Chương 67: Evans Family

Felton Town. It was one of the towns near Meteor City. It was slightly less prosperous than Gambi Town, where Aren was staying, but it had one advantage Gambi lacked. A port. The Fanobi Family had dominated Gambi Town for sixty years. Naturally, its influence had not been limited to Gambi alone. In reality, Fanobi's reach extended into every town near Meteor City. They simply could not make those towns completely their own. Remote regions were often more hostile to outsiders.

Whenever Fanobi tried to expand too far, the local forces would set aside old grudges and attack them together. A single Fanobi Family could not fight every faction in every town. They were not that powerful. In the end, they compromised. In each town, they selected a local force, supported it, turned it into a subordinate organization, and used it to control local affairs from a distance while taking a share of the profits.

Those organizations had been raised by Fanobi, and according to their contracts, they had to offer a portion of their profits every year. If they refused, Fanobi would have a legitimate reason to attack them, and the other local forces could not interfere. Because power decided the contract, those subordinate organizations could only surrender their hard-earned money every year. Of course, when those organizations encountered trouble, Fanobi was also supposed to provide support. But sixty years had passed.

The distribution of power had long since stabilized. If a new force tried to rise by attacking them, most subordinate families could deal with it themselves. They no longer needed Fanobi's help. Long ago, the relationship had quietly become one-sided tribute. Now that the Phantom Troupe had destroyed the Fanobi Family, most of those subordinate organizations treated it like a festival. They had no reason to avenge Fanobi.

If the Troupe appeared before them, some would probably hug the Spiders, kiss them, and swear they were brothers despite having no blood relation. Among those subordinate forces, however, there was one exception. The Evans Family, entrenched in Felton Town. The current head of the Evans Family was Francis Evans. In truth, he was the illegitimate son of Eisenhower Fanobi. Years ago, Eisenhower met Cyniel Evans, the eldest daughter of the Evans Family, at a banquet.

What should have been a casual one-night affair ended with her pregnant. At the time, Eisenhower's official wife was the daughter of Gambi Town's mayor. He obviously could not marry Cyniel. This tale has been pilfered from Royal Road. If found on Amazon, kindly file a report. And so Francis Evans was born as Eisenhower Fanobi's illegitimate son. Unlike many illegitimate children who grew up full of resentment, Francis had admired his father since childhood.

Eisenhower had raised the ordinary Fanobi Family into a regional overlord. To Francis, he was an idol. Faced with a son who worshiped him so openly, Eisenhower naturally favored him more than most. Illegitimate or not, blood was blood. In the end, Eisenhower even pushed Francis into the position of Evans Family head. As long as Eisenhower stood behind him, Francis could easily outperform every other candidate in both results and benefits.

When Francis learned that a rising organization called Nostrade had destroyed Fanobi, it felt as if the sky had collapsed. He wanted revenge. If even the powerful Fanobi Family had been wiped out, the Evans Family clearly could not handle the enemy alone. Just as he sank into fear and hatred, a family fund established overseas brought him hope. Eisenhower had not led Fanobi to dominance by being stupid. He knew never to put all his eggs in one basket.

For decades, he had transferred part of the family's profits into a fund on another continent. If the Fanobi Family ever suffered disaster, the fund would activate and grant control according to inheritance order. Now that the entire Fanobi bloodline had nearly been erased, Francis was the only one left. The right to use the fund naturally fell to him. After receiving it, Francis immediately began planning revenge. He knew the strength of this remote region could not do it.

Fanobi had already been the strongest local power, and it had been destroyed with ease. If power from this region could not win, he had to seek power from outside. Following that idea, and spending a massive amount of money through several layers of contacts, Francis finally reached the legendary dark brokerage network. Through it, he hired a mercenary squad made entirely of Nen users.

"Boss, Adam and his people are messing around downstairs again. Are they reincarnated sex maniacs or what? Have they not seen women in hundreds of years?" One day, Francis's deputy came to complain again. Ever since the Adam Mercenary Band arrived, they had taken action only once. The rest of the time, they seemed to do nothing but play their filthy games. There were only seven of them, yet they needed more than fifty women just to "warm up." They were not afraid of dropping dead from it.

If they wanted to warm up, fine. But doing it openly in the hall, with all that heated shouting every day, was driving the men downstairs insane. Francis pressed his fingers to his temples. It was not that he did not want Adam to attack Nostrade. The problem was that most of the assets he could currently control had already been spent. The remaining funds would either unlock automatically ten years later or activate after his death as revenge money. In other words, he could not touch them now.

Most of what he had controlled had gone into finding the dark brokerage network. What remained was enough to hire Adam's group as guards, not to pay them to launch a full attack. That left Francis passive and forced to keep enduring pressure from Nostrade.

"Bear with it a little longer," he said.

"I'll think of a way to lure the Nostrades into attacking over the next few days." He knew his men were full of resentment toward Adam's group, so all he could do was calm them for now. While Francis and his deputy struggled upstairs, one of Adam's mercenaries in the hall stopped moving. His eyes were milky white, clearly blind, but he lifted his head toward the blond man sitting on the central sofa, surrounded by women on every side.

"Boss, a little mouse appeared at the gate." The blond man was Adam, leader of the Adam Mercenary Band. He pulled his face out of a woman's chest and rolled his eyes.

"A passerby, or does he have another purpose?"

"Probably not a normal passerby. But he's alone, so it's hard to say." Adam's eyes moved. Then he kicked the right leg of another team member who was still enthusiastically pounding away.

"Jack, stop playing. Go kill that little mouse." Jack stood up, grumbling.

"Boss, I was almost there. Did you have to call me now?" It was only a complaint. He still obediently grabbed the heavy sniper cannon beside him. Without putting on clothes, he walked proudly toward the roof completely naked. At the edge of Evans Manor, a Nostrade subordinate named Sari was staring at the Flying Thunder God kunai in his hand with confusion. He had driven from Gambi Town to the outermost area he could approach. Any closer, and he would run into Evans Family guards.

Light had repeatedly told him that all he needed to do was throw the kunai inside. But when it came time to act, Sari could not help feeling puzzled. No matter how he looked at it, the thing was just an ordinary piece of metal.

'Forget it. Why think so much? Boss said to throw it, so I'll throw it.' He raised his arm. Bang.