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Meanwhile, Vivienne stomped into her mother’s dressing room in a huff.

Emilia was currently picking out an outfit for her routine elite ladies’ circle gathering, looking thoroughly displeased with the options held up by the servants.

”Mom, didn’t you buy a new dress? It’s embarrassing to wear the same outfit twice,” Vivienne complained, flopping heavily onto a settee.

”Do you think I don’t want to? My monthly allowance was slashed too. If you’re only here to beg for money, get out,” Emilia retorted without even glancing at her daughter.

”That’s not what I’m here for...” Vivienne then explained what had transpired between Nora and Shani.

Emilia turned back to her daughter. ”Since when do I need to clean up such trivial matters for you?”

Emilia shook her head, lamenting that her daughter hadn’t inherited her sharp wit. ”Fine, I’ll take care of it later. Send me whatever information you have on that girl.”

Vivienne immediately forwarded the file Nora had gathered, adding,

”She has the Second Prince’s protection. She’s also friendly with the future heirs of House Rosenbaum and House Walton. Oh, and she’s close with one of the daughters from House Blackwood.”

This time, Emilia turned back with her brow deeply furrowed. ”No wonder you couldn’t handle it on your own. That lowly girl actually has some talent.”

Emilia sat down beside Vivienne. ”Listen, you need to learn to be flexible. Learn to make friends and leverage the connections of your classmates.”

Vivienne scoffed. ”Flexible? They should be the ones crawling to me if they want to be my friend.”

Emilia merely shook her head without scolding her.

As the prospective heir to the Ashbournes, Emilia felt that her daughter truly shouldn’t bow to anyone anyway. As for her stubborn streak, there was still time for her to grow out of it.

Emilia then opened the file Vivienne had sent, her interest piqued regarding this Shani Rowan.

Vivienne had only forwarded a single file containing a single page.

”Why is there so little...” Emilia’s voice trailed off, her eyes widening in shock. She zoomed in on the portrait attached to the file.

”Do you know her, Mom?” Vivienne asked, noticing her mother’s strange reaction.

”Silver hair, crimson eyes... Is this shade of silver similar to your own hair color?” Emilia asked Vivienne.

Vivienne reflexively opened her mouth to deny it, loath to be compared to an orphan from some backwater town.

But as Shani’s image flashed in her mind, she realized their hair colors were indeed strikingly identical.

Ultimately, she nodded, her gaze laced with suspicion. ”Mom, what is the meaning of this?”

”She might just be that wretched child I’ve been searching for these past few months,” Emilia replied, a look of revulsion crossing her face.

”She’s Uncle Sam’s daughter?” Vivienne was thoroughly stunned. ”Mom, are you sure?”

Emilia didn’t answer right away.

She scanned Shani’s brief bio, noting that her orphanage of origin was Rowan House in Galesend, Zephyria. Her suspicion solidified into certainty.

”Why isn’t her beast gene listed?” Emilia asked, needing one final piece of confirmation.

Vivienne shrugged. ”No idea. Nora said there wasn’t much information available about her.”

”If that’s the case, she already knows she’s an Ashbourne and is intentionally concealing it. Which means someone is backing her,” Emilia murmured thoughtfully.

”Mom, look at her recorded beast energy rank. It says F-Rank. She was probably embarrassed by her rank and enrolled in Grand Academy to find a way to raise it.”

”And now she’s jumped to C-Rank. In my opinion, if she really is Uncle Sam’s daughter, it won’t be long before she comes knocking on our door,” Vivienne conjectured.

Emilia nodded in agreement with her daughter’s logic.

”However, if we want to hold the upper hand, we must be the ones to initiate contact. I’ll notify the Family Head to dig up every last detail regarding Shani.”

”What about Nora, then? She might actually get detained by the police.”

”That girl has been spoiled far too much. If she gets detained, let her sit in a cell for a few days. It’ll also make Shani feel like we’re taking her side. Once Shani feels indebted to us, then we’ll pull Nora out.”

”Great idea, Mom,” Vivienne agreed with a nod.

”Once Shani returns, I’ll give her a welcome she’ll never forget,” Vivienne muttered, already fantasizing about venting her frustration.

”If only she had come back right away, her inheritance would already be ours, and my monthly allowance wouldn’t have been cut.”

”Good girl.” Emilia gently stroked her daughter’s silver hair, filled with pride.

Unbeknownst to the two women, Nora was listening to their conversation from behind the ajar door.

Her face turned deathly pale, her eyes trembling with sheer panic as cold sweat drenched her palms.

She shook her head slowly. She couldn’t just sit back and do nothing.

...

After preparing lunch for Nyx and feeding Reddy along with her two bloodworms in Feed Cultivation Class, Shani left the academy grounds.

This Saturday, she wanted to get an in-person update on their business progress from Aster.

When Shani arrived at the apartment, Aster was engrossed in a free online business lecture video.

Aster quickly paused the video and stepped up to present the latest progress report on Mortis Company.

”Uncle Toby has officially registered and established the new company name: Mortis Feed and Nutritions,” Aster explained, maintaining as formal a tone as possible.

He had actually sent a written report to Shani already, but felt compelled to give an in-person briefing regardless.

Not wanting to demean Aster’s earnest efforts, Shani remained silent and let him speak.

”He also sent over a timeline leading up to the launch of our first product line. The target timeline is ten weeks starting from this week.”

”That schedule is quite swift because the factory itself isn’t being built from scratch. He took over a bankrupt feed processing plant.”

”I personally inspected the site yesterday, and everything aligns with his written report,” Aster added.

”Good job, Aster. I made the right choice putting this in your hands.”

Shani wasn’t just offering empty praise. Without Aster managing things on this end, she wouldn’t have been able to focus on the looming threat of her identity being exposed.

She would have been stretched far too thin, constantly stumbling over details.

...