Chapter 196

Chapter 196

I Became the Academy Mafia Chapter 196“Sorry, sorry everyone~ You were pretty surprised, right? I guess the uncles got nervous since it's the first time I've brought friends home. Hahahahat!”

Jin-woo scratched his head awkwardly as he guided us inside the estate.

“Wow, it's seriously huge... No, Mr. Jin-woo. You live in a house this big, so why are you always saying you have no money?”

“No, that's because all of this belongs to our old ma... I mean, my father!”

Se-ah, who had grown up in an entirely different environment from Jin-woo, wore a strange expression as though she couldn't understand, while Young-je nodded as if he did.

“Lions normally raise their cubs by dropping them off cliffs. I kind of get it.”...

Our house is probably the unusual one, right?

“Now, this is my room. It's my first time bringing friends over, so sit wherever you're comfortable.”

The room we entered after following him was slightly smaller than my room at the estate.

Game posters covered the walls, and game consoles were neatly arranged in one corner.

There was also a computer that looked anything but ordinary at a glance.

“Oh, you live cleaner than I expected? I thought it'd be a pigsty.”

Se-ah looked around and expressed her admiration, then sat on the empty sofa and let her body sink into it as though surprised by how soft it was.

“A pigsty... I live super clean.”

Jin-woo grumbled as he took a pile of books from the bookshelf and placed them on the table in the middle of the room.

“I never thought I'd live to see the day I'd study with friends... So, what do we start with? Korean? Math?”

The others also took out the materials they'd brought from home and placed them on the desk one by one, preparing to study.

Looks like the first subject is Korean.

Instead of books, I placed the tablet I'd prepared beforehand on the desk and pretended to solve things moderately.

I'll just explain anything the others don't know later.

At that moment.

-Knock knock.

Someone knocked from outside the door.

“Hm? Who is it? There's no one who comes to my room.”

Jin-woo stood up with a puzzled expression.

“Who is it?”

-Your father.

“Ahh. Fathe... Father?”

The bastard jumped in surprise, clearly never imagining his father would come.

The others also began looking confused, apparently not having expected this situation either.

“W-wait. If it's Mr. Jin-woo's father, that's the boss of the Vivald Family...?! Crazy! Crazy! Crazy! A Mafia boss!”

“Antonio Vivald...? Crazycrazycrazy. We're meeting the legend of Incheon here?”

I wasn't particularly impressed, but... Antonio Vivald was something of a heroic figure who had once defended Incheon.

Because of that, he was fairly well-known even among Family bosses, so it wasn't strange for the kids to react like this.-...

Jin-woo?

“Ah, wait! Just a second!”

He signaled with his eyes for us to calm down a little, then slowly opened the door.

Beside me, I heard someone gulp.

“W-what brings you here all of a sudden, F-Father?”

Jin-woo opened the door slightly and let out an awkward laugh.

“I heard your friends came over, so I thought I'd briefly greet them... may I come in?”

“Huh? Uh, um. O-of course?”

Apparently he couldn't bring himself to refuse, so Jin-woo stepped aside and looked toward us.

“G-guys, say hello. This is my father.”

A middle-aged man stood where Jin-woo had moved aside.

Since we'd grown somewhat familiar recently after running a dungeon together, seeing him in this situation naturally made me smile.

“Nice to meet you, Jin-woo's friends. I am Jin-woo's father, Antonio Vivald. My son is always indebted to you.”

He bowed briefly toward us as he greeted us.

Fortunately, unlike the others, he was following exactly what I'd told him beforehand.

Even so, the fact that he greeted us in formal speech was... probably because he was conscious of me.”

“H-hello! Nice to meet you! I'm Kim Se-ah!”

“I'm Kim Young-je!”

“I'm Han Eugene.”

He smiled at our reactions.

“So you're the members of Familia that Jin-woo is always talking about. I hope you have an enjoyable time at the Vivald estate. And... Jin-woo.”

“Ah, yes. Yup.”

“If you need anything, tell me anytime.”

“Ah. Yup.”

Then he shifted his gaze toward me, smiled slightly, bowed again, and left.

Jin-woo slowly closed the door, let out a sigh with an expression as though he'd just lost ten years off his life, and dropped into his seat.

“Wow... that scared the hell out of me. Seriously.”

“Why are you so scared of your father, Mr. Jin-woo? From what I saw, he seems way more gentlemanly and cool than I expected.”

Was it because of Antonio's characteristically neat movements and way of speaking?

Se-ah, apparently having completely changed her opinion from before, tilted her head and asked.

“That's because you don't know our old man... my father... when he gets angry, he's seriously terrifying.”

“...

Huh? Really?”

“That was back when I was right in the middle of puberty. That sight... phew, well, thanks to that I never talk back to Father anymore.”

Well, Antonio's fighting style is on the smart side, but once he gets serious on a mission, things can get extremely bloody too.

If Jin-woo was young, that was definitely understandable.

Hmm, as expected, you should always listen to your parents. Mm-hm.

Only after that little storm passed and the atmosphere settled down did the kids finally prepare to study.

Once the study session started, it really did stay quiet, with everyone doing their own work and occasionally asking about things they didn't know.

How much time passed like that?

-Young Master. We've prepared some snacks.

At the woman's voice from outside.

“C-crazy...”

Jin-woo once again dropped the pen he was holding and his hands started trembling.

What now?

“What's wrong?”

Young-je asked, finding his reaction strange, and Jin-woo slowly pointed toward the door.

“O-our house has never prepared snacks for me before... Not once...!”

So that's why you're shocked?

“Isn't that because you've never studied before, Mr. Jin-woo, so you never got any?”

“Ah, is that so.”

Guess it's nothing much.

After receiving the snacks from the maid, we decided to put studying aside for a moment and take a break.

Various fruits and snacks were laid out on the table.

As we chatted while lightly eating, Se-ah suddenly said.

“I suddenly got curious. Later, I want to visit Young-je's house or Eugene's house too. Especially Eugene's! If you're from a super top-tier company family, isn't your house even bigger than this?”

The arrow suddenly flew toward me.

“Uh, my house?”

“Yes! You have a driver and a dedicated lawyer and everything. Don't you live in a house straight out of a drama? Like with a dressing room and banquet hall!”

If you're asking whether we have all of that, then yes, we do, but I never expected them to be curious about my house.

“I'm actually really curious too. I feel like Boss's house would be on a totally different level from ours. Like, maybe there's a fountain in the garden, and dozens of gardeners.”...

If you're asking whether we have those too, yes, we do.

Though most of the gardeners are combat personnel.

“Let's not pressure the President too much. At this rate, you'll start saying he owns planes and yachts too. What next, a dedicated spatial mage?”...

We have one.

All of it.

“Hahahaha! Yeah, that'd be a bit much, wouldn't it?”

“Come on, that's too far. Dedicated spatial mages only get assigned to heads of corporations.”

Yeah... let's just eat snacks.

Someday.

Someday they'll find out too.

______________

The next day.

While heading to the Academy like usual.

I received a message from someone unexpected.[Senior Yuli: Junior. Junior. Junior. Junior.][Me:?][Senior Yuli: The elixir I promised. I got it. Do you have time today?][Me: Today? Sure.][Senior Yuli: Okayokay then I'll come to your club room during lunch today.][Me: Yes]

At last, the elixir I'd been waiting for had arrived.

The Rodman family's secret elixir, and if this were the game, a top-grade elixir that you practically had to clear an entire scenario to obtain.‘At this rate, am I going to become an elixir merchant or something?’I did wonder when I was going to eat all these elixirs sleeping inside the Cube, but just like in the game, the more elixirs you had, the better.

Who else is going to take care of my body if I don't?‘More importantly, the one I'm getting from Yuli is difficult to consume without special conditions.’I'm looking forward to it already.

I entered the classroom in a light mood from the morning and immediately felt something strange about the scene.

Were my eyes mistaken?

For some reason, Jin-woo was already studying from early in the morning.

“...

What happened? At this hour.”

Seeing the seat that should normally be empty already occupied felt stranger than expected.

Especially when the person studying was someone who hated studying.

“...

Got it.”

“What?”

“I made a promise. If I make it into the top 30 overall this time, I'll get my allowance again.”

“Ah.”

Of course there was no way he'd do it for no reason.

No wonder he looked incredibly motivated.

You could even feel a kind of resolve in his expression.

“Well, do your best.”

I patted him on the shoulder a few times, sat down, and laid my head on the desk.

Studying?

For me, it's practically open-book, and I have game knowledge in this head.

What problem could there be?

Just as I was about to get some sleep, confident I'd place near the top even if I took the exam casually.

“Young Ma—! Boss! Bossbossbossboss!!”

A familiar voice I'd heard somewhere before reached my ears.

Did I mishear?

Why would Ratte's voice be here...

“Boooooss!!”

I hadn't misheard.

I sprang up from my seat, opened the classroom door, and looked outside.

There was Ratte, running desperately down the hallway while crying her eyes out.

“Ratte?”

“Boss? Boooooss!!”

The moment she spotted me from the other end, she started charging toward me.

“No, what is going on this early in the morning... More importantly, shouldn't you be running the café right now?”

Selling coffee to students arriving at school in the morning was also extremely profitable.

Normally, she should've been busily making coffee, so I couldn't understand why she was here.

Still sobbing, she opened her mouth.

“I'm sorry. Kill me. Please kill me!”

“All of a sudden? Explain what happened first!”

“A thief... someone broke into Cielo notturno! Waaaah!”

“...

What?”

A thief broke into the café our Familia was using as something like an intelligence guild?

“H-hold on. Come over here for a second.”

I grabbed Ratte and took her up to a deserted rooftop.

“What do you mean someone broke into the café?”

Cielo notturno was a café located within the grounds of Seoul Hero Academy.

Which meant the Academy's security also applied to the café.

There was no way an ordinary thief could rob Cielo notturno.

“Sniff... everything was fine until this morning... hic. Then suddenly the café went completely dark... and in an instant it turned into total chaos... waaaah...!”