Make Our Family Great Again – Chapter 38

An hour after the visit from the Little Wolf.

In the same place, Sanchez and Dom Solomon had their meeting.

While Solomon hurried his short legs to get to Sanchez, Sanchez was in the middle of a meal.

He had been starving because he sent back the food the waiter brought during the meeting with the Wolf.

Aside from the table where the two bosses sat, members of both families occupied other tables in the restaurant.

“Mr. Sanchez, what brings you here?”

“…I know both you and your father well.”

“Oh, is that so? I heard you two were friends.”

Mentioning his father unexpectedly, Solomon showed a rather complicated expression.

“Friends? I’ve never been friends with that trash.”

Sanchez instantly changed his expression and reacted quite fiercely. He wasn’t calling Solomon for polite chit-chat.

“You never followed the rules!”

“Haha.”

Solomon’s father was a caporegime dispatched on the orders of Godfather Vito Felini to monitor and control Eddie Sanchez.

It was natural for Sanchez to exhibit this degree of hostility toward him. Solomon knew that and merely brushed it off with a smile.

“Still, he was loyal to you. He wasn’t someone who would just pass away.”

Dominico Solomon, or Dom Solomon, consists of two people. Usually in the Sanchez Family, they referred to the father as Big Dom and the son as Little Dom.

“Yeah, I definitely remember him lowering his pants to his ankles in the car while having a lady’s face stuck between his legs. Quite the sight.”

“…My mother still aches over that incident.”

The two were referring to the death of Big Dom.

Coincidentally, Big Dom was murdered while he was having an affair in the car. It could have been at Sanchez’s order or the husband of the woman he was with.

“Don’t dig up your or your mother’s feelings, and behave yourself.”

“….”

“Do you know what kind of person your father was? He thought he was better and smarter than the bosses. You’re just like him.”

“Don’t forget, I’m the boss now.”

Little Dom seemed to be reaching his limit with that response. But Sanchez, instead, got angrier at Solomon’s reaction.

“What the hell did you do to the She-Wolf? Are you itching for a war with the Wolves? Huh?!”

“No, I’m trying to prevent one.”

“Anyway, don’t touch the Wolves or She-Wolves. Get it wrong, and you’ll end up like your father. Understood?”

“What I intend to do is business, not war.”

“Sanchez, not just me, but the other bosses feel the same way. Got it?”

Of course, among the bosses Sanchez mentioned, Darius Russo was an exception. He was the only one among the Five Families in opposition to the Felini Family.

“Please don’t misunderstand. I only talked to Mrs. Felini.”

“Did you not hear what I said?”

Sanchez’s face was increasingly coming forward, his voice rising.

“No, no. I heard you loud and clear.”

Solomon almost sprang up from his chair.

“I’ll be taking my leave then. And I’m not my father.”

He hurriedly left after saying what he had to say. As soon as Solomon exited, the members of the Solomon Family also got up from their seats.

“….”

Sanchez continued eating while watching them leave.

*

The moment the meeting between the two bosses in the western side of the city ended.

I had arrived at the top floor of the Lupus Carlton Hotel, conversing with Elena.

Of course, the location was Felicita’s Room. Today wasn’t a day with Elena; it was a day spent with her.

“What do you mean by that?”

“I think accepting that guy’s proposal wouldn’t be such a bad idea.”

“…Are you serious?”

Considering the proposal from that rude guy. I almost let out a curse but barely held it back.

“….”

Thinking a bit cooler, Elena’s reaction might very well be what a boss of a family would think.

Yeah, it felt better to think of it that way.

“And if I may say now, I’m all good.”

“What do you mean?”

“My feelings aren’t hurt at all.”

“Oh my, do you even like that guy?”

The one reacting on my behalf to Elena was Felicita. Naturally, she interpreted Elena’s words in the worst possible way.

“No, I think he fits you better than me.”

“Wait a minute. Elena, what do you mean?”

While Elena countered Felicita’s words, I asked again.

“I mean exactly that. I feel no threat from that guy at all. You probably feel the same.”

“No, I know you’re strong, but this is a different matter.”

“Luke, you’ll probably know when you meet him.”

…Did she just suggest I should meet that guy? I figured Sanchez would warn him by now.

“No, it’s one thing for him to come looking for me, but I don’t need to go find him.”

Elena didn’t give up, but I left under the pretense of preparing for the upcoming war with the Russo Family.

“…Wait, Luke!”

As a result, Felicita was the one who suffered. It turned out that it was her day to be with me, yet I fled to the Academy to avoid Elena.

A few days later.

I was busy preparing for the upcoming war at the Academy.

After a few days, the caporegimes heading north with me were making smooth progress with their preparations.

“Sarina, haven’t we had any reactions from the other side yet?”

“No, but as we start gathering more, they seem to be on high alert.”

“Are they not laying any traps?”

“Hey, that’s their turf, so it wouldn’t be surprising.”

Sarina reacted, wondering if Kambara was being a bit of a coward.

To her eyes, Kambara seemed excessively cautious, but it never hurt to be careful.

“First, we should quickly secure the northeast and then hit the Russo turf.”

“Why not attack the Russo turf immediately?”

“We need to leave that to Giovanni.”

Giovanni, Viola Carmen, and Fabio Carini. These three caporegimes were set to assault the Russo Family territory directly.

“Oh, so we’ll be dealing with the small fry in the meantime.”

“The small fry can be a problem too. And we can’t let our guard down. We’ll finish up quickly and rejoin Giovanni.”

To put it simply, Giovanni’s crew would handle the preemptive strike while we would secure the outpost.

The northeastern part of the city was positioned between our Felini Family territory and the Russo Family territory, and more than anything, it was a battleground where multiple powers were clashing.

“But still, it might take a while to occupy the entire northeast, right?”

“Of course, we only need to occupy it to a certain extent.”

It was just enough to set up an outpost. We didn’t plan to erase the Russo Family from the map with this war, nor take the northern part of the city.

It was more akin to repaying the attacks they had launched on Lumini and sending a killer after me.

On the flip side, Elena was moving to claim the central city for ourselves. If things went well, we could finish the war with the Russo Family and assist Elena.

As various thoughts crossed my mind.

Suddenly, the phone in the Union Office rang loudly, and Kambara quickly answered.

“Yes, this is the Academy Staff Union Office.”

After a routine response, Kambara approached me.

“Brother, the boss of the Solomon Family wants to meet you.”

“…That guy?”

“Doesn’t he have some nerve? Should we just kill him this time?”

“No, wait a minute.”

I was tempted by Sarina’s suggestion, but I couldn’t just easily kill one of the bosses of the Five Families.

“Yes, he’ll be waiting for you at a junkyard in the central city.”

“No, he should be the one coming here. Why is Luke being sent over?”

“….”

Silently, I stood up and headed to the location Kambara mentioned.

*

A bulletproof vehicle appeared in the central city and arrived at a junkyard, practically the headquarters of the Solomon Family.

“Ugh, it’s so damn noisy.”

“Well, it is a junkyard.”

Sarina reacted sensitively to the noise around her even before she got out of the car, while Kambara responded that it couldn’t be helped since it was a junkyard.

Meanwhile, I was the last one to get out of the car.

“I can’t believe these guys are just hanging out in central city.”

If I were to mark it on the map, it would probably look like this.

Sanchez claimed that the Five Families would ignore the central city, but he never mentioned anything about the Solomon Family, which had split off from him.

Now, they even inserted the Solomon Family into one of the Five Families.

Thanks to that, Elena and I could pressure the Solomon Family using that agreement, but there was no way they’d peacefully leave their territory.

“Wow, you’re here already!”

As we arrived, a man appeared among the yard workers at the junkyard.

But….

Now I understood why Elena said that to me.

Despite being shorter for an elf, a being appeared who might barely be half my height.

“What the hell is that, a hamster?”

“To be exact, it’s a hamster-human.”

The one responding to Sarina’s comment looked like a giant hamster walking on two legs.

“Wait, before we start talking, I would like to address one thing.”

I asked the boss of the Felini Family not to repeat the same rudeness he showed last time. Dom Solomon shuffled his short arms and legs around as he responded.

“I sincerely apologize for that. I promise it won’t happen again.”

He instantly said what I wanted to hear.

Still, something was puzzling.

The Dom Solomon I knew was an elf. I wondered if there had been some sort of mix-up.

“Then let’s introduce ourselves properly. Hello, I am Dominico Solomon.”

With Solomon’s introduction, I decided he must be the son of the Dom Solomon I knew.

For now, I shook hands with him.

“Thanks for coming all the way here. Please, let’s go inside.”

The three of us followed the tiny hamster creature to somewhere. As I glanced around the junkyard, Solomon turned his head and responded.

“Let’s take a look around. All sorts of cars flow into this place from all over Hebili.”

“Isn’t it just junk?”

“Yes, that’s right. We disassemble them and sell the parts worldwide. And as new cars come out, we quickly put in orders.”

“Yeah, I know how things work at a junkyard.”

Coincidentally, we had someone in our group who specialized in the junk business.

“Did Crazy Vanella inform you?”

The Richard Vanella mentioned by Solomon was exactly that person. He also used a junkyard as his base and made big bucks from the junk business.

“Oh, but do you like espresso?”

“Yeah, I do.”

“Great! I’m glad to hear that.”

Is there even an elf who doesn’t like espresso? I’ve seen elves who dislike the World Tree, but I don’t think I’d find an elf who would refuse espresso.

As soon as we arrived at Solomon’s office, his men brought us the espressos to drink.

“Thanks, you can go now.”

Solomon waved his hand to dismiss them.

I wondered if it was right to have such thoughts in this situation, but… every single action he took felt rather cute.

Solomon first took a sip from the espresso in front of him, and the rest of us followed suit, savoring ours.

“Did you happen to be at the Godfather’s funeral?”

“No.”

If I had seen a hamster-human at my father’s funeral, I certainly would have remembered. Solomon left quite the impression.

“The other old men from the Five Families didn’t even show up at the funeral.”

“The eldest daughter of the Marinelli Family attended.”

“Oh, I see.”

Sarina jumped in for fact-checking after Solomon’s statement.

“Anyway, I’m not like the other old men. The Godfather and you, Luke Felini, are legends.”

“Yeah, thanks for the compliment.”

“No, really, I think so. Especially the things your father achieved were incredible, but… I also believe his personal qualities were quite remarkable.”

“What do you mean by that?”

“…You can’t choose your parents in life, can you?”

Suddenly, a shadow fell over the hamster’s face before me.

“You lived as a murderer of the Five Families but also raised me, and Mrs. Felini as well. In contrast, my father was a violent drunk.”

“….”

From what I heard from my father, Dom Solomon had a rather unpleasant disposition. It must be the truth.

“He didn’t love my mother or me… He even pinned his wrongdoings on me. Ah, he was truly a remarkable man.”

I wondered if it was right to use ‘remarkable’ in this context, but in some sense, it was definitely true.

“I’m still struggling because of my father, but I suppose that’s life.”

Meanwhile, Kambara seemed to resonate deeply with what Solomon was saying, while Sarina wore a face that seemed to be wondering when this tedious conversation would end.

“Shall we move on to the main topic?”

“Oh, I apologize. It’s just that seeing the Godfather’s son in person made me ramble on.”

Solomon said that and immediately got into the main topic.

He discussed the proposal he had for Elena and added one more thing regarding the previous central territory ownership issue between the Five Families and the Felini Family.

“Mr. Sanchez certainly played us both quite well.”

“Yeah, that’s true.”

Eddie Sanchez had granted this territory to the Solomon Family while recognizing our ownership of the central part. In my world, England occasionally pulled stunts like this as well. It’s when a different word is given to two different parties to create a problem.

“To be honest, I believe Mr. Sanchez wants us to fight each other.”

“If it’s war, we’re always welcome.”

“No, I don’t want to fight the children of the Godfather. My father was loyal to him, so why wouldn’t I be?”

I attempted a bit of bravado, but Solomon seemed taken aback.

After which, Solomon stated that they wouldn’t expand their territory in the central area anymore and would recognize their current territory in exchange for offering 15% of the profits from the junk business.

“Is 5% the reward for supplying drugs?”

“Yes, that’s correct.”

I conveyed my position to Solomon.

I couldn’t make such decisions unilaterally; I needed to discuss it thoroughly with the boss, Elena, so Solomon said he would await good news.

Thus, we exited the hamster’s haven and headed back to the Academy.