Chapter 99: The Agent's Gambit

After saving Iris' life, I continued watching the battles occurring in the capital from the clock tower's balcony, my favourite hangout place to view the entire city from. With my enhanced vision, I could watch them even if they are too far, too dark or even if there are buildings blocking the view. The reason I took a vacation as John Smith is to watch this raid and aid the royal family from the shadows. How did I found out about the raid? I may or may not have spied on the ikemen as he held his meeting with the princesses.

Anyway, some battles are won, some are lost but in the end, not all of Don Jon's bases are destroyed and the fighters are injured and have to retreat for the night. Maybe I should show up as Shadow to destroy them myself? Oh wait. I'm too late. The girls are already on the move. The rest of the bases are now being raided by Shadow Garden.

Looks like I won't be having any action tonight. Well, at least the show was entertaining. I also get to witness Don Jon in action, which is a plus. Glad to see that he's pretty strong. Makes me excited for our inevitable clash.

Speaking of which, I have to start the preparation to destroy his criminal empire soon, starting from his money, then his tower and finally he himself.

Well… I've found where he kept his money by coincidence though thanks to him keeping me away from the tower these past few days. Lucky me! I shall rob it later!

As I was contemplating about how to finish off this arc, I saw some suspicious groups skulking around town, scattering to hit several locations at once. They looked like people from the Lawless City so they're definitely up to no good. What are they doing? Oh? Going to rob some merchants' homes in the middle of the night while the police—I mean the Knight Order are busy dealing with Don Jon's bases? Looks like I'll have some action after all! But perhaps I should use the John Smith outfit instead since this is a Lawless City business, not aiding the royal family business.

I changed my outfit into my John Smith gear and jumped towards one of the suspicious bandit groups, landing silently as I decide to observe what they're doing first. Oh? They're holding knives and guns to threaten the merchants?

"Now, listen, man! If you wanna live a happy life, forget about the Affiliate Program and do not oppose Don Jon! Got it!?" Said one of the bandits as he pointed his knife towards the poor merchant.

"Hiiiyyy! Don't hurt me! I have a family to feed!"

"Then you should know what's good for y—UAAAGHH!" His words… and his hand that holds the knife threateningly towards the poor merchant, was cut.

"Who's there!?" His friend began shouting at the shadows. This is the part where I appear.

"Good evening, gentlemen. A nice evening to rob-"

"John Smith!? So you've betrayed Don Jon after all!?" My words are rudely cut by one of them.

"What makes you think I've ever been on his side?" I said with a smirk as I weaved my wires and slice them all to pieces, causing the merchant to scream and piss in his pants.

"Hiiyyyy! Wh-What do you want!? I'll give you anything! Please spare me!" The poor merchant screamed.

"Fear not, dear merchant. I am not here to kill you. In fact, I'm here to save you. Now you can continue with your life without these thugs bothering you." I said as I left the scene by jumping away.

"That man… did they said his name was John Smith?" I hear him mutter as I flew away to do the same thing on another group of bandits over and over again.

After Gettan was defeated by Annerose as I predicted he would, I stalked him from the shadows as he managed to escape from the city, making him more and more paranoid as he sensed a presence approaching but unable to properly detect it because I obviously hid my magical aura from his senses. He can still sense my killing intent though, which I intentionally leaked in order to scare him. He continued running away while clutching his bleeding stomach which stained the snow with red.

"Who's there!? Show yourself!?" He's finally done running when he realized he cannot escape me and started shouting. That's when I released my Golden Nine Tailed Fox aura, applying much pressure on him.

"Ughh… Yuki… me…!" He muttered my name whilst trembling and falling to his knees.

"Good evening, Gettan. A fine evening to suffer another defeat, isn't it?" I greeted him with a taunt.

"Shut up!"

"All that you've sacrificed, all the people you've killed, all the people whose lives you've ruined… and what is it all for? To suffer defeat after defeat?" I continued my taunts to torment him mentally.

"Shut up! Shut up! You have no idea what I've-"

"Don't you dare speak about suffering, Gettan! Do you have any idea what I went through!? What I'm forced to do to survive!? And what happened to the spirits of my people after you betrayed them all!?"

"Spirits…?"

"They were unable to pass on… they carried their suffering with them to the grave and their spirits became twisted, haunting the very village they died on." My words seemed to shake him. But I continued on.

"There is so much I wanted to say. In fact, I would love to make you listen to their curses. But they are at peace now. And so shall I. You however, shall never have peace. I'll make sure of it." I said my piece and turned away.

"Yukime… I'm… sor…"

"Save your breath. I will never accept your apologies." I started to walk away but he stopped me again.

"Yukime… you should know… about the Cult…"

"I'm all aware of the existence of the Cult. In fact… I'm sort of a member of it now just like you, in case you didn't know. In fact, I'm higher in rank than you." My words seem to horrify him. That's good.

"Yukime… the Cult… they're responsible for…"

"Save your excuses. I will not hear it. Go back to being a worthless mutt that you are and die in vain as is your fate." I gave him my last words and left him alone in the snow. I could've killed him to spare him from further suffering but after what he has done which caused the suffering of my people's spirits, he doesn't deserve that kind of mercy. His life should be more miserable so he won't have peace even in death.

Heh… it seems that Lord Claude's wickedness is rubbing off on me. But is this… what I truly want? No… I can't be weak here. I must be strong in order to support Lord Claude.

The next morning Alexia held a meeting with Charlotte and Claude to discuss the aftermath of the previous night's raid. Iris did not attend due to still resting to recover from her injury because although the wound has been completely healed by Shadow, she still suffered extreme blood loss. Marco and Glen from the Crimson Order however are present as they did not encounter complications from their own raids and thus are able to accomplish their mission.

"We had Garter in custody and will soon begin a trial. Because he suspiciously disappeared from the public after withdrawing his money from the Ponzer Plan and leaving the merchants of MCA to suffer the consequences of his actions, they have confessed about MCA's involvement with the production of the counterfeit bills and have agreed to provide testimonies. We shall finally put that fat bastard to jail. Wish I could say the same about that Don Jon though." Alexia concluded the MCA problem.

So the MCA merchants that Garter abandoned has betrayed him and have ratted him out. No matter… They are useless to me now anyway. Thought Claude privately in his mind.

"Language, Alexia." Claude said.

"Oh… Ahem!" Alexia cleared her throat, embarrassed at letting out a foul word during an official meeting, even if it's a private meeting among trusted allies.

"But anyway, we are unable to seize his money because he already donated them to the Church… which translates to transferring them to the Cult." Alexia continued, frowning when mentioning the Cult of Diablos, the source of most of the problems in her life.

"The Cult of Diablos…" Charlotte muttered with hatred in her voice, as she also hated the Cult for what they forced her brother to do in order to protect her.

"And… although our teams suffered setbacks due to hindrances from Don Jon and that elf, who we can identify as one of the Seven Wraiths, Shadow Garden appeared and raided the rest of the bases themselves, so we can consider that mission a success as well." Alexia continued.

Hmm… Shadow Garden involving themselves in this matter is… unfortunate but unavoidable. I think they are acceptable losses for now. Most bases they destroyed are within and near the capital anyway. I still have more bases outside the city and even in other kingdoms, even if the bases in the capital are the most profitable ones. Thought Claude once again in his mind.

"Considering he moved against us at such a time, can we assume that the Necromancer is working together with Don Jon?" Alexia asked for everyone's opinion.

"According to the witness reports, that elf was searching for Beatrix. I asked Lady Beatrix and she said she vaguely remember meeting such a man during the Bushin Festival too. Maybe he was moving on his own accord but we cannot rule out the possibility." Claude said in order to hide the connection between the Necromancer and Don Jon.

"I want to believe that they weren't because two monsters working together would be a nightmare. But at this point in time we have to assume the worst." Alexia said with a frown.

"At least we claimed many victories last night. Even the thugs that Don Jon sent to threaten the merchants who are part of the Mitsugoshi Affiliate Program were saved by a man named John Smith!" Charlotte said, her words attracted Claude's attention as he tried to suppress his surprise.

"John Smith?" Claude asked.

"I've never heard of that name." Marco added.

"Me neither." Glen added as well.

"Yes. The witnesses reported hearing that name. Who he truly is though… we have no clue." Charlotte said.

"I hope he's not a criminal mastermind like Don Jon. One is more than enough." Alexia said while clutching her head.

So you've made your move, John Smith. A paid vacation, huh. The day we finally clash draws near. Thought Claude in his mind again, almost leaking his true thoughts with a grin.

"There's one thing that bothers me, though." Charlotte said.

"What is it?" Claude asked her.

"In the reports… the knights said that when Beatrix threatened to kill Don Jon, he responded with "Are you prepared for what comes after?" as if… he's… I hope I'm wrong about this but I fear that if he dies… someone worse may take his place." Charlotte elaborated.

"Who could it be? There's only Yukime left if he's defeated." Alexia said.

Heh heh heh. Claude only laughed in his mind as they discussed Don Jon's ominous words and what it implies.

"W-Welcome back, Lord Don Jon!" Marie greeted me as I returned to my room in the Don Jon Tower. She seemed to be nervous. Something must've happened.

"What happened?"

"S-Someone has broken through the traps laid in the vault and… stolen all the money!" Marie reported nervously.

"Even though the traps are brand new? Hmm… he's better than I thought. But fortunately I have moved vault elsewhere. The one on this tower is merely a decoy-"

"Actually… The vault I'm referring to is… the real vault."

"The one underneath the Crimson Tower?"

"Yes…!"

"Who did it?"

"I believe there's no one else who can do it but John Sm-"

"I know that. I meant who leaked the information to him?"

"I… I don't know sir! The only ones who know besides you, me and Lady Yukime have been disposed of!" She gasped when she realized she is on the list… and there's no one else on the list to be blamed but her.

"L-Lord… Don Jon… It wasn't me… I swear!" Marie took a step back, trembled and begged for her life, clutching her clothes again, probably in an attempt to calm down my anger by offering her body. But I'm not interested. And I also don't believe she would tell him. She's too scared of me to do that.

"John Smith found out about it somehow…" I said.

"Huh?"

"I don't know how he has done it… but I KNOW HE HAS DONE IT!" I shouted angrily, channelling my inner Mel Blanc. Marie, who didn't understand the Looney Tunes reference, can only fall to her knees in fear.

"M-My lord…"

"Get a search party assembled immediately. I want him found and-" My words are interrupted by several explosions which shook the entire tower down to its very foundations.

"Hmm… Did he steal our C4 bombs too?" I remarked, mentioning my secret weapon that I used to blow holes in Mitsugoshi's main building during my raid.

"Lord Don Jon! What's going on!?" Marie stood back up and asked, still wobbly as the building is shaking while on its way to collapse. And I didn't even get to sit on my favourite sofa today. Not to mention the top floors have never been finished. I was planning on building a penthouse there too. Well… I suppose it's time to say goodbye to the beloved sofa. And also… goodbye, Don Jon Tower. It was nice living in you.

"The tower will soon collapse. We must leave this building immediately." I remarked as I began moving to the window before realizing that she's not a spellsword and thus cannot perform superhuman feats.

"Come." I motioned her to approach me and she immediately obeyed. I handed my cane to her and carried her in a princess carry, which caused her to blush, and jumped out of the window as the ceiling began to collapse behind us.

I planted some lumps of slime on several pillars and walls of the Don Jon Tower that I identified as the tower's structural foundation from my frequent exploration of the place, infusing them with minor I Am Atomic magic and connects each and every one of them with extremely thin wires before sneaking out of the tower. I now stood in the roof of a pretty tall hotel building, though not as tall as the four towers, holding the wires which are connected to every slime bombs that I have planted on the building.

"I AM C4 ATOMIC." I uttered the magic words. My words sent signals to the wires that triggered the explosion and I watched as the explosions shook the entire building and destroying its structural foundations, causing it to slowly crumble and collapse.

I watched with satisfaction as I accomplished my second objective, which is to destroy the Don Jon Tower when Don Jon himself arrived, bringing the tower down on his head.

The first objective is obviously robbing his money that I coincidentally found underneath the Crimson Tower. Taking a very enthusiastic walks in the night is… very productive.

And now comes my third objective. I saw Don Jon jumping out of the window while carrying the secretary girl in his arms. He landed in front of me and let the secretary girl get off his arms, telling her to run away after taking his cane back from her and she tearfully obeyed. Huh, never thought she had such a relationship with this old man. Though that explains why she needed to tell me not to betray him, not that I'll ever listen.

Now, the battle between the Mafia Boss against the Super Elite Agent is about to begin.

Author's Note:

It's finally here. After being teased for 90 chapters, the Mafia Boss will finally face the 𝓢𝓾𝓹𝓮𝓻 𝓔𝓵𝓲𝓽𝓮 𝓐𝓰𝓮𝓷𝓽 in battle. Also, the "I don't know how ye has done it, but I know ye has done it!" is a reference to Rocky, the gangster from Looney Tunes. Kinda fitting because I used his theme (or more specifically, the 1930s level themes) from Bugs Bunny Lost in Time as Don Jon's theme music.

Yukime is also crueller than in canon here due to hanging out with Claude.