Summer Start (4)

"Are we done with the photos?" I wanted to be free.

"This should be the last one," Joanna was equally exhausted.

Maybe I was sick of taking the same poses for several hours. I turned my back towards the camera to show them an alternative, "how about we create finger hearts?"

"Or we can create them with our hands or arms," I went through the actions.

I waited for them to follow me. One second, two seconds, three- why were they just watching me? I grabbed Luke's arm to make him follow the moves.

"Let's go with all three," I raised his arm.

Gosh…I totally did the right thing! Although my hand was tempted to take videos, I could hold back my urge. Afterall, it was totally not the perfect blackmail material!

Sad thoughts Rika. Sad thoughts. Look at Belle, you don't want to be like her. She was going to be hit with someone's grudge later with how hard she was laughing. When I turned to peek at Joanna, she was holding back from doing the same, and avoided looking at her husband.

Fortunately, she didn't know that William equally found her current moves absurd and turned to pretend he was laughing at Lucius awkwardly holding his arms in the air.

Meanwhile, Luke was expressionlessly smiling as usual, finding everyone else odd. After a few seconds, everyone burst into laughter, staring at Luke who was the only one confused.

"What other poses do you have, Rika?" Joanna was having fun.

"The bunny ear one," I cutely demonstrated.

This one required quite a bit of energy, trying to appear perky. Joanna's eyes glittered with amusement as she urged everyone else to follow me. In the middle of the pose, my headband became loose, slightly siding to the side. This was when I discovered Luke had inherited his talent in arranging hair from his father. William instantly placed my headband back in its proper place. When we resumed the pose again, I sneaked a look at the others again. My eyes widened when I noticed Luke's perfect imitation of me.

His innocence was shown, perfectly adorable eyes that were full of energy. Everyone burst into laughter again after watching Luke, thinking he was overdoing it. Joanna wanted more separate photos of Luke, and ordered him to go through more unique poses.

In the end, I had to admit the end results were impressive. As I went through my photos, I was surprised at the girl seamlessly blending in with the others. She looked happy, energetic, almost like she wasn't forcing herself to smile. She didn't feel like me.

"It's time to attend the sword spar event," Luke tapped to close my screen.

"Are you participating?" I moved on.

"I am, you can watch us on the second floor," he dragged me.

I sighed and raised my head towards a better topic. It wasn't like anything was going to change because of a few photos. Instead, my eyes reflected an impressive stadium, resembling a sophisticated version of the usual mana practice rooms.

On the second floor, the arrangements resembled a café, with many round tables topped with plates of desserts. I sat down on the table with mostly strawberry based desserts, and grabbed a huge bite of the cake.

Wasn't this pure happiness? Unconsciously, my eyes glittered while I focused on eating, ignoring the person joining me.

Unlike me, these wealthy people could eat cake whenever they wanted. They could wait for me to finish eating and bring even more desserts after the table was empty.

"It was unfortunate we couldn't meet last time," Juliana watched me.

"You can pass me your design plan now. I'll use the waterpark as a cover," I held my hand out.

"Is it nine hundred billion Aris you need?" She recalled the budget Joanna gave me.

"I'll take a look," I opened the file.

More than words, I flipped through a bunch of photos. They were references for a small beauty spa, something awfully similar to her sister's beauty sauna.

Although I didn't know why she wouldn't just use the ones inside the chain of hotels she owned, her demands were less than I expected, and nothing compared to what could actually be done.

With nine hundred billion, I could easily make it more extravagant as I was already starting to adjust the design in front of her.

Once I was done, I passed my screen to her, trying to get confirmation if she was fine with the changes.

I was an expert in creating the design plans now, getting experience from working on two grand projects. I didn't expect Juliana to be surprised, her eyebrows raised in suspicion, "you can do all this?"

"If there's more of the budget leftover, I can add more to the beauty spa," I smiled.

"Joanna is lucky to have a daughter like you, but at least I have you as my niece," she gave me the money.

"Well, it's the only place you can escape from your petty in-laws?" I guessed.

I wasn't surprised when she began to reveal all the grudges she had. She resembled Joanna, possessing many complaints, especially about Shelly's family. However, it was sadly reasonable, and I wasn't able to disagree with her.

"That horrible girl from the Locast family, how could she get matched with my son? They make many mistakes with the documents when we collaborate on projects together. I have to be the one who fixes them each time. They can't do a single thing properly and push everything to me," Juliana held back her anger.

"You won't be able to push your work on your future daughter-in-law later," I ate more cake.

"If she dares to make a mistake, I will be held responsible. Hearing from my son, she doesn't appear like a reliable option for now," she held a grudge against Shelly.

"I'll help you get your revenge on your husband later, here is some cake. You deserve it for tolerating his horrible family," I tried to console her.

"If you want me to go one step further, I can try extorting money from your mother-in-law," I offered.

"I only have you in my life Rika," she was touched.

"Can I send you a design plan as well?" Another person joined us.

I stiffened from the appearance of Charles' father, wondering why he wasn't participating in the sword spar like the rest. Taking a closer look at him, he had a glitzy sword inside his hand, which he soon placed inside his inventory.

Wait. The design plans! They were supposed to be a secret. I immediately became more alert, and shifted closer to Juliana. Was he able to overhear our conversation or was information already spreading around? Briefly studying him, I guessed it would be the first option, knowing both Juliana and Joanna were desperate to hide it.

"What do you mean by design plan?" I slowly faced him.

"Your mother let me know. The information is tightly roaming around in our circle of allies," Charles' father explained.

"You married into the Lumiere family and are also suffering under them," I guessed.

"I can offer you a bit more than others for you to accept my request," he nodded.

What was with this family? Everyone who married into another family seemed to be desperate to escape from their in-laws and the work. I sighed as I went through his design plan, discovering he wanted a relaxing library, surrounded by fine wines and a place to rest, and drowned by the warm sun.

Surprisingly, I knew the titles of the books he wanted to fill his bookshelves with. A collection of smoothing, heart-warming stories that I read for school, all the way back in kindergarten.

"Give me five hundred billion Aris, your demands don't measure up to what the others need," I viewed him in a new light.

"Here is the money," he was momentarily stunned.

"Is it fine if I make adjustments with the leftover money?" I knew there was a high possibility.

"It is," he quickly recovered.

Once he left, another unexpected victim joined us. I nearly rolled my eyes when I discovered Allison taking a seat beside me. How did she come to know about this? I thought she and Joanna were enemies. I pretended she was invisible, and took more bites of my cake. I wasn't going to accept her request, I hated her as much as she hated me. However, I couldn't continue ignoring her when she offered, "I'll give you ten percent commission. I'm already giving Joanna forty percent commission and helping her hide this from your father and grandfather."

"What do you need?" My eyes changed.

I scoffed at her greenhouse filled with aromatic herbs. She desired a mini lab to help create beauty products, most likely her hobby. I planned to extort as much money as possible, "how much are you willing to give?"

"Four trillion Aris," she showed me her screen.

Four trillion? Why didn't she buy a greenhouse that already existed? I tried to study her closer, and instantly found her pale complexion likely from being drowned with work. This entire family was vicious since they were being overworked!

I wondered why they didn't hire more staff to support them, knowing they had the money. Maybe this was why Joanna agreed to help her make the arrangements. I gave into her, "a trillion is enough. Instead, help me hide this and give me more weaknesses about the others."

"I knew I could only rely on my granddaughter in this life," her eyes became a little watery.

At this rate, I was becoming a counselor for all the victimized people here. An increasing number of people visited me, trying to hide they were a part of this from the others. I was stunned when Alex's grandfather was close to crying, complaining his wife pushes everything to him. How could I not accept their requests? It was an advantage to me to be on good sides, and each of them offered me a large percentage of commission in return.

Unexpectedly, even the loving Suilett family struggled with the poor and rare breaks. Only William and Logan never appeared, predictable since everyone knew this project would be at risk if discovered. The most laughable part was how all of them were hiding this from their children and grandchildren, not trusting them. Once I organized the list of clients, I began to look down at the spars for the first time.

My eyes went large, seeing how violent they were, mixed with magical spells. Spotting the board of points, Alex was in first place, followed by Luke for their age group. Seeing Belle and Yulee were participating, wearing a thin piece of armor, I wanted to join. It would be a great chance to vent some stress, attacking people who I had a grudge against. When Luke came to the second floor, taking a break before the next round, I asked him, "can I also participate?"

"You won't be able to hold the sword," Luke disapproved.

"Can I at least try?" I glanced at his sword.

"Your stamina is not at the level of others yet," he placed his sword away.

"Only one round?" I turned to Juliana for support.

"Maybe next year," she tried to console me.

Looking at the others, they sadly appeared to have the same thoughts, agreeing with Luke. I lost my appetite as they were treating me as if I was helplessly weak. Pushing my plate away, I placed my spoon down for the first time. I could be doing better things during this time, maybe like using my staff to fly around the mansion grounds. Unexpectedly, Charles' father let me touch his sword, noticing how depressed I appeared.

"This isn't that heavy," I glided my hand against the blade.

However, the next second, my control in mana went wacky, nearly toppling. My head began to pound, suddenly compressing together. My heartbeat pacing faster, making me take bigger and longer breaths to calm it down. I leaned against Luke, trying to prop myself back to my original position. Why didn't they give me a warning?