Chapter 117

Chapter 117

I Became the Academy Mafia Chapter 117“Big Brooo! Ready! Are you all ready?”

While I sat waiting for the others to finish getting ready.

Ji-yoon's voice came from the hallway together with the rapid patter of footsteps.

Was she already completely ready?

When I turned my head toward the door──Peek.

My eyes met Ji-yoon's as she slowly poked her head through the slightly open door.

“Hehe.”

A pastel pink hat, a sky-blue dress. And even a rabbit-shaped bag securely slung around her.

At a glance, it was obvious Alessia had put real effort into dressing her.

“You're dressed prettily.”

“Pretty? Ji-yoon is pretty?”

At my compliment, Ji-yoon came into the room and twirled around. I stroked her head and rose from my seat.

“Yeah, you're pretty. Grandpa will like it. Ji-yoon, do you remember Grandpa?”

“Grandpa? Ummm... a little?”

Apparently she didn't have any clear memories.

It seemed it had been quite a long time since they'd met.

“Right? Still, don't get scared just because it's been a long time since you've seen him, okay?”

“Okaaay~ Ah! Alessia says we should come out now!”

“Okay, let's go out together with Big Bro.”

“Yes!”

Holding Ji-yoon's tiny hand, I stepped outside the estate with her and saw eight black sedans lined up.

“...

It's impressive no matter how many times I see it.”

It truly looked like a presidential motorcade.

Each of the sedans was also a luxury vehicle treated with magic so it could withstand most attacks.

“Big Brooo. Alessia's over there!”

Looking where Ji-yoon pointed, I saw Alessia standing in front of a sedan waiting for us, dressed in a suit instead of her usual servant attire.

Alessia in a suit...

As Ji-yoon and I approached, she opened the rear door and bowed her head.

“I'll escort you. Young Master.”

“Have you fully recovered?”

“Yes. To begin with, I didn't suffer many wounds during the battle. I've recovered completely without any aftereffects.”

“That's good, then.”

Only after all of us were seated did the car depart.

“Hm-hmm~ Hmm~♬”Ji-yoon hummed while looking at the scenery beyond the heavily tinted window, while Alessia silently kept watch around us.

The car sped quietly along the road without making any noise.

Come to think of it, I suddenly wondered whether Ji-yoon knew Haru.

“Ji-yoon. Do you know Big Sis Haru?”

“Big Sis Haru? Big Sis Haru!”

At my question, Ji-yoon thrust one arm into the air and shouted.

“The pretty big sis who always played with Ji-yoon whenever lots of people gathered!”

So they did know each other after all?

“Is Big Sis Haru coming too?”

Ji-yoon looked up at me, clearly delighted, and I answered with a faint smile.

“Yeah. She's coming with us.”

“Ji-yoon likes that!”

They seemed to get along well, so there probably wasn't much to worry about.

“There she is.”

Before I knew it, we'd reached the address I'd given in advance, and I spotted Haru standing there neatly.

She silently looked toward us while holding what seemed to be the items I'd asked for.

“Waaah! It's Big Sis!”

“Please wait a moment, Young Lady.”

Ji-yoon bounced up and down as if she wanted to run straight to Haru, but Alessia stopped her.

Because under Calione's security rules, the basic principle was that we couldn't carelessly move around in places that hadn't been ‘checked.’

Instead.

Vwoooong──A moment later, a black barrier rose around the cars.

It was a spell I'd seen a few times in the game, completely blocking vision from the surroundings.

It was a measure to prevent outsiders from knowing which vehicle we were riding in.

Once the barrier had fully formed, Alessia finally got out of the car, greeted Haru, and opened the door on my side.

“Big Siiis─!”

“Lee Haru. It's been a while.”

Ji-yoon waved vigorously toward Haru.

When we greeted her through the open door, she approached and bowed.

“It has been a while. Young Master, Young Lady. May I intrude for a moment?”

Haru handed the luggage she was holding to Alessia, then naturally sat beside me.

Since the occasion today was what it was, she wore a modern yet neat outfit.

“Casual clothes suit you too.”

To begin with, the clothes she wore at the Academy weren't exactly ordinary in design either, but seeing her in casual clothes felt different.

“Thank you. Young Master, you're wearing Maestro's clothes?”

“They're the best clothes I own. Since I'm visiting him after a long time, I should show him that I'm doing well.”

And since I couldn't display my usual level of ability, the performance of the equipment I was wearing was also quite important.

“Big Sis! What about me? What about my clothes?”

“Yes, Young Lady, your clothes are very pretty as well. They suit you extremely well.”

“Hehe. Big Sis is really pretty too.”

The atmosphere brightened considerably just from Haru getting into the car.

Since she wasn't especially talkative, she'd previously just sat quietly or only spoken when Ji-yoon addressed her, but now it seemed the atmosphere would at least be a little less awkward.

“Then we'll depart again.”

Once Alessia got into the vehicle, the barrier covering the surroundings disappeared and the cars began moving again.

“As expected, Calione's security is beyond imagination. I never imagined this many people would be mobilized.”

Haru spoke while looking at the vehicles tightly escorting us from the front and rear.

“It's because Ji-yoon is riding with us. Father paid special attention.”

I could immediately respond if there were combat or an assassination attempt, but Ji-yoon couldn't.

“That certainly makes sense. Both people who will inherit Calione are moving together at once... I can understand the precautions.”

“Is that so?”

Thinking about how abnormal this world was, what she said did make sense.‘There are way too many lunatics around.’After passing through the forest of buildings and concrete and gradually heading toward the outskirts, the vehicles eventually stopped in front of a massive mansion.

“Grandpa's house is reaaally big...!”

Seoul's most affluent residential district, newly formed where Bukhansan had once been located.

And the largest mansion among them was this place.

The Hanwol Group estate.

“Calione values security above all, so compared to a mansion of this scale, ours inevitably has to be smaller.”

Alessia explained with a smile in response to Ji-yoon's words.

No, saying that was a little strange, because our house wasn't exactly small either.

If anything, it was so large that I wondered whether it wasn't difficult to maintain every day.

Ji-yoon nodded and responded with an “Oooh...!” but judging by her expression, she clearly hadn't understood.

After entering the garden, we got out of the cars one by one and looked toward the entrance of the mansion.

There, servants of Hanwol Group were lined up from the entrance, apparently waiting for us.

Standing at the very front was a middle-aged man.‘Wow, it's seriously been a long time since I've seen him.’The chief butler of Jinwol Group, who could practically be considered the strongest man in this neighborhood.

Kim Gang-cheol.

“We greet the Young Master and Young Lady.”

“““We greet the Young Master and Young Lady!!”””

To think the day would come when even that Kim Gang-cheol bowed his head to me...

Was it when I was stealing things with a ‘Magical Girl(Middle-Aged Man)’ concept? While perfectly committing crimes by alternating between my transformed form and normal form, I tried robbing this mansion, the richest estate in the wealthy district, and got caught by that man. I still remembered how terrified I'd been.

At the time, despite having strength comparable to an S-rank hero in terms of game stats, not only had I failed to escape, I had nearly lost in the battle that followed too.‘I somehow got through it by thinking on my feet back then. But I really thought my character was going to get deleted.’Since the wealthy district itself wasn't a place ordinary players could visit, information about him had been extremely scarce, and I remembered the community being full of posts from victims who, unlike me, had failed to escape.[Title: What the fuck lololol wasn't the wealthy district supposed to be a god-tier credit farming spot][Author: CookingKingAssassinationKing][I didn't have money for rare materials, so I tried robbing the wealthy district and ran into some final-boss-tier old guy. Forget farming, I ended up paying nothing but funeral condolence money. What the hell is that place?][Anonymous: Did you rob the biggest mansion in the wealthy district by any chance?][└CookingKingAssassinationKing: Yeah. Isn't that the richest house there?][└Anonymous: You're supposed to raid beehives, but you messed with a giant hornet nest and got stung lolololol][ChainSmokingElf: The chief butler at Hanwol Group headquarters is a former war hero. If you mess with him wrong, you seriously die instantly.][└CookingKingAssassinationKing: Why the hell is a guy like that standing guard at some rich person's house?][└Anonymous: Ah lol it's an ironclad rule that the security guard is overpowered lol][└Anonymous: For real lol ‘Hidden Boss of Seoul's Wealthy District’ lol]

And now a man like that was bowing in front of me and calling me Young Master.

You really do live and see everything.

“Hello!”

Ji-yoon responded to their greetings with her trademark deep bow.

According to what I'd asked Alessia before coming here, this was apparently my first time visiting as well, so I could just behave normally.

“I'm Eugene Han Calione.”

I approached Kim Gang-cheol, who stood at the very front of the servants bowing to us, and held out my hand.

He glanced toward me, straightened from his bow, and took it.

“I've heard a great deal about you from the Chairman. It is an honor to serve you, Young Master.”

The first time I grasped his arm, it felt extremely rough and solid...

No wonder my character nearly got deleted after being hit by fists like these.

It was enough to make my past PTSD come back.

While I was internally coming to terms with the past.

“You're strong. I heard you were second-ranked at the Academy, but it's almost strange that you're not ranked first.”

Apparently he had gauged my level merely by gripping my hand, because he looked at me with considerable surprise.

I couldn't feel any aura or mana through his hand, so he must have had some unique skill or method.

“The top-ranked student is a monster no less than I am. Ah, may we go inside?”

When I released his hand and suggested we head inside, he nodded.

“Yes. Please follow me. I'll guide you to the Chairman.”

Kim Gang-cheol headed ahead of us as the mansion doors slowly opened.

Before following him, I held out my hand toward Ji-yoon.

“In crowded and spacious places?”

“Hold Big Bro's hand!”’“That's right. You remember well.”

Just as I took Ji-yoon's hand and tried to go inside together, she instead pulled me toward Haru.

“I want to hold Big Sis's hand with my other hand!”

“...

May I hold the Young Lady's hand?”

“Yes!”

Did Ji-yoon's smile have some kind of ability that melted people's hearts?

Even Haru, who rarely showed any expression, eventually smiled faintly and took her hand.

“Then shall we go inside, Young Lady?”

“Yes! Big Sis, don't get lost either, and make sure you hold Ji-yoon's hand tight, okay?”...

So she hadn't taken Haru's hand because she was worried about getting lost herself, but because she thought Haru might get lost?

Even so, Haru nodded with a smile and answered.

“Yes. I'll trust only the Young Lady.”

“Hehe. Big Bro! Let's go!”

“Yeah, yeah.”

And so the three of us entered the mansion side by side, holding hands.

The moment we passed the entrance, a huge lobby came into view, along with artworks decorating the surroundings.

The layout didn't seem very different from what I remembered either.

Oh, that's the painting I threw at Kim Gang-cheol while escaping.

As I walked along calculating the market prices of the artworks throughout the mansion, we eventually stopped at one point.

“This is the Chairman's study.”

Unlike the other rooms, a door covered in numerous engravings appeared before us.

Judging by the sheer amount of mana I could feel, it gave off enough energy to make me wonder whether it was a relic.

Kim Gang-cheol casually knocked on that door and spoke.

“Chairman, the Young Master and Young Lady have arrived. Miss Lee Haru of the Inomiya Group is here as well.”

-Let them in.

A cold, low voice came from inside.

Perhaps because the reality of finally meeting the man called the head of Hanwol Group was sinking in, I tensed up and prepared to enter──“Grandpaaaaa~!!”

Our team's secret weapon.

Ji-yoon initiated first.