The day before the meeting of the Bosses of the Five Families.
It was a Sunday, the day when both of my wives shared me, but at least this Sunday didn’t follow that rule.
“Elena, aren’t you a bit too clingy?”
“Well, so what? It’s not like I’m wearing down from it.”
I had clearly intended to go to the Union Office of the Academy.
But when I came to my senses, I found myself caught and held like a doll by Elena.
Elena seemed determined not to let me go after I had been taken in as a condition for supplying drugs to the Marinelli Family. Of course, I wasn’t just nestled in Elena’s arms all day.
It just so happened that Kazin, who had visited all the Families, showed up at the hotel.
“No Family among the Five could make a better offer than you guys.”
“…Then the other half is practically ours too.”
“Yeah, guess you could say that.”
Kazin didn’t stay long on the hotel’s top floor.
He had to personally supervise the unloading of the rest of the drugs from the ship he arrived on.
“Elena, just in case, I’ll also….”
“I’ll send Carso. You stay here.”
“….”
Today, I felt as if I had become some sort of stuffed animal for Elena.
“Luke, do you have any complaints?”
“No.”
“…That looks like a complaining face to me.”
“I was just wondering since when you liked me this much.”
“….”
Elena looked like she had been struck speechless by my words.
“But you didn’t seem so bad when we were kids.”
“Yeah, back then you were the one always running up to me saying how much you liked me.”
Elena didn’t deny my words. I remembered… when we had eliminated a target with our father and returned home in the dead of night.
Elena had awakened from a deep sleep, disregarding the blood on me, and simply opened her arms wide to hug me.
That normal sibling relationship shattered when our father began yearning for more than his station deserved.
From the bastard son and biological daughter of Five Families’ lackeys,
to the bastard son and biological daughter of a Godfather who brought all Five Families to their knees.
Elena and I had to adapt to that change, during which we began to recognize each other as rivals.
It was so easy for step-siblings, who once felt like a real family, to become beings loathed more than others.
“…Luke.”
“What?”
Elena was still holding me tightly like a doll.
It seemed her arms were tightening around me. Maybe it was just in my head.
“Sometimes, trusting someone only invites a test of whether that trust is genuine…”
[Unfortunately, trusting another person is really hard.]
Just then, the words on the newspaper lying on the table in front of the sofa where Elena was holding me began to shift chaotically.
This didn’t feel like a quote but rather as if it resonated with Elena. Or perhaps it was a fitting quote for this situation.
“What do you mean by that?”
“I know I can be selfish. But…I wish that woman would just disappear from our relationship.”
With that rather shocking statement, I looked up at Elena.
….
Drops of water fell above my head. Hot tears were flowing from Elena’s eyes.
“Elena.”
‘She might see you as a hindrance, but to me, you were my salvation.’
Those words crawled up to my throat, but couldn’t pass through my heavy mouth. I would end up leaving a deep wound on Elena.
While I hesitated for a moment, Elena wiped her tears and continued speaking.
“…Luke, I can’t imagine a life without you.”
“….”
“So please!”
What Elena wanted from me was clear. To break up with Felicita.
But it wasn’t that simple. We hadn’t even taken over the center of the city yet. If I broke off engagement with Felicita in this situation…
I’d have to start a war with the Marinelli Family immediately.
Elena couldn’t be unaware of this obvious fact.
She was begging me despite knowing that. She was in so much pain, she couldn’t hold it in any longer.
“Elena.”
“….”
Elena looked very sad. Not because of the emotions she had just spilled. But because she knew what my response would be.
But she was wrong about that.
“Elena, it might not be such a long time, but from now on, I’m going to be with you forever.”
It might not be a long time, though. The possibility that Elena and I wouldn’t succeed in avenging our father always existed.
The families of those we killed in revenge also had the right to retaliate against us. My father’s death was also an act of vengeance for his deeds before the Five Families.
Still, I promised Elena.
Even though we might not have much time together, no matter what sudden death may come on this journey where we can’t see one step ahead,
I would unconditionally say I’d be with you forever.
The path I had walked my entire life would give greater meaning to those words.
“…Yeah.”
Elena’s answer was so simple.
No matter what she understood by my words, she showed me a bright smile instead of tears.
*
A day after that incident, on Monday, marking the start of the week.
Kazin and Haremo boarded the ship they had arrived on.
The sea. It was the largest barrier that blocked people from meeting on one hand, yet on the other, it was the most magnificent natural grace that brought people together.
As the new Boss and Underboss of the Felini Family bid farewell, their ship gradually moved away from the land.
“Haremo.”
“Yes, brother.”
“What do you think of those two?”
“…They seem to get along better than I heard.”
Kazin reiterated his own feelings by asking Haremo.
“Huh….”
Kazin, feeling he had completed a task, let out a sigh of relief and pulled a cigarette from his pack.
“Brother.”
Haremo quickly lit Kazin’s cigarette.
“The Five Families weren’t much, were they?”
“What? You didn’t feel anything significant meeting them along with me?”
“…Huh?”
Haremo thought the Five Families were quite pathetic. Of course, while the Coast Guard was in the grip of the Felini Family, they hadn’t devised a single plan to counter.
There was a noticeable lack of elegance among some of the bosses as well.
“This confirms it. They’re like outdated losers.”
Especially, Kazin cringed at the thought that the bosses of the Five Families wished to return to the era when the committee thrived.
If that happened, Kazin and his organization, which supplied drugs, would have to suffer losses like before. A businessman who suffers losses simply can’t exist.
This issue was one of the deep wounds the Wolf had inflicted on the Five Families. Thanks to the Wolf satisfying the dealers somewhat at their whim, their expectations had risen.
“Then the next shipment of drugs might end up belonging to the Felini guys.”
“Maybe? But let’s not be too sure about it.”
Kazin spoke while gazing at the land that had already vanished from view. And he thought to himself how much he looked forward to how things might change when he came back next.
In the harbor where Kazin and his men had departed, only Elena, the Wolves, and I remained.
“Alright then, let’s head back to the hotel.”
“Sure.”
Once Kazin and his men disappeared, Elena pressed up against me as if nothing happened. It was as if nothing could unsettle her now.
Ding-dong―!
We stepped into the elevator to go up to the top floor.
However, I never expected to run into Felicita in that elevator.
“Luke, glad to see you. I happen to have something to tell you.”
“….”
She naturally accompanied us as we headed to the top floor.
Elena didn’t let her guard down, but Felicita wore a very serious expression.
“Felicita, what’s going on?”
“The Bosses of the Five Families gathered in one place for a meeting.”
Elena and I said nothing. It seemed Kazin’s visit to the Five Families stirred them up too much.
I hadn’t expected the Five Families to gather so quickly amongst themselves.
“….”
Elena started nervously biting her nails.
“Elena.”
“Ah…. ”
Upon arriving at the top floor, we headed toward a room that wasn’t either Elena’s or mine.
As soon as we entered Felicita’s Room, Hebili greeted us, and Elena was horrified at the sight of a giant moth.
“So how did you find out, Felicita?”
“A little while ago, my father informed me.”
She began speaking as soon as Elena and I had barely settled onto the sofa.
The tale began when Vito Marinelli, the Boss of the Marinelli Family, attended the meeting of the bosses.
“Of course, my father pretended to be a cripple.”
Pretending? While his condition was better than I had expected, it was indeed true that he was still a cripple addicted to Blue Eyes.
“The meeting took place at a restaurant in Sanchez’s territory, and every boss attended without fail.”
“It must have been Sanchez who led that meeting.”
Felicita nodded at my words. It seemed Vito Marinelli remembered most of the meeting’s details.
No, after hearing the full story through Felicita, it would be rather strange otherwise. For now, Sanchez and Russo joined forces, as did Carmen and Dragovich.
Moreover, Sanchez and Russo asserted they would hand Carmen over to us.
What was peculiar was that they knew we suspected Rita Carmen.
“Wait, how did they figure that out?”
“Well, we always have ears listening around us.”
To Elena’s question, Felicita answered as if surprised by such a commonplace reality.
Of course, it was odd. They knew we suspected Rita Carmen, but it appeared they didn’t know why we thought that way.
Felicita warned me about the crisis my father faced and mentioned that Rita Carmen suggested they join forces to deal with my father.
The important part came next.
Carmen claimed she hadn’t killed the Wolf, whereas Sanchez retorted that the truth didn’t matter, but rather what we thought did.
“It’s probably a lie.”
“It could be the truth.”
Felicita mentioned a possibility. That Carmen might not have actually killed our father.
“What do you mean? She had proposed to you guys.”
“Right, we turned her down. But since we, being geographically close to your family, said we wouldn’t cooperate, Carmen might have given up cleanly.”
“Well, it doesn’t change anything.”
Sanchez had a point. Whether Carmen killed our father or not, that wasn’t what mattered.
Regardless, she was too dangerous to leave alive. My father had pitied her and let her live simply because she was in the same predicament.
*
Anyway, thanks to Vito Marinelli and his daughter Felicita, we grasped everything that occurred during the meeting.
“It’s fortunate they’re fighting amongst themselves.”
“Yeah, if they all came at us at once, that would’ve been troublesome.”
Since the Marinelli Family was allied with us, we only had to face the four Families.
Moreover, those four Families were divided into two pairs, just eager to kill each other without a care.
“Elena.”
“…What?”
Looking at Elena’s expression, it seemed she was on the same wavelength as me. We wouldn’t lose anything by moving how Sanchez wanted us to.
While I was discussing how to respond to the meeting of the Five Families with my two wives, other events unfolded in the West of Hebili.
“Where is it?!”
“Right here!”
Police officers belonging to the organized crime taskforce arrived at an office after receiving a report.
“…What the hell is all this?”
“It seems to be Blue Eyes.”
The corpse of an Orc stuffed mouthful with drugs.
“Damn it! This bastard knows someone here!”
The dead Orc was among Sanchez Family’s Caporegimes. The fact that his mouth was filled with Blue Eyes shows that… it was clearly the work of the Carmen Family.
This was a blatant provocation by the Carmen Family.
It was highly likely in retaliation for whatever Sanchez had done to Carmen at the meeting that day.
Of course, Sanchez was not going to stay idle.
BAM―!
As the door slammed open, a barrage of gunshots followed.
A group of thugs began raiding the Carmen Family’s strongholds as if moving like an army in broad daylight.
It wasn’t just a secret base with only organization members, but a place also inhabited by civilians. However, the Sanchez Family members didn’t care at all.
An attack aimed at one side quickly escalated into a larger assault.
“Cough!”
Carmen Family members overpowered the truck drivers transporting Sanchez Family’s goods before setting fire to the trucks.
Whatever they did, it was a warning there would be heavy consequences.
Such incidents unfolded countless times across the West. While the Russo Family was still holding back, the Dragovich Family had slipped into this turmoil to support the Carmen Family.
In the midst of this chaotic situation,
A man directly appeared at the Dragon Hill Hotel, the headquarters of the Marinelli Family.
“Take me to your Boss.”
It was none other than Mikhail Dragovich, the Boss of the Dragovich Family, come to meet his old friend.
