Chapter 77
It is a terrible thing to realize that you are hopelessly infatuated with, or rather dependent on, Illumi.
I feel anxious and panicked about this.
But when the meeting ended, Illumi naturally left, telling me that he had to take care of some business nearby and would come to see me again in a few days. After that, my anxiety gradually faded away.
As long as he's not around, I won't feel this dependence.
This shows that I can still break free from his influence on me.
This is a good thing.
I gradually calmed down.
That evening, contrary to her usual behavior, my mother took a break from her busy work and called me personally, her tone extremely kind:
"Darling, you've met with Illumi, haven't you? What did you talk about?"
Before I could even speak, she preemptively spoke up for Illumi, saying:
"That boy went through so much trouble and trouble just to see you. Look how good he is to you. Ray, you have to trust my judgment. You two will definitely be happy together."
It's clear that she's really willing to put in the effort to deceive me.
Unfortunately, I didn't cooperate.
"Oh, I'm so touched." I replied with a forced smile, my contempt and perfunctory tone immediately apparent.
The mother choked up.
I hung up the phone.
A few days later, on the night before the engagement, Illumi returned.
He wanted to see me, but I had already turned off the lights and gone to sleep. According to my mother, Illumi's footsteps circled in front of my door before finally turning back, which became yet another proof that he loved me.
But isn't this something a normal person should do?
This is Adrian Manor, my home. Even if Illumi wants to get engaged to me, he has no right to disturb my sleep without my permission.
My mother said, "But he's Illumi Zoldyck, Ray. You can't judge him by ordinary standards."
“Then why can’t I just get engaged to a normal person?” I asked my mother with wide eyes. “Except for the Zoldycks, no one considers basic manners to be such a great virtue.”
She seemed about to say something, but I glanced up behind her—Illumi's figure had already appeared in the distance.
"Big brother." I reached out my hand to greet him.
The words of her mother's lecturing stuck in her throat.
"Lady Adrian."
After Illumi came over, he first greeted his mother with a good morning.
Then he turned to look at me:
"You got up very early today."
I understood what he meant. In the past, because I was depressed, I would always stay in my room until the afternoon before I was willing to go out.
“Hmm,” I replied casually, “because it’s rare for my older brother to be here.”
—Because Illumi was there, I came out early.
This answer clearly pleased him. He nodded, his expression blank, yet he exuded a lighthearted aura.
The breakfast passed in silence, sweet talk, and Illumi's gentle pleasure.
Although I belittled Illumi in front of my mother, I still praised him to the skies in front of Illumi himself.
This is a very simple thing if I want to.
In the past, I was more rebellious. I couldn't stand seeing everyone doing well, and I preferred to deliberately say barbed things to sting everyone, both openly and secretly.
I'm happy as long as everyone else is unhappy.
Things are different now. I'm very happy, and I'm even happier when I think about how I'll use Illumi to make my mother unhappy.
"When will Mrs. Kikko and Mr. Silva arrive?" Seeing the atmosphere was just right, I casually asked a few more questions. "Will Milluki and Kurt also be coming?"
“Is this considered spying?” Ilmi tilted his head. “This is classified information, Ray. Even if it were you, I wouldn’t answer… not to mention that Lady Adrian is sitting right here.”
"Big brother is so cautious." I immediately changed the subject. "...I just miss everyone a little. I really miss Kukuroo Mountain."
Illumi gave a faint "hmm" and said no more.
The atmosphere turned cold.
After breakfast, Illumi and I changed into our engagement party attire... "Don't rush," I kept telling myself throughout the process. Leaving my mother and the Zoldycks and becoming self-reliant couldn't be achieved overnight.
I originally intended to use the pretext of investigating Killua to borrow a group of Mother's people as assistance, but now, judging from Illumi's evasive attitude and my analytical abilities, this method is not advisable.
He is very sensitive about topics related to his family.
I frowned and thought and thought. If I used my own problems as an excuse... No, that would be even worse. No one in this family or that family cares about me. They don't care about my troubles.
The situation I'm facing is very tricky.
Having run Adrian for many years, her mother wielded considerable power, and her cooperation with the Zoldyck family gradually deepened.
The Zoldycks were able to obtain various intelligence from her at low cost. The only reward the mother asked for was to occasionally rescue some key spies within the organization. The two sides cooperated very well and it was difficult for them to be at odds.
In this situation, no matter which side I want to approach, it will be very difficult to replace my mother.
Since there's no way to break through the solid ring... the only option is to shatter it.
Having abandoned the idea of sabotaging the engagement party, this time I behaved very well until the end of the banquet, and didn't even make eye contact with Hisoka during or after the event.
Hisoka was still very interested and came to find me in the dark of night, but I had already left Illumi in the room beforehand, and they bumped into each other.
Illumi tilted his head, and Hisoka laughed exaggeratedly, explaining that he had gone into the wrong room.
Whether Il is superstitious or not is irrelevant. Anyway, Hisoka behaved himself after that. Apart from sending me a few messages on his phone, which I then blocked, he hasn't made a sound since.
I didn't have time to guess and appease Illumi's emotions. That night, after much deliberation, I sent a similar message to my father's former subordinates. Anyway, they were unsuccessful under my mother, so they didn't have time to care about my parents' love-hate relationship. They were probably preoccupied with whether they could rise to power after the change of leadership.
They are the only ones most likely to help me.
I told them that Mother is now preparing to link Adrian with the Zoldycks, so that they will focus on intelligence trading and abandon all other businesses. But Adrian didn't start out entirely on intelligence. For example, some of them have their own businesses. If Mother successfully cleans up Adrian, their lives will not be easy.
Those minor leaders who leave their gangs often end up in the worst possible situation.
Unlike my mother, I incited them, believing that it was right for Adrian to develop its intelligence business, but one should not put all one's eggs in one basket, and one should not forget one's roots. We must retain some of our original businesses, especially to protect the interests of our old friends, and not let those who contributed to Adrian in the first place be sacrificed.
That evening, as expected, many people contacted me, some with doubt and others with anxiety, asking how to deal with the situation and what they should do for me in order to protect their interests.
“You don’t need to do anything particularly difficult,” I told them. “You just need to mobilize your resources as much as possible to slow down the delivery of intelligence, and then slow it down even further.”
In the world of intelligence, time difference is a very valuable thing.
After Adrian's intelligence transmission speed slowed down, it quickly drew the ire of clients. One case, two cases... By the time my mother realized something was wrong, I had already dealt with the Zoldyck-related intelligence before she could.
Using the excuse that my mother was busy and I was more free, I easily gained Illumi's support and began to be in charge of intelligence exchanges related to Zoldyck.
When faced with tangible benefits, Illumi wouldn't mind giving me a little harmless freedom.
He may have vaguely realized it, but he didn't care about the little power struggle between my mother and me.
The mother, however, was on high alert.
However, now that I have opened the door to family intelligence trading, Adrian is no longer impregnable. With a more affordable price and the prospect of becoming the future Mrs. Zoldyck, I have gradually taken over many of her departments.
"It's come to this point," one day, my mother finally lost her temper and stormed into my hard-won office, demanding, "Why aren't you preparing for the wedding? What are you always doing out there messing around?"
“This is my wedding preparation,” I said, looking up at her with a smile. “Zoldyck would prefer me as I am now to an ordinary girl who knows nothing and has no rights.”
"Mom, thank you," I said with a smile, rarely using such an affectionate term to address her. "You've made me realize that it's always more reassuring to hold onto important things yourself. You've definitely found me a good match. Now, the one who can use this opportunity to strike back at the enemy is me, not you."
The mother left in anger.
From that day on, we began to declare war. Although neither of us mentioned it openly, we were secretly competing with each other more than the other.
Illumi came to see me a few times. Due to his excessive desire for control, he originally had a lot of opinions about my dedication to my career. However, after he discovered that the benefits I could bring him were real, he began to turn a blind eye and no longer cared about my minor transgressions. Sometimes he would even eagerly ask me if I needed to hire him to cause trouble for my mother.
“If it’s a request from Ray,” Illumi said to me, even with a hint of boasting, “I can give you a 10% discount—I only give a maximum of 5% to everyone else.”
When he said the discount was 10%, he revealed a bit of genuine pain and gritted teeth, indicating that he had really made a big decision.
I didn't actually need Illumi's help with anything, but to appease this unstable element, I still tried my best to find an unimportant task, paid him to complete it, and considered it as paying for peace and quiet.
...
When a trusted and important pawn dies, on a sweltering afternoon, my mother couldn't hold back any longer. She stormed into my room again, slamming her hands on my desk, her voice filled with intense anger:
"Enough, Ray! Can't you just go home and marry Illumi? Your mother can still support you; you don't need to work so hard! ...Or are you racking your brains to get revenge on me for that guy from the Phantom Troupe? If you like him that much, I might help you. You don't need to go to this extent. What good will family infighting do you?"
“There are so many benefits, Mom,” I said calmly, just like last time, simply looking up at her and smiling. “You’ve worked so hard for so many years, it’s time for you to rest… I’ll take care of you from now on.”
It feels great to have power in my hands. No wonder everyone used to try to scold me for being useless while saying, "I will protect you" and "You don't need to worry about anything as long as I'm here."
The protected weak actually have no choice at all.
I don't want to be such a weakling anymore.
"As for the Phantom Troupe..." I skipped over Illumi's information and casually commented on Chrollo, "Mom, I'm not stupid, why would I want to make things difficult for myself?"
Love, family, anything is fine. My initial goal in expecting these things was to make my life better. However, countless experiments have fully demonstrated that if I become obsessed with these two things, I will only bring about my own destruction.
Everyone has their own unique approach to solving life's problems.
My life path is one where "only by relying on myself and becoming strong" is the right one.
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