Bang!

That opponent, who was struggling to get up, didn't even hear Vicente's shot in his direction when he saw the flesh of the gun in the masked man's left hand, and then something hit his right eye.

"Aaaaaaaagh!"

He screamed in agony as he felt a sharp pain in his eye, not enough to kill him, but enough to temporarily blind him and distract him.

Vicente's men took advantage of this and another opportunity he'd created, all firing in the direction of the enemies' heads while the only two who hadn't gotten any closer to Vice fled.

"Shit!"

Marcus saw this from his carriage and realized that he wouldn't be able to kill Cesar with this action.

Thinking quickly about the problem that could intensify his enmity with Cesar, he ordered one of his men.

"Go kill one of the assassins!"

"What?" The man exclaimed in surprise, not expecting to hear such an order.

"Kill one of them. That will stop this attack! The Mazzanti family won't be able to blame us!" Marcus said, making his idiot men understand what they had to do.

Cesar was their enemy, but he didn't need to know that they were related to these assassins, nor that they wanted to kill him.

If they didn't move now, they would look suspicious. But if they helped eliminate these assassins, they could turn the situation around and make it more pleasant to do business with the Mazzanti family.

'I don't like it, but only by getting closer to this bastard can I eliminate him!' Marcus thought to himself, a few steps ahead of his men.

Arrogant as he was, Marcus was no fool. He might get carried away regarding his women or ego, but he was no dummy. He knew the basics of power relations and the importance of appearances!

With that in mind, he couldn't help but take a step back and prepare to change his strategies.

While he was thinking about this from his carriage, one of the level 4 Acolytes in his group did what he was supposed to do and attacked the strongest enemy in the area.

By using his special abilities, this man made the observers in the area, and Vicente's staff look at him strangely.

But when he attacked the strongest assassin from behind, who was vulnerable to him, everyone realized what the Symons family was doing.

"You!" The assassin felt something rip through his chest, but he couldn't cry out in the horror of being betrayed by his employer.

"Bloody assassin, die!" The Symons man shouted, pulling his sword from the enemy's body and striking again, this time at his neck.

Vicente's men stopped shooting at the man and turned their attention to the three remaining individuals while the Symons man beheaded the assassin.

In an instant, the body of the first assassin fell to the ground, headless, before Vicente used metal blades to deliver fatal blows to the other three.

Trapped by his skills and bruised by the bullets that had struck them, these Acolytes soon became vulnerable to him.

As he slashed at them with his blades, they offered no resistance. They lost their lives as they were impaled by metal blades or sliced open.

Blood splattered all around, and several properties in the area were stained with the blood and organs of those bodies.

The civilians who watched from a distance trembled and felt their legs weaken. Meanwhile, royal soldiers were already rushing to the spot, alert to the attack that had been unleashed tens of seconds ago.

It had all happened fast. In less than a minute, Vicente was facing Marcus, talking to him, and then the street they were on was littered with four dead bodies, blood, and bullet holes here and there.

Even one of the horses in Marcus' carriage had been hit by a lost bullet or a bullet that had ricocheted off of some powerful object in the area.

Amid this, some of Vicente's men held their positions inside the building while a group of three level 1 Acolytes left the building and went to their leader's side.

Vicente took his eyes off the bodies in the area and tried to ignore the pain in his body as he looked at the Symons man who had helped him.

"Thank young master Symons for me." He said, imagining that Marcus would leave after this whole situation.

'I am not sure if that guy provoked this situation, but that action was definitely to try to make peace with me.' He looked at the level 4 Acolyte retreating to the Symons family carriage.

'I don't know what to do with this family right now. My situation isn't good enough for me to get into trouble with a Mage's family.' He thought. 'I'll dance to the music for now. I'll decide what to do with this family after I add my second pentagram.'

It was the least he could do. Without even that, any decision regarding the Viscount's family would be hasty.

Vicente looked at his men and said. "Come on, boys, collect the belongings of these assassins. They attacked us, so we're entitled to their possessions."

...

After the previous situation, Vicente and Marcus' groups split up, with the Mazzanti family explaining what happened to the soldiers who had come to their post after the previous attack.

Marcus had a lot to think about, so he left the situation as it was for the time being, while Cesar didn't come to him either after thanking him for his help earlier.

After collecting the resources of those assassins and recovering from his injuries, Vicente left his estate to take care of some expansionist matters for his group before the dinner he would have with the leader of the Scarlet Syndicate that evening.

Meanwhile, time began to pass as morning gave way to afternoon, and soon, the end of the day approached.

While the Mazzanti family group was dealing with this morning's incident and trying to get on with their other business, Rory had 'returned' to town to work on behalf of the Fuller family!

After meeting with Lena, the Irwin family's maid, he left for his meeting with Lukas and the associates of this young man Vicente wanted to get close to.

As he made his way to the Millfall Blacksmiths' Association building, Rory tried not to stress about the attack the day before and this morning.

His thoughts were on things he and his people could change, not on what had already happened.

'With the information I've gathered so far, we'll be able to take action against the Irwin family whenever we want.' He thought to himself, eager to attack the first noble family of their journey.

A Baron's family was completely different from a secondary outpost of a criminal group supported by nobles!

With that in mind, Rory was eager to return to the Mazzanti family and finish organizing the Irwin family raid.

'With this family's resources, we'll be able to raise the strength of a few more of our men!'