Chapter 20

Chapter 20

I Became the Academy Mafia, Chapter 20Seoul Hero Academy’s athletic field.

The place already had an atmosphere almost like a festival, filled with countless booths set up by clubs to recruit freshmen.

“Come, come! If you want a romantic Academy life, then it has to be the Baseball Club! Come get a consultation!”

“True romance comes from cards! Welcome to the Duel Club!”

“The Swordsmanship Club is holding freshman tests! Come watch!”

“Wow, there are seriously a lot of clubs. Huh? What the hell is the Duel Club?”

“Seriously... Wow! There’s even a Mock Stock Investment Club!”

“How are there this many clubs?”

The three of them were busy looking around as they passed between the club booths.

Maybe they really were all freshmen. The three, who had been looking around here and there as though fascinated by the booths and club recruitment activities unfolding around them, all stopped in place when I halted.

“Jin-woo, are you ready?”

“Huh? Of course. But, is it really okay to do it like this? I trust you, Boss, but...

Honestly, I’m nervous.”

Jin-woo, who had been loosening up his shoulders and neck, looked at me doubtfully.

After leaving the International Trade Club, there was only one thing I had asked Jin-woo to do.

Go into the Fund Investment Club, pretend to show interest, then act like an obnoxious customer.

“We’re all going to intervene midway anyway, so there’s no problem.”

“You mean it... If you abandon me, I’m seriously going to curse you for the rest of my life.”

“...

Just hurry up and go.”

“I’m seriously going because I trust you, Boss!”

With those final words, Jin-woo headed straight toward the club booth we had targeted. We decided to watch him while naturally keeping our distance.

“Welcome. This is the Fund Investment Club! Are you interested in fund investment?”

Was it because, unlike the other activity-oriented clubs, this one mainly focused on practical work?

When someone approached their booth, which was even less popular than the other club booths, a man greeted him with a bright smile.

Jin-woo, seemingly a little surprised by the warmer welcome than expected, glanced toward me, cleared his throat, then looked at the man with a serious expression.

“No, I’m not interested.”

“Pardon?”

Whether he was flustered because Jin-woo had come over himself only to say he wasn’t interested, or because Jin-woo had immediately spoken informally to him, the manager stared at him with widened eyes as though dumbfounded.

“What.”

“Ah, no. Are you perhaps not a freshman?”

Perhaps thinking he had misunderstood because of Jin-woo’s overly confident attitude, the man shook his head, regained his expression, and asked politely again.

But Jin-woo stubbornly continued faithfully carrying out the role assigned to him.

“I am a freshman.”

“R-right? Hahaha! But... why are you speaking informally to me when we’ve just met?”

Only after hearing once again that Jin-woo was a freshman did the man finally frown and glare at him, clearly displeased.

“Why? If it bothers you, you can do it too.”

“Are you fucking crazy?”

Apparently realizing that the atmosphere was becoming strange, the nearby club members began gathering one by one, but even then Jin-woo glared at the man in front of him without showing the slightest fear.

As expected, I had chosen the right guy for this job.

“Ha... forget it. It’s not like there are only one or two crazy bastards at this Academy.”

Perhaps remembering that other club booths and freshmen were nearby, the man didn’t immediately lose his temper and somehow tried to continue talking with Jin-woo.

But that wasn’t what we wanted.

“So why did you come to our club booth if you’re not even interested?”

At that, Jin-woo spoke indifferently as though it were nothing.

“I heard you make good money here.”

“Sure, since we’re a club involved in trade, the pay is a bit higher than elsewhere. Is that what brought you here?”

“Then you must have a lot of money. Give me some.”

“What?”

“I said give me money.”

“Ha! Are you seriously fucking insane? Does a Gold Club look like somewhere that hands you spending money?”

The atmosphere grew increasingly hostile. Jin-woo also began to realize the mood was changing and looked toward me.‘Hurry! Up! And! Come! Help!’Jin-woo mouthed toward me, asking for help.

It was more entertaining than expected, so I wanted to watch a little longer, but the atmosphere had already been set, so I decided it was time to walk toward Jin-woo.

“Violence against freshmen during club tour time. So this is what an Academy Gold Club is like.”

“What? Who the hell are you?”

Maybe it was because the atmosphere was already so hostile. Unlike at first, the man greeted me informally despite this being our first meeting.

“I’m a friend of that guy over there.”

“What? That crazy bastard over there is your friend? No, why the hell are you friends with someone that crazy in the first place?”

“But why are you speaking informally to me when we’ve just met?”

“...

What?”

“If you treat someone as a crazy bastard because they spoke informally to you on the first meeting... doesn’t that mean I can treat you as a crazy bastard too, Senior?”

How do you make someone completely furious? It wasn’t that difficult. When someone was already angry to the top of their head, all you had to do was throw their own words right back at them to make them feel humiliation and rage.

And in fact, the face of the guy standing before me began turning red in real time.

“Who the hell are you guys?”

“Can’t you tell from the color of our name tags? We’re freshmen.”

“I’m not asking because I don’t know that. I’m asking why you came to our club booth and started causing trouble.”

Oh, so even now he was still curious about why we were doing this?

As expected of a member of a Gold Club, apparently he knew how to maintain at least some composure.

Still, I thought the current environment was enough, so I immediately stepped in front of him and spoke.

“I wouldn’t know. All I saw was seniors trying to use violence against a freshman.”

“You bastard──.”

“You’re going to hit me? If you strike a freshman here, won’t that cause trouble not just for you, but for your entire club?”

As I said that and looked around, I could already see a crowd gathered nearby.

With the gazes of freshmen and members from other clubs gathered here, beating up a freshman who hadn’t even been enrolled for a week?

I could guarantee that not only this guy, but the Fund Investment Club he belonged to would suffer for it.

That was why I told him a way to break out of the current situation.

“You can’t use violence anyway, so how about we stop here. It’s not as though you’re at a level capable of dealing with us in the first place.”

“...

Are you indirectly saying you want to die right now?”

“That’s amusing if that’s how it sounded....

Do you really think you’re capable of it with your level of skill?”

“You bastard───!! Do you even know who you’re trying to make enemies with right now!”

So it eventually came down to, Do you know who we are?!

That was actually exactly what I wanted.

“Then do you seniors know who this guy is before acting like this?”

“What?”

I naturally placed a hand on Jin-woo’s shoulder and looked over the Fund Investment Club members surrounding us.

“This guy is the successor of the Vivald Family under Calione. Are you prepared to deal with that?”

“C-Calione?”

“That guy is connected to Calione?”

The moment the word Calione came from my mouth, the surroundings instantly grew noisy.

Apparently Jin-woo beside me hadn’t expected me to openly bring up Calione’s name first either, because he looked at me in confusion.

“B-Boss! It’s embarrassing if you say that out loud...”

“You didn’t exactly enter while hiding it anyway. We should show these guys who don’t even have a name of their own and only sell their club’s name what it means to sell a real name.”

With this, the hostility directed toward Jin-woo should have diminished. What I had to do from here was move that hostility onto myself.

“Of course, I understand that you seniors can’t lynch my friend who belongs to Calione. So... let’s settle this with me instead, Seniors.”

“What?”

The guy frowned at my words that I would take full responsibility.

“A freshman junior would like to ask his seniors for instruction through sparring. Would you help me?”

Academy rules stated that if a junior asked a senior for instruction through sparring, the senior had to accept.

It was a rule I had used in the game to punish characters I didn’t like, and it was also the rule most students who committed acts of insubordination at the Academy used.

Of course, the community users’ opinion had been that the Academy had clearly created this rule so juniors could challenge seniors at any time.

In reality, the moment I asked for instruction, their expressions stiffened.

“Ha, did you hear some weird rule somewhere? It’s not that easy...”

“No, but in the end you’re just hollow shells who sit around playing with money.”

“What?”

“Ah, did you hear me? Well, I said it so you would, so it doesn’t matter...”

Seeing their pathetic expressions, I grinned as I looked at them in order to provoke them.

“Scared?”

At last, the guy’s face twisted violently.

“You damned freshman bastard... Hey, follow me to the sparring arena right now.”

Apparently furious, the guy loosened his tie as he said that, but another member beside him tried to stop him.

“Hey, hey! Calm down! Why are you sparring with a freshman!”

“That bastard is openly asking for a fight right now!”

“Even so, there are people watching around us───.”

“That’s why I said we’re doing it in the sparring arena! If we fight in the sparring arena, then it doesn’t matter, right?!”

And here, I added one more remark to drag the others in too.

“I don’t mind if all of you come at me together. You’re probably all about the same level anyway.”

“...

You arrogant brat.”

The blood of Calione began heating up.[Bloodline: Calione]

It meant that it had recognized everyone in front of me as enemies.

“Follow us, freshman. We’ll give you exactly what you wished for.”

Apparently finally deciding to spar with me, around four members, excluding a few who remained to guard the booth, began walking toward the sparring arena.

Seeing that, Jin-woo looked at me with a resolute expression.

“Boss, don’t worry too much. I’ll fight with you for now.”

As he said that, Jin-woo placed a hand on the sheath at his waist.

“I-I’ll help too!”

“Since it’s our club president’s business, it’s only right that we help too.”

Seeing Se-ah and Young-je also steel themselves to fight the Fund Investment Club alongside me could truly be called touching...

“What are you talking about? The spar will proceed as planned, with me alone.”

“Huh?”

“What?”

“Hm?”

From the very beginning, I had intended to finish this fight by myself.

“No, Boss. You’re seriously going to fight those four alone?”

“I know you’re strong, Eugene, but they’re seniors?! And there are four of them!”

“We’re seriously fine, so don’t worry so much.”...

Are they really worried? About me?

Come to think of it, the others didn’t know that I was the Young Master of Calione, nor did they know that I had already executed an entire organization.

Ah, if we really fought together, they’d probably just get in my way...

If I took a group of complete beginners who had never fought together or coordinated before and fought these guys, it was obvious they would only interfere.

For now, let’s say it nicely.

“I appreciate that you’re worried about me... but I really am enough on my own. If you’re that worried, then if you decide I’m in danger, you can simply stop the spar, can’t you?”

Normally, if a spar took place in the sparring arena, at least one instructor would attend as an observer.

In a case like this, the advisor instructor of the Fund Investment Club would probably participate as the observer. If that was the case...

“This should work. Se-ah. Could you call Instructor Ji Su-hyeon to the sparring arena?”

“Pardon? I-Instructor Ji Su-hyeon?”

“She should be resting in the faculty room around this time anyway. If the instructor really says she doesn’t want to come, tell her we’ve already secured two consent forms.”

Kim Se-ah gave me a meaningful look after hearing what I said.

“Um...

Will the instructor really come just because of that?”

“Without a doubt.”