Chapter 86

Chapter 86

I Became the Academy Mafia Chapter 86Wednesday lunch.

Even though it was lunchtime, unlike usual, the kids were slumped over with their cheeks pressed against their desks, staring blankly.

“Sparring is too much... annoying...”

“Why can't we do club activities on days we have sparring... one spar drains me so much I don't want to do anything... I just want to eat snacks in the club room...”

Listening to whining from the front and side was enough to drive me crazy.

I was already feeling gloomy at the thought of having only one Main Story request left and still having to go spar like this, but hearing all these dispiriting remarks made it even worse.

“Jin-woo. By the way, where did Young-je go?”

“Young-je? I think he didn't come to school today because he has mentoring. Seriously, he's the only one getting all the easy benefits...”

At Jin-woo's words, Se-ah straightened up.

“M-mentoring? That's right! We had mentoring classes! Right now, I should contact my mentor... My mentor is Instructor Ji Su-hyeon!!”

Then Se-ah collapsed in despair again.

“God is dead...”

“No, God is alive.”

“What?”

Se-ah looked at me after I suddenly cut in.

Yeah. The one who sent me here was that so-called God. There was no way the bastard I planned to kill someday had already died.

“Then let's say God is alive... Jin-woo, why didn't you go to your mentor lesson?”

“...

Hm? Me?”

At Se-ah suddenly calling him, Jin-woo sat up and shuddered.

“...

I like sparring.”

“What?”

“At least sparring doesn't leave wounds. That crazy woman... I'll just spar.”

I couldn't even imagine what kind of activities he normally did to make him look like that.

“Uh... what about you, Eugene? You haven't gone to a mentor lesson even once this week.”

There was still no word from Kwak Chun-sik.

The 1 beside the message had disappeared, so he'd definitely read it. Why wasn't he replying?

“The old man said he had something to think about, then stopped answering me.”

“Ahh... everyone has their reasons. Sigh, I guess we're going to spar after all.”

Just as Se-ah muttered that and was about to collapse onto her desk again.[Han Eugene. Student Han Eugene, please come to the Academy faculty office. Repeating once again. Han Eugene...]

Suddenly, an announcement calling for me echoed through the classroom.

“Boss. Did you cause trouble?”

“Do you think I'm you?”

“I've never caused trouble?!”

Ignoring Jin-woo's shout, I stood from my seat.

A summons from the faculty office. Had there been anything recently that would make them call me?

“Hmm...”

There were too many things weighing on my conscience to guess.

Before I knew it, I'd arrived in front of the faculty office. When I opened the door and stepped inside, the instructors' gazes gathered on me.

Why is everyone staring at me like this?...

Hm?

For some reason, I saw someone who shouldn't be here.

“...

Sir?”

Why was someone who should still be in Gangwon Province standing in the Academy faculty office?

“Disciple. Long time no see, huh?”

Apparently my flustered expression was that funny, because Kwak Chun-sik chuckled.

“Sir, what brings you here...”

“Didn't you tell me to come? I arrived just now after sorting out and handling this and that.”

No, I'd been wondering why he hadn't contacted me all this time, and he'd been preparing nonstop since that day?

“Now, there are too many eyes here, so shall we head out? Yoon-ho. I can take my disciple with me, right?”

Then he suddenly asked Park Yoon-ho, the first-year head instructor, if he could take me away.

“Senior. The first-years have sparring in the afternoon──”

“Tsk──! Ahem!”

“...

Senior.”

Even if he was the firm and rigid head instructor, his opponent was Kwak Chun-sik, once called the hero of heroes and practically a grand senior.

More than anything, Park Yoon-ho had once trained under Kwak Chun-sik as well...

Still, this was the first time in my life I'd seen Park Yoon-ho looking so helpless.

“I heard he can miss class three times a week for mentor lessons? Can't you just process it under that?”

“That is true, but there has never been a precedent for leaving in the middle of class──”

“Then make this the first case! If a senior says he's doing it, you just say, ‘Yes~ understood, Senior.’ Why are you talking back line by line!”...

Wow. Can there even be an old fossil this bad?

But maybe because the arrows weren't aimed at me? It was incredibly comfortable.

Didn't someone once say that when an old fossil with both power and age is on your side, there's nothing more reassuring?

I was experiencing it in real time.

“Since the old days, when seniors said something, you were supposed to accept it! Back in my day, if a senior said you make fermented soybean blocks out of red beans, we'd answer, ‘That's right, Senior~.’ You brat!”

“Ah... understood. Senior.”

“What?”

“...

I think it would be fine for you to take Cadet Han Eugene. Senior.”

“Right? See. You can do it when you try. Tsk tsk... let's go, disciple.”

“Ah, yes.”

Was Park Yoon-ho even capable of making an expression like that?

He wore an expression of helpless embarrassment, while Ji Su-hyeon behind him bit her lip trying to hold back laughter.

The contrast between the two was truly stark.

After following Kwak Chun-sik out of the faculty office, I asked as he walked ahead toward somewhere.

“Sir. Where are we going?”

“My house.”

“Your house, sir?”

“Where else, you brat. I have to tell you what's happened in the meantime. And... there are things we probably shouldn't discuss here.”

His atmosphere suddenly changed.

Feeling an ominous premonition, I nodded and spoke.

“Then I know a good place.”

“A good place?”

“Yes. There, we won't have to worry about people or sound leaking out.”

“Hm, there's a place like that? Let's go see it.”

“Yes.”

I took the puzzled old man toward Familia's club room.

Familia's club room was a place I'd created from the beginning to grow my ‘Family.’

From the design stage, engravings had already been installed for security so sound wouldn't leak outside. On top of that, the president's office had been constructed so it couldn't be eavesdropped on even with magic, making it the perfect place for secret conversations.

“This is... the club building? Were you planning to use some empty club room?”

Ah, had I not told him yet?

“My club room is here.”

“Hm? Weren't you a first-year?”

“I am.”

“But a club... no, you have your own club?”

“Yes.”

“You're the president?”

“Yes.”

After hearing all my answers, the old man let out a disbelieving laugh.

“Ha, I knew you were something, but to think some brat who hasn't even been enrolled long already has a club at the Academy? Ridiculous.”

“Just as you said, I am rather impressive.”

Out of respect for the elderly, I went around to the back of the building and activated the freight elevator.

“...

You even have an elevator?”

“It's one of our club's points of pride.”

I tapped my card against the reader and descended underground, where Familia's club room immediately spread out before us.

“Let's go to the president's office.”

“What kind of club has Another String and even a shower room? You've got everything. Even our martial arts hall doesn't have that...”

Kwak Chun-sik continued grumbling while diligently looking around.

Eventually, the two of us settled into the president's office.

After placing some simple tea and refreshments in front of him, I spoke first to begin the real conversation.

“What exactly happened? You didn't contact me at all, and I never even heard you were coming. How were you able to enter Seoul this quickly?”

Kwak Chun-sik was a case where he'd entered Silver Town instead of prison for killing a villain.

On top of that, because of political figures keeping him in check, it should've been difficult for him to leave so easily.

That was why he should've needed my help or outside assistance to get out smoothly, so I couldn't easily understand how he'd managed it.

“I can only say I was lucky.”

“...

Lucky?”

“Yeah. You know that spatial mage you caught recently. The one called ‘Elusive,’ wasn't it? I was sorting out my thoughts after hearing what you said, when suddenly the prosecution called me. They asked if that bastard really was ‘Elusive.’”

Wait, Elusive?...

Little by little, the pieces began to fit together.

Don't tell me saving Kim Se-ah ended up affecting things like this.

As Se-ah was cleared as a suspect, Elusive came back into the spotlight, and that attention spread all the way to Kwak Chun-sik, who was known to have captured Elusive.

“They said ‘Elusive’ had brought villains into Korea. Those escaped prisoners you saw on the news. Starting to get the picture?”

“They offered you a plea bargain?”

“Yeah, that's it. The government secretly asked me for a deal. Help them investigate the villains who infiltrated Korea.”

“But I don't understand why they went that far to choose you specifically. Even without you, there are plenty of heroes in the Association and various guilds who could participate in the investigation.”

In other words, there was no reason for the government to single out Kwak Chun-sik.

But at my question, Kwak Chun-sik grinned and answered.

“At first they offered me reward money... but do I lack money? Do I lack things? So I made a deal. Exactly like what you told me last time.”

Thanks to that, something that would've normally been rejected due to political issues passed far too easily.

“For me, if it worked, good, and if not, I was going to think of another method. But approval came far easier than expected. Ha, I was curious what change of heart those high-and-mighty people had.”

For some reason, I felt like I knew the reason.

“I think Father may have intervened.”

“Your father? You mean Vito Calione?”

“Yes. Though I'm not certain.”

Father had once said he wanted to have a meal with Kwak Chun-sik.

Father must have been interested in Kwak Chun-sik since then as well.

If so, Calione, with its definite connections to politics, would've surely heard information about Kwak Chun-sik and might have directly pulled strings.‘There's also the matter with Ratte... if the old man gets involved, he'd be a major addition to our side's combat power.’Kwak Chun-sik wouldn't join Calione, but he could still be useful as a breakwater for our side.

And it could divert the government's attention even slightly... you could call it killing three birds with one stone.

“Anyway, that's good news.”

“Yeah, and the timing was pretty good too.”

“The timing...?”

“Judging by the state of the Association and government, they seem extremely short on manpower. Enough that they need an old has-been like me.”

At my question, Kwak Chun-sik pulled out his phone.

He fiddled with it and played a video.

“The government and Association contacted me this morning. They said they need my help.”A short video, about a minute long.

When he pressed play, the bar began moving as the black screen trembled.[~~~♪]

A song that seemed to be a foreign nursery rhyme began playing from the video.[Ring around the rosie──]

“...

This is.”

“You know this song too?”

Ring Around the Rosie.

One of the foreign Mother Goose rhymes, a song deeply associated with the Black Death that once swept across Europe.

And... in my memories, there was only one bastard who used this song as an intro.

Villain name, Plague.

A walking biological and chemical weapon capable of spreading diseases stored within his own body to others.

In the game, he was one of the worst villains, with a record of destroying a small nation using his ability, and a top-ranking executive of the Villain Alliance.

And.‘The main villain of this terrorism episode.’When the unsettling voice finished singing, the screen writhed and a message appeared.‘Despair will land in Korea.(Despair will land in Korea.)’There was only one meaning behind that message.

“...

They've declared war on the Republic of Korea.”

“Yeah. Apparently they sent this video to the Association.”

“They aren't releasing it publicly?”

“This is the first time one of the Villain Alliance's highest-ranking executives has sent a warning like this. They apparently decided to hide it for now because they expect public panic.”...

So this is still following the original story after all.

In the original story, that government decision ultimately caused numerous civilian casualties.

Named villains, each with their own distinctive traits, carried out various acts of destruction one after another.

Some bore grudges against the government and heroes, some chose villainy to realize their personal ideologies, some took pleasure in killing defenseless people, and so on...

What they were committing was terrorism in the end.

They weren't only targeting government institutions.

In that case, what I had to do was practically decided.

“Sir. Could you send me this video file?”

“Hm? This? You aren't planning to...”

At that moment, Kwak Chun-sik furrowed his brow and gave me a meaningful look.

“Are you thinking of doing something strange?”

Something strange? This is all for justice.

“I'll take responsibility... no, Calione will.”

When I already know exactly what's going to happen, isn't this precisely when I should borrow the strength of our Family?