GREED: ALL FOR WHAT?

The noble families weren’t asking for Silver Mirror’s favor. They were willing to pay him a large amount of money for their safe passage. This still put Silver Mirror at a crossroads.

Silver Mirror had to decide if he would take the money and help the nobles while risking offending Bushwick or refuse to help the nobles while waiting for Bushwick to come and deal with him after the rank 4 noble is done dealing with the noble families.

The boss of the underground black market was clear that no matter what choice he made, Bushwick wouldn’t let him go. It was just a matter of time before Bushwick came after him. So he was inclined to help the nobles and earn money.

When Bushwick heard that Silver Mirror was helping people to escape from his grasp, he became incensed. He was so angry that he destroyed many vases and plates.

He was angry, but he didn’t plan to attack Silver Mirror and the nobles because he wasn’t sure that he could defeat all of them together.

The small noble family might not compare to his, but they are still a force to be reckoned with. Especially the noble families with rank 3 nobles. Those rank 3 nobles can use their rank 1 Noble Blood divine ability to temporarily increase their power to rank 4.

A rank 4 godclad, even if temporary, can’t be belittled. Many rank 4 godclads working together to fight his family will surely be a bad thing. It might lead to the defeat of his family even before the lamp bearers arrive.

Even if he could defeat all of them, the cost would be too high. This was why he wanted the small noble families to leave the town first. That way, any fight with them won’t have lasting repercussions on his town, and they won’t be able to escape.

So Bushwick could only swallow his anger. Fortunately, someone came to help him in his time of need. An assassin came to him offering to kill Silver Mirror for him.

Black Knife stood calmly opposite Bushwick. They were currently at the core of the Ivory family, and Bushwick could have the whole family surround him, but Black Knife didn’t seem to care.

This isn’t the first time he will be here. This won’t be his second time either, so he is no stranger to the gazes of the surrounding elders bearing down on him while Bushwick sits in his high chair like some king.

All those times he was here, he always had reservations, but this time he didn’t seem to care about where he was. Bushwick noticed this.

To Bushwick, Black Knife appeared to be a changed man. There was no difference in him physically, but he was different in his posture and how he carried himself.

Black Knife wasn’t nervous or fidgeting anymore. Bushwick didn’t like it at all.

Still, he knew to focus on the matter at hand, so he asked Black Knife, “Are you sure that you can kill him?”

Black Knife replied confidently, “I am mostly sure. I should be able to kill him if I catch him off guard.”

Bushwick was relieved to get this answer. He would have felt threatened if Black Knife was confident in killing a rank 4 godclad that many people have failed to kill for many years.

Even so, he wasn’t going to make things easy for Black Knife. He scoffed and said with scorn, “Anyone would be able to kill anyone if they could catch them unaware.”

Black Knife shrugged and said, “But not anyone is an assassin. Not everyone can increase their chances of catching a target off guard.”

Bushwick couldn’t deny that. So he said, “What do you want as payment?”

Black Knife swirled a knife in his hand as he replied. “I want triple of what you owe me.”

Bushwick thought about it and said, “Sure. I’ll give it to you after the job is done.”

He still owes Black Knife for the assassin’s help in taking down the lamp bearers. He had only paid part of the reward in the form of 1,000 liters of energy water.

The nobleman had promised to pay based on how many lives Black Knife took in the fight. Black Knife killed one rank 3 sergeant and seven rank 2 lamp bearers, so he still had to pay the assassin 1,800 liters’ worth of energy water as a reward.

Bushwick didn’t plan to pay that money. In fact, he intended to use the payment as bait to trap and kill Black Knife.

Now that Black Knife was asking for three times as much of it, Bushwick didn’t feel heartache about agreeing to the request. After all, three times of zero is still zero.

But Black Knife wasn’t going to let that happen. He said to Bushwick, “I want the payment upfront.”

Bushwick shook his head. “I can’t do that.”

Black Knife stood his ground and said, “Then goodbye.”

He didn’t try to negotiate at all. He simply turned to leave immediately.

This action caught Bushwick off guard. He stretched out his hand to Black Knife and shouted, “Wait.”

Black Knife turned around and asked, “What is it?”

Bushwick chuckled and said, “It seems you don’t trust me. It makes me feel insulted. But if you can’t trust me, a noble, to pay you after you’ve done your job, how can I trust you, an assassin, to do your job after you’ve been paid?”

“Won’t I look like a fool if you take my money and leave without doing your job? What if you fail to assassinate him?”

Black Knife shrugged again and said, “You have no better choice. I am all you’ve got.”

“Everyone knows that you’re not reliable. It is why everyone is running away from you. No one will come up to you to offer to help you solve a problem. I did, which can be counted as a favor to you.”

“But that’s as far as I am willing to go to do a favor for you. You must pay me first.”