Invitation

"No, no, no!" Leonard wagged his index finger and patiently explained to Sugar, indulging his own wicked sense of humor. "That's not how it works!"

"Sure, the Black Bear Gang was here yesterday, but we've recruited more members and grown stronger. It wouldn't be right to keep using the name Black Bear Gang!"

"So now we're a new gang: the Fierce Tiger Gang!"

"What does the protection money you paid the Black Bear Gang yesterday have to do with the Fierce Tiger Gang?"

"Exactly! What does the Black Bear Gang have to do with us, the Fierce Tiger Gang?" The underlings behind Leonard chimed in one after another. The mockery and taunting in their voices left Monet and Sugar furious and helpless.

They could see it clearly now: Leonard had come just to make trouble for them.

"Big sister, what should we do?" Sugar, only nine years old, was at a loss.

Monet beside her did her best to comfort Sugar, but without any power of her own, she couldn't think of a solution. She could only let Leonard lead her around by the nose.

"Just say it, Leonard!"

"How much protection money does your Fierce Tiger Gang want?"

"Haha! See, wouldn't it have been easier to do that from the start?" Seeing Monet fall into his trap, Leonard laughed arrogantly. "It's not much. Don't say we don't look after you."

"Our new Fierce Tiger Gang doesn't want much protection money. Just three hundred thousand Beli."

"Impossible!" Monet immediately objected. "When you were the Black Bear Gang, you only took one hundred thousand Beli a month. Now you've raised it by two times. Who could afford that?"

"I told you, the Black Bear Gang has nothing to do with the Fierce Tiger Gang." After impatiently reiterating this, Leonard curled his lips into a sinister grin. "Whether you can pay the Beli is your problem."

"Our Fierce Tiger Gang's job is simply to 'protect' you. As for those who can't pay the protection money, we have our own ways of dealing with them."

"This..." Monet had no doubt that if they couldn't pay, Leonard would do something she couldn't bear to see.

For a moment, Monet and Sugar fell silent.

Leonard didn't mind. This was exactly when the other side's psychological defenses were wavering. As long as they wanted to stay alive, he had ways to bend them to his will.

"Gray-sama! Can I attack?" Watching from the side, Baby 5 was already furious. If she hadn't been waiting for Gray's order, she would have taken these men out already.

"Not yet. I'll ask a few questions first!" The two groups hadn't made any effort to hide their conversation, so in the quiet atmosphere, everyone had naturally heard it.

"Only just noticed there are two brats over here." Leonard, whose attention had been focused entirely on Monet at first, finally looked toward Gray and Baby 5 in the corner.

"You're nothing but trash. Who gave you permission to speak?" Gray's gaze was sharp, his voice commanding. "Kneel!"

He swept his right hand from left to right, and the force field above Leonard and his men began spinning at incredible speed. Three times the normal gravity came crashing down on them.

In an instant, how could ordinary people like them possibly remain standing under three times the gravity?

First, they were forced down onto one knee. Then they were slammed face-first onto the ground, blood spilling from their mouths as their internal organs ruptured.

"I hate it when people interrupt me while I'm talking. Especially when the one interrupting is a piece of trash."

"And you're standing too high up. I don't like looking up at people!" The sudden turn of events left both Monet's group and Leonard's group stunned.

Once Gray had finished speaking, Monet pulled Sugar close and warily watched Gray and Baby 5.

"Wh-who are you?" Leonard tried desperately to get up, but the crushing weight on him made it impossible.

Realizing he'd messed with the wrong person, he hurried to grovel. "Sir, sir, please spare me."

"Just tell me what you need, sir, and I'll take care of it right away!" His words were obsequious, and his eyes were cautious.

If his face hadn't stayed the same, Sugar felt she wouldn't have recognized him. This was Leonard, the man who had always thrown his weight around in front of her.

"I don't need anything! But there's one thing I'm curious about." Gray raised his index finger and looked at Leonard. "When pirates come here, do you blackmailers protect the shops that paid you protection money?"

"Sir, you're joking. Pirates are a vicious lot."

"We just collect a little protection money. It's all for the sake of making money. It's not worth risking our lives over a little cash."

"Besides, after pirates loot the place, they can't stay on an island for too long. People still have to make a living, you know!"

"There'll always be shops. If the old ones are gone, new ones will open."

Leonard's explanation made Gray understand at once: they took protection money without doing anything, treating the shops like crops they could harvest again and again.

Pirate raids had nothing to do with them. If one shop disappeared, there were always others.

"Got it!" Gray nodded, understanding. He had lost all interest in trash who preyed on the weak.

"After hearing that, what do you think?" Gray turned his gaze to the Monet sisters.

Monet started. She glanced out of the corner of her eye at the gangsters sprawled on the ground and felt like crying.

After her younger sister was born, their parents had gone out to sea and died. Monet had raised Sugar herself, caring for her every step of the way. The hardships she'd endured as a child were too painful to put into words.

For the past few years, she'd run a restaurant and thought life might finally get better. But the town's gangsters kept showing up to make trouble.

With the gangsters squeezing them for money and her younger sister to protect, Monet's heartache was impossible to describe, even if she spoke for days and nights.

When Leonard showed up to cause trouble today, she'd thought it was the worst thing that could happen. But Gray's casual move that had subdued the gang left her feeling even more despair.

Seeing Monet stay silent, Gray was disappointed. "Have you been exploited for so long that you've lost even the will to fight back?"

"They're bad people!" Thankfully, Sugar didn't overthink it while Monet remained silent. She answered Gray directly.

"That answer is... acceptable." Gray nodded, then shook his head and said seriously, "The only reason they keep demanding protection money from you is that they think you're easy to bully."

"If I hadn't been here today, would you have given him even more protection money, or let your sister become his woman?"

"No way! He's such an ugly, rotten person. I'd never let my sister marry him!"

"But with your strength, you can't refuse him. If you don't do what he says, have you thought about the consequences?"

Sugar was stumped. "Well..."

Unable to find an answer, she looked up at her sister, Monet.

But Monet remained silent. As the girl who had raised Sugar herself, she had long since grown up. She naturally understood the consequences.

"All this tragedy and helplessness comes down to one thing: you have no power."

"As ordinary people, you're the ones who get exploited. Even if it weren't Leonard, there would be Windnard or Rainnard. The same thing would happen today."

"If you had power, you could confidently tell people, 'No!'"

"If someone bullied you, you could fight back. If there was something you couldn't stand, you could beat them up."

"So, young lady!"

"Do you want to become a mag..."