Chapter 70

Chapter 70

I Became the Academy Mafia Chapter 70“You've been looking very tired lately. Take this first.”

The elixirs inside the Cube that I'd brought to distribute to my people.

Among them, what I handed to Lee Haru was ‘Mermaid's Tears,’ said to be good for relieving fatigue and stress.

It was a tiny bottle that looked like something you'd use for a perfume sample, but the fact that a single bottle cost ten million credits was something anyone who had experienced its effects even once could probably understand.

The permanent stat increases gained upon first consumption alone were more than enough to call it top-tier.

“This bottle is... Mermaid's Tears, isn't it?”

“For now, you're also the president of a club, so I thought it would be good for you to grow both physically and in terms of ability. I hope you'll accept it without refusing.”

At the Academy, the one thing closer than law and money was ‘power.’

And Lee Haru, who was directly involved, probably understood that more keenly than anyone.

So this elixir was more necessary for Lee Haru than for me.

Because to me now, it was nothing more and nothing less than a fatigue recovery medicine.

“...

Thank you.”

Perhaps understanding how I felt, Lee Haru quietly held out both hands and accepted the bottle I gave her.

“Now that I think of it, I should distribute some to the other Familia kids too. Do you have plans after this?”

When I stood up and asked, she bowed her head and answered.

“Now that the business routes have reopened, I believe I'll be somewhat busy from now on. I apologize that I cannot accompany you.”

“There's no need to apologize.”

It's not like I could force her to come along when she had work to do.

More importantly, thanks to her, I had also advanced the main quest by one step.【Main Story】[You brought a new wind to the Academy! By founding a new club, you have begun writing your own history! Successfully lead your club and advance it into a Silver Club!][Completion Requirement: Complete 5 club requests!][Requests Completed: 2 / 5][※Completion rewards may vary depending on the results.]

Three more to go...

The simple requests from the beginning hadn't even counted toward the completion total, so apparently the system had its own standards.

“Thank you very much for what you did today. Please visit the ‘International Trade Club’ sometime as well.”

“I will.”

After seeing Lee Haru off as she left the president's office, I found Se-ah in the kitchenette eating snacks.

She had been sucking her fingers when she spotted me and stood up.

As she did, the crumbs on her clothes fell to the floor.

“...

You're going to clean that up, right?”

“Of course.”

She snapped her fingers, and the snack crumbs disappeared in an instant.

Apparently, she had used spatial magic to clean up all the trash.

Looks like she learned something strange from Ji Su-hyeon.

“...

You're good at this kind of thing.”

“Hehe, I've got younger siblings at home, so I'm good at this sort of thing. But what is it?”

“I have something to give you.”

With that, I took out two lollipops.

“They're candies made by solidifying fairy honey whole. Take them to your siblings.”

These too were elixirs that even most chaebol families couldn't easily obtain.

Ji-yoon had spent the whole day looking for these, so Se-ah's siblings would definitely like them too.

“F-fairy honey... Eugene! I swear my loyalty to you!”

“Uh... sure.”

When taking care of subordinates, it's more effective to take care of their families than the employees themselves.

This was something I'd also learned during Parnello's successor lessons.

“I should start moving too.”

Familia wasn't the only one I had to take care of.

The place I headed next was the club room of the Recipe Development Club.

As always, the sweet scent reached me as soon as I got near.

When I opened the door and entered, the members of the Recipe Development Club welcomed me with bright smiles.

And Lee Se-ri, standing among them, raised a hand excitedly.

“Oh, oh? Boss Eugene!”

“...

Boss? Why did the way you address me suddenly change?”

“B-but Jin-woo keeps calling you Boss all the time, right? Our Recipe Development Club is practically under Familia too, so aren't you our boss as well?”...

Jin-woo, so this bastard was the cause.

Still, I had no intention of forcing them to use another title, so all I could do was sigh.

“Call me whatever you're comfortable with.”

“Hehe, okay. B-but what brings you here?”

“Ah, I recently received quite a lot of gifts. I came to share some of them with you.”

Saying that, I held out a box to them.

“...

This is?”

“Golden Walnuts. I thought you might need them.”

The uncles from the other Families weren't the only ones who had sent gifts when I was promoted to executive.

Gifts from executive-level members of each Family had also piled up in storage.

Thanks to that, the mansion's elixir storage was already on the verge of overflowing.

“W-what? Golden Walnuts?”

“Since the ‘Ranger Club’ disappeared this time, haven't you had trouble obtaining ingredients? I happened to receive some as gifts. There are about ten inside, so I thought they'd help more with recipe development.”

Drip.

A tear rolled down Lee Se-ri's cheek.

“B-Boss Eugene...”

“No, why are you crying? This is getting burdensome.”

“Boss Eugeneeee! I really think becoming Familia's subordinate was the best decision everrr...!”

Then she suddenly began bawling.

“Wait, calm down...”

“Waaaaaaaah!!”

Good grief.

Fortunately, seeing their president bawling, the other members came over and began handling the situation.

“I'll definitely succeed with the ‘Golden Walnut Pie’! I'll give you the very first one, Eugeneeeee!”

I blankly watched Lee Se-ri being dragged away by two members holding her arms while shouting at me, then returned to the club room.

As expected, secretly showering people with gifts is thrilling.

________________

That night.

After being summoned, I sat in Father's study, exchanging messages with the Familia members while waiting for Father to arrive.[Jin-woo: I'm hospitalized lol lolol omg lol][Se-ah: Huh? What crazy shit did you do this time?][Jin-woo: No, what kind of mentor actually stabs their mentee with a real knife saying you can't be afraid even if you get stabbed lol ah lol][Me: She actually stabbed you with a real knife?][Jin-woo: I'm telling you, she straight-up stabbed me in the thigh without hesitation? What's even funnier is she somehow avoided all the arteries and important spots, so they say I'll be able to walk tomorrow lol I seriously wanna run away lol lol lol]...

Considering the personality of Jin-woo's mentor, Han Yeo-eun, she was more than capable of doing something like that.

He's really suffering.[Se-ah: But why hasn't Young-je said anything? He hasn't sent a single message all day.][Jin-woo: He isn't answering his phone either. Oh, the 1 disappeared. Young-ha~ Young-je, welcome.”[Young-je: Just woke up.][Se-ah: What? You've been sleeping until now? Wow, must be fucking nice.][Young-je: I passed out at dawn and just woke up.][Se-ah: Ah... sry][Jin-woo: Why'd you pass out? Did you get stabbed too?][Young-je: Didn't get stabbed. Got hit by a fireball.][Jin-woo: Lmao fireball lol lol lol][Se-ah: lol lol lol lol I'm only getting hit by Instructor Ji Su-hyeon's fists at worst. I have it best lol lol lol][Young-je: Can't believe there's a day when Instructor Ji Su-hyeon's fists are the easy option lol lol lol][Jin-woo: fr lol]...

It was fortunate that the kids seemed to be continuing their growth cheerfully.

As for me, I'd learned how to move aura in a single day and even caught a villain, so I was relaxing comfortably.

If I told them something like that, it'd only crush their spirits, so I decided to stay quiet.

Still, actually stabbing him with a knife is insane.

As I chuckled while looking at the messages, I heard footsteps outside drawing closer.

“You're here, Father.”

It was Father and Parnello.

Both of them looked much more exhausted than usual.

“That outfit suits you very well. I'm glad, hahaha.”

Even so, the moment Father saw me, he relaxed his expression and tried to show a bright look.

“Eugene. Have you seen the recent news?”

Father sat down, put a cigar in his mouth, lit it, and exhaled smoke.

“The news?”

“Yes. The news that five villains escaped from Niflheim.”

“Yes, I saw it on television as well.”

When I nodded and answered, Father gestured toward Parnello, instructing him to speak in his place.

Parnello nodded and continued explaining.

“It seems that during the process, an informant of Calione who had been imprisoned in Niflheim also escaped, but apparently the Villain Alliance discovered that he had a cooperative relationship with us.”...

One of the escaped villains was a Calione informant?

Come to think of it, in the game, arrest quests only appeared for four of the five villains who escaped.

The remaining one could never be captured.

And that villain's name was...

“Ratte. We must recover him, a former informant of the Villain Alliance. And since this mission is top secret, it seems difficult to have many people accompany us.”

Ratte.

A villain with the ability to transform into a rat and control other rats.

He had never committed any major violent crimes, but had received a thirty-year prison sentence for leaking state secrets.

I had always thought something about him seemed suspicious, but it turned out he belonged to Calione.

My heart began pounding at this newly revealed information.

“Then should I recover him alone?”

Father shook his head.

“No. Parnello will accompany you on this mission. However, given the nature of the matter, Parnello will hold command authority, and you will go as Parnello's assistant.”

The fact that Parnello himself was going meant the matter was that serious.

The situation was more significant than I'd expected.

And assigning me to a mission like that probably meant...

“This is an extension of my successor training.”

“Exactly. Since this is a mission Parnello is personally undertaking, I hope you'll be able to observe and learn many things. And you yourself are more than qualified as a Hitman.”

Just as Father said, simply going on a mission with Parnello would give me plenty to observe and learn.

Then should I ask a little more about the mission?

“Have we identified the people pursuing Ratte?”

Parnello answered.

“Two of the other four escaped villains. Blanca and Jackal.”

“...

They're specialists in pursuit and hunting.”

Blanca and Jackal.

The two villains made their living through contract killing.

Blanca was a villain with the ability to transform into a werewolf, while Jackal was a villain who specialized in bows.

They were essentially a pair of pursuers.

“They seem to be quite determined.”

Apparently, they regarded Ratte as a traitor and had designated him as a target that had to be caught no matter what.

“According to the last information Ratte sent, he's hiding in an abandoned warehouse in an industrial complex located in Gunsan. I've had a helicopter called outside, so you can depart immediately.”

Hearing Father's words, I bowed my head.

“Eugene Han Calione. I accept the Don's command.”

“Good. Be careful.”

Father stood up and patted my shoulder.

I also knew this mission would be difficult.

In the original story, Parnello had ultimately failed to secure Ratte.

However, the reason I still accepted the mission without hesitation was precisely because I had been added to it this time.

If Parnello were alone, I didn't know.

But if I went with him, I was confident we could complete this mission perfectly.

I left the study and headed straight for the mansion garden with Parnello, where the helicopter should be waiting.

“Parnello.”

“Yes, Young Master.”

“Does the man called Ratte possess information valuable enough that we absolutely have to keep him alive?”

Before beginning a mission, determining whether the target absolutely had to survive was an extremely important procedure.

Because the moment I accepted a mission, it had to succeed.

“I don't know the details of that information either... but the Don said the information he possesses is a weapon that will help prepare for threats that will come upon both the Republic of Korea and Calione in the future.”

“...

I see.”

In other words, if possible, we absolutely had to bring him back alive.

“Let's go.”

“Yes.”

With those words, the helicopter rose into the air from the Calione mansion.