"Should we hand her over to the Piltover Enforcers?"
"She doesn't look that old."
"She sure has guts, though."
In a daze, Jinx heard voices talking around her. Her consciousness gradually returned, and then she slowly opened her eyes.
She saw a whole crowd of people gathered around her, staring as if she were a monkey in a zoo.
She immediately tried to get up, only to find that she could not sit up at all. After struggling twice, she discovered that not only were her hands and feet tied tight, even her body had been bound to a pillar in the living room.
At once, she remembered the situation she had been in earlier.
"She's awake."
Everyone noticed Jinx waking up.
After struggling a few times to no avail, Jinx had no choice but to give up. Her mind quickly began working, trying to figure out how to escape her current predicament.
And yet she could not think of a single solution.
At that moment, Luke leisurely spoke. "Thought it over? Do you have anything you want to say to me?"
After taking a deep breath, Jinx calmed down quite a bit. She looked at Luke with obvious defiance. "Say what?"
Luke said, "Name, height, age, where you're from, and what you were trying to do. Explain everything clearly. You know we could hand you over to the Piltover Enforcers right now."
Hearing this, Jinx curled her lip in disdain. "Hah. Then hand me over to them."
Compared to her current situation, she would rather be handed over to those idiot Enforcers.
That way, it would be easier for her to think of a way to escape.
This situation, on the other hand, left her completely stumped.
But very soon, Jinx thought of something else.
If she was handed over to the Piltover Enforcers, then this matter would definitely spread to the undercity. Maybe Silco would find out about it.
No. If this matter reached the undercity, she would lose way too much face.
How was she supposed to keep making a name for herself in Zaun after that?
"Of course, we can also interrogate you our own way. You definitely wouldn't want to go through that."
A gentle smile appeared on Luke's face. "Demacian interrogation methods can be quite cruel."
Although this guy looked harmless, for some reason, Jinx suddenly had a bad feeling.
She vaguely sensed that this guy was not just trying to scare her.
The people around them did not say anything either. They simply continued watching.
At that moment, Jinx had a flash of inspiration. She realized she had no need to tell the truth at all. She could just make up a background and fool these people.
Then she lowered her head as if deflated, her tone turning somewhat helpless. "Fine. I'll tell you everything."
Seeing her sudden change in attitude, Luke smiled. "Then start."
"My name is Sevika, and I'm from…"
"Clang!"
Before she could finish, the frying pan struck her forehead. The crisp sound made it clear that both the head and the pan were high quality.
And Luke's control over the force was just right, dazed but no brain damage.
Jinx raised her head in annoyance. "Why did you hit me?"
Lux chimed in from the side, "Yeah, why did you hit her?"
Luke still had a gentle smile on his face. He raised the frying pan in his hand. "I'll give you a chance to rethink your words. Start over."
Jinx paused, her thoughts racing.
Did this guy know she had not been telling the truth?
After thinking about it, she figured, so what if she gave her real name?
She lowered her head again and built up her emotions. "Fine. Actually, my name is Jinx. I'm from the undercity."
Seeing that the pan did not come down, she continued in a pitiful tone. "I was born into a poor family. My father drank all year, and whenever…"
"Clang!"
Another crisp sound rang out.
Jinx was so angry she wanted to jump up and punch the guy in front of her. She snapped irritably, "Why did you hit me again?"
She had already come up with a tragic, pitiful story to win these people's sympathy. All she needed to do was act a little pathetic.
And yet her performance had been interrupted twice in a row. She was very unhappy.
Lux chimed in again from the side, "Yeah, why did you hit her again?"
Luke smiled. "Start from the second part. Say it again."
Jinx gave him a deep look, inhaled, then exhaled. By then, she had already thought up another story. "Actually, I grew up without parents and survived in the undercity by scavenging garbage."
"Clang!"
For some reason, after saying that sentence, Jinx suddenly felt mentally prepared to be hit.
Sure enough, her forehead once again received a strike from the frying pan with perfectly measured force.
Holding back her anger, she started over. "I grew up without parents. I only had one sister, and we depended on each other. Later, we were taken in by a kind person. Until one day, a fire destroyed our warm home, and my sister and I were separated from then on…"
This time, she seemed to have put real emotion into it, and her tone grew somewhat low.
Lux looked at Luke and saw that he did not bring the pan down. She muttered, "Looks like that part was true."
Jinx continued, "After that, I survived by scavenging garbage…"
"Clang!"
The frying pan struck for the fourth time.
Jinx could not take it anymore. She raised her head and glared at Luke through gritted teeth. "Enough! Are you done or not?"
Four times. A whole four times.
Was her head not a head too?
Luke said, "I forgot to tell you, we have a mage in our group. She has a special ability that lets her tell whether what you're saying is true or false."
As he spoke, he looked at Sona.
Sona immediately nodded in cooperation.
Although her ability was not exaggerated to that extent, she could sense a person's heart.
She sensed that the blue-haired girl in front of her had a very chaotic heart, as if she had experienced some kind of trauma.
When Jinx heard this, she snapped angrily, "Why didn't you say that earlier?"
She looked at Sona. To be honest, she kind of believed it.
Because every time Luke hit her, it seemed to be after she lied.
Luke said, "If you had just told the truth honestly from the start, would any of this have happened?"
For a moment, Jinx could not refute him.
Luke said, "From now on, I'll ask, and you'll answer."
Jinx said nothing.
Luke asked, "How old are you this year?"
"Eighteen."
Jinx pouted. Seeing the frying pan about to come down, she hurriedly added, "Well, that's if I round up!"
The frying pan in Luke's hand stopped right in front of her forehead. "Actual age?"
Jinx's confidence weakened a little. "Sixteen."
Luke glanced at her. "That's some pretty special rounding. You rounded up more than most people do."
"None of your business," Jinx said irritably.
"You're only sixteen, and you're already this bold?"
Lux could not help speaking at this point.
She had already felt earlier that Jinx could not be very old, because she looked very thin and small, and she was not tall either.
"What do you mean, only? Is sixteen supposed to be young? You don't look that much older than me!"
Jinx glanced at Lux and argued back with perfect confidence.
"I'm about to turn twenty!"
Lux put her hands on her hips and showed off proudly, looking as if she thought she was very impressive.
Although her nineteenth birthday had only passed a little over a month ago, there was still nothing wrong with saying she was about to turn twenty.
Jinx curled her lip disdainfully. "You're only nineteen. What's there to be proud of?"
"Still older than you, you little kid."
Lux lifted her chin and looked down at Jinx from above, her tone full of provocation.
The corner of Jinx's mouth twitched, and she sneered. "It's only three years."
"Still older than you."
"I don't care!"
"Hmph. Only people running from reality say things like that."
"…"
Jinx felt that the little blonde in front of her was just as infuriating as that prince.
Damn it. Why couldn't she have been born three years earlier?
At that moment, Luke raised the frying pan and lightly tapped Lux on the forehead. "You step aside for now. You're messing up the actual matter."
Only then did Lux remember that they were still interrogating a prisoner, so she took a step back.
Luke looked at Jinx and asked, "Tell me. Why did you come here in the middle of the night to steal from me? What were you thinking?"
Jinx knew she could not fool this guy with lies, so she could only answer honestly, sounding somewhat sullen. "Because you're a prince. The things on you have to be valuable. If I could take some while no one was paying attention, wouldn't that make me amazing?"
"That would indeed be pretty impressive."
Luke nodded and said, "In all this time, you're the first person I've met who was this bold."
Sneaking in so directly in the middle of the night, then rummaging through drawers and cabinets in his room right in front of him.
Jinx was absolutely the first person in history to do something like that.
Lux also looked at Jinx rather strangely. "So after all that, you caused this much trouble just for vanity?"
"None of your business."
Jinx looked at her irritably as well.
"You tried to steal our things. Are we not allowed to care?"
Lux had never seen anyone this arrogant. She directly reached out and flicked Jinx on the forehead.
Her forehead flick had been personally taught by Luke, and the sound was as crisp as if she had knocked on a perfect watermelon.
Jinx had never suffered such humiliation. Her target of defiance shifted to Lux. "Untie me if you've got the guts. Let's have a fair fight!"
But the little blonde did not buy it.
She sneered. "Have you still not figured out your situation? Right now, I can bully you as much as I want, and you can't fight back. So why would I go out of my way to untie you?"
The smug grin on her face gave Jinx a strange sense of déjà vu.
Then another forehead flick was awarded to her head.
At this moment, her mood was already nearing collapse.
Damn it. Why did these Demacian people all play so dirty?
Jinx gritted her teeth. "That's too underhanded! Fight me one-on-one if you've got the guts!"
"Hehehe!"
Lux gave several more cold laughs and looked at her with the expression of someone speaking from experience. "This world was never fair. A one-on-one fight? Sure, but why bother?"
She had finally gotten to experience the thrill of bullying someone.
As for Jinx, she was nearly furious enough to shut herself away from the world.
At that moment, Quinn said, "You were also the one who threw that paper airplane at His Highness last time, weren't you?"
Jinx looked at Quinn and realized she was the person who had almost caught her last time. Then she said, "Yeah, so what?"
"Yeah, so what?"
It would have been fine if she had not mentioned it, but once she did, Miss Crownguard remembered.
She immediately flicked Jinx on the forehead as well, finally venting some of her anger.
"That was my return gift. That paper airplane of yours hit me."
This flick seemed quite deserved.
On top of that, Jinx was already angry past the point of anger. By now, she also knew that getting angry was useless except for making herself even more mad.
Her eyes rolled, and she suddenly lowered her voice, acting obedient. "I know I was wrong, everyone. Could you give me one more chance?"
She looked just like a little girl apologizing sincerely.
However, after her words fell, no response came for quite a while.
When she raised her head again, she found that these people were merely looking at her. None of them had taken her words seriously.
This time, she really had not lied. After all, knowing she was wrong and whether she would change were two different things, right?
"This isn't a world where everything is forgiven just because you admit your mistake."
Luke spoke at this moment. "No matter how you look at it, your two actions have already challenged Demacia's dignity. But considering that neither time carried malicious intent to harm anyone, I won't hand you over to the Enforcers. From here on, as long as you make up for your mistakes through action, I'll let you go back."
When Jinx heard this, she stared at him suspiciously. "What do you want me to do?"
"I haven't decided the specifics yet. It's already late at night. We'll talk about the rest after we wake up."
Luke yawned, looking rather sleepy. "Good night. Sweet dreams."
"Everyone disperse. I thought something big happened."
"Sleep, sleep."
At this time, the others who had been woken up also returned to their rooms one after another, planning to continue the sleep they had just been pulled out of.
Jinx watched as everyone ignored her and scattered off on their own. One door after another closed, and then with a click, the living room lights were turned off as well.
Only Jinx was left in the pitch-black room, blinking blankly and helplessly.
What about me?
These people seemed to have no intention of dealing with her at all.
But this, in turn, was a good chance to escape.
Jinx racked her brain, thinking about how to take advantage of this opportunity and get free.
First, she struggled with all her strength, only to find that the ropes on her body, hands, and feet were tied in dead knots that could not be undone at all. On top of that, the rope was unusually tough.
In fact, the moment she had woken up, she had already hidden a hairpin-like tool in her hand.
Although it was not especially sharp, it could still be used to cut things.
However, no matter how hard she tried, that damned rope showed not even the slightest sign of being cut.
Instead, after working at it for a long time, she only exhausted herself.
Damn Demacian rope.
Jinx felt somewhat discouraged. Her current posture was not exactly uncomfortable, just a bit awkward.
The darker the room was, the more clearly she understood her current situation.
Although that guy had said he would not hand her over to the Enforcers, what was he planning to make her do next?
Everything had become unknown.
Jinx sighed. Carefree by nature, she quickly began to feel drowsy, with all kinds of thoughts running through her mind.
Then, before long, her head drooped, and she fell asleep.
She even began to snore.
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