Make Our Family Great Again – Chapter 43

Before Darius Russo made a significant decision.

The Russo Family executives gathered in one place, except for Damar, who was captured by the Wolf’s henchmen.

They were brainstorming for a way out of this crisis, but the atmosphere was heavily tense.

“What are we even worried about? They can’t do anything to Uncle Damar! Let’s keep fighting!”

“Do you have a heart? Your uncle is captured!”

“Does that mean uncle has no brain?! We need to think rationally!”

The urgent meeting turned into a debate because of these two.

Arta Russo, the underboss and heir to the Russo Family, and Vesus Russo, the brother of Darius and Damar.

Arta wanted to prolong the war, while Vesus wanted to end it and bring his brother back.

Meanwhile, their boss, Darius, simply watched the situation in silence. He seemed to be thinking of something, but no one could decipher his intentions due to the flames enveloping his face.

Half of those gathered here were Vampires, and half were Dwarves.

It wasn’t a coincidence that the Dwarves, who had long lived in the northern Hebili, naturally became part of the Russo Family and played active roles.

As Arta and Vesus raised their voices against each other, a brave Dwarf requested the floor.

“Can I, um, say something?”

He was Hemat Ruselona, the oldest Caporegime from the Dwarf clan.

“Hemat, go ahead.”

Arta allowed him to speak first, and Vesus agreed. Both secretly hoped he would side with them.

“In a situation like this… I think it’s better to make a realistic choice.”

As soon as the word ‘realistic’ was mentioned, Arta and Vesus smiled, each believing their stance was the realistic one.

“Be more specific.”

“We can’t sustain this war without a Consigliere.”

“…What does that even mean?”

“And prolonging the time without a Consigliere won’t improve the situation either.”

As Ruselona continued, Arta grew agitated, while Vesus remained calm.

“Please continue.”

“Boss. No, Underboss. Do you happen to know what the Wolf is doing right now?”

“….”

Arta knew very well. But he couldn’t bring himself to answer.

“I heard they are helping the Shadow Wolf in downtown. What does that imply? Even without the Wolf, the rest of the Felini Family are pushing us this far.”

“Wait a minute, the situation in Haywoods is dicey. They can’t be seen as dominant.”

“That’s because we focused all available forces. But we don’t have more to mobilize now.”

Ruselona looked like he had much more to say.

But knowing the urgent temper of the boss and his family, he decided to stick to the essentials.

“Moreover, it’s not just the Wolf we’re at risk of. There are Vipers as well. They’re blocking the territories between here and the northern part of the city.”

Ruselona’s words rang true.

Though the Vipers had become fewer due to the Spiders’ continuous purges, they were still quite formidable.

Since the Russo Family couldn’t focus their forces on the war with the Felini Family, the Vipers had taken the opportunity to move more proactively.

It was like widening an already torn wound and pouring salt into it.

“If we take the risk of possibly losing the Consigliere in this state… it’s obvious that Vipers will stab us in the back or the Shadow Wolf and the Wolf will return after clearing downtown.”

Ruselona was patiently explaining to the Underboss that stalling wouldn’t do any good.

Vesus nodded along, while Arta merely clenched his jaw.

“So, let’s do as they wish.”

“Are you suggesting we bow our heads to those scoundrels again?”

“The price for bowing our heads will be greater than we think. Like now… when our forces are still intact, and while we can hold them off in Haywoods, surrendering is more advantageous for us.”

“And the Vipers can just ask the Wolf for help.”

“Does Uncle have no pride?”

“Yeah, I have no pride! So what if I have pride?! What, does that mean we can win this war?!”

“Surrendering doesn’t guarantee they will protect us from the Vipers, does it?”

A Caporegime supporting Arta spoke up.

“That’s something we need to secure as the cost of surrender. Don’t be so hasty.”

Ruselona replied like he was pacifying that Caporegime.

“Dad! This makes no sense!”

“…Enough.”

Seeing how it was, Arta appealed to his father.

At that moment, Darius stood up, flames erupting like never before. The fire that used to only burn his head had spread to engulf his entire upper body.

“….”

Arta and Vesus, as well as everyone else, awaited the moment Darius would speak.

What decision would come from their boss? This was a moment of keen interest for them.

“I surrender to the Wolf.”

“…Father?!”

Darius couldn’t afford to lose his clever brother.

Of course, the Felini Family wasn’t oblivious to Damar’s value, so the chances of killing him were low. However, Viola Carmen, who had a grudge against Darius, was on their side.

Moreover, he couldn’t stake his family’s lives on mere probabilities.

And… kneeling to someone else was something he had done before, so doing it twice wouldn’t be hard.

*

As Giovanni brought me good news, I headed straight to the northern part of the city. More precisely, to the restaurant we were using as a temporary base in Haywoods.

Elena was also coming from another location to meet me.

One of the Five Families was surrendering to us. It was quite an important moment.

The Marinelli Family was merely an alliance resulting from a political marriage, and the Solomon Family was a cooperative relationship based on mutual interests.

However, the Russo Family surrendering to become subordinate to the Felini Family was unprecedented among the Five Families.

“Haah…”

I arrived at the restaurant in Haywoods, riding in a bulletproof car.

“Is Giovanni and Sarina inside?”

“Yes, Brother. Everyone is gathered.”

The Wolf, who was keeping watch outside, quickly and accurately provided the answer I wanted.

Meanwhile, I left downtown in the capable hands of Lanon, the senior-most member of my Wolf crew. He wouldn’t mess it up, I was sure.

“Brother.”

“Luke.”

“Underboss.”

“Don Felini.”

As I entered the restaurant, various titles were directed toward me.

“Alright, you all did well. I didn’t expect them to give up this quickly.”

“Don Felini, has everything in downtown been settled?”

“No, not entirely. But they are crumbling faster than expected because we attacked from all sides. Winning is just a matter of time.”

R lumini seemed quite relieved upon hearing my answer.

“That’s a relief. It means we’ve won both wars.”

“Viola, I heard capturing Damar was your idea.”

“Considering Darius’s character, I thought it was the best approach.”

Viola said that it’s rare for someone to be so receptive to her advice.

“A compliment?”

“You can also consider it a complaint about the Russo Family.”

She mentioned the differences between us and the Russo Family, though we had to keep in mind that she was a hated enemy planted by them.

“Elena will be here soon, so let’s wait calmly.”

Giovanni brought me an espresso without me even having to ask.

Around the table with me were several Caporegimes, a total of six of us, all enjoying espresso in the restaurant.

“The lady is a bit late.”

“Considering the sudden news, she’ll arrive soon.”

“But… will you accept the Russo Family’s surrender?”

“There are pros and cons to accepting or not accepting a surrender. Of course, the decision will be left to Elena. She is the boss.”

“Yes, understood.”

Karini responded as if she fully grasped my line of reasoning. She was also one of Elena’s subordinates and didn’t find my attitude strange at all.

We continued to chat on various topics.

As time passed, the number of espresso cups I had drunk increased, and after about five cups, I started to feel a bit dizzy.

“This espresso is too strong.”

“That’s because it’s espresso.”

Sarina replied as if it were obvious, downing another cup of espresso herself. She seemed to have drunk more than I did.

Bam.

Suddenly, the door burst open with a loud noise.

“Did you all wait a long time?”

It was my lovely sister, Elena Felini.

As soon as she appeared, just like when I arrived, various titles were mentioned towards her.

“Alright, let’s get started right away.”

The Consigliere was nowhere to be seen.

It was likely she was responsible for the situation in downtown while she was absent.

However, Salmo was an excellent lawyer and a smart guy, but he was rather inexperienced in such wartime situations.

“Well, I have Vanella, so we should be good.”

“Elena, have you decided what to do?”

“Yeah. I had plenty of time to think about it on the way here.”

Elena tried to act a bit more lovingly toward me but ultimately held back. It was a wise choice, given the number of eyes around.

The love between a couple could surely be shared later at the hotel.

“Viola. You might be dissatisfied, but I plan to accept the Russo Family’s surrender.”

“Not at all. I’m fine with it. In fact, I’m looking forward to seeing the former boss kneel before you.”

Viola responded, indicating she had no objections to Elena’s decision.

“Miss, if we become the masters of the Russo bunch… does that mean we will have to clean up the mess they make as well?”

“Yeah, we’ll need to deal with the Vipers first.”

Giovanni chimed in with a good point. As soon as Giovanni finished speaking, I responded.

“Spiders might be one thing, but we have no business with the Vipers.”

“Well, I also happen to be a Spider.”

Before Elena could finish speaking, Viola shot back. Indeed, Viola was the second-in-command of the Spiders when they purged the Vipers. The first-in-command was undoubtedly her sister, Rita Carmen.

“Still, we can’t coexist with the Vipers anyway.”

Especially since we were collaborating with the Marinelli Family. From the Vipers’ standpoint, they would certainly want to kill either Vito Marinelli or Felicita Marinelli.

“Well, it looks like we can’t help it then.”

Armo, who had been quiet all this time, finally spoke. Yeah, this was genuinely unavoidable.

“Of course, since we are stepping in to do their work, we should also extract a price for that.”

Elena seemingly had some thoughts of her own about this. I decided to add one more minor condition to hers.

“What if we also ask for Belcastro Granada?”

Elena gave me a knowing look in response, but Viola fully supported it.

The skills of that Dwarf Vampire bomb maker were certainly impressive.

“Alright, then let’s include that too.”

Elena began to mention the terms she had thought of.

First, if they have requests, we would support the Russo Family regarding the Viper issue, but in return, we would demand a corresponding price.

Next, in exchange for returning the southern region that we seized in Haywoods, we would let the Russo Family handle the suppression of the area south of Haywoods.

“It’s a bit disappointing since we’ve seized it already.”

“Yeah, but it’s already a mess because we’ve been fighting.”

The other terms were similar to what my father had previously offered to the Five Families.

Of course, the Russo Family wouldn’t be reduced to a subordinate of our Caporegime but would remain a subsidiary.

Naturally, we intended to extract plenty of tribute from them and impose various restrictions.

The pressing issue was whether they would accept these terms. Well, they wouldn’t have many options either.