Chapter 357: Obliterated [2]
Kael had the blood of the Frosts in his veins, so Victoria could have somehow used that as an excuse to soothe herself, but Noah... the kid was an orphan and wasn’t even on the same level as Kael, yet the power at his disposal was now far greater than her own.
"I wonder how father would react?"
Victoria mumbled to herself with a defeated smile etched on her face.
After meeting Kael for the first time in three years, Victoria had the thought of showing him his rightful place and to let him know that his behaviour and his attitude had no place in House Frost, but now... Victoria felt that it was her own existence that had no right to be called a Frost.
To be defeated by her brother, who was supposed to be a failure, and then being overshadowed by the brilliance of a commoner, who never had the training that she had received since her childhood, nor did he have the resources that were like stones picked up from the ground in Victoria’s eyes.
The orphan had probably just begun to train properly after being admitted to the academy, and yet such a kid had shown Victoria what true talent was.
Click.
The sound of the door being opened brought Victoria out of her thoughts, but the girl still had her eyes fixed on the ceiling, as she knew who had entered the room.
"Never expected the soon-to-be president to have such a defeated look plastered over her face. Is this what they call a miracle?"
Ella’s voice was softer than it had ever been, though if someone else had heard her words, they wouldn’t have found them the most soothing to comfort someone in distress.
But Victoria, on her part, smiled faintly, as her friend chuckled after delivering her statement.
"Maybe... there are better people to become president than me."
The words were spoken unhurriedly, and they were true to the emotions that were currently raging through Victoria’s heart.
"Is that so? How come I have never seen them?"
Ella responded with a question of her own.
She had a good idea about what Victoria was feeling at the moment, and being a close friend of the Frost... Ella knew that any words of comfort on her part would have been counterproductive given Victoria’s current state of mind.
Moving closer to Victoria, she picked up the nearby chair before putting it beside where Victoria was currently sitting.
Victoria, on her part, didn’t react and continued to stare above.
"I was just wondering about something... care to answer a question of mine?"
Victoria didn’t respond, though her silence was an answer in itself.
Clearing her throat, Ella sorted the words in her mind before slightly shifting in her seat in order to get a better view of Victoria, who was now sitting to her right.
"Does the commander fight all battles?"
The question lingered in the air, with Ella clearing her throat once again, so as to remind Victoria that she was waiting for her answer.
The silence stretched between them, but it was in no way an uncomfortable one.
"He doesn’t—"
"So why are you trying to fight by yourself?"
"..."
Ella interrupted, making Victoria give a sigh in return, as the latter opened her eyes before observing her senior, who had now become a psychological counsellor of sorts.
"To lead the council, to lead your house... or to become capable of leading anyone, you don’t have to be the strongest person out there."
"..."
"You just have to be someone whom people look up to. Loyalty is not based on the strength of the leader or the fear of him... it’s based on who you are as a person, and that creates the respect which fuels the loyalty of your followers."
Ella spoke out her thoughts while staring into the dark black eyes before her... eyes that had defeat etched in them, yet the desire to rise from the ashes was there as well, however faint it might have become due to the recent events.
Victoria might have been devaluing herself and underestimating the extent of her competence in the process, but as a fifth-year student, someone who was older than the Frost... Ella was able to diagnose the situation better than Victoria, who was at the centre of it.
Kael and Noah... both the first years were above the normal standards of the world, so it was a given for Victoria to not be able to match their abilities and talent for cultivation.
Ella could also say with certainty that even Leon was inferior to the first-year duo.
So all the worries that might have been pestering Victoria’s mind weren’t much of a real issue.
"As for that guy Noah... I think it’s all the more beneficial for us for him to be strong enough to be a rival to Kael."
Ella’s words made Victoria shake her head in denial.
"Noah is no longer someone I can keep under my control without having to resort to using my sister as a shield, but even that had backfired."
Victoria knew it was a severe mistake on her part to use Alicia as a shield to get Noah into her faction.
Even she didn’t know what had made her utter those words in the heat of the moment.
Was it due to feeling cornered after seeing Ashlyn’s faction being empowered by Kael’s support, which he had openly displayed during the student council meeting?
There were numerous ways in which Victoria could have secured Noah in her faction, but she had gone out of her way to choose the worst method possible.
Had she given Noah some more respect during their talk... maybe—
No.
It was a guarantee that Noah would have joined her faction, coupled with the fact that he was ready to join due to Victoria being Alicia’s older sister.
Victoria let out another sigh, knowing that Kael’s mere presence was the one that had destabilised her state of mind at that given point in time.
Still, Victoria knew that Kael wasn’t the only one.
It was her inherent belief in being superior that had resulted in her indirectly downplaying Noah’s worth in front of him.