The King's Rejected Lady

The Lady In Black

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.