Chapter 267

With an expression of disgust, Nana's braided bracelet suddenly untied itself, and then the paracord fell to the ground and connected to the polymer material line that had been severed from the client's body... The blade of the dagger that was stuck in the ground and the corpse was also pulled out by Nana along with the taut thin line.

Silk threads danced among the trees, webs woven across the corpses... The blade gleamed coldly, and the strike, its attack seemingly unpredictable, was accomplished.

As Nana, with her Originium Arts identical to Lisa's mother's, tore a corner of the surrounding crowd apart, and Nana carrying her daughter to the center of the conflict, even though someone had already made up their mind to die, they still showed an expression of disbelief when they saw things were so unexpected.

"You? Wait... why did you bring Lisa along?! I didn't mean to..."

"Lisa was indeed perfectly fine in my arms... Did you really not consider how devastating it would be for a child if your back became her last memory of you?"

Despite claiming she knew nothing, Nana lashed out at the hesitant Sicilians again at Cole's questioning... Unlike her clients who often killed with blades, Nana, even after dodging the blades, was still sealed to death by the ominous black threads that enveloped her.

With various hand gestures resembling hand seals, thin threads imbued with blue magical light tightened on the assassin's gloves, severing the Sicilians were trying to cut the threads as they had done to their clients.

A few who were only bound by their arms and limbs were allowed a brief moment to scream, while those who were bound by their necks or waists were simply cut open randomly from their torsos.

Some trees mixed in with the debris were also cut down and collapsed. At someone's exclamation, "Lisa, don't look!" the Little Fox, who had grown up in the family and heard similar words many times, instinctively turned her head and covered her eyes. But her trembling ears, which seemed at a loss, betrayed the child's mix of worry and curiosity.

Seeing that the child in her arms had covered his eyes, Nana's actions became even more unrestrained.

As the steel wire tore through the forest like an unbreakable giant claw, blood mixed with rainwater, staining the ground red... While Su Sulo and Folinic comforted Angelina as she vomited, the client, whose face was equally pale, looked at Nana with a troubled expression, holding his weapon.

"If you do this... doesn't that mean Rhodes Island is involved too?! If you all become family annihilators, how will you leave Siracusa... and how will you protect Lisa?!"

"... From the very beginning, I felt something was off about our conversation... Oh, I see, now I think I understand..."

Holding out her hands, gesturing for the client to look at the truly annihilated Sicilians around them, Nana once again displayed the cold demeanor befitting Silent Assassin:

"You think you can't protect Lisa because you're an unlucky guy who was forced into the 'massacre' role but can't actually do it... But I'm different from you... I... Rhodes Island's Trauma Team can really wipe out their entire family as they wish."

As the black cat from Rhodes Island spoke, she tugged at the silk threads wrapped around her glove, creating an invisible array of cuts that sounded like harp strings amidst the friction between the forest, the ground, and the corpses.

But in the end, Nana didn't insist on looking into the eyes of the bewildered young mother... Nana turned to look at the girl in her arms, whose bright eyes were meeting hers directly:

"Lisa, as a future member of Rhodes Island... if I were to say now that I could free your mother from this injustice, the bad guys in the city would no longer dare to wrong innocent people because of our involvement."

"The court will make a fair judgment, and the judge will uphold justice for everyone... The price for all this is that you will no longer be the so-called 'daughter of an ordinary top-notch thug,' and you will be known by those dangerous guys who may remember you for years or even decades to come."

"They don't dare openly criticize me, because I really would kill their whole family, but they blame it all on you. And correspondingly, you have a high probability of still being able to stay with your mother..."

"How would you feel about the price to pay?"

"What the hell are you saying to my daughter?!"

"I don't think this is even a significant price to pay..."

"Lisa?"

Looking at his daughter, whom he had always considered very mature, she was looking directly into his eyes with utmost seriousness, just as he had perceived her to be.

"I love my mom... I will be a good child as my mom tells me to... but... but if possible, I still want to live with my mom... If it can stop my mom from doing those dangerous things, then all my concern... is not even a price to pay."

The blond family thug opened his mouth but couldn't utter a single word of accusation...

Because... because she also really, really wanted to continue living with Lisa.

As the girl she had offered reached out her hand, even though she had made up her mind to leave, she couldn't help but grasp her daughter's hand, which was covered in filthy blood, and wept uncontrollably.

Please help us!

The client couldn't bring herself to say such ungrateful things. She still didn't believe that the 'doctor' Wu Yi Baoba Ling Qi Liuyi, whom she had hired to treat Lisa, possessed the ability to change her family and Siracusa itself.

The inertia that had persisted for millennia on this land continued to pull her along the dead-end path of [family]. But for the new generation who had never known the unchanging ancestral precepts of the Siracusa family, and who also had no idea what 'Guns and Order' meant, seeking help from someone she trusted was a child's instinct, and also the only thing a child could do.

Please help us...

"How can I help you?"

Faced with Nana's earnest expression, the Little Fox curled up in the unfamiliar arms, feeling its mother's tears falling like raindrops... and thus appealed for help to its seemingly strong future family:

"I... don't want to be separated from my mother... I don't want her to be wrongly accused, I want to go to Rhodes Island with her."

In the rain-shrouded forest, on the red earth, Nana met the gaze of the white phantom in the void that made the same request, and then solemnly nodded to the girl in her arms:

"Yes, the contract is established... Next, I will continue the mission by adding new objectives and bring you back safely."

PS: Waaaaaaah!

PSSS: The person Nana will never refuse -- the Doctor (×), the good boy (×), her eternal white moonlight (√)

So we sped up the outline a bit... Originally, the timeline for determining that Lisa's mother was wrongly accused was supposed to be postponed... But after thinking about it carefully, Nana might not be able to withstand being constantly bothered, so let's establish the contract with Little Lisa from here.

Rhodes Island's final line of defense wouldn't inexplicably favor a gangster, but with the added influence of a certain eternal white moonlight whispering in their ear, things could change... After all, Lisa is indeed very well-behaved, a good girl that Cole adores~

8th Spring of Siracusa: 301 I need guns, lots of guns

After a period of not-so-successful, but rather violent, 'negotiations,' Lisa's mother finally gave up on her ridiculous, downright absurd, script.

With the new contract proposed by Nana, coupled with the fact that the Rhodes Island Trauma Team had fought their way out of the Ursus Civil War, Lisa and her mother were presented with the promise that "the minimum guarantee is to bring you back to Rhodes Island." Lisa's mother finally gave up her idea of "not involving her daughter and her last refuge in this."

The client, named 'Valeria', is finally willing to reveal her entire being to Nana.

"... But Medic, how do you plan to clear my name? Although I'm glad you're willing to help me who violated the Gray Hall Doctrine... the plan to 'wipe out the whole family' was indeed my doing."

"But you never even considered that killing or harming Lisa's family would somehow turn them into their entire 'family,' is that right?"

Seeing Lisa still carrying her as she walked among the corpses, Valeria, realizing she had been tricked, stepped forward with a stern face and took her daughter back.

"Yes, yes, how could I have foreseen this? And now that things have come to this, the main consideration for most Siracusa is to avoid their families being implicated... But you, Medic, aren't we leaving yet? What are you looking for here?"

"I'm looking for the guy who used to give orders."

With that, Nana stopped looking at the blood-stained hilltop. Although the use of blades and steel wires to cut through the battlefield had made many corpses indistinguishable, Nana confirmed after checking that the guy who had jumped out and ordered the Sicilians to attack after the leader was 'shot' and disappeared by Typhon... was not among the dead.

Hearing Nana's conclusion and watching her unleash black flames, Valeria stopped shielding Lisa's eyes from her arms as the corpses and blood turned to ashes in the 'burning' without any temperature.

The little guy even tried to imitate Nana's magic by cupping a small blue flame in his palm, but his mother immediately swatted it away.

"... Don't cast spells without a weapon; it's bad for your health and will worsen Oripathy... And Medic, so what if the leader is missing? If you ask me, annihilating all dozens of attackers in this kind of large-scale operation in the mountains is actually a low-probability event."

Seeing Nana's displeased expression, as if her abilities were being doubted again, Folinic, who had already comforted Angelina, stepped forward helplessly.

"Does the senior mean that you suspect those unexplained deaths among the Sicilians are related to the mysterious disappearance of their commanders?"

After a moment of silence, Nana looked at the city-state in the distance, which seemed to be the same as always:

"... At first, the 'gang leader' who was chasing us in the car and his men were all wiped out. Later, the 'gang leader' who was only banished by Typhon's magic was also said to be dead... Now, I have truly killed off all the pursuers, and we are certain that only one person has left. I want to confirm the Sicilians' reaction... Although, they are acting very strangely now."

"Abnormal?"

Unlike Su Sulo, Folinic, and Angelina, who are all ordinary people, Valeria, who is an elite member of the family, naturally knew about the anomaly that Nana was referring to:

"Are you saying that the Sicilians, one after another, claim to be avenging the dead, but in the end, it seems more like they're just constantly sending themselves to their deaths?"

Seeing the bewildered looks on the faces of the ordinary people in the group, Mrs. Vulpo, the blonde, explained, shaking the raindrops off her ears:

"The Sicilians are a large alliance of lower-class families. Although they are only third-rate among other families with actual territory, since they can call themselves families... they naturally have regular thugs comparable to the 'armies' of ordinary countries."

"Those who attacked us just now obviously don't count. Those guys who don't even have swords and can only form ranks and use crossbows are usually only assigned to errands or transport goods. They are the lowest-ranking handymen in the family... Generally speaking, they wouldn't appear on such a large scale at the scene of a chase."

"They're probably just responsible for washing the floor on weekdays."

As she spoke, Valeria glanced at the pile of corpses still burning silently with no heat from the black flames, and frowned slightly:

"They're just like..."

"It's like they came specifically to tell everyone that 'Rhodes Island' or 'Valeria' has killed so many people again."

In fact, although Nana didn't notice it the previous times, if someone else comes to investigate this time, given that Nana specifically used Valeria's combat methods to annihilate the Sicilians, the subsequent visitors will likely conclude that 'the murderer of the massacre has begun to move towards the city-state.'

The problem is, Nana and Valeria can't tell whether the Sicilians are in internal strife, with the various group leaders deliberately weakening the opposing factions, or if there's a third party secretly plotting something.

Regardless of how things unfold, after resupplying the vehicle with supplies through the safe house, Nana only has one thing to do.

"... Go directly to the Sicilians... or confront your own family. The family that controls that city-state is the one you should be loyal to, right?"

Holding Lisa sat back in the passenger seat. Despite having recently witnessed the absurd combat abilities of the person beside her, the thought of returning to the city where all the families believed she had broken the rules, and then shouting to everyone, "I didn't do this!" and "Someone framed me!" gave Valeria a sense of absurdity, as if she were about to die.

"That's true... but, with everyone practically on full war alert, me going to confront them? Eh... really?"

Because Lisa, nestled in Valeria's arms, was already drowsy, and Angelina, who had vomited violently in the back seat, was snoring softly... Nana slowed down the car on the mountain road, even lowering her voice considerably:

"Or we could just leave the city and return to Rhodes Island... Siracusa's newest Mobile City is still under construction, and there aren't any significant combat organizations nearby... It just means you and your daughter will have to live under assumed names from now on... Of course, this is only the so-called best-case scenario."

"... Then the less desirable ones?"

"The less desirable scenario is that your past will haunt you... which is also the more likely situation in my opinion."

"If there really is a third party, or a family determined to dump these messes on you... then it's perfectly normal for them to send dedicated sentries to track your whereabouts."

"Your family will know you went to Rhodes Island, and unless you stay on the island's Landship forever, those who see you as an enemy will come knocking on your door sooner or later."

Valeria stopped struggling with the situation where Nana had said both good and bad things to her; she just wanted to know the true intentions of her reinforcement.

"The plan? It's simple... confront those guys who seem to be unaware of the truth, and tell them they've been deceived..."

Wu Yi (VII) Ba Shenling Banner Liu Yi: "Those people won't listen to you obediently. Or are you really going to demonstrate to those families how you exterminate them?" Liu

"... Even I would need to make some preparations if I wanted to do that." Ling

As they spoke, an off-road vehicle bearing the Rhodes Island insignia drove down the mountain and into the city-state.

Nana completely disregarded the fact that her group had quickly been caught by her family's informants; her current task was to reunite with Typhon, who was handling Angelina's funeral arrangements.

As Valeria watched Nana park the car at the Continental Hotel, located in the world's largest 'freelancer market,' a prime location not only in the heart of the city but also conveniently situated as the public offices of numerous families, she swallowed hard, holding the sleeping Lisa in her arms.

"Wait a minute, you're not planning to recruit Mercenaries and start a war against your family, are you? Don't do that. Many of your colleagues come from families... They'll just take your deposit and then stab you in the back..."

"Don't worry, I have no intention of burning this city-state down... I'm just here to make some minor preparations."

Seeing the blonde woman beside her immediately connect her "preparation" to the "extermination of the family" mentioned in their earlier conversation... Nana then added: dam

"I just came to get some guns..." Dad

"Take... some guns? How many are you talking about?" Si

"... If possible, we'll take as much as we can." (Group)

As they entered the Continental Hotel, Nana was immediately blocked at the entrance by several men dressed in suits who were clearly from the family as she stepped out of the revolving door. Fortunately, the Continental Hotel was well-organized, and with the quick intervention of the lobby manager and numerous security guards, Nana ignored the threats from the family members and turned to look at the manager.

"My companion should have been here before; he should have led us to her."

As she spoke, Nana took out another Continental Hotel Coin and tossed it to the other party. With the entrance fee paid, the meticulously groomed Lupo bowed elegantly.

"Of course, this way please."

Even among the Continental Hotel, the Siracusa branch offers top-notch service, thanks to Siracusa's well-developed service industry.

While the manager sent someone to inform Typhon to confirm whether Nana and the others were her companions, everyone relaxed a little in the lounge.

Along with private medical care, hair care in Siracusa is a service category with a strong regional character. The hair care for the ears and tail is completed in the few minutes of conversation, almost as smoothly as combing one's hair before leaving the house. At the same time, social entertainment is also part of the daily routine of Siracusa families and 'freelancers'.

Several hair care service staff arrived with their respective toolboxes. After selecting a female service staff member who was also a Feline, Nana declined the haircut and perm services, saying that she only needed a shampoo and conditioner.

Even in a neutral setting like Continental Hotel, she felt uncomfortable with strangers standing behind her holding knives or heating rods that could kill.

As the record player began playing classical vinyl music, the waiters helped the group of people, who had been to the forest and were covered in blood and mud, to wash up.

On Rhodes Island, things were alright. Angelina, Su Sulo, and Folinic had their sneakers removed and the mud wiped off the soles, and their uniform jackets were carefully dried... Since their underwear and undergarments weren't special combat suits, they were simply given brand new ones to change into.

In contrast, Lisa and Valeria, who had been camping outside for several days with tents because they suspected their safe house had been exposed, changed all their clothes and toiletries, abandoning their standard toiletries.

Looking at the glaringly expensive "Custom Children's Clothing" and "Custom Family Uniforms" signs, Nana pointed to the large red "Armor Upgrade" tag, which might take up almost all of her one gold coin budget, and asked:

"What's this?"

"As you can see, this is an armor upgrade service recently requested by local families... because that unknown assassin has been indiscriminately attacking all families, and almost all freelancers and family members have opted for this expensive service that is usually ignored."

"... So, what level of armor upgrade are you providing this time?"

"Columbia Standard Level VI Protection, laboratory-grade product, bulletproof, slash-proof, puncture-proof... The lining is lightweight and thin, suitable for most family outfits and company uniforms, and has standard-grade Originium Arts liquidity. The supplier's price for this material is 1,200 Columbian Dollar per square centimeter..."

"What about the protective effect? If we consider it as Firearms Arts."

"Through testing, personnel equipped with the armor upgrade program will be completely immune to small-caliber Etch Rounds with penetration power below level three, and their defensive capabilities, without magical enhancements, will be equivalent to the Ursus Old Shieldguards Shield."

"Of course, while balancing softness and lightness with sturdiness and defensive capabilities... this armor upgrade also has some undeniable flaws."

"... It's expensive, and... if you release all the kinetic energy of the attack into your body, even if you manage to defend, if you suffer massive internal injuries, you'll still die."

Faced with Nana's almost instantaneous discovery of this 'weakness,' while the other teammates stared blankly, the manager smiled and applauded:

"As expected of you."

After glancing at the group, who were mostly groomed and starting to forage for food in the break room, Nana shook her tail, whose fur had become smooth and glossy black again. She nodded to Typhon, who had entered the room, and then continued her conversation with the manager.

Have Laterano or Columbia recently released any new armor- Etch Rounds?