“You’re the princess of our Whitefrost Clan! And as such I will prepare three rewards for the savior of my precious granddaughter.” The old man declared solemnly.

“Three is a good number.” Emma nodded in approval.

“For the second reward, I will give him our family treasure, the Gene Optimizing Pill!”

Bang!

My room door slammed open and a group of people stomped in arrogantly.

“Father!” A beautiful but cold-looking middle-aged woman in an exquisite red dress spoke loudly.

“Father.” A handsome middle-aged man that looked a little bit like the damned old man spoke up as well.

“Grandfather!” A group of six kids ranging from around ten to sixteen greeted the damned old man.

“Kids, grand children.” He nodded with a gentle smile.

It was very interesting to note that his voice and his smile carried none of the warmth that he showed to Emma. In fact, if one were to pay close attention, there was even a hint of coldness to his voice.

But of course, they were oblivious to it all.

They were not there to spend time with him or enjoy his company for the day.

They were there to make sure that the little fox Emma did not swindle her grandfather of the family treasures that they had their eyes on.

“That’s excellent, grandfather! The Gene Optimizing Pill would be an excellent second reward for Justin!” Emma said sweetly, completely ignoring the group of people who just came in.

“Father! What do you mean you’re giving him our family’s Gene Optimizing Pill! We only have three left! And you have six grandchildren!” The beautiful middle aged woman shouted loudly.

“Seven. I have seven grandchildren.” The old man said evenly. His eyes which were filled with warmth and joy previously even as he was being mercilessly extorted by Emma, grew cold.

“Ah yes, I meant seven.” The middle aged lady corrected herself without any remorse whatsoever. “Which makes it even worse! How can you give away our family treasure to a complete stranger? That Gene Optimizing Pill would strengthen our children and increase their chances of becoming a Resonance Master!”

I perked my ears up at her words. “Resonance Master? What is that?” I thought to myself. “It must be linked to the Resonance Purity Level which that damned old man mentioned earlier.”

Her aunt was obviously biased against Emma. And knowing Emma, she probably would not take it lying down. However, the expected scene of a full blown family conflict between Emma and her aunt did not happen then. At least not yet.

“It is bad enough that you gave Emma our only Gene Cleansing Pill all those years before. But now you want to give a Gene Optimizing Pill to an outsider? Simply on the account that he saved EMMA?”

“She is your niece, Isabella. She carries the blood of the Whitefrost Clan. Anyone who saves a member of our Whitefrost Clan deserves to be rewarded.” The old man replied patiently.

However, I could see that he didn’t like the direction in which the conversation seemed to be going, and his eyes grew slightly clouded with worry.

“She. Is. Not. My. Niece!” Isabella spat out each word hatefully. “And she is NOT part of the Whitefrost Clan!”

At that point, the old man simply decided that he didn’t want to discuss things there and he stood up.

He levelled his gaze at the middle aged woman and said one word.

Just one word, and softly at that.

But he said it with a tiredness and a tinge of impatience which somehow caused the middle aged man to blanch.

“Enough.”

Something really bad must have happened in the past when the old man displayed such a side of him. Something that made the middle aged man feel deep fear and trepidation even till that day.

However, Isabella either didn’t get the memo or she was too caught up in her own emotions to notice the change in the old man because she ploughed on with her tirade.

“MY niece died a long time ago. SHE is just a -”

SLAP!

The middle aged man stepped up to Isabella and gave her a mercilessly heavy handed slap that sent her staggering.

“MOTHER!” Three girls screamed out in shock!

“Father!” The two boys and the youngest girl also gasped out in surprise!

The other two boys and the little girl were simply in total disbelief.

They probably had never seen their father hit a woman before, much less a family member.

Jason was the second son of the Whitefrost Clan, and he was extremely well brought up. He was not only talented in diplomacy, but also utterly deadly in a mecha. He had piloted his mecha into fame when he almost single handedly crushed the base of a rebel uprising which his patrol group had accidentally stumbled upon.

He had quickly risen through the military ranks and he was the second youngest general in the history of the Chinese Federation. Second to only his elder brother, Emma’s father.

Despite his extreme prowess in the battle field, Jason was always the perfect picture of a refined gentleman who exemplified strength through diplomacy. He preferred resolving conflict through diplomacy and was a firm believer of the saying ‘The pen is mightier than the sword.” He rarely went out of character, not even during the greatest of emergencies.

For him to slap Isabella that day, he must have a deep rooted fear of that damned old man when he was in that state. I wonder what happened. I never did find out to this day. But I do have my suspicions though.

That old man was, in many ways, a monster. Jason must have caught a glimpse of it somehow.

“Our apologies, Father. Isabella is not feeling well. She must have allowed her illness to misguide her tongue. She only has the very best of intentions for our clan.” Jason said in a soothing and conciliatory voice. He was obviously putting all of his diplomatic skills into practice at that moment.

“Brother! How could you do this to me!” Isabella stared at her brother in horror. Her left hand was cradling her left cheek, where a small trickle of blood had appeared near her luscious lips at the location of Jason’s forceful slap.