THE LOOMING look of the members of the aristocratic faction did not hold a candle compared to Crown Prince Lei Yin's mocking stare. Tori did not know if she would feel grateful to him or what. Sipping the tea that she asked, Tori was waiting for Prince Corean's arrival together with Lady M. While doing so, the thick tension enveloped her when the old geezers had a lot to say to her.

Perhaps the news about the Jewel Eyes of Rhea and Queen Aurina being my sponsor has reached them already. Oh, I bet it did.

"A lovely day, isn't it?" Tori broke the silence together with the crashing of the thunder and the sudden poor of heavy rain outside the windowpanes.

Lord Wolfgang answered her stoically. "Why does the heir apparent of the Rozenreff Duchy playing tea party here when your daddy dearest is plotting against Lord Tofera?"

So they already figured it out? Or the Duke does not have any reason to hide it just to show dominance? So daddy dearest is playing the alpha, huh?

Glancing at Lord Tofera, who's lost in his thoughts, Tori smiled sweetly at Lord Wolfgang. "So this is the meeting all about, I guess. Well, regarding my daddy dearest. A kitten can't give birth to a beast after all. He's a wolf, and he's working with his pack strategically. How about we tossed the bullshit and help each other, Lord Wolfgang? Help me, help you."

"Lady Tori is right. We can't fight among ourselves. Let's take the opportunity that the beast's cub is with us." Lord Helisos butted in before Lord Wolfgang made the situation worse, which Tori did not mind at all.

Lady M's familiar black heels stepped foot inside the secret room with Prince Corean in tow who's wearing a baggy coat to hide his identity. Meeting him a few days after that certain event almost made Tori feel a bit conscious. His nipping teeth like showing ownership always remind her that she's a woman inside a fourteen-year-old body. This sucks.

"Blessings to the Empire's star, Prince Corean." The members of the aristocratic faction showed their respect to the second prince, who greeted them warmly like always. His smiling face regarded her like usual which made Tori breathe in relief.

"It's good to see you, Lady Tori. I never saw you during school days. Something always holed you up inside your room or the library." He took her right hand gently and lightly kissed it, so opposite to the way he treated her the last time they saw each other.

"Learning becomes a chore for someone like me if I wanted to impress my father. You know what I mean, your highness." Tori simply took her hand away from him. I'm not poking him again. I don't have that certain powder anymore.

With all of them sitting at the round table, Lord Tofera started the agendum. "We got to do something with the noble faction's monopoly to the Oolong Tea."

"First, who started the trend with Oolong Tea?" Prince Corean butted in while looking around them. He got the aura of an approachable leader with a no-bullshit attitude.

Lord Helisos answered the second prince immediately, "The Duchess of Castaña Dukedom used this tea during Lady Sabina's birthday."

So, you knew about this plan huh Sabina and daddy dearest purposely left me behind. After all the things I pulled off, you're still the favored one.

All eyes glanced at her, but no one uttered a single word out of respect. Everyone was thinking the same thing as Tori. She smiled sweetly at them like her position of being the future heir of the Duchy was not threatened at all because, for her, it never did.

"So, how can we stop this? They are aiming for our trading companies, especially Lord Tofera." Lord Sozeni asked the majority.

"There's only one way to outsmart them. We must get that monopoly no matter what," Lord Wolfgang strongly answered.

"Then let us gain the favor of the ambassadors from Ming country," Lady M suggested, to which Prince Corean butted in calmly.

"The ambassadors do not have this type of power. The monopoly is not just here in the Eckrett Empire but in other countries too. And the noble faction is gaining wealth exponentially as we speak," Prince Corean's serious yet calm voice caused some unwanted shivers in Tori.

"His highness is right. It's not the ambassadors. It is Crown Prince Yei Lin from the Ming country and also Prince Lauren's close friend." Not as close as Allistair, though.

All heads snapped towards her but before questions rain, Lady M beat them to it. "I got a déjà vu just now."

Prince Corean's grinning face reminded Tori of the time when she also offered Lady M and the second prince a deal that led them all here.

Ah, such a nostalgic feeling.

Sliding the parchment that Tori was hiding in the breast pocket of her coat onto the table, she smiled wickedly at Lord Tofera. "I got a deal for you, Lord Tofera. Right here is the contract that Prince Yei Lin gave up on me as he handed the Oolong tea monopoly... to me. In exchange, I want two things."

"Yup, déjà vu it is." Lady M smirked at Tori, to which the latter replied with a sickly sweet smile.

Reading the contract carefully, when every lord learned of the authentication of the said contract, Lord Tofera asked her with wariness. "What do you want, Lady Victoria?"

"Simple. First, I only want a ten percent profit share from Oolong Tea. And the second one, I want you to get a prisoner for me. He's about to be executed this evening at the plaza."

"The first one is good as done, but the second one is really hard to pull off."

Tori knew what Lord Tofera said that's why she's making him do it for her.

"As we speak, I am becoming filthy rich exponentially while you are the opposite, Lord Tofera." Tori's wicked smile was on full display, telling everyone that the deal would be hers any minute now.

"You got yourself a deal, Lady Victoria."

No one dared to ask why she got the contract, but it was clear to them that Lady Victoria Rozenreff was someone whom they should not be messing with. For them, she's a beast that would change the tides of everyone's fate. What they did not know was how correct they were.

BENEATH THE glamorous mansion of Lord Tofera laid a dungeon. The primary purpose of this place was to keep the merchants who made a fool out of Lord Tofera's trading company. But today, a day after their secret meeting, this well-kept dungeon would serve as their meeting place to deliver the cargo.

Lord Tofera bribed the noble judges to cancel the execution of Allistair. And since the latter was not a known gentleman from any Houses, he was treated as a slave for a trade. A commoner's execution was not as celebrated as a noble's execution. Hanging commoners or heads rolling from the common folk's populace was treated like a normal thing, unlike if the nobles were the ones standing to be judged, it would be treated as a festival.

This day being the last before classes start again for Tori's second week, she told the Rozenreff Duchy that she would visit the queen's palace as she was Tori's sponsor. Tori usually left Lily in the estate to act as her eyes and ears in her stead.

Tori's disruption of the noble faction's plan immediately resulted in a summon for a secret meeting that was held at Duke Castaña's estate. Sabina was equally busy as she was busy being tutored by the Duchess to be a proper lady, but Tori knew that it was only a pretext that was hiding the fact that Sabina was invited to the secret meeting. According to Lily, Sabina often visited the Duke's office when all the handmaidens returned to their quarters.

Perhaps the plot's turning point wherein the female lead Sabina met the male lead at the banquet by fate that happened in episode 1 of the Thorny Crown Series was all a farce that fooled the viewers. Judging that the events now followed the plot of the series, then Sabina and Lauren's supposedly fated meeting must be the strategy of the noble faction. To think that they also targeted Victoria to strengthen the support of the masses for Sabina made me recoil with disdain.

Just you wait, father. After all, we have to save the best for the last.

"How's my cargo, Brenan?" The sound of Tori's footsteps with Rowan in tow resounded in the narrow hallway of the dungeon. The Tofera House butler, Brenan, led them to the lowest part of the dungeon where Lord Tofera was waiting with her precious cargo.

"I delivered the cargo safe and sound just as you wished, my lady." The butler answered respectfully even when he did not look back at her as he was making sure that the steps they were taking were well-lighted from the lamp he was carrying.

Tori's steps were calculated to avoid falling over, though Rowan was on high alert every time she took a step down as if she would trip over soon.

Good. I need him clean if I'll own him. I don't like dirty pets. I just hate dirtying my hands when Lily spent hours trimming my nails quite gracefully.

When they arrived, an open cell where the House of Tofera's knights were loitered welcomed them three. At the center was Lord Tofera, holding the leash that connected to the collar of a kneeling Allistair before the old lord.