When the sound of an explosion appeared in the mansion, everyone was shocked. The only ones who staid calm were Made, Snow and the Archduke because they recognized Michelle's spirit energy in the air. But everyone else was restless. Very quickly, someone knocked on Michelle's door.
"My Lady! Are you okay? We heard an explosion!" Michelle recognized the voice. It was the maid who was by her side when she had just woken up in the body. The maid's name was Jasmine. The original owner cared about Jasmine quite a lot since she took care of her since she was an infant, but Michelle didn't really care. She was polite to her, but she was polite to all the servants all the same, even though in the world she was in, servants were basically slaves. Their master could have them beaten to death for fun and no one would bat an eyelid.
"I'm fine! Don't worry!" Michelle answered through the closed door as she closed the window.
Hearing that Michelle was fine, Jasmine and the other servants standing behind the closed door were relieved, but they were still quite worried. "My Lady, what was that explosion?" Jasmine asked, her voice filled with concern. As Michelle was most of the time away from the Archduchy, she didn't have the time to notice between how she and the original owner acted, so she didn't know that the Young Lady she cared about so much was already someone else.
Knowing that they wouldn't leave if she didn't show herself, Michelle sighed a bit and went to open the door to look at the servants. "I was experimenting with spirit stones. Don't worry about it. You might hear explosions quite often from now on." Michelle spoke calmly as her purple eyes swept over the servants. She was like a different person compared to the Young Lady they knew, but Michelle didn't care. If some suspicion arose, she would cook up a lie then. Or leave it to the Archduke to take care of.
The servants were all flabbergasted when they saw Michelle's expression. So calm and emotionless. Just like the Archduke. She was really his daughter, looking so elegant and dangerous at the same time.
Some averted their gazes, unable to look at her. The Michelle they knew was lazy and arrogant, but she was kind and sweet to the servants. But the person standing in front of them was the perfect copy of the Archduke, her presence screaming danger and striking fear into their souls.
One courageous old servant spoke up. "My Lady, what are you experimenting with the spirit stones for, if this old man can ask?" he bowed his head as he spoke.
Michelle glanced at the old man, her purple eyes deepening. "I'm trying to create a weapon," she said calmly, cooking up a lie instantaneously. "Now, if you would excuse me, I'm going to return to my experiment." She reached out her hand to close the door.
"Have a nice day, My Lady..." All the servants bowed down as Michelle closed the door and went back to her bed. She sat down cross-legged and continued cultivation. She wanted to be able to condensate at least a ping-pong ball of spirit energy before the Emperor Emeritus' death. She had a hunch, an itchy feeling in her chest, that something would happen the moment he died.
So, for the whole next month, Michelle kept cultivating without coming out of her room. After a month passed, she tried condensing spirit energy on her palm again, and her eyes widened when she saw the result. The amount of spirit energy that she could condensate was still the same, but the power it emitted was much stronger. If before it felt like a small flame was dancing on her palm, at the moment it was like a raging inferno was trapped in the speck of spirit energy on her palm.
Michelle stared at the speck of spirit energy on her hand for a long while before once again opening her window. Using much more strength than last time, she threw the speck of spirit energy out and watched it. The speck grew in size for a long time as it flew upwards and then, it turned into a deafening explosion which shook the walls and ground.
Seeing such a huge explosion, Michelle's eyes widened. The speck of spirit energy was the same size as the one before, but the power it carried was so much greater. Michelle instantly closed the window and left her room, going towards the Archduke's study. She had to ask him about it. She knocked on the door, but no response came. She knocked again and again, but the result was the same.
She opened the door and when she didn't see anyone, she walked away searching for the butler. "Butler, where's father?" she asked when she found the old man.
"My Lady..." the old man greeted her with a bow. "His Excellence, the Archduke went for a meeting in the Imperial Palace."
Hearing that, Michelle frowned. "Did something happen?" she asked, the itchy feeling in her chest intensifying. How could that be? The Emperor Emeritus didn't die yet. Was she mistaken?
The butler saw the worry in Michelle's eyes. "This old man doesn't know, but My Lady doesn't need to worry. His Excellence is strong and smart. Nothing will happen to him." He reassured.
"I know..." Michelle nodded a bit as she walked out of the mansion. After being holed up in her room for so long, she decided to go for a walk. She entered the garden and sat by the fountain lazily. She condensed spirit energy on her palm again and stared at it. The power she felt from it was terrifying, but nothing compared to the power she felt when Alexander restrained her when she had met him for the first time.
Remembering that event, she was instantly infuriated and threw the speck of condensated spirit energy on her palm into the air, letting it explode above her. It was true that she was thankful to him for improving her cultivation method, but that was basically a win-win deal, because she had taught him physics for a whole day. The debt for immobilizing and kissing her was still there, and she was determined to get stronger than him to give him a good trashing.
From the fountain, Michelle had a good view at the front gate of the mansion, so she saw when the Archduke returned in the evening, looking worried. For the Archduke to be so worried about something was a rare sight since he was the most powerful man in the Empire, if Alexander Terce and David Elether weren't taken into account.
"Father!" she came over to the Archduke. "Did something happen?" she asked with a lazy tilt of her head. No matter how surprised she was to see the Archduke to be so worried, her laziness stuck around.
"Let's talk in my office!" the archduke had a frown on his face as he walked towards the mansion, so Michelle silently followed him into his office. She understood that something serious must have happened for him to be so secretive.
In the office, the Archduke sat at his desk and sighed. "What happened, father?" Michelle asked when he remained silent for a long while.
But the Archduke didn't answer for a long while, just stared out of the window. And that made Michelle frown. "Father?" she spoke up again, and the Archduke finally reacted.
"Michelle, when was the last time you went out?" he asked.
Michelle raised an eyebrow, but answered. "About a month ago when the Eight Prince was crowned a New Emperor. I wasn't even on the crowning of Prince Regent since I was cultivating. Why do you ask, father?"
But the Archduke didn't answer. "How is your cultivation going?" he asked, his voice clearly filled with worry.
Seeing that she won't get any answers soon, Michelle sighed, but answered the Archduke's question. "I was able to condensate a nail's size of spirit energy on my palm shortly after I started cultivating, but since then, the size remained the same, but the spirit energy I can condensate got much more powerful. Father, why is that?"
Listening to Michelle, the Archduke frowned in worry. "Michelle, you can't let anyone know that. Never ever condensate your spirit energy in front of anyone!" he said after a while.
"Why, father?" Michelle was more confused than ever. "Is something wrong with my spirit energy?"
The Archduke sighed and ringed a small bell that was on his desk. A maid entered and bowed her head. "Bring us some tea and cookies..." he ordered, and she quickly left. Then, he looked at Michelle. "You should sit down for this..." he pointed at two couches and a coffee table by the window.
Michelle went to sit there, and the Archduke went to a small bookshelf behind his desk. He took two books and brought them with him to the coffee table. He sat opposite Michelle and handed the books to Michelle. He was about to speak when the maid brought in the tea and cookies.
When the maid was gone, he started speaking. "Michelle, you probably noticed, but your blood is special."
To that, Michelle nodded. She knew that it wasn't normal for her blood to attract hordes of beasts and monsters. "Is something about my blood worrying you?"
The Archduke sighed. "Your blood attracts beasts and monsters, right?" When Michelle nodded, the Archduke frowned. "That means that you possess Spirit Blood. That would by itself be fine, but by using your cultivation method, your spirit veins and blood veins merged."
"Is there something wrong with that?" Michelle had a worrying hunch.