Chapter 170

Chapter 170

I Became the Academy Mafia Chapter 170While gathering information through informants in Bucheon about the circle the kids had mentioned, a loud voice rang out.

It was Ratte shouting.

“Mouse Number 1! Do you think it's acceptable to work like that!”

“I-I'm sorry!”

“Sorry? You're way too lax! From now on, every response will be unified as squeak!”

“S-squeak!”

Judging by the looks of it, they were being properly educated according to Ratte's policy.

Since they were supposed to attend school on weekdays, she seemed to have made the ambitious plan of giving them this kind of ‘education’ every weekend along with barista training so they could work at the café.

Apparently they'd usually skipped school all the time too, but well... judging by this.

“If this were Niflheim, you would already be dead, vomiting blood from all seven orifices! Understood?!”

“Squeak!!”

Uh...

“This is coffee?! Even water mixed with charcoal would taste better than this! You ground the beans so badly they're about to come back out as kopi luwak!”

“H-hiiik!”

“Recruit!!”

“Squeak!”...

The method seemed a little extreme, though.

So this is Niflheim...

At that moment, a cheerful ringtone began playing from the area where the kids were being trained.

Wondering what was happening, I turned my head and saw Mouse Number 1, Han Ji-yeon, looking confused while holding a phone flashing with dazzling lights.

“Mouse Number 1, is it an important call?”

“Um, well...”

She looked at Ratte with an awkward smile.

“I think... the circle is calling.”

“Hm?”

Ratte momentarily looked stunned by the sudden situation.

Then she looked toward me with an expression asking what she should do.

“...

Check it.”

I walked over and looked at the phone screen.

The flashing name read, ‘Branch Manager Bastard’.

“Branch Manager?”

“Yes. He's the administrator of the circle assigned to us.”

“Hey, hey, wait! You're actually telling him that? Are you crazy?”

Gi Min-ho hurriedly covered Han Ji-yeon's mouth.

At the same time, a crunching sound rang out, followed by his scream.

“Get your hand off me! If not now, when are we supposed to tell him?”

“Ghh! If you say any more here, it won't end with us getting beaten! We'll all die!”

“K-kids. Calm down...”

The atmosphere suddenly became strange.

“Answer it.”

At my words, she looked at me with trembling eyes.

I nodded to show her she could trust me, and she slowly moved her finger and slid the call button sideways.

-You damned little bastards! What the hell are you doing, not bringing the money by this hour!

The man's voice thundered throughout the warehouse.

-You know the deadline is today, right? Are you trying to say you want to die or what!

Han Ji-yeon flinched with a “Hiiik!” at the extremely irritated voice.

-What the hell? Why aren't you answering!

At the same time, Gi Min-ho snatched the phone away from her.

“Branch Manager. This is Gi Min-ho.”

-You little bastards... aren't you coming here right now?

“We haven't met the quota yet. We'll return as soon as we fill the quota──.”

-Are you insane?

The man's voice, which had been filled with anger, turned cold.

-What do you mean you haven't met the quota? Do you think I'm a joke? Huh?

“That's not what I mean, Branch Manager──.”

I took the phone from Gi Min-ho's hand.

“W-wait!”

“──Hey.”

Apparently realizing that the person on the phone had changed, the atmosphere on the other end shifted.-...

Who are you? That's not one of my kids' voices.

A voice filled with wariness.

There wasn't any particularly grand reason I'd taken the phone from Gi Min-ho.

“Wait there. I'll be there soon.”

I simply wanted to let him know who was coming.

I hung up and tossed the phone onto the back seat, then looked at the kids.

“You three stay here. I'm going out for a bit.”

“Wait. You're really going there? Hyung, you could seriously die!”

Kim Hyun-su recoiled in surprise at my words.

Then I heard a snort of laughter beside him.

“...?”

“Ah. My apologies.”

Ratte immediately returned to her stern instructor mode as though nothing had happened.

It wasn't hard to guess why she'd laughed.

The very idea of me dying to neighborhood small-time criminals was funny.

“You don't need to worry. Just tell me where their hideout is.”

“...

A club deep inside the Bucheon slums. Card And Rabbit. That's their headquarters.”

“Han Ji-yeon!”

“We'll die either way if we don't go!”

Judging from Gi Min-ho's genuinely shocked reaction, the address Han Ji-yeon gave me seemed to be real.

“Card And Rabbit... Ratte. Make sure you can keep the kids safe here.”

“Yes! Young Master.”

“And unless you want to die, you three would be better off not taking a single step outside tonight.”

I'd warned them.

I'd already given them a hideout and someone to protect them.

What more could I do?

If they understood that whether they lived or died from this point onward depended on their own choices, they probably wouldn't leave so easily.

When I stepped outside the warehouse, Han Seo-jun, who had been smoking a cigarette, hurriedly stamped it out and straightened his posture.

“Have you finished your business inside?”

“Yeah. Looks like we'll need to leave right away. Come to think of it, wasn't there a report recently about teenagers going missing?”

I'd been receiving various reports while handling Family business lately, and one of them mentioned children disappearing around Bupyeong and Bucheon.

According to the report, the police believed they were simply teenage runaways and hadn't taken it too seriously... but if their circle was the place I suspected, it would be better to deal with it right now.

“I do believe I heard there was such information. But why bring that up all of a sudden...”

“I think I found it.”

“...

Pardon?”

Looks like tonight would be busier than expected.

______________

Looking out the window, I could see the scenery gradually changing.

Unlike Incheon's Foreigner Area, this place had the unchecked public order of an urban district.

Men vomiting in alleyways, groups exhaling some unknown blue smoke, and men wandering the streets with weapons strapped to their waists.

It was truly a scene worthy of being called a slum.

“How would you like to handle support?”

At that moment, Han Seo-jun spoke from behind the wheel.

“...

Support?”

The corner of his mouth was raised slightly higher than usual.

I quickly realized what he meant.

“You're joking, right?”

“You caught me?”

“Obviously. There's no way we'd need support just to deal with trash like that.”

Maybe it was because everyone I'd dealt with recently had been above a certain level.

What I felt now was closer to going out to clean up some annoying garbage.

“If you say so, Young Master, I won't call in support... but an unexpected situation could still occur, so I'll remain nearby.”

We were still entering enemy territory, and if something happened to me, responsibility would fall on him as my dedicated secretary too, so I couldn't refuse that much.

“Got it. If anything happens, I'll contact you immediately.”

“Please do, Young Master. Ah, it seems we've arrived. That's Card And Rabbit.”

The exterior of Card And Rabbit wasn't much different from what I'd expected.

An old building made of dull concrete, with a reddish-orange rabbit neon sign hanging from it.

Perhaps nearing the end of its lifespan, the sign flickered desperately as if insisting on its own existence, while tiny insects that were barely visible unless you squinted wandered around it.───♪ ────♬I could feel the vibrations of music passing through the windows from outside.

It was undoubtedly coming from the club in front of us.

As I wondered what ugly truth that song was hiding.

“Young Master. A suspicious group is approaching from the right.”

Han Seo-jun narrowed his eyes and looked to the side as he spoke.

Following his gaze, I saw three men walking toward us with their hands shoved into their waistbands.

There were about three of them.

Thinking about it, bringing a luxury sedan into a slum like this naturally attracted the attention of hyenas.

And I knew exactly how to get out of situations like this.

Bzzzzzzzt──As I slowly lowered the window, the men grinned and walked toward us.

“Hey, Young Master. Lose your way? Parking around here is pretty expensive.”

“──Hey, is this how you treat guests around here?”

“Guests?”

“Why else would some rich young master come here in an expensive car? I was invited, and now you're starting to piss me off. Move.”

The method was to act like the original owner of this body.

Like Eugene Han Calione, the delinquent.

“What are you doing, asshole? He says he's a guest! Move aside!”

“Huh? Ah, yes.”

You might wonder what a rich family's young master would be doing at some remote place like this, but reality was the opposite.

The more famous you were, the more likely you were to play in back alleys like this.

And the people working here were among those who understood that natural order better than anyone else.

“I'll open it for you, Young Master!”

The men suddenly changed their attitudes and opened the rear door to welcome me.

I naturally stepped out of the car and spat on the ground.

“Any fun tonight?”

“Yes. There are more people than usual, and the crowd's good. You definitely won't regret it.”

“Yeah?”

The guy looked a little stupid at a glance.

It wasn't very difficult to raise the favorability of someone like him.

“Hey.”

“Yes, Young Master.”

“You got a business card?”

“A business card... sir?”

“Yeah, a business card. You treated me properly, so I'm in a good mood. I'll show off your card while I'm partying, so give me one.”

“Gasp...! I-I'll do my very best!”

At that, he immediately bowed at ninety degrees and handed me a business card with both hands.

[Card And Rabbit] was written in pink letters against a black background.

His name and position were written on the back.

“MD Forehead?”

Even his name sounded old-fashioned.

As I walked toward the entrance with him beside me.

“Um, Young Master. There is something I'm curious about.”

“Hm?”

Forehead spoke to me.

“What is it?”

“Well... our club is membership-only, isn't it? That means someone else must have recommended this place to you. Could I perhaps see your invitation or hear the name of the acquaintance who referred you?”

In other words, this is a place only dirty bastards come to, so whose dirt are you wearing to get in?

I'd thought he was an idiot, but perhaps his instincts were fairly sharp.

Or maybe he'd just asked without thinking.

“Then can I ask you something too?”

“Pardon? Ask anything, Young Master.”

So I changed the subject and asked him.

“Where are all the kids you kidnapped?”

“...

Pardon?”

“The kids who couldn't pay you activity fees and got taken away. Where are all of them?”

“...

Who the hell are you?”

The business smile he'd been wearing until moments ago twisted viciously.

“You said it yourself just now, didn't you? I'm the young master of a distinguished family.”

He'd already said the correct answer with his own mouth, and now he was asking again.

As expected, he really was an idiot.

“Ah, come to think of it, you asked if I had an invitation?”

I brought one just in case.

“Everywhere else lets me through if I show them this. Wonder if it'll work here too?”

At the same time, the massive muzzle stored inside the Cube emerged and naturally aimed at his head.

“This will get me inside, right?”

Of course, you're free to refuse.