"Who says that they are fake?" She answered calmly.
Cosmos let go of her hand but he continued to block the door and retained the amused look on his face. "Come on, we both know what you are, a villainess crying for a horse." He chuckled and shook his head. "I thought that you wanted to win his heart and grasp his loyalty firmly, fighting with him is not the way to accomplish your goal."
Sigrid smacked her lips and wagged her finger, "There are many ways to skin a rat Cosmos, I do not have all of his loyalty yet and as for his heart, we both know that he does not love me.
I must set boundaries early enough in order to protect myself, he should understand that things which belong to me cannot be taken or given away at his whims.
Today he takes my horse and tomorrow it could be my position as crown princess. I will not take chances, everything, no matter how small must be used to my advantage.
Besides, he likes it when I am feisty, I am a puzzle and a challenge that is always on his mind. If I am soft, clingy, needy and weepy like Emmah, he will get bored."
"So you are keeping him on his toes." Cosmos folded his arms across his chest, he nodded slowly as he could she her point. "I can see that working in your favor, you are on his mind right now, he is not even thinking about Emmah who is already regretting why she faked sickness because she has been put on bed rest for a week."
"But I do want my Venom back" Sigrid said honestly, "She will not survive at Stormwind, truly. I have been feeding her some elixirs from the mage estate and your bank, she is an intelligent horse that runs errands for me sometimes. She is bound to be a beauty when she grows up, if she is at Stormwind, they will keep breeding her until she is old and useless...."
"She is a horse!" Cosmos exclaimed, using the same tone as Roland.
"She is my baby." Sigrid pushed him aside and opened the door for herself, striding into the office of Lord Dane Vanger. It was inside one of the buildings he owned on Overtorn street, a five storied one in which most of the shops were greengrocers or drapers.
Lord Vanger’s office was on the top most floor, taking up all the space which Sigrid thought was unnecessary and a waste. For someone that was down on his luck financially, wouldn’t renting this space out for money be more useful than wasting it all?
The view from the back windows alone was satisfying enough to make Sigrid greedy for the ownership. It overlooked lush gardens and a park that was always occupied by people playing, picnicking, or on supervised dates.
"This will make a good coffee house." Sigrid said loudly and she turned to Lord Vanger who was on his feet with his head slightly bowed.
"Good day, crown princess Sigrid Maximus." he greeted respectfully. "It is an honor to meet you."
In his mind, he was thinking, ’please leave as quickly as possible.’
All the noble lords that had met her in court, at the Eastern boarder or anywhere really, knew better than cross words with her. It always left one at a loss and sometimes resulted in punishment. Just what was the ice cold crown princess of Eldoria doing in his office with a dozen white knights?
"Good day to you Lord Vanger." She answered and walked to the chair behind his desk.
She sat down and this prompted Lord Vanger to move to the chairs opposite, swiftly their positions had changed to appear as if Sigrid was the owner of the office and he a guest.
"Sit down Lord Vanger." she signaled to one of three chairs.
Cosmos and Brolin hid their smiles, the guest was telling the owner of the house to sit down, how funny!
"I have heard that you are selling off three of your properties and I am here to acquire them." Sigrid announced.
There was an air of authority around her and her words were somewhat commanding. Lord Vanger could tell that she was not there to negotiate, she wanted what she had come for. If she wanted to negotiate, she would have said, ’I am interested’ but she had said ’I am here to acquire them.’ It was very similar to I want them and you wont’ stop me.
"How much is your asking price?" she asked, playing with the black gloves that were covering her hands. "I have heard that you are willing to go as low as five hundred thousand gold and seven hundred thousand in investment, that sums up to to one million, two hundred thousand gold. I am prepared to offer you two million in gold."
The knights carried the trunks over and opened them, displaying the gold and silver to Lord Vanger. As moderately wealthy as he was, Lord Vanger had never seen two million in gold or silver.
They had banks were such amounts were directly deposited, he preferred banks to keeping large amounts of money at home.
"Great, you look satisfied, let’s sign the deed of sale and you can hand over the certificates of ownership of all three properties." Sigrid waved to Brolin.
He walked to the table and put down the deeds of sale. three of them, one for each building that he was selling. Even before purchase, they had been notarized the day before, showing just how sure Sigrid had been about the deal before even arriving.
"Sign here." Brolin pointed to the dotted lines on each deed of sale. He placed another piece of paper down on the desk, it already had Sigrid’s signature and had been notarized as well. "And this contract as well, it says that you are selling your property willingly and you have not been coerced. As you can see, the crown princess is very generous, she has added eight hundred thousand gold coins, more than enough to overturn your misfortune."
He smiled at Lord Vanger, his very normal teeth looking like sharp wolf fangs to the man. How was this behavior any different from being coerced?
With all the knights and their swords plus the forceful way the crown princess was talking, if he said no, wouldn’t he be forfeiting his life?
However, he had already promised miss Emmah that he would not sell his properties for now, the two day deadline he had given her was not that far. If he signed these documents, wouldn’t he be going against his word?
Lord Vanger was torn between honor and power.