Chapter 12: Natsumi's Dilemma
In the eastern section of Navas City is a sprawling residential district named Cherwood Park. The area consists of modern homes that mainly used sleek designs and glass walls.
In one of those luxurious homes lived a young girl with short stature and pink hair that reminded in of the cascading cherry blossoms that bloom during the spring.
The girl had golden eyes that were filled with both joy and a never-ending stream of energy. After closing the main door, Natsumi walked into her room quietly.
There was no one to greet her in this house. The furniture in the living room was also very dull with only gray and black motifs. It didn't matter to her though as she rarely used the living room
She spent most of her time in the kitchen or in her room.
CLICK!
She turned the doorknob to the master bedroom on the second floor and tossed her clothing, one by one, onto the ground.
Once in her birthday suit, she calmly went to her bathroom and took a warm shower. While she applied her usual fragrant soap and shampoo.
"Everything was so confusing. How did Cynthia's relationship get so good in one day? They ignored each other for a long while and things were not going well. I am stumped." she said to herself, aloud.
She could not wrap her around the sudden change between the two. She also felt that Cynthia felt much more mature than before. It was an explicable change that's she could not help but ponder on.
"I'll have to see if they can be like this and improve their relationship. The feeling of maturity isn't a bad thing either. It would be helpful to her impulsive nature."
There was nothing much that Natsumi could do at this moment and she had no right to interfere in someone else's family matters if they didn't want it. She respected everyone's boundaries.
The shower didn't take long so she rolled out in her bathrobe and started wiping her silky hair with a towel.
"Hooo, it was fun getting to know Karina and Daly. Karina has quite a sassy yet cheerful attitude. She probably gets along with most people easily. She seems to be the closest with Daly. Hehehe, Daly gets teased just like I do. I feel pity for her, at least Cynthia gives me hugs to make up for it."
And just like that, Natsumi starts to blush from the thoughts about getting hugs from Cynthia. She wondered how great it would be if her newfound friends would also give her hugs.
She loves hugs and was subconsciously hugging a pillow from just the thought of receiving hugs. She was squirming with joy when her phone started to ring.
She looked at the caller ID and picked it up, answering with a gleeful voice.
"Hey, what's up."
"I need your help. Take me to the Martiana Black Market." Cynthia asked emotionlessly.
"CLACK!" Natsumi dropped her phone in shock as she would never have imagined that her best friend would request this from her.
After realizing what she had just heard and her reaction being quite abnormal, she picked up the phone and sat in her bed with full alertness.
Now that the initial shock was out of the way, she could listen to a more detailed explanation.
"How did you know?" asked Natsumi. Her sweet voice was now rather bitter.
"The Duketh family's information channels are not weak," responded Cynthia. Her tone was mechanical.
"I won't take that as an answer. the Duketh's may have a considerable network but it still isn't enough to uncover who I am." Natsumi was slightly angry at the moment.
She could tell when Cynthia was lying and Cynthia knew this fact but she still lied.
"You sure you want to hear the reason I know?"
"Go ahead, try me." Natsumi wasn't her usual self as her attitude was quite sassy.
"Here goes nothing..." Cynthia took a deep breath and then started to explain with a voice that contained stress.
"As I told you today, yesterday was when I awakened my powers. Not only can manipulate the ice element like my father but there are two more. One is something I can't speak to you about because it matters heavily to the family.
The second is something that I haven't told them either. Listen well, I have the ability to see glimpses of the future and receive pieces of random information about it.
From there, I learned that your family runs the black market operations all over the globe."
Cynthia took an occasional breath after each sentence and continued to create a heavy mood with her tone. With this, she attempted to convince that none of this was a lie.
This is because Cynthia's trait of lying is when her voice is completely monotone and emotionless. Along with that, she must talk at a slow pace. This was how Natsumi identified the lies from the truth.
However, she didn't know that the current Cynthia was one that had learned to lie through her teeth as the business world requires sone to be good at mixing the truth with falseness.
Her fiance's mother, aka her mother in law is quite the renowned actress. She was the one who helped Cynthia mask her terrible and obvious habits.
"I believe you. I haven't ever heard you be this serious. I won't ask you to tell me anything else if you don't want me to. Just let me be with you the entire time. Promise that you will not leave my side when we are there." Natsumi had once again become mellow.
When Cynthia heard the care and respect in her voice, she felt extremely guilty about lying but she could not dare involve her directly in what is happening around her.
Cynthia knows that people around protagonists often get sacrificed for shaking up the plot and she doesn't want her best friend to be one of those people. In the last timeline, Natsumi had kept a great distance away from Lilly and ended up living quite the life.
She had become someone who traveled all over the world and shared her stories online.
She had over 150 million followers on numerous social media platforms.
Cynthia still needs the system to collect more data and see if they could protect themselves from the power of Gaia's will. Only then can she start protecting her loved ones from any disastrous decisions Gaia might take.
"I promise that I will not leave your side for even a minute. I'll come to pick you up."
"I'll be waiting."
With that, the conversation that was short yet felt lengthy due to the topic ended with a quiet atmosphere in both rooms.
Cynthia sat on her bed and wondered how it ended up being like this.
'Was Lilly the heroine from the moment she was born?' she wondered as even someone like Natsumi, who had minimal impact on Lilly's journey in the past timeline had such a scary background.
It felt like all the rich, beautiful, handsome, and powerful individuals were around her at all times. The number of strange existences around her now seemed to be considerably large even if she was born to an influential household.
There were just too many times in the past as she made it through difficult Gates in ways that made no sense. She grew strong at a pace that was unprecedented in human history and was on her way to becoming the strongest.
Cynthia wondered what calamity humans would face then and whether it appeared after she died or if Lilly already had an idea about it.
There were so many things to do and uncountable things to think about that Cynthia felt that coming back had made her life so much more complicated and unbearable.
But he had already made up her mind to get through it all no matter what pains she must go through.
Before departing for the black market, she checked her phone one more time to make sure the Duketh family's protecting line was still active.
On the current phone, she had isolated all her calls in a way that make anyone unable to listen in to her calls, not even the Duketh's themselves. If they made no backdoor for themselves to access, there were no backdoors for others to access.
That's why she could say so much on the phone and she knew that Natsumi also has similar and more likely better technology that hasn't become mainstream yet.
Having parents with control over black markets puts all sorts of things in your hands before people can even know of them.
Next stop, Martiana Black Market.
Unbeknownst to Cynthia, she would meet someone who she was expecting to meet a little bit later. Someone who she wished the butterfly would affect the least.
Someone who even she would have trouble dealing with the antics of. Someone who she could not help but feels regrets about. Someone whom he promised that she would spend her entire life with.
Someone who could bring everything in the world for her was heading to the Martiana Black Market as well.
CREATORS' THOUGHTS 
Ashley_Dannes
Ashley_Dannes You guys must know who's coming!!! I'm excited about the next couple of chapters. Thanks for reading as always. [Next chapter is titled Black Market Romance (1)]
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