Severin was a selfish man. The harshness of his life since childhood taught him to think only of himself. Nothing mattered but his survival.
Ivan was right—Severin did project himself onto Isolde. There was nothing physically appealing about her in Severin's eyes, except for her face, which resembled Renata's. That was what piqued his curiosity and made him dig into Isolde's background.
If Severin hadn't discovered that Isolde's past bore striking similarities to his own, he wouldn't have hesitated to kill her. To hell with Liraine's threats of suicide—Severin didn't give a damn whether Liraine was breathing or not.
Severin always saw the darkness in people. There's a saying that only a monster can recognize another monster. That's exactly how Severin found his subordinates—people with the potential to become the steps he'd climb to get what he wanted.
