"What did you say? It failed?" Alexandra stared at Sowande in disbelief. She had not seen him this shaken in centuries.
"How did it fail?" Madam Gao asked in confusion. "You led the team yourself. Couldn't you even handle an ordinary woman?"
"An ordinary woman?
Gao, you called her an ordinary woman?
Haha! That's the funniest joke I've ever heard." Sowande's expression was exaggerated, and there was unmistakable fear in his eyes. "Luckily, I treated her as an ordinary woman and didn't confront her directly."
"Explain yourself, Sowande," Alexandra said coldly.
Sowande took a deep breath and sat down wherever he could. "I didn't think much of her at first. I simply sent a few men to the Divination Shop to bring her in.
But in the blink of an eye, every man I sent collapsed clutching his throat. I didn't even see how she struck."
"This..." Murakami looked unsettled as he tentatively asked, "Could Gaius have left protective measures for his cousin?"
"Unlikely," Sowande muttered. "That woman felt utterly indifferent to me, as though killing people was as simple as eating and drinking.
No, even that doesn't describe it. I even feel that the number of people the few of us have killed over these centuries doesn't amount to a fraction of hers."
"What kind of joke is that?" The Fixer exclaimed in shock.
"I also find it absurd, but one thing is certain: Gaius's cousin is definitely not someone to be trifled with.
After living for centuries, this is the first time I've felt as terrified as I did tonight."
"So not only did we lose our chance to control Aaron Gaius, we also offended him and an unfathomable cousin of his?" The Fixer smacked his lips gloomily. "Is that about right?"
"More importantly, it happened at such