Under The Veil of Night

"Who are you?" Celine asked with murderous gaze. How dare this person snatched her limelight!

Kanae didn’t bother answering Celine as she sat down near the boy. James pointed to the nearby stack of blocks as he smiled widely.

"Make a huge tower, Big Brother!"

Kanae nodded her head. Internally, she was wondering that this James acted more like a young kid rather than 12 years old. Did he suffer some sickness or the likes?

Contrary to the raging Celine, Alice was relatively calm. She didn’t mind it at all that someone else was the one who got the attention since she was not that good with children. As long as it was not Celine, it didn’t matter who got the attention of James.

Tommy was looking towards Kanae with wide eyes. Why did he never know that Kanae loved children? Well, it should be pretty obvious given how she always stayed patience with her friends. Facing children, she would obviously be patience as well.

"Tom, what is Rei doing?" Jason asked with incredulous tone.

"He’s playing with the children," Tommy answered in low tone. Even when he was talking with the others, he always referred Kanae using ’he’. This was their habit to maintain Kanae’s real gender.

"Rei’s weakness is children?" Shiro asked with unbelieving tone too. They had stayed with Kanae for a long time, but they never saw her played with the children. Well, in the first place, there was no way there would be a lot of children around them, especially because Kanae was living in a mansion.

"Uh, I think that’s possible," Jason commented. "She cares about her sister a lot right?"

"Oro, use ’he’," Tommy warned.

"Fine..."

Kanae nearly rolled her eyes when she listened to their conversation. What can she say? She just couldn’t ignore this young boy as he seemed to be rather cute in her eyes.

*cough*

They were only playing blocks to make tower or the likes. Kanae’s hand touched the block lightly. It has been a long of time since the last time she played them. She missed it a lot.

"Big Brother can make a high tower?" James asked with sparking eyes.

Kanae smiled and nodded her head lightly. She put the block in front of her slowly to make it reach higher.

James smiled expectantly. He raised his hand to touch Kanae’s face as he whispered. "Big Brother looks sad, is there anyone bothering you? I can ask my father for help."

"It’s fine," Kanae answered in soft voice. She messed up the boy’s hair with a smile on her face. He was simply too cute.

"My hair!" James pouted. He turned back his attention to the blocks in front of him. "Let’s play a lot, so Big Brother won’t be sad anymore."

Kanae merely smiled as she followed along.

On the back, Tommy was trying his best to not laugh when he heard how James treated Kanae like that. That was simply awesome. He had never seen anyone dared to get close with Kanae aside from the students who asked for help or Laura. Even then, only Laura dared to make fun of Kanae.

As for those people who knew her as Rei.... There was no need to say anything.

Celine was looking towards them with murderous intent. She wished for nothing but killing this person who dared to steal the limelight. There was supposed to be no animosity between them. However, Kanae’s advance made her rather annoyed because it ruined her chance to get close with Kevin.

"Let me kill him," Celine stepped forward.

"Miss Celine, what do you think you’re doing?" Alice asked softly, but her tone gave warning for the girl before her.

Celine stopped in her tracks. "I want to give a subordinate a lesson. Don’t interfere, little princess."

"Do you know him?"

"No, but he’s annoying."

"Just because he’s annoying you want to kill him, I truly wonder how your family teaches you, Miss," Alice smiled brightly.

The two girls glared towards each other. Neither side was willing to back down as they didn’t want to lose in this staring contest. They already failed when they wanted to gain James’s attention, so this time, they couldn’t lose to anyone.

"He’s just a lowly subordinate," Celine answered calmly.

"It doesn’t mean that you can treat him however you like. He’s someone under Kevin," Alice answered with a smile.

Tommy watched these two traded words with awe. This side of Alice was truly new to him. He usually saw her as a little girl he needed to protect, but now, she was standing at the very front to trade words with someone annoying. In his eyes, she was all he could see.

At the same time, their words made him wanted to laugh. If only Celine knew who Kanae was, there was no way she would say those words. Against the entire Ryukalin Clan, their chance was slime. Against a small hidden clan like Celine’s clan, it was pretty easy.

There was no expert that could match Kanae in their small clan as Jason had informed him before. Trying to kill Kanae was the same as searching for death.

"Tom, can you hear us?"

"Yes?"

Jason rolled his eyes. This little brat didn’t answer for a long time just because of Alice. Next time, he had to make sure that this brat didn’t lose focus during their mission again.

"There’s another mission for you if you want after this one. I have just gotten the news."

"Sure, just tell me the detail later."

"Tom, it’s better to not think too much regarding that girl."

"I won’t," Tommy rolled his eyes. "You’re thinking too much. I just think that she looks prettier today."

"Are you sure that’s all?"

"Yes."

Tommy said ’yes’ a little louder. It was unknown whether he said that to answer Jason’s question or to convince himself that he wouldn’t have any other thoughts regarding the girl.