Conan and his men arrived. They worked together to clean up the mess in the house and even fixed the broken tiles. The three hounds were dragged out together when they left. The family was no longer surprised that the second son of the Queen family came over just to clean the house for them. They knew he was Kaze’s biggest fan and would do anything for him. When the living room reverted to how it was, it felt surreal to everyone, as if Deborah and Mr. Ceb’s arrival was just a nightmare. “Kaze, you’re awesome!” Rose cried excitedly and jumped over to Kaze, hugging his arm and cheering. The girl’s energetic scent filled Kaze’s nose and he felt rather uneasy. He wanted to pull his hand away but Rose clung to him tightly. “Rose, you are not a little girl anymore! Behave! Go put some ice on your face! And don’t you mess around again next time.” It was Agatha who pulled her daughter away in the end. Rose pouted. “I’m not messing around. I know Kaze could protect me and
The situation reminded Kaze of Gareth’s death. It was exactly the same. Someone was targeting him in the shadows. After a while, Hector and Agnes woke up as well. Without saying much, the family hastily arrived at the funeral home, having no time to collect themselves. The funeral home was unusually lively in the middle of the night. When Kaze and family arrived, the place was already crowded with mourners. Mr. Ceb was with the Hacks family of Geranium, so his status and position were considered prestigious to the folks of Lilyrose. Of course, most of the mourners were just there to find out more about what happened. The two major incidents caused by Gareth’s death still left most of the factions in Lilyrose unsettled. Mr. Ceb was from the Geranium Hackses and his status would only be more prominent than Gareth. No one knew what would befall the city with Mr. Ceb’s death. Therefore, it was necessary to gather as much information as possible and take a stand before
“Grandfather, please don’t be like that. Mr. Ceb is dead. If something happens to you, then the killer will gloat at us.” “That’s right! Grandfather, you must stay strong and find the killer! We must demand justice for Mr. Ceb!” The Quint family spoke up to console him. Deborah, who had just regained her senses, spoke up as well. She even said they must avenge Mr. Ceb and while she spoke, she shot a vicious gaze at Kaze. The more they talked, the angrier Master Quint got. He stomped his walking cane on the floor and shouted at the top of his lungs, “Where are Hector and his family? Come out if you are already here!” The others were frightened by the loud shout. No one had ever seen him so angry before. “Father, we are here…” Hector was in his wheelchair. He bit the bullet and urged Agnes to wheel him forward. Agnes said timidly, “Father, Mr. Ceb’s death has nothing to do with us. We would never dare kill someone…” Before she could finish, Master Quint raised his wal
“Old man, whenever something happens, you shift the blame to us and it’s nothing new already. We have gotten used to it. “I understand you want us to take the blame so you can explain to the Hacks family, but at least try to come up with some evidence. You are trying to make me admit that I killed the dog man without any evidence, and you think the Hacks family will believe you? You think they are as stupid as you?” Kaze did not hold back with his sneers. He lost his respect for Master Quint a long time ago. “You little bastard! You called me stupid?” Master Quint choked with rage when Kaze humiliated him in public. He diverted his anger to Hector and Agnes once more. “You two, you two incompetent fools! How can you allow your son-in-law to talk to me like that! Disrespectful!” He glared at his son and daughter-in-law before he turned to Kaze again. His eyes were still burning with rage. “You little bastard, I’m warning you. Our family is going home, to our main family
Kaze suddenly felt a terrifying presence locked onto him, much more terrifying than the men armed with guns. “Darcy, watch out!” Without a second of hesitation, Kaze quickly hugged Darcy, looking pale, and scuttled out in between the two men. Swish! Swish! As soon as he darted out of the encirclement, several black shurikens flew in and aimed at where he and Darcy were standing. Fortunately, Kaze and Darcy had moved away. The shurikens continued flying after missing them. Thump! Thump! Following a few heavy thumps, three of the Hackses' bodyguards who tried to seize Kaze were hit by the shurikens and fell onto the ground with disbelief on their faces. Each of them had a shuriken embedded in their neck. At the next second, the skin around the shuriken started to turn black and the blood that gushed out was black as well. The shurikens were poisoned! The sudden twist of events shocked everyone at the scene. “Aaaah!” As people started streaming, a rather short
“Ninja from Ryokan?” Kaze narrowed his eyes. Based on the shurikens that killed the bodyguards and the sword in the killer’s hand, Kaze was able to identify the man’s nationality. The man was obviously a trained ninja from the island country, Shimada. His accent proved that he was not from Arcadia, or any of the western countries. Could it be the Well family? Kaze pondered. After he settled down in Lilyrose, he no longer had contact with people from Ryokan. Other than Kai Well’s death being slightly related to him, he could not think of any reason a Ryokan ninja would attack him. Kaze felt aggrieved. Kai was killed at the hands of Samson. Sirius already came after him with the Viper’s Den agents, accusing him of the crime and now killers from Ryokan were after him. Could it be related to the Viper’s Den? Kaze could not be sure since he lacked information. After all, Magnus died because of him and if someone within the organization wanted him dead and unable
Deborah crouched on the ground, her hair disheveled while shrieking at Kaze maliciously, “Are you deaf, Kaze? Get your ass here and kneel to the Ryokan gentleman!“Are you trying to get me and Grandpa killed? “If anything happens to us, I’ll make sure you and your wife’s family go down with us.” Raising a brow, Kaze looked at Deborah and Master Quint in contemplation. He moved forward and put his finger up the Ryokan assassin’s face in rage. He said curtly, “I don’t care who you are or where you come from, idiot! “If you don’t want to die, you better release the old man. “Do you know who he is? You’re in for it. “He’s the head of the Ridgesouth Quints in the Lilyrose branch. You should be humble in his presence. “I’m laying it out for you now. I’ll make you pay if you hurt him.” Kaze spoke indignantly and righteously. He acted as if he would save Master Quint by whatever means necessary. The dozen bodyguards around seemingly got the message from Kaze. “That’s ri
The Ryokan assassin lifted his leg and fractured Master Quint’s leg with a stomp. “That’s right. I’m disrespectful, shameless, and arrogant. So what?” The Ryokan assassin relished in Kaze’s rage and said smugly, “Run your mouth, and I’ll kill this old fart. Get your ass here and kneel before me.” ‘Bastard! ‘Asshole! ‘Can you stop talking, Kaze!’Master Quint could barely catch his breath from the excruciating pain. While he wanted to attack Kaze with a tirade of abuse, he was more tempted to spring on Kaze and tear his mouth apart. However, the pain drained his strength, leaving him without a voice. Everybody finally realized that Kaze’s big mouth struck a nerve in the Ryokan murderer to attack Master Quint more violently. Yet, Kaze was sticking up for Master Quint. Though the crowd sensed something amiss, they could not pinpoint the issue. “Stop riling him up, Kaze, or Master Quint will die!” a Quint family member uttered, fearing Master Quint might perish as co
“How dare those men hijack the plane and take Kaze. They must be punished…” Despite her grumbles, Snow grew anxious. “Given Mr. Lee’s capabilities, he won’t be hurt.” The agents around her tried to comfort her. They believed she was being too nervous. “I know, but we as subordinates have failed him by allowing this to happen. We have to do our best to make up for the mistake, and not rely on Mr. Lee to get out because he can.” Snow drowned in self-blame and regretted not being able to help. It was her negligence that allowed the hijacking to happen. “But there’s nothing you can do now. It’s late. Even the hijackers need to rest. They won’t do anything yet.” “It’s because the hijackers need to rest that we have to hurry and beat them to it. That’s the only way to solve this matter!” “But we’ve searched high and low and didn’t find anything. No one knows where they have gone. Even if they transported the passengers via buses, we didn’t see any tracks.” The agents discu
Kaze breathed a sigh of relief. He quickly went over to Miguel and pressed his hands with the gun down so that it would not misfire. “Good job.” “Thanks.” Miguel curled his lips into a nervous smile. He frequently trained in the gym and mixed martial arts but had never encountered any real-life incident before, thus being inexperienced. Fortunately, his mentality was stronger than the others and allowed him to act accordingly. “I’ll be taking the gun. This is self-defense, you won’t be charged and you won’t need to take responsibility,” Kaze said. Miguel’s pale face looked relieved. “What should we do now? Are there more of them?” Miguel dared not let go of the gun, worried there might be more enemies. “I’ve counted the numbers and this guy here should be the last one.” He then took the gun from Miguel’s hands. “Really? Gosh! That was crazy! I was so terrified!” Miguel finally loosened up and let his instinct take over. His heart was pounding so fast that it
Manson came over and saw the mercenaries lying in their own puddle of blood. The gore shocked him and made him sick. He tried his best to hold back the urge to throw up as it would attract attention. “Don’t look if you can’t take it! Don’t make things worse!” “Yeah! Professor! Grow a pair of balls!” “I have never seen dead bodies like this before!” he explained with a flush of embarrassment on his face. “Can we go out now and run away?” The hostages were eager to leave as things had settled down outside. They thought the danger was over. A dead mercenary was inside the container with them and they were still horrified. Once the others found out about this, the hostages would be shot to death. “If you want to die, be my guest. The moment you step out, you’ll be shot!” Callahan said as he looked at the others scornfully. One of the hostages had already put his hand on the handle of the door and was ready to dash out, but he quickly pulled his hand back after listening
“Tsk. Hold on.” Vexed, the man clicked his tongue and then waved at his colleague. “Come here. Someone fainted. Help me get him out.” The man wanted to take the professor out of the container. Manson’s heart pounded as he listened to the man. He was afraid he might be exposed, but there was no turning back now—he had to play along. Kaze stood behind the door, calming his breath down to lower his presence. “Get back. Stay away from the door. If anyone gets close, don’t blame me for being rough,” said the man as he unlocked the container. He opened the door and saw a number of hostages still sleeping. He then looked at the professor on the floor. He went closer to nudge him but did not get a response. It seemed like the professor needed medical attention. “Come on. Help me get him out.” The other man outside the container was on edge, looking as if he would pull the trigger at the slightest movement. “Why don’t we do it?” Callahan and Miguel volunteered. “You two
“It’s freaking troublesome.” “Boss, don’t worry about it. We’ll get an update tomorrow.” “Yeah. It’s late. Get some rest.” Tiguan’s men told him to get some rest and not worry so much. A few of them were already snoring on the chair. Tiguan sighed and killed the cigarette. He then closed his eyes to get some rest, too. The container that Kaze was in fell into silence once more. No one dared to make any noise but they all looked at Kaze, hoping to find out about his plans. Kaze’s eyes remained fixed on the window and showed no intention of revealing his thoughts. Miguel and Callahan were annoyed by the other hostages. “If you people want to get out of here alive, you better cooperate or come up with your own idea. No one is responsible for saving you.”“Yeah. I don’t want you guys to turn on us after we do all the heavy lifting. It will cost us our lives and you people won’t even be grateful.” Miguel’s tone was sarcastic because he disliked how the others looked at t
Kaze read the hostages’ minds and refused to be used. He wanted to leave but not under such circumstances. “That’s not true. We just don’t have the skills for this kind of situation. You guys are stronger, of course, you should be in the front,” said the man in glasses and a suit. A hint of sharpness gleamed in his eyes. Miguel knew what the man was planning, either. “That’s some plan you have there. You are just trying to use us to escape this place and no matter what happens, you’ll win.” “That’s not it! I just want everyone to stand together and get out of this place. I’ve never thought of using anyone!” the man argued, trying to look innocent. Even a monkey knew what he was planning, yet no one dared to speak up because they would benefit from it too. “Why don’t you guys think of something? If you need our help, we’ll help,” said another middle-aged gentleman who looked more just and fair, as if he could lead the group. “Then what is your plan?” Kaze suddenly wante
The hostages were locked up in the containers. Some of them were elites in their own field while some were ordinary people with average income, yet all of them got into trouble when they boarded the plane. Most of them could not accept their fate. Yet they dared not defy or resist the mercenaries. When things started to calm down, they broke down in tears, weeping in silence as resentment consumed them. Kaze sat down at a clean corner that allowed him to look outside the window. The window was dirty but at least he could see outside. The space inside the container was filled with people sitting closely, offering comfort to one another. They were aware they were just temporarily safe in this container. No one knew what the mercenaries would do to them at the next moment. “My parents must be worried. I said I would call them when I land but now I can’t even get in touch,” Barney muttered as he sat beside Kaze. He too looked outside the window, his feelings mixed. He watc
Kaze thought of what he had overheard in the toilet. If he told the hostages about that, they would probably panic. “It’s nothing. They are just going to separate us into different rooms or containers. They said the buses would be disposed of,” he said. He did not want to reveal too much because it would cause panic. Once the hostages knew their lives were on the line, things might spiral out of control. The mercenaries could kill a few of them to make an example, and none of the hostages would dare to cause problems anymore. Kaze kept it a secret because he wanted to protect the people. “That’s it?” “Is there anything else? How many men are there? What is their plan? Who are they looking for?” “We want to know because we want to survive. This isn't our problem—we just got caught up in it.” The hostages looked at Kaze, their eyes filled with worry. They felt aggrieved because they should not be caught in such a huge problem. “I don’t know either.” No matter how m
“There’s a room there. Get in.” The mercenary pointed his gun at the mother and son, which led them to look at Kaze nervously, seemingly asking for help. “What do you want?” The mother was nervous. She clutched her son’s hand tightly, nearly making him cry, but she reacted quickly enough to cover her son’s mouth to prevent him from doing so. “All women must go into that room. You go in now,” the mercenary explained. He did not want the woman to get the wrong idea. “You people won’t hurt me, right?” the mother asked, worried that she might be ravaged. “We are not into MILF,” said the other mercenary who was escorting Kaze, indirectly assuring the mother. Kaze shot a glance at the mother and nodded at her. “They told us they were going to separate us, so there’s nothing to worry about,” he said, worried that the mother and son would not cooperate. The mother then carried her son and followed the other mercenary into the room. It was called a room but it was actually ju