To prevent Mephisto from pulling any tricks, and still unaware that John Wick had already been marked by an archangel, William used a single banishment spell to expel Mephisto's projection from John Wick's home. Fortunately, today's weather was the same as yesterday—gloomy and rainy—so Mephisto's projection wasn't forced into hiding by the sunlight.
Completely oblivious to all this, John Wick, having calmed down, got up, washed up, and took little Daisy downstairs for breakfast.
Opening the fridge, he realized he didn't have any dog food at home, so he and Daisy had to make do with some cereal soaked in milk before heading out for a shopping trip.
After breakfast, he took Daisy along and drove his 1969 Mustang 429—Helen's gift—to the supermarket.
Meanwhile, William grabbed hold of Mephisto, who was trying to follow. "You old bastard, what were you trying to do by placing an evil eye demon near John Wick?"
At that, Mephisto grabbed William's magical clone by the collar in return. "Then you tell me—why can John Wick see an evil eye?"
Watching the angry, agitated Mephisto, William suddenly realized this must have something to do with angels.
He hadn't activated any demon-seeing ability in John Wick, and Mephisto certainly wouldn't have done it either. That only left the archangels.
But no way in hell was William going to admit that. Pretending to think it over, he said, "This wasn't me. If you don't believe me, I'll swear an oath."
"Not you?" Mephisto stared suspiciously at William for a long time. Unable to spot any flaws, he muttered, "Could it be that his grief triggered some kind of mental mutation?"
As someone who'd lived for who knows how many years and tempted more people than he could count, Mephisto had seen this happen before. Some people with latent potential as wizards or mages could indeed awaken their powers through overwhelming grief.
But middle-aged John Wick didn't look like he had that kind of potential at all.
Still suspicious, Mephisto slapped William's hand off his shoulder and directly chased after John Wick. William naturally followed him.
In major American cities, many wealthy people live in suburban luxury communities. Not only were the environments great and far from the noise, but because all the neighbors were rich, security in these communities was also excellent.
The only downside was that they were far from shopping districts, so even a simple supermarket run could be several, sometimes over ten, kilometers away.
But for someone like John Wick, that wasn't a big deal. After all, he was rich—and more importantly, he was free.
Seven years ago, when John Wick told William he wanted to retire, he completed one last job and already had about 20 to 30 million dollars in savings.
And though he left the assassin world, he didn't completely quit working. Instead, he continued helping William collect massive shares of gray income from the Tarasov brothers, leaders of the Russian Bratva.
According to their original agreement, William helped the brothers eliminate their boss, the polar bear Pushkin, along with rival factions. In return, the brothers had to pay William 30% of their profits every year for five years.
As expected, Pushkin was eventually taken out by the Hardware Man McCall and four others, including Antonov, who now worked as Lina's bodyguard.
The competitors were picked off one by one by John Wick.
Unfortunately for the Tarasov brothers, they never found out who the money was going to, as William always stayed behind the scenes. If they had, they'd probably have been lining up to pay him.
But because William never showed himself, things weren't so simple.
In the first year, the Tarasov brothers paid up obediently. But later, they tried to keep the money for themselves.
Most people are forgetful, arrogant, and easily blinded by profit.
But to William, mob bosses were nothing but trash with some money—at most, they had a few decent killers or mercenaries.
He didn't even need to personally deal with them. Sunday could handle everything, providing intelligence for John Wick, who was in charge of collecting payment. If necessary, Sunday would even dispatch Black Bee combat drones for targeted assassinations.
With John Wick's own skills added in, every six-month collection period in New York's underworld would bring new rumors about bosses being taken out.
Faced with inescapable assassination, the Tarasov brothers were ultimately forced to pay up for all five years.
So by the end of that period, William had nearly 1.5 billion dollars in pure cash stashed in his account at the Baptiste Bank in Switzerland.
Thanks to Sunday's assistance, John Wick always completed collections without a hitch, and he got a 3% cut—about $9 million a year.
That's how five years went by. Two years ago, the five-year term ended, and John Wick truly retired. But without regular training, he gained over 10 kilos in just two years.
Now he looked not only slightly chubby but also clearly exhausted from organizing Helen's funeral, and his grief had left him visibly worn down.
That's why, when Iosef Tarasov saw John Wick at a gas station, he thought he'd run into some rich burnout who liked to party.
To someone like Iosef—a petty heir from the Russian underworld—guys like this were prime targets: rich idiots who could be easily lured into traps and exploited.
Not to mention, that pristinely maintained 1969 Mustang would go for at least $200,000 on the black market.
With dollar signs in his eyes, Iosef never imagined that seven years ago, this very man—now bearded and slumped in grief—had once kidnapped him and used him to threaten his father, Viggo Tarasov.
"Hey man, nice car," Iosef grinned, leaning against the passenger-side window. "Is it original factory?"
John Wick, recognizing this smirking punk as none other than Viggo Tarasov's only son, didn't bother responding to whatever Iosef wanted to say.
Squinting slightly, he said in a low voice,
"Get lost."
And then drove away.
"Fuck, asshole," Iosef spat. Though his father Viggo never really took him seriously, Iosef always had a bunch of wannabe thugs around him trying to use him to climb the ranks.
"Calm down, man," said a large, suit-wearing Russian thug, grabbing Iosef by the arm. "This is a rich neighborhood. If you start trouble here during the day, the cops will be here in under five minutes. If you want to do something, wait till night."
"This isn't over," Iosef growled.
Watching all this unfold, William's magical clone kept an eye on Mephisto, noticing the flicker of excitement in the demon's eyes and feeling a chill down his spine.
While staying on alert toward Mephisto, William's true body suddenly remembered something important he needed to verify.
With a single thought, he appeared in Asgard.
After greeting Heimdall, he smiled and said, "I need to see Angela."
______
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