During the meal Ki noticed that her grandmother had been especially caring towards her.
She also noticed how her grandmother was giving her mother and father subtle glances. 'It seems like they will have a private meeting later.'
After finishing her food she left to return to her room and began to feed the silkworms.
Pulling out a carving knife and the cauldron she then began to scratch a barely visible outline of mysterious markings around the cauldron.
Seeing that there were no problems she used more strength the second time around to begin inscribing the runic patterns more deeply onto the cauldron.
The whole process allowed her to make a little progress before her time to go to sleep so she put everything back in its place and began a round of practicing martial arts before going to bed. 'If I continue to inscribe the patterns I should be able to complete the cauldron within a few weeks, then I can begin the gu worm ritual.'
Meanwhile a meeting took place between the three adults of the household.
At the head of the table sat Agnes with a piece of paper, she spoke first. "I have already decided to pass on the role of family head to little Ki."
Adam frowned. "From what Ki said earlier before kicking me out of the room it's easy to guess you have already acted but aren't you giving it to her too early she is only seven. It's too much for a child."
Elizabeth looked confused but continued to listen as it concerned her daughter.
Agnes continued. "She is most fitting of the role so far and she has deeply impressed me lately so I cannot help but support her."
Elizabeth asked. "So what is the real purpose of this meeting? Is this about her change grandmother?"
"Change? I know she has improved a lot but I don't think she has changed." Adam looked confused.
"Of course you would not notice, you dense fool. Just focus on your work hmph." Elizabeth glared at her husband.
"Indeed, she has begun to improve at a rapid pace to the point even I find it hard to measure what she is hiding from us but there are things I have picked up during these few days of interaction. She seemed to have experienced something recently but I don't think she will want to open up about it. This thing has opened her eyes to the outside world and lead her to feel helpless because of how small she is within this chaotic and unfair world. Right now she is desperately trying to understand the things she does not know, gain control of things she can and improve to gain a sense of security but she has developed a bad habit of pinching the bridge of her nose unconsciously when under stress, when thinking and often sighing to release some of her stress." Agnes looked depressed but held back her grief to continue. "She has developed these habits and grew rapidly under stress so I suggested she take some time for herself and leave everything to the adults. Next I will talk about the business plan she wrote up which further confirms my theory as she has briefly mentioned certain things a child her age should not come into contact with."
Both Adam and Elizabeth looked like they were deeply hurt by Agnes conclusion, Elizabeth spoke first. "We tried our best to keep the outside world from her while she was growing up so why did she suddenly learn anything now? Sigh…"
"I don't know but… I will begin with the first proposal my son heard about." Agnes replied.
"It was very impressive for a kid her age to produce and some of the things she mentioned were indeed concerning." Adam finally spoke up.
"To summarise the plan was to help acquire three restaurants for a maid working in the mansion by legal means. The worrying parts were she mentioned attempted murder by poison, possible embezzlement of funds, cheating on the married wife and maybe even murder to cover up traces of the poison. I don't know how she learned of these things but it is still worrying… she did however give a clear cut solution to the problem to eliminate future problems from the husband and a way to solidify the maids work position within the family. Working with or after purchasing the restaurants, Ki suggested a second plan to use the restaurants as a place to promote our own families food and drinks made from mulberries and using mulberry leaves. To be honest I see a lot of potential in her ideas and have decided to go ahead with both plans. She even briefly mentioned future plans to open a tea pavilion which I found to be a good business opportunity in some of the bigger cities." Agnes put down the piece of paper. "She has deeply impressed me but also worried me at the same time. So I will investigate the matter and begin putting together some people to help with different tasks."
"So that's what you were talking about, I had thought the matter was too serious for a child to be involved so was going to decline or take care of it myself." Adam answered stiffly but his eyes clearly showed my stormy mood.
"I was going to mention some things with you but I could never have imagined things to have been so serious." Elizabeth could barely hold back her tears.
"Mmm…" Agnes sighed before continuing with a hoarse voice. "Part 1 was for the restraint securing a place for the products. Part 2 was to create our own specialty products to be sold in the restaurants and gaining a way to grow more by planting more trees and crops within our lands. Part 3 was the most concerning as it mentioned a part of the world I would never wish to touch but it seems like little Ki seems to know about it."
Elizabeth grew more tense after hearing her mother in laws words. "What is it?"