Chapter 302: Turns Out You Were Played by an Ant All Along

In Aethelgard, the Sanctum was already in an uproar.

"He’s actually from Aethelgard! How did he get into the Terrene Realm? Did he sneak in?"

"No, we can’t let him leak Aethelgard’s secrets! He must be executed on the spot!"

"How are we supposed to execute him? The people of the Terrene Realm can’t kill him, and we can’t go down there."

"We can open a spatiotemporal rift to extradite him back! He’s from Aethelgard, after all! The problem is, we don’t know who he is."

"Or several priests could descend a divine punishment to execute him, but it would take a few days to form the array."

"Lord No. 3, what are your thoughts?"

At the control console, the Black-Haired Oracle’s expression was calm. Only when asked did he speak faintly, "There is a way. There’s someone in the Terrene Realm who can kill him."

The other priests were stunned for a moment before it dawned on them. "Jane Lancaster requested a dagger as a prop reward!"

"Excellent. With her ’eye for an eye’ personality, there’s no way she’ll let this person go."

"This man is trying to trick Jane Lancaster, little does he know he’s the real prey."

No. 14 narrowed his eyes. "Don’t you find it terrifying? A mere task-doer who somehow guessed the existence of people from Aethelgard and preemptively schemed to get a dagger."

At these words, the Sanctum fell silent.

Right. It was one thing for Jane Lancaster to guess that Timothy Lancaster wasn’t the real person, but for her to deduce that only a weapon from Aethelgard could kill a priest... that was far too frightening.

It made them feel as if none of their secrets were safe.

The Black-Haired Oracle lifted his eyes, which were black with a hint of deep blue. "You’re thinking of her as omniscient. She’s bound to a system. When she encounters a situation where someone has been replaced, of course she would consider that we come from the same origin. Is that so hard to guess?"

Once again, No. 14 felt that immense pressure and shut his mouth, his face turning ugly.

The Black-Haired Oracle lowered his gaze, looking down at the Terrene Realm once more.

He knew No. 14 was just trying to sow discord. After all, someone who fancied himself a god would never take a mere ant’s cleverness seriously.

’But is that really the case?’ The Black-Haired Oracle didn’t think so. In fact, he had a faint, ominous premonition.

—

At the Lancaster residence, Jane Lancaster leaned in close to Timothy Lancaster.

Just as he was about to make his move, she suddenly whipped out a dagger and plunged it into his stomach.

When she pulled the blade out, blood sprayed forth, carrying with it faint specks of light.

"Misguided compassion," Timothy Lancaster sneered. "If you’d plunged that knife into my heart, it might have had a tiny bit of an effect."

Jane Lancaster asked, "How tiny is a tiny bit?"

"About the size of a fingernail..." The smile on Timothy Lancaster’s face suddenly froze.

The pain, which started small and grew, made him scream involuntarily.

"It hurts! It hurts so much!" The look of casual confidence in his eyes finally vanished. He glared at Jane Lancaster with resentment. "How do you have a weapon from Aethelgard?"

Jane Lancaster feigned surprise. "The person feeding you information didn’t even tell you this?"

Timothy Lancaster’s expression darkened completely.

Jane Lancaster looked even more surprised. "I was just bluffing. So I guessed right? There really is someone feeding you information? Are you working as a group?"

After a pause, she added with a hint of regret, "But it’s a shame. Your partner abandoned you."

Timothy Lancaster was about to go mad with rage. He had never been toyed with like this before.

"You bastard! You’re a Sin Slave, an ant fit only to be thrown into the highest prison for hard labor! What right do you have to mock me like this?"

The wound in his stomach was now an agonizing pain that spread through his entire body.

’It hurts so much. How long has it been since I’ve been injured like this?’

’Damn it! To think I’d fall at the hands of a mere ant!’

Jane Lancaster said, "Why are you still cursing me? You should be glad I was smart enough to guess that your partner wanted to silence you. Otherwise, this knife would have gone straight into your heart."

’After all, fear of the unknown is the deepest fear of all.’

’He attacked first, and I couldn’t predict if his strike would be fatal. My first instinct was to kill him before he could kill me.’

’It’s a good thing I held back. I need him alive, after all.’

Jasper Sterling couldn’t help but let out a soft laugh. Caleb Lowell looked at him impatiently. "What are you laughing at?"

’What’s so funny? The situation is this serious, doesn’t he understand the gravity of it?’

Jasper Sterling replied, "I find Jay adorable when she’s scheming against people. Can’t I laugh?"

Caleb Lowell pressed his lips together. ’Adorable? I guess she is, a little.’ He hadn’t noticed at all, probably because he’d been so tense the entire time.

But Jane Lancaster, who had just been labeled "adorable" by Jasper Sterling, suddenly had a complete change of expression.

"I don’t have time to waste with you. It’s so late, and I haven’t even eaten. I’m starving. Hurry up and confess so I can go eat."

Hearing this, Jasper Sterling turned to Gavin without hesitation.

Gavin understood and left the room.

Julian Lancaster also reacted instantly, but he fell silent as he looked at the butler and driver, who were already being held by Jasper Sterling’s bodyguards.

’He had specifically kept those two around because they were Timothy Lancaster’s men.’

But now, having realized what kind of creature "Timothy Lancaster" was, the two of them had collapsed to the floor in a heap.

Timothy Lancaster found it absurd. ’In the middle of something so important, she’s still thinking about food?’

"Don’t think you’ll get a single word out of me!"

Jane Lancaster sighed. "I’ve already gotten plenty out of you. What is Aethelgard? And what are the ’highest prison’ and ’Sin Slave’?"

Timothy Lancaster snapped his mouth shut, realizing that in his anger, he had already revealed quite a lot.

Jane Lancaster: "Are you going to talk?"

With the question, she slashed Timothy Lancaster with the dagger.

"Not talking, are you?" Another slash.

"Still not talking?" A third slash.

Timothy Lancaster finally broke. The wounds from this dagger wouldn’t heal, and his Star Power was dissipating quickly. Given how ruthlessly she was cutting him, he feared he would soon die from blood loss.

"How can you do this to your own father? Timothy Lancaster isn’t completely dead! His consciousness still remains in the depths of my mind!"

’If it weren’t for that, how could he have evaded Aethelgard’s surveillance?’

Butler Forbes looked up in delighted surprise. "Sir is still here?"

"If his consciousness wasn’t still here, and if he hadn’t made a pact with me to self-destruct if I harmed you, I would have killed you long ago, you old fool!" Timothy Lancaster said resentfully.

Jane Lancaster: "So, you were outsmarted by an ant long ago."

Timothy Lancaster: "You!"

Julian Lancaster lowered his gaze. After a moment, he looked up at "Timothy Lancaster" with cold eyes. "If Father wasn’t dead, then the incident with the male servant and the matter of bribing the Lucas couple to frame Jay would never have happened."

He refused to believe that if his father were still capable of thought, he would stand by and watch this person harm Jay without fighting back in any way.

Caleb Lowell’s head spun. ’That’s right. The person holding Jane Lancaster’s bank card, besides Julian Lancaster, could only be her guardian, Timothy Lancaster.’

’But why didn’t Jane Lancaster explain?’

But in the next instant, he understood. Jane Lancaster couldn’t explain. At the time, even if she had pointed the finger at Timothy Lancaster, he himself would never have believed her, and it would have tipped off their enemy.

A tide of guilt washed over him.

Timothy Lancaster stammered, "No, that’s not it! He’s just temporarily suppressed by me..."

"You’re lying," Jasper Sterling said. "He was willing to risk everything to stop you from harming Butler Forbes. It makes no sense that he wouldn’t do the same when you harmed his most beloved daughter."