The Alchemists

Mischa entered with casual steps after the door opened. His appearance looked neat with an all-black attire. His beautiful wavy blond hair was tucked neatly behind his ears. He was still as handsome as when he was in his 20s.

Lately, he also deliberately cut his hair to look more formal, but it couldn't hide the carefree expression that always made him look young. Mischa never wore flamboyant outfits anymore. The only thing that still distinguished him was the windcatcher ornament on a leather string that still hung around his neck.

As one of the leaders of the RMI Group, he was also used to great wealth, so the magnificent penthouse he entered didn't impress him at all.

"Good evening," he said, greeting London who rose to greet him.

"Hi, Mischa. Please sit down." London invited his guest to sit on one of the comfortable sofas in the living room. "Wine?"

Mischa nodded. Jan immediately poured a glass for the guest and, soon, the three of them were already sitting relaxedly, enjoying wine while discussing the purpose of Mischa's visit tonight.

"Thank you for coming. I know you are very busy," London said gratefully. "Alaric said you still have a solid connection to the underworld."

Mischa just smiled at that. "Hmm ... perhaps. I do need help from there from time to time, so I don't cut ties at all. In this life, A thousand friends are too few; one enemy is one too many."

"You are right." London nodded. "So has there been any information about which mafia group wanted Judge De Maestri dead? Are there criminals who wanted to retaliate on him?"

Mischa shook his head. "They deliberately carried out the murders openly to divert the attention of the police. Usually, the mafia is the one who kills their enemy openly like that, so whoever is behind it, they want the police to think that the De Maestri family was killed for revenge."

"So it's not true?" London felt his head throb again with anger. He had a feeling that his guess was right. The one who killed the De Maestri family was someone who did not want L to inherit half of the Swann family's wealth, not a criminal who was sent to prison by the judge.

"No. They tried to divert the police's attention that way, and it seems the police was fooled. Eventually, they could not find the right clues because, from the beginning, they had set the wrong target for the investigation," Mischa answered. "I managed to find out which assassin group accepted the job eleven years ago."

For a moment, London felt his c.h.e.s.t palpitating while waiting for an answer from Mischa. He knew Rhionen Assassins was the best assassin group at that time before they were disbanded.

Did the murder of the De Maestri family have anything to do with Rhionen Assassins?

As if reading London's mind, Mischa just shook his head with a faint smile.

"We have nothing to do with the judge's murder. It seems like anyone who wants the De Maestri family dead, cannot afford Rhionen Assassins."

"Pfew ... thank God. I can't imagine if you guys are involved. I have to be fair to L and take her revenge on you," London said in a relieved voice. "That will make us enemies."

"Don't worry. We have been disbanded for almost 11 years. Besides, we have a bigger goal for the world, not to get pennies from murders," Mischa commented with a small laugh. "So, I have found the assassin group hired by the mastermind behind the De Maestri family's murder, and I took my own initiative to force them to tell me who hired them. I hope you don't mind."

London shook his head. Of course, he didn't mind. As long as he could get the information, he couldn't care less Mischa obtained it. Inwardly, he was happy that he did not have to intervene on his own to face the hitmen.

"Thank you. If you have already intervened, I don't need to get my hands dirty," commented London.

"I recorded it for you so that you could hear from them yourself, who hired them to kill the De Maestri family."

They saw a man being tortured in an electric chair. Every time he refused to answer, his body would be electrocuted. And when that happened, he always screamed his lungs out. His whole body was bruised and covered in blood, and all his clothes were damp.

"Sorry, the video is rather brutal," Mischa said in a chuckle.

London could only swallow to see the handsome man with a cheerful expression looked so calm when he was talking about murder and torturing the killer. This man is truly a cold-blooded ex-killer, he thought.

He trembled slightly when he remembered his brother-in-law was the same as Mischa, maybe even worse because he was the leader of Rhionen Assassins. London still didn't understand how a killer can change, like Alaric.

And luckily Alaric changed ... otherwise, he knew that the rest of his family would never give their blessing to Aleksis to reunite with her husband.

"Don't pretend to forget about the De Maestri family's murder. It only happened eleven years ago. You are not that old, so you can pretend to be senile." Mischa's voice came from the video. "I have plenty of time and I don't mind playing with you for the next three days. You will feel pain so great that you would beg for death, but death will never come. The choice is yours. Do you want to die tonight or three more days ..."

"Kill me now!!" the man in the electric chair shouted like a crazy person. "I do not remember anything..."

"All right. You just love being tortured for days, don't you?"

Mischa gave the signal, and his men turned on the electricity again, causing their captive to squirm like fish brought out of the water. His mouth began to foam when the and his face looked twisted when they ended the electrocution.

The look of despair now filled the man's face. He had already realized that his captors would not give him an easy death.

The interrogation and tortures proceeded for another few minutes, and finally, the man gave in.

"Fine ... all right... please, just kill me. I will tell you who hired our group to kill the De Maestri family at that time ..." he whispered in a weak voice.

"Good. I'm listening." Mischa crossed his arms to his c.h.e.s.t and waited. "Once I verified your statement, then I will give you death."

"Ugh ... we ... we were hired ... to kill the entire De Maestri family by ... by ... John Wendell. He promised a fee of two million dollars, but because the girl escaped, he only paid one million."

London and Jan looked at each other. They never heard of John Wendell. Who was this guy?

"Hm ... good. I'll check your statement," Mischa said.

"I'm not lying. John Wendell wants the little girl to die. That's why he held a contest to find her dead or alive for a million dollars."

London frowned. Didn't the Swann family hold the contest? What did this have to do with John Wendell?

Mischa's voice still came from the video. "Really? So the main target is actually the daughter of the De Maestri family? Has anyone managed to get that one million dollar bounty?"

"Yes.. yes. One of my men found her tracks in an orphanage in Germany. John Wendell ordered him to burn the orphanage to kill the child." The captive now closed his eyes in pain. "Please, you just check on the internet for news about the fire on the orphanage a few years ago."

At this point, the video stopped. London did not want to watch more. He had heard the information about the fire in the orphanage from Jan.

The killers deliberately set fire to the orphanage to get rid of L. Fortunately, when it happened, L was attending a singing competition, and she didn't become a victim.

He couldn't imagine what would have happened if L was in the orphanage when it was set on fire. London would never have met her, and there would be no Lily. The thought made him shudder.