Didn't We Agree on Delta Force? How Did It Turn into Arknights?

Image: "Badge", Location: "Images/1748546667-100438631-113415035.jpg"

Volume One: Chapter Fifty-Six: Execution

At dusk, a convoy bearing the Texas Family insignia slowly drove into the manor.

Before long, Giuseppe, dressed in a sharp suit and wearing a grim expression, stepped out of the armored vehicle in the middle.

The loyal old butler stood guard at the entrance as usual, waiting for his master's return. He stepped forward to greet Giuseppe.

Before the old butler could speak, Giuseppe asked first, "Has Cellinia returned?"

"Master, the young miss returned at noon."

The old butler bowed slightly, seeming hesitant to speak.

Having served three generations of the Texas Family, he could tell that something had been terribly wrong with Cellinia's mood at the time.

Though the eldest miss had seemed expressionless, that was merely the calm before a volcano erupted.

The old butler's loyalty was beyond doubt. After hesitating again and again, he finally reminded him, "The young miss didn't seem to be in a good mood when she returned."

"I understand."

Giuseppe waved dismissively. He knew full well what he had done. It was only natural for Cellinia to be angry.

But Giuseppe was not worried about that. As the head of the Texas Family, his control over the family was unquestionable. Otherwise, how could he have declared an immediate and complete break from Siracusa after murdering his father?

—If he had not even unified the family internally, how could he dare challenge Lady Sicilian's authority?

"Where is she now?"

Worried or not, the family was in the midst of a crisis. Giuseppe felt it was necessary to soothe his daughter's emotions. After all, Cellinia was not weak; she was at least another source of combat strength.

"She is waiting for you in the study," the old butler answered honestly. "And that foreigner is with her."

"Mm."

Giuseppe grunted. "I'll go see her."

Giuseppe's leather shoes ground over the cement path, cigar smoke trailing behind him in a gray-white streak.

The slanting rays of the setting sun fell across his sharply defined profile, gilding his face a dark gold. His lips were drawn into a sharp line, and his gray-blue eyes glinted coldly beneath the shadow of his brow.

Four Iron-Wrist Capos and their guards clustered around him like shadows. Their black suits merged into a moving mass of darkness in the twilight, like a silent wolf pack guarding its alpha.

The group passed through the long corridor, their footsteps utterly swallowed by the thick carpet.

The moment an Iron-Wrist Capo pushed open the study's oak door, the sunset light spilled in like blood, coating Cellinia's outline in a dark golden halo.

She sat upright behind the mahogany desk.

Behind her, Han Fei leaned against the metal frame of the floor-to-ceiling window. The lingering sunlight outlined him in gold, but left his face entirely buried in shadow.

Giuseppe's leather shoes pressed deep marks into the carpet. His gaze swept over the armchair that should have belonged to the family head. That was his seat, yet now his daughter occupied it with an expressionless face.

"Cellinia, my daughter."

Giuseppe spoke in a low voice. "Aren't you going to stand and welcome me home?"

Cellinia rose to her feet, just about to speak, when a commotion erupted from the courtyard.

Giuseppe frowned, displeased, and turned to order one of his men, "Go see what's happening."

"Yes."

A man in a black suit acknowledged the order and turned to leave the study.

Giuseppe withdrew his gaze and walked step by step toward the seat that belonged to him.

Cellinia expressionlessly stepped aside. She had no interest in sitting there. She had only casually chosen a place to sit while waiting for Giuseppe to return.

Her act of yielding the seat pleased Giuseppe greatly. He settled into the armchair, his expression easing slightly as he said, "One day, this seat will be yours. But for now, you—"

Before he could finish, the subordinate who had gone to investigate rushed back in and shouted, "Family Head, bad news! Those Siracusans blew open the eastern wall and have already stormed inside!"

At that moment, Giuseppe perfectly demonstrated what it meant to change faces.

One second ago, he had been glowering because someone had interrupted him. The next, after hearing his subordinate's report, Giuseppe's pupils suddenly constricted. Forgetting all minor matters, he sprang to his feet and shouted:

"What are the sentries doing?! They actually let those Siracusans break in! Recall everyone immediately! I'll make those Siracusans understand the price of trespassing on Texas territory!"

"Yes, sir."

His subordinate accepted the order and hurried out again.

Still burning with anger, Giuseppe glanced at Cellinia beside him and said unhappily, "Why are you still standing here? Get out there already. The family's enemies have come knocking. It is time for you to do your part for the family."

"Sorry."

Cellinia raised a hand and silently placed it on the hilt at her waist. She stared at Giuseppe without expression and said, word by word, "You—and everything about this family—disgust me."

"What do you mean by that?"

Giuseppe's face darkened as he quietly took a step back.

Behind him, the family head's guards slipped their hands into their jackets and gripped their weapons, ready for any sudden situation.

"Exactly what it sounds like."

Cellinia tightened her grip around the hilt. "Ever since the day I watched you kill Grandfather, I have grown completely sick of all this. Siracusa, Columbia—it doesn't matter. Filthy schemes are everywhere. All you people see is profit. Even your closest relatives are nothing more than pawns you can sell off."

Having the scar of patricide exposed by his own daughter made the already foul-tempered man's expression grow even more savage.

Giuseppe instinctively clenched his fists. What little reason he had left told him this was not the time for infighting. Even if he wanted to discipline Cellinia, it should wait until they had survived this crisis.

Thus, Giuseppe forcibly suppressed the anger in his heart and said in a low voice, "Cellinia, you should know that I had my reasons. Your grandfather, he—"

"I don't care."

Cellinia drew her longsword, its blade pointing straight at Giuseppe. "I don't care what reasons you had. I only know that you and your family disgust me."

Seeing that reason would not work, Giuseppe completely lost his patience and roared, "What are you standing around for? Take her down!"

Before Giuseppe's guards could move, the man beside the floor-to-ceiling window, who had seemed like a golden statue, suddenly came "alive."

His combat boots crossed the carpet, each step making the metal fittings on his tactical vest clink softly. Han Fei silently crossed the boundary between sunlight and shadow, finally stopping beside Cellinia. The glass viewport of his riot shield reflected a cold gleam, lying directly between father and daughter.

He raised his head to look at the pitiful man named Giuseppe and sighed. "If you had told us in advance, there would still have been room to negotiate. But now, it isn't just your daughter. Even I really want you dead."

"Where do you think you are?"

Giuseppe completely lost his composure. So enraged that he laughed, he said, "This is my territory! It isn't the place for brats like you to run wild!"

Sensing the family head's rage, Giuseppe's guards in black suits drew their weapons.

Long blades and hand crossbows—the standard equipment of family members. These weapons, once aimed only at enemies, were now pointed at the family's own eldest miss.

That contrast made the guards loyal to Giuseppe hesitate. Could they truly lay a hand on the eldest miss?

Cellinia was Giuseppe's biological daughter, and that blood bond made the guards' loyalty all the more difficult to uphold against her.

Noticing his subordinates' hesitation, Giuseppe shouted, "She has betrayed the family! She is no longer my daughter! In the name of the family head, I order you to kill her!"

With matters having reached this point, the guards finally stopped hesitating and immediately answered:

"Yes, Family Head."

The men in black suits held their longswords and silently advanced toward Cellinia.

It was clear that Giuseppe's guards were still holding back. They had hand crossbows, yet not one of them used them.

Perhaps they still hoped to capture Cellinia alive.

But they had clearly underestimated Cellinia's determination to sever all ties with the family.

Two longswords bearing wolf-head emblems appeared in Cellinia's hands. Their blades shone like frost, crossing in midair to form a deadly cross.

In an instant, two heads flew high into the air. Blood burst from the headless bodies, splashing a savage red across the expensive carpet.

"Eldest Miss..."

An Iron-Wrist Capo stared at Cellinia in stunned disbelief.

Cellinia said coldly, "Don't call me Eldest Miss."

The air in the study suddenly froze.

At that moment, Giuseppe's guards finally understood Cellinia's resolve. They all realized that the girl before them had completely abandoned the family.

Suddenly, the hum of vibrating bowstrings tore through the silence.

Whoosh!

Three poisoned bolts shot through the air, their arrowheads gleaming with an eerie blue light beneath the setting sun.

Yet almost the instant the hum sounded, the roar of a jet device drowned out everything else.

The next second, trailing a white stream of air behind him, Han Fei "flew" in front of Cellinia with his massive shield raised.

The fully deployed full-body riot shield blocked everything for Cellinia. Amid a series of metallic clatters, every incoming bolt fell helplessly to the floor.

"Ambushes aren't a very good habit."

As Han Fei spoke, his gaze passed over the guards in front of him and landed behind them—Giuseppe Texas was quickly retreating under the protection of five guards. The rhythm of his expensive leather shoes striking the ground revealed the panic he was desperately trying to hide.

"Giuseppe, we haven't settled our score yet. Where do you think you're going?"

"Hmph."

Giuseppe snorted and shot Han Fei a resentful glare.

He had no intention of speaking with Han Fei. Without slowing his pace, he only wanted to leave this dangerous place as quickly as possible.

Watching Giuseppe hasten his steps, Han Fei almost laughed. Mimicking Giuseppe's snort, he said:

"Hmph! Trying to run?"

The next second, Han Fei abruptly pulled out a Crouching Tiger Cannon and fired a Crouching Tiger shot right in front of Giuseppe.

Giuseppe's guards had never seen such a thing before.

Thinking it was some sort of bomb attack, they instinctively dragged Giuseppe to the ground. At the same time, they used their own bodies to form a human shield around him, protecting him from the blast's shock and damage.

If the Crouching Tiger Cannon had been an ordinary bomb, their reaction would naturally have been correct.

Unfortunately, they did not understand what a Crouching Tiger Cannon was.

The moment the Crouching Tiger Cannon exploded, the immense shockwave directly hurled away the guards pinning Giuseppe down. Giuseppe beneath them was sent rolling across the floor as well.

The commotion behind them distracted the guards blocking Han Fei's way, if only slightly.

Han Fei struck again while the enemy was distracted.

The heavy riot shield slammed solidly into the two guards in front of Han Fei, knocking them straight to the ground.

With those two down, nothing stood between Han Fei and Giuseppe.

"Found you."

At some point, the Crouching Tiger Cannon in Han Fei's right hand had been replaced by a grappling gun. One shot struck Giuseppe precisely, dragging the unlucky man who had been blasted over by the Crouching Tiger Cannon straight before Han Fei.

Only a few seconds had passed from the Crouching Tiger Cannon's hit to Giuseppe being dragged over by the grappling hook, but the situation had already been utterly overturned.

Dull explosions sounded in the distance. Firelight from the courtyard pierced through the floor-to-ceiling windows, staining the study blood-red. The fading sun and blazing flames mingled across the expensive carpet, while the battle cries of the Siracusans surged over the walls like a tide, drawing closer and closer.

Giuseppe staggered to his feet. Before he could steady himself, the muzzle of a Bizon submachine gun was pressed against his forehead.

"Lord Giuseppe!"

The guards' eyes widened in fury, but with Giuseppe at someone else's mercy, they feared harming him and did not dare act rashly.

"Hand him over to me. Let me deal with him."

A wolf-head longsword rested against Giuseppe's throat. Its sharp edge immediately cut a thin red line into his skin. Cellinia stared coldly at Giuseppe, her beautiful eyes holding not the slightest warmth of familial affection—only icy killing intent.

At that moment, Cellinia truly wanted to kill him. She wanted to execute Giuseppe, her biological father, with her own hands.

Just as Giuseppe had once done to her grandfather.

"Let me do it."

Han Fei put aside his joking manner and said seriously, "Haven't you always wanted to escape all this? But if you become the same kind of person as your father, how can you call that escaping?"

The daughter of a patricide becoming a patricide herself would be nothing but the start of another cycle.

Besides, Cellinia was a girl who appeared aloof on the outside but was delicate at heart. If she killed her father with her own hands, it was foreseeable that the act would weigh on her mind for a long time to come.