Reborn To Rule The Capital

Checking The Chessboard

The marble floor felt like pure ice beneath Seraphina’s bare feet. It was a sharp contrast to the burning, invisible fire that had just ruined her soul. Standing before the tall vanity mirror, she pressed her flat palm against the cool glass. She watched her own reflection do the exact same thing, checking the steady rise and fall of her chest. Her breath was no longer shaking. The phantom taste of blood and bitter poison in the back of her throat was gone now. It was completely replaced by the fresh, lavender-scented air blowing through her bedroom.

She was alive. She was truly, undeniably back in the past.

Slowly, the wild hammering in her chest slowed down to a normal beat. The crazy panic of her sudden awakening washed away, leaving behind a clear, cold mind. She realized that crying was for the weak. Seraphina had completely run out of tears in the winter of 2026. What was left inside her chest was a cold, sharp, and deadly focus.

She stepped back from the mirror and looked around her bedroom, really seeing it for the first time in years.

On the outside, it looked like a beautiful room. It had expensive cream silk curtains, simple silver decorations, and large glass closets. But as she studied the perfect layout, a bitter smile touched her lips. There were absolutely no personal items here. No family photos, no bright colors, and no proof of who she really was. Every single piece of furniture and every boring color had been chosen and approved by her stepmother, Victoria.

In her past life, Seraphina had lived like a total ghost in her own home. She used to tiptoe through the grand hallways of the manor, trying not to bother anyone. As an illegitimate daughter whose real mother had died alone and poor, Seraphina had spent her whole life trying to hide in the shadows. She had lived under the foolish, pathetic hope that if she was just perfect enough, quiet enough, and useful enough, her father might finally look at her with some real love.

But her father, Arthur, never cared about her at all. To him, she was just a living reminder of an old mistake. She was an unwanted child who could only prove her worth by working twice as hard as anyone else to keep the family business alive.

Meanwhile, her stepmother, Victoria, played the part of a loving, sweet mother perfectly whenever Arthur was watching. The very second his back was turned, she stripped Seraphina of her voice. And Eloise? Eloise was the precious, legitimate golden child. She got to enjoy all the luxury and rewards from the business deals that Seraphina actually bled for.

"How completely pathetic I was," Seraphina whispered to the empty room. Her voice sounded low and clear, carrying a dangerous, icy edge.

She walked over to her clean white marble desk and opened her expensive business laptop. The screen lit up her face with a pale blue light. Her fingers moved across the keyboard with fast, practiced, and deadly skill. She had spent years running a multi-billion dollar shipping network, and she knew exactly what to do. If she wanted to win this time around, she needed to check her current position on the board. She needed to know exactly where she stood on this date: June 6, 2024.

She opened the main business files of the Elisabeth Group. Her eyes narrowed as she scanned the active projects.

There it was, flashing in bright yellow at the top of her screen: Project Vanguard.

A cold, winning laugh escaped her throat. Her memories of her past life came rushing back with perfect clarity. Right now, on this exact day, the Elisabeth Group was facing an absolute disaster. A massive, high-stakes shipping and trading contract with the European Maritime Group was about to fail completely. There was a terrible traffic jam of cargo ships at the southern ports. It was a total mess caused entirely by her father’s bad decisions, terrible planning, and cheap corner-cutting.

In her past life, Arthur had lost his mind. He had thrown a glass cup across the boardroom in a wild rage, screaming that the family would go completely bankrupt if this contract failed. Desperate to calm him down and earn just a little bit of his praise, Seraphina had locked herself in her office for four days and four nights straight. She had survived on pure adrenaline and bitter black coffee. Working entirely alone, she had re-routed three hundred giant cargo ships, fixed the harbor fees, and created a perfect emergency plan that saved the entire deal.

That single contract was the exact reason the Elisabeth family became so incredibly famous and respected in high society. It made the company worth billions of dollars overnight. It also made them rich enough for Julian’s powerful family to notice them and propose a marriage deal. It was a throne she had built with her own sweat and blood, only to be pushed off it by Eloise and Julian in the end.

Seraphina scrolled down the computer page, checking the current file. The progress bar showed that the work was eighty-eight percent done. Her past self had already finished all the hard, painful parts. The difficult maps were drawn, the harbor leaders were happy, and the final, corrected shipping list was sitting in the outbox. It was just waiting for her digital signature before the midnight deadline.

With this single computer file, she held the entire financial future of her family’s company right in her hands.

"You always told me that family comes first, Father," Seraphina said quietly to the glowing screen, her eyes shining with dark amusement. "You told me that my hard work would make sure Eloise lived a comfortable life. You said I should just be grateful to have the Berth last name."

She leaned back in her comfortable leather chair, her fingers resting lightly on the trackpad. In her previous life, she would have clicked the 'Submit' button immediately. She would have walked down the hall and handed the victory to her father like a dog begging for scraps. Then, she would have watched Victoria sweetly suggest that Eloise should take all the credit at the next fancy party to make her look good to the public. And Seraphina, always desperate to keep the peace, had always stayed silent.

Not this time.

Slowly and carefully, Seraphina highlighted the entire main folder of Project Vanguard. She selected all the new shipping paths, the special customs permissions, and the secret trading plans she had spent weeks working on.

Her finger hovered directly over the delete key.

If this contract failed, the European Maritime Group would force the Elisabeth Group to pay a massive, life-ending financial penalty. The family company’s stock would crash completely, their bank loans would be frozen, and her father’s precious name would be dragged through the mud in front of the entire city. The perfect, untouchable life that Victoria and Eloise hid behind would start to c***k under the weight of total financial ruin.

They wanted to use her brilliant mind to pay for their luxury? They wanted to step on her dead body to climb to the top of high society?

Then she would simply pull the rug out from under their feet and watch them fall into the dark.

A cold, beautiful smile appeared on Seraphina's lips. Without a single second of doubt, her finger pressed down hard on the key.

Delete.

A loading wheel spun on the screen for less than a second, and then the page refreshed. The main folder was completely blank. Weeks of brilliant, impossible-to-replace business data disappeared into nothing. It was wiped completely from the company’s local backup computers.

She didn't stop there. She logged into the main server system and manually mixed up all the port locations. She changed the ship lists back to the chaotic, stuck disaster her father had created in the first place. To any outside inspectors, it would look like the system had failed because of basic human mistakes and terrible management. It would look like the natural result of Arthur Berth bad leadership.

Seraphina smoothly shut her laptop and slid it into her expensive leather bag. The sabotage was officially done, and the clock was ticking down toward the midnight deadline. Her father had less than fourteen hours left before the European Group realized they had been handed a broken, messy disaster.

She stood up and walked back into her large closet. She walked right past the soft, pink, simple dresses Victoria had carefully bought for her. Victoria always wanted her to look like an obedient, quiet shadow next to Eloise. Instead, her hands moved past the soft fabrics until she found a sharp, well-made white power suit. She had bought it herself with her own independent money, but she had never been brave enough to wear it before.

As she pulled the sharp blazer over her shoulders, the fabric felt exactly like armor.

The weak, love-starved illegitimate daughter of the Elisabeth family was gone forever. She was buried in the ashes of a future that would never happen now. Tonight, the Capital would get its very first taste of the reborn queen, and she was going to enjoy every single second of their ruin.