The Villainess

CHAPTER 18

"THE POWERHOUSE of the noble faction that supported the faction from the outside is the Marquess House of Zoliel. He is loved by the common folks and is well respected by the noble families because of his love for his wife, the Marchioness. Marquess Zoliel holds the Trading Union, which is an assembly of noble and aristocratic proprietors in the Empire. In short, he supports the pocket of the noble faction. If we weaken him, we weaken the noble faction. That would give us the opening to strike the Rozenreff Duchy and Castaña Duchy." Count Helisos explained the main agenda of the meeting. Everyone at the round table was thinking deeply before opening their mouths. Prince Corean was seriously listening to the Count and was also lost in his thoughts. Tori observed them interact with each other.

Lord Tofera's bald head glistened under the chandelier, "So what do we do? As a merchant myself, he will be difficult to strike down. Especially that the king is backing up the Trading Union."

The Trading Union's goal was to gain a monopoly. This was the reason why most newly established businesses went bankrupt. First, they monopolized the trading places like the capital's square or the seaport cities. Then, they would pull some strings to monopolize suppliers. Everyone knew marquess Zoliel for being a snake in the trading industry. The aristocratic merchant like Lord Tofera would not risk just antagonizing the Marquess alone, hence he supported the aristocratic faction secretly. The only one who could dare publicize his disdain to the Marquess was Count Sozeni, who was very silent the whole time. His sharp eyes were calculating like a military man. He was after all the second biggest arsenal trader in the Empire but still before the Count was still the Marquess. But even with this, the Marquess couldn't touch Count Sozeni since his iron mine was impenetrable, though Count Sozeni disliked the Marquess for conquering a part of his mine with the covert help of the king.

The king may try not to show it too much, but he was supporting the noble faction from the shadows.

"We can target his shipments. I say we sink his ships."

"We will be suspected immediately. That is too risky."

"Then we can stage a natural phenomenon. Let's destroy his part of the iron mine, it wasn't his in the very first place."

Lord Sozeni strongly opposed, "Exactly. It's not Marquess Zoliel's because the mine belongs to me, so if you destroy it then you're destroying my property."

"Enough. Let's hear what our newest member has to say about this." Lady M's voice boomed in the room. All bickering stopped with no second thoughts as all the eyes looked at the young lady sitting beside the smiling prince.

Finally, all those nonsense stopped. To think that I once respected them, but hearing their plans made me think twice about them.

Tori clasped her hands together on the table and looked at each of the members sitting at the round table. "Lords and lady, did you know that fifty percentile of the Trading Union is being managed by the Marchioness?"

No one reacted so Tori continued, "The Marquess trusted her too much that he just let her manage it without his supervision."

They seem to catch what she was saying. Lady M was the first one to comment. They were all looking at her funnily. Their eyes were telling her that they were insulting which made Tori mentally scoff.

"You do know that the Marquess and Marchioness of House Zoliel are beloved by the people both from high society and commoners because of their love story?"

Grinning like a Cheshire cat, Tori asked Lady M back. "Are they? In love, I mean? If we hold the Marchioness by her neck, she will become a knife that will stab the Marquess from the back. With that, we can switch the power to the aristocratic faction without them knowing."