I grit my teeth, the memory of my brother’s incompetence stinging like a fresh wound.
*In my past life, that fool couldn't even protect the land he was given. He handed it right over to the Marquis of Arguin!*
Neither the Empress nor Franz had known that the eastern estates sat atop a massive diamond mine. They had been dazzled when the Marquis offered them ten times the market price, not realizing the territory was worth billions in raw gems. Watching the Marquis grow fat on the wealth that should have been mine had been a nauseating experience.
Fortunately, I had no intention of repeating history.
“I assume my 'proud little brother' has caused another scandal?” I said, my voice cool and mocking. “Let me guess. Did he lose a fortune at the gambling tables? Or did he seduce the daughter of another powerful house with more false promises of making her the Crown Princess?”
“Shut up!” the Empress shrieked. “As his elder sister, you should be covering for your brother’s mistakes, not criticizing him!”
Franz was eighteen years old—a man grown by the laws of the Empire. Yet the Empress spoke of him as if he were still a clumsy child. He had been raised to be an idiot, coddled until he believed the world was his for the taking.
Before my reset, Franz’s reign had been a nightmare. He raised taxes for his own pleasure and slaughtered anyone who dared to revolt. He spent his nights seducing noblewomen of every rank, leaving a trail of ruined reputations in his wake. It was always the Marquis of Arguin who stepped in to clean up the mess.
In the end, it was Franz’s hopelessness that drove my mother to rely on the Marquis. But the Marquis, a man who understood power better than any of them, eventually joined the rebels. He sold the Empress and the Emperor out to save his own skin.
*If you had thought of me as a daughter even once,* I thought, looking at the woman before me, *perhaps I would have cared enough to warn you. But you only remember I exist when you need something.*
I was done being her tool.
“Why should I be the one to fix his mistakes?” I asked. “I fail to see how his lack of self-control is my responsibility.”
“He is your brother! He is your family!”
I offered a sharp, cynical laugh. “Have I ever truly been a part of your family?”
The words felt like a weight lifting from my chest. For years, I had suppressed my desire for her love. I had begged for a scrap of affection, wanting to be seen as her child. But looking at her now, I realized the girl who had groveled for her favor was dead.
The Empress’s mask of elegance shattered. “You dare say I am not your mother? You ungrateful creature!”
“Your Majesty was the one who said a daughter is a stranger once she marries,” I replied. “And as a stranger, I find I have more compassion for Count Gofried’s daughter—whose life Franz has utterly ruined—than I do for my brother.”
“You... you filth...!”
The Empress’s face turned a sickly white, her eyes bulging with rage. She raised her hand to strike me again.
*Always the same,* I thought. *You have no words, so you resort to violence.*
I didn't flinch. I simply stared at her, my voice low and steady. “Instead of striking me, shouldn't you be asking how I know all this?”
“What?”
“The Empress’s informants are thorough, yet even they haven't reported that Franz has been dipping into our father’s personal treasury to pay off his gambling debts. Nor have they mentioned his recent activities in the city’s most disreputable districts.”
The Empress’s hand froze. The anger in her eyes was replaced by a cold, paralyzing fear.
“You...!”
I leaned in, my voice a whisper in her ear. “Don't worry. I’ll keep his little 'hobby' a secret. I won't tell the Emperor that his only son has become a degenerate gambler who steals from his own father.”
I straightened up, my gaze locking onto hers. “But that silence comes at a price. You will never lay a hand on me again, and you will fulfill a request of my own.”
In any other situation, she would have had me dragged to the floor by my hair. But she knew the stakes. Franz was the only legitimate son, but our father was not a man of sentiment. If he found out his heir was a thief and a degenerate, he would discard him without a second thought.
And there were alternatives. Specifically **Reinhardt**, the son of Archduke Tarrant. He was competent, humble, and already favored by the nobility. If Franz fell, Reinhardt was waiting in the wings to take his place.
The Empress gritted her teeth, the silence in the room stretching until it became deafening.
“What do you want?” she finally hissed.
A wave of satisfaction washed over me. For the first time in my life, I had won.
“I want your jade mine,” I said.
The Empress looked surprised. Her family had been in the jewelry trade for generations, and her father, the previous Marquis of Arguin, had gifted her a massive jade mine. It was the second largest in the Empire, after the Brant mines. But the Empress had always considered it a useless asset; jade was common and its value had been stagnant for decades.
“That’s it?” she asked, her voice full of suspicion. “You’ll trade your silence for a pile of common stones?”
“Yes. That’s my price.”
She looked at me as if I were an idiot, but she didn't hesitate. She pulled the bell cord and summoned her maid. “Bring paper, pen, and the seal.”
A few minutes later, the contract was signed and the mine was mine. I watched as she pressed her seal into the wax, feeling a surge of triumph. This mine, which she considered trash, would soon be the foundation of my fortune.
“You have your mine,” the Empress said, her voice dripping with venom. “Now get out of my sight. I will never forget the vulgarity you’ve shown today. Don't forget that the only reason I’ve dealt with you is for the sake of your brother.”
I tucked the contract into my bodice, my expression dry. “That’s fine by me.”
Her eyebrows twitched, but she held her temper, likely fearing my threat. But she couldn't resist one final parting shot.
“You are a mean, useless girl. I should never have given birth to you.”
In the past, those words would have been a dagger to my heart. I would have spent weeks weeping over them. But now, I felt nothing but a dull, distant pity.
*I always regretted being your daughter,* I thought.
I remembered the first time I held Damian. I remembered the overwhelming urge to protect him, to love him regardless of whether he was a boy or a girl. Everything about him was beautiful to me, a life I would have sacrificed my own to save.
*I know now,* I thought, looking at the Empress. *You don't even deserve the title of mother.*
I met her gaze one last time, my voice devoid of emotion. “I’ve spent my life trying to be the daughter you wanted. I’m done. From this moment on, you are nothing to me but the Empress of this Empire.”
Her face contorted as I turned and walked out of the room, leaving her alone in her gilded palace.