Trick Or Trick

What is a lie. It is truth in disguise.
Likewise, a rookie is a veteran master in disguise.
Every feint hides a killing strike.
-George Gordon Byron, Blood-Flower Ghost Pen, 6th Baron Byron, -

-Kwaang!

A colossal flame that appeared in the middle of Green Willow Manor.

The pillar of fire that shot straight up blasted the glass dome in the ceiling away.

“Wh-what is this…….”

Irene Adler’s eyes shook mercilessly as she fell onto her backside in fright.

Living as the Afternoon Tea Party Leader, she had grown the nerve not to be startled unless something truly serious happened.

But this time, she had no choice but to throw dignity to the winds and shudder in terror.

A massive explosion of Yang Qi had erupted out of empty air.

That wasn’t all. Before she knew it, large and small flames were bursting out here and there, burning through the estate.

Flame wasn’t the only thing threatening Irene.

Black, acrid smoke had begun to fill Green Willow Manor.

No matter how Irene Adler kept an antidote pill in her mouth at all times, it couldn’t stop carbon monoxide or carbon dioxide poisoning, or spare her from suffocation due to lack of oxygen.

With no choice, she hunched down and covered her mouth with a handkerchief.

“Miss Adler!!”
“Are you safe?! Party Leader!”

Hearing the blast, Wilson, the butler and Deputy Party Leader, and the subordinates who had been waiting for orders beyond a single door, came rushing one after another toward the table where Irene Adler and Sherlock Holmes had been facing off.

The table was already broken, and the room was choked with smoke.

It was a solidly built estate, so it wouldn’t collapse at once, but who could have imagined something this absurd would happen in the headquarters of the Afternoon Tea Party, a group that prided itself on being one of the most secretive forces in the martial world.

The members who ran in pale-faced let out sighs of relief the moment they confirmed Irene was unharmed.

“Stop making such a fuss. I’m fine.”

Meanwhile, Irene kept her distance from her subordinates and glared at Sherlock Holmes alone.

She had raised her Defense Essence in time to protect herself from the shock, but she was used to a Party Leader’s life where safety was guaranteed in any situation, and it wasn’t easy to accept the bizarre phenomenon that had unfolded before her eyes.

“…You. What in the world did you do to my estate!”

She crawled over to the Little Heavenly Demon, who had been blown back and slammed into the wall, and grabbed him by the collar.

“What did I do…… Kuhuk!”

But Sherlock Holmes stared at Irene with an incredulous expression.

“Isn’t all of this something you brought on yourself.”
“Me?”
“You heated the egg and hastened the hatching, didn’t you.”
“No way—”
“That pillar of fire you just saw was born because the Yang Qi pooled in the air was stimulated and detonated.”

The Little Heavenly Demon sneered as he mocked Irene.

“Because the Vermilion Phoenix located its young early and arrived in London ahead of schedule, the Yang Qi in the air is going berserk. If you can’t believe me, look outside. Before the estate burns and collapses.”

Reluctantly, Irene followed the Little Heavenly Demon’s words, went to the window, and looked outside.

Most of her view was blocked by smoke, but she could grasp the general situation.

The other luxurious estates lining Serpentine Avenue were also suffering the strange phenomenon that had struck Green Willow Manor.

Some fled screaming, while others tried to put out the flames by using Kung-Fu that handled the rare Water Qi, or by deploying Kung-Fuists specialized in Yin Qi.

Somehow the flames seemed weaker than at Green Willow Manor where Irene was, and there didn’t appear to be casualties, but with the sky wrapped in black smoke and distant bells and shouting announcing fires, it seemed the inferno was raging outside Serpentine Avenue as well.

“…Tch.”

Irene had noticed London’s abnormal weather too, but it was hard to believe such weather was caused by merely one or two spirit beasts.

Yet no matter how she tried to deny it, with the evidence right in front of her, Irene had no choice but to believe.

Whatever kind of extraordinary spirit beast the Vermilion Phoenix was, it certainly seemed capable of collapsing the balance of Yin Qi and Yang Qi by its mere presence.

“At this point, it can’t be helped.”

Feeling the Little Heavenly Demon’s words gain even more credibility, Irene spun her thoughts quickly.

Judging from the scene outside, London as a whole would be engulfed in flames by now.

At first she suspected someone had engineered a formation that fooled the eyes with illusion, but since she felt none of a formation’s distinctive, alien flow of Essence, everything she was seeing was undoubtedly real.

What was fortunate, at least, was that the Afternoon Tea Party’s tea rooms and theaters operating in London had basements installed for emergencies like fires, and there were connecting passages linking each secret space.

The Yang Qi explosions would have occurred without warning, so not every member would have survived, but some would have grasped the situation and fled underground.

The elders she sent out the back door earlier would also be returning to their own places through nearby underground passages by now, so they would have escaped harm.

The plan to evacuate key clients and squeeze enormous sums from them was already too late and would have to be abandoned, but it wouldn’t be hard for the Afternoon Tea Party to survive.

Then what she had to do now was clear.

“Wilson. The egg being cooked?”
“I was just about to report…… but first, once you evacuate somewhere safe—”
“There’s no time. Hurry.”
“Well…….”

Wilson glanced up at the ceiling once, as if worried the roof might cave in, then answered Irene’s question.

“The contents won’t cook at all. We can’t prepare it. The chick inside keeps pecking at the shell—”
“It’s searching for its mother and father. In an environment dense with Yang Qi, you kept adding heat, so it must have finished preparing to come out earlier than scheduled.”

The Little Heavenly Demon cut Wilson off, but Irene didn’t stop him.

Losses from this incident could be recouped after the fires died by moving earlier than others, whether by looting a bank or digging through ashes, but a life—once lost—could not be recovered.

Surviving came first.

Having decided, Irene issued orders to the Deputy Party Leader.

“Wilson, evacuate the estate’s members underground immediately, then let the egg flow into the sewers appropriately. Once it reaches the sea, whether mother or father, they’ll take it themselves.”

Going to find the Tsar and return it was suicide.
It would be the same as Irene confessing her crime, and there was no guarantee a member sent carrying the egg could safely travel through London’s streets turned into a sea of fire.

Above all, whether the Tsar was even alive was unknown.

Rather than shoulder risk for no gain, it was better to let it flow in the waterways so the Vermilion Phoenix could find its young itself.

“This is all your fault, great hero. If you’d told me a little earlier why you came, I would’ve rewarded you instead. Obviously, you already evacuated your Baker Street housemate and the boarding house owner to somewhere safe, didn’t you? You’re truly selfish.”

Irene grabbed the Little Heavenly Demon by the collar as he dripped blood between his lips, and she cleared away the table’s debris.

“Still, I have business with you, so I’ll spare your life.”

-Tatak!

Already furious at having to suffer unwanted losses, Irene pressed Sherlock Holmes’s Mute Acupoint and sealed his mouth.

In a situation this insane, if she let that man provoke her again, it felt like she would truly fall into Qi deviation.

“We’ll finish the rest somewhere safe. If you don’t obediently follow my words, the meaning of evacuating your friends may disappear.”

When she stepped on the edge of the marble floor, a mechanism formation activated and the ground beneath her opened wide.

As the dark pit hidden beneath was revealed, Irene seized Holmes by the lapel and jumped down.

-Koong!

This was one of the secret basements beneath the estate.

Light from installed luminous pearls illuminated a spacious pitch-black area spanning thirty yards in all directions.

“Of course. A special guest deserves proper treatment.”

This place was a prison built to confine intruders in emergencies, and both walls and floor were made from thick White Lotus Steel.

The ceiling height was a full fifty yards.

No matter how much of a master of movement arts one was, escaping this place wouldn’t be easy.

“London is full of desperate gentlemen because they can’t spend time with the Mistress of Green Willow, yet you’re quite lucky, great hero. Until my mood improves, we’ll have to spend a nice time here, just the two of us.”

Irene tossed the Little Heavenly Demon to a suitable spot, then walked toward the wall.

While the remaining subordinates in the estate evacuated, she planned to vent by leisurely torturing the Little Heavenly Demon here.

This prison had torture tools and various poisons prepared.
A safe adult playground where she could toy with an opponent who’d lost the strength to retaliate due to poison.

If she couldn’t thoroughly trample and break his spirit, she wouldn’t be able to make him submit and serve her as master anyway.

Having decided to finish his ‘training’ calmly underground until the fierce flames covering London died down, Irene unlocked the padlock on the wall and took out a box containing torture tools.

But then.

“T-to lock someone in a prison and then pull their nails out one by one. Even if it’s obvious, it’s waaay too obvious…….”
“…Pardon?”

The Little Heavenly Demon was staring at Irene and muttering something.

Why?

She had pressed his Mute Acupoint and sealed his mouth, yet he was yapping without any restraint.

“For someone who’s supposed to be a successful artist, th-this lack of creativity is just—! Even someone like me, who writes ch-children’s books, squeezes their aching brain just to make a living, and I think it’s unfair!!”

Every word he spat out as a candid statement was hard to understand, and his manner of speaking was so alien it was hard to believe he was the same person she’d been talking to moments ago.

“You…… who on earth…….”

As Irene realized something had gone wrong, a Direct Message flew into her head.

<I-it’s a catastrophe, Party Leader! The Little Heavenly Demon stole the egg and is beating up our members.>

It made no sense.

Wasn’t the Little Heavenly Demon right in front of her?

But Irene quickly realized that was a misconception.

“Heh, looks like it finally ‘came in’ on time. I was waiting and waiting, wondering how long I’d have to keep this up.”

The Little Heavenly Demon’s voice changed, and his features and entire body twisted and shrank.

What appeared was a small girl wearing clothes that didn’t fit her body.

“Tadaaa……! London’s number one pretty girl, Miss Louise, en☆ters!”

It was Louise Carroll.