Reborn as the Psycho Villainess Who Ate Her Slave Beasts' Contracts

"Viscount Marrs," Elara said quietly. "I made a deal with her. She agreed to neutrality in exchange for me not exposing her assassination funding. She’s breaking that agreement."

"Or someone made her a better offer," Duke Romian said. "The First Consort, probably. Or Eleana, trying to salvage her position after her mother’s arrest."

"Doesn’t matter. Marrs broke our agreement. That voids the arrangement entirely." Elara made notes. "After we save Port Crestfall, I’m destroying all three of them. Veltri, Hadrian, Marrs. Complete elimination."

"That’s a lot of enemies to make."

"They made themselves my enemies by attacking my city. I’m just responding appropriately." She continued planning. "The beast knights arrive in two days. Duke Romian’s forces arrive in six. The question is what we do from here in the capital while the battle happens three hundred miles away."

Helena spoke up from the doorway. "I can help with intelligence. My merchant contacts extend to Port Crestfall. I can get real-time information about the siege, troop movements, civilian casualties."

"Do it. Coordinate with Dimitri and Mira—they’re still in the city and probably coordinating the defense with Gregor."

"Already sending messages."

Elara looked at the map, calculating probabilities, running scenarios.

Port Crestfall was under siege. Fifty beast knights were running through the night to break it. Three hundred regular soldiers would follow in six days.

Meanwhile, in the capital, the First Consort was arrested, Eleana’s position was compromised, and the succession battle was accelerating toward some kind of climax.

"We’re fighting on two fronts," Duke Romian observed. "Port Crestfall and the capital. That’s strategically difficult."