Because Kevin and Kanae no longer go to school, they stayed at Ryukalin Clan Residence most of the time. After the incident with James not long ago, Kevin reviewed the condition of his clan once again. To his surprise, the number of experts in his clan has decreased by a significant number.
"They're using your ambition to control the entire city to eliminate most of the clan members," Patrick remarked as he reviewed the paper lazily. "But your effort hasn't been in vain so far."
The areas that previously belonged to other clans have been gathered under one name, Ryukalin Clan. At the same time, they were busy battling the gangs and groups who tried to take over the place. This caused the Ryukalin Clan manpower to decrease significantly as many of them were wounded.
However, Kevin didn't bother calling them back. Even though the number of expert in Ryukalin Clan Residence has decreased a lot, he didn't try to pull them back and helped him. He had the confidence that the people around him were already more than enough.
"The best experts are only me, Lou, Dean, you, and the little lass," Patrick remarked.
"I know," Kevin replied. He wanted to add Mike and Neo too, but he knew better than anyone that the strength of this duo couldn't be matched against the five of them. They were still far behind them.
Kanae glanced up from the paper on her hand. "Father, do you hate calling my name so much?"
"I just don't feel like saying your name."
"Father!"
Patrick shrugged. "What have you been looking at?"
"This is the report from the Souhon Clan. It seems that they're already gone as they handed everything to the Ryukalin Clan," Kanae replied. "Also, Jay is being transported to another city."
Jay was the previous Souhon Clan Young Master who was famous as quite the useless young brother. After the battle with his older brother that cost his master's life, he didn't want to participate in the battle anymore. He wanted nothing more than peace.
"He's out of the city?" Mike asked curiously. He was standing behind Neo, who was working on his laptop, with a stack of doc.u.ments in his hand.
"Yeah, he wants to continue high school and then enter university. It seems, he no longer wants to touch the matter of the underworld any longer," Kanae replied cheerfully.
In her opinion, Jay was not suited to be a young master with his personality. In terms of strength, Jay was pretty weak. He might not be completely useless, but he was far away from matching against the real powerhouses.
"I see," Neo nodded his head.
"Who do you receive report from Souhon Clan, Kanae?" Mike asked as he pointed to the paper on Kanae's hand.
"There's an agreement between the Souhon Clan and Fiore Group in the past," Kanae smiled. "We don't do anything much anymore, but the two of us collaborate a lot."
"What do you do with them?" Kevin asked.
"Nothing much. It's just mostly joining hands in battle and the likes," Kanae replied calmly. She grinned. "It used to be pretty fun as the Souhon Clan needed a lot of help."
Internally, Neo sighed lightly at the thought that Jay's image has gone down in Kanae's eyes again. Although the Souhon Clan was not that strong, they were not pushovers either. Kanae's words made it sound like the Souhon Clan was entirely useless.
"How do you want to start the battle?" Patrick changed the topic.
Kevin shook his head and pointed to the television. In that moment, both Neo and Mike sprang out of their places and searched for the remote control. It was located near the table, so Neo quickly snatched it and turned the television on.
Mike's face darkened. "I'm the one who should take it."
Kanae laughed when she saw the two of them acted like children. "Stop talking, let's hear the news report."
Neo and Mike nodded their heads. They would banter occasionally, but it was not that often. Turning their head to the television, they found out that the reporters were telling news regarding James and the battle.
"…It is reported that the recent attack is directed to capture James Doha. From the source we get, it's said that the one who wants James comes from an organization that the government supported…."
"They're still telling the news very often," Kanae commented.
Patrick nodded his head. "Matt called me yesterday to tell me that there are still a lot of debates regarding Ferdinand's behavior. They want to catch him, but they don't have enough proof to make a move."
"Are the report so far not enough?" Neo asked in bewilderment.
"They're not enough to charge someone at a high rank like him. He had paid a large sum of money to cover up the expense for these families, so the case is regarded as close," Patrick explained. Internally, he grumbled how these people could always get away with money. He hoped that something happened to them so that they lost all of their money.
Neo was speechless. Those people just bought their freedom with money?
"How did he gather a lot of money?" Kanae asked.
"Experiment fees," Neo replied. "He was tasked to do the experiment and take over the research for the talented people. There is always a lot of money left unused, so you can say that he's very rich. It is only during his time that the money seems to decrease at insane speed."
"Oh…" corruption.
Mike raised his head. "How about gathering more evidence? Are there no pictures or videos about his involvement?"
"Real leader will not move on his own," Kevin replied coldly. As a leader himself, he knew that the real and powerful leader wouldn't bother coming into contact with the dirty works. They would stay on the back and watch as their men moved according to his wish. This way, he could easily wash off his involvement from the matter.
"He's pretty smart," Kanae's face turned grim. "In my opinion, he has someone who deletes the data from the other's database too."
Neo's eyes widened. "Do you mean he has a hacker too?"
"Yes."
Pursing his lips, Neo knew that it was not entirely impossible. With the connection that Ferdinand had, finding one or two hackers would be easy. Although there were not a lot of people who had good skills, there should be those who were willing to come when they offered some money.
"Should we make any movement?" Mike asked.
"No," Patrick rejected immediately. "Ferdinand won't make any move when the reporters are still butchering his name. It'll allow us the time needed to prepare ourselves too."
"I see."
Knock! Knock!
Taro opened the door and looked around nervously. He eyed Kevin and opened his mouth. "May I talk for a bit?"
"What is it?" Kevin asked directly.
"It's about the proposal of the protection," Taro took a deep breath. "I agree."