Chapter 217

Chapter 217

I Became the Academy Mafia Chapter 217Palermo, a city located in Sicily.

-Victimae paschali laudes.-(Praise the Paschal Victim.)

Inside Palermo Cathedral, the voices of a choir singing hymns echoed throughout the interior.

Light filtering down from the ceiling, and marble statues made warm by it.

A man who had been sitting alone in the cathedral praying as though surrounded by them slowly rose to his feet when he heard the clicking sound of footsteps echoing from behind.

“Amen.”

After finishing his prayer, he slowly raised his head and quietly asked.

“...

What is it. I believe I told you not to disturb me during Mass.”

“My apologies, Don. The matter is urgent.”

“The matter is urgent? Fine, let's hear it. Why did you interrupt Mass?”

At that, the man hesitated for a moment before slowly leaning toward his ear and speaking.

“It's Calione. Calione Junior has come here saying he wishes to meet the Don.”

“...

What?”

The man let out a hollow laugh, as though he hadn't expected that.

“Calione Junior? That child came all the way to Italy?”

“That is correct. He has items symbolizing his affiliation with Calione, and his appearance also closely resembles the description the Boss gave us in the past...”

“Enough─.”

The man gently raised a hand and cut him off.

“That's enough... bring Calione Junior here.”

“Yes, Don Medici.”

The man who received Medici's order walked away again, and Medici blankly listened to the choir while staring at the cross at the front.

-Agnus redemit oves:-(The Lamb redeemed the sheep.)

At the same time, the sound of dress shoes came from behind.

-Click

-Click

-Click

-Click──The sound of shoes suddenly stopped.

Someone in a black suit naturally sat down beside Medici and clasped both hands together in prayer.

At that, the man slowly turned his head and looked at the person sitting beside him.

“Amen.”

After briefly finishing his prayer, the man raised his face, slowly turned his head, and met Medici's eyes.

“Pleasure to meet you, Don Medici.”

Seeing him speak first with an expression mixed with a little ease, tension, and interest, Medici found it amusing and lowered his sunglasses slightly.

“...

Calione Junior. I never imagined I'd meet you here.”

“I didn't expect to meet you this soon either. The last time we met was surely... the previous Walpurgis Night, wasn't it? Though I only saw you from a distance.”

Saying that, Eugene straightened his back completely.

Medici raised the corners of his lips as though amused by the sight.

“Yes, I certainly saw you then. But what brings you here, going so far as to interrupt someone else's Mass?”

At those words, Eugene glanced at the cross.

“It's nothing particularly serious.”

Then he looked back at Medici in front of him.

“I just came to make you a proposal.”

“A proposal?”

-tu nobis, victor Rex, miserere.-(Have mercy on us, victorious King.)

“──Forgive all of the Maestro's debt.”

-Amen. Alleluia.-(Amen. Praise the Lord.)

______________

As the choir's song ended, silence settled over the cathedral.

He silently stared into my eyes through his sunglasses.

However, he couldn't take any action against me right now.

This place was a ‘cathedral.’

A sacred place of agreement where violence was forbidden.

“Ha!”

And finally, the first sound he made as he broke the silence was a loud laugh.

“Haha! Hahahaha! Hahahahaha! So that's what this was about. That's why you came to see me! Hah! Hahahaha!”

His laughter echoed throughout the cathedral as he slipped a hand beneath his sunglasses and wiped away tears.

“To think that old man would bring Calione. So, what did he say? Did he say he'd help you if you erased his debt?”

“To be precise, Calione owed him a debt... in the first place, as far as I know, was there anyone in Sicily who didn't owe Maestro Ludvio something?”

I was certain there probably wasn't.

He was a man who had freely spent his wealth on Sicily and its people since long ago.

“...

At most, all I ever got from that old man was a few pieces of bread. That has nothing to do with this matter.”

“So that's how the Medici Family sees it. Unlike Calione.”

“Then Calione is foolish. ‘Medici seeks reality in the present, the future, and even the past.’”

At the Medici family's motto coming from his mouth, I couldn't help scoffing.

The fact that he was saying this much meant he had absolutely no intention of backing down over this matter.

“In that case, it can't be helped. It seems asking Don Medici for mercy was difficult... so I'll have to approach this a little differently.”

“A different approach... what, are you planning to start a war? Here?”

Medici said that while looking around and shrugging both shoulders.

A sacred and inviolable space where even the Mafia couldn't commit any violence.

That was why Mafia families often conducted deals and negotiations inside cathedrals.

“A war? Surely you don't think I came here with such a violent idea. Calione isn't like certain people who recklessly declare they'll start wars.”

“You bastard...”

Even behind the sunglasses, his gaze was sharp enough to pierce a person.

But I calmly smiled and met that gaze.

“What I intend to propose to Don Medici is business.”

“Business? Unfortunately, Calione Junior, no matter who you are, the debt he owes is──.”

“──Mount Etna.”

He stopped speaking at my words.

“You're in quite a difficult situation because of Mount Etna, aren't you?”

When I said it with a bright smile as though it were nothing, his trembling hand slowly removed his sunglasses and placed them on the chair's side table.

Deep eyes marked by age and rough hands.

He rubbed his dry face, pressed it firmly, then looked at me with a heavy gaze completely unlike before and quietly opened his mouth.

“──Who told you. Calione?”

The atmosphere was entirely different from moments ago.

The playfulness had vanished from his voice, now cold as ice, and the smile that had always rested on his lips had flattened into a straight line.

“Calione?”

“...

I've hidden this fact for years. If even you know about it, doesn't that mean Calione's intelligence division has already uncovered everything?”

Medici was an ordinary man, not an Awakened.

A man who had risen to the top through nothing but his own ability, someone who commanded Awakened despite not being one himself.

Was that why?

“Don't tell me Calione doesn't know. If you did, then wouldn't I have to kill you with my own hands, Calione Junior...”

I felt an enormous pressure coming from him now.

This was the man called the Godfather of Sicily.

‘Shylock Medici.’

But.

“Do you think it'd be easy?”

I smiled as leisurely as possible and glanced at the cathedral's cross.

“Here?”

Only then did he seem to realize it.

His eyes trembled slightly.

“You planned this from the beginning. Coming to the cathedral itself was intentional.”

“Of course. I'm meeting none other than Don Medici. Did you really think I'd come without thinking anything through? And... to answer the question you asked me earlier, as of now, no one in Calione besides me knows about ‘Mount Etna.’”

“What?”

“Surely you understand... what that means.”

The Medici I knew couldn't possibly fail to understand.

If he did, I'd only be disappointed.

“Hmm...”

After hearing my answer, he leaned back against the chair.

“So that's how it is. Then why tell me that fact? Didn't I tell you myself? If you're the only one who knows, then you'll end up dead.”

This man was serious.

He was saying that he could kill me, the heir to Calione, cover it up, and hide the information about ‘Mount Etna.’

Because he wasn't someone who looked at the future.

He was someone who looked at the present.

However.

“Did I look like someone who would die easily even at Walpurgis Night?”

I kept smiling until the end, pulled out a carefully folded piece of paper from my pocket, and waved it at him.

Medici's expression twisted instantly.

“...

That is.”

“If you're Don Medici, then surely you know what this is.”[ጿOne Free Use of Midsummer!ዽ]

A kind of strategic weapon capable of summoning dozens of insane fairies simply by tearing it.

“Go ahead. I can tear this right now and leave only the past for Medici.”

I said it with genuine conviction to make it clear I wasn't bluffing.

If they weren't fully prepared, that was one thing.

But if I summoned the fairies here right now, I was confident I could inflict devastating damage not only on Shylock Medici but on the Medici Family itself.

“...

You'd use that inside a cathedral?”

“You're the one who threatened to kill me inside a cathedral in the first place. Why are you suddenly worried about that? And the fairies would be committing the violence, not me. You know fairies... don't you?”

They followed only their own king, the ‘Fairy King,’ and couldn't care less about Catholicism.

“...

Young people these days are terrifying.”

“It's far too early for you to be frightened by this much.”

We haven't even started the real discussion yet.

“I know what you're trying to obtain from Mount Etna, Don Medici. I also know why you manipulated the contract to place Maestro Ludvio in debt.”

“You know that?”

“Isn't it because of the Ignis Giant?”

A monster curled up deep within a dungeon beneath Mount Etna.

The Ignis Giant.

The Medici family had been preparing for years to eliminate that monster.

“...

You even know that much. Then you must know why I'm trying to hunt the Ignis Giant as well.”

“The byproducts obtained from hunting the Ignis Giant. Many believe you intend to use them to shake Europe's economy──but that's really just a plausible reason to justify it, isn't it? The real reason is the Ignis Essence.”

And for the first time, his expression visibly shook.

“H-how do you know that?”

And at the same time.[The opponent has begun to feel fear toward the user.][「Offer They Cannot Refuse」 activates.]

Everything began moving according to plan.

I lightly tapped the finger resting against my temple as I spoke to him.

“What matters right now isn't how I know that. Don Medici, shouldn't you instead think carefully about why I'm revealing all of this information to you so freely?”

In an instant, the atmosphere reversed entirely, and his once-confident expression had completely collapsed.

Naturally.

A secret known throughout his entire life by only himself and a handful of trusted aides had just come out of my mouth.

That was why I offered him a little hope.

“I'll help you.”

“...

What?”

“I said I'll help you with the strategy against the Ignis Giant at Mount Etna. As Don Medici knows, I'm confident enough to call myself quite the expert in matters like this. Creatures like Fafnir on Jeju Island, for example.”

Only within fear does a human finally search for hope.

“I'll help you cheaply. With only a small gesture of sincerity for hiring me and the very simple matter of erasing Maestro Ludvio's debt, you can obtain the Ignis Giant's essence. What do you think?”──He would have no choice but to pick up the hope that had fallen before his eyes.

“Don Medici.”

In the end.

Humans cannot help but fear the future more than reality.