The car pulled away from Heavens Arena and stopped at an estate out in the suburbs. This was the temporary residence Milia had already arranged for them.
"Did Chrollo make a move?" Ronin wasn't worried that Maha and the others might still catch up.
And even if they did, he had backup plans ready.
Besides, the Zoldycks weren't truly invincible. If they kept pushing someone to the brink, nobody would get out of it clean.
Still, he knew this wouldn't end easily. In the end, it would probably come down to him and Silva. As long as they killed Chrollo—the one who hired Illumi—the assassination would naturally come to an end.
Of course, there was an even simpler method: kill Illumi.
Ronin didn't believe Maha would stay glued to Illumi's side forever. As long as Maha wasn't there, Ronin was confident he could take Illumi out once he found him.
As for how to find him, Ronin had Hisoka in hand—the ultimate double-crosser.
It just depended on what kind of relationship Hisoka and Illumi had at this stage. If they were already allies like in the manga, then that would make things even easier.
As long as you offered Hisoka enough benefit, he'd gladly sell Illumi out.
Illumi definitely understood that too.
Understanding it and being able to guard against it were two different things, though.
"Yeah, he already moved," Kurapika said. He'd been keeping in touch with the people they'd left in Meteor City. "But there hasn't been any action outside our expectations. The only thing that really bothers me is Chrollo's contact with Sheila.
If your earlier guess was right, then Pakunoda probably already got everything she could from Sheila's memory about our contact with her."
"The key issue isn't whether Pakunoda knows," Ronin said. "It's whether Sheila deliberately guided Pakunoda into digging through those memories."
Just like he'd judged before, he still didn't trust Sheila.
Kurapika disagreed with that. In his view, Sheila wasn't the kind of person Ronin made her out to be.
But he didn't argue. He wanted to prove, with facts, that he hadn't misjudged her.
"By the way, that explosion in the arena should've been Milluki's doing. He was trying to create an opening for Maha," Ronin said. "But I noticed it in advance.
That said, Milluki's especially good with computers. He might use tech to track us down or investigate our movements."
"It's fine. I already contacted Silva before, and I got Milluki's contact information from him. He's not really on our side, but he also won't casually hand our information over to Illumi," Kurapika said.
That made Ronin do a mental double take.
Wasn't this basically flipping part of the Zoldycks from the inside?
"Milluki was forced into this to begin with. Besides, Illumi didn't even pay him that much. According to Milluki, most of the money went to Maha.
So he's basically working for nothing. If he half-asses the job, that's understandable," Kurapika explained.
"Then why did you contact Milluki?" Ronin asked.
"You told me before that Milluki's computer skills are excellent. So hiring him to help us look into Scarlet Eyes information isn't exactly unreasonable, is it?" Kurapika spread his hands. "The people Milia can mobilize are still a little too front-facing.
Even though we've already taken over Raymond's mafia network, the underground intelligence they can provide in the short term is still limited.
But Milluki's different. He's been mixed into that underground world for a long time. He has access to much more information that's useful to us. The only issue is that his intel is expensive. But with him acting as an inside man, he can save us a lot of trouble, so it's still a worthwhile trade."
Ronin agreed with Kurapika's judgment, and he trusted him.
He also understood that Kurapika probably had another reason for doing this: they didn't need to completely turn the Zoldyck family into sworn enemies.
Ronin agreed with that too.
The Zoldycks still had a final trump card hidden away. If things ever really reached a crisis point and they activated Nanika, then nobody would come out of it well.
"Now that this is settled, we can leave. Milluki's intel was useful—he found another Scarlet Eyes owner for us on the Yorbian Continent," Kurapika said seriously.
Ever since they got those last three pairs of Scarlet Eyes, they hadn't gotten any new leads for quite a while.
The fact that Kurapika could get this from Milluki already proved that contacting him had been the right call.
"But speaking of that, didn't Silva suspect anything when you contacted Milluki?" Ronin asked, bringing up another point.
"The Zoldycks already run an information-selling business anyway. I didn't need to tell him I specifically wanted Milluki. I just gave him my request, and Silva naturally gave me Milluki's contact," Kurapika said with a shrug. "Honestly, I thought I'd have to go through one of the butlers first before I ever had a chance to reach Milluki."
Ronin thought for a moment, then said, "Would that count as goodwill?"
"Either way, Silva's position as family head is clearly that he doesn't want to make an enemy of us. But Illumi taking the job on his own made things more complicated.
Still, no matter what, keeping the current balance isn't bad for us. Especially since Silva agreed that if we manage to get into Greed Island, he and Zeno are willing to go in after the Phantom Troupe members inside," Kurapika said.
That was another condition—and the one that mattered most to him.
It was also the main reason he'd decided that, unless absolutely necessary, they shouldn't go to war with the Zoldycks.
"Battera's castle is on the Yorbian Continent too, right? If that's the case, then everything lines up pretty neatly," Ronin said, throwing himself onto a couch. "Neon, get me something to eat."
"Hey, hey, I'm not your maid," Neon grumbled, but she still got up and headed toward the kitchen.
Someone else was faster.
Blinky appeared in Shizuku's hands, and at her command it spit out a pile of fried chicken, burgers, and other food onto the coffee table.
"Kurapika told me to prepare it."
As she said that, Blinky even spat out an entire burger-and-fries stand.
"You paid for that?" Ronin asked helplessly, rubbing his forehead as he watched Shizuku hurriedly stuff the food stand back into Blinky.
"Of course," Shizuku said like it was the most obvious thing in the world. "I'm not short on money."
Kurapika had given her quite a bit, and buying food like this didn't cost much.
"Kurapika really treats you well," Neon said. Seeing the food already out, she just sat herself right back down on the couch.
"Jealousy won't help you," Ronin said with a little huff, grabbing a burger.
Only Kurapika, looking at the entire spread on the table, let out a helpless sigh.
He had told Shizuku to prepare food with variety and proper nutrition.
Apparently what she took from that was simply: buy food.
Maybe next time he really should send Neon along too.