My Unchosen Ex Chases Reborn Me (Soren and Fiona) novel Chapter 112

Chapter 112 Royal Schemes

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Fiona, meanwhile, was said to be thriving in Yondale. Even in Jexburgh, the rumors had riotous–young lords battling in taverns just to win her smile.

grown

Quentin noticed the faint curl at Soren’s mouth. It was not quite mockery, not quite pleasure, but something lighter than his usual iron composure.

“If Princess Helen is this anxious,” Quentin added, “Pierre must hold more than a few of her

secrets.”

“Send a box of skin brightening pills to her,” Soren said, voice soft yet leaving no room for debate.

With that, he tore the letter into thin ribbons and fed them to the flame. They curled, blackened, and vanished into ash.

“Those pills are for a lady’s complexion,” Quentin ventured, unsure of the deeper intent.

Soren’s sideways stare asked whether Quentin truly needed the explanation.

Quentin paused, remembering that Fiona was still lodged within Princess Helen’s estate. So the letter might have come from her after all.

The notion lodged in his mind like a splinter.

“If more letters arrive from the Princess Royal’s Estate, I will receive them personally,” Quentin said, the decision now crystal–clear.

Soren offered neither approval nor objection; the matter seemed already dead to him.

No further letters came from the Princess Royal’s Estate. Silence, thick and deliberate, settled over the affair.

Soren gave it no thought. Pierre died suddenly in distant Danwick, and every power bloc scrambled for the vacant post. The Zonfrillo Estate was dragged into the fray like everyone else.

By the time Soren returned to Jexburgh, an imperial summons awaited him.

“Aunt Helen turns seventy soon,” Emperor Aldric said, smile thin as parchment. “Protocol demands we honor her. Blaze, who should we send?”

The phrasing was polite, yet the air around the throne was tight with the last threads of

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Chapter 112 Royal Schemes

patience.

Yondale lies far, the roads are unsettled, and Your Majesty’s health is priceless, Soren replied. “Better that a prince travel in your stead.”

“Helen meddles in succession,” Aldric said, gaze icy. “If I send Fourth or Sixth, she might sow discord. I will not see my sons at each other’s throats again.”

The verdict was final; the emperor’s refusal rang louder than any decree scroll could.

A hush settled over the jade–inlaid audience chamber as Emperor Aldric leaned forward on his armrest, eyes glinting beneath the lantern glow. “From where I sit,” he said, every syllable precise, “it is better that you travel to Yondale yourself. And while you are there, discover whether that land now answers to Aunt Helen alone.”

Soren dropped to one knee, armor plates whispering against the marble. “Your command is my will,” he replied. Yet even as he spoke, he felt the cage snap shut. Emperor Aldric had already made up his mind; there was no space left for refusal, no corridor wide enough to escape the coming intrigue.

The Princess Royal’s estate had been fading for years, its banners frayed, its once–restless courtyards grown strangely quiet. Even so, an open clash between the Zonfrillo Estate and that dwindling household promised nothing but blood and squandered strength.

When the emperor’s order echoed back across the river to the Zonfrillo grounds, every face inside those stone walls hardened. They read the game at once: let Soren and Princess Helen grind each other down while Aldric sat beyond the reach of either blade. For the emperor, the perfect ending was simple–see the Zonfrillos diminished but unbeaten, trimmed just enough to fit more easily inside his fist.

Callum clasped his younger brother’s forearm in the courtyard shadows. “Set your mind at ease,” he said, voice low but steady. “I’ll keep the estate breathing while you’re gone.”

Soren returned the grip, gaze sharpening. “If Cornelius stirs so much as a blade of

grass,

write

to me at once.”

Penelope, meanwhile, worried over different demons entirely.

“Take Luna with you,” Penelope insisted as lamps winked alive behind her. “If you arrive without a lady companion, Princess Helen will saddle you with one of her own. Refusing would look rude, and polite traps are still traps.”

Soren had already planned to bring Luna; he offered only a quiet grunt of assent.

Xavier and Zachary had spent barely half a day inside the Princess Royal’s Estate, yet that was

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Chapter 112 Royal Schemes

long enough for Helen to order an investigation on the former. By nightfall, her agents had peeled back every layer of his lineage.

With the report in hand, Princess Helen pressed two fingers to her temple, annoyed. ‘An unimpressive pedigree,” she muttered. “His father holds a senior fourth–rank post in the salt bureau, but the blood behind him is thin as watered wine.”

Agatha ventured a gentle objection. “Yet Ms. Fiona seemed taken with him, Your Highness. He toured the grounds all afternoon and never once complained of fatigue.”

Helen sighed, rubbing the space between her brows. “Fiona is like her mother–she weighs a man’s face before his merits.”

“Beauty aside, the young lord’s heart seems true,” Agatha answered with an encouraging smile. “A girl could do far worse.”

Helen exhaled, the scroll crackling in her grip. She had heard the rumors of Xavier’s success at Junbert, chasing brigands through dust and ruin. Still, warmth for the Princess Royal’s Estate was too much to expect of him. “We’ll know more,” she said, “when he arrives in Jexburgh six months from now.”

Whether he courted her influence mattered less than one simple promise: that he would shield Fiona when storms inevitably gathered.

For that reason, Helen kept other suitors in play, inviting the young gentlemen of Yondale to call, to gift poems, to let the girl choose–and to remind Xavier that competition waited.

One attendant frowned over the chessboard of politics. “What design does His Majesty pursue by sending the Zonfrillo heir to us this time?”

Helen let out a low, mirthless laugh. “He wants to measure my strength and reopen the Pierre investigation–nothing more. The slight he showed Fiona before? I intend to settle that debt along with the rest.”

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