Alex glanced around the table contently. He had shocked everyone to appropriate levels and there was no way the Perez family would want him after this. Except for one of the guests who for some reason grinned in satisfaction, the reaction of the rest was as expected.

The kid who came to woo him, currently sat next to Alex’s brother with a green face as if he was about to puke and the guy sitting across the table from him in anger even broke the knife in two. Emanuela was as pale as her dress, but Alvaro was hyperventilating like a bull preparing for the charge.

‘Alright!’ Alex inwardly smiled, ‘Let’s spice it up!’

He already noticed the only available seat was placed away from his family members, as if symbolically sealing his fate. He nonchalantly walked over to it, but then stopped and smiled apologetically.

“Sorry … I thought I was getting my period from all the stress.” He said, “Luckily I’m barely eleven, so it’s much too early.”

Then he pulled his dress up a little, put his hand between the legs, pulled it out, smelled it and said, “Nope, not yet.”

Afterwards he sat, grabbed the closest wine glass, previously belonging to the head of the Perez family, and emptied it in one go. Then he let out a long, loud burp and said, “Good stuff! Can I get some more?”

“Enough!” Hector Perez banged his palm on the table and stood up, “We’re leaving!”

It was the first time in his life someone dared to humiliate him this badly. Without looking back with long strides he charged towards the exit and a second later the young Bernardo followed.

‘Bye, bye!’ Alex inwardly laughed.

But then the other guest from the Perez family, the guy with a crooked nose, smiled at him and said, “It was nice meeting you, miss! I sure we’ll meet again soon!”

‘Pervert!’ Alex shuddered, but then felt a chilly cold covering him from head to toe.

Indeed, there were a couple trained Qi masters present who clearly wanted to kill him. Even their current killing intent could easily leave someone with a weaker mind unconscious.

“Emanuela!” Alvaro shouted in a low, coarse voice.

In these two minutes since Alex arrived this was the first thing he said and it was obvious the head of the family had hard time to formulate a full sentence.

Alex’s mother was already sobbing and after Alvaro barked at her, she got up and ran to her quarters, loudly crying. Servants left a split second later and only four people were left.

Complete silence filled the courtyard. The three men from Morales family kept glaring at Alex who continued to smile in return.

“Ramona Esmeralda Angelina Valentina Cassandra Morales … You seem to be mighty satisfied with yourself.” Esteban Morales, Alex’s grandfather finally spoke.

Alex shrugged and said, “Why wouldn’t I? It went great!”

“Father! Can we feed her to the dogs?!” Silvio shouted in anger.

In all his life he had never seen anyone disrespecting his father and grandfather openly and it drove him mad.

“Shut up, you wanker!” Alex barked at the youth while still smiling, “Let the grownups talk!”

Even the grandfather’s eyes widened in shock, but then he quickly regained his calm.

“We can’t, Silvio.” He patiently explained. Alvaro had only one son and as a grandfather Esteban did his best to educate and groom the next head of the family, “And somehow she knows it.”

Actually Alex didn’t. Of course, there was a law against murdering an aristocrat, but even though he counted as one, they were in the Morales’s castle and no one would find out. He was even more curious than Silvio why he was safe and without change in his expression, Alex patiently waited for someone to explain.

Immediately after hearing what his father said, Alvaro realized what the old man meant.

He immediately calmed down and even laughed, “Hahaha!, so that’s how it is. I lost my cool again, my bad.”

“You have to work on that, my son.” Esteban said in a patronizing tone, but Alvaro didn’t mind, “You see, Silvio! You have your father’s hot temper and sometimes it interferes with your judgment. If you analyzed this situation calmly, you would understand she could’ve never thought of this herself. Someone is teaching all this nonsense and using her to make trouble for us. Tell me, who do you think it could be?”

A case of literary theft: this tale is not rightfully on Amazon; if you see it, report the violation.

The old man spoke as if Alex wasn’t present or was just a puppet that could be used to educate the precious heir. Alex, of course, couldn’t care less. This was a godsend opportunity and he intended to use it.

“Hmmm.” Silvio scratched his head, “We know everyone in the castle … probably some servant …”

“No!” Grandfather interrupted, “Think from a wider perspective!”

Silvio’s eyes immediately lit up, “So simple! I should’ve thought of this from the beginning! It’s obviously either Lopez’s or Ramos’s doing!”

‘Wtf?! How the hell did they manage to complicate a simple matter of a girl not wanting to get married?!’ Alex was in a light shock, but refrained from showing it on his face, ‘To think they could suspect the other two aristocratic families behind this childish scheme …”

From anyone’s, except from the Alex’s, point of view that was the only logical explanation, therefore Esteban hearing his grandson’s reply contently nodded.

“Good!” He said, “And how do you think we should proceed?”

“Obviously we need to find out who’s behind this incident.” Without much thinking Silvio said, “We can’t openly torture her …”

“Stop!” Alvaro interrupted, “Don’t even think about it – under no circumstances we will lay finger on her! To force us to make a move, even if it’s without directly killing her, might be some kind of a plan ‘b’. Don’t forget that torturing an aristocrat is basically the same as killing them.”

“Sorry, papa!” Silvio blushed with shame.

“Don’t worry! You have a lot to learn.” Esteban patiently said, “But I guess the time has come to finally clean our own house.”

“And what do we do with her?” Silvio asked and pointed at Alex.

“Hmmm …” Grandfather began to think, but Alvaro got an idea.

“Why don’t we see what the mastermind has planned?” He said and turned towards Alex, “What do you think we should do now?”

At this point Alex barely held back his laughter. They really treated women like empty space, to not speak about young girls.

“Why would we do anything? The guests left, so I guess I’ll go to my room.” He said with a smile and got up, “Oh, right, papa! Let’s not think about my marriage before I turn eighteen. And I’ll choose my husband myself.”

Then he turned around and left the three men with ugly expressions on their faces. Even the old Esteban had hard time to control himself.

“That b*tch!” Silvio cursed.

“Calm down, grandson!” Esteban said after taking a deep breath, “Now analyze the information you got!”

‘Uhmm … she doesn’t want to get married …” Silvio said “Aaaand … she doesn’t know her place!”

“Hahaha!” Both Alvaro and Esteban found the youth amusing and finally relaxed.

“Son!” After calming down Alvaro said, “While it might be true, what you just said doesn’t matter. Grandfather wanted you to look at the situation from the culprit’s point of view. And if you think about it – we got a lot of information! First of all – she said she won’t get married until she is eighteen. Since she is my youngest daughter and the only one still available, it means the family that wants her has a member who is younger than her! The message that she will choose her husband means they’ll send us message in seven years revealing who they are.”

“But … but why would anyone want her? She’s terrible!” Silvio was still angry.

“Son! You have a lot to learn. It is not that hard to tame a woman, but let’s speak about that another time.” Alvaro said, “What I want to hear from you is – can you figure out who was behind this incident?”

Silence filled the courtyard once again. Silvio wrecked his brain trying to think of the correct answer, but Alvaro and his father meanwhile enjoyed the sumptuous feast. Even if this event began as a fiasco, it was anything but that.

A good hour later, Silvio finally spoke, “I can’t figure out which one exactly, but it’s definitely one of the other two aristocrats, most likely Ramos.”

“Explain your reasoning!” Esteban said while smiling contently. This grandson of his was growing up to be a promising young man.

“First of all, the whole incident was during the visit from the Perez family. That means the culprit doesn’t want us to form or strengthen the bond with them.” Silvio said and after seeing his grandfather nod in satisfaction, continued with more confidence, “The next part is very important – the fact that they want my sister means they want to form an alliance, but there are reasons why it is not possible for now. My father’s argument about a potential younger husband is most likely correct, but the delay is not because of that. We might not know their circumstances in detail, but the future alliance is important enough for them to expose their spy in our castle. I incline to think it’s the Ramos family, but that is just a guess based on my instincts.”

“Hahaha! That’s my son!” Alvaro proudly said and drank the vine glass empty, “Not bad at all! Just one last thing, tell me, what do you think – how should we proceed?”

“First of all we should cleanse the castle. There is no place for spies here.” Silvio immediately said, “And for now we can’t make any direct moves against the other two families, but we didn’t intend to, so it doesn’t matter. The problem is with Perez’s … our project …”

“You don’t have to be worried about that.” The old Esteban mysteriously smiled.

Seeing his son’s confused look, Alvaro explained, “What your grandfather means is – that damned Hector performed even better play than our Mona. I bet in ten to fifteen days he will send a note demanding an explanation and we’ll need to concede five to seven percent in our project. Afterwards we’ll shake hands and the incident will be forgotten.”

Alvaro would’ve lost the bet, but no one from Morales family knew that yet.

Silvio’s jaw slowly dropped in shock. He expected for all relations with Perez family to be cut from now on, but to think they would just use this event to their advantage only to gain more profits!

Seeing his grandson’s expression, Esteban laughed and said, “Welcome to the real world! This is how grownups do business!”

Meanwhile Alex sat on his bed, cultivating Qi. Even though he was completely calm during the incident, now his emotions were in a turmoil. Obviously he blamed the damned hormones, but for calming down and analyzing the situation with a sober head there was no better way than meditation.

His male relatives overthinking the situation was like a gift from heavens, but unfortunately he had heard enough stories about his father’s and grandfather’s treacherous ways and had no illusions about selling him off at the first convenience.

He had no chance of escaping since this time there was no older brother to look after him. In addition, being an eleven year old girl was a completely different story than eleven year old boy, pumped with steroids from Lord’s seeds.

Alex had to think of another way out. He needed a plan! And, since Morales suspected one of the other two aristocratic families to be behind the today’s incident he had an inkling what to do.