The young man dropped on the spot, his momentum cut off before he could react.
The blow had been fatal from the moment it landed.
Conrad didn't stop. He drove a powerful side kick into the woman's chest before she could scream, and the force sent her crashing to the floor, limp. Like her partner, she never woke.
The whole exchange took less than two seconds, and silence returned to the hallway.
Conrad stood still and scanned his surroundings, then looked down at the two bodies.
They had been skilled, but they had never imagined that someone else might be waiting for them, someone who wouldn't hesitate once the moment came.
He felt no satisfaction.
He knelt and took the Red Diamond from the young man's bag. Even through its container, he could tell it was genuine.
He didn't linger.
Gunshots had echoed through the airship earlier, so he wiped his hands on his coat and moved down the hallway, careful to leave as few traces as he could.
As he reached the main corridor, distant voices began to rise. He slipped back into the passenger area, kept his posture relaxed, and sat down by a window again, placing the bag with the Red Diamond under his seat.
Outside, the clouds drifted by as if nothing had happened.
He activated Zetsu once more and leaned back with his eyes closed, and his heart rate slowed on its own.
Two hundred million Jenny.
That one act had changed his path. His training would no longer be limited by money. Still, he couldn't relax completely. He opened his eyes and stared at his reflection in the window.
This was necessary.
He forced himself to calm down, but his mind kept moving. After a few seconds, his expression tightened.
"I'm an idiot," he muttered.
The more he thought about it, the clearer it became.
This would not end quietly. Armed guards were dead. Automatic weapons had been fired inside an airship.
A treasure worth two hundred million Jenny had vanished.
When the airship landed, security wouldn't let people simply walk away. They would lock everything down.
They'll search everybody. No exceptions.
Even if the crew didn't know exactly what had been stolen, the owner of the Red Diamond would be told immediately, and a person with that much wealth and influence wouldn't hesitate to pressure the airship company. No one would be allowed to leave freely.
I don't care about a security check. But I can't be caught with the Red Diamond.
If he was found with it, explanations wouldn't matter and neither would his innocence. At best he'd be detained. At worst he would disappear.
That left only one option.
I need to get off this ship before it lands.
The idea wasn't pleasant, but it was realistic. Airships in this world didn't fly as high as planes on Earth, so if he chose the right moment and the right place, a jump was survivable.
I'll jump if I have to.
The fall itself didn't frighten him. With Nen, his body was far stronger than an ordinary human's. But he wasn't reckless.
Under fifty meters, preferably much less.
He stood slowly and stretched as if his legs had gone stiff from sitting.
No one paid attention. He began to walk, unhurried, like someone killing time and glancing out the windows now and then. In reality he was measuring altitude, speed, and terrain.
Outside, the clouds had thinned. Below them he could see fields, hills, and scattered roads.
He kept moving toward the rear of the airship, where fewer passengers gathered. The crew-only sections were clearly marked but not yet heavily guarded.
The situation was still developing, and security would tighten soon, though not immediately.