Do You Want to Know My Secret?

Beneath the secluded, silent woods.

A man and a woman leaned against a large tree like a pair of lovers stealing a moment together.

The moonlight seemed to be their audience, dispelling the darkness for them, as though something readers would love to see might happen in the next second.

But...

Although she had talked a big game.

Talia had no idea what to do next.

She had joined the League of Assassins for training at the age of four, and until she completed all her training at twenty, her life had consisted of nothing but becoming a qualified member of the organization.

As for dating?

In a word, her father was Ra's al Ghul, the great leader of the assassins.

The people in the League wished they could take a detour whenever they saw her.

But when she met Jino's teasing gaze, the woman steeled herself and slowly pressed her red lips against his, imitating those cliché idol dramas.

She had to numb this guy in front of her and prepare for the next step.

"Mm."

Talia displayed her clumsy kissing skills, forcing herself to endure the hands wandering mischievously over her body. She cracked her eyes open, and when she saw Jino's eyes tightly shut, she sneered inwardly.

At the end of the day, he was still an eighteen-year-old brat who could barely walk straight when faced with a woman.

To sum it up, he was still too young.

Thinking this, Talia quietly withdrew her right hand and gently removed the hairpin from her hair.

Taking advantage of her was not so easy.

And now, it was time for Jino to pay the price!

"Whoosh!"

Talia swung the emerald-green hairpin, which shot toward Jino's eye like a streak of green lightning.

A flash of hatred crossed the woman's eyes. The eyes were the most vulnerable part of the human body; she refused to believe she could not pierce them.

After all, this hairpin had been forged from rare Promethium. Because of its scarcity, even the League of Assassins had very little of it. When Talia was seventeen, she had secretly snuck in and stolen a piece, turning it into the hairpin she used now.

"Smack!"

The sharp hairpin struck Jino's eye socket fiercely.

"Ah!"

He seemed to be in tremendous pain. He suddenly shoved Talia away, covered his face as though injured, and cried out in agony, "My eye! You damned woman, what did you do to me?"

Seeing Jino kneeling on the ground as if hurt, Talia's face filled with satisfaction.

The woman was overjoyed. It worked after all!

Suppressing the excitement in her heart, Talia wiped the moisture from the corner of her mouth and straightened her back, returning to her cool, aloof, mature-woman demeanor.

Freed from the hairpin's restraint, her long hair cascaded over her shoulders. With her arms crossed over her chest, Talia slowly approached Jino like a noble queen.

"Hmph."

Talia snorted and stared at Jino with disgust, recalling how he had groped and pinched her.

That strange sensation surged through her body again. Talia pursed her lips and suppressed the heat in her heart, then sneered as she raised her long left leg and planted her foot on Jino's shoulder. Looking down at him like a noble queen, she said, "Do you know what you did wrong, brat?"

"W-What did I do wrong?" Jino seemed to be in great pain, his voice trembling as he asked.

"You shouldn't have talked so much to a woman!" Talia's face darkened, her emerald-green eyes fixed eerily on Jino as she twisted her left leg against his shoulder.

But the footing felt terrible. It was as though she were stepping on a block of steel.

"Now, you can die."

Talia held the hairpin and gestured at Jino's head, seemingly considering where to strike to vent her anger best.

"However, before that, can you tell me why you wanted that stone?"

Talia bent down. The thought that everything that had happened today was because of that stone made her heart itch like it was being clawed by a cat, and she desperately wanted to know the truth.

She was far too curious.

"That stone..."

Jino's voice was low as he hung his head.

Talia could not see Jino's expression, nor could she clearly hear what he was muttering.

She frowned slightly, staying alert in case he suddenly lashed out while bending down a little farther and asking in confusion, "What's with that stone?"

Covering his face, Jino slowly said, "The secret of that stone..."

The next second, Just as Talia focused intently on listening to Jino, the young man suddenly raised his head.

His golden hair fluttered, revealing a handsome profile. Then, as Jino removed the hands covering his face, an uninjured cheek entered Talia's field of vision.

That indifferent smile and cold gaze froze Talia in place as though she had been struck by lightning.

"Aba, aba..."

Talia could not describe how she felt at that moment.

Shock, surprise, disbelief.

Jino's eye socket, which should have been gouged to pieces, was completely unscathed—not even a red mark remained.

And when Talia saw the teasing smile on Jino's face as he slowly rose to his feet, she immediately understood. The astonishment in her heart ignited in an instant, transforming into blazing, overwhelming rage.

This bastard had actually been toying with her!

Negative Emotions from Talia: +100, +100...

A string of system notifications rang out in Jino's mind.

Jino rose to his feet like a foul-tempered devil, staring at Talia's violently heaving chest as he sneered, "You look pretty pissed off."

"You devil!" Talia forced the words through clenched teeth. Clearly, her hatred for Jino had reached the point where she was gnashing her teeth.

"I want you dead!"

Talia completely lost her composure. In a furious rage, she brandished the hairpin in her hand and charged at Jino without any technique, intending to drive it into his throat.

"Perhaps you should learn to respect the strong."

Jino's face returned to its expressionless state. He casually raised an arm and slapped the charging Talia across the face.

Slap!

The crisp sound echoed through the dense forest as Talia crashed into the cold woodland like a kite with its string cut.

Pfft!

The woman spat out a mouthful of blood, and deeper despair and fear began to grow within her.

She stared blankly at the bloodstained dirt.

Her mind raced.

Terrifying strength, unparalleled speed, and now an indestructible body.

She could not imagine how she was supposed to defeat this monster!

For the first time, an absurd thought arose in Talia's heart.

Could her father—the leader of the League of Assassins, the great and omnipotent Ra's al Ghul, owner of the Lazarus Pit—defeat this humanoid monster?

Jino had no idea what Talia was thinking at the moment. He stood where he was, enjoying another surge in points.

He had merely slapped this woman once, yet in just a few minutes he had earned another thousand points. This deal was not a loss.

As he thought this, Jino slowly walked toward Talia, intending to give her a few more slaps and thoroughly humiliate her.

What? Gentlemanly conduct? What the hell was that? Jino Luthor was a Sigma Male who would not be played by women.

Not far away, Moonlight filtered through the trees, casting dappled shadows of leaves.

Under the flickering moonlight, Talia's beautiful face was slightly swollen, her long hair hung messily over her cheeks, and those emerald-green eyes were filled with panic as she watched the figure draw closer and closer.

Thinking Jino was about to kill her, Talia could no longer care about dignity or the honor of the League of Assassins. She let out a terrified scream, staring at Jino in panic as she braced herself with both hands and kept retreating backward. "Don't kill me! I'm Ra's al Ghul's daughter! The next successor of the League of Assassins."

"I can serve you!"

Slap.

The figure walking toward Talia slowly came to a stop. Jino's azure eyes fixed eerily on Talia, his face wearing an ambiguous half-smile. "Serve me?"