Return of Black Lotus system:Taming Cheating Male Leads

Chapter 472: Chapter-472

She knew exactly why, in so many of these tragic stories, the original souls failed to clean house. It wasn’t just a lack of strong backing; it was because their hearts couldn’t handle destroying their own blood. A desperate, biological craving for a parent’s approval usually anchored them to their abusers.

But Heena was a transmigrator. Even though she resided in Seera’s body and felt the lingering echoes of the girl’s emotions, Heena herself was completely detached. Perhaps it was because, in her original life, Heena had never lacked love. She had been a cherished child, so she possessed an unbreakable core of self-worth. She didn’t need a single drop of validation from this wretched, fake mother. Tearing her down felt as natural as breathing.

Setting her teacup down, Heena slowly walked over to the far wall. Hanging in the center was a beautifully framed portrait of Seera, painted when she was sixteen years old.

It was a masterful piece. The girl in the painting looked so incredibly vibrant and alive, her bright smile captured perfectly in the oils. No one looking at it would ever guess the absolute despair that had festered beneath that smile.

A sharp, painful pang tightened Heena’s chest. ’’This girl did not deserve this.’’

Sometimes, Heena truly hated her job.

The System didn’t just recruit souls who were brutally murdered. Sometimes, a host wasn’t forced out of their body; they were simply too exhausted, too heartbroken, and too thoroughly broken by their own families to keep fighting. If their underlying goodness and desperate wish for justice resonated deeply enough, the System would answer. But the tragic reality remained: they were giving up.

Heena reached out, her fingertips gently brushing the canvas. She knew the absolute, cruel truth of the contract. Once Heena completed her mission and abandoned this vessel, the real Seera would not wake up. Her soul was already gone. She was dead forever.

Heena’s gaze shifted slightly to the smaller portrait resting on the adjacent table—a painting of the old Marquis and the grandmother. Seera’s beloved, most cherished pillars of support.

A single, quiet tear slipped from Heena’s eye, trailing down her cheek as the crushing weight of Seera’s lingering sorrow washed over her. These missions were deeply, deeply exhausting.

’[Host,]’ the System’s digital voice chimed softly in her mind, materializing as a glowing little lion sitting on her vanity table. ’[I have run the calculations and spoken to the temporal officers.]’

Heena silently wiped her cheek, her expression instantly hardening back into her usual stoic mask. ’’And?’’

’[The primary target responsible for Seera’s death—her mother—has been successfully neutralized and punished,]’ the System reported. ’[Technically, the core parameter of your real mission is complete. The officers have authorized an early extraction. If you want to go back now, you can. We will take a slight point deduction for leaving the timeline early, but I don’t think that is a problem for someone of your rank.]’

Heena stared at the portrait for a few seconds longer. Finally, she turned around, her bloody-red robes swishing against the floor.

"No," Heena said aloud, her voice cold and absolute. "We are not going back."

The little lion avatar paused, tilting its head in genuine confusion. ’[Yes? But... didn’t you just take care of the person who killed Seera? What more is left to do?]’

Heena shook her head, a dark, dangerous light igniting in her sharp phoenix eyes. "The one who killed Seera was not ’only’ her mother. A blade cannot swing itself, System. The hand holding the hilt was the Su family."

The System’s eyes widened in digital shock. ’[Wait. Host... you aren’t seriously thinking about fighting the Su family, right? They are a massive aristocratic powerhouse!]’

Heena let out a low, chilling sneer that made the temperature in the room drop.

"Fight the Su family?" Heena mocked, walking toward the window and looking out over the sprawling capital city. "No, System. I’m thinking about unstrapping this entire, pathetic charade."

She leaned against the window frame, her eyes locking onto the distant, wealthy district where the high nobles resided.

"The Su family is not her mother’s true maiden family," Heena revealed, her voice dripping with venomous anticipation. "No. Not even close."

Heena stretched her arms, a rare moment of physical relaxation settling into her shoulders as she looked out the window. But the exact fraction of a second she turned around to walk back to her bed, reality violently shattered.

It wasn’t a headache. It felt as though a jagged, molten spike of iron had been driven directly through the base of her skull, violently splitting her brain in half.

"Ah!"

A raw, blood-curdling scream ripped from her throat. Her knees instantly gave out, and she collapsed hard onto the wooden floor. Her hands clawed desperately at her own scalp, as if trying to rip the pain out of her own skull. "It hurts! It ’hurts’!"

The scream was so piercing, so fundamentally filled with agony, that it echoed through the entire courtyard.

Samuel, who had just stepped onto the porch to check on her, froze. The blood drained completely from his face. He kicked the heavy oak doors open with enough force to crack the hinges and threw himself into the room.

"Seera!" he roared, his usual composed, triumphant smirk completely obliterated by pure, unadulterated terror.

He dropped to his knees beside her, sliding across the floorboards. She was thrashing, her skin deathly pale, her fingers digging so ruthlessly into her hair that she was drawing blood from her own scalp. She was suffocating in pain.

"What happened?! Seera? Seera!" Samuel’s voice cracked, sounding completely broken as he desperately grabbed her wrists, trying to pry her hands away before she tore her own skin apart. Her body was rigid, convulsing with violent tremors. "Seera, open your eyes! My lady! GUARDS! MAIDS! GET IN HERE!"

He scooped her trembling, violently spasming body into his arms, pressing her head to his chest, and roared down the hallway with a voice that shook the walls. "GRANDPA! GRANDMA!"

His frantic, throat-tearing shouts instantly mobilized the entire household. The old Marquis and the grandmother, who had just entered their wing, heard the sheer, naked panic in Samuel’s voice and rushed in.

Seeing her invincible, beloved granddaughter convulsing and gasping for air like a dying fish, the grandmother dropped her cane. It clattered against the floor as she rushed to the bed where Samuel had just laid her.

"Seera! Child, what is wrong?!" the grandmother cried out, her hands shaking violently as she cupped the girl’s sweat-drenched, deathly pale face.

"Call the physicians! RIGHT NOW!" the old Marquis bellowed, his murderous aura flaring so violently that the mana in the room actually cracked the glass windows.

Within minutes, the estate’s top physicians poured into the room, their faces slick with terrified sweat. They rushed to the bed, frantically checking her pulse and meridians. But after several agonizing minutes of watching the young lady writhe and choke on her own breath, they stepped back, looking utterly paralyzed. They could see she was enduring unimaginable agony, but they couldn’t find a single physical wound or poison.

Seeing their hesitation, something inside Samuel completely snapped.