Chapter 1546: Time to Counterattack

"Shocking?" Zhao Li Xin’s intrigue was piqued.

"It’s time to get proactive, "Lory grinned mischievously. "But first, to understand my plan," she said, "let me tell you a story—"

"Oh? Is it story time?" Zhao Li Xin asked, his tone light with amusement.

Still, He waved his hand over the table, and from the thin air a full set of ceramic wine flasks and cups appeared on the counter at once. He poured the wine with practiced ease, then lifted the cup and looked at Lory with unmistakable eagerness.

"Wife," he said warmly, "please continue."

"..."

In the beginning, no single faction truly ruled the black market. It was a chaotic web of interests, deals, and bloodshed, until the patrons who profited from it realized that even lawlessness required order. And so, one man was appointed to regulate the market from the shadows.

His role was not to dominate, but to balance. He enforced the rules, resolved disputes, and ensured that every transaction, no matter how illicit, followed an unspoken structure. Order, after all, was essential for the black market to function.

This man was known only as the Broker King. His real name had long since vanished, erased so thoroughly that even rumors could not trace it. ℯ𝕝.

He did not manage street-level crime, nor did he command gangs or assassins. Instead, he controlled something far more vital, the routes. Any operation involving the large-scale movement of goods, information, or people inevitably passes through his system.

The Broker King never issued commands. He granted permission.

His greatest weapon was not force, but information. He knew who bribed whom, which skeletons lay buried in the closets of the rich and powerful, and what rotten deeds individuals and organizations had committed, both past and present. Secrets were his currency, and fear his silent ally.

To the world, he seemed untouchable, unstoppable, unrestrained, beyond control. Yet despite his reach, there existed one line he never dared to cross.

The Lucient family.

Why?

Because the last time the black market crossed paths with the Lucient family, its entire system began to crumble.

One by one, their connections were severed, key intermediaries eliminated before they could react. Long-buried secrets were brought to light, exposing clients who had once believed themselves untouchable.

Authorities and politicians who had quietly protected the black market were forced to turn on it by the public, desperate to save themselves, and they did.

Routes were disrupted. Payments were frozen. Networks that had taken decades to build vanished overnight.

Then when he thinks it cannot get worse.

The shadow patrons who sustained the black market, the trade magnates, politicians, and warlords who operated behind the scenes, were hunted down and eliminated one by one.

Their deaths came in chilling succession, so close together that the world barely had time to comprehend what had happened before another fell.

To those who understood the truth, these were no accidents. They were executions—clean, deliberate, and absolute.

Finally, it dawned on him that this was no mere attack. It was revenge.

Exhausting every resource at his disposal, the Broker King finally uncovered the truth. The ones responsible were Noxcra, an elite organization governed by the Archknights of the Lucient family. At its head stood King Erredine Decimus Lucient, the grandfather of King Marcus.

For the first time in his uncontested reign, the Broker King sued for peace. He approached King Erredine, and a treaty was forged between them: the black market would never accept any contract that endangered the Lucient family or anyone under the Lucient family’s close protection, and in return, the Lucients would allow the black market to continue its existence.

King Erredine understood a harsh truth: no matter how powerful he was, he could never completely eradicate the black market. As long as humanity existed, so too would the shadows it cast. And so, he accepted the treaty.

For nearly a hundred years, the black market honored that pact. It never accepted a contract that would bring harm to the Lucient family.

...Until now.

"Someone seems to have forgotten how powerful the Lucients are," Zhao Li Xin remarked as he lifted his glass, sipping the wine with effortless grace.

"After the Dark Age War, people seem to have forgotten many things," Lory murmured, tilting her head slightly.

Zhao Li Xin glanced at her, a meaningful look flashing in his eyes. "Then perhaps you need to remind them."

Lory let out a soft sigh. "That won’t be easy. After the Dark Age War, the world was practically reset. The black market took advantage of the chaos to erase their tracks and rebuild their system. Our usual channels can’t reach them anymore."

"Are you saying your people have given up?" Zhao Li Xin asked, clearly unconvinced.

After months of interaction, he had come to understand the people around Lory. Whether it was Lucas, Fredhardt, Fargo, Clift, Jay, or even Leon. None of them were the type to surrender in the face of adversity, especially when it came to Lucas and Lory.

Lory met his gaze and let out a quiet giggle. "You know them. How could they ever give up?"

Her expression softened before turning thoughtful. "They were just preocupied, my sudden disappearance, the pressure to rebuild kingdom, then Lucas’s sudden illness... understandably, they didn’t have the luxury to focus on the Broker King or the Black market activity. After all, they haven’t provoking us—yet"

She paused, eyes darkening slightly. "Not until now."

"...But they dared to trouble you," Zhao Li Xin said, his beautifully shaped brows lifting with elegant restraint.

Lory shrugged. "Perhaps they don’t know my real identity." She was still using the name Jean Raven. It wasn’t surprising that everyone dared to provoke her again and again.

Zhao Li Xin’s expression remained calm, analytical. "Even so, they should be aware of your close connection to the Lucient family. Even if they don’t know the full truth, they must suspect that our relationship with the Lucients is far from simple, yet they still dared to place a bounty on our heads."

Lory pressed her lips together, deep in thought. "Maybe... they believe their client is stronger than the Lucient family."

She exhaled slowly. "People like them only submit to strength. If they believe someone else holds more power than the Lucients, then changing allegiance would be natural."

"Like Theodore Navarro and Alexander Behrenn," Zhao Li Xin said quietly.

"If he knew about the existance of Zalchana..." Lory’s expression hardened.

So," Zhao Li Xin said, smoothly steering the conversation back, "what is this shocking plan you mentioned?"

Lory’s beautiful eyes sparkled like a distant star, beautiful as it may seem, but at the same time cold and edged with scheme. "Well... since we don’t know the new line system the black market rebuilt," she said slowly, "and we don’t have the luxury of time to investigate it properly, we take a shortcut."

She straightened, her voice calm, almost casual, as if she were discussing the weather rather than orchestrating chaos.

"Our response needs to be excessive," she continued softly. "Loud. I want everyone to know exactly what happens when they come for us."

"I want to shock them," Lory said evenly. "I want them forced to realize that every move they make against us is futile. They will speak our names in fear, and the black market will answer in its usual way: by raising the price on our heads and drawing more vultures into the game."

As she spoke, Lory took out her phone and began typing.

"Bounty hunters, assassins, mercenaries," she went on. "They’ll all come. And when the bounty rises high enough, more will rush in—eager to make a name for themselves, to build their reputation."

Her fingers moved with quiet precision.

"Veterans will start to move. Elites will surface from the shadows. Entire networks will be mobilized, forcing the black market to activate its old channels—to coordinate, to verify, to recruit."

She paused, then lifted her gaze. "And in doing so, they’ll expose themselves more than usual. Routes will light up. Intermediaries will surface. Information will begin to flow where silence once reigned. Clift and Jay will be able to pick something up."

Her lips curved faintly.

"My goal," Lory said, "is to push them until they initiate an open table—a global bounty release, open to anyone regardless of level, background, or clearance. That only happens when they believe they’ve identified a target that’s truly difficult to take down."

Zhao Li Xin listened without interrupting.

"When that happens," Lory continued, "the line will be stretched too wide. And weakened."

She met his eyes. "That’s when it’ll be Jay’s turn to infiltrate the system."

Zhao Li Xin leaned back lazily. "Do you really think they’ll come? We’ve been here for days. They only made a move last night."

"They’re professionals," Lory replied calmly. "They know we’re high-stakes targets. They’ll observe first—our routines, our interactions. They’re killers, but that doesn’t mean they don’t value their lives. In fact, they wouldn’t survive in this line of business if they not value their life."

"Hm," Zhao Li Xin murmured, lifting his wine. "I forgot, people who face death so many times tend to value their lives more than ordinary people."

"Mm-hmm." Lory nodded. "The truth is, my goal isn’t to kill them all. There are too many, and we don’t have the time."

Her gaze sharpened. "No. My goal is to dismantle the black market the way my great-grandfather once did." Her voice softened, though fury brimmed in her eyes.

"As you said," Lory continued, "I need to remind them why that treaty was made in the first place."

Her eyes gleamed. "I want them to remember that when a Lucient is provoked, no one can escape. Not even the man without a face."

A slow, knowing smile spread across Zhao Li Xin’s face.

"You want the Broker King himself."

"I want Theodore and Alexander to lose their influence over the black market," Lory replied evenly. "I want every criminal and crooked out there to understand that touching us isn’t worth the money."

She exhaled softly."I will stop Theodore and Alexander from using other people to do their dirty work." Lory’s face was etched with fury.

A faint smile curved behind Zhao Li Xin’s wine cup. He understood Lory’s frustration. This game of hide-and-seek had dragged on for far too long. If it were up to him, he would have already sent his forces to strike Luxemborough and the S.A.I.N.T. organization directly and be done with it.

But a nation was different.

A ruler had to weigh public opinion, political fallout, casualty and the reactions of other countries, all chains of consequences he had never learned to tolerate nor care.

Zhao Li Xin let out a long, quiet sigh. This was precisely why he had never been fit to rule a kingdom.

Ping.

The sudden notification broke the silence.

Lory glanced at her phone. A message from Lucas flashed on the screen:

’Everyone is ready, do as you will.’

Her smile widened—slow, sharp, and unmistakably dangerous.