"I found Senator Pellegrino's domus and dealt with his six guards. Incidentally, it didn't take much effort. I also took the opportunity to look around his residence and unexpectedly discovered that Senator Pellegrino, whom we'd always been busy helping rake in money, actually lived quite simply. He didn't have many slaves, nor did he own anything particularly valuable. Considering the considerable income he received every year, I even suspected for a time that Senator Pellegrino was a miser who valued money above all else.
"But when I kicked open his bedroom door and held my dagger to his throat, Senator Pellegrino only fell to his knees before me and begged endlessly for mercy. He never once mentioned buying his life with money," Zhang Heng said. "That struck me as odd, because in my experience, no matter how stingy someone was, when they were about to lose their head, they were usually willing to spend a little money. Unless..."
"Unless the money he'd made all these years was no longer in his hands." Lucilla raised an eyebrow. "He was making money for someone else."
"Exactly. And what became even more interesting was that when I asked him who he had given the money to, Senator Pellegrino gave me the name of our centurion friend again. That suddenly reminded me of something else."
"What?"
"Rome had always been Blade of Balance territory. It wouldn't be easy for the Hounds to infiltrate it with their assassins. Besides, my teacher once told me that assassins who appeared to work alone still needed a great deal of outside support, including but not limited to intermediaries who made connections and efficient intelligence channels. The latter especially was a major money sink. There was an organization called the Hive in the Southeast District. It was extremely mysterious,