This man with a dangerous aura didn't feel to Ronin like someone connected to the king's side.
Especially after thinking it over carefully, Ronin remembered that he seemed to have seen someone covered in tattoos standing beside the Fourth Prince in the manga as well.
It should have been after the Fourth Prince had finished one of his acts of torture and slaughter.
The heavily tattooed man seemed to be responsible for skinning, tanning hides, and leaving unique tattoos on human skin.
But Ronin also remembered an analysis post he had read before, which pointed out that in the incident where Sarasa was tortured and killed, there had also been a man whose arms were covered in tattoos.
Some people had connected that man to the one beside the Fourth Prince.
And if you calculated the timeline, when the Meteor City incident happened back then, the Fourth Prince should have been in his early twenties.
No matter how you looked at it, once that man was tied to the Fourth Prince, the Fourth Prince could no longer wash his hands clean of the matter.
Ronin suddenly had a new idea.
If the Troupe learned that the people behind Sarasa's torture and murder were connected to Kakin's Fourth Prince, would they cooperate with the Fourth Prince to deal with him, attack the Fourth Prince just like he intended to, or simply go after the Fourth Prince on their own?
Of course, investigating what had happened back then wouldn't be simple.
Based on the clues currently known, there was only one direction to investigate: the internet.
According to Chrollo's deduction, the perpetrators would have uploaded the torture videos they filmed online.
The problem was that tracking the mastermind through those videos was no easy task. Otherwise, the Troupe would have avenged her long ago.
But now that they had the tattooed man as a breakthrough point, Ronin felt he still had the lead.
And as long as he had that lead, then with Kurapika's ability, they should be able to stay ahead as the investigation continued.
That way, as long as Ronin had something the Troupe wanted in his hands, he wouldn't have to worry about them not taking the bait.
As for how to get Kurapika to investigate the tattooed man, that was simple. Ronin didn't even need to mention Sarasa or anything like that. As long as he said he found the tattooed man suspicious, Kurapika would naturally investigate him.
Whether that investigation would lead back to the old incident would depend on Kurapika's ability.
If necessary, Ronin would provide Kurapika with some information as well.
Given that Kurapika already knew the Troupe's objective, as long as he found anything abnormal about the tattooed man, he should be able to lock onto the matter quickly.
And for that, they really had to thank Sheila, who had given them information in Meteor City.
Looking at it that way, going to Meteor City to find Shizuku back then had been absolutely the right choice.
Everything developed just as Ronin had calculated. After he told Kurapika about the tattooed man, Kurapika immediately began investigating.
What Ronin didn't know, however, was that while he was investigating the tattooed man, Chrollo had also begun suspecting the man's identity.
That's right.
At this moment, Chrollo was also in Kakin.
Although he still wasn't one hundred percent confident he could defeat Ronin, he also knew that waiting until he had a guaranteed chance of victory against Ronin was basically impossible.
After all, even after paying the price of several Troupe members, they still hadn't managed to force out all of Ronin's methods.
In a fight against Ronin, it would be completely normal for him to suddenly use some unknown ability in the next second.
That made him extremely difficult to deal with.
The best method was still to target his eyes. Taking away his vision was the best way to fight him.
And Chrollo had actually found a Nen user with an ability that could rob others of their sight.
The problem was that borrowing that person's ability would not be easy.
Fortunately, that person had also come to Kakin.
Although Chrollo didn't know why they had arrived in Kakin at this time, it did make his operation much more convenient.
Another reason Chrollo had rushed here so urgently was the assassination incident that had occurred in Kakin.
The moment the assassination happened, he and Shalnark had confirmed that the one behind it had to be Ronin.
But even though the two of them had already guessed that taking the Scarlet Eyes from the Fourth Prince would not be simple, they still hadn't expected Ronin to later make a move against the Third Prince as well.
After arriving in Kakin, Chrollo and the others completely went into hiding.
Every one of them also disguised themselves, something the Phantom Troupe was very unaccustomed to.
After all, ever since they left Meteor City, they had almost never hidden their identities. Wherever they went, they acted openly and boldly.
Now they actually had to keep a low profile to avoid Ronin's eyes and ears. Every member involved in this operation was holding back a fire inside.
To the Troupe, assassinating the Fourth Prince didn't mean much. Finding the hidden location of the Scarlet Eyes was the correct choice.
But Chrollo and Shalnark also knew that if the place were really that easy to find, Kurapika would never have chosen to let Ronin carry out an assassination first.
Unless the goal of this assassination had been to lure them out from the beginning.
"He really is setting traps for us everywhere. Does he want us dead that badly?" The words were phrased like a question, but the tone was certain.
The one speaking was Nobunaga.
The Troupe currently didn't have many members left, and Chrollo had not added any new personnel.
From the look of it, he seemed to be planning to wait until the matter with Ronin was settled before considering restoring the Troupe to its full thirteen-member lineup.
But because of that, the number of fighters in the group had dropped sharply. Only Nobunaga and Franklin remained.
Chrollo and Shalnark counted as the brains. Pakunoda and Kortopi were support personnel. Machi was medical support, and occasionally could serve as half a fighter.
"If your entire clan had been wiped out, you might hunt them even harder than he does," Franklin said.
His mouth really wasn't very nice.
So the moment he finished speaking, Nobunaga's hand was already resting on the katana at his waist. Still, he held his temper and didn't draw immediately.
"I don't have any clansmen for him to massacre," Nobunaga said, shooting Franklin an irritated look. "So what now?"
That question was directed at Shalnark.
The Spider now only had one head and six legs left.
If all of them charged in together against Ronin, they could still have some confidence.
But if they were split up and defeated one by one again, Nobunaga had a bad feeling that Kakin would become the Troupe's burial ground.
"We deal with Sarasa's matter first."
Before Shalnark could answer, Chrollo gave his plan.
Without one hundred percent confidence in defeating Ronin, he was more accustomed to thinking of everything from the worst possible angle.
And to him, the worst outcome wasn't being killed by Ronin.
It was dying before they could avenge Sarasa.
That was the original reason he had founded the Troupe, and it was the wish every member wanted most to fulfill.
No matter what, he could not betray that.
~~~
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