Mia’s birthday was a week away. Her entire family were having a discussion as Mia slept, tired from a long day of training.

“Can’t say I have physical proof but someone is trying something.” Choi said.

“I have to agree. Those stupid nobles keep asking when Mia’s birthday party will take place. I never brought it up myself, they shouldn’t even know that she was going to have a party!” Lin angrily said.

“Why that?” Elara asked.

“People usually only commemorate their birthdays every 5 or 10 years around here and everyone knows that Mia is 10 years old.” Marry explained.

“Alright, boy. What did you find?” Liza asked. Her eyes showed that she was ready to resort to violence.

“Due to Mia’s friends, I manage to look into a few people and it is clear that someone is trying to get close to us, more specifically Duke Furukawa.” Choi explained.

“I think I talked with his wife once.” Lin said.

“What is he doing?” Huang asked.

“The sudden investment in the restaurant Elara and Mei work at is coming from people that work with him. The pay rises and day offs we are getting are due to donations from people associated with him. Almost everyone that invites mom to stuff is someone that I received knowledge that they are close with the Duke and his daughter is trying to get close to Mia by any means necessary.”

“There is also the fact that someone tried to hire me as a guard and it was for that duke.” Kai said.

“Why didn’t you tell us any of it? Our boss is constantly making us meet some people that are investing there. Are all of them just trying to get on our good side?” Mei asked.

“Yes, but you need to remember that I had to check everything. I am not going to lie to any of you, I heard some things I wish I didn’t.”

“Like what?” Huang asked.

“Besides personal stuff that is irrelevant, I can kind of see why the king wants Mia so badly.”

“What do you mean?” Marry asked, a little angry.

“There is a group of nobles that act, or they think they act, as a counter balance to the power the king has. They think that if they have Mia, they can become kings and queens themselves. A few of them talked about Mia like she was some sort of trained animal that would follow whoever held her leash.”

Stolen story; please report.

“Who said it so I know which house to burn?” Liza asked.

“As much as I want to do the same, we can’t. We as a family don’t have enough power to deal with the nobles.” Lin said, trying to calm everyone down.

“Should we do nothing then?” Huang asked.

“Not do nothing, but let’s not start fights we can’t win. They want to play? I know how to play. Let’s hit them where it hurts. Their statuses, their ego, their standings.They think we are dumb and just giving a few gifts and being friendly is enough for us to open our house to them. Let’s show that they are wrong.”

“What do you mean?” Kai asked.

“Let’s make Mia herself select who should come, besides the people we already invited, and put the word out that it was her that chose who could come to her party. After the party, of course. What are people going to say? That the girl the party is for should have invited people she never even saw once?”

“They will probably still talk shit but will be unable to do anything.” Liza added.

“The problem is what will come after, at least for us.” Marry said.

“What do you mean?” Elara asked.

“In a month or two nobody will be able to lie to Mia.”

“Did she suddenly learn to read minds?” Huang asked.

“Sincerely? I have no idea but that is my timeline for when she will completely recover or get used to her new powers I should say. She still is somewhat disconnected with her death mana, can’t cultivate but the few glimpses that she showed me about her makes me believe with 99% certainty that she can sense someone else's intentions.”

“What?”

“When I train with Mia her mana is almost completely suppressed. The few times that it flares up she suddenly knows what I am going to do next. She can even tell when I am misdirecting her with words.”

“Is that because of the death mana?” Huang asked

“Part of it. I think this is her just awakening her psychic powers. She could think faster and use telekinesis but never really showed any other powers. Not like she was ever interested in it but she is getting strong enough that they are just flaring up.

“How do psychic powers even work? I know mind cultivators have them but that is about it.” Mei asked.

“It is basically using the power of your mind to affect the world. Thinking faster and telekinesis are the basic powers everyone develops as soon as they start. How powerful those two get varies a lot. The other abilities have to be trained or the person has to naturally acquire them. I for example never managed to acquire anything besides the first two and not for lack of training.” Marry explained.

“I learned a little about those too. Reading minds, controlling minds and seeing the future as the most common powers that people develop along with their variations. Mia is probably in the beginning stages of developing mind reading.” Huang added.

“She still is a very curious girl.” Lin said.

“...I don’t think it would be a good idea for Mia to see what is in my head.” Mei said, her face extremely red.

“Don’t worry. Someone will do something to stop her from hearing what she shouldn’t. The girl almost killed a man because he said half-shit to her mother, imagine what she would do if she suddenly could hear everything in everyone’s mind around her.” Liza said.

“Well, I will make sure to ask Mia for a list tomorrow so we can invite people and prepare the party as necessary and remember, not a word of this talk to Mia.” Marry said. With that they went to sleep, preparing for the days ahead.