Reborn in the Enemy's Embrace

Joel followed Carol into her room, looking visibly upset.

He said, "Have you forgotten what you promised me? Aren’t we supposed to focus on fighting Genome Society now? What’s the point of provoking Dexter and Sophia?"

She snorted as she sat on the couch. "I’m just playing with them."

Joel scoffed.

"Men are all the same to me." Carol narrowed her eyes in contempt. "But he’s just different. People are drawn to things that are different because they’re rare, aren’t they?*

She wanted Dexter because he was a rare gem-and she would destroy him if she couldn’t have him.

"You’re truly mad!" Joel found Carol crazy, but in reality, her madness had long shown its signs.

Back when they first arrived at the orphanage, she wasn’t ’crazy’ just yet. She was only introverted and preferred to keep to herself. As she was easy to push around, the children in the orphanage took her as an easy target and bullied her.

Simeon couldn’t protect Carol as he was still very young back then. As the older sibling, she had to do everything she could to protect him despite also being a child herself.

The wickedness of human nature was fully on display in that sinful orphanage.

Dexter hadn’t arrived in the orphanage yet that year. It was also the darkest year for both Carol and Simeon.

"I have some cake with me, Carol. I’m not letting the naughty kids have it-only you."

That seemingly kind director lured her into a room and opened the door to a basement that had never been seen before.

Carol was still a young girl who knew nothing back then.

She only knew that after enduring the director’s bullying, she got to eat yummy cakes and even bring some back for Simeon.

From that day onward, both of them received "special treatment" from the director. He would give her extra food, let them have the nicer clothes first, and even give her snacks. The special treatment they received invoked jealousy from the other children from the orphanage.

How mean could children be? Their cruelty was something unimaginable to adults. They had no ethical boundaries-only pure malice.

They would strip Carol of her new clothes and burn her body with hot water. They would prick her back with needles, take away her snacks, and destroy her toys.

They would even force Simeon to eat disgusting things just to provoke her.

Gradually, Carol went "mad" from their torments. She pretended to be crazy just to survive.

Her craziness became a laughingstock to others, but at the same time, the others lost interest just because she no longer had any reaction to all her bullying. Carol was just a mentally disabled dimwit to others.

When the director saw that she had become mentally disabled, he started to bully and violate her even more recklessly. That was because he believed that a mentally disabled person like her wouldn’t rat him out.

All of them thought that nothing would happen if they bullied a dimwit, but they were all wrong. Simeon found himself a guardian angel the very year Dexter showed up. While Carol taught him to endure in order to survive, Dexter taught him to fight back.

Dexter badly beat up a boy who had bullied him that same year. From then on, everyone feared the coldness in his eyes.

Simeon saw hope in Dexter. He realized that only by becoming strong himself could he rise above others.

Everyone had thought that it was the orphanage’s tradition for a newcomer to be bullied. But Simeon knew well that Carol was the one pulling the strings.

No one even suspected her as she secretly stirred the pot in the background, manipulating those arrogant bullies

That was because no one would notice a mentally impacted person like her was actually the manipulator behind the bullying.

From a young age, Carol noticed that the bullies would first single out the victim before starting to torment and bully them. And they would switch to a new target whenever they lost interest in bullying the victim.

Everyone thought that the next victim was picked at random, but in reality, Carol was manipulating everything. It was as if she was playing a meaningful game by manipulating the bullies to pick at the next victim.

"Carol, you were the one who put Jordan’s pendant in Harold’s box on purpose, right?" It was until one day that Carol’s secret was found out by Simeon

Yet, she continued to play dumb, even in front of him.

"You were the one who made Harold persuade the others to bully Dexter, who was new back then, right?" Simeon asked angrily, looking at her.

Carol only smiled at him strangely. "Harold is now a prey. "

The victim of group bullying was referred to as a prey.

She said, "If he doesn’t want to be a victim, he has to look for the next one with the others."

Just like a relentless cycle, where one life was exchanged with another.

As such, the victim gradually turned into the perpetrator, and the perpetrator would turn into the next victim. Carol was happily engrossed in her dark games, playing the fool in the orphanage as she gradually took her revenge on everyone. But Dexter’s appearance broke her rules and "system".

He was a loner by nature, and his superior genes made him different from others even at the age of eight. He was a boy of few words, yet he acted like a lunatic. 𝑓𝘳𝘦𝑒𝑤𝑒𝘣𝘯ℴ𝘷𝘦𝓁.𝑐𝑜𝑚

Dexter never bothered anyone as long as they never bothered him, but if someone were to provoke him, he never left them unscathed. Carol’s game system was broken by him just like that.

Just like Simeon, she was attracted by the shocking and rare existence of someone like Dexter.

Back then, she started thinking that someone like him should belong to her. As such, she continued to play dumb and weak, hiding behind Dexter together with Simeon. She enjoyed Dexter’s ’protection".

Just like what he had said, the strong had to protect the weak-and he would protect both of them.

Carol gradually got hooked on the fun of being protected. It was far more interesting than her previous dark games. Since then, she started to orchestrate for the others to bully her and Simeon. They would then hide behind Dexter.

It was as if she was addicted to seeing how he never lost the light in his eyes despite being beaten and battered. He was seemingly unbeatable.

Carol continued to push things further, letting the others provoke Dexter continuously, but he would only come out stronger every time.

She was beyond excited and enraptured by him. She did not care if he was tormented by her manipulation She was obsessed with fulfilling her own desires while manipulating everyone from the shadows.

However, another variant appeared soon after.

A little girl in a red dress came to the orphanage with her parents for a charity event. It was Sophia.

Dexter was attracted to her the first time he laid his eyes on her. It was a deathly connection originating from their genes.

Carol watched Dexter as he watched Sophia.

From that moment, Carol knew that that little girl named Sophia would turn out to be her greatest enemy in the future.