Chapter 168
The old man's eyebrows twitched at the word "Blood Fiend."
"Do you know me?"
Zeke smirked and said,
"Yes, I know you very well."
Everyone who knew the name the old man used during his outlaw days was already dead.
After cleaning up his past, Blood Fiend hid his identity and ran a small organization in the Argos slums, living a quiet life.
But someone who knew about his past suddenly appeared.
"Who are you?"
Blood Fiend glared at Zeke with murderous eyes.
Frank, caught between the two, shifted his gaze nervously.
Zeke slowly approached Blood Fiend and opened his mouth.
"I was worried you might notice and run away, but it seems I was lucky."
Zeke had a bad history with Blood Fiend in his previous life.
It was Blood Fiend's organization that sold him as a slave to the south.
Later, when Zeke was working as a hitman for McCain, he disbanded the organization and returned to the central continent. He then investigated all the Argos organizations that had sold him off.
Among them, the one who had been managing the branch organizations and conducting human trafficking for the longest time was this old man.
He used to be an outlaw under the name Blood Fiend, but after killing everyone who knew his identity and disappearing, he was spending the rest of his life here.
In his previous life, Zeke captured Blood Fiend and learned that he was connected to an intermediary organization run by the Nostra Family.
Back then, he had taken care of Blood Fiend before things got bigger and left it at that, but now, he needed to find a connection to the Nostra clan, so he came back to him.
Moreover, to be caught by Blood Fiend so easily in one go. Zeke was inwardly pleased.
Zeke took out a dagger from his pocket and placed it on the desk.
Blood Fiend instinctively felt that the young man in front of him was someone he couldn't handle.
He slowly opened his mouth.
"What do you want?"
Zeke looked at Blood Fiend and said,
"The Nostra clan."
Frank, who was next to him, shifted his gaze even more frantically.
Blood Fiend's eyebrows twitched, and he opened a drawer.
He took out a pile of files and placed them in front of Zeke.
"I don't have a direct line to them. I just handle the occasional jobs that come from above. The relevant information is all here, so take what you need."
Like a professional, Blood Fiend grasped the situation and didn't put up any unnecessary resistance.
Zeke opened the files and skimmed through the contents.
Then, he threw all the files on the floor and said,
"I want to know how to contact the middlemen."
"The arrogant Nostra clan wouldn't deal with a small fry like me. The ones I know are just small-time gangsters. I don't know about those higher up."
At those words, Zeke picked up the dagger he had placed on the table and stabbed Blood Fiend's hand.
Stab!
Although the dagger pierced through his hand, Blood Fiend's expression didn't change.
Zeke, looking at Blood Fiend, said,
"I know you have a direct line to Skin. It's better to stop playing dumb and tell me quickly."
Blood Fiend's expression hardened at the mention of Skin.
Skin was a member of the Nostra clan who occasionally entrusted Blood Fiend with dirty work that was difficult for the organization to handle directly.
Seeing Blood Fiend still hesitating, Zeke grabbed the dagger and used the Lightning Strike skill.
Crackle!
Electricity surged through Blood Fiend's entire body.
Blood Fiend, who was trying to maintain his dignity as a boss, foamed at the mouth.
"Ugh!"
Zeke took out another dagger and stabbed Blood Fiend's other hand, which was gripping the desk as if about to collapse.
"If you tell me properly, I promise you a painless death."
Blood Fiend coughed and opened his mouth.
"S-southern style. Why has a cartel come all the way here to cause such a commotion?"
Blood Fiend said the same thing he said before dying in Zeke's previous life.
Zeke, as if he had no intention of answering, took out a third dagger.
"I'll test your limits and see how patient you are."
Crackle!
***
A few hours later, Zeke was able to get information about Skin from Blood Fiend.
The request secretly given to Frank also came from the Nostra clan through Skin.
The Nostra clan, which exerted influence over the entire continent, also intervened in the succession of lords and powerful nobles in each region, threatening them and taking their vested interests.
Families caught by the mafia had no choice but to pledge their loyalty or become accomplices in their dirty deeds.
This was how the Nostra clan's centuries-long history was built.
Zeke, looking at the corpse of the dead Blood Fiend, turned to Frank, who was frozen in fear.
Frank, realizing that the naive newcomer he sold off was a ruthless southern hitman, wet himself.
Zeke looked at Frank and said,
"I heard Blood Fiend was going to give you that request, Spider Hand."
Frank quickly nodded.
"T-that's right."
Zeke thought for a moment and then said to him,
"Okay. Then you'll have to help me."
"M-me? I-I'll do anything if you spare me!"
"The request to assassinate the noble heir in disguise is quite important, so Skin is coming in person. If you help me, I'll spare you and even give you extra money."
Frank had no way to refuse.
The target of the request was scheduled to arrive in Argos tomorrow for a dungeon tour.
Zeke used the Transformation Cloak to change his appearance.
In an instant, he transformed into the tattooed man who collapsed at the door earlier.
"What was that guy's name?"
Frank's jaw dropped as he saw Zeke suddenly transform.
He stammered and answered Zeke's question.
"J-Jack."
"Okay. Tomorrow, you'll go with me to the meeting place and meet Skin."
"O-okay."
Zeke disposed of the bodies with the power of Decay and then went to Frank's office with him.
He was planning to capture Skin, a member of the Nostra clan, and find out the location of their headquarters in Heli.
The next day, as planned, Zeke headed to the meeting place with Frank.
***
"This neighborhood is really depressing."
A young man with slicked-back hair leaned against a black carriage, smoking a cigarette, and muttered.
He was wearing a black suit, and tattoos were faintly visible on his neck and wrists.
The curly-haired young man across from him silently took a drag of his cigarette.
The slicked-back hair said to the curly hair,
"Hey, are you really mute? Ha, seriously. Next time, I should ask for someone who can at least talk. This is so boring."
Just then, the carriage door opened, and a man came out.
"You guys, smoke over there."
The slicked-back hair grumbled to the man,
"Uncle! You said we were going somewhere fun, and you bring us to this backwater place. What is this?!"
The man was also wearing a black suit.
The man, called 'Skin' because of his nasty habit of skinning members of rival organizations he caught, got out of the carriage and put a cigarette in his mouth.
The curly-haired young man lit Skin's cigarette.
"Don't complain to me, go tell your old man."
"Damn it, I knew it was my father who ordered this."
The slicked-back hair irritably threw his cigarette on the ground.
It was then.
A carriage approached.
Skin gestured to the gang members who were waiting.
As the gang members blocked the carriage, someone got off from the carriage that stopped.
It was Zeke and Frank, disguised as Jack.
The gang members searched Jack and Frank's bodies and confirmed that there was nothing suspicious.
Only then did Skin grin and approach the two.
"Jack, you seem to have gained weight. Are things going well these days? By the way, where's your old man, and why did only you come?"
Zeke, disguised as Jack, pointed at Frank and said,
"He had some business. You know the boss's personality. I brought the guy who will be the guide, so check him out."
Skin, knowing Blood Fiend's eccentric personality, which made him take care of anything that bothered him first, didn't think much of it.
He looked at Frank and said,
"This is him? You know what you have to do, right?"
Frank nodded with a nervous expression.
"I-I'll do my best! L-leave it to me!"
Skin patted Frank's cheek and said,
"This guy. Can you even guide properly being this nervous?"
Zeke, in Jack's form, said with a reassuring expression,
"He's been working in this field for 15 years. You don't have to worry about his sweet-talking once we start the job."
Skin nodded.
"Okay. I'll trust your old man and go with this. You know what happens if you mess up, right?"
He made a gesture of slitting his throat.
Then, he called the young men behind him.
"Say hello. This is my nephew. I brought him to see the field and learn."
The slicked-back hair grinned and held out his hand.
"Nice to meet you. I heard you've been in this business for a long time. Let's get along."
Zeke, in Jack's form, bowed his head to the two.
Then, he approached Skin and whispered,
"The preparations at the work site are complete. The boss said you need to do a final check before we start."
Skin made an annoyed expression.
"Ha, seriously. That old man is so picky."
Skin, who had worked with Blood Fiend a few times, knew his meticulous personality well.
Although he grumbled that it was bothersome, he also entrusted Blood Fiend with such important tasks because of his thoroughness, so he nodded.
"Alright. The target will arrive in the afternoon, so let's go and check it out now."
Skin got into the carriage with his nephew and the gang members.
They headed towards a high-risk dungeon they had scouted beforehand.
It was a remote place with a steep mountain path, so even if an accident happened, it would be difficult for outsiders to notice.
Skin got off the carriage and entered the dungeon with the gang members.
"Ugh, the smell. I can't get used to the smell of these monster bastards."
Skin covered his nose with a handkerchief and went inside.
Inside the dungeon, high-risk monsters that Blood Fiend had prepared were trapped in cages.
Skin nodded as he saw the monsters.
"A minotaur and a cyclops? They're strong. The old man put some effort into this."
Since the target thought it was a light trip and wouldn't have high-level escorts, it seemed like even the target's escort knights wouldn't be able to handle a minotaur and a cyclops.
Skin gestured to his nephew.
Then, he showed him the caged monsters up close.
"Kid, have you ever seen anything like this? This is a real monster."
The slicked-back hair approached the cyclops with curiosity.
Then, he took out the sword he was carrying and poked the cyclops through the cage.
Growl!
The hungry cyclops, trapped in the cage, drooled and stood up.
Bang! Bang!
Seeing the cyclops grabbing and shaking the cage, the slicked-back hair clutched his stomach and laughed.
"Hahaha! Hey, look at that. It's so funny..."
Thud!
It happened in an instant. The slicked-back hair's head was smashed by the cyclops' fist.
"Huh?"
Skin, covered in his nephew's blood, blinked in surprise.
Crash! Crash! Crash!
The cages were broken, and the minotaur and cyclops were coming out.
Roar!
Skin, startled by the roaring monsters, stepped back.
"W-what! Fuck! Jack! Hey! You bastard!"
He looked around in a panic, but Jack and Frank were nowhere to be seen.
Just as Skin was cursing and trying to escape the dungeon, a giant rock suddenly blocked the path.
Zeke had activated the trap that Blood Fiend had prepared to block the path.
"Damn it! Bastard! Open it! Open this! Hey, you guys, quickly block them!"
The gang members, who had been frozen in surprise by the unexpected situation, drew their weapons and tried to stop the minotaur and cyclops, but it was no use.
Thud!
The corpses of the gang members, torn apart, began to pile up in the cave. The terrified Skin fell to the ground, and the cyclops approached him.
Just then, the curly-haired young man stood in front of Skin.
He took out a dagger from his pocket and stabbed his own palm.
Drip!
The curly-haired man sprayed his blood towards the approaching cyclops.
Splat!
The cyclops, hit by the young man's blood, suddenly reacted strangely.
Growl!
It suddenly lunged at the minotaur next to it.
While the minotaur and cyclops were biting and fighting each other, the young man helped Skin up.
Skin grabbed the young man's shoulder and said,
"Bisco, find a way out of here! Quickly!"
Just then, someone walked out from the darkness.
"I didn't know you had a bloodline ability user with you."
It was Zeke, appearing in Jack's form.
Skin glared at him and drew his sword.
"You bastard! Who are you? Where are Jack and the old man?!"
"You have some sense. You're not a complete idiot."
Zeke took off his cloak and returned to his original appearance.
A uniform with a Dragon Slayer medal and black gloves.
On the continent, this attire meant only one thing.
"D-Draker?"
Skin's eyes wavered at the completely unexpected identity.