Alora’s POV

As I sat inside the ornate carriage, my mind swirled with the information my mother had imparted about princes.

Both princes had accumulated considerable support from numerous noble houses.

To counter that, I was determined to secure the backing of Liander Duchy and Ronen Duchy.

Unfortunately, they remained neutral, as always.

My last glimmer of hope was the Reinguard family, but dealing with those traditional old geezers proved to be a challenge.

The Reinguards had never seen a female heir in their lineage, and it was painfully clear they held no intentions of supporting a woman as the ruler of Vendal.

Their stubbornness infuriated me.

I couldn’t fathom their archaic mindset, and even when I made an enticing offer to Lysander, he kept his ideals straight.

My proposition was to heal his ailing son, a well-known secret within the Royal family, and yet he had the audacity to reject it.

’An insect again,’

I muttered, swatting away a bothersome flying insect called a butterfly, much like people who get attracted to beautiful things, unaware that even the most beautiful roses have thorns, it must have also got attracted to my fragrance.

The crunch of its wing echoed in the carriage, mirroring my resolve.

Just as I had dispatched that winged nuisance, I would remove the obstacles to my ascent to the throne, including the Reinguards, and particularly Lysander Reinguard.

Exiting the carriage, I maintained my composure, acutely aware of the importance of preserving my reputation, as even a coachman’s words could tarnish it.

Approaching the classroom doors, I couldn’t help but ponder the first step I needed to take to ascend the throne, ’How will you survive now, Zephyr Liander?’

In our first year, Zephyr had distanced himself from me, and I had paid little attention, considering his focus on studies had made him isolated.

However, after witnessing his strength in the match with Kael, I decided to wait patiently for the right moment to approach him, and even if he tried to avoid me, I had several methods to influence someone like him, as it was clear as day.

He would become my first pawn.

Upon entering the classroom, I scanned the room, only to discover a curious sight — Valeriana was seated beside Zephyr.

I felt it was an unexpected change in seating arrangements, as it would have been impossible for Valeriana to sit beside him on her own initiative.

This led me to one conclusion: this time, seating arrangements were decided based on rankings.

A smile bloomed on my face, ’How lucky, prey has fallen into my grasp of its own accord’

I felt that even luck was on my side due to retaining the third position in the ranking, I would sit beside him.

As for the others, I typically did not concern myself with such trivialities; they would be next once I was done with Zephyr.

I greeted Zephyr, but as usual, he didn’t respond and continued to ignore my presence.

My attention shifted when I spotted Danny Reinguard sitting beside Thalia.

I was already frustrated with his family, and after seeing him and knowing he was without mana protection, making him an easy target to turn into a puppet, my mind snapped.

I made my way towards him and ordered him to leave the place and as always, he obeyed my words, ’I really feel guilty doing this, but your father left me no choice’

WHOOSH

I activated my ability, «NeuroGrim» and a minuscule Grim worm materialized, almost invisible to the naked eye, making its way toward Danny.

However, Zephyr’s unexpected firm voice caught me off guard.

"Stop Danny. Alora, don’t assume we’re that close for you to sit here,"

I felt a surge of anger as I heard Zephyr’s words, and his next words only fueled my frustration.

’How dare he,’

He was humiliating me in front of the entire class.

At that moment, all I wanted was to tear him to pieces.

’Just wait, Zephyr Liander. Your life won’t be so easy,’

I was determined to make his life a living hell, and he would suffer until he begged for mercy. 𝘧𝓇ℯℯ𝑤ℯ𝘣𝓃ℴ𝓋𝑒𝑙.𝑐𝘰𝑚

This humiliation would not be forgotten.

.....

Zeph’s POV

I glanced over at Alora, her frustration evident as she took her seat.

In that moment, I couldn’t help but be amused by what must be going on in her mind.

However, I had a plan to set in motion, and I was confident that Thalia would handle Alora’s reaction.

If my understanding of Thalia’s personality was correct, Alora would have a tough time ahead.

But why was I doing this?

The answer was simple: I wanted Alora to fall for me.

I believe that her initial hatred towards me would slowly transform into interest and eventually love.

How would I achieve this?

I didn’t need to do much myself; Thalia would take care of everything.

She had likely already sensed Alora’s ill intent towards me and would target her.

But Alora wasn’t one to back down easily.

Since Thalia possessed intuition, she couldn’t be harmed by Alora directly, so Alora would likely target Thalia’s weakness, which was me.

At least, I hoped so and this was only why, I pissed her off.

As, if Alora came at me on her own accord l, she would be busy trying to use her ability on me and it will prevent me from impressing her cause she would be too preoccupied with that, to see the real me.

Or atleast what I wanted to show her.

So, Now she will after getting crushed by Thalia will treat me as something as bait against Thalia, either try to make me fall in love with her or use force to claim my precious body.

Her mentality was simple, she would do anything to achieve what she wanted and I will just use that weakness of her to my advantage.

But for now, I needed to become a hostage to Alora and enjoy the affections of both girls.

I was excited about the prospect of becoming a patty between those two buns, ’How alluring’

"’ I hope you have learned a lesson to not shake your dick in front of Danny like that, papa, kyu~ ’"

As I heard that pig’s words, I gritted my teeth.

I had instructed him to refer to Diana as "Danny" to avoid accidentally revealing her true identity.

But right now, I wanted to give that shit, a beating for bringing this up right now.

He had been sleeping earlier and had only just woken up, but his words were surprisingly able to enrage me, I accept this, ’ Just wait until, I reach my dormroom,you shit ’

’!?! ’

Suddenly, I felt Valeriana’s gaze on me, accompanied by a frown.

I couldn’t help but wonder what was going on with her.