The Killer Queen (Noella Briony)

"Has Ms. Darcy not reviewed these submissions?" Noella remembered the pieces she handed in. Darcy should have seen them! There’s no way Darcy would have reviewed her pieces and still allowed Oriana's submissions to go through.

Ingrid shook her head quickly. "Not yet. Ms. Darcy said she wouldn’t handle the submissions herself to avoid any bias. I collected them and submitted them together."

"Then let's show them to Ms. Darcy. These sketches, if I'm not mistaken, are mine."

Noella had submitted these pieces early to apply for course exemptions. And now, Oriana's name was on them.

Faced with such an interesting situation, Noella couldn't help but smirk.

Raising an eyebrow, Noella said, "Ingrid, as future designers, we should absolutely detest plagiarism, right? How would you feel if your designs were stolen?"

Ingrid felt as if her own creations had been snatched away! "I get it. I'll go to Ms. Darcy right now!"

With class starting in ten minutes, Ingrid couldn’t wait any longer and rushed out of the classroom towards the faculty office.

Darcy was preparing for class and looked up as Ingrid entered.

"What's the matter?"

"Ms. Darcy, Noella said these are her works. Could you take a look?"

Ms. Darcy took Ingrid's phone and scrolled through the competition entries. The more she saw, the deeper her frown became. She opened her drawer and pulled out the works Noella had submitted

to her, finding several pieces that were identical, even down to the materials listed for each gemstone!

Seeing these, Darcy frowned. "They are indeed the same. Get Oriana and Noella here."

Ingrid was stunned! She hadn't expected Oriana's shocking submissions to be plagiarized from Noella's work. These pieces had dazzled everyone, making them believe they were prize-winning material. Because of these designs, Oriana had been the talk of the department recently.

Rushing back to the classroom, Ingrid solemnly called Noella and Oriana to Darcy's office.

Seeing Noella, Oriana felt a twitch in her eye. She had been deliberately avoiding Noella, hoping to steer clear of any confrontation. Glancing at Noella now, Oriana speculated that Darcy intended to address their past conflict, perhaps expecting an apology. As if!

Noella was dressed simply in a hoodie and jeans, her legs long and slender. Her hoodie bore a discreet Azure logo, clearly the latest from Master Azure. One couldn't just buy this outfit; it was said that only Master Azure's clients could reserve one!

Oriana couldn’t hide her aversion for the Schnabel family, convinced that they couldn't measure up to her esteemed scholarly lineage!

Jealous and bitter, Oriana internally rolled her eyes. Once she won the department competition and gained fame, she wouldn't have to consider Noella a rival anymore!

Thinking of her submissions, Oriana's smile twisted slightly.

Darcy laid out Oriana's and Noella's submissions on the desk. "These two sets of submissions, please explain. I recall Noella submitted hers to me first, and Oriana's came later. Something doesn’t add up."

Oriana, feeling guilty, insisted, "Ms. Darcy, my designs are original. I don't know when Noella copied mine..."

Noella raised an eyebrow. "These pieces, I drew them last year. Your competition was this year. How could I copy your design?"

Oriana pulled out her phone, showing a pre-recorded timeline of her designs, purportedly from last January.

"Ms. Darcy, my drafts were also from last year. I created these drafts in January last year. Was Noella’s also drawn at that time?"

The video smoothly demonstrated the production cycle of each layer of Oriana's work, and the timestamps below indeed showed January of last year. NôvelDrama.Org: owner of this content.

This was something Oriana prepared well in advance!

Oriana had already investigated. Last year, Noella was still in Tranquility City, a remote and insignificant city. She didn't have the chance to come into contact with these things at all. These drafts might have been bought by the Schnabel family through connections!

With this thought, Oriana became even more convinced. There wouldn’t be any problem with the predetermined timeline she arranged in advance!

Darcy watched carefully, but found no obvious issues. Yet, these designs matched what Noella had submitted earlier!

Oriana said with a smug tone, "Ms. Darcy, this proves my innocence, right? These are my designs. As for when Noella copied me, I can't say. After all, being from the Schnabel family, there's hardly anything she couldn't acquire if she wanted, right?"

Noella chuckled lightly. "Ms. Darcy, may I use your computer for a moment?"

"Sure, go ahead."

As Beckett's sister and also her own sister’s boss, she couldn't believe Noella would plagiarize. However, as a teacher, she needed to remain impartial.

Noella's fingers danced across the keyboard, dissecting Oriana's so-called proof.

Oriana smirked triumphantly. She had splurged a fortune on that video, and there was no way Noella could dissect it! A country bumpkin from the boondocks, thinking she’s some sort of computer whiz? What a joke! All those drafts she had seen before were handwritten. She refused to believe that Noella could produce such video evidence!

A moment later, Noella stared at the screen, then swiveled the monitor towards Darcy.

“This video is a fabrication. The initial layer was added just last week, but it’s been manipulated to appear as if it’s from last January. Altering metadata is a piece of cake. Like with this photo, originally from Monday, just a few tweaks in the coding, and voila, it’s from next year. The design couldn’t possibly have been drawn next year, right?”

Noella’s fingers danced across the keyboard, swiftly restoring the earliest images and layers. The very bottom layer, the one Oriana was certain she had erased, was right there.

Seeing those images, panic visibly washed over her.

How was this possible! How did Noella manage to recover the supposedly deleted original layers?