We continued talking, and I learned that she awakened the system and inherited the memories around that time, after undergoing a traditional awakening ceremony to increase her ’price’.
With the help of the system and the memories, she had started to build confidence and skills slowly.
She had started by learning to protect herself, both physically and emotionally. The memories had shown how manipulation worked, how to read people’s true intentions more clearly, how to build walls that couldn’t be torn down easily, and so on.
"The ’system’ gave me access to skills, abilities, strategic thinking, missions, even powerful resonance arts and techniques." Cassandra continued, but she was much calmer now.
"I started small, learning how to say ’no’ to the servants who tried to use my ’foolishness’ or frame me. Standing straighter when my siblings attempted their usual cruelty. Using the etiquette lessons they’d forced on me as armor instead of chains."
"I learned to be fearless, even if I took a beating, and learned to fight back for myself."
"But I was still a bit late."
I squinted my eyes slightly, guessing it might be related to the engagement she spoke of before.
"The duke and his first wife had long signed a marriage contract between me and an old marquis from a neighboring kingdom."
Oh, so that red-haired guy wasn’t her first fiancé?
"It was supposed to be my final fate - another transaction, another way to use me as a tool for their political games. An old man who saw me as nothing more than a beautiful ornament for his declining years." Her voice hardened. "But by then, I had begun to understand my own worth. The memories and experiences taught me that I didn’t have to accept the life others had planned for me."
"...So you refused then?" I asked curiously.
"Refuse?" A slow, predatory smile crossed her face. One I’d seen glimpses of before, but never understood the origin of until now.
"I did much more than refuse..."
"I destroyed him. Thoroughly."
The way she said it sent a chill down my spine, from the admiration for the strength and courage it must have taken. She had just begun to change after all.
"I played him at his own game, and with the help of the system and memories, it wasn’t as difficult as I thought it would be."
"You see, the Virellia house had received a substantial sum from him as part of the engagement agreement. But they had no idea what I was about to do." Her smile grew wider. "I meticulously searched for anything that might be useful against the marquis."
"It turns out that scum had built his entire fortune on a foundation of illegal businesses. Slavery trafficking, illicit arms dealing, tax evasion on a large scale, smuggling, extortion, bribery, and so on. The list was so extensive that it shocked me how he was still walking around like that."
She paused for a moment.
"But I realized it later. He had thought that his money and titles made him untouchable."
"...But you did it," I said with a smile.
"Yeah, I did it." She grinned back. "I systematically dismantled everything he had built."
"I spent months gathering evidence, creating an ironclad case that even his political connections couldn’t dismiss. Every transaction, every bribe, every victim, I documented them all."
"Then, I presented it all to the royal court, along with the testimony from his victims and financial records that proved the Virellia family had accepted his blood money." Her expression grew cold with satisfaction. "He’s spending the rest of his life in the deepest dungeons of the royal prison. His assets were seized, his title stripped, his entire legacy reduced to nothing."
I stared at her in amazement. So that was the birth of a future Merchant Queen.
It must have been hard...
"...And your family’s reaction?" I asked, already guessing what transpired after.
"They were furious, of course. But obviously not because they cared about me or justice, but because they lost their profitable arrangement and got involved in the mess." She shrugged with indifference. "However, they couldn’t exactly punish me for exposing corruption. Even though they were implicated, they still couldn’t touch me, as many eyes were on them. Publicly, they pretended to be horrified to discover what kind of man they’d almost married their ’precious daughter’ to."
She clenched her fists slightly at the memory.
"They even managed to spin the incident as their ’unfortunate discovery’ of a villain, deftly navigating the political fallout and even gaining some minor favors from the Crown for their ’cooperation’ in the Marquis’s downfall."
"...They stole your victory." I finished, understanding dawning in my voice. "They took credit for your work."
"Exactly," Cassandra nodded, her jaw tightening. "I had risked everything to expose that monster, gathered evidence that could have gotten me killed if I’d been discovered, and saved countless victims from his depravity. But in the end, they turned it into another opportunity to elevate themselves. I was relegated to being their ’fortunate daughter’ who had been ’saved’ by them."
"That must have been infuriating," I said, feeling angry on her behalf.
"That too, but it was also a lesson. A harsh one." She paused. "...A valuable one."
"I learned that no matter how righteous your cause, how thorough your work, there will always be those who try to steal your achievements and rewrite history to serve their own purposes."
She looked at me directly, her eyes blazing with determination, "But I was also learning something else that day. I learned that I didn’t need everyone’s recognition or approval to know my own worth. I had saved lives, brought justice to the victims, and freed myself from a fate worse than death."
"The truth of what I’d accomplished couldn’t be erased, even if they tried to bury it under their political maneuvering. They might have saved their reputation, but they could never control me again."
I was about to smile, but I sensed something was wrong with her expression.
"...Or so I thought. How foolish could I be?"
She muttered with a self-deprecating chuckle.
"I was still just a pawn in their game, even when I thought I was playing my own."