An Eventful Day

Within minutes of getting her hands on the Everest Ice Lotus, Dr.Miller was able to turn the dark blue lotus with purple tips into a jar of grayish fluid with high viscosity.

This liquid was then mixed with the green liquid she used before and some refreshing energy from her palms.

The final result was a clear substance that looked no different than water but was somehow freezing the injections they were slated in.

There were 10 injections. Each was inserted in intervals of 5 minutes. So after 50 minutes, all three individuals in the room had their eyes on the sleeping Cynthia.

The doctor anticipated that she would wake up at any minute now. And she was right, Cynthia calmly opened her eyes.

'One, two, three people. 1 more than I expected but that's fine. Let the second act begin.'

The doctor obviously has the right to check on the patients with questions when they wake up. Before she could say anything though, Cynthia opened her mouth and made an outrageous demand.

"Bring me 15,000 of each potato type in the kitchen," she said with a deadpan expression and chilling tone. The look in her eyes was that of a ruler looking down on peasants who were nothing more than disgusting cockroaches.

"Alright," Antoine says as he and Lilliana had been through a lot today. They could no longer bother to show much of a reaction.

When people awakened their powers, they tended to receive some sort of trait that made them different from the past.

They would be aware of this change and would do their best to get used to it. For Antoine, it was his abnormal habit of smiling all the time and in practically any situation.

He was a pretty expressive child when younger and people could easily tell what he was thinking or feeling. This changed when he awakened.

Lillian was a child whose actions and words were just like her pure image. Her awakening caused her to have urges where she would seek to humiliate anyone she didn't like were was angry at.

The two siblings understood that Lilliana might have received some sort of impulsive change which made her want a truckload of potatoes.

They assumed that Cynthia would explain what her issues were so they could help her adjust to the new change to her mind and body she may be facing.

....

5 hours later, A line of over a dozen 16-wheelers formed outside the Duketh estate. They entered through and exited from there as well after forming a mountain of potatoes.

They were in all sorts of shades and sizes. There were 30 servants that formed a circular formation around the mountain.

They raised their hands in sync and then muttered osm words under their breath.

This caused the spontaneous creation of a circle of light with all sorts of strange symbols and patterns to appear. This is what most would consider being a magic circle used to cast spells.

This spell served through the mountain as if what a scanner of sorts and did so many times.

"The potatoes have been confirmed to contain nothing abnormal." said the imposing butler, Gordon Miller.

Antoine nodded and then looked at Cynthia who was quietly standing at the sides.

Her hair was being blown around elegantly by the gentle yet freezing breeze of early winter. Her smooth forehead which was usually covered with her bangs was also visible.

Cynthia walked over to the mountainous pile and stretched her arms all the way forward with her palms open.

WOOOSH!!!

A fearsome wind started to blow with an ominous sound that sounded like the howling of the winds.

Coupled with the winter air, it cause most of the servants around to shiver while others lightly shielded themselves with their arms.

They didn't want random dust entering it after all. None of them closed their eyes or covered themselves fully as they still wanted to see what the newest princess of the family was attempting.

ZWOOOM!!!

A portal of a cyan blue color opened widely above the pile. The wind suddenly changed courses as it guide the potatoes into the portal.

Within a minute, close to half a million potatoes were gone, never to be seen again.

The expansive backyard of the Duketh estate was in shambles with, grass, dirt, and flowers all over the mess.

There was no one rushing to fix it as they fixed their eyes onto Cynthia. She ignored their perplexed gazes and walked over to Antoine.

"I would like to see fa....father." Whenever she spoke, it was always full of pride and confidence. But it always faltered when her father was mentioned.

She always had a hard time keeping her emotions in check when it came to her father as she knew that this was the man her mother gave her heart to.

She couldn't understand why that was because her mother never shared her story and her father was not one to speak much anyway.

It hurt her deeply to not be able to understand her own mother's heart. She at least wanted a reason for her mother not mentioning it.

"He should be waiting in his study. He must have felt the commotion you just made." He looked at his sister with a smile and walked back towards the mansion with her in tow.

They walked past the entrance, through a set of corridors, and ended up at the end of one of the most elaborately decorated hallways in the building, one with the portraits of past Duketh family heads.

Antoine knocked three times on the door and shortly after, his father's voice reverberated through their ears.

"You stay outside. Let her come in alone." His voice was cold and bone-chilling as well.

Cynthia did as instructed and went in alone as Antoine rested his back on the wall while smiling.

She closed the doors behind her and saw her cold-hearted father sitting on a luxurious chair behind his desk filled with documents and electronic devices.

He looked up and the father and daughter's eyes met. reflecting the same gaze at each other. When put next to each other, anyone would think of them as father and daughter.

They were spitting images of each other.

"Take a seat."

Cynthia took one of the seats in front of the desk and sat down calmly.

"What would you like to tell me about your power?" It was a tradition in the Duketh family to let the head know what kind of power you awakened.

The head would then decide if it is important enough to be hidden from the family or not that significant in which case they would share with the family.

It was also up to the holder to decide how much they would tell the family head. In this society, it is rude to even ask your children how strong they are.

It has to do with the safety of their lives so no one really wants to put all their card on the table for someone to see.

"I awakened dual powers," said Cynthia, lying through her teeth since she had only awakened one.

Alexander did not seem surprised even though acquiring two superpowers from the start was extremely rare.

"Anything else?"

"They are of the creation and ice elemental categories. The first is to absorb certain materials whenever I feel like it and then synthesize them into something else. The second is to control the formation of ice."

Alexander was resting his head on his fists and nodded while listening very carefully. He was going to end the conversation there as he felt as if he had heard enough.

He was sure that he isn't worthy enough to get a detailed explanation from her. Nevertheless, he was still curious and wanted to talk to his estranged daughter. Even if they were a few more words.

After all, he is a father who is curious about what is going on with his children. Especially one that has been away for so long.

"Would you mind telling me what those potatoes synthesized?" This was Alexander's longest sentence yet. He wanted to say 'your father' instead of 'me' but he couldn't.

He knew he hadn't warranted enough respect from his daughter yet but would slowly work towards getting her to call him father lovingly like the rest of his children do.

Cynthia paused and then ade expression as of she was in deep thought. After supposedly making her decision, she nodded.

She closed her eyes and made a strained expression. It looked like she was applying all her willpower and concentration to a single, difficult task.

In her mind:

'Potato Lord, I have what need.'

'Hahaha, I have received the system confirmation. You have indeed completed your side of the deal. I will submit my side to the system then.'

A second later, Cynthia received a message that showed that the Red Star Potato Lord had entered the 3 pink diamonds and 100 normal mana crystals into the system.

'I have received the confirmation as well.'

'You may press the [Trade] button when you are ready.'

'Okay then.' Cynthia counted from 5 to one in her head and then pressed the glowing green button in her mind.

[Ding! Congratulations on your first successful trade. You may reroll for a new trade partner tomorrow at 2:45 PM.]

She was was also able to the new items that had entered her inventory and could be taken out at any time.

Back in the real world:

Cynthia's face was starting to hurt from her forced expression so he finally let go of it. her father had been watching her intently to make sure she was safe.

A large blue portal appeared on the ceiling of the room. Crystals that each stored all the colors of the rainbow in light shades started to pour onto the desk.

They were the size of basketballs and were radiating nourishing energy.

Alexander's usually deadpan face froze solid and his jaw hung wide open. His eyes were wide open as he looked at the crystals that were the size of basketballs fill the small study.

The way they fell from the portal avoided the two people but 100 of them were able to take all the floor space. There was barely any place to walk around.

The door then was pushed as someone was trying to get in but they couldn't with the obstruction from the crystals. Before Alexander could tell the people from outside to not break-in, the door was torn open.

"THE F*UCK!" X4

At the door stood Gordon the butler, Antoine, Lilliana, and Alison with worried expressions. These faces then turned to confusion and then surprise. That's when they cursed out loud in sync.

What lay in front of them were 100 mana crystals that could only be gained from Gates and were bought right away by the government.

Each of these crystals was bought by the government with the price of $100,000 each.

They didn't allow anyone else to buy them but occasionally actioned them to private companies at exorbitant prices.

There was nothing the private companies could do except get them at auctions in small amounts. they needed them for researching better technology and test the latest equipment.

For the government, this pile of mana crystals may be only $10,000,000 but it was usually anywhere from 30 million dollars to 50 million dollars.

This was something that could break the grasp of emotions of all who knew their monetary and research value very well.

Alexander rubbed his temples in thought. If he could, he would keep this a secret from the family if possible.

He should have unleashed his power to stop them but their reaction was too fast and he was also shocked by the sight of the crystals.

They had broken through the door because they felt the same energy one feels from gates and thought that gate opened in the room.

They never thought in their wildest dreams that this was what they would be presented with.

"Can you store these with your ability?" Alexander asked Cynthia.

She nodded and then the blue portal sucked up the crystals in no time. She was amused as he was able to such expressions from her father and the rest of them for the first time.

She knew that as long as she gave these crystals to the Duketh Group, and if they are able to hide their existence from the government, they would not have to spend money on overpriced mana crystals.

With a stable supply and an already capable research team, they could overtake many of their competitors.

"Gordon, drag over Oswin. We need to hold an emergency meeting." Unlike Antoine's ability that he kept a secret, Alexander had allowed most of the family to catch a glimpse of Cynthia's ability.

He knew he couldn't play this off from his own family so it was better to be transparent. As a family, they should work together to new heights.

------

The meeting lasted over 2 hours. It included only Cynthia Alison, Alexander, Antoine, and Lilliana.

Together, they discussed the logistics behind how to hide Cynthia's creation ability, how they would beef up her security, and how they would create a new, secretive research team to use the newly acquired crystals.

Cynthia knew that they would not even ask her if they could have the crystals as they thought that they naturally should take them.

She felt hurt even though she knew that they were going to do this. What surprised her though was that Antoine was unusually active In asking for her opinion on a lot of other matters discussed.

There were even little moments where Lilliana tried to learn more about Cynthia's life before coming here.

Cynthia wasn't sure why their indifferent attitude towards her had shifted so quickly.

'Maybe it's because I'm more valuable now.' Cynthia had always felt that one of the reasons she was ignored was because she had never shown anything that was valuable to this family.

Her ice ability was very weak in the future and her business skills didn't bloom until she had already left.

She was supposed to awaken many years after she left the Duketrh house and her ability to spread ice was minimal and hard to control. Over time, she made her ability very strong in immobilizing her targets and achieved great control as well.

By simulating that the feeling she had on that day, she knew she could forcefully awaken herself here.

She knew that one of the rules of the Duketh household was not let members be harmed in any way inside the house.

That's why they use the Everest Ice Lotus, a one-of-a-kind material worth hundreds of millions. This would boost her ice ability to a whole new level.

They not only invested a lot but were able to get high returns from her as well.

With the mana crystals, they could get from only supplying her with potatoes worth now more than a couple million, they could make profits of astronomically larger values.

...

Later that night:

Originally, ALexander thought that he should know about what Cynthia could do and invited him to the meeting.

He later heard from Gordon that Oswin had gone to a club right after lunch and was read drunk, in no state to participate in the family meeting. That's why he was left out of it.

Once he sobered up after drinking some special medicines, he took a shower and met the family for dinner.

He was the last to reach the dining room and that was as expected since he was drunk.

'At least they waited for me' He thought. The only reason he acted so arrogant and played around so much is that he knew that his family would always support him and love him.

As long as he didn't cross a certain line, he was free to do as he wished. Being born with a golden spoon and a good superpower, he was beyond privileged.

This privilege had gotten to his head and made him become a lazy young master that did as he wished.

He was pained when he heard that he would get money for half a year but he was sure his older brother would give him some.

He believed in his older brother and his brotherly love that has had kept him spoiled.

"Hmm. Why is everyone looking at me like that?" When Oswin sat down at the dinner table, he felt gazes of disappointment from everyone except Cynthia who was deadpan as always.

'They usually get over my mistakes in a couple of hours. Did I mess badly while drunk?' he thought.

Alexander then let out a cough to get everyone's attention. He rarely made announcements during mealtimes.

"Ahem. In light of the fact that my beloved daughter has awakened a powerful Ice ability today, I will be assigning her a 30 million dollars monthly allowance."

Alexander then sighed and regained his composure back to a deadpan face. He was sure that he had spoken a whole week's worth of words today.

He would try to be mute for a week to try to make up for that complete usage of his weekly quota.

"What?!" the only one shocked was Oswin.

They had already discussed that at the meeting earlier. Cynthia was shocked as well at that time but was able to hide it behind her naturally deadpan face.

In the past timeline, she had only received about half a million a month. She also was not allowed to use it until she was 18. She basically could not buy much on her own for years.

She just had to live with what the family gave her. This was because she had no ability at all then. They didn't starve her or clothe her badly but she had no attention or love so she was being starved emotionally.

"Why is it more than Lily's" questioned Oswin while muttering under the following in his head.

'There's no way this b*tch has better power than me.' While his power was something not considered weak, it wasn't as strong as Liliana's or Antoine's.

(Lilly is Lilliana's nickname. I might just refer to her with that more often. The others might also get nicknames. You can suggest some.)

His line of thought was that a powerful mom and dad made a powerful child. Mellisa, Cynthia's mother had no power so her's should be weak.

"That's because her power's potential is better than yours! I decided that I would be adding your allowance to hers."

This time, it was Alison's turn to speak. She knew that her husband did not want to talk anymore and would probably be mute for a week.

Alison did this not only to teach the kid a lesson but to also give some sort of payment to Cynthia for her crystals. She did not think they deserved to take them for free.

Cynthia also was entitled to an allowance similar to her competent younger sister who had a monthly allowance of 25 million.

Alison might have ignored this girl in the past week since she is a reminder of her husband's infidelity but she felt that she was being too unfair.

After all, she knew that it was not the girl's fault for what her parents did. She also felt that Cynthia was a nice girl. After all, she didn't have to reveal her ability to the family.

She could go to a certain government facility the next day and supply them with her crystals. She would then become an independent powerhouse of her own with the grooming and resources provided by the government.

They definitely would not badly treat someone who can give them a steady supply of a rare and useful resource.

They also were not very corrupt or the public would have torn them apart already with how many civilian superpower users there are.

There are so many people with powers that can easily be used to expose government secrets that they don't even attempt corruption.

By giving the family her crystals, Cynthia had proven herself loyal and shown that's she cared about her family. She wanted the family to prosper.

Alison had decided to give this girl a chance.

"Her power is better than mine? Are sh*tting me?!" Osiwn's fists slammed onto the table. He got up angrily and glared at Cynthia.

He was embarrassed, shaken, and jealous at the same time. He now had the weakest and least profitable ability in the family.

Along with that, all he does is play around and spend the family's money. He wasn't even at home when everybody saw Cynthia's grand display of potential so he couldn't believe it.

He hadn't even heard want kind of power it was but was ready to beat this girl to the ground.

'She has only been here for a week! How dare she not only take my allowance but also be regarded better than me. I will show her with my fists? I don't care if she's my half-sister!' he said inwardly.

He would be beaten if he said that out loud. He knew that his siblings were starting to get fond of her. He was an idiot intelligence wise but he was very adept at understanding people's feelings.

He could already see traces of empathy in the eyes of his older brother and younger sister for Cynthia. He also saw how his mother was softening.

He was not a fool in all ways but he could not understand his father no matter what.

"I, Oswin Duketh challenge Cynthia Duketh to a duel!' He announced with a snicker.

The next second, a fist covered in a binding, golden light smacked him straight in the chin and sent him flying across the dining room.