Chapter 7

Chapter 7

The Medici Patriarch, Sparti, was not as unapproachable as one might have imagined; he didn't even single out the three A-levels for special treatment, unlike Sandro. Rising from his seat, he offered a warm smile and a few encouraging words to each child.

All the while, the First Steward shadowed the Patriarch like a phantom, never straying more than three paces.

But Eve wasn't fooled by Sparti's apparent benevolence. At best, he and the Second Steward were playing good cop, bad cop—one deliberately showing favoritism, the other offering impartial encouragement.

Finally, Sparti summoned his two children. The noble young master and young mistress appeared quite disinclined to associate with this group of provincial branch family members, yet they had no choice but to obey their father's command.

Lorraine, clutching her ever-present folding fan, concealed the lower half of her face, revealing only a pair of beautiful eyes brimming with frustration and resignation. Cecil was even more overt, refusing to even glance at the branch family members, his face a mask of disgust and impatience.

"These are my two children, Lorraine and Cecil," Sparti announced, seemingly oblivious to their reluctance. With a hand on each of their shoulders, he continued to smile as he introduced them to the newcomers. "From now on, you will all live together in the main family compound as if you were born of the same flesh and blood. I hope you will get along well and strive together for mutual improvement."

"I refuse to be brothers with these country bumpkins!" Cecil shrieked suddenly, glaring at his father.

For the past sixteen years, as the sole heir of the Medici family, he had lived a life of absolute privilege. Even his own sister sometimes couldn't sway him, and if he was unwilling, he wouldn't even heed his father's commands. "Who are they to be my kin? They're not worthy!"

Sparti roared, "Cecil! Is that any way to speak to your clansmen? Apologize to your brothers and sisters!"

"No! Why should I? What right do these stinking, low-born branch family members have to demand an apology from me!"

Many of the children were wounded by Cecil's blunt and disrespectful words, timidly retreating a few steps. Even Sandro couldn't rein in the willful young master and chose to feign non-existence.

From the corner of his eye, he observed the three children standing at the front: Dick showed a hint of sadness, Grace rolled her eyes, and Eve remained as composed as ever.

Wasn't this charade a test in itself?

Sandro subtly averted his gaze. Having grown up alongside the Medici Patriarch, he was all too familiar with this man's duplicitous, manipulative style, a web of intricate schemes. Given the Patriarch's intimate knowledge of his own son, how could he not have known that Cecil's spoiled temper would inevitably cause a scene?

Sometimes Sandro even wondered if the Patriarch had intentionally cultivated Cecil's current demeanor. Compared to the dashing heir of the Cavendish family, the steady and astute heir of the Roth family, and the intelligent and learned heir of the Oliver Family, Cecil had little to offer beyond his handsome face and S-class psychic energy.

But what was the advantage of this? Lorraine didn't possess S-class psychic energy, so regardless, Cecil remained the family's sole heir.

Unless...

Sandro suddenly shivered. His fleeting glance met Sparti's, and he quickly withdrew his gaze, focusing inward, not daring to speculate further.

In any case, Sparti would never betray the Medici family.

Meanwhile, Cecil, ultimately unable to defy his father, was forcibly subdued by psychic pressure and grudgingly offered a perfunctory apology before angrily shaking off his father's grip.

Unable to vent his anger on his father, he glared fiercely at the branch family members from the middle and upper planets, muttering, "You just wait," before storming off.

Grace sighed and whispered to Eve, "Are we really going to follow this seemingly brainless young master? The future of the Medici family looks bleak."

Eve nodded in agreement. Indeed.

She thought Grace was being too polite. In reality, Cecil was not only brainless but also a bully, looking down on others, speaking harshly, and lacking manners. Unable to stand up to his father, he took his anger out on others—just as obnoxious and despicable as in the original story.

If it weren't for his pursuit of the female lead, which granted him a sliver of her faction's aura, and Eve's heavy villainess debuff, it was hard to say who would have crushed whom.

After Cecil's outburst, Sparti no longer had the inclination to continue making small talk with the children. He wearily massaged his temples and slowly said, "You must all be tired after such a long journey. There's no need to stay here any longer. Go back and rest. Tomorrow morning, we will conduct the unified Psyche Manifestation."

The esteemed Medici Patriarch, like any ordinary, troubled father, was left with a headache from his willful son's behavior, yet utterly helpless to change it.

Eve's eyelids twitched at the sight. If she hadn't known about the illegitimate child that would appear later, she might have thought Sparti was a particularly good father.

Regarding Psyche Manifestation, interstellar humans could undergo psychic energy level testing at age fifteen, but it was usually between ages eighteen and twenty, when psychic energy fully stabilized, that they would gradually awaken their spiritual state beings.

However, affluent families often purchased alchemical elixirs to catalyze early Psyche Manifestation, as awakening earlier meant confirming one's aptitude sooner.

Similarly, if psychic energy developed during these years, the spiritual state could also upgrade and progress alongside it.

The essence of the world was that only those without money had to rely on talent, while the wealthy could rely on their parents, money, power, and all sorts of diverse resources.

Before psychic energy fully stabilized, children with poor aptitude could even take alchemical elixirs to improve their psychic energy level, thereby promoting spiritual state upgrades.

Thus, children from major families were rarely lacking in talent. Even if they were, they could still be artificially pumped up to look impressive but hollow displays.

After the Patriarch left, attendants, who had seemed to appear out of nowhere from the edges of the hall, emerged and led the children to their accommodations. Their residence was a palace called Cloud Residence, located deeper within the Medici estate.

Cecil and Lorraine also resided here, but they exclusively occupied the top floor. Below them were the rooms of Eve, Dick, and Grace, and below that were the living quarters of the remaining dozen or so children—a clear hierarchy.

However, aside from the room floors, the other levels of Cloud Residence were open to all children, including meditation rooms, a library, family classrooms, an alchemy laboratory, a physical training ground, and simulated combat rooms.

Additionally, the attendants explained other rules for living in the Medici family, such as needing to report before entering the Patriarch's residence and the matter of monthly stipends, which all the children cared about. If the children needed to go out, they could directly find a private driver in the garage. The Medici family was quite generous to everyone in terms of daily life.

Eve originally planned to return to her room to continue reading. The vast amount of materials the Second Steward had given her couldn't possibly be finished in two or three days; she had only just reached the beginning of the introduction to alchemy.

But before she could read more than a couple of lines, Eve heard persistent knocking at her door. When she opened it, Grace and Dick stood outside with bright eyes and barely contained excitement.

"Let's go out for the night, Eve," Grace said cheerfully. "The other kids are planning to go out tonight to explore the capital planet's nightlife. This is my first time on the capital planet, after all."

"And we just got our allowances today, so we're not short on money," Dick added.

Grace continued, "Also, classes start tomorrow, so we need to buy new stationery."

Dick persuaded, "Stop reading, Eve. Haven't you spent enough time reading on the starship? Come on, come on. We might not have time to go out later."

"..." Eve rubbed her forehead. "Don't we all have e-notepads? What kind of stationery do you need to buy?"

She finally understood how parents felt waiting outside the gate after school while their high school classmates insisted on browsing the stationery store before going home.

Half resigned and half stifling a laugh, Eve said, "You two are quite the tag team. Fine, I'll go out with you—let's go!"

Grace and Dick cheered, pushing Eve out the door. On the way, they ran into Sandro, who was heading out on business, saving them the trip to the garage. They caught a ride with the Second Steward, smoothly leaving the Medici family's territory and getting dropped off in the capital planet's core royal district.

They hadn't changed out of their Medici family uniforms, so for a while, three distinctively good-looking silver-haired, blue-eyed teenagers walked side by side on the street, their matching, ornate uniforms adorned with the clematis emblem, forming quite a conspicuous sight.

Some passersby discreetly took photos with their comms. Eve saw them but pretended not to notice. She wasn't worried about what they might do with the photos—the Medici family's public relations and legal departments weren't just collecting high salaries for doing nothing.

The three entered a boutique shopping district. Along the way, Dick eagerly dragged Grace and Eve into every shop he saw. Though Grace wasn't as easily amazed as he was, her clear blue eyes were filled with curiosity. The never-before-seen electronic devices, beautiful decorations, trendy and novel clothing, and all sorts of products—whether heard of or not—were dazzling, overwhelming the backwater planet hicks.

Eve bought a synth-holo projector that could project electronic books into the form of physical books, with realistic page-turning feel and automatic note synchronization to electronic documents. It was also portable. Though she didn't understand the principles behind this advanced tech, it wasn't expensive—just over three hundred credits—so she happily bought it.

Grace bought a model guerrilla-style blaster, grinning mischievously as she said she might modify it to function as the real thing. Her sly grin made Eve's left eyelid twitch violently.

Turning around, Eve saw Dick blushing as he picked up a gleaming silver-blue fan-patterned brooch. The fool tried to hide the packaging bag behind his back, giving the other two a shy smile, thinking they hadn't noticed the deeper meaning behind this trophy. His moony expression made Eve's right eyelid start twitching wildly.

The capital planet even had shops selling alchemical products and potions, their signs engraved with the emblem of the Alchemists' Guild.

Grace whispered that in her small home planet, alchemists were highly respected, and buying even an ordinary alchemical product required custom orders from an alchemist. She never imagined that such precious items in her hometown would be openly sold at marked prices in shops on the capital planet.

Dick felt the same; his home planet was also a small mid-tier planet, just like Grace's.

The three curiously peered through the shop's glass wall, observing the alchemical products flowing with strange and mysterious light. Right in front of them was a crystal ball the size of a human head, made of natural crystal and engraved with two circles of dense arcane sigils. The transparent crystal ball reflected their curious, azure eyes, then their gazes drifted down to the seven-digit price tag.

The Medici family gave each of them a monthly allowance of only thirty thousand credits. They had thought it was plenty, but compared to the price of alchemical products, it was merely chump change.

What gave them the idea that just because alchemical items were displayed in a store, they could afford them?

The trio froze, then stood up together and casually started chatting: "Are you guys hungry?"

"Let's go grab something to eat."

"Yeah, yeah! I saw several desert-planet themed restaurants on the way here. Let's try one of them."

Eventually, they decided on a desert-planet style barbecue joint. Just as Dick took the first step, they heard an amused snicker behind them.

Eve turned around and saw a young boy standing not far behind them. He looked about fifteen or sixteen, with delicate, angelic features, strikingly bright golden curls, and apple-green eyes. But what caught her attention more was the emblem on his chest—a dark gold badge depicting a double-headed snake coiled around a staff.

A member of the Oliver Family.

The boy had a slight smile, not one of mockery or disdain, but rather pure amusement at the trio's behavior. Noticing their puzzled looks, he gave a casual bow and said gracefully, "Good day, everyone. I am Ludwig Oliver."

Eve lowered her eyes slightly, using her lashes to hide her sharp look. She discreetly observed this seemingly ordinary boy, wondering what his intentions were.

Ludwig, perceptive as he was, noticed Eve's subtle hostility and took an extra moment to glance at her before continuing, "I mean no harm. I simply found the three of you quite lively and endearing, which is why I couldn’t help but laugh. If any of you felt offended, I sincerely apologize."

He glanced at the crystal ball in the display window and added without hesitation, "How about I offer this as an apology? You seemed quite taken with it earlier."

Eve/Grace/Dick: "!!!"

Grace struggled to resist the temptation and said righteously, "That’s far too generous! It’s just a laugh—no harm done... That's really too much!"

"Three million credits—just the price of an alchemy toy. What’s so extravagant about that?" Ludwig blinked curiously and smiled. "Besides, you’re from the Medici family, aren’t you? When my elder brother’s ship ran into trouble, it was the Medici family who came to his aid and ensured his safe return. As his younger brother, it’s only right for me to express my gratitude."

Eve thought to herself, "Kid, please stop—if you keep waving money around like that, I might actually give in!" She took a deep breath and calmly replied, "Really, there’s no need, Master Oliver. If you wish to express gratitude to the Medici family, you may send your gifts directly to the estate. The three of us are in no position to accept such thanks on behalf of the family. So, truly, it’s unnecessary!"

As she spoke, she slowly began backing away: "We gotta go now. Goodbye!"

Fearing that Ludwig might pull some rich kid power move, Eve was desperate to make a quick escape. She grabbed Grace and Dick and hissed under her breath, "What are you standing around for? Did you actually expect him to give it to us? Run!"

"Oh, oh, oh! Sorry, Master Oliver, we have things to do—we’ve got to go!"

The three of them took off like a shot, kicking up imaginary dust in their wake and leaving Ludwig momentarily stunned. It took him several seconds to process what had happened.

Ludwig chuckled softly and muttered helplessly, "...Branch family members from the outer colonies—so unruly."