Chương 75: Assassins in the Night

Night. An upscale community like Chinkola Point usually sealed away the noise of the outside world. Its residents paid for absolute quiet. With Nostrade's current position, the family should already have been building a private base and moving there instead of staying among other residents at Chinkola Point. The problem was simple. Aren had not moved. Light Nostrade did not dare move either. Even now, the Nostrade Family headquarters remained at Villa 21.

To avoid unnecessary trouble, Light bought several nearby villas as well. The residents who sold did not complain. Living beside Nostrade might sound prestigious, and perhaps one could build connections that way, but accidentally offending them in daily life was too real a risk. The current Nostrade Family was already the underworld emperor of the surrounding region. No one knew what temper they might have. Besides, Light did not force the price down. He paid ten percent above market value.

The neighboring families moved out gladly. In theory, within several dozen meters of Villa 21, no one should exist except Nostrade people. Tonight, something changed. One by one, the outer Nostrade guards were knocked unconscious. When the final man fell, two figures appeared at the entrance of Villa 21 like ghosts.

"Father, that was the last one." Illumi looked toward Silva with hollow eyes. If the Zoldyck Family was not being paid, they would not kill unless necessary. Silva nodded lightly.

"Good. From here on, use In and Gyo." Illumi did not ask why. He gathered aura into his eyes and concealed the rest of his presence. The two vanished. Air stirred faintly under their feet as they moved through the villa like two black shadows. Their speed was extreme, but their footsteps made no sound. Even the airflow of their movement was suppressed. Silent Gait. It was a special assassination footwork passed down through the Zoldyck Family.

Refined over generations, it combined speed with the complete erasure of sound. Moving through air without stirring it. Illumi was not as good at it as Silva yet. When he moved, an extremely faint breeze still appeared. Silva, however, had grasped the essence of the technique. This novel is published on a different platform. Support the original author by finding the official source. He truly blended into the air. The guards patrolling inside the villa were like blind men.

The two assassins passed beside them, yet they sensed nothing. Found him. Silva and Illumi stopped at a door. Polished wood. Brass fittings. Unlocked. With a touch, Silva judged the room's basic details. He opened the door without a sound, and his right hand tightened. His nails lengthened under that pressure, becoming abnormally sharp. Then Silva finally released his full speed. In a single instant, he crossed the distance between the door and the bed. His right hand stabbed forward in the shape of a blade.

His sharp nails glinted like metal under the moonlight. Even now, aside from the aura concentrated in his eyes, Silva maintained Zetsu across the rest of his body. Not a single thread of presence leaked out. In his sleep, Aren suddenly felt every hair on his body rise. His brain screamed danger. The warning dragged him awake completely. His eyes opened by instinct. The first thing he saw was a muscular man with silver-white hair reaching toward his throat.

Under that overwhelming sense of crisis, Aren's pupils contracted.

'Silva?'

'The target is me?' He had known the Zoldycks might come, or rather, Francis Evans had guessed correctly. The Fanobi Family's revenge fund truly had hired the Zoldycks to take revenge. The Antoine Family Trust Company was an ordinary small family trust company in most respects, even within Agilas. But one service made it popular among mafia families and gray-market clans. Family revenge funds.

When a customer's family was destroyed by enemies, Antoine Family Trust would investigate the true mastermind and use the fund to hire the most professional, undefeated assassins in the industry: the Zoldyck Family. That made the threshold for opening one of their revenge funds high. Eisenhower Fanobi had learned through the Antoine Family Trust Company that the world's greatest assassin family was not merely a legend. After learning that, he decisively chose Antoine as the manager of his family fund.

Francis Evans had only been told about the trust's existence. From beginning to end, he did not know the details. There was no way he could have known the company would truly hire Zoldyck assassins for his revenge. He had lived in a small region all his life and had always thought the Zoldycks were legends. Eisenhower's original plan had been to steady Aren, then contact Antoine and commission the Zoldycks himself. But Aren had not played by that script.

As for why Silva's assassination target was Aren, that was also easy to understand. After the Fanobi Family was killed, Antoine Family Trust had already begun investigating in secret. They discovered that Light Nostrade was indeed the fuse behind Fanobi's destruction, but Light was now clearly Aren's subordinate. Nostrade's recent expansion was full of Aren's shadow. Otherwise, Bart's sudden Nen had no explanation.

If Aren had only been hired by Light, his decision to remain at Villa 21 after dealing with Fanobi made no sense. Before Francis exposed himself during the fight with Bart, Light had not even known Francis was Eisenhower Fanobi's illegitimate son. There was no reason for Aren to stay because he was waiting for Francis. Francis had been able to hold the Evans Family after exposing his bloodline for two reasons. First, he had a full mercenary squad of Nen users behind him, so the family elders could not resist.

Second, every other heir had been eliminated after he took power. No matter what, Francis still carried Evans blood. In short, with a little investigation, it was not difficult to discover that Aren stood behind everything. That was why the blond man had placed the Zoldyck commission on Aren, not Light Nostrade. Aren's alertness had dropped because he believed Francis's bluff. He had really thought the revenge fund would target Light. After all, Light had proposed destroying Fanobi. Light wanted Francis dead.

Aren had never personally managed Nostrade's expansion. Most of the benefits entered Aren's pocket, and Nostrade's yearly profits would pass to him through Adam, but in terms of direct cause and effect, Aren considered himself an executioner. The mastermind was still Light. Because Aren thought that way, he did not doubt Francis's words. If he knew Antoine Family Trust had analyzed him as the true mastermind, he would have felt deeply wronged. That belief was why his guard had fallen so low.

At first, he barely slept for a day or two. If he chose not to sleep, his body did not feel tired, so he stayed alert for any movement outside. Later, he thought again.

'The Zoldycks aren't coming to kill me. Why am I so tense?' Light Nostrade was his dog. Aren had no reason to stay awake all night in his place. Before Adam, he might have worried whether Light dying would affect his convenience. Now, even if Light died, Adam could replace him. Once Aren thought that through, he stopped. Guard duty was unnecessary. Forget it. He was going to sleep. After that, he only opened En once before sleeping out of curiosity about the Zoldycks. Otherwise, he lived as usual.

If he ran into them, he would test their skill and see how real experts in this world fought. Surely they would not disappoint him. If he did not run into them, that was fine too. He would just watch the surveillance footage afterward and admire their assassination methods.