

"I can't hide it from my mother, it's true." Orson smiled.

"Orson, what do you think about the inheritance rights?" Mary said this, sat up from the chair, walked to Orson, and helped him straighten his collar.

She is a head shorter than Orson and has a younger face, so she doesn't look like a mother at all, but more like a peer.

More like a sister, or...

As soon as Orson thought of that, the memory of the original work came to his mind again, and the romantic thoughts that arose in his mind as a young man were instantly dissipated.

After all, Mary is your stepmother, and she is a villain in the original book!

"As for the inheritance rights..." Orson watched Mary continue to help him straighten his clothes, thought for a moment, and then said, "I will listen to my father. In my opinion, my father has raised me, his non-blood son, for eighteen years and given me the best education. I am already very grateful to him."

"Whether it's me or Leeteuk who inherits, I support my father's decision, and even say..."

After a pause, Orson continued, "Because of an accident, Lit lived in the countryside for eighteen years. If our identities were switched during these eighteen years, Lit would have lived a better life, and he would not be like this now."

"So, if possible, I would prefer Leeteuk to inherit his father."

Hearing Orson's words, Mary paused for a moment, then she smiled and looked up at Orson.

"Orson, I always thought you and I were the same kind of people."

"The same kind of people? Me and you, mother? Then, mother, what kind of people do you think we are?"

"With a broad vision and lofty ambitions, some unimportant things can be abandoned for the sake of the goal, right?"

Mary said this, standing on tiptoe and whispering next to Orson.

"Think about it, you have achieved such a high level at such a young age, don't you want to go further?"

"With your ability, the position of Duke isn't the end of the road, right?"

"You've been to Saint Laurent, right? It's much more magnificent than Antica, right? Don't you think that's where you can display your talents?"

After saying that, Mary took a few steps back and looked at Orson with a smile.

There is still some girlish cuteness in her movements.

Orson was stunned for a moment, his expression changing again and again, and finally he showed a relieved smile.

Mary hasn't changed, at least, her desire to persecute Leeteuk in the original book hasn't changed.

In this case, she and I are already opposites.

"Saint Laurent is beautiful, but home is more comfortable."

"Besides, family is definitely one of the most important things, isn't it?"

"Haha, it seems that you and I are a little different." Mary smiled. "Orson, you are more powerful than I thought."

"Mother, what do you mean?"

"Nothing." Mary finished laughing and shook her head. "Then I believe you can do something that you won't regret."

"Maybe."

"Okay, it's getting late, you should go back to your room and rest." Mary said this, sat back in her chair, and waved to Orson.

"I understand. Mother, you should also go to bed early." Orson said this and turned to leave Mary's study.

After walking out of the study, Orson found that cold sweat had already seeped out of his neck.

After all, this was a conversation related to his own destiny, so he really didn't dare to take it lightly.

"Master Orson, take care." At the door, Randall bowed to Orson.