A Dragonslayer’s Peerless Regression – 169



Episode 169

No matter how big and powerful the Nostra Family was on the continent they were nothing more than a petty criminal organization in front of the Draker family.

The reason Draker just left them alone was because he found them annoying for various reasons.

Skin spoke to Zig sweating profusely.

“Why would your majesty want to get into this mud? If there is anything you need please let me know. I will do my best to serve you.”

There was no point in resisting once I knew that my opponent was a Drake.

Zeke didn’t answer but looked at the curly-haired young man next to him not at Skin.

“Are you a bloodline ability user belonging to a family?”

Instead of the young man Skin opened his mouth.

“He was a guy I assigned to be my nephew’s bodyguard. He has bloodline abilities but they have limitations… I’m raising him because I feel sorry for him even though my family was going to throw him away.”

Zeke nodded. He threw his daggers finishing off the Cyclops and Minotaur that were still fighting and took a stance for Skin.

“Okay. I have something to ask you Skin.”

“Please speak.”

“Tell me what you know about Vincenzo Rossi who manages Dario Totlino’s finances.”

Skin’s face turned pale after hearing Zeke’s words.

He shook his head and stepped back.

“Your Majesty I am just a lowly person who delivers goods to the lower ranks. I know nothing about the affairs of such high-ranking officials.”

“I know you’re a lowly guy. But you’re related to Vincenzo Rossi on your mother’s side. He was the one who cleaned up the mess you made outside the district. Wasn’t he?”

Skin’s face hardened at Zeke’s words.

Only a few people knew about his relationship with Vincenzo Rossi and even then it was mostly family.

As Zeke approached him without answering Bisco took a stance to sprinkle blood on his palm.

“You’re thinking of using your bloodline abilities. It probably won’t work on me.”

Ignoring Zig’s warning Bisco sprayed blood.

Chomp!

That was when.

Woohoo!

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[Skill Curse Reflection reflects the curse of ‘Hallucination’.]

The bloodline ability was reflected and instead Bisco ended up getting hit.

Zeke looked at the floating message and found it surprising that the curse reflection had worked.

‘It seems that the bloodline ability was recognized as a curse because of the hallucinatory effect.’

“Eww!”

Bisco looked at Zigg staggering with an expression of incomprehension as if he was not completely affected by his own ability.

In an instant a dagger was grasped in Zeke’s hand and it flew towards Bisco.

puck!

Bisco fell backwards groaning a dagger stuck in his shoulder.

Zig slowly approached Skin.

Skin rolled on the floor trying to escape from Zig.

“Oh don’t come! Don’t come!”

He picked up the crossbow that the gang member was holding and fired it at Zeke.

Pavabak!

Zigg caught all the arrows with his hands. Skin who saw his miraculous hand movements lost the will to fight back.

Zig approached Skin with a dagger in his hand and said:

“Whether you die slowly or quickly you will die anyway. If you save me time I promise you a comfortable death.”

Despite his brutal reputation Skin burst into tears as he faced death.

And soon the crying turned into screaming.

* * *

When Bisco opened his eyes the first thing he saw was Frank’s face.

“Your Majesty I have opened my eyes.”

Bisco woke up to Frank’s voice and jumped to his feet.

He looked around saw Zeke sitting on the chair and flinched his hands shaking.

Zeke said to Frank.

“Stay out.”

Frank walked out of the office without saying a word.

Bisco looked at Zeke with eyes that were a mixture of wariness and fear.

Then Zeke said to Bisco.

“I want to hear about the bloodline abilities of the Nostra family.”

At those words Bisco’s eyes wavered.

Zig looked at Bisco like that put down his teacup and said.

“Is this because I don’t have a tongue so I can’t speak?”

When Bisco was about to nod he felt something strange.

“uh?”

I felt my tongue which had been cut off long ago in my mouth.

“Uh how?”

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It was Bisco’s first proper conversation in ten years.

Zick picked up his teacup again and spoke.

“Consider this as an advance payment for the information you are about to give me.”

Bisco looked at Zeke with a puzzled expression.

I’ve heard a lot of rumors about Drake but I never thought he could even regenerate a severed tongue.

He got down from the sofa and knelt before Zeke.

“Please save me.”

Bisco was a person with a stronger survival instinct than anyone else.

He survived even when he was kidnapped by the Nostra Family and subjected to harsh training.

Even when his bloodline abilities were not properly developed and he was destined to be discarded he somehow managed to survive by finding a use for himself.

Even though he had lost his tongue he was content to be alive.

Bisco prostrated himself and begged Zeke to spare his life.

Zig said as he looked at Bisco like that.

“I guess you don’t have much loyalty to the Nostra family.”

Then Bisco raised his head and said.

“All they have left is hatred.”

At those words Zeke who had been staring at him snickered.

“I like your eyes.”

Zeke motioned for Bisco to take a seat.

He poured out his story about the Nostra Family’s bloodline power holders to Zeke without hesitation.

After hearing Bisco’s words Zeke asked back with a serious expression.

“Are you saying that you injected drugs?”

Bisco nodded.

“Yes. We were injected with drugs every two weeks and there were also pills to take. After the injections there were cases where the blood system abilities were enhanced but in unlucky cases… we went crazy or had seizures and died.”

Zeke’s face hardened at the thought of kidnapping children under the age of ten and performing some kind of human experiment on them.

Bisco continued speaking.

“I was also administered the drug but my bloodline abilities were not strengthened and my characteristics were changed and manifested.”

“How can I say that?”

“My original bloodline ability was to cause fatigue explosions. It was a unique ability that seemed to have many uses so at first I was given special treatment in the lab. However after I was administered the drug it changed to a hallucinogenic effect.”

“It was decided to discard it because its ability changed.”

“Yes. Even if the drug injections are stopped the abilities that were once changed do not return. After undergoing various experiments it was eventually determined to be discarded but luckily his life was saved.”

After hearing Bisco’s words Zeke remembered what Boris had said.

I had heard that they were recruiting people with bloodline abilities to strengthen their own bloodline abilities but the atrocity of going so far as to conduct experiments was unknown.

‘Something smells like the Empire.’

From stimulants to synthetic poisons like safflower the empire was creating weapons of war through secret human experimentation.

The Nostra Family’s experiments on bloodline power users could also have been part of a plan to create weapons of war.

Bisco spoke cautiously to the thoughtful Zeke.

“I have something to tell you.”

“Speak.”

Bisco fell to the floor again and spoke in a desperate voice.

“Please take me in. Even if I am a slave please allow me to serve you.”

Bisco with his head bowed looked like a fighting dog abandoned by its owner and not knowing what to do.

Zig slowly opened his mouth as he looked at Bisco.

“How can I trust you?”

Bisco looked up and said.

“I will do whatever you want. You can take my tongue back or you can take my eyes. Just let me serve you.”

Zick looked at Bisco and gestured for him to come closer. Then he placed his hand on his head as he approached.

“Stay still.”

Zeke planned to test Bisco’s dragon senses.

I’ve used my dragon sense to glimpse into the memories of things before but this was my first time using it on a person.

Woohoo!

As soon as the Dragon’s Sense skill was activated Bisco’s memories instantly flowed into Zeke’s head.

Kwakwakwakwa!

Bisco’s memories and emotions quickly flashed through his mind.

‘Fear of losing the survival instinct. Endless hatred…’

His mind was filled with negative emotions.

But even so Bisco was ready to do anything to survive.

Zeke nodded looking into his past and emotions with his dragon’s senses.

“Okay. I’ll take it.”

At Zeke’s words Bisco bowed and banged his forehead on the floor.

“Thank you. I will be loyal boss!”

Zeke was thinking of leaving Bisko in Boris’ care.

‘If trained well he would make a good spy.’

The first requirement for a spy is none other than the survival instinct.

Only by having the will to live could he maintain composure and not lose his mind in extreme situations. Of course there was a possibility that he would betray because of that but he was not the type of person who would collapse because of one or two betrayals.

In that respect Bisco already had the conditions in place.

After paying the case fee on Frank’s desk Zeke immediately took Bisco and left Argos.

A mid-sized organization that was the backbone of Argos disappeared without a sound and its members including Skin were killed by monsters in the dungeon.

There was no trace of Zeke in it.

* * *

Zeke came into Heli with Bisco.

Boris who had already taken his place was hit by Zeke.

Boris and the Rose Knights were waiting in the shelter prepared by the Syndicate.

“Zeke said as he handed Bisko over to Boris.

“I picked it up because it looked useful. Take good care of it.”

The quick-witted Bisko immediately knelt down before Boris and bowed down.

“Order anything!”

Boris who had been looking after Bisko whom he had taken on unexpectedly closed his eyes and trembled at the increased workload.

“At that time I should have just died by the boss’s hand.”

“Boris you need to look at the world more positively.”

Boris sighed and briefly explained Heli’s situation to Zeke.

“It’s cleaner than you might think. At least on the surface it’s hard to find any evidence of criminal organization involvement. It seems like most people here are involved in money laundering and financial management.”

Zeke nodded at Boris’s words.

The one who managed Heli was none other than the Siemens family.

Siemens which boasts great power among the Draker bloodlines was one of the groups that along with the Graham family controlled and shook the financial world of the Central Continent.

Thanks to this many famous companies and commercial establishments have their headquarters in Heli.

Because the taxes they paid were enormous Siemens was always wealthy and used the money to create more capital.

Zeke frowned as he looked at the materials Boris had brought.

“Are you saying that there are a lot of companies with suspicious cash flows even though they don’t say it out loud?”

Boris nodded.

“Yes. It’s a method of setting up dozens of ghost shops to launder criminal money and passing the money back and forth between them so that the source cannot be identified. It’s a method mainly used by the Nostra Family.”

The Nostra family was a long-standing organization so they knew how to handle money.

Zeke looked through the list of shell companies Boris had picked out and picked one.

“Here it is.”

Zick looked at the companies he had mentioned surprised that Boris had picked one out right away.

“This is a place I didn’t really look at but…”

“Zeke said folding the file.

“There’s an accountant here who manages Dario’s finances. His name is Vincenzo Rossi.”

Boris was startled by those words.

“If you can catch him it’s easy to trace the flow of money in reverse.”

Zeke nodded.

“If we cut off the funding there will be a reaction from Dario.”

Pascal the leader of the Rose Knights who had been listening to Zeke and Boris from the side spoke with a determined expression holding his mace.

“So can we just storm in now?”

Then Boris shook his head.

“Chief Pascal I’ve been telling you all along. This is a den of bastards so you must be careful about your actions. Please be more restrained.”

“Tch.”

The Rose Knights including Pascal put down their maces with disappointed expressions.

The members of the Knights of the Rose all had fierce faces and scars all over their bodies.

In reality they were people who had lived in the underworld so although they were essentially holy knights their actions were no different from those of gangsters.

Boris spoke to Zeke pressing his throbbing temple with his thumb.

“Would you believe that I was more at ease when I was a public enemy on the Boss Continent than I am now?”

“Just think of it as your karma and give up Boris. Then you’ll feel better.”

‘If you can’t even speak.’

Zeke calmed down Boris who was internally grumbling and together they devised a plan to drag out Vincenzo Rossi.

But unexpectedly an easy way emerged.

“Black Ore Mine Investment Briefing?”