Chapter 15

At the very least, I need to find out the truth about that huge expense!

The whole process turned out to be even harder than I thought.

First of all, Killian seemed particularly protective when it came to the accounts.

The records I could access within the family weren't as extensive as I'd imagined.

No matter how many times I went through everything I could get my hands on, I still couldn't find where that large sum went.

Based on all the financial records, I could see there were many gaps.

It wasn't because the records weren't detailed enough or had errors.

It was because Killian had hidden most of the information.

I had no idea where he kept those files.

And I didn't know how to investigate these missing items.

Secondly, after the study incident last time, I could feel Killian and Freya becoming increasingly vigilant about things at home.

Every time I entered the study, I could sense his suspicious scrutiny of me.

Each time, I could only pretend to stay calm and take out what I needed.

Fortunately, the project Virio gave me was quite secure.

I could always use the cover Charles provided to access the information I wanted.

But I was still far from what I needed to investigate.

At least from my perspective, it would take a long time.

But at a critical moment, Virio came through for me again.

That day at Virio's place, he took my hand and led me to his study. "You mentioned before that you were investigating your family's historical accounts. This is part of what I had my people collect for you."

Virio handed me a ledger. "These are accounts restored as accurately as possible, but they're all copies."

I looked at the ledger in surprise. "Can I ask where you investigated this from?"

Information I couldn't find even within my own family, yet Virio could present it to me.

At this, Virio smiled mysteriously. "Sorry, I can't tell you that right now."

I knew I shouldn't ask too many questions, so I thanked him and carefully looked through it.

Soon I discovered that several large transactions pointed to a special place.

It was a casino project belonging to Camorra.

Called "Black Lily."

I'd already learned about Camorra and just how terrifying they were.

They'd been able to grow so fast and become so feared precisely because they controlled countless gray-market operations.

"Black Lily" was probably one of them.

But these were my family's historical accounts—why would they be connected to Camorra's underground projects?

I flipped through the ledger over and over, unable to believe my eyes.

Virio was beside me, propping his head up and watching me.

At first I didn't notice, until I suddenly looked up. "Mr. Soren..."

I'd just called his name when I froze.

At that moment, Virio was lying on the sofa nearby, his eyes fixed intently on my face.

I could sense that throughout my examination of the ledger, he'd been watching me like this the whole time.

Instantly my cheeks began to heat up. "Mr. Soren, are you listening to me?"

Actually, I was still thinking about the important matter at hand.

But somehow, just having Virio lying there had an indescribable pull on me.

Virio smiled at me. "What? Can't I just quietly watch you for a while?"

Joking aside, he quickly stood up and walked over to me. "What did you find?"

I steadied myself before telling him, "This 'Black Lily' should belong to Camorra."

"A while back, you guys warned me that my sister was connected to Camorra, so I privately investigated related information."

"Black Lily" was one of the results of my investigation from that time.

Hearing my words, Virio immediately frowned, holding his breath as he stared at what I was holding.

After a moment, he asked me, "Want to go check out Camorra?"

"What?"

They were clearly enemies—was Virio crazy to suggest this?

Seeing my surprised expression, Virio laughed. "There are many places where multiple factions participate together. It's just a matter of who goes more frequently and who holds more power."

Hearing him explain it this way, I understood a bit. "You want to take me to see some of the border areas?"

"Of course, you really are smart."

That evening, Virio took me to an underground boxing arena.

On the way, he told me this arena had a long history.

Calling it an arena, it was really just a venue built underground.

The place never saw daylight, with every area needing artificial lighting.

As I entered with Virio, I was extremely nervous.

According to Virio, there was an exciting underground match tonight.

"Almost every day this place stages scenes of survival of the fittest."

"But to those spectators, it's all perfectly reasonable."

I followed Virio's gaze.

The boxing ring was already set up, with bloodstains all over the railings nearby—perhaps layer upon layer of them had formed dark rust marks.

Looking at those made my blood run cold.

Virio's hand wrapped around my lower back, suddenly pressing gently. "I thought you would be used to all this by living with Killian."

I shook my head. "I didn't grow up by his side."

Before my father's incident, I was clearly the little princess of the family.

Back then my world was clean and innocent—how would I have known there was so much darkness underground?

Hearing me say this, Virio smiled noncommittally and said something to someone nearby.

That person then led us to an excellent viewing spot on the second floor.

From here, we could see the entire match.

The underground arena really didn't waste any time—within minutes, the boxing match officially began.

Two huge men entered from opposite sides.

Watching this scene, I could already feel my heart racing.

This kind of direct violence always stirred up people's most primal emotions.

As soon as the match started, the surroundings erupted with boisterous cheering.

As I watched, I gradually felt my heart tighten.

Those two fighters were literally beating each other to a pulp.

One of them already had a swollen eye, with blood from his nose and mouth streaming everywhere.

But neither of them showed any sign of stopping.

Watching this scene, I shrank into Virio's arms.

At that moment, the two of us were standing on the second-floor viewing platform, watching the scene below, and I almost wanted to close my eyes.

But Virio said in my ear, "See that? This is the entire underground jungle."

"If you can't protect yourself, your fate will probably be the same as the loser's."

The match hadn't even reached halftime yet, and I didn't know what would happen to the loser.

But hearing Virio say this, I looked again at the one who was already losing ground.

There wasn't a single patch of good skin left on his entire body.