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"𝐈 𝐒𝐄𝐄..." Victoria stood up, walking towards the desk and shooing the 16 year old boy away. Her fan covered the lower half of the lady's face, so Cyril couldn't tell what she was thinking. Was she mad? scared? ...disappointed? He couldn't bare the thought.
Meanwhile, his sister looked through the paperwork he was in the middle of completing, clicking her tongue at some parts and whistling at others. He felt pride when she finished and looked up at him, nodding in satisfaction.
"I trust you dealt with them cleanly and neatly?" She asked, speaking of her brother and father' deaths with a cold and casual tone. It sounded like she spoke of the weather.
"Y-yes. I was acknowledged as the duke by the imperial family as well."
Victoria nodded again. Truth be told, she had forgotten about the crown prince and his heroine, too focused on her own life and the many funs of it.
"Um...are you sure you don't love the prince anymore?" Cyril spoke up again, hesitantly.
"Ah, him. Well. To be honest, you are much prettier than that boring fool. Liking him was a passing whim. Why would I continue to waste my time, when I can simply get any man I want?" Victoria yawned. "Rather than that, let us drink tea, and you can tell me the full story of what happened these past years."
"Alright. To be honest, I missed you too much when you left, and I just stayed in my room for a while. A week, to be exact. And after that, I started training with Sir Isaac, whom you suggested me too, apparently, because he immediately agreed to teach me swordsmanship. A month later, Leo was named as Eisenberg's successor. No surprise there, although the sneer he gave me when he heard the news was unnecessarily disgusting. Father told me to join you at the academy a year later, and I refused. And then he burned the portrait of my mother, and threatened to kill you if I didn't speak of the abuse the both of them inflicted on me, so I killed them. Both of them."
Victoria narrowed her blue eyes while sipping on her tea cup elegantly. She could tell there were some things that he was hiding, such as what kind of abuse had been inflicted upon him, but she stayed silent about it. Instead, she asked- "I'm certain I saw the beautiful portrait of your mother replacing Leo's mother today....how can that be? You said Albert burned it."
Cyril smiled proudly, unable to refrain from doing so in front of his older sister. "I created a copy, because I expected that man to try. After all, that painting is the only thing I have left of my mother." It would've been an excellent example of cruelty to destroy it.
A cold wind blew in from the open window, making Victoria's hair float around her. "In two days, as I'm sure you are aware, a ball celebrating the crown prince's birthday will be held in the capital. Most of Elacor's highest ranked nobles will be attending, and the Eisenberg's have been invited, again." Victoria grinned wickedly. "While I speak with the old aristocrat fools, I want you to speak with the second prince."
As Cyril frowned in confusion, the female recalled the peculiar ending of "The Rose", which even Lia scoffed at after reading it. The crown prince was overtaken and defeated by the second prince, even with the heroine's help, but through a series of Disney like confrontations, the second prince was moved enough to let them stay alive and live as nobles in a different kingdom.
And the second prince became the king.
So now that Lia was in Victoria's body, she was absolutely thrilled. The one thing Victoria never realized in the novel, was that having the name of Eisenberg, was already a power in itself. She was too blinded by her misery to see it.
"Why the second prince, and not the crown prince?" Cyril asked.
"Because it is the second prince that will lead us to a further rise in status, not the crown idiot."
