Chapter 69

Chapter 69

I Became the Academy Mafia Chapter 69After class ended. While I was sitting in my seat, Kim Se-ah, who had been sitting there blankly, turned around and looked at me with sparkling eyes.

“Han Xin of Seoul Hero Academy...!”

“...

What?”

“Zhuge Kongming of Familia...!”

“Hm?”

What's gotten into her all of a sudden?

“Zhuge Eugene...!”

“Enough.”

“...

Yes.”

Apparently, she was just bored.

“By the way, are we doing club activities today?”

“A lot of the kids are absent today, so probably not. We don't have any requests right now either, do we?”

“...

We have math class this afternoon, and I didn't want to take it. And if we don't even have club activities, I'll get dragged off to mentor training again after school today!”

“Is mentor training that difficult?”

At my question, Se-ah hugged both her arms and shuddered.

“Moving two-ton boulders, calculating coordinates while running around, actual combat training... Seriously, my body still trembles just thinking about it.”...

Looks like she's being pushed hard in her own way too.

Poor thing.

Since this was the perfect time, I took out one of the elixirs I'd separately brought to give the kids, an elixir said to be good for restoring physical ability, ‘Britannian White Deer Antler,’ and handed it to Se-ah.

“Decoct this and drink it when you get home.”

“Huh? Th-this! Isn't this that something-or-other deer antler? I heard it's insanely expensive! How could I accept something like this?!”

Seeing the antler in my hand, Se-ah jumped in surprise and waved her hands.

“We have tons of it at home, so just take it. Eating a lot of the same elixir doesn't have much effect anyway.”

“...

Ah, if that's the case.”

Our household was one where things like elixirs were literally overflowing.

Besides, I'd received so many at the executive celebration gathering last time, so it would be better to hand out the ones I didn't need or that weren't particularly effective to the kids.

Their growth would be a great help to me, to our Familia, after all.

“Hehe. I'll enjoy it.”

Se-ah hugged the antler as though she were holding a precious baby, looking extremely happy.

Of course you should be grateful... spatial mages are extremely rare, so I need to keep her with me all the way to the end.

At that moment, through the [Smart Lens]

a message appeared before my eyes.[Sender: Lee Haru]

“Hm?”

What does Lee Haru want?

Thinking that, I checked the message.[Lee Haru: A problem has occurred with the International Trade Club's activities.][Lee Haru: I would like to make a request to ‘Familia.’ Would you be available sometime after lunch today?]

“Ha.”

What incredible timing.

“Kim Se-ah.”

“Yes?”

“We're doing club activities today.”

“Really?! Yes!”

I immediately replied telling her to come to the club room during today's club activity period, then fell into thought for a moment.

For Lee Haru of all people to directly send me a message asking for help meant the situation was difficult for even her abilities to resolve.

“I wonder what it could be... interesting.”

__________________

Lee Haru's expression when she came to Familia's club room was colder than usual.

“So, what happened that made you want to commission us?”

At my question, Lee Haru slowly opened her mouth.

“Recently, it seems a force has begun interfering with the International Trade Club's activities.”

“...

What? There shouldn't be many clubs in the Academy capable of interfering with your activities.”The ‘International Trade Club’ was a club preparing to advance to Gold rank, and it was also a club one had to visit if they wanted to purchase rare goods within the Academy.

In other words, most students attending the Academy felt the need for the ‘International Trade Club.’

Yet someone was interfering with such a club.

I couldn't understand it.

“I also thought things would proceed smoothly from now on, but for some reason, our existing business partners in Asia, particularly in China, have begun avoiding us one by one, so I concluded that another club or student may be exerting pressure.”

“Someone is pulling strings behind the scenes?”

“That is how I see it.”

Since Seoul Hero Academy was an educational institution for the best prospective heroes in South Korea, the backgrounds and families of its students varied enormously.

And naturally, some of them came from powerful families.

“Didn't you try looking into it through the Inomiya Group?”

But Lee Haru's family was hardly insignificant either.

With her family's power, finding whoever was behind it shouldn't be particularly difficult.

“The International Trade Club was created despite my family's opposition, so rather than borrowing my family's power, I wanted to resolve this as much as possible through my own strength and connections.”

Was that why she was commissioning us instead, so she could operate by paying an appropriate fee?

It seemed to be her own form of stubbornness.

Well, connections were also a form of power, so she wasn't wrong.

“And that's why you're commissioning our ‘Familia’ under the name of the ‘International Trade Club’?”

“That is correct.”

I tapped my fingers against the desk while organizing my thoughts.

Why would another force suddenly target the ‘International Trade Club’ like this?

Containment? No, if they truly wanted to contain it, they would've supported the Fund Investment Club from behind long ago to obstruct Lee Haru.

Which meant they had only recently started trying to interfere with the ‘International Trade Club.’

In other words, after our ‘Familia’ and the ‘International Trade Club’ formed an alliance, a force had appeared that wanted to disrupt it.

“It's because of us.”

Lee Haru nodded after hearing my murmur.

“So that was indeed the case.”

“There's no other way to interpret the situation. The ‘International Trade Club’ had been doing well all this time, and the interference began exactly when you allied with us. They're practically openly declaring that they intend to keep us in check.”

In truth, I'd paid for it with my own allowance, but from the outside, it would look as though Familia's previously empty club room had been lavishly renovated with goods supplied by the ‘International Trade Club,’ so people would naturally assume that the ‘International Trade Club’ controlled Familia's economic lifeline.

They might even think it was a subordinate club...

Then, since our opponent was currently targeting the ‘International Trade Club,’ all we had to do was hide behind it and strike back.

“We'll move on our end as well.”

“...

Right now? It will take a considerable amount of time just to identify the culprit and find evidence.”

That might be true if we were an ordinary club or Academy students.

“Have you forgotten who I am? First, can you tell me which business partners are currently blocked?”

I smiled as I spoke, and Lee Haru tilted her head before answering.

“For now, Shanghai, Hong Kong, Macau, and Nanjing.”

“...

Wait a moment.”

I immediately took out my phone and called Parnello.[I've answered, Young Master.]

“Parnello. The Triads who recently attempted illegal entry. Do I still have authority over them?”[Yes. Now that you've become an executive, it seems matters concerning China will continue to be entrusted entirely to you, Young Master.]

“Thank you.”

As words like Triads, Parnello, illegal entry, and negotiation authority came up, confusion gradually spread across Lee Haru's face.

“Young Master, I believe the scale of this is entirely different from what I imagined...”

“This much is no trouble at all, so don't worry about it.”

Next, I immediately called the Triad contact.[Hello?]

“This is Eugene Han Calione, an executive of Calione. I'm calling because I have something to say.”

The moment I identified myself in Korean, murmuring could be heard from the other end of the phone, and soon familiar Korean came through.[Ah, yes. Mr. Eugene of Calione. What can we do for you?]

“Shanghai, Hong Kong, Macau, Nanjing. There are merchants in those places refusing to do business with a company called the ‘International Trade Club.’ Find out who ordered them to do so within two days. Is that possible?”

Then came a brief silence.[In those areas, we can do it within today. We'll contact you immediately after handling it.]

“I like that. Handle it cleanly and I'll make sure you're compensated generously, so contact me as soon as the job is finished.”[Yes, Mr. Eugene. Thank you for giving us this opportunity.]

After ending the call, I looked at Lee Haru again.

“They say it'll be resolved quickly. Let's drink some tea while we wait.”

Saying that, I poured some of the black tea Se-ah had left behind earlier into Lee Haru's cup.

“...

I'd forgotten recently that you became an executive, Young Master. I never imagined it would be something that could be solved with a single phone call.”

“I was lucky. I just happened to have recently made contact with the people controlling China. By the way, is the promotion to Gold Club progressing well?”

At my words, Lee Haru wet her throat with black tea and spoke.

“It would not be an exaggeration to say that we're practically only waiting for the evaluation. The only concern was that we had recently been unable to carry out requests, but with you handling things like this, Young Master, I don't believe there will be a problem.”

“That's good.”

While we spent a short while talking about other recent matters.──♬ ──♬ ──♬Suddenly, several short notification tones began sounding from inside Lee Haru's inner pocket.

At that, Lee Haru glanced at me.

“Feel free to check.”

“Thank you.”

Lee Haru took out her phone, checked the contents, and chuckled.

“They're our Chinese business partners. They say they sincerely apologize for what happened recently and, as a gesture of apology, will waive all fees for two months.”

It's already over?

And just then, I received a call as well.

I answered it with a pleased smile.[Young Master, it's been resolved.]

“I just confirmed it. Did you find out which force was preventing them from doing business?”[We're looking into it now, but they keep repeating that ‘an Academy club’ paid them a large sum to do it. Give us a little more time and we'll resolve this quickly as well.]

“...

Good work. If you bring me additional information, I'll pay you for that information too, so report it immediately.”[Yes. If you have any further orders in the future, please contact us at any time.]

“Of course. I'll compensate you appropriately then as well.”[Thank you.]

As expected, what happened to Lee Haru's club this time had been the work of another club within the Academy.

In other words, a force had appeared that was targeting not only Lee Haru but me as well.

It seemed necessary to uncover their identity.

“Hm? What's wrong?”

When I ended the call and turned toward her, I saw an expression slightly more gloomy than usual.

“I was feeling guilty because I wondered whether you had spent a large amount of money because of this incident, Young Master. I don't know how I could possibly apologize...”

It was exactly the sort of thought someone as serious about business as her would have.

But.

“Apologize? There's no need for that. Since this happened because you became involved with me in the first place, it was also my responsibility to handle it.”

“But...”

“Enough.”

Well, it was true that handling this incident would probably cost a fair amount of money.

But even then, it was only a tiny fraction of what I'd earned from the mission.

Besides...

“Don't worry about it. It's their money anyway.”

“Pardon?”

“They made a mistake recently, so I collected quite a large amount in compensation. I only shaved a little off that, so there's no need for you to feel sorry.”

“Just how much money are we talking about...?”

“Enough money to bare their fangs at Calione and still survive.”

Only then did it seem to sink in, and Lee Haru's eyes widened.

It seemed the time had come to remind her once again.

Just how rich I was.