“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
Talk about shooting herself in the foot. That was what Deborah did. Having lost all patience, the Ryokan assassin shot a look at Kaze. “Sticking there, I see?” Master Quint took a moment to gather a bit of strength and yelled furiously, “What’s with the big talk, bastard! “Hurry up and kneel to the Ryokan gentleman before I kill you, Kaze!” “Once I survive this ordeal, I will destroy you and have your wife gang-raped, Kaze!” The immense pain swallowed Deborah as she cried out lividly. It dawned on Deborah that Kaze played them like a fiddle. Kaze’s expression turned stoic. His intention was just to teach Deborah and Master Quint a lesson through the Ryokan assassin. He was not going to let things go far. Yet, the person Deborah resented was not the Ryokan assassin, who was the abuser, but Kaze. Deborah even went as far as to make such a violent threat in a frenzy. What did he do to deserve all that? Was it because he was a good guy? Should good guys be taken
“Slash!” Following the drop of the blade, blood sprayed everywhere. The color of red spilled from Master Quint’s neck. “Uh… You…” Master Quint twitched and stared at the Ryokan assassin in disbelief, surprised that the latter would kill him. He was the head of the Quint household. He was the leader of the Ridgesouth Quints’ branch in Lilyrose. They were in Lilyrose. Master Quint was bound to rule the city. He could not believe the audacity of the Ryokan citizen. Thoughts fleeted across his mind. Seconds before his death, Master Quint still dreamed of restoring the family’s honor and glory. “He’s gone!” “Master Quint is dead!” “Ah! That’s no way!” As Master Quint writhed in his pool of blood until lifeless, the Quints felt their world collapsing.The bodyguards from the Geranium Hackses felt chills down their spines. Ceb was dead. Deborah was dead. Master Quint was dead too. The Geranium Hackses sent Ceb and the bodyguards to Lilyrose to help the Q
“Ah! Murder!” “We have lost lives today.” The Quints wailed and scrambled out of the room. The Ryokan assassin was vicious. Despite being outnumbered, he killed his way out of the place. The Hackses’ dozen combat experts were either wounded or dead. It was chaos. “Are you hurt, honey?” With the Ryokan assassin gone, Darcy ran toward Kaze. She examined Kaze through and through to make sure he was unharmed before breathing a sigh of relief. “Are you alright, Mr. Lee?” Don barged into the space with police officers, his face grim. The police had surrounded the funeral parlor in anticipation of trouble, but an assassin slipped through the cracks, and bloodshed still occurred. If the police had not lost contact with an officer, they would still be kept in the dark. “Don will escort you home. I have something to take care of. Wait for me at home.” Kaze patted Darcy’s shoulder and pursued the Ryokan assassin who fled earlier. The assassin took a good look at Darcy
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
“Can you make him stop? If the man comes back, we’ll be done for,” someone said. The kid’s crying made everyone anxious. “What can I do? He’s crying because he’s scared. I can’t just stop him.” The mother was afraid as well, and she did not want her son to be taken advantage of. “Calm down. Just don’t alert the men and we’ll be fine,” Miguel said, hoping to ease the situation. “I’ll fight him if he comes in. I believe I can make it,” someone said. Those with an impulsive nature grew restless from being kept on the bus for too long, feeling like livestock being kept in cages. “Shut it. They are coming,” Barney said after a glance outside the window. The other passengers fell silent, sat back down, lowered their heads, and tried their best not to look out the window. The mother quickly hugged her son and covered his mouth to prevent him from crying. Kaze felt peace and quiet once more, even the air felt smoother. He knew the passengers were merely ordinary people and
Unfortunately, Leah knew she would not get an answer out of Snow since she was refusing to help. Everything seemed to have changed following her mother’s disappearance. She tried to stay for answers but when security came in, she could not resist them anymore. It was the first time she was escorted out by security guards and it impacted her. She used to be the daughter of the CEO of Northborn Group—everyone respected her. She used to enjoy a privileged status. No matter where she went, she was the star of the event. Yet when her mother disappeared, everything changed. She wanted to look for Kaze but she had just lost the chance. Snow turned her down and gazed at her with contempt and irritation. Leah could not accept the changes but some things felt like they were destined to change. She was forced to leave the branch office but then had no idea where else to go. She felt abandoned by the world. Before this, she could still hope for Kaze’s help, but now she had no
Leah went to her mother’s company but did not find her anywhere. Joey was busy working in the CEO’s office. Leah went over and asked, “Joey, where’s my mother? I can’t reach her.” She wanted to know what happened to her mother. “I don’t know about your mother either. We went out together earlier in the day but I don’t know where she went. I can’t get in touch with her.” Joey was so busy that she could not even free herself from the desk to explain to the girl. “Where did she go? How am I supposed to find her?” Leah panicked. If even Joey did not know where her mother went, then something must have happened. A bad feeling rose from her heart. Things just got serious. “I don’t know. Why don’t you ask someone else?” Joey did not have time to deal with the girl. Leah was unfamiliar with Joey’s coldness. Joey had always treated her with kindness and flattery, so the sudden coldness caught her off guard. She felt like something had changed. “Who should I be looking f
“No! My daughter is still in the hospital!” Katie refused to accept her punishment. She started to regret her decision but it was too late. “Now only you think about your daughter? I guess you are not that foolish, but have you thought about her when you betrayed Chairman Lee? “Don’t worry. Leah knew Chairman Lee personally and we won’t hurt her, but she might not live a good life anymore,” Snow said coldly. She did not want to put the girl in a difficult situation but her life as a princess would come to an end. “You can’t do that!” Katie could not believe Snow would do that. “I bet you never thought of the consequences when you leaked the information. Too bad. You’ve lost.” Snow revealed the truth because she wanted Katie to suffer for the decision she made. Katie would now regret every decision she made because she knew she had jeopardized her daughter’s life. She would feel like a fool. She devoted her life to climbing higher to gain more power but she ignored the
“I went to a bar to have a drink and I bumped into an informant of the Viper’s Den.” Katie looked helpless as she explained as if everything that had happened was planned out for her, pushing her to the edge step by step. It was a lively night at the bar. The atmosphere was pleasant and most of the guests were having a good time. Katie was a single woman. She needed care and love at times. She was alone when she visited the bar. She started off by ordering some drinks at the counter, waiting for a chance to meet a man who shared the same ideals. A drink or two later, maybe she could get herself a company for the night. As a grown-up woman, she had her desires. It was a way to release her stress. Katie entered the bar in a casual outfit but it did not diminish her elegant demeanor. When she sat down at the counter, a few young men approached her but she was not interested in immature boys. She continued drinking. She looked at the dance floor occasionally, searching for a
“Who do you think will believe you?” Arthur frowned. There were too many coincidences that it felt like a giant setup. “I’ve explained what I need to. Don’t interrogate me like I’m a criminal. I am the CEO of the Northborn Group.” Katie left them speechless. She had said the necessary and it was up to them whether they wanted to believe it or not. They did not have the evidence to charge her anyway. “You really think we can’t hold you responsible?” Snow was not really looking for a definite answer. The moment she suspected Katie, whether or not she was truly the traitor, Snow already had the right to hold her accountable. It was necessary to make things clear and it was to find out who Katie leaked Kaze’s information to. “It has come down to this. No matter how you deny it, it’s useless. We already know what you have done and you can’t escape. Even if you don’t want to confess, we can continue the investigation, and we’ll eventually find out the truth. “If you come clean