CROWN PRINCE YEI LIN butted in and handed her an elegant-looking box. "But it did not mean that you can just make us do some errands like your servants." Opening it for her, Tori glanced at the dress that she ordered.

Setting the teacup down, Tori glanced slyly at the grumpy prince. "Aren't you, though? My servant, I mean."

Tori's smiling face looked at the two princes challengingly. The latter could not answer so they only took the tea and sipped it quietly, which made Rowan and Prince Corean shook their heads.

Exactly, now I need to get ready. After all, a dress is a woman's armor.

"Then I'll have to change my dress. Please call Lily on your way out. I need her to assist me with this."

THE SHOCKED face of the royal chancellor was something that Tori would remember in her life.

This man is the Marquess of the House of Florentia from the noble faction. His loyalty to the first prince is astounding and I want to destroy it. There's a no bigger prize than to destroy a loyal man's heart.

Tori could not help but smile wickedly. An escort to a noble trial meant that they were supporting the party they were with. Sabina, on the other hand, was escorted by the noble faction. Everyone expected no one would escort her.

And part of those expecting me to crumble is this man before me.

Her sweet smile greeted the pale Marquess, especially when he realized what Tori was wearing. "L-Lady Victoria Rozenreff."

She was wearing the dress she asked Lily to ask from Lady M. It was the replica of the dress that the Duchess of Rozenreff Duchy wore during her funeral. It was a dress picked by the Duke for his beloved wife's funeral. Tori was now wearing a black Victorian-style dress embroidered with red flowers like rose and spider lilies. Her rubies that adorned her ears and the thin black veil that she was wearing covered her neck. In the Eckrett Empire's noble customs of old, they said that noble ladies wore black veils during funerals.

Before the royal chancellor opened the door to announce her arrival with her escorts, he turned to her again with an anxious face. "Lady Victoria, you do know what black veils mean, don't you? It is something that is not worn during a noble trial."

Not minding what he said, Tori walked with elegance at her every step as she welcomed the sudden burst of sunlight when she opened the door wherein hundreds of nobles and aristocrats waited for her arrival. But before she could get inside completely, she turned to the royal chancellor.

"I know what you are saying, Marquess Florentia. But I am not attending a noble trial. I am attending a prelude to a funeral."

With her head held high, even when her confident red eyes could not be seen, Tori radiated the aura that screamed to those around her that she would not be the one who was going to die today.

Though late, the chancellor still announced her arrival. "Announcing the arrival of Lady Victoria Rozenreff of the Ducal House of Rozenreff! Escorted by the second star of Eckrett Empire Prince Corean Shuia Eckrett; Lord Rowan Castaña, the official heir apparent of Castaña Duchy; Crown Prince Allistair Damon Monakre of the Kingdom of Monakre; and Crown Prince Yei Lin of the Ming Country."

The shocked looks of those from the crowd, especially the nobles and Tori's beloved family, were something that made the aristocratic faction look so smug.

Marquess Zoliel's disbelief as he watched the crown prince of Ming country escort Tori like her personal knight made him realize why he lost the deal with the crown prince.

The King who was sitting above them all and was sitting in between the kings of Monakre Kingdom and Ming Country already knew that the whole noble trial was a farce just to corner the noble faction and announced to high society the growing power of the aristocratic faction. Glancing at the smiling faces of the two kings to whom King Elphaim Eckrett was offering a deal, he knew his hands were tied to help the noble faction.

Sabina, who was sitting in front of the new arrivals, was busy maintaining her composure. She was not expecting Victoria to enter the courtroom while looking so confident. Duchess Castaña, who was smiling at her grasped her clenching hands. "A criminal will always be a criminal no matter who's her escort."

"But why is the heir apparent of Castaña Dukedom on her side?" Gritting her teeth behind her calm smile, Sabina wanted to lash out. The Duchess who only had a daughter understood why the illegitimate child would inherit the Duchy, especially since the Duchy of Castaña was a patriarchal family.

"Isn't he familiar to you, Lady Sabina? He's the knight that Lady Victoria saved from the slums a year ago."

"It should have been me who helped him. Why is everything that she does always irritates me?" Sabina half-whispered to the Duchess as she was careful not to let her father hear the conversation.

Duke Luwen Rozenreff was just silent as his daughter entered the courtroom with her head held high as if she was telling him she would win the trial. As a father, he wanted Tori to win the trial. She's the product of love from his beloved wife, but seeing the exact dress that his wife wore during the heart-wrenching funeral. The Duke felt like he was losing her daughter today too, though he did not want to acknowledge the fact that the second prince was escorting Victoria.

The entire time in which Tori was sitting in front of her family, which was six meters apart from her seat, she was just looking in their direction beneath the black veil.

How does it feel, Father? Are you seeing your beloved wife again? This moment will condemn you until the moment that you will die. Never forget the daughter whom you abandoned. Just like I said, I will return what you all did to the original Victoria.

And I always walk my talk and walk the walk so witness carefully as I cut the legs that supported your beloved daughter, father dearest.

"WHY IS she wearing a veil?"

"Is that the rumored lost prince? No wonder that the King of Monakre Kingdom finally stepped foot in the empire."

"Why is the second prince sitting at Lady Victoria's table?"

"Did she do it? Last time she was the one who was targeted, right?"

"Maybe it was all a farce. She's too far from the late Duchess."

Ha! Of course, I am different from the late Duchess. I was once named Talia, who ruled Saint Martin's High School, and I've fought social norms since I entered high school.

Lifting her veil, Tori stood up as King Elphaim Eckrett raised his hand to silence the murmurs that engulfed the courtroom. This also served as a signal to summon the accused to the center where she would defend her case.

She looked like a bride in black, no, with her red eyes she looked like a bride from hell.

How cliché.

The King also nodded to another side which made Sabina rose from her seat as the victim of this trial.

Victim, my ass.

Tori stood at the center of a hundred judging eyes. Her eyes glanced at the two kings for a split second, which did not go unnoticed by King Elphaim himself. The latter already knew that Victoria Rozenreff was the new member of the aristocratic faction.

Sabina, on the other hand, stood from her seat and faced the king with her anxious face. Sabina hunched her shoulders as she clutched her handkerchief to her chest. Her aura was of a lady being scorned by an evil witch – a portrait that Sabina had mastered all this time for this fateful day to garner the sympathy of the king.

You look like a female lead in this angle, dear sister.

"Lady Sabina Rozenreff and Lady Victoria Rozenreff, perform the oath of honestly."

What a load of bullshit.

The two ladies spoke the oath that every person who stood before the noble trial uttered. They placed their right hand to where their hearts laid and spoke at the same time.

"I, Victoria Rozenreff, first of my name and the eldest daughter of the House Rozenreff, pledge my noble name to only say the truth in the name of the Goddess Gaia and the Empire's Blessed Sun, King Elphaim Eckrett."

"I, Sabina Rozenreff, first of my name and the second daughter of the House Rozenreff, pledge my noble name to only say the truth in the name of the Goddess Gaia and the Empire's Blessed Sun, King Elphaim Eckrett."

After uttering her oath, Sabina sat again while Tori remained standing at the very center of the courtroom. "To present the evidence against the accused, I call the Marquess Zoliel to the center."