CLVII ||| Philanthropy of a Queen

"But it must be complicated to live solely from baking, no, Miss Aileen?"

{"What are you planning?"}

Never saw a serpent wanting to help a kraken?

{"Never,"} he purred.

I have money to spare. It won't kill me to help her and her family.

{"Speaking like a philanthropic Queen, uh?"}

Sigh, "It's always complicated to live from your own business. But we manage, sweetheart. Some times it's tougher, some times we manage to get more money. It gets frustrating some days, but we still wouldn't do any other thing if we had the option, because we love doing this."

"If I give you a present, will you accept it?" I asked softly.

She blinked, "A present?"

A nod, "I'm good with those. So, will you accept it?"

"What is it?" She asked curiously.

"I'll tell you if you promise you will accept it and not refuse. I swear it'll be a good one," I said charmingly and she beamed again.

"I promised I'll accept it. What is it?" Adorable kid.

Using my gem magic, I summoned five hand-sized brute diamonds on the table behind her, then I pointed at it and when she turned around she let out a stunned squeak. "No giving back!"

"Are… A-a-are those diamonds?" She turned to me, eyes wide.

"Yes. It's one of my powers. One for each of your family members. If you tell me you're pregnant, I'll give you one more," I grinned.

Her eyes widened even further, "I'm pregnant. Of twins."

That's what I call taking advantage of your situation. She did good.

I made more two diamonds of the same size appear with the others. "You can sell them and use the money to live comfortably. You will be able to keep working with what you love, but without having to worry that much about money. I don't know how much you can get with one of these, but I think seven of it will get you some good money."

{"You are crazy."}

"How… how did you do that?" Dora gasped swallowing a piece of her lemon and strawberry jam cake, same as mine. "What the hell, Hel?"

"She inherited gem and crystal magic from her mom," Oli told her matter-of-factly. "She can just get as many of those as she wants."

"You just made me a millionaire," Aileen cried. "Oh, my freaking Goddesses. I hope they will protect you forever, Hel. Oh my Ladies. Fuck."

Are the diamond that worthy?

Oli chuckled, {"Even more than she can imagine. One was enough to make her a millionaire, Hel. Seven? She'll be very rich now."}

Oh? Cool. "Don't tell anyone outside your family. Or people might come running at me just to get me to pop them some precious gems too. I am only kind when I like the person or when I think they deserve it, you fit on both. So, I hope you are able to live more peacefully and give an even better life to your triplet kids." Then I summoned three obsidian rings that have flowers adorned to it. "Here, for them. One for each."

She covered her mouth with a trembling hand, "Fucking shit. You are out of this world, kid. I'll forever pray for you to never go through any hardships in the rest of your life. I don't even know how to thank you for this. I… oh shit."

"It's fine. I'm not doing it to receive anything back. It's a present."

Quickly she got me all the ice cream pallets I bought and I made the ones I bought for me, father, and Bell disappear into my ring. Then, she got me a refill of my juice, three dark chocolate cookies, and an extra ice cream pallet of white chocolate and strawberry. "You changed my life, Hel. Nothing against you, Prince Oliver, but I hope you win the tournament this year, and the Eclipseball Cup later on, Hel."

I winked, "Oh, I will. I hope you sell all the cakes today, and the juices. They are delicious. You have an amazing hand for baking."

"Best costumer of my life," she gasped to herself as we left the tent.

And when we got around a tent with lots of books, I paused to take a look at it, they all paused with me.

"I had no idea you were philanthropic, new girl!" Rio mumbled. "I am genuinely surprised. And I want a diamond too. Or a ruby."

"Me too!" The others exclaimed.

{"Those kids."}

They are just like my team. Riches-driven.

"Hah, she gave two to all of us!" Felix beamed as he joined us with all the others, some of them looking a bit weirded out. "I want a bite," he pouted to Henrihk who smiled brightly and took the cake to Felix's lips.

"She gave you?" Dora gasped. "Two hand-sized diamonds?"

"Yeah," Shiryu exclaimed, passing his hand around Nevena's waist and kissing her lips softly. "Sis said she considers both gem and crystal magic souvenirs from her mom."

Agost choked on his juice as he handed his cake to Kalisha take a bite. "What do you mean souvenirs?"

"You are crazy, Hel!" Nicolette gasped, also going to Melvin and giving him a bite of hers. "When I saw you asking money for the weapons, I thought you had some dragon inside you, but just giving gems for free like that? You are crazy," she chuckled incredulous.

"Good for us then," Dorothy scoffed, walking to River. "That way she will pay for us and gives us gems for free. Isn't it the best?"

River chuckled at that, "I mean, looking at it like that, kind of."

"To us, you mean," Yumi grinned, Jack still on her arms, Danielle's arm on her waist. "We are her kids, her teammates. You are just her mate's. At least until the end of the festival. Then we are all a big group again. But right now, she's ours."

"Yeah?" Rio spoke provokingly, then pointed at his blood pallet. "Because she just paid for all we are eating when we asked."

Arching my eyebrows, I turned to him. "I did what those prisons do before executing those sentenced to death by electric chair, cotton candy baby blue hair. They let them eat all they want, as much as they want, since they will be dying soon," then I looked from him to all the kids in Oliver's team. "I will be killing you all in tomorrow's match. Doing this is fair."

Yumi chuckled and Rio choked then turned to Oliver, "Your fault."

Oli just smiled, "It's fair. I'll be killing her whole team too."

"You shouldn't be playing with our lives," Ivar growled, eating the last bite of his pumpkin and banana cake.

I crossed my arms over my chest, "I have all the right to do that to all of you. Did you forget what happened between us when I had just arrived in here?" I scoffed. "Besides you won't stay permanently dead."

"But the pain will be just as real," River mocked.

"Psycho," Rio growled.

"Oh, come on. I'll try going easy!"

Rio scoffed, "No you won't. Definitely not on me."

"Aw, you know me so well, cotton candy baby blue hair." He's an immortal person right now either way. Even without the protection bracelet he can't die, so, it's okay.

{"The experience will be real."}

Sigh, "Look at it like this then. If you see death once, you won't be so scared when you are in real danger, and will be able to deal with it in a better way."

"Or we might be traumatized," Irene growled.

I rolled my eyes, "You've killed kids on the tournament and in the cup before. You will go through what you did. Simple. Call it karma then. And if you keep complaining, I'll kill you like I killed Aviv."

Sabrina gasped, "A serpent death? Hell no. Thank you. He may not have bled like the others, but I'm pretty fucking sure he had it worse. That bone shattering strangling serpentine hug? I have zero intentions of dying that kind of death."

"Aye, I won't use my venom on you," I turned to Rio. "Maybe on you. You've been pissing me off a lot."

He cried, "Oh, come on. We piss each other off."

"And?" I grinned as I finished my delicious cake and the juice, and threw the plastic plate, fork, and cup on the trash can. But I stopped when my phone rang on my pocket.

Father: Hel, buy me food.

Father: I want two pepperoni pizzas, a big bucket of buttered fries, a bucket of chicken nuggets, two bars of white chocolate with cookies, and a lemon pie.

Father: Plus a 2 liters bottle of Sprite, and 1 liter of pineapple juice.

"What is it?" Oliver asked me and I felt everyone's eyes on me.

"Tsk, it's father."