Chapter 111: Don’t Scare Me!

"The relationship between the Rothschild family and the Valois family isn't actually the equal partnership that people think it is……"

Solomon swallowed hard. "The truth is, the Rothschild family is actually just……"

Before Solomon could finish, a muffled sniper shot tore through the night.

A large-caliber anti-materiel armor-piercing round, carrying devastating kinetic force, instantly shattered the reinforced bulletproof glass of the banquet hall.

Solomon's head exploded in front of everyone.

A red-and-white mix of brain matter and bone fragments sprayed outward across the expensive Persian rug and the wall behind him, as his headless body collapsed straight down into a pool of blood.

"Ahhh!!"

"Solomon's dead!"

"There's a sniper! Run!"

The Silverman family members who had been on their knees begging for mercy just a second ago were instantly shattered by the gruesome sight. The entire banquet hall erupted into screaming chaos.

"Take cover!"

The moment the shot rang out, Leo's eyes snapped sharp. He moved like a leopard, throwing himself into a tactical roll and diving behind a thick marble Roman column.

"Boss! Twelve o'clock, 1,400 feet out!"

Olivia had already found cover. She quickly pulled a compact tactical scope from her hip, swept the area — and then something rare happened: a flicker of urgency crossed her usually unreadable face. "No good! The shooter's wearing top-of-the-line thermal masking gear, and they moved position right after firing. I can't pin down their exact location!"

A clean headshot from 1,400 feet, and the shooter had already slipped away before even the Shadow squad captain could respond — this was a world-class sniper.

They were clearly here to silence someone.

Then Leo's instincts screamed at him.

That cold, death-staring feeling — it wasn't aimed at him. It was aimed at……

Leo spun around.

In the middle of the hall, Ivy had twisted her ankle on her heels and fallen onto the floor covered in broken glass.

And on her forehead — a faint red dot, barely visible to the naked eye.

The sniper knew they couldn't take out Leo, so they'd shifted their aim to the woman beside him.

"Ivy!" Serafina screamed from behind her cover, her voice filled with terror.

Ivy's whole body locked up. The shadow of death swallowed her whole. She forgot to breathe, staring helplessly out at the endless darkness beyond the floor-to-ceiling windows.

The second muffled shot tore through the night.

In that split second —

A dark blur exploded out from behind the Roman column.

Leo didn't hesitate for even a fraction of a second. He pushed his speed to the absolute limit of human capability — like a raging predator protecting what was his — and hurled himself at Ivy.

The dull thud of a bullet punching through flesh.

Leo's broad back locked over Ivy, shielding her completely beneath him. The impact shuddered through his entire body.

But in the same instant the bullet hit, something terrifying ignited in Leo's deep, dark eyes.

He didn't even glance at his own wound. His right hand flashed to his Desert Eagle, and guided by pure muscle memory and something beyond human instinct, he tracked the bullet's trajectory back through the darkness — 1,400 feet out — and pulled the trigger.

The massive recoil sent a slight tremor through Leo's arm.

From somewhere in the night, a faint, distant cry. A dark shape dropped straight off a rooftop at a far-off elevated position.

One shot. Blind. Headshot.

But after that single shot —

Leo's tall frame swayed, then crashed heavily into the blood-soaked floor of broken glass. Eyes shut. Still.

"Leo!!"

Pinned beneath him, Ivy felt the strength drain out of his body all at once. A raw, gut-wrenching scream tore out of her.

"Leo! Wake up! Don't do this to me!"

Serafina came flying out from behind her cover like she'd lost her mind. Two of the underground world's most formidable women were now just two helpless girls, collapsed beside Leo, tears streaming down their faces.

Ivy reached out with trembling hands to touch his chest — and felt warmth. She broke down completely. "Why did you save me…… You idiot, you're the Reaper, you can't just die on me……"

"Stop crying. I'm not dead."

Right in the middle of their sobbing, a low, tired sigh came from right beside them.

Ivy and Serafina froze. Their eyes went wide.

Leo slowly opened his eyes. He frowned slightly, pressed one hand against the floor, and pushed himself up to sit.

He unzipped his black coat and reached into the inner pocket of his suit jacket — the one sitting right over his heart — and pulled out a pure silver coin, now grotesquely dented and warped by the force of the armor-piercing round.

"Heh…… those Europeans don't mess around with their AP rounds."

Leo coughed out a breath, looked at the mangled coin in his hand, and let a cold, death-cheating smirk cross his face.

This was the lucky coin Luke had given him before enlisting, all those years ago.

He'd kept it close to his heart ever since. And today, by pure chance, it had stopped a bullet meant to kill him.

"You…… you're okay?"

Ivy looked at the coin in his hand, then at his chest — rattled but completely unharmed — and burst out laughing through her tears. She threw her arms around his neck and held on tight. "You jerk! You scared me half to death!"

Serafina let out a long breath of relief, wiped the corner of her eye, and punched Leo in the shoulder — half furious, half laughing.

"Boss!"

Olivia walked over quickly. The moment she saw Leo was fine, the tension in her eyes dissolved. "All external threats have been neutralized. The shadow squad is moving to recover the sniper's body."

"OK."

Leo gently pushed the two women off him, tucked the bent coin back into his pocket, brushed the dust off himself, and stood up.

His eyes swept slowly across the Silverman family members still trembling around the banquet hall.

This time, his gaze was colder than before. Like the actual angel of death.

"Solomon's dead. Who's in charge here now?" Leo's voice echoed through the empty hall.

A frail man in his sixties, wearing glasses, crawled out from the group and knelt in front of Leo. His pants were already soaked through. "I…… I'm the second-in-command of the Silverman family…… Mr. Ashford, please, have mercy. It was the Nightfall organization that did this, not us!"

"I only want to hear what Solomon didn't finish saying."

Leo stood over him, looking down. "The Rothschild family and the Valois family — what's the real relationship between them?"

The man swallowed hard. He didn't dare hold anything back now.

"The outside world…… everyone thinks the Rothschild family controls Europe's financial backbone — that they're the uncrowned kings at the top of the world. But that's all just surface level!"

"The Rothschild family has always been nothing more than a puppet the Valois family put out front. The real power has always been in the hands of the Valois family's head — the one they call 'the Mourner.'"

Even Ivy and Serafina looked stunned.

The Rothschild family — the ones who supposedly controlled global finance — were someone else's puppet?

"What about the Valois family's internal structure? Their armed forces, their core members — where are they?" Leo pressed, his eyes cutting like a blade.

"I…… I don't know!"

The man shook his head in despair, crying out, "The Valois family is too secretive! They've existed for hundreds of years, and their true core members almost never appear in public! The Silverman family is too low-level — we only ever dealt with people on the outer edges of the Rothschild family. We were never anywhere near the Valois family's inner circle!"

Leo stared into the old man's eyes for a few seconds, confirmed he wasn't lying, and let out a cold snort before looking away.

It seemed like if he really wanted to bring this giant down, he'd have to go to Vienna himself.

Just then, two Shadow squad members dragged a body in a black ghillie suit through the door and dropped it at Leo's feet.

"Boss, we've got the sniper. Your Desert Eagle went straight through his eye."

Leo walked over and crouched down to examine the body.

Asian male. Around thirty. Lean and solid. Hands covered in calluses.

The kind that only comes from years of gripping a gun.

Leo pulled back the sleeve.

On the inside of the left forearm — a vivid, striking cherry blossom tattoo.

Leo stared at it, his brow tightening.

"That tattoo……"

Serafina crouched beside him. Her slender fingers traced lightly over the cherry blossom, her expression grave. "That's the mark of Japan's Yamaguchi-gumi. More specifically, it's from an extremist splinter group called the Sakura-gumi."

"The Sakura-gumi specializes in training elite snipers and assassins. Every single member is a death-loyal soldier, brainwashed and conditioned from childhood."

Ivy picked up the thread, her face darkening. "It looks like the Nightfall organization's ties to Japan's yakuza run a lot deeper than we thought. And the forces behind the Black Dragon Society — they might have more connections to the Valois family than we ever imagined."

Leo stood up slowly, pulled his coat collar up, and let a flash of cold, violent intent pass through his eyes.

"Doesn't matter. Whether it's Japan's Yamaguchi-gumi or Europe's Valois family — if they're all tied to the same rope, they all die together."

"Besides……"

A bloodthirsty smirk pulled at the corner of Leo's mouth.

"I wasn't planning on coming back from Europe empty-handed anyway."