"Grrraaagghh.....!!!" Trash screamed as his arm bones shattered. Sweat dripped from his forehead and he clenched his now limp arm. Whenever he tried to move it, a cracking sound came and a spike of pain overwhelmed him making his breathing ragged.

"Hiiekkk...!!" The sight made Grant cower in fear as he took a step back. He turned to look at Selena who did not seem bothered by the sight even a little bit.

"She... monster..." Grant mumbled under his breath but did not say it out loud in fear of attracting Selena's wrath. However, somehow it seems she still heard it as she turned her attention towards Grant that made him almost wet himself.

"Do you think I am being excessive?" She asked calmly.

"I-I..." Grant was too terrified to reply.

To that Selena calmly turned her gaze to the writhing Trash in front of her and said,

"He comes into my home, threatens me to forcefully accept an unfair deal, and blackmails me with my brother's life when I refuse. To be frank, I feel like I am not being excessive enough..."

"YOU ARE COURTING DEATH...!!" Trash bellowed as he got up on his feet with extreme difficulty. He then removed his glove and showed the communication ring.

"Do you know what this is?! With this ring, I can send messages to long distances. Right now, I sent a message to my men to cripple your brother. Kneel down and apologize to me right now otherwise, I am not responsible if the boy dies...!!"

Guard Rhys tensed up at that. He did not expect the goon to have such an artifact. He turned his attention towards Selena only to see her nonchalantly looking back at him.

"You heard the man, he wants to kneel down and apologize to me. Help him with that, will you?"

Guard Rhys froze for a second but realized that Selena probably had a plan so he did what was told.

"Wait, What? I was saying you should----" WHAM...!! A heavy kick landed on Trash's stomach again and he jumped slightly in the air due to the force of the impact. He crashed on the ground and knelt out of sheer pain.

'Does this girl have a hearing problem? I said you need to bow before me. When the hell did we change roles?' Trash struggled as he looked at Selena. The latter was still expressionless as ever. He suddenly had a thought.

'It can't be... Does she want her brother to be crippled? But why... unless... she wants to become the sole heiress to the manor. Damn it, I completely misread the situation. She's using me to take care of the competition. This woman is more cold-hearted than I thought. No, this won't do, if this continued, I will lose my life here and the girl will be crowned a hero for killing her brother's assailant.'

"Lady Selena... urk... my name is... Urak Blade, I am the leader of the Black Roots underground organization. If you kill me, my entire organization will come after you. Are you prepared for such a retaliation?"

Urak saw Selena's eyes narrow at that. However, her expressions immediately calmed down as if someone told her something reassuring.

"Urak, is it? Don't worry, I am not going to kill you..." Selena replied.

"That's good. You are smarter than I----"

"After all, why should I kill you when I can simply capture and hand you over to the Royal Family? I think there must a pretty good reward since you said it yourself that you are a wanted criminal."

Urak froze. He did not consider this possibility at all. But frankly, it was not his mistake. He honestly did not expect a 16-year-old girl to corner him with an old man whose fighting prowess was leagues above him. He really wanted to strangle his people who worked in the information network.

"Rhys, I can't be bothered about him anymore. Could you take him out and deal with him? Make sure to tell the Royal Guards everything that happened here." Selena commanded Rhys.

"But.. my lady.. what about him?" Rhys asked as he glanced at Grant which made him shiver.

"It's okay, go. I can handle him." Selena responded.

"YOU BITCH...!! JUST YOU WAIT...!! I JUST ORDERED ALL MY MEN TO ATTACK YOUR MANOR AND ITS PEOPLE... HA HA HA...!! DO YOU THINK A MERE MARQUIS STANDS A CHANCE AGAINST MY---- ARRGHHHHH....!!" Urak was cut off mid-sentence as a roundhouse kick to the face threw him to a wall like a football where he crashed and fell into a slump as he fainted.

After which, Rhys grabbed Urak by his hair and dragged him out of the room leaving only Selena and Grant present in it.

Selena "..."

Grant "I-I..."

Selena did not speak, instead, she finally kept the cup down and flicked her wrist. A fireplace poker somehow came out from nowhere. Grant stumbled back in shock.

'Where did that thing come from? Did she strap it to her leg or something? What's she planning to do with it?' a thousand thoughts ran through Grant's head as he tried to make sense of the situation. But his thoughts were interjected by Selena.

"Do you know what this is?" she asked.

"E-Eh? I..." Grant didn't know how to respond, but before he could, Selena answered her own question.

"This... is the Fireplace poker, that I used to punish Claire Walker."

"Wh-What?!" Grant was shocked. 'She knows about Claire Walker?' He looked closely at the fireplace poker only to see dried blood on it. His imagination went wild as he tried to picture what happened to that woman.

"Y-You..."

"I will give you one chance... Tell me the name of the person who ordered Claire to sabotage my education." Selena replied as she brandished the poker.

"Y-You... You can't seriously be thinking of attacking me, right? I am still a Marquis's son." Grant retorted in fear.

"It didn't seem to stop you from going after my brother, right? Who is also a Marquis's son like you I might add."

Grant's face twitched as he felt like he was just slapped. It's easy to hurt others, but when karma comes knocking on your door, you better be prepared for it to devour you whole.

"Besides, you have experienced the interrogation by Royal Guards yourself, what makes you think that Urak guy won't rat you out after being interrogated by them?" Selena further elaborated.

Grant clenched his fists. The second Urak was taken out that door, Grant's fate was sealed. All Selena needed to do now was mention this incident in the Royal Court during the Case and he will be imprisoned without mercy for attacking a fellow Aristocrat.

"How about I offer you a deal?" Selena broke the train of Grant's thoughts.

"Eh?" Grant was surprised. Selena held all the cards, she did not need to make a deal with him. But contrary to what Grant thought, Selena offered a deal because Grant was too cornered. At this point, Grant had nothing to lose, so there's no guarantee what he would resort to if left alone. So, by using the Carrot and Stick approach, Selena could hold him in control.

"It's simple, You tell me who's after me and I will forget about today's incident." Selena offered.

"W-What? Do you mean it?" Grant was pleasantly surprised. If today's incident was dropped, he will still be in trouble but at least he won't rot in prison.

"B-But, that Urak...?"

"I will use my special family seal to send a letter to the Royal Guards claiming you had nothing to do with today. The Urak guy came on his own and tried to blackmail me for money, how does that sound?" Selena replied.

"Y-You would?" Grant's dead eyes finally shone.

Of Course, Selena didn't mention that she will also write a footnote about what really happened as lying to the Royal Guards and getting caught would end up badly for Selena. She will simply mention the deal she had with Grant. Silent deals are common in Aristocracy and the Royal Guards don't divulge the information of a case to anyone else other than the Royal Family, and that too if they actually deem it as necessary.

"So how about it?" Selena asked as she sat back lazily on her chair and waited for his reply.

Grant was silent for a minute. He then closed his eyes and rubbed it as the energy left his body. He looked at Selena and many thoughts ran through his head. After thinking about something, he asked Selena.

"Did you never wonder... why I left you for Patricia?"

Selena "..."

"Wasn't it because you felt I was expressionless and unemotional?" Selena replied without batting an eyelid.

"No..." Grant shook his head, "I have known you ever since we were kids, I know you are not like that with those you are close with."

"Then... you don't know me at all." Selena replied curtly.

"Emotionless people don't try to kill themselves..." Grant denied Selena's answer, "...Emotionless people don't get angry and beat up their teacher, and emotionless people surely do not ask their guards to beat up a person who threatened their family."

Selena "..."

"No, the reason I left you is because... you are too strong." Grant replied with a bitter smile.

"Too strong...? I tried to kill myself remember?" Selena replied with a dark chuckle.

"No, I mean in everyday life. Whenever we hanged out, Patricia and I felt more like your subordinates rather than friends. Your cold but confident personality made me feel weak and unworthy." Grant continued.

"It was fine when we were kids, but as we grew older, the inferiority complex in me grew. Let me tell you, when I stumbled upon your Mock-Exam paper and saw your failing grades, I was ecstatic. I felt like I finally had power over you."

"But when I investigated it, I found out that you were being sabotaged. All the goodness I felt vanished without a trace. Patricia, she..." Grant paused before continuing.

"Patricia saw right through me and consoled me and as fellow subordinates, we felt closer to each other. One thing led to another and... we fell in love."

Selena felt her mouth go dry. "Why... did you not simply speak to me?"

"...and what was I suppose to say?" Grant stood up with an anguished face"...that I feel inferior to you? I feel as I am not worthy of you...?! That I felt much more at ease with the simple-minded Patricia rather than with you?"

Selena didn't react. She simply stared at Grant.

Grant also unclenched his fists and took a deep breath. He then took out a paper, wrote something in it, folded it, and then placed it on the table. He then proceeded to walk out the door.

"I... do not regret my decision of leaving you..." he spoke honestly to Selena, probably for the first time.

"...Then don't abandon the girl who you left me for who was there for you when you needed it." Selena replied curtly without looking back.

Grant paused his walk for a second and without turning back he replied.

"I won't. Goodbye... Young Lady Booker."

Click... Slam...!! The door closed as Grant left, leaving Selena alone in the room.

A minute of silence later...

"Hey, you okay...?" Soul asked slowly.

However, Selena didn't answer Soul's question but asked one of her own.

"Is Nicholas really okay?" Selena asked with visible concern. She entrusted everything to Soul and played her role but she was still worried about her brother.

"What? Oh, yes. Remember when I told you about how I can code to create programs? Well, the inscriptions on the ring felt similar to codes. So I reverse engineered it and hacked into its text messaging program. So when that Urak guy sent a message, instead of stopping it, I altered it."

"Altered to what...?" Selena who still stared blankly into space asked.

"Simple, I ordered his men to leave Nicholas alone and kidnap Duke Rant instead. I also instructed the goons to bring all their top-secret information along with their personnel names in a file while doing it as the information needed to be transported to a safe place after they kidnap Duke Rant."

"Of Course, the security around a Duke is definitely heavier than a Marquis's son. So they are up for a round of beatings and with the information I asked them to carry, it will definitely fall in the Duke's hands and I am pretty sure he would be more than happy to eradicate the gang after this."

"As far as I am concerned, we don't have to worry about the Urak guy anymore and... eh? A-Are you...?" Soul paused as he scanned Selena's face.

Drip...!!

Tears poured down her eyes as she sat motionless in place without changing her expressions.

Soul decided to keep quiet and wait for her to finish.

Selena wasn't crying because she was sad. She was crying because a knot in her heart was finally released.

Grant's random abandonment of her had filled her with doubts about herself. She always thought Grant abandoned her for her cold nature and expressionless face. But the truth turned out to be something entirely different.

Closure...!! She was crying because she finally had some closure regarding her broken engagement. Things were far from over, but just knowing that it was not entirely her fault lifted a weight off her shoulders. A person can't change their personality at will, so sometimes, it is easier to just let go. Grant's decision was probably right. Even if they would have ended up being married, it wouldn't have been a happy marriage. The only mistake Grant did was in the way he broke it off. He tried to break the engagement and keep his pride. In this scenario, he couldn't have gotten away with both. He tried to get the best of both worlds and ended up losing most of what he had.

Fifteen minutes passed...

Selena finally unfroze herself as she calmed down. Her demeanor returned to normal and then she talked to Soul.

"I am okay..."

"Hey, I don't know what you are talking about. You were wearing the ring from the Church the entire time so I... blah blah..."

Selena smiled inwardly. Prideful people like her do not like showing their weakness in front of others. Soul understood that and denied ever being present.

She then turned her attention towards the paper left by Grant. She slowly picked it up and opened it.

"Sir Bradley Connors... I suspect it is him because he approached Claire Walker and seduced her two years ago. It was around this time that your grades started falling. As for why he's doing it, I don't know."

Selena read Grant's letter and felt her body tense up.

"Who's Bradley Connors?" Soul asked.

"He's..." Selena narrowed her eyes, "He's Marchioness Nora's younger brother, aka... my Step-Uncle."

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