Meeting room
Tiff walked from the room into the yard. Her hair was loosely tied with a thin silk ribbon, and she wore a black wide-brimmed hat. Her eyebrows were slightly furrowed, and she looked somewhat sad. Her lips were bloodless.
She looked up at the servant who had been waiting in the courtyard for a long time and said softly, "Let's go."
These were people sent by her uncles and elders, inviting her to the family meeting room to discuss her father's title and the issue of succession to the position of family head.
Even though she was her father's only daughter and sole heir, people still coveted her possessions and used various excuses to prevent Tiff from inheriting the title.
Tiffany didn't have much of an opinion about their actions, after all, she also coveted the throne, and if they wanted to take what was hers, they'd better see if they had the power to do so.
Two knights stood guard at the entrance to the conference room, their armor bearing the red coat of arms representing House Stryker.
Tiffany led Dopelisa into the conference room, where two knights at the door respectfully greeted her as "Master."
They ignored Tiff's act of bringing people in, because there was a rule that only the person who officially inherited the position of head of the family could bring people in. Others, even those who were considered by the family to be hers, could not bring people in unless the inheritance ceremony had been held.
The reason they allowed Tiffany in so openly was not only because Tiffany had taken control of the family's knightly order and power before Duke Strych was unable to wake up, but also because the two of them were Tiffany's people.
In the center of the conference room was a long table. On the right side of the table sat powerful women from the family, and on the other side sat equally powerful men. The head of the family sat at the end of the table furthest from the door.
The seats on both sides were full of people, except for the head of the family's seat, which was empty.
Tiffany walked over and sat down, only to be questioned by someone as soon as she sat down.
“Miss Tiffany, no one is allowed to enter the meeting room. You must know that, right? And you’ve brought such lowly servants with you. What do you mean by this?” The sixth middle-aged man sitting to Tiffany’s right spoke up. He looked down on Dope, who was of commoner origin, and on Lisa, a minor noblewoman from a defeated country who had once been a slave in the gladiatorial arena.
Before Tiff could react, he continued his long-winded speech, "Don't forget, you haven't become the head of the family yet! And you still have doubts about whether the Duke of Stryker has chosen the right successor."
Tiff didn't act immediately. She merely smiled slightly and glanced at him casually, saying, "Do you have doubts?"
"What does this mean, Uncle Bavi? Are you trying to tell me that you are also my father's offspring, and that I am not his only heir?" Tiffany's gaze gradually turned cold as she stared at him.
“You…you…” Bavi’s face turned red, and he couldn’t say a word.
The middle-aged man with a mustache beside him, the fifth man, frowned and looked at Tiffany with displeasure, saying, "Tiffany, is this how you talk to us? How did your father teach you!"
Tiffany looked at the man with the mustache, and a murderous intent gradually rose in her eyes. "I know about the recent rumors that my father intends to find an illegitimate son to inherit the title, but my father is already unconscious. They still want to slander my father for having an illegitimate son, and even my father's brothers, you want to think the same way about him."
“Oh, perhaps you didn’t believe it either, you just wanted your father’s title and inheritance,” Tiff said sarcastically, arms crossed.
“Tiffany, how could you think of your uncles like that? They just want to find out who your father’s heir is,” the shrewd-looking man in the first seat said gently.
Tiffany's furrowed brows gradually relaxed, and she looked touched and a little guilty, as if she had come to believe it: "Is that so? I'm sorry, I misunderstood you all."
"If that's the case, then everyone, please sign this contract." As soon as she finished speaking, Lisa Dope pulled out two stacks of papers from somewhere and handed them out to everyone present.
"What does this mean?!" After seeing the contents of the paper, someone angrily shouted, clutching the contract.
This contract is a declaration that I have no interest in the Duke of Stryker's property or title, and a promise to relinquish any opportunity to acquire the Duke of Stryker's property, with the penalty of one word—
die.
This contract is bound to life itself.
“Didn’t Uncle Pugo say that no one is interested in my father’s inheritance? If that’s the case, then let’s sign this. This way, I can trust everyone and others can see how united our Strych family is.”
"Are you not signing because you're interested in what my father left behind?" Tiff continued when no one spoke.
"Hahahaha." A woman's hearty laughter rang out. Tiff looked over and saw that it was the first middle-aged woman sitting to her left who was laughing.
She was impeccably made up and dressed neatly. Holding the contract in her hand, she winked at Tiffany and said, "I don't have a pen, sweetheart."
She is Tiffany's aunt, Sheman Strickland, and they are surprisingly close, even though she has always looked down on Tiffany's father.
Tiff took out a quill pen and handed it to the woman, "Aunt Siman."
After receiving the pen, the woman looked around and said, "Sweetheart is right. As long as she has no interest in that property, she will definitely sign this."
“So,” she said, shaking the paper twice, “I’ll sign it first.” Without hesitation, she signed her name, stood up, walked to Pugo’s side, placed the pen on his contract, and looked at the man with a half-smile. “Sign it, Pugo. After all, you have no interest in her father’s things, do you?”
Pugo maintained his smile, his gaze first falling on Tiffany and then slowly shifting to Siman's face. He spoke each word, almost clenching his teeth, "Of course."
After speaking, she picked up a pen, signed her name on the paper, and then tossed the pen to someone else. Qianman raised an eyebrow in satisfaction and returned to her seat.
Since these two have signed, the others will naturally follow suit one after another.
After everyone had signed and Dope collected the documents, Pugo said, "Although we believe he doesn't have any illegitimate children, according to the rules we still need to find out if you are indeed your father's only heir."
“Sure.” Tiffany grinned at him indifferently.
Unaware of what Bavi was thinking, he looked at Tiffany smugly and said, "Just you wait, they'll be here soon." When he saw Tiffany looking at him with a mocking expression, his temper flared up again, but his gaze swept over the two people behind Tiffany and then inexplicably calmed down.
He comforted himself that with the arrival of the others, not only could Tiffany not act arrogantly, but he could also kill her two servants.
Before long, the knight at the door called out, "Someone wishes to see Lord Bavi."
Bavi's face lit up with joy. He stood up and walked toward the door. A moment later, he heard a slap and a heavy thud as something fell to the ground outside the door, like someone being hit. He could also faintly hear Bavi's voice.
"What kind of thinking is that! Why don't you just die instead of going to die!"
Tiffany lowered her eyes and took a sip of the still steaming tea in front of her.
"Thump, thump." The leather shoes slammed heavily on the ground. Bavi glared angrily at Tiffany, pointing at her and yelling, "You bitch! Did you do this?!"
Upon hearing this, Pugo's heart skipped a beat, and he cursed Bavi as an idiot in his heart.
As soon as Bavi spoke, he regretted it when he met Tiff's cold gaze. Before he could say anything, Tiff called out Lisa's name.
Before he could understand why, a figure moved in front of him, followed by a sharp pain in his abdomen as Lisa kicked him to the ground.
Lisa placed one foot on Bavi's chest, grabbed his chin with one hand, and reached into his mouth with the other. Bavi seemed to understand what she was going to do and struggled desperately, but it was no use. He felt someone pulling his tongue and shook his head, feeling the pain of his tongue being pulled.
"Ugh ugh ugh ugh ugh!" Lisa ignored his whimpers and swiftly tore off his tongue. Blood gushed from his mouth, and the stench of blood filled the conference room. Lisa threw the tongue aside in disgust.
Bavi covered his mouth, blood seeping from between his fingers. He rolled on the ground in agony. Lisa washed her hands with water and then stepped on his head to prevent him from moving.
Such a bloody scene refreshed the impression of the new head of the household, who was known as a "lady".
Pugo ignored the pleading look in Bavina's eyes. He had known that Tiff was no innocent person ever since he heard that Tiff had blinded the Duke of Ferrand's son, and that the death of that bastard must be related to Tiff.
Tiff looked at Bavi on the ground expressionlessly. She had wanted to rip out his tongue the moment he first called her a lowly person.
“This…” someone asked Tiffany hesitantly, “Isn’t this a bit cruel?”
Tiff looked at the man and smiled, "Cruel? He should be glad I didn't call her Dope, because if it were her, Uncle Bavi's life would be in danger."
After she finished speaking, she glanced around. "Everyone heard what Bavi said at the door just now, right? He said the person was dead." She stopped calling Bavi "uncle" and just called him by his name.
“I think the person he was talking about was someone impersonating my father’s illegitimate son, and he was so foolish as to believe him, and didn’t even keep a close eye on that person, letting him die.”
“If anyone still doubts that I am not the heir chosen by my father,” she said, slamming her hand, clad in black lace gloves, on the table. “Then keep a close eye on those illegitimate children, and make sure they don’t die.”
This statement sounds like a well-intentioned reminder, yet it also sounds like a provocation from the "murderer."
"Gentlemen, do you have any objections to my inheriting the title and the position of head of the family?"
No one spoke.
“Ha…” Tiff smiled with satisfaction. “In that case, I’ll be going now.” She patted her black dress, got up and left. As she passed Bavi, she laughed mockingly. Lisa withdrew her foot and followed Tiff out.
Pugo stared unkindly at Tiff's retreating figure, then looked at Bavi lying on the ground and cursed him as a piece of trash.
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