Chapter 35: Quick Action
Three days later...
As darkness settled over Martell Village, Vice had just returned home, exhausted after spending a long, having had a tiring day at Nina's side.
As he closed the door and headed towards the kitchen planning to prepare some food for Nina and himself, Vicente was suddenly disrupted when he heard someone knocking hard on his door.
"Boss, we have a problem," one of the young men whom Rory had brought into Vicente's group urgently shouted from the other side of the door, catching Vice's attention.
Vicente didn't waste time and rushed to the door of his house under his sister's gaze and inquired as he came across that man after opening the door. "What's up?"
"Jesse, your father's former employee, is acting strangely. Three of our suppliers have been visited by him in the last two days," the man with blond hair and blue eyes, standing 1.8 meters tall, informed this as he looked into Vice's eyes.
Vicente immediately frowned after hearing this, realizing what it meant, 'So he found out! I knew that it would happen someday. Good thing that I didn't trust him before!'
While clenching his fists, Vicente responded, "All right, get in touch with Rory and let him know about it. He'll know what to do. In the meantime, I'll start sorting this situation out."
"Understood!" The man, dressed as a farmer, left that place while Vicente ran into his house to gather some necessary things.
'We're going to visit someone. But I want you to stay close to me,' Vicente wrote to his sister after gathering what he wanted.
"Where will we go?" she asked.
However, Vicente chose to keep her in the dark regarding their destination.
'It's better if you don't know,' He thought to himself as he set off with Nina in his arms.
With that, he quickly made his way to Jesse's residence, a much more humble property than his own, situated at one end of the village.
Upon arriving there with Nina in his arms, Vicente indicated to her to remain silent while they concealed themselves in the surroundings.
'Jesse, since you have decided to act this way, don't blame me for what I am about to do,' Vicente thought as he patiently waited for the right moment to act.
Vicente hadn't resorted to using violence against any of his father's old employees for two main reasons. The first was that even if he wanted to, he couldn't act since he lacked the necessary support and resources.
Since all of those men possessed Magic Gems, he could only achieve what was necessary to 'silence' them by relying on mercenaries.
However, mercenaries in Polaris Realm were not necessarily unscrupulous men who would undertake any task just for coins!
Most were just ordinary people trying to sell their services and pay their families' daily expenses. Most were not trained as assassins and did not accept assassination missions.
Those who could accept such missions were usually professional assassins, a type of person who, as far as Vicente was aware, didn't offer their services in Martell Village.
As such, even if he had coins to waste on assassinations, he couldn't hire such capable people to handle his father's former employees.
The second reason why Vicente hadn't tried to act violently against his father's employees was that most of them had accepted their altered situations without a problem, and some were still working for him.
Vice also preferred to avoid acting against those he had already fired.
Nevertheless, he had his ways if it came to that!
Vicente surveyed the surroundings of Jesse's property and discerned Jesse didn't seem to be present.
He then finished covering himself in black clothing and cautiously approached one of the property's open windows.
While Nina, who was still in his arms, didn't understand what her big brother was doing, the girl found it amusing and continued to watch him silently while being curious as to what he intended to do.
Vicente attached a strange instrument to the wall of the house and then connected two metal pieces to his ears, which resembled a pair of matching earpieces.
'Good. He is not at home. Just his wife and their son are here,' Vicente could overhear the noises coming from the household and walked away after a few moments.
After five more minutes passed, Rory arrived at that location as well, accompanied by two of their strongest trusted men.
"Vice, what are we going to do? Jesse's attempt to steal your business is bad for us."
Vicente nodded in agreement and explained, "If he is targeting my business, I will go after something that is most valuable to him.
Rory, take care of my sister. I am going to break into the house and kidnap Jesse's son."
Gulp!
"You..."
"... Kidnap the boy?"
Rory and the two men standing beside him asked in hushed voices, unable to believe that Vicente would do such a thing.
"Don't look at me like that. I won't hurt him. I will only use him as bait to lure his father away."
Low-level magicians weren't significantly different from normal humans. While they were stronger, had heightened senses, and could use magic powers, it was still possible for ordinary people to act against one of them.
The difference between ordinary people and magicians continued to grow along the magic rank. Still, just as an exponential function grew slower at the beginning, the same was true for the magic power rank.
Vicente was fully aware of this concept, and even though he didn't even have a Magic Gem, he wasn't afraid of Jesse or this man's wife.
"But..."
Vicente met Rory's gaze and spoke in a determined tone, looking deep into his friend's eyes, "Make no mistake, Rory, this is the kind of thing I am prepared to do for the sake of my family.
But I am willing to do much more. You should know that."
"I know... I'm sorry, I won't talk about it anymore. But can you really do this?" Rory knew that some of Vicente's plans could lead to far more severe consequences than kidnapping a child, and he quickly suppressed his anxiety regarding already starting to act against an innocent person.
"Don't worry about it. I know what I'm about to do," Vicente assured in a low voice before swiftly making his way to Jesse's house.
Upon reaching the side of the same window as before, Vicente quickly entered the building, moving with the agility of a seasoned thief going toward his target.
He already knew Jesse's house's layout since he had visited during this man's son's birth, so he immediately made his way to the boy's room, which was located on the second floor of the house.
Upon getting closer to it, he noticed that Jesse's wife was there. However, she didn't notice him.
While Vice was entering the boy's room, she passed by and glanced into the room through the open door.
After finding no one and seeing her son walking up the stairs, she descended down the stairs toward the kitchen.
"Peter, go take your bath. The dinner will be ready in no time, and your father should be here soon," Jesse's wife's voice echoed as Vicente peered through the partially open door of the boy's bedroom.
"Alright, Mom!" Peter hurriedly made his way to his room to get his clothes.
As he walked into his room after opening the door and turning on the magic lamp, he suddenly ran into someone who shouldn't be in his house.
'Go to sleep...' Vice swiftly grabbed the boy's neck and applied some pressure to block the flow of blood to Peter's brain.
In just 10 seconds, Peter lost consciousness, his body growing limp.
He then cautiously made his way out of the room, checking to see the whereabouts of Peter's mother.
Finding that she was preoccupied in the kitchen, Vicente quickly moved to the sole bathroom on that floor and started the shower.
'Time to go!" He then swiftly returned to Peter's room.
From the second floor, the noise of a door shutting resonated, and Vicente could hear the voice of a traitor.
"Honey, I'm home!"
However, Vicente didn't stay behind and swiftly hid a letter in Peter's room before leaving just as inconspicuously as he had entered this house.
Gifts
-- Gift
received Weekly Power Status
-- Power
Ranking 
-- Power
stone