When Chrollo was selling the Scarlet Eyes, he had already used certain clues to determine that the people who had operated in Meteor City back then were deeply connected to Kakin.
In his later investigation, he likewise discovered something abnormal about Kakin.
At the same time, he narrowed his target down to the Fourth Prince, who had certain peculiar tastes.
After arriving in Kakin, he and Shalnark split up to investigate, but they were unable to quickly obtain the information they wanted.
After all, ever since the assassination attempt, the Fourth Prince had temporarily halted all activity. If they wanted to make a move, they would have to break into the royal palace.
But no matter how arrogant the Troupe was, breaking into the palace wasn't something they could do lightly.
Even Ronin hadn't chosen to infiltrate the palace, had he?
At some point, Chrollo and Shalnark had also started paying attention to Ronin's movements during their operations.
However, part of the reason they hadn't invaded the palace was that the Fourth Prince hadn't lived in his palace quarters for quite some time.
Unless it was for ceremonies or similar events, the Fourth Prince usually stayed outside the palace.
With that in mind, the most likely place for him to keep the Scarlet Eyes was his hotel.
Naturally, Chrollo set his sights on the hotel, but he had never rushed to act.
The reason was that, no matter how he looked at it, the hotel seemed like a trap.
Also, during his investigation of the Fourth Prince, he had uncovered more clues related to the repeated disappearances from Meteor City back then.
Everything seemed to point toward the Fourth Prince, as well as the Heil-Ly family—one of Kakin's three major mafia families, which had countless ties to him.
It was just that Chrollo still wasn't sure exactly what role the Fourth Prince had played in all of it.
But his name had already been marked onto Chrollo's death list.
Still, killing the Fourth Prince now would not be simple. At the very least, Ronin's assassination attempt had failed.
The situation around the Fourth Prince was complicated, but that also gave Chrollo an opportunity.
"How's the investigation into Saiyu?" Chrollo asked, turning to the task he had assigned Shalnark while calculating matters concerning both the Fourth Prince and Ronin.
Chrollo himself was not a Hunter.
But Shalnark was a professional Hunter, and it was precisely that identity that gave him more opportunities to make contact with Saiyu.
This man named Saiyu was the Nen user Chrollo had found who might possess a way to rob others of their sight.
But he was no simple opponent.
Not only was he also a professional Hunter, he was even one of the Hunter Association's Twelve Zodiacs.
And membership in the Twelve Zodiacs meant that a person had made enormous contributions.
While the Twelve Zodiacs did not necessarily represent combat ability, if the person in question was already a combat professional like a Blacklist Hunter and martial artist, then his strength was absolutely top-class.
There was even a very high chance that Saiyu was stronger than Ronin.
Going after him first before going after Ronin was, in a sense, putting the cart before the horse.
But Chrollo still wanted to try.
Whether through negotiation or force, if he could truly obtain Saiyu's ability, then his odds of defeating Ronin might rise above ninety percent.
"My suggestion is still not to provoke Saiyu. He's a Blacklist Hunter," Shalnark replied, though his answer clearly wouldn't satisfy Chrollo.
"What about other channels? As long as we can get Saiyu to temporarily seal Ronin's vision and create an opening for us to attack him, that will be enough.
"Even if we may face Saiyu's pursuit afterward, as far as I'm concerned, if that chance lets us eliminate Ronin, it'll be worth it." Chrollo rubbed his temples.
The fact that he was asking Shalnark at all proved that he didn't have much confidence in this matter either.
"I can try posting a job," Shalnark said, his expression turning serious. "But whether Saiyu accepts it is uncertain. If he does accept it, when he'll make his move is uncertain. Whether he can complete the job is also uncertain.
"And doing this might even draw Ronin's attention."
"I know. But try anyway," Chrollo decided.
Saiyu was the only hope he had found after searching for months.
No matter what, he wanted to try.
…
As the Zodiac representing the Monkey, Saiyu had indeed already arrived in Kakin.
With short yellow hair, a golden circlet on his head, and martial arts clothing, Saiyu looked somewhat monkey-like himself.
Even he was a little surprised that he had appeared here.
Because his identity was not actually suitable for appearing in Kakin. It was very likely to expose him directly in later operations.
But this mission had been personally arranged by Beyond, so naturally he had no reason to refuse.
In any case, if the relationship between him and Beyond was discovered later, that would be Beyond's headache, not something he needed to worry about.
What he needed to do was follow Beyond's instructions, complete the mission, and collect a sufficient reward afterward.
And this mission was not simple.
According to Beyond's instructions, if there was a chance, he should eliminate Ronin.
If there was no chance, he should not act. He could even try to build a good relationship with Ronin.
Saiyu found this kind of vague, ambiguous mission extremely annoying.
Fortunately, Beyond had also arranged a way out for him in advance. Even if he failed when the time came, he would still have a method to escape.
Also, according to Beyond's intelligence, he could try secretly cooperating with the Phantom Troupe's attack.
That might give him a better chance of dealing with Ronin.
But what surprised Saiyu was that after he reached his destination, he discovered a bounty mission with a fairly high price.
And the target of that bounty was Ronin.
This gave him a pretext to act.
At the same time, with just one glance, he guessed that the one who posted such a job had to be the Phantom Troupe.
Saiyu accepted the mission without hesitation.
…
At the same time, Kurapika also saw the bounty on Ronin online.
"Clearly, the Phantom Troupe has already entered the game," Kurapika said, thinking carefully. "I just don't understand what exactly they're trying to accomplish with this method."
Hiring professional Hunters like this did not fit the Troupe's usual style at all.
But at this stage, other than the Troupe, Kurapika really couldn't think of anyone else who would choose to place a bounty on Ronin.
And if the Phantom Troupe had done this, then there had to be a deeper reason.
Were they trying to use professional Hunters to hold them back, preventing them from quickly finding the exact location of the Scarlet Eyes?
Or were they trying to create an opening to attack Ronin while the Hunters made their move?
"In any case, be careful," Kurapika warned.
Ronin agreed.
"Then I'll use shadow clones as bait and keep fishing."