Chapter 55：Katsuragi Family and Assassins

"Master, the young lord has arrived." The assistant that he sent a few minutes ago had come back together with Katsuragi Takaki.

"Father, why did you call me?" Katsuragi Takaki asked.

"Why did I call you, you say? I think you know your mistake, you bastard." He glared at Katsuragi Takaki.

"I don't know what you are talking about."

"You don't know? Then how will you explain the thing where you asked a sniper to kill Kai Carter or about you asking someone from the front lines to bring magical beasts to kill him?" He looked at him, full of anger.

"I…" Katsuragi Takaki froze when he heard that. All this time, he never thought what he did was wrong. It was because he was too obsessed with Ayaka. As long as he could make Kai vanish from Ayaka's side, he didn't care about what method he had to use.

"What? Now that you've remembered, I expect you to explain this to me. If not, I will make sure you won't take a step out of this house again in the future."

"I… This was his fault! He wanted to kill me first," Katsuragi Takaki said.

"What? Why did he want to kill you?"

"He kept clinging to my Ayaka! He even managed to brainwash her, making her keep her distance from me," Takaki said with a righteous tone.

"... I was wrong to send you to that academy. I underestimated your obsession. I should have locked you up in the basement and torture you until you forget about her." Katsuragi Akagi was thoroughly angered by his son's statement. Even the others in the room shook their heads in disappointment.

Usually, Katsuragi Takaki was a smart and calm guy. In short, he was a sort of perfect successor for the Katsuragi family.

Although they knew about his so-called love for Ayaka, they didn't know it was to this extent. Back then, they were happy since if he could get Ayaka, it would mean that they would have the support of Kudo Group, the number one weapon maker in United Asia.

Sadly, because of this Ayaka, he went out of his mind. If only Kudo Group had another heiress… they would kill Ayaka and pair him up with the other one.

"What? I'm not in the wrong. This is pure love. Ayaka is my everything!" Katsuragi Takaki roared.

"You bastard!" Katsuragi Akagi couldn't hold back his anger anymore. He stood up and took out his sword. He swung his sword to Takaki before stopping right in front of his neck. "If you weren't the only A-rank magician out of all my sons and daughters, I would have killed you right this instant!"

He released a boundless killing intent through his eyes, wanting to send it all to his own son.

"Family head..."

"Family head…"

"Family head… please appease your anger..." The people around him immediately tried to calm him down. They were afraid that Katsuragi Akagi would kill him out of anger. The reason was simple. It was like they said, Katsuragi Takaki was the only A-rank magician in the younger generation. He was also the smartest, if Ayaka wasn't in the picture.

He should be able to be reformed over time, even if they needed to kill Ayaka. As long as they removed Ayaka, he wouldn't get into any more trouble. Then they would just make him impregnate a lot of women to make heirs. That way, they wouldn't have any trouble regarding the continuation of the Katsuragi family after that.

Sadly, the scene didn't stop there, as loud footsteps could be heard from outside. Their doors were opened.

"Not good!" Suddenly, a woman came into the room. She looked like she had rushed to this room with all her strength. However, when she saw that Katsuragi Takaki was inside the room, she froze as she didn't know what to do with this situation.

"What? Spill it out now!" Katsuragi Akagi roared, stomping the ground. He looked at her while releasing his magic power. He was rapidly running out of patience.

"This…" She looked at Katsuragi Takaki, who was still in the room. She also had been briefed on the situation and knew that the family head was angry about this problem, so she was afraid that this situation might go out of control.

"If you don't say anything in one second, I will kill you right now!" Katsuragi Akagi released his killing intent her way.

"Hi…" She didn't care anymore. "We found out that the young lord dispatched assassins that were stationed in Chiba to kill Kai Carter. And I assume they've arrived in his position by now."

(A/N: Chiba is a prefecture right beside Tokyo.)

"What did you say?" Katsuragi Akagi raised his hand in anger and punched his own son in the face. Katsuragi Takaki was blown away by the punch and crashed onto the wall twenty meters behind him since it was a big room.

He spat blood before losing consciousness. With just that fist, he managed to break Takaki's jaw.

"So, this situation will be the latter, huh… Such a shame to see such talented magicians from the younger generation die just like that." Ikeda Kenzo sighed.

"We will reschedule everything right now. Tighten our defense to make sure no one can find anything in a short time. Recall all of our men in the Kanto region and station them in Tokyo. As for the rest of our people here, all of you will immediately prepare our people.

(A/N: Kanto Region encompasses seven prefectures: Gunma, Tochigi, Ibaraki, Saitama, Tokyo, Chiba, and Kanagawa.)

"Tasha Carter won't know who tried to kill him for the time being considering our assassins' power. Within that time, we will prepare our force and kill Tasha Carter before she finds out and joins the south's family!

"I was thinking about having her suppress them since we would have two S-rank magicians in our rank, but this is useless now. We will move to the backup plan and go to war after we kill her. Prepare the Space Teleportation Prevention Device!" He then pointed his finger at Katsuragi Takaki, "And lock him up in the basement. I don't want to see him."

"Yes!" All of them nodded.

...

In Tokyo, a hundred meters away from the Carter family's house, two people met on the top of a building. The first one was a male with big headphones circling in his neck. He wore a white shirt coupled with a blue jacket, looking quite stylish. On the other hand, the one in front of him was a woman in her peak development. She wore a simple sweater with jeans. If only she were a bit more expressive, numerous men would definitely be entranced by her. They were Kai Carter and Shirotsuka Sanae.

"I managed to scoop up a little information because of the confusion. I bet they never expected something like this, so it would be too late for them to reinforce their defense. Well, this is also thanks to the south's family, the army, as well as the Yajima family.

"Without them making a ruckus to the Katsuragi family, I wouldn't have been able to get all this information.

"The first information is about Ikeda Kenzo. I've confirmed that he really is colluding with the Katsuragi family. And the second information is about Katsuragi Takaki. A few minutes ago, I just got information about him asking for a leave for a week or so. I don't know why though.

"Well, it seems that they're going to tighten their defense after this, so I'm a bit unsure if I'll be able to get any information after this. I hope the south's family can make enough trouble for them so I can get an opening. Anyway, I have not compiled the details, and I will wait until I get more information." Sanae said.

"All right, I'll make—" Just as Kai was about to say something, he noticed something wrong and made a serious expression. He murmured, "Nine… no, ten."

"Mhm?" Shirotsuka Sanae was confused.

"More assassins." He sighed. "We're around my house, but according to their movements, it seems that they're planning to attack me instead of my parents."

Shirotsuka Sanae also sighed when she heard that. "Why do troubles keep coming to us?"

"I want to know the reason as well." Kai shook his head.

"I'll help you with this, but you'll be the bait to make it easier."

"Oi, you want to use your boss, I mean, you're going to use your student to bait ten assassins?" Kai looked at her with a pitiful face.

"What boss? You did not hire me or anything. Our agreement is only for my best friend's contact. As for being a student… You're just one of the students in my current class. We don't share any sentiment like I do with my best friend or you with your childhood friend. So, don't push your luck. Anyway, since they're coming for you, you'll be the bait since it will be easier for me to help you that way."

Kai sighed. "So, are we going to act like we're parting here? But seeing a student and a teacher in this place alone is strange, you know. Well, they're still one kilometer from us though."

Even though they were still far away, Kai was sure that they were assassins. The reason was simple. There was no way ten people would come toward his position at such high speed while jumping through the roofs.

"Since they haven't come yet, then we should move to another location first," Sanae suggested.

He nodded. They immediately came down and went to a family restaurant.

Shirotsuka Sanae suddenly took out a paper while writing some kind of class homework and handed the paper to him.

They were acting as though he was a student receiving a private lesson from his teacher because of his grade before going back. After this, Shirotsuka Sanae would go around the area and ambush the assassins the moment they came out.