She could have ignored the provocation against her, but a threat against her family’s safety was a different matter. Even if she knew he couldn’t actually carry it out, the fact that he’d even conceived the thought meant she could never let this go.
With a force like that secretly plotting to harm her and her family, coupled with all the unknowns of the apocalypse, she would feel much safer if the Thorne family—or at least this Keaton Thorne—was dead.
"Keaton Thorne, you old bastard, do you know why you’re about to die?"
Flora Bloom’s words stunned the entire crowd. Then, Keaton Thorne burst out laughing.
"Me? Die? HAHAHAHA... Ugh..." Keaton Thorne’s laughter was incredibly arrogant, but the next second, his voice was suddenly choked off.
A thin cut on the side of his neck suddenly widened and deepened. He instinctively reached up to press against the wound, his eyes bulging as he stared at Flora Bloom.
Just then, Titan Adler emerged with Selene Lynch and Mason Adler.
When Keaton Thorne saw Wildcat standing behind Flora Bloom, holding a dagger dripping with his blood, he looked in disbelief toward Titan Adler, who had just reached the doorway.
"You... you... Titan Adler... It was you... you people..." With those words, Keaton Thorne collapsed.
The Crown Prince and Wildcat suddenly materialized behind Flora Bloom. Blood from the dagger in Wildcat’s hand dripped to the ground. As everyone watched, the way they looked at Flora Bloom and Titan Adler changed.
It was common knowledge that The Crown Prince and Wildcat were Lex Adler’s most capable subordinates.
The Thorne family had openly brought Ability Users to surround the Adler family’s compound, leaving no room for escape. Although this was a blatant provocation against the Adler family, the Thornes had a valid pretext: they were seeking revenge on Flora Bloom, not declaring war on the Adlers.
If Flora Bloom had killed Keaton Thorne herself, that would have been one thing. The Thorne family would only need to target Flora Bloom in their retaliation. However, The Crown Prince and Wildcat were labeled as Lex Adler’s men, and Lex Adler was the eldest son of the Adler family, a genius Thunder Ability User.
An act by The Crown Prince and Wildcat was tantamount to an act by the Adler family. This changed the nature of the situation entirely.
The Thorne family had come seeking revenge on Flora Bloom for their eldest daughter, Rianne Thorne, but now their Family Head, Keaton Thorne, had been killed by members of the Adler family.
With Keaton Thorne dead, the Ability Users dispatched by the Thorne family were suddenly without direction. Should they continue their campaign against Flora Bloom, or should they fight it out with these Adler family Ability Users?
But the Adler family’s Ability Users standing in the courtyard, though only a dozen or so, were uniformly all Level 3. Even if all the Thorne forces attacked at once, they might not be a match for them.
Titan Adler, for his part, was completely stunned.
’He never would have imagined that The Crown Prince and Wildcat were here. Even more unthinkable was that they had openly killed Keaton Thorne without his permission, escalating what was a simple matter of revenge into a full-blown confrontation between their families.’
Titan Adler felt an unspeakable bitterness. Flora Bloom wasn’t even formally under the Adler family’s name yet, and she had already dragged the Adlers and the Thornes into a feud with no easy resolution.
’He wanted to explain, but after thinking it over, what was the use? An explanation wouldn’t bring Keaton Thorne back to life, and The Crown Prince and Wildcat still carried the label of Adler family Ability Users.’
"What a fine Adler family, what a fine Titan Adler. It seems Flora Bloom’s arrival at your home today was no coincidence. This was all part of your family’s plan, wasn’t it!"
"..."
"Fine! The Adler family has openly violated the Ability User Accord and murdered the Family Head of the Thorne family. We won’t forget this! Just you wait!"
Titan Adler’s expression was terrifyingly dark. Since things had come to this, as the Family Head, his only option was to find a way to turn public opinion in the Adler family’s favor.
He glanced at Flora Bloom and forced a slight smile. ’This Flora Bloom... I really can’t tell if she’s a blessing or a curse.’
"As for Flora Bloom killing Rianne Thorne, everyone here saw what happened. It wasn’t Flora Bloom’s fault. The Thorne family failed to raise their daughter properly, and now you want to blame someone else? Your daughter was pregnant, but so were others. Does that mean only your daughter deserved to live, and everyone else deserved to die?"
By now, a crowd of other Ability Users and ordinary people had gathered outside the Adler family’s compound, and they heard Titan Adler’s words loud and clear.
The family of the pregnant woman Flora Bloom had saved that day was also in the crowd.
"I know what happened that day! A pregnant woman started to turn in the quarantine area, and that eldest daughter of the Thorne family grabbed my wife! She was about to trample right over my wife’s stomach to escape! It was this young woman, Flora Bloom, who saved her! That’s the only reason my wife didn’t have a miscarriage!"
"Oh, so that’s what happened! Then didn’t that Thorne daughter get what she deserved?"
"Exactly! So the powerful people from the Thorne family deserve to live, but us regular people deserve to die? I support Flora Bloom!"
"I support Flora Bloom too!"
"Down with the Thorne family! They don’t treat the lives of us common folk as human lives! The Adler family did the right thing!"