Wealth (4)

"I'm sending you to the grocery store. Here is the money and the ingredients I need. If there is any leftover money, you can purchase whatever you want," grandma pitied me.

"Really? Where is it? It's my first time going to the grocery store. I always wanted to go," I nearly jumped in the air.

Grandma was briefly taken aback by my excitement, and ended up giving me more money than needed. It felt nice to hold the cash in my hands, it made me feel more powerful. After giving me the directions, Evan was asked to follow us as he was more experienced. Pretending Luke and Alex weren't with us, I happily skipped on the uneven pathway. Humming a bright song, sometimes walking backwards and twirling in anticipation.

As soon as I entered the nostalgic store, I quickly gathered the ingredients into the cart briefing scanning the layout. Looking at the prices, I slightly smiled, discovering grandma gave me plenty of money to use for myself. Scrolling to the snack section, I began to grab most of the prepackaged desserts. I was touched by the jellies, pudding, cookies, and chips. These were absolutely precious to me.

"Do we really need this much?" Evan stared at the nearly empty shelves.

"I do. We should go to another grocery store if they don't let us purchase all of them," I nodded.

"I'm going to put them back on the shelves, Rika. This is wasteful. You won't be eating any of them anyways," Luke started to take the items out.

"I think you're misunderstanding something. All the snacks inside this cart are for me. I'm the one eating the snacks," I guarded my snacks.

"If you confiscate them or throw them out, you're technically stealing them from me," I added.

Luke ignored me, and had Alex join him in placing the items back on the shelves. Meanwhile, I wasn't willing to lose against them, and placed the snacks and drinks back into the cart. Evan watched our fight for over an hour as we attracted a small audience from our actions. Until the owner came, "excuse me, you are disturbing the other shoppers, please decide whether you want to purchase them."

"Here is a cheque to compensate you for the trouble," Alex wrote a number.

"I apologize for making your visit uncomfortable," she accepted the cheque.

I nearly rolled my eyes as she was too easily bribed by the money. Taking advantage of the crowd, I started my act. My eyes blinked tears, and my voice wobbled, "why are you being so cruel? It's my money, so I get to decide what I could do with it. You usually control my bank accounts to leave me stranded. You starve me from them."

To create a bigger impact, I began to kneel in front of them, making the crowd increase its chattering and gossiping. Clasping my hands together, miserably begging them, mixing in lies, "let me go for this one purchase. It's only for a month, you can do whatever you want once we return to the first district. Stealing this opportunity from me is basically child abuse with the mental torture. Is it wrong for me to stand up against your aggressiveness?"

"Can you help us with placing the items on the shelves? We're planning to make the purchase soon," Alex turned to Evan.

"Shouldn't a few snacks and drinks be fine?" He felt sorry for me.

"A few snacks and drinks should be fine," I tried to negotiate.

"I can buy you better ones when we return to the first district," Luke shot my proposal down.

"I don't want better ones. I want these ones. Why do you care so much? You don't have to eat them if you don't like them. Why make me do the same? You always make a big deal of everything you disapprove of," I raised my voice.

"You'll get sick and we're the ones who take care of you each time. We have the right to make sure you stay healthy," he persuaded most of the audience.

"I won't get sick, stop using it as an excuse for everything. I eat them in secret all the time in the first district. Ethan gives them to me sometimes," I used him as a cover.

"We can call him right now," Luke pulled his phone out.

"It wasn't Ethan, it was Jules," I confessed.

I waited for my doom to come as he went through his contracts. Unfortunately, Jules answered the video call, and instantly regretted his actions. Luke immediately made the camera face the snacks, and got to the point, "is it true you gave these to Rika in the past?"

"A few times," Jules revealed under the pressure.

"Seriously?" Alex's impression of him lowered.

"Just a few packages of jellies and pudding," Jules feared them.

Both of them were stunned when Jules ended the call, and ran away from them. When Luke called him again, he didn't answer, making Alex pull out his phone.

Jules was smart, getting the sense to avoid them since they couldn't do anything in the third district. I took this chance to convince them, "I wasn't lying. You can't use my health against me now. Let me purchase them instead of remaining stubborn."

"You don't deserve them. How dare you hide this from us?" Alex scarily turned to me.

"It's because I knew you two would react like this. You left me with no choice," I argued.

"I'm not even using your family's money. It's mine," I pointed out.

"This is ridiculous," I stopped begging.

I was never visiting the grocery store with these two people again. I could ask grandma to distract them while I made the purchases. I rose to stand, and placed the snacks I wanted into the cart again.

Wait, why was I even putting them inside the cart? I loaded everything I wanted inside my arms, and ran to the cashier. Urging her to quickly start scanning the items, I used the extra time to dash back and forth to add grandma's requested ingredients.

Doing the calculations inside my head, I passed her the exact amount of money before she could ask. Slightly smiling when the transaction was finished, I held the bags filled with snacks and drinks from my quick thinking. Thankfully, there were some chairs near the checkout area as I placed the bags beside me. Rewarding myself for my efforts, I opened a package to eat some cookies. When I began to get thirsty, I drank some soda, another rare item in my life.

"I'm pausing the construction projects," Luke watched me.

"Try it. Let's see how it goes, start with the beauty sauna," I dared him.

Like I predicted, a call instantly came and Joanna exploded, "I am disappointed in you. You should know the scale of our investments. If we stop the projects, we will be losing trillions if not quadrillions of the potential value in the new technology and knowledge we could have received from another dimension. The construction project was also a learning opportunity, which was giving you practical experience in doing trades and deals. There are other ways to educate Rika, and this should never be an option."

However, it didn't stop there, Juliana called Alex a few minutes after Joanna's lecture. Juliana furiously faced them, "the entire family is investing in your future through this project. This mansion will be listed under the three of your bank accounts. We wouldn't give a large sum to Rika for nothing. This was a test, and a part of your training. I expected you two to be aware of this, even Rika knew. Reverse the order immediately."

"You two are disappointing," I faced them after the calls.

"I'll reverse the order," Luke was shaken.

"I gave you many hints. I repeatedly told you to pay close attention. Do you need everything to be told to you to understand?" I took the chance to scold them.

"I was working hard all this time helping you with your training and you can't let me have some snacks?" I tried to convince them.

"This has nothing to do with the snacks," Alex argued.

"Who do you think helped you with sourcing the materials? Who mostly did the work for the design plans and negotiations to decrease the cost? I deserve the snacks and drinks. I even increased the investment scale by gaining your family's trust," I bluffed.

Unexpectedly, my accomplices took my side, thinking snacks were a minor issue compared to their rooms at risk. These overworked people perfectly timed the calls, taking turns in lecturing them. The last person who called was Alex's grandfather, "while you were participating in the sword spars, she was presenting her plans to us, trying to persuade us to increase the scale of your project. She contributed more to the project than the both of you. You know how strict we are when increasing the budget. Although her method was wrong in hiding stuff from us and acting without our permission, it was your fault for not keeping her in line. A couple of snacks to reward her is reasonable if they're not harmful, make sure to go through the ingredients."

Once he ended the call, I was nearly moved by my circle of allies. Using their support to leverage my request, I faced them again, "I still can't have the snacks and drinks? I worked really hard to help you."

"We'll go through the ingredients and give you the ones that are safe," Alex followed his grandfather's instructions.

"You have a large family. Are they your older cousins or siblings?" Evan interrupted us.

"You can start once we return to the house," I ignored Evan.

"We're attracting attention here," Alex agreed.

The three of us continued to ignore Evan, frustrated we had to hold the bags with our hands. If Evan wasn't here, we could have placed them inside our inventory and pulled them out near the house. After passing grandma her requested ingredients, Luke and Alex immediately went through my bags. Thankfully, most of the snacks were harmless with not many side effects. A few others were given to Evan, finally admitting his existence.

"You can't eat all of them at once. There is a limit like usual," Luke passed me the packages.

I accepted the deal, "you should have done this from the start."

"If these are safe, shouldn't grandma's cooking be safe?" I wondered.

"There's only so much I can accept Rika," Luke rejected my request.

"Is it because you don't want her to touch the lesser things we eat? This is offending to us," grandma had similar thoughts.

"Her health is not the reason, seeing you accept those snacks and drinks. And I believe I have the right to let my granddaughter eat what she wants," she was on my side.

"Grandma!" I ran to hug her.

"I want those pies and yesterday's dinner appeared amazing," I took this chance.