Rise of the White Dragon

- Tuesday, March 16th -

After Luan and Ingrid left and finished all the work they had to do in São Paulo, they returned to Santa Catarina.

*Riiing! Riiing!*

"Hello?" Luan answered the cell.

"Luan, your orders have arrived. The diamonds, I left in your room. As for the rest, I will leave it in the backyard. When you arrive, you decide where you are going to put these things," Maira's voice echoed as soon as Luan answered the call.

"Okay. Mom, as soon as I arrive, I will solve this. Until later." Luan told her before ending the call.

'I need to improve the surveillance system...' Knowing that the large quantities of herbs and medicinal plants and some rare diamonds he bought had arrived, Luan predicted that he could draw the attention of some clans and families who knew alchemy. But he couldn't delay this for long and his family had also gotten strong enough. He just needed to find a way to make sure they could always have armor and swords, thus he could feel more peaceful.

While working on improving the surveillance system, Luan also thought about creating tracking chips, which if they lost signal would immediately alert him of the location where it happened. Of course, the only reason they'd ever lose signal was if they entered a dimensional crack or were destroyed.

'I'll have to talk to everyone about it first.' Luan knew he couldn't do this without their permission. Although it was something to protect them, it could invade the privacy of his mother and sisters. As for Ingrid, she was about as strong as he was currently and was with him most of the time because of work.

*

When noon arrived, Luan did not go out to lunch as he normally did. Today his mother, Maira, made a meat stew and brought a lunch box for him and Ingrid. Now Ingrid and Luan were in his office while eating.

"It is divine!" Ingrid said, after taking a bite of the meat stew.

"My mom is not here to hear that," Luan laughed.

"But you can tell her what I said, so she'll know, won't she?" Ingrid smiled brightly.

"Yes, of course. I'm going to tell her that you ate that looking like you were going to melt," Luan smiled.

"You can tell, I'm really melting due to how tasty it is," Ingrid said as she waved her fork.

*

"Welcome back. Ah yes, Luan, your things are over there; take a look." As soon as he got home, Maira was removing clothes from the clothesline. Today he arrived a little early. It was starting to get dark, yet it was only 7:10 pm.

"I'm back." Luan approached her and kissed her cheek and said, "Yes, I'm going to do that now."

"I'm back, mother-in-law," Ingrid blurted out, but saw that Maira did not find it unpleasant and smiled at her. Ingrid came over and kissed her cheek as well and said, "Let me help."

"Okay, Cristina and Catharina are helping. They'll be back soon. Go with Luan; he may need your help." As soon as she finished talking, Catharina and Cristina appeared with baskets of clothes.

"Mom, we can leave the clothes dry on your bed," Catharina spoke and saw Ingrid. "Oh, Ingrid. Welcome back," she smiled.

"Mm, thanks." Ingrid smiled and kissed Catharina and Cristina on the cheek.

"I'm going to see if Luan needs help, otherwise I'll be back to help fold the clothes," Ingrid said before leaving.

Arriving at the bottom of the yard, there were many cardboard boxes and Luan had already opened most of the boxes. Ingrid walked up to him and asked in a soft voice, "Luan, do you need my help?"

Luan, who was crouching while opening a box, stopped for a moment and looked at Ingrid. "Sure, help me separate the boxes of plants on the right side and the herbs on the left side."

"Okay." Ingrid looked at the boxes already opened by him and started to separate them just as Luan asked.

A few minutes later, it was all done.

"Thank you, Ingrid. You saved me some time," Luan thanked her.

"Good. If you need anything else, just ask," Ingrid said with a smile.

"Everything is fine so far," Luan said, "You can go first. You must be wanting to take a shower."

"Yes, see you later." Ingrid kissed him before leaving.

As soon as Ingrid reached the top floor and approached Maira's room, she heard Catharina's voice full of joy.

"I'm coming in..." Ingrid said as she pushed the door ajar.

"Ingrid?! Come on, get in and see this!" Catharina was very excited.

"What is it? What's so interesting that has made you so happy?" Ingrid asked, curious.

"I'll show you. Just wait and see!" Catharina's voice was louder and more animated than usual.

Maira, who was next to Cristina, just smiled and didn't explain it either.

Catharina pointed to a set of clothes that had been collected from the clothesline, and ordered them, "Fold."

As soon as those words came out of her mouth, the clothing she had pointed her finger at began to be folded by itself, as if it had a life of its own. Of course, it didn't float, it just shifted on the bed as it folded in the way Catharina imagined in her mind.

"You saw, right? Isn't it amazing?" Catharina asked with bright eyes.

"Yes, very convenient. If you can do that to people who are wearing clothes, you could choke them to death." Ingrid already thought ahead, and then asked, "How did you come across this? How did you discover that you can do something like that?"

"Suffocate to death? Well, I hadn't thought of that, but it's true..." Catharina was thoughtful. Then she explained how she had made this discovery. "Hmm, as for how I found this out, it was because I was helping to fold the clothes and I thought it would be good if the clothes folded themselves, and then it happened."

"I see… Your laziness to fold your clothes made you manage to have a discovery in your Origin." Ingrid nodded in understanding.

"Isn't it fantastic?" Catharina didn't seem to mind saying that she was too lazy to fold her clothes, since it was true. "Now, I will always fold my clothes. You can count on me." She punched her chest weakly while saying this confidently.

"For someone who didn't want to fold her clothes before, you seem very motivated now." Maira scolded her daughter softly.

"Well, isn't that a good idea? I'm getting used to my Origin. Also, if I stop to think, even if I can't smother my enemies with cloth, I might as well make them lose their eyesight, even make their legs get stuck, and make them stumble… Yes, there are so many applications... Well, I'll think about it later. I'll finish folding the clothes now!" Catharina had never been more motivated to fold her clothes than she was today.

When almost all of the dressing and bedding was folded, Catharina asked, "Is Luan still busy?"

"Yes, I think it will take a while to finish," Ingrid nodded.

"I see. I'll have to show him this later then. Maybe he'll think up some special training for me to do with my new powers," Catharina said excitedly.

"Yes, do that." Maira smiled and said, "I'm going to make dinner. Do you want to help me, Cristina?"

"Yeah!" Cristina nodded with a smile and followed her mother downstairs.