Chapter 47: Kayn's Assumption
Mayor Sebastian paused from his solo chess game and slowly looks at Kayn. He crosses his feet together before muttering, "I've been wondering about this ever since your guess was proven correct,"
Here it comes!
Kayn gulped down a mouthful of saliva as nervousness started creeping into his heart.
"Just how on Earth did you know that the assassin would be disguised as one of the blades of grass in my mansion?"
"I…" Before Kayn could respond, Mayor Sebastian raised his hand to interrupt him.
"Wait for a moment, let me finish,"
"Okay,"
"There were just too many objects outside my mansion that you could have pointed out. For example, the vases, the stone slabs, or even the bricks around the mansion. But why specifically point out the grass? I want to hear your reason,"
"And don't be mistaken. I am not suspecting that you are an accomplice with the assassin. I've long investigated your background. I also have a reliable source of information about you. Rest assured, I only did so with the main intention of protecting my daughter. Because even though I keep calling you my son-in-law, I still can't help myself from being a father. So, assuming that you and that assassin are part of the same group is completely out of the question nor you even being part of a Villain organization,"
"I just want to know and understand the reasoning behind the logic of your assumption,"
Hearing the question, Kayn decided to take a breather to pull his mind together. It wasn't because he is having difficulty thinking of an answer. It's just that, the question is way too far from his expectations!
He was expecting that Mayor Sebastian would assume exactly like what he said — that he is an accomplice of the assassin. And that he would relentlessly pursue that matter to find out everything. After all, there was no other way for him to know where the assassin was hiding other than the assassin himself telling him about it.
If he had a Gift that allows him to locate the assassin, then it would be a different story. Unfortunately, he doesn't, and Mayor Sebastian should be aware of that as well. Hence, he can't use that as an excuse. Well, even if Mayor Sebastian didn't, he can still ask for him to demonstrate his supposed Gift. By then, he would be exposed.
After calming himself down for a few seconds, Kayn replied with a very simple answer, "I guess it was all down to luck,"
Mayor Sebastian's eyebrow raised in suspicion.
Seeing that reaction, Kayn started explaining why it was all because of luck, "Honestly, I didn't expect that the assassin would really be hiding as one of the blades of grass. My thoughts a while ago were simply that maybe the assassin was thinking that the most dangerous place is the safest place. Although I know that you've been checking that possibility every week. But I've noticed that you only do so inside the mansion. How about outside? As far as I could remember, you never did. Arguably so, it should be because there is barely any furniture outside,"
"However, I remembered that the assassin can disguise himself as practically any object that he wants, not just furniture or those objects used inside the house. In my opinion, the most effective way to hide with that Gift is to use those objects that have a considerable number of similar objects nearby, like for example, the blades of grass, so it would become extremely hard to locate them,"
"And assuming that the assassin is truly hiding somewhere around your mansion, he should be more than aware already of the fact that he can't disguise himself as one of the furniture and other objects that you replace on a weekly basis. Thus, further proving my point,"
"That is my reasoning behind why I suggested the assassin might be disguised as one of the blades of grass, albeit I didn't expect that the assassin would really choose to do that. Even a kid would point out the blades of grass first,"
"Fair enough," Mayor Sebastian muttered.
Unexpectedly, Mayor Sebastian suddenly puts his hand forward and moves a pawn on the chess board. "So, what could be the most likely reason why the assassin believed that my mansion would be considered the safest place for him to hide?"
There was clearly an underlying meaning behind Mayor Sebastian's question and Kayn was able to notice this. "So, that is your real intention,"
Hearing this, it is clear to Kayn now that Mayor Sebastian wanted to discuss with him the last words of the assassin, and that the question before was just an excuse.
"Is he perhaps considering the possibility that one of his men is a spy and is working with the assassin from the inside, or perhaps the person who sent the assassin?" This was the only possibility he could think about as to why Mayor Sebastian had to use an excuse to call him here.
"That… I don't know. But I believe you are already on to something,"
Mayor Sebastian motioned his hand for Kayn to make a move on the chess board.
Looking at the chess board, although some pieces are no longer on their spot, while others were taken away from the board already, at the very least, it is still playable. So, Kayn just casually picked the pawn in front of the rook at the right-side corner and made it move two tiles. There was no deeper reason for his move.
"I am assuming that perhaps it is because the moment the assassin leaves my mansion, his contractor would come to kill him so that there won't be any evidence left of whatever his intention was in killing my family,"
"So, you're saying that he intents on killing the only witness?"
"Yes, so that there is no possibility left that someone would find out that it was him,"
"Do you have someone in mind that you believe would think of doing that to you?"
Mayor Sebastian made a heavy sigh as he replied, "Before I became the mayor of the Moon Dragon City, I have already made plenty of enemies, some I have already killed a long time ago, while others are still alive. And when I was finally elected to this position, I made even more enemies and offended dozens of parties that wanted to become the Mayor of this city,"
"To simply put, all of them are suspects?"
"Yes! And there's no way to narrow it down to a few people since all of them would no doubt do that and also has the capability of pulling it off with the right plan,"
"I agree," Kayn nodded his head. "However, who amongst them has the capability to scare the hell out of an assassin who literally possesses a Gift to hide in wherever place he wants on Earth and could possibly only be found if he wanted to?"
"That's the problem… there's none," All the enemies he had made and people he offended are more or less on the same level as him. If it took him this long to find the assassin despite the fact that he had pulled so many resources in finding him, and it wasn't even him nor the people he had been dumping resources that found the assassin. Moreover, it was only because of luck. So, let alone them, who should also be as interested as him in finding the assassin who killed his wife?
"Since your enemy and the people that you offended are out of the list of suspects. Then perhaps it is time for us to think in another direction?"
"Do you have something in mind?" Mayor Sebastian became curious.
"Is there anyone on Earth right now who you believe can scare the assassin to the point that he would hide for so many years in the mansion of his last target?"
Hearing Kayn's question, Mayor Sebastian instantly fell into deep thought.
"It's going exactly as I planned," Kayn said in his mind. In truth, he already has someone in mind on who sent the assassin that killed Mayor Sebastian's wife — it's none other than World President Nicholas himself.
Needless to say, it's not because of hatred that he assumed the suspect to be World President Nicholas.
Hatred might have clouded his vision before, but now that he has clarity over it, it would be very difficult for him to fall into the same hatred once again, even if he tries to.
The reason why he assumes the suspect to be World President Nicholas is that if he remembers correctly, the Emperor of Sword that killed Mayor Sebastian in the future was someone who made a lot of interactions and contacts with World President Nicholas after that guy was elected the next Mayor of Moon Dragon City.
Even he nor Mayor Sebastian could barely interact with World President Nicholas, which is very suspicious. Unless, of course, that person is one of his men.
Naturally, that is nothing more than his assumption and there's not enough evidence to prove that he is correct. That is exactly why he wants to tell Mayor Sebastian about it as he intends for the latter to search for those evidence for him. After all, with his current capacity and resources, there's no way for him to do that.
However, since he can't straight away tell Mayor Sebastian about it, he thought that maybe he can make Mayor Sebastian think about it himself.
This was the trick that he had learned from Natas when the latter told him how they tricked the 'Tower' — If there's no one who can trick the 'Tower', then let the 'Tower' trick himself.
Since he can't tell Mayor Sebastian about his assumption, then he'll just make Mayor Sebastian arrive at that conclusion through a series of questions and answers.
And right now, Mayor Sebastian should be doing exactly that.