Smiles, Scalpels, and Syndicate Takeovers
By @john1208
Zivena Korzha spent five grueling years abroad mastering the forbidden art of Arcano-Surgery to protect her sickly little brother. She finally returns to the smog-choked metropolis of Ostragrad for her mentor's funeral, only to find her fiancé Drystan clinging to a tearful girl who looks exactly like her. His excuse? 'I'm marrying her for duty, but I love you.' Zivena just giggles, pats his cheek, and immediately uses a prestigious Imperial Grant to purchase a controlling stake in Drystan’s company, effectively becoming his boss. However, the 'reward' grant is secretly a political trap laced with a Blood-Debt Hex designed to ruin her. Hiding her razor-sharp intellect behind a ditzy, cheerful persona, Zivena wields her surgical genius to excise the syndicate's corruption and turn the trap into a goldmine. Told in alternating third-person perspectives between the bubbly Zivena and the devastatingly handsome, fiercely loyal rival magnate Levon Zarya - who treats her like an absolute queen - the story follows Zivena building her empire. Will Drystan survive being miserable middle-management for the woman he threw away, or will Zivena's bubbly ruthlessness crush him for good?
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