Chapter 128 - Britannia's Debut

Jasper recovered swiftly and everything went back to normal, as normal as a day in the Wilde household could be. Scarlet decided to take a day off her projects and actually enjoy some time not doing anything productive when a letter arrived for Mrs Wilde.

Under Jenna's urging, the children were gathered in the sitting room as Orita tore open the letter from one of the recording companies that Orita sent the demo track to. Nobody breathed as Orita read the contents of the letter aloud.

Dear Britannia

Congratulations! You have been selected as a candidate to be our very next band artiste project.

Jupiter Records wish to formally extend an invitation for you to join our music family. We have listened to the demo track submitted and believe that with some professional guidance, Britannia can be the next big hit.

Attached is a copy of the artiste contract. Should you be interested in joining us, kindly fill up the member profile forms and sign on the artiste contract agreement to be returned to us.

We hope to hear from you soon.

Best regards

Jupiter Records

Dumbfounded, the group in the sitting room could only stare at the letter in Mrs Wilde's hands. It was Scarlet who suggested that they let Lin Lin know about it before making any decisions. Jenna called the violinist and everyone else waited, still in a state of disbelief.

"Um, congratulations?" Elfie smiled and Jasper swallowed. Scarlet didn't look too happy either and was more worried than happy at getting accepted.

"What's wrong?" the programmer asked. "None of you look very happy about getting offered an entertainment contract."

Scarlet sighed heavily. "I don't know if this is a good thing."

Alex nodded. "I'm still not very good at playing the guitar."

Jasper didn't say anything but if he did, it would be something along the lines of not wanting attention. Mrs Wilde observed her children and had mixed feelings. While she wanted to encourage all of them to grab the opportunity, she knows that this wouldn't be a long term thing. At most, the kids will play in a band till they are young a.d.u.l.ts but not more than that. The heiress knew that all three young geniuses had their individual chosen paths to walk. Still, it wouldn't hurt to create some good memories of their childhood.

"Let's wait for Lin Lin to come by and then we can also discuss this with Wilmer. Don't look so worried, it's not the end of the world!" Orita laughed and hugged her girls before ruffling the boys' hair.

"Mommy, contracts mean that it will be forever, this is a very big decision to make. Although playing in a band is fun, I still want to be an artist and draw Scarlet's book covers."

Orita smiled. "Don't worry about the contract, sweetie. We can annul it any moment if the three of you decide to stop pursuing music. As this isn't an easy opportunity to come by, I would advise the three of you to think over it carefully with Lin Lin and let your father know when he gets back. You can try it for a while and if you decide that you don't like it, we can always cancel the deal. Don't let all these a.d.u.l.t matters affect your decision, alright? Follow your hearts and we will support you with everything we have."

The heiress smiled so beautifully and his words touched not only the members of Britannia but Elfie who watched from the side as well. This was the very reason why the Wilde Empire stood till this day despite the horrible tragedy of twenty years ago. The heart of this huge business was actually the mother of the two very lucky girls and Elfie felt slightly envious. He didn't have a mother and while Danny was good, the hacker wished he also had a mother as kind and supportive like Orita.

Feeling down, Elfie went to his shared room with Jasper to sulk. Nobody really noticed his absence downstairs. Everyone was too preoccupied with their thoughts. Jasper took to smashing the drums while he thought and Alex preferred to lock herself up in her room painting her confusion out on a canvas. Scarlet decided to look for Claire to talk it out.

For the entire day that was meant to be spent unproductively, Scarlet was suddenly thrown into a new set of problems. If she accepted the contract, it would save her a lot of time on the initial step to taking down Anastasia. However, she didn't want to put the spotlight on Alex or Jasper in the process. This made her feel conflicted and after trying to nap unsuccessfully for two hours after the talk with Claire, she decided to look for Elfie.

The boy was found brooding alone in the empty room, playing a game of solitaire and losing miserably. he didn't seem to be focused on the game because Scarlet knew a stupid move when she saw one.

"Elfie," she called out softly.

"What is it? You're going to be a very famous person soon."

Scarlet wasn't expecting such a comment and stood at the entrance, unmoving until Elfie tore his eyes away from the game to look at her. The rims of his eyes were slightly red and Scarlet hurried over, the door closing behind her automatically.

"What's wrong?

Unable to hold back now that Scarlet was here, Elfie let the tears fall freely instead of trying to forcefully wipe them away like earlier.

"It's nothing," he told her in between sobs but it wasn't going to fool anyone.

Not knowing how else to help the programmer, Scarlet simply wrapped her arms around him to comfort the boy. Eventually, Elfie calmed down enough to apologise. As it turned out, Elfie was feeling down about not having a mother and Scarlet thought about it.

"Not all mothers are nice," she told Elfie and the programmer immediately had questions that Scarlet took time to explain.

She explained about her origins as a Liu before she joined the Wilde house. She also told Elfie how her biological parents weren't as warm as Mr and Mrs Wilde. Wen Scarlet revealed the reason for her injury when Elfie first met them, the hacker was stunned. He didn't think that such a gentle person like Alex was capable of doing such things.

"Although I'm not orphaned like you, I can understand how you feel. It's a shame that you're not adopted into the Wilde household but I think Danny loves you very much. His love for you doesn't pale in comparison to Wilmer and Orita's love for us. You shouldn't have to worry too much. Even if  Danny never marries in this life, you will always have the support from the rest of us in the E.C. Class and the Special Class. That's the very reason why we have that chatroom, don't we? We might not be able to replace a mother but we can definitely be your family."

Feeling better, Elfie smiled. "You're right. I was being silly. The chatroom still needs working on and so does Jasper's game but I suppose they can wait for now. You came looking for me. Is something the matter?"

Remembering her original purpose, Scarlet explained her concerns about being in a band that could potentially become famous.

"You know how he works. If he catches wind of me, Alex and Jasper will become involved. I don't want Alex to be exposed as the heiress of the Wilde Empire either when we become famous. The lesser he knows about us, the safer we are."

Elfie agreed. "How about disguising yourselves? Something like what Jasper does isn't a bad idea. If you hide your faces and use stage names, nobody will know. It's difficult for them to relate you to the Wilde Empire and easier for you to make your move."

Scarlet grinned. "I knew you were the right person to ask! I shall bring this idea up to Lin Lin as well and convince them to go for a masquerade-themed band. Do you think my plan will succeed? It's not easy bringing a man like Anastasia down."

At this, Elfie puffed out his chest. "That's why you have me! You don't just have me, if you told Jasper and Alex, they would be on your side as well. You have the support of everyone else from the E.C. Class and the Special Class too."

Hearing her words thrown back to her, Scarlet laughed. "That's right. However, I've decided on doing this alone as much as possible. I'm not the original child from the family and the Wildes' have done too much for me. I'm simply returning the favour so that my sister can live a life of peace and find happiness."

Elfie chose not to comment. From how he saw it, Alex couldn't be happy knowing that her sister was doing such dangerous things for her sake. He had a feeling that if Alex ever found out, she would be furious with Scarlet. It wasn't just Alex, Elfie knew that Wilmer and Orita would be mad at Scarlet for trying to shoulder everything by herself. Then again, Danny would also be so mad with him if he ever found out the things Elfie did behind his back for Scarlet. The hacker had not only broken the rules of not acting in self-interest. He was also hacking the Interpol for information buried away regarding the mafia lord. However, he wasn't going to let Scarlet know about the risks he was taking.

Like Scarlet, Elfie wanted to take Anastasia down for Danny. Their alliance was something that the a.d.u.l.ts should never know about.