Catherine lunged towards Emma while Elizabeth sent a vicious strike at Jeremy’s neck who was sitting right next to her.

Still in shock over his father’s sudden predicament, Jeremy was caught totally off guard and Elizabeth’s strike immediately broke his neck.

Julie, Jeremy’s sister, cried out in anger and immediately retaliated with a vicious palm strike of her own. Her powerful palm strike hit Elizabeth’s chest and sent her flying with blood spurting out of her mouth.

“Garo!!” The old man yelled at his bodyguard while pointing at Jeremy.

“Yes sir!”

Once more, the old man’s loyal bodyguard sprung into action and immediately performed emergency first aid for a broken neck on Jeremy.

Come to think of it, Garo, that bodyguard, truly rendered a lot of merits that day. I hope he survived the Whitefrost Catastrophe. I would love to meet up with him and convey my gratitude before I leave.

Anyway, breaking someone’s neck will not instantaneously kill them unless the broken neck also severs the brain stem. Most people merely lose access to oxygen and in that case, intense medical intervention during the golden ‘hour’ might be able to save them.

Thankfully for Jeremy, Elizabeth was merely a vicious but inexperienced 13 year old. Her strike to Jeremy’s neck failed to instantly kill him. And because of that, his life was saved.

On the other side of the room, Catherine was experiencing far less success compared to her younger sister, Elizabeth.

Far, far less.

Upon seeing Catherine lunge at Emma, I had reflexively flung my blanket at her with all of my strength to break her advance. Even though I was feeling weak, my weakness was only relative to my peak strength. Compared to a normal human being, I was still extremely powerful and because of that, to the fifteen year old Catherine, the blanket I flung at her felt more like a collision with a hard object instead of with a soft blanket.

It probably felt like somewhere between a slap and a slam. A slamp.

SLAMP!

Catherine slamped into the blanket and fell heavily backwards onto the floor. Immediately, I leapt off my bed and sat on her. I pressed my left hand on her neck and began to squeeze lightly.

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Her wild, frantic eyes met my cold gaze and instantly cooled down. There was no mistaking my killing intent at that moment, and she knew that if she created even the slightest bit of trouble, I would have no qualms snapping her neck right there and then.

There was no question at all as to whether I was capable of doing it. She could feel the power oozing out of my left hand upon her neck just fine.

“Jeremy!” Emma ignored the incapacitated Catherine and dashed towards her elder cousin whose face was already turning slightly blue. She grabbed his hand lightly and watched with bated breath as Garo skillfully worked to save his life.

Thankfully, Garo was extremely proficient in emergency first aid and within seconds, he had successfully performed cricothyrotomy on Jeremy. He had used his laser cutter at low power to open up a small hole in Jeremy’s neck below the fracture to establish an airway for him to breathe.

“He’ll be fine.” Garo told Emma in a reassuring voice. “We have the best medical team in the country right here in Whitefrost Estate.”

Emma could only nod weakly. There was nothing she could do apart from trusting his words.

At that moment, the room door burst open and the emergency medical personnel immediately swarmed in.

A tall bespectacled woman took a quick glance at the situation and immediately assigned her medics to Jason, Jeremy and Elizabeth.

They quickly and professionally performed scans on all three of them to determine the proper way of transporting them before carefully taking them away.

“Your orders, sir?” The woman asked the old man politely.

“Make sure they survive.” The old man replied.

“Yes sir!” She saluted and left the room with the rest of her retinue.

And just like that, the near-fatal emergency ended anticlimactically.

It was definitely a far more exciting ending to the little family drama than I would have liked.

After they left, the atmosphere in the room grew extremely heavy.

“Secure Catherine and Isabella. Make sure they remain alive to await my questioning. Bring James and Julie to their mother.” The old man instructed his bodyguards.

They immediately saluted and proceeded to do his bidding.

“Margaret…” The old man began.

“I didn’t know anything, Grandfather.” Margaret replied calmly and looked straight into her grandfather’s eyes.

“I know.” The old man said with a sad smile. “If you’re part of the conspiracy, Jeremy would have been dead at the very least. Don’t worry, I just want you to come with me and help me figure out how all this happened.”

Margaret nodded, her eyes flashing slightly in surprise. She was probably surprised that her grandfather knew exactly how strong she was at that moment.

Margaret, as you know, was only eleven years old then. But even at that age, she was already a monster.

The Whitefrost Clan truly had excellent genes. They produced so many stellar geniuses, especially during our generation.

“Emma, I also need to talk to you about…” The old man faltered as he couldn’t bring himself to say the words.

“Don’t worry grandpa. I am what I am. I am fine. We’ll have this conversation after you figure out everything you need to figure out.” She smiled sweetly at the old man.

“That’s good. That’s good.” Relief flooded the old man’s face.

“But there is one very important thing that we must do today.” Emma said seriously.

“Of course. What is it, my dear?” The old man asked as his countenance grew serious. "I will make sure we do it today."

“The third reward. You haven’t told us what his third reward is.” Emma said while pointing at me.

The old man blinked a few times before finally bursting out in laughter.

“To think that the “very important” thing that Emma meant, even after the insanity of what just happened, was her savior’s third reward! What a… cute little girl! I need to make sure he gets the best third reward ever!” Those exact words must be what the old man was thinking at that moment.

Because his third reward for me… truly blew my mind away.