"So… my uncle and aunt already know I've been investigating them?" Jason Kin's voice was calm, almost casual.
"Yes, young master," replied Effie softly. "They both know. Should we take the initiative?"
Hearing that, Jason Kin chuckled. "Didn't you already come here yourselves? What more do I need to initiate?" Still smiling, he rose slowly to his feet.
Behind him, "Effie" froze for a heartbeat, surprise flickering across her face. Then, in her eyes, a flash of cold, murderous intent. In one smooth motion, she drew a dagger from behind her back and lunged for Jason Kin.
But she never made it. A small, white blur flashed into existence between them. A tiny fist shot forward like lightning. The figure was none other than Laffey, who just moments ago had been sitting off to the side, sipping her drink.
Laffey's speed was simply too fast. Before the fake Effie could even react, the punch landed squarely and hard. Laffey's true body was a destroyer weighing thousands of tons. The force she could put behind a blow was unimaginable; forget a human, even a tank or a small hill would have been reduced to rubble. But Laffey knew exactly how much power her fists carried, and since Jason Kin hadn't given the order to kill, she pulled her punch… at least a little.
Even so, the impact sent the woman flying backward like a kite with its string cut, slamming into the wall with bone-rattling force before crumpling to the floor, completely out of the fight.
"Trying to harm my commander? As the Solomon War God Laffey, I'll be the first to say no!"
With that, Laffey's rigging materialized in a shimmer of light. Twin 127mm dual-purpose turrets floated at her back, their cold, black barrels aimed directly at the would-be assassin. One wrong move, and she would be sent straight to the afterlife.
The fake Effie slumped against the wall, blood trickling from her lips, eyes wide with disbelief. She never would have imagined that the white-haired little loli she had just seen drinking lazily beside Jason Kin was capable of such overwhelming power. That punch… she had never felt anything so terrifying.
If this girl had truly meant to kill her, she would already be a corpse. And clearly, the only reason she was still breathing was because Jason Kin had decided so. Which meant he had seen through her act from the very beginning. He had been humoring her, playing along.
Her gaze shifted toward Jason Kin, now filled with both shock and confusion. "I acted so well… how did you know I wasn't the real Effie?" she asked at last, her voice hoarse. She didn't bother pretending anymore. Reaching up, she tore the high-tech mask from her face, revealing an utterly ordinary woman's features. This was not Jason Kin's true butler Effie—only an impostor.
"It was simple," Jason Kin said lightly. "The real Effie knows exactly how I like to relax."
"…And what's that?" the woman asked, unwilling to let go.
"Men and women. The usual."
"?!!"
"Don't look so shocked. That's our unspoken understanding. If you were the real Effie, you'd use your mouth, not your hands. And massaging my shoulders? That's a maid's job. Effie, as my butler, would never start doing that without asking first. She knows she's not professionally trained, and she wouldn't risk doing it poorly. She'd always call a maid to do it for me. And you expect me to believe the Effie who's served me for years would just forget that?"
His voice was cold, cutting.
The woman exhaled slowly, a trace of regret in her eyes. "I didn't expect… such a stupid mistake."
"Details decide life and death. Carelessness will cost you dearly. Now, where is Effie?"
Jason Kin's tone could have frozen steel.
"No need to ask. I won't tell you," she sneered. "And even if I did, it wouldn't matter. You're doomed anyway. No one can save you. I've planted a bomb in this house. If my timing is right, the countdown should be… twenty seconds to detonation. There's nowhere for you to run."
Jason Kin just smiled faintly. He raised his hand and clenched his fingers in the air. A large timer bomb appeared out of thin air in his palm, the digital display ticking down from twenty seconds.
Watching the numbers drop, he smirked. "You mean… this bomb?"
The woman's eyes went wide, disbelief and horror flooding her face. She knew without a doubt this was her bomb, the very one she had hidden in an extremely concealed location. It should have taken hours of searching to find. Yet somehow, it had just appeared in his hand.
It made no sense. It shattered everything she thought she knew.
"You… how did you…? What are you?" she stammered, staring at him like she had seen a ghost.
Jason Kin didn't bother to answer. He simply brushed a finger across the timer and the numbers froze instantly.
After all, he was a demigod bearing the Flame of Life, with skills designed to control mechanical life. To him, even a timer bomb counted as a form of mechanical life. And such things were his to command.