The Whole Story

"Clang~"

Luca casually tossed the iron bar he'd picked up aside and looked down at Dragan, who was sprawled beside his feet like a dead dog. His expression was calm, and he said nothing.

He took the clean handkerchief Shamira handed him and casually wiped his mechanical prosthesis a few times, then fell into thought.

At first, Dragan had racked his brain trying to talk his way out of it.

Unfortunately for him, the man named Barton was much more sensible. Knowing he'd been caught this time, he readily and honestly confessed everything he knew, asking only for a quick death.

Dragan, meanwhile, had never been much of a tough guy to begin with. After Shamira resorted to a few little tricks,

Luca, who already had a general idea of what had happened, was able to fill in most of the remaining details.

According to Dragan, two minority shareholders in Orange Industries had been working with Kingpin for some time.

After the Battle of New York, both unlucky shareholders "happened" to die, drawing Kingpin's attention to Orange Industries—or rather, to Luca, the young boy sitting on a mountain of gold.

Perhaps Kingpin wanted to use Orange Industries as a stepping stone to secure the contract for clearing alien debris from Manhattan after the disaster. Or perhaps he had simply set his sights on the company's assets.

In any case, after investigating the situation, Kingpin had approached Dragan, who was on the verge of running out of options in Las Vegas.

He wanted to use Dragan's status as an Orange to swallow up all of Orange Industries.

At first, Kingpin had probably prepared two possible approaches.

Either he'd take the gentle route and have Dragan manipulate Luca, the "naive young boy," into voluntarily relinquishing control of the company,

or he'd take the efficient route and kill Luca outright, then make Dragan his puppet.

Although Dragan had nothing to work with, he had his own little schemes.

Clearly, even as a puppet, he'd rather take direct control of all of Orange Industries, so he'd deliberately sabotaged that "long-awaited reunion" with Luca.

Dragan vehemently denied having anything to do with the car accident that followed.

Luca also believed it had been Kingpin's doing. After all, it had happened incredibly quickly.

The car accident had almost certainly been intended as a clean kill, and the timing had been perfect: not long after Luca left the cemetery.

Afterward, Kingpin would only have needed to use a few connections. With no evidence, it wouldn't have affected his subsequent move to seize a stake in Orange Industries.

However, Luca had come through the crash completely unscathed, and Kingpin seemed to have learned that Pepper Potts had attended the funeral.

The famous Tony Stark might have had some kind of unclear relationship with Luca.

Unwilling to provoke Iron Man, Kingpin had decisively abandoned any conspicuous, open assassination attempt and prepared to seize Orange Industries through "legal" means. That way, no matter how things turned out, he'd have a way to deny any involvement.

Naturally, Dragan had become one of his bargaining chips.

"But this raid tonight..."

Looking at Dragan, who was sprawled like a dead dog, Luca shook his head in exasperation.

These men were indeed Kingpin's subordinates, but Kingpin hadn't sent them to assassinate Luca.

They were actually "bodyguards" assigned to watch over Dragan.

However, Dragan had used the silver tongue he'd honed through years of scamming people in Las Vegas to persuade them to get rid of Luca for him. He'd promised to pay them a fortune afterward so they could flee, and that was why they'd all been sent out to attack Luca's villa in the middle of the night.

"So where was this fortune you promised them coming from?"

As he spoke, Luca ground his foot over three fingers on Dragan's right hand. Dragan let out another loud scream of pain.

"Aaaah! There's nothing! I have no money! I was lying to them! I gave them all the money I had! Aaaah! Please, spare me!"

"No money? These men are going to have to run after betraying Kingpin. If you can't pay them, aren't you afraid they'll kill you before they leave?" Luca asked curiously, pausing his foot for a moment.

"They... Ah! They wouldn't dare. If they kill you, they're helping Kingpin, so Kingpin won't go after them. But if they kill me, they'll have ruined Kingpin's entire plan. Kingpin definitely won't let them get away with that."

"And as long as I'm alive and in control of the company, I'll definitely pay them afterward! I swear!"

Dragan was already completely broken. He explained everything without holding back, hoping only to suffer less.

Looking at him, Luca couldn't help rolling his eyes beneath his lenses.

"He's got a little brain, I'll give him that. But it really is only a little..."

For a moment, Luca wasn't sure whether to admire Dragan's courage and confidence or laugh at his ignorance and arrogance.

Dragan's thinking was simple: if he were the only remaining heir to Orange Industries, Kingpin would have to keep him alive, as long as he didn't want the company's assets to end up in the government's hands.

Then, even if he were just a puppet, he could still enjoy the wealth and prestige on the surface.

But...

You'd think that managing to persuade his captors to betray Kingpin for money that didn't exist meant he had some real skill.

But had he never considered whether Kingpin might turn around and kill him once all this was over?

Or did he think that after "working with" Kingpin, he'd be able to rest easy forever?

However, now that Luca had gotten almost all the information he needed, he couldn't be bothered to keep dwelling on those trivial details. He asked his final question.

"Who has the stock transfer agreements for the two dead shareholders?"

At that, Dragan, who had still been trembling, suddenly tensed all over. His face was filled with despair he could barely conceal.

Seeing that look in his eyes, Luca calmly nodded.

"I understand."

Dragan immediately felt as if he'd fallen into an icy abyss.

The next moment,

Luca raised the Dominator in his hand.

Bang~

A gunshot rang out.

Dragan's body on the ground contorted violently, then his upper body exploded into a pile of bloody chunks.

Looking at the few specks of blood splattered across his suit jacket, Luca clicked his tongue to himself.

"Sure enough, I can't use lethal mode from this close. That's fucking disgusting!"

Seeing this, Shamira said, unable to bear it, "Young master, you can let me handle it next time. There's no need to get your hands dirty."

Luca casually waved a hand, took off his bloodstained jacket, and tossed it over Dragan's gruesome corpse.

Young Master Luca was kindhearted and couldn't bear to look at such a bloody scene.

"Young master, should we start staging the kidnapping?" Shamira asked.

Yes. According to Luca's original plan, he'd intended to make it look as though he'd been attacked at home and kidnapped by the criminals, then brought here.

In the end, he and Shamira, his loyal bodyguard, would use their wits to turn the tables and defeat their enemies.

Afterward, he could either call the police or summon Tony Stark himself.

That way, everything he'd done today would be completely justified and legal, and he wouldn't leave a bad first impression on Iron Man, the superhero.

However, after learning what had really happened, Luca was feeling a little uncertain.

Now, in addition to dealing with the trouble and taking revenge on Kingpin, Luca had another idea.

Well, to put it plainly, he'd taken a liking to Kingpin's stake in the company.

And... he didn't want to pay for it either.