His Cute Wife is a Little Crazy

Kaito laughed. 

"It depends if you have the ability to take my life." He said with obvious disdain. "I have vanquished you once, and I can do it again." 

The five people felt insulted by the fact that Kaito did not seem to be taking them seriously. If anything, he was looking down on them. One of them flipped the knife in his hands and licked his lips, making him appear more vulgar. 

The man was thin and had a sharp face, but his most prominent feature was perhaps his beady eyes. He had a dishonest appearance and an almost snake-like aspect that made one feel uncomfortable when looking at him. 

He was aptly nicknamed Snake in the mercenary world. 

Unlike Spider, his sentence was not that long. He had only stayed in the ground for about two years. The exact period depended on when Ayumi decided to open the Ground and let go of the prisoners Kaito had put down there himself. 

"Do you think that we are the same as you?" Snake asked. "We might have been locked up, but we did not give up on our training. We lived every day knowing that we would have an opportunity for revenge. As for you…" 

Snake laughed as he licked his lips again. "You have become comfortable. You have become a soft young master. You are not a match for us. No, you are not a match for me." 

Snake was not like Spider. He did not kill people indiscriminately. However, he was also a bad seed that Kaito had prevented from growing. The reason he was locked up was his tendency to torture his victims instead of killing them outright. 

In Kaito's understanding and teaching from childhood, assassins were different from normal murderers and killers. Killers and murderers would eliminate a life because of issues like revenge, greed, passion and anger. There were also serial killers with a compulsion for murder. 

However, assassins were not driven by emotions. 

Their work was to eliminate a scourge cleanly. The old man had told Kaito as a child that society had countless evils, and some evils could not be taken out through the justice systems. Some of these evils were part of the justice system. 

Others were too strong or too smart to be destroyed through normal channels. Without something to counter the growth of such evils, the world would be swallowed by them. It would be a matter of time before the balance of the world broke and everything turned into chaos. 

Assassins were the answer to keeping the balance. Their advantage was the lack of a personal connection to their targets. All they needed to do was understand the target and eliminate them from the equation. 

Snake used his role as an assassin to satisfy his sick desires. He would carve and gut the targets, leaving a scene that belonged in hell. Based on police reports, some internal organs were often missing from the bodies. 

There was speculation in the Shadow Brotherhood that Snake was a cannibal. 

Kaito did not make his decisions based on rumours, so he investigated the situation with Snake and found out the truth. Snake was not a cannibal, but he would take the organs of his targets and keep them as trophies in jars of formalin. 

Naturally, Kaito also made an example out of him. 

It was the same case with numerous others, but not all of them had survived to this day. The Ground could drive people crazy, so those who went in did not often come out alive. In essence, the place could be considered an unusually cruel prison. 

However, it kept new mercenaries on the line and prevented dangerous situations. 

"What I see is a small man pretending to be a big shot. You were useless in the past, and you are useless now." Kaito looked directly at Snake. "You were always weak, but you could still not suppress your baser instincts." 

Kaito's cold eyes rested on each of them, one at a time. "I do not make apologies to any of you. You have not earned the right to come before me and demand an explanation. If you have the ability, fight. Perhaps, I might have some respect for you." 

Snake was the most angered by the speech. Without waiting for any cue from his team members, he threw the knife he was flipping in his hand at Kaito. The knife flew quickly at Kaito who did not look flustered at all. 

Compared to Hu Lei's knife-throwing skills, Snake was an embarrassment. Kaito lifted his hand and caught the thin knife between his index and middle finger. And then, he threw it back, and it landed on the man's chest. 

The other four panicked. 

When they came to find trouble with Kaito, they thought his skills had declined after he settled down. However, it seemed like he was even better than before. For them, dodging Snake's knife might be easy, but none of them could catch the projectiles that easily. 

Three of them tried to conceal themselves again because they were not sure how to deal with this stronger Kaito. So, each of them prioritised their own survival. For assassins, team sports were completely unfamiliar. Even though they came in together, the five people could not be considered a true team. 

They only shared similar interests. Otherwise, they would not have brought a sacrifice to alert them of danger. The man hiding under the stairs was not a core member of the operation. He was a foot soldier sent to check the ground conditions. 

Now that one of the core members was eliminated, the others were panicking. Naturally, they reverted to their old tricks of hiding in the shadows. As they retreated, one of the three used a smoke bomb to create a foggy haze in the room. 

Spider was not willing to let go of a golden chance like this one. She wanted to kill Kaito for robbing her of her youth. She had been in his prison for more than ten years. She no longer had a chance to enjoy things as she would have as a younger woman. 

She fired shots at Kaito from her trusty gun. 

In the haze, she could not see clearly. However, her eyes were still sharp, and her aim had always been good. She never missed a shot. 

Kaito found the haze to be advantageous. He dodged the bullet with ease and spun around the familiar living room. Within a few moments, he was behind Snake. He grabbed the gun from her hand and pointed it at her. 

Her mouth opened in horror as she looked at Kaito. 

"Those who live by the bullet will probably die by it," Kaito said before he fired a shot. 

He did not like using guns because he found them crude and dangerous. He encouraged his mercenaries to find the most targeted methods for killing instead of relying on firearms. After all, a single stray bullet could kill an uninvolved person. 

His eyes swept through the living room. The haze was yet to dissipate, so the interior space was obscure. Still, he detected a shadow behind one of the two large rocking chairs. It was the barest of outlines, but it was present.

With a single leap, Kaito cleared the distance between them and held the man hiding there by the neck. The snap was quick and efficient. The man did not even have a chance to struggle before he was gone forever. 

Kaito did not remember him. But if he was hanging out with the sorts of Snake and Spider, he was probably nothing good. In any case, Kaito would not forgive anyone who came to his home intending to harm him or Akira. 

As he planned on looking for the remaining two intruders, he heard the strange whoosh of something flying through the air. He flipped from his position and landed a safe distance from the rocking chair. His eyes narrowed as he looked at the weapon. 

A flying guillotine… 

It had been a while since he had seen this weapon in action. With the revelation of the unique item, he was certain of the identity of its owner. The man was known as Lightning. He fancied himself as an assassin from ancient times. 

Kaito did not have a problem with his delusions. However, when he had decided to change his weapon from daggers to a flying guillotine, he became more and more obsessed with perfecting his skills. He wanted to become a true legend. 

His bright idea was to kidnap a group of people and use them to practice his craft. He released them and hunted them down using the guillotine. When Kaito put him away, he was unapologetic. He said that the practice dummies could not simulate the true scenario in which he would need to use his weapon. 

The weapon came flying at Kaito again. He dodged lightly to the side to avoid the cleaving disc. Then, he caught the tough chain connecting the weapon to the handle. With a sudden move, he yanked on the cord and pulled in the person holding it. 

This was the weakness of the flying guillotine. It was a long-range weapon, so a handler could lose control of the weapon quite fast. Moreover, with its size, it was not possible to carry multiple guillotines. It was quite inefficient except for special situations. 

Lightning fell to the floor and looked at Kaito with fear. However, he did not have a chance to protest before the guillotine fell over his head. Kaito yanked the chain by the handle, and Lightning lost his life by his beloved weapon. 

Kaito tried to sense the last person in the group. It was the man who had spoken up first in a gruff voice after he appeared on the scene. He was the most dangerous of the entire group. His chosen assassin name was Venom.

Just as Kaito was looking at all the nooks in the living room, he heard a gunshot upstairs. 

Akira!