Under The Veil of Night

Jason watched as the young girl cleaned up the table after she finished her work. "You’re getting even faster lately."

Laura grinned. "I want to spend more time to practice my recipe, so I’m forcing myself to work faster and harder."

"Have you made new recipe recently?"

"Of course," Laura smiled smugly. She walked to the small refrigerator by the side of the room and picked up a small box. Inside the box were numerous sweets that she made for the past few days.

Jason’s face turned terrible. He had suffered because this little girl forced him to eat a lot of sweets every few days. It was not that they were bad, but his mouth felt awful with the girl forced him to eat them too much.

"Can you find someone else to be your guinea pig? I’m not eating them again. I’ll get diabetes if this keeps on."

"I use dark chocolate this time, so their taste should be bitter," Laura puffed her cheek. "Come on Brother Jason, help me out."

"Just taste them yourself."

"They’re all good for me, but I don’t know which one that will sell."

"Ask Kanae."

"She will just say that all of them are good."

After pestering Jason for a couple of minutes, he resigned to his fate and ate the chocolate. As Laura had said, she used dark chocolate as the base, making the taste rather bitter. However, there was faint trace of sweetness underneath, which was very comforting.

"Your sweets have more variation lately," Jason commented. "Is it hard to make them?"

Laura shrugged. "Not really, I just change the composition. By the way, how is it? Do you think it’ll be a success?"

"It’s pretty good."

"Describe it!"

As Jason described the feeling that he got from eating the sweet, Laura was busy typing them into the file in her laptop. It took them hours before they finished making the report of all the sweets that Laura tried. Many of the sweets were too subpar, making Laura unable to use them.

"You don’t seem to need my help anymore," Jason chuckled. At the beginning, Laura was troubled endlessly because she didn’t manage to finish anything. Now, she could do them very efficiently.

Laura grinned. "I’m already better than you."

"Oh?" Jason arched his eyebrows. "Are you sure about that, little lass?"

"A disciple will surely surpass her master. I’m confident that I have already surpassed you," Laura smiled cheekily.

Jason chuckled. "You sure are very confident. Unfortunately, you’re still very far from reaching my level. Work hard, little lass."

"What? I’m already working hard!"

"It’s not enough."

"I challenge you!"

....

Laura didn’t know how long it took for her to make Jason compete with her. The result was truly disastrous because she had just realized the difference between her and Jason. If he wanted to, it would be very easy for him to take over the business and rule over the market.

He completely, thoroughly defeated her in her own game.

She finally understood the reason why he didn’t want to accept her challenge until she forced him. The forced smile that Jason had told her perfectly that he was already holding back.

Still, the result was a large gap between the two of them.

His ability made her rather astonished. Moreover, how in the world her sister managed to convince him to help her? This was something she still didn’t understand up until now.

As it was night time, Laura returned back to her home.

"Sis, I’m home."

"Welcome back, Laura," Kanae greeted cheerfully. "You take a long time today."

"Brother Jason is so annoying," Laura puffed her cheek as she recalled her loss. It was so vexing that she vowed that she would surpass him as fast as she could.

"Oh? What did he do again?"

"I challenge him to review the paper and recognize their mistake," Laura admitted. "And he just has to do them all extremely quickly. Uh, I barely finished half when he has finished all."

Kanae smiled wryly when she heard their competition. She had known from a long time ago that Jason’s forte was his speed and quick thinking. That man wouldn’t be defeated by Laura that early given by how short she has learned the business and so on.

"Just work harder, Laura. I’m sure you’ll be able to surpass him soon."

Laura passed a glance at Kanae. "Sis, I heard that you did beat him up a few times?"

Hearing that, Kanae paused in her movement. She never had any competition regarding reviewing documents, but they had other challenges. By now, her ability to fight both in close range and long range have far surpassed Jason. If one should say, she might be able to defeat him easily.

"Not in the same way with you, Laura," Kanae replied. "Do you want to take a bath? I’ll prepare the water."

"Not yet, I want to review my recipe, Sis. Have you eaten?"

"I order some takeout," Kanae replied.

"I’ll be in my room. Do you buy some for me too?"

"Of course, I’ll put them on the table. Just eat them when you want to."

"Aye, Sis."

With that, Laura walked to her room. Her hand was holding her phone because she wanted to review the recipe she made again. What should she do to make them more delicious and reached the market standard (Aka: Jason’s opinion) before producing them?

Seeing Laura so serious, Kanae didn’t want to disturb the young lady. She cleaned up the table before heading back to her room. Without anyone knowing, she had already left the mansion.

Under the moonlight, she traveled the street. This time, her destination was different. It was not the place where she usually trained, but she headed towards Ryukalin Clan Headquarters. She wanted to confirm something from the news that she received regarding Doha Family’s incident.

There was one thing she didn’t understand: Where’s James?

From the news that she received, she knew that Albert Doha, the previous head of Doha Family had died. As the result, his second brother stepped up to become the family head and at the same time, both the third brother and James disappeared. Knowing Taro, there were not many places where he could go. That man who loved to dress as a woman would surely pick the safest place from his friends.

From her conjecture, it should be the Ryukalin Clan.

The moment she arrived near the gate, Kanae made sure that she blended perfectly into the shadow. Her presence was extremely faint that no one would know that she was standing right in front of them.

Moving to the side, she made sure that she was covered by the shadow as she got into the headquarters. The guards didn’t notice her presence at all as she traveled the supposedly tightly guarded place.

Her steps were incredibly light, not making any sound or distortion as she looked around the place. This headquarters was large, but she didn’t have much time. Her senior or Kevin would be able to sense her if she got too close with them.

The safest place should be Kevin’s quarter?

Stopping in her track for a few seconds, Kanae debated whether she should come there or not. After a while, she decided to take the gamble. Even if Kevin knew that she came, she was pretty sure that he wouldn’t do anything to her. After all, she didn’t come with the intention of harm.

Moving her feet, she arrived to the back of the quarter. She had never seen this place before as Kevin didn’t allow anyone to come inside. This place was covered in green, with lush trees and a small pond in the middle. It was clear that this place was maintained very well.

Near the pond, there was a young boy sitting with a few toys scattered around him. He looked happy.

Upon seeing the boy, Kanae’s mouth broke into a smile. Her conjecture was not wrong.