The SSS-rank Guide Doesn't Need Saving

The living room went quiet after Irene’s question. Erika’s teacup stopped halfway to her mouth. Theon, who had been slouched against the armrest, sat up straight. Even Dominic, who rarely paid attention to anything that didn’t involve numbers, turned his head sharply.

Nobody spoke for a moment.

Aisha didn’t look surprised. She looked at Irene the way someone looks at a bug that had crawled onto the table uninvited.

”Where did you hear that?” she coldly asked again.

Irene’s mouth opened, then closed. She hadn’t expected her to question her first. She had expected Aisha to be shocked and even deny it, maybe even panic a little. Instead, Aisha was staring at her, waiting, patient as stone.

”I—someone mentioned it,” Irene said. Shaking her head, she continued, ”It doesn’t matter where I heard it. Is it true or not, sister?”

Aisha didn’t let herself get pulled in her game. ”I’m asking you again, where did you hear it from? Tell me or I will—”

”Aisha,” Erika cut in, setting her cup down with a clatter. ”Don’t speak to your sister like that. Just answer her. Did you take money from the prince or not?”

Aisha turned her head slowly toward her mother.

”Do I have to answer?” she asked in return. ”It’s my personal matter. What happens in it isn’t any of your business.”

Dominic’s face went red when he heard this. He stood up so fast his chair scraped against the floor.

”Not our business?” His voice cracked on the last word. ”You’re about to have your engagement to an imperial prince annulled and in front of half the Imperial Court, and you’re telling me I don’t even get to know if you took money from him first?”

Aisha looked at him without blinking.

”Why,” she said. ”So you can take it from me?”

”Yes!” Dominic said, without even a pause to think about it. ”Of course I would. You should have told me first, before accepting anything from him. That’s how these things are handled.”

Aisha let out a short laugh, cold and devoid of any warmth.

She looked at the three of them.

”Interesting,” Aisha said, still laughing. ”Truly interesting.”

”What’s interesting?” Theon muttered while rowning.

”That out of everything that happened to me this week,” Aisha began, ”the thing that gets all of you sitting up straight and paying attention is when you hear the prince gave me money. Everyone seemed more interested in how much money I received and how much you’ll get, and not how much humiliation I will get from getting my engagement annulled and publicized through a ceremony.”

She said it too quickly that no one was able to cut in.

”However much I received,” Aisha continued, ”is not something any of you need to know. None of you will be the one carrying the name of the woman a royal prince threw away. That’s mine to carry. So the money, whatever there is of it, is mine too.”

She looked at her father.

”If you want to know the exact number so badly, why don’t you go to the palace yourself? Ask to meet the prince. I’m sure he’ll tell you everything.” Her voice went flat with sarcasm. ”He might even offer you more, out of the goodness of his heart.”

Dominic’s eyebrows drew together. He didn’t answer right away, eyes had gone somewhere distant and pondering her words.

Aisha watched him think it over and felt something cold settle in her stomach. She hadn’t actually expected him to consider it seriously.

Irene saw it too, and her heart sank a little. If their father actually went and made a scene at the palace demanding money, it would draw attention to the fact that Aisha had already received money. She couldn’t let that happen.

”Father, that wouldn’t be proper,” Irene said quickly. ”If people heard you went to ask the prince for money directly, it would look terrible for the family. Besides...” she glanced at Aisha, careful to keep her voice gentle. ”Sister already has the money. Why would you need to go ask the prince for more, when we can just borrow from sister?”

Aisha understood immediately what Irene was doing. She wanted her to hand over the money without even a fight. That was her actual goal. To make her unable to even benefit from this annulment.

Irene sat there with her hands folded, thinking back to the conversation she’d overheard yesterday through Soren’s younger sister, who was also her friend and who had let it slip in the afternoon that he overheard her brother speaking to their mother about how her brother had transferred twenty-five million star credits to Aisha, with another five million promised once the annulment was official.

Irene had stewed over this the entire day. Thirty million. She’d thought about ways to get it from Aisha’s hands. She’d thought of convincing Soren, and if that didn’t work, she’d use her ability on him. But Soren was an S-rank sentinel, and even with her ability, she wasn’t confident she could push him that far without him noticing something was wrong.

So she’d thought she could wait for the right moment.

And then their eldest brother had come home. And then, as if the timing had been arranged just for her, the Imperial Court had sent out the announcement for the annulment ceremony.

It was a perfect opportunity she couldn’t miss.

Dominic’s expression brightened, thinking that what Irene said made more sense to him than marching into the palace and demanding an audience with a prince.

”That’s right,” he said, turning back to Aisha. ”There’s no need to go bother His Highness. Just hand it over. All of it.”

Aisha stared at her father.

For a moment, she thought about how satisfying it would be to push each of them—her father, her mother, Theon, Irene— inside a contaminated zone. See how quickly they’d stop demanding money from her once and for all.

It was getting harder to hold back now. Her real temper and personality was showing, the tendency to use violence instead of calmly resolving things was starting to crawl back out.

”Enough.”

The word cut through the room before Aisha could even make true of her dangerous idea.

Zenick, who had been quietly listening to all of this, finally stood up. He looked at each one of them with stern rebuke.

”Unless one of you is His Highness Soren’s fiancée,” Zenick said, his gaze sweeping over each of them, ”no one in this family, or outside of it, has any right to demand a single coin from her.”

Dominic’s mouth tightened. ”Zenick, you don’t understand the situation. We could use that money to repair the ship we lost last quarter. It would help—”

Zenick interrupted. ””We’re not that poor that we need to steal from a family member. From a girl who just became an adult. You should all know what it means to feel shame.”

The room went silent.

”This conversation is over,” Zenick said, not letting anyone continue it.

Theon opened his mouth to protest, something about how it wasn’t stealing, and that they’re family, everything belonged to their family in the end—but one look from Zenick made him swallow the words whole. Even Dominic, who had been ready to argue his case a moment ago, found himself sitting back down without another word.

One by one, they filed out of the living room.

Irene lingered a moment longer than the others. She turned to Zenick with a soft smile, the kind she’d perfected over years of practice.

”Brother, you should rest early too,” she said. ”You’ve only just come back. You must be tired from the long journey.”

”I will,” Zenick said, and there was real warmth in his voice, the kind that came without effort.

Yet, he had no idea what was actually running through his youngest sister’s head.

Inside, Irene was seething. She had planned this so carefully. She waited for the right moment, letting the accusation slip out at exactly the right time, expecting their father’s greed to do the rest of the work for her.

But then Zenick, who almost never involved himself in household matters, had to choose tonight of all nights to step in.

If he hadn’t spoken, Aisha would have had no choice but to hand the money over in front of everyone. The pressure from both their parents, plus Theon’s outrage, would have been enough. But Zenick’s single interruption had unraveled the entire plan in seconds.

She turned to leave the room, already thinking about how she might approach this differently tomorrow or at the ceremony...

A hand closed around her arm before she’d taken two steps. The grip was tight enough to make her gasp.

Irene spun around, and the sight in front of her made the breath catch in her throat.

Aisha stood there with an expression Irene had never seen on her before.

”You haven’t answered me,” Aisha said, her voice low and murderous. ”Where did you hear it from?”