I Raised the Fallen Lop-Eared Rabbit into a Yandere 3

Chapter 3: The Rules

The comforting words on the tip of her tongue were forced back down. The moment Adele concealed the gentleness in her eyes, Herte pushed the door open.

He wore a brown formal hat and carried two sheepskin suitcases, clearly dressed for a long journey.

Herte didn’t even knock before entering his own daughter’s room.

A complete lack of boundaries.

“Good morning, my lady.”

Adele glanced at him and nodded without a word.

Herte’s gaze then fell upon Lina.

It was not the look of a father sizing up his daughter.

He was looking at his sacrificial offering, at his path to eternal life.

There wasn’t a shred of pity for his daughter in those bloodshot eyes, only madness and cold indifference.

To him, Lina was not a living person, but an object that could be sacrificed at any time.

Adele stepped in front of Lina, intercepting that sticky, nauseating gaze.

She was tall, and her icy stare, paired with a completely expressionless face, was a silent deterrent in itself.

“From now on, when I am conducting special training for Lina, I hope no one will come in and disturb me.”

Including you.

Adele gave a smile that didn’t reach her eyes. The corners of her lips curved slightly into a polite smile before quickly turning cold again.

This was not a negotiation; it was a notification.

Herte heard the implication in her words. He frowned slightly, but quickly masked the displeasure in his eyes and said with a fawning smile, “Of course. I will inform everyone in the manor. All arrangements will be at your discretion.”

He believed in the Sacred Cult, not Adele. Even though her original self held a high position within the cult, he didn’t take her seriously.

A man on the verge of immortality only wanted to be on equal footing with God.

Having been immersed in the world of business for many years, Herte naturally understood forbearance and pretense. He still gave Adele enough face, employing courtesy before resorting to force. “It’s just that I am also very concerned about her training results.”

Adele’s heart skipped a beat. Every word she said now, if not chosen carefully, could deepen the misunderstanding between herself and Lina.

She paused for a few moments, then said without a change in expression, “Two months from now, on the Sacred Cult’s Monastery Open Day, I will let you see with your own eyes the Lord God’s approval of her.”

Upon hearing this, Lina’s tail trembled slightly, and she buried her head even lower.

Adele noticed her small movement, bit her lip almost imperceptibly, and continued, “If I fail, I’ll pack my bags and leave without taking a single penny.”

Herte knew she was in dire need of money. For her to make such a promise, she must be very confident. He was about eighty percent reassured and said, “Perfect. I have to go away for two months. During this time, I’ll have to trouble you, my lady, to take care of her for me.”

He paused. “Any means are acceptable.”

Lina curled up even tighter.

Adele’s eyelids drooped slightly. She didn’t respond.

Of course, she would take good care of the little rabbit.

Herte was very considerate and closed the door when he left. The room fell silent once more.

Adele tiptoed to the door and listened against the wood for a moment. Only after confirming that the footsteps had faded into the distance did she relax slightly.

She turned to look at Lina, a faint, gentle smile once again blooming in her eyes.

The person who had been kneeling on the carpet finally looked up, her eyes red. “In two months… am I, am I going to be sacrificed?”

She knew what she would go through—being burned by a great fire, then turning into a charred corpse, dying a miserable death for a so-called faith…

She didn’t know if there was a heaven in this world. She only knew that she was in hell, unable to even fight for her life.

The comments began to scroll again.

【She has no ability to resist at all. Even if she’s tied to the altar, she can only whimper and beg for mercy.】

【The thought of her fragile, helpless appearance gets me so excited I could die!】

【I’m honestly feeling a bit physically ill…】

【Person above, you’re brave for saying it. I’ve felt this way the whole time but was afraid of getting flamed, so I didn’t mention it…】

【If you don’t like it, don’t watch. I just want to see the weak being abused and unable to fight back!】

【Lol, the person above isn’t even pretending anymore.】

…

Lina didn’t want to look at the filth anymore and squeezed her eyes shut.

She didn’t want to be sacrificed, but she couldn’t resist her father.

What about escaping?

She wasn’t allowed to leave the manor. Her entire life, she had never seen the world outside the manor walls.

Every servant watched her like a hawk. If she took even half a step out the main gate, she would be caught immediately. Due to a chronic lack of exercise and a diet deficient in meat and other nutrients, she was not good at running. Even standing for too long made her feel dizzy.

Where could she possibly run?

Even if she managed to escape by a fluke, she had never read anything other than the Sacred Cult’s scriptures, which were filled with strange symbols. She knew nothing of astronomy or geography, let alone politics and economics. She couldn’t even make sense of the timeline of Dezhou’s simplest history.

How was a person who had never had a proper education, who was physically weak and ignorant of the world, supposed to survive?

A sense of powerlessness felt like being squeezed between two water-soaked sponges.

Suffocation, despair, pain.

“Lina.” Adele squatted down, shedding her condescending posture in an attempt to meet her gaze at eye level.

Hearing her name, Lina reflexively prepared herself to be bullied and instantly opened her eyes, leaving the pain in their depths completely exposed.

Beneath her glistening pupils was a glaring despair.

The ice on Adele’s face also began to crack, inch by inch. A person who had always been so expressionless showed blatant worry for the first time.

Lina was stunned.

Why was she being met not with a torrent of abuse, but with a pair of burning eyes?

If this was just an act, then the new instructor was far too talented.

Adele, of course, was unaware of the convoluted thoughts in the mind of the person before her. Her own brain was spinning so fast it was about to smoke.

How do I get Lina out of here?

Just take her and run?

No, Lina’s registration papers are still in her father’s hands. Without them, she’s an unregistered person. If Herte reports her, she’ll be wanted throughout Dezhou. Even if she isn’t caught, she’ll have to live like a rat in a sewer.

Use my noble privilege to force Herte to let her go?

That won’t work either. The original Adele was despised by her family. Although the secrets of the nobility are unknown to the lower classes, she really is a noble in name only, completely without any family protection…

This is terrible.

Adele mentally “cursed” the original author once again.

She hadn’t read the first seventeen chapters carefully, but she remembered that there was a powerful princess in this world who intended to usurp the throne. Although, given the original author’s style, it was unlikely a woman would be allowed to hold power, if she herself could transmigrate into the book, anything was possible.

The smarter move now was to gamble on winning this princess’s favor.

If it worked, she would gain the protection of the royal family, and crushing a merchant would be easy. If it failed, she would resort to her last-ditch plan and run away with Lina.

Even if they had to wander to the ends of the earth, she would absolutely not let this little rabbit be burned alive!

“Lina, if you don’t want to become a sacrificial offering, you must listen to me. In two months, it will be the triennial Monastery Open Day. Princess Huaguang will come on behalf of the royal family to select nuns to enter the palace. You must win her favor.”

“Princess Huaguang? A princess?” Confusion flickered in Lina’s tear-misted eyes. “Shouldn’t it be a prince, or some noble man?”

Adele didn’t answer her immediately.

Lina vaguely sensed she had said the wrong thing and habitually lowered her head to apologize. “I’m sorry, Teacher, I was wrong…”

She didn’t know where she had gone wrong. All her life, she had been forced to read the doctrines of the Sacred Cult, which repeatedly emphasized the incompetence of women and the greatness of men. Women were born to revolve around men, they should not be defiant, they should be completely submissive.

“Look up,” Adele said sternly. “Look at me.”

Obeying commands was already ingrained in Lina’s bones. Adele’s severe face instantly awakened the fear of wolves in her genes, and her two limp ears shot straight up.

Like she was raising her hands in surrender.

Lina: !

Adele: ?

“I’m sorry! I’ll make them go limp right away!” But Lina’s ears weren’t listening to her.

Seeing the tips of her ears flush with blood, Adele worried that keeping them erect for too long would hurt. She had just reached out a hand to help when Lina abruptly curled into a ball.

“I was wrong!”

Adele froze in place. Do I look that terrifying?

She rubbed her chin. This is a human face…

The little white wolf inside Adele’s heart was pouting so hard its lips could touch the sky.

The expected pain never came. Lina cautiously peeked out with one eye to observe Adele’s expression.

Other than confusion and worry, she saw nothing else.

Could it be that Teacher Wolf doesn’t hate fluffy ears?

If she doesn’t hate them, she probably won’t cut them off…

Lina carefully rubbed her head against Adele’s calf. “Teacher, please don’t be angry with me.”

Such humble ingratiation made Adele’s heart clench. She subconsciously grabbed the scruff of the little rabbit’s neck and pulled her up. “Are you a dog?”

The startled girl raised her ears in surrender again and mumbled, “…I’m not a dog. I’m a rabbit.”

Adele let her go and sighed internally.

This was going to be a long and arduous road.

It would be impossible to change this rabbit ball’s stereotype of her role in a short amount of time.

Since that was the case, she might as well be a good teacher for now and use this identity to first correct some of her erroneous ideas…

Adele thought for a moment, then truly put on the air of a teacher and said, “Remember my rules.”

Lina prepared herself. It would be nothing more than kneeling anytime, anywhere to show piety and obedience, not being allowed to eat meat, having to stay clean at all times, and having to wrap herself up tightly when leaving the room, not showing an inch of skin except for her face…

“First, you are not allowed to kneel casually.”

Lina froze.

Adele ignored her stunned silence and continued, “Second, your three meals a day will also be arranged by me. Meat, eggs, milk, vegetables, and fruits—you must eat all of them.”

She walked to the wardrobe and pulled the doors open.

Inside, neatly folded and categorized, were white headscarves symbolizing purity, black robes with wide sleeves demonstrating asceticism, and belts implying the “restraint of desire.”

There were no vibrant colors, no fashionable styles, only the suppression of human nature.

At Lina’s age, some girls liked exquisite dresses, others preferred capable trousers, but the little rabbit had been completely stripped of even the right to have a preference.

“I will have someone come and make new clothes for you, and I will also teach you what to wear for what occasion.”

Lina stood there in a daze, her two ears twisted together.

She was very confused.

This instructor was too different.

Adele moved to the bookshelf. She took down a copy of The Mystery of Eternal Life, tore it in half, and threw it directly into the trash can.

“I will also have the books on these shelves replaced. Belief is a matter of freedom. When you grow up, you can decide for yourself what you want to believe in.”

Lina’s expression changed several times. An instructor just like Adele had come before.

She had said these things at the beginning, too. But later, when Lina had let her guard down, she had tricked her into bed.

Fortunately, Herte had happened to pass by, and that was the only reason she had been saved.

Of course, Herte hadn’t acted out of a father’s protection for his daughter, but merely because a sacrificial offering had to remain complete and pure.

The forbidden fruit in the Garden of Eden—if a man ate it, he would be congratulated; if a woman ate it, she would be sentenced to death by a thousand cuts.

Lina was so used to being hurt that the small flame that had just ignited in her slightly warming heart was completely extinguished by the cold water of memory.

If one has never felt warmth, the bone-chilling cold is not so hard to bear.

The light in her eyes gradually dimmed.

It’s better not to have hope…

Lina bent her knees and knelt on the ground again. With trembling fingertips, she slowly lowered her head. “Teacher, you don’t have to test me… I really will be very good, very, very good…”