"You're serious? You used your ability and saw that I'm in danger?!" Aresto shouted as he quickly rose from his expensive brown leather chair.
Inside the large and luxurious room, there were only two other people present: Ridlef and Miladi.
Aresto's usual expression, one that looked down on everyone with contempt, transformed the moment Miladi said he was in danger. His eyes now resembled those of a frightened child desperately searching for his mother after losing her in a crowded market. Even his thin mustache, which looked as though it had been drawn on with a pen, had begun sweating heavily from anxiety.
"You know my ability only works on you, boss."
"I can say without exception that you are in danger..." Miladi added.
Even though he did not want his boss to panic, a part of him also believed fear would be beneficial. When used properly, fear kept a person alive, and for someone like Aresto—cowardly deep inside yet outwardly projecting the image of a dangerous and powerful mafia boss—it was an extremely important emotion.
It was precisely because Aresto was a coward that, from the very beginning, he had befriended Miladi, built a long-term bond with him, and raised him to protect himself.
"I understand... I understand..." Aresto repeated as he sat back down in his chair.
Taking a deep breath, he looked toward Miladi and asked,
"You're the highest-ranking person responsible for my safety and the person I trust the most... What should we do?"
Miladi nodded lightly, relieved to see that his boss had calmed down somewhat.
"Even though my ability gives danger signals, it's not very effective at identifying the exact source of the danger..."
"Because of that, the most logical course of action is to drastically increase security measures."
"The danger signal my ability provides is based on your current circumstances. If conditions change, what was once considered highly dangerous can be shifted into a far safer situation."
"Even if the ability warns of danger within three days, it would be a mistake to assume the danger will peak exactly at the end of those three days. Any moment could become the most dangerous one—one hour from now or exactly three days later."
Aresto listened calmly while Ridlef silently observed Miladi's words from the side. As a Nen user himself, every sentence Miladi spoke was being analyzed within Ridlef's mind, revealing what it truly implied in terms of Nen.
"The three-day range, not knowing the exact day or hour, the hidden source of danger... these are all limitations."
"Even if a future-seeing or fate-reading ability is restricted to a single target, unless the Nen user is extraordinarily talented and powerful, the ability must contain extremely heavy limitations and conditions," he thought.
Aresto took another deep breath and stood up. He began pacing back and forth, his hands moving to his chin while his mind worked as quickly as possible.
"Miladi, when will Tatris arrive at the mansion?" he asked.
Tatris was the third Nen-user bodyguard under his command.
Miladi thought for a moment before replying.
"He should be here within three or four hours. I spoke with him recently."
Aresto scratched his head nervously.
"According to your ability, ordinary men can't save me from this danger, can they...?"
Miladi shook his head.
"Definitely not. Even if hundreds of armed men surrounded the mansion, the danger signal I saw clearly points toward something far greater."
"Whoever is after you—if there truly is someone hunting you—then they are either Nen users or people equipped with weapons such as tanks or large-scale explosives."
Aresto sat back down once again.
"So the most important thing I can do to protect myself... is rely on Nen users..."
"But NEN users aren't people you can easily find. At the same time, the Nen user I hire for protection could very well be the real threat against me."
"I raised Miladi myself, and I've spent enough time around Ridlef and Tatris while being protected by them... I can trust them at least a little."
"But how could I possibly know that a temporary bodyguard I hire won't actually want to kill me? What if the person I hire as protection is the very person trying to assassinate me?"
Concepts such as fate, the future, and time itself were incredibly complicated and difficult to fully understand. The actions taken after receiving a danger signal could themselves become the actions that revealed the true source of danger.
Simply seeing the future or obtaining a vague vision did not mean one could prevent it. Perhaps knowing the future and acting out of fear of that danger was exactly what caused the future to happen in the first place.
"Miladi..."
"To be honest... I can't think of anything else."
"For the next three days, I don't want any of you leaving my side... The only exception is using the bathroom, and when one of you goes, the others will remain with me."
"Normally, hiring a temporary Nen user for money would make sense, but we can't know whether the danger itself comes from that new Nen user."
Miladi nodded. Ridlef smiled faintly, though he made sure not to show it openly.
"No wonder he's the head of a Mafia family... Even under this much stress, he understands that his actions could create entirely different outcomes and that trusting an unreliable bodyguard would be an enormous risk," Ridlef thought.
"Boss... I'll do everything I can, and even more than that..."
"Now, if you'd like, let's move to the shelter beneath the mansion and increase the security around the area. Whatever this danger is, we'll make its job far more difficult."
Miladi glanced toward Ridlef, and Ridlef immediately understood what that look meant.
As an emitter-type Nen user and a former assassin, Ridlef knew the easiest ways to infiltrate places like the mansion they currently occupied.
At the same time, as a fellow Emitter, he understood the kinds of conditions another teleportation-based Nen user would likely require.
"I'll begin immediately," he said.
After glancing at his phone, Ridlef vanished from the room as though he had never existed in the first place. He had teleported to one of the mirrors.
At the same moment, Miladi positioned himself directly beside Aresto and began escorting him toward the underground shelter.
From this moment onward, only Miladi would remain directly at Aresto's side, while the others would keep a ten-meter distance as they protected him from there.