The day with Felicita passed, and the day with Elena returned.
Waking up early, I finished getting ready to head to Elena’s Room. Before I left Felicita’s Room, I checked on the animals one last time and gently kissed her sleeping face.
She seemed so tired that she didn’t react at all to my action.
At that moment.
Felicita suddenly grabbed my arm. It was definitely a time she usually wouldn’t be awake.
“Felicita, you were awake?”
“…Luke, hold on. Are you leaving already?”
Felicita asked, checking the time on the clock hung on the wall. Despite that, she didn’t let go of my arm.
“Yeah, it’s about time to go.”
“Still, I bet Elena is not even awake yet.”
With that, Felicita intentionally loosened her disheveled nightgown that she wore while sleeping.
“…”
Just then, the morning sunlight shone on her, adding life to her stunning golden hair.
When the sun had turned its back on me, I recalled those moments when she suddenly came to me and we shared our affection.
“Luke, hurry up.”
Felicita seemed anxious because there was no reaction from me despite her advances. Since I was already struggling with my thoughts, I didn’t resist her strong tug.
How much time had passed?
It was definitely time when Elena must have already woken up.
While I finished my bath and got ready to return to Elena’s Room, Felicita was still lying on the bed.
Clad in nothing but a thread, she looked quite provocative. Moreover, she was thoroughly enjoying my gaze.
“Luke, how about it? I feel much better than your sister, right?”
“Feli, let’s not go there.”
Anyway, she was such a mischievous girl.
“Give me one last kiss before you go.”
“…You’ve become even more clingy since getting pregnant.”
“Really? …Maybe.”
Felicita replied like that while enjoying a brief kiss with me.
“I’ll be off now. If you feel anything unusual with your body, let me know right away.”
“Yeah, I will.”
Shortly after I left Felicita’s Room, a phone call came in for her.
“Hello, who is this?”
“Miss, it’s me.”
The voice on the other end of the receiver was loud and coarse.
The caller turned out to be an associate from the Rat Hole responsible for Felicita. Previously, the Felini Family had acquired a large amount of information from the Rat Hole through the Wolf, Giovanni.
At that time, Felicita had advised her adorable husband.
The information from the Rat Hole was merely for reference. However, it was certainly helpful to know the flow of events.
Moreover, Felicita had been using the Rat Hole before the Felini Family.
And the Rat Hole was treating Felicita like a VIP, assigning her a dedicated associate.
While she didn’t use it that often to warrant VIP treatment, she was an influential figure in the Marinelli Family, one of the Five Families.
“We have received information that you might be interested in regarding our Rat Hole.”
“Really? Then can you send someone over to convey it?”
“Yes! Understood, Miss!”
The associate tried to be polite but couldn’t help the loudness of their voice. Her response implied that she was willing to purchase information from them.
According to the associate’s explanation, there were two crucial pieces of information.
One was related to Felicita’s husband, Luke Felini, and the other was about an incident in the southern part of the city.
While Felicita finished her call with the Rat Hole associates, I had just entered my and Elena’s Room.
“Luke, why are you so late?”
“Oh, I had something to take care of.”
“…You hadn’t met that woman, had you?”
Elena quickly approached me and began sniffing my body. Thankfully, I had just bathed, so there was nothing to catch me on.
“Did you take a bath?”
Of course, my having bathed was enough for her to raise suspicions of something having happened.
“Did you really not meet that woman?”
“Elena, something did happen yesterday, but I think Felicita was a bit tired. She fell asleep before we could do anything.”
“…Got it.”
Elena eased her suspicion upon hearing my words. Although, truth be told, Felicita and I had had our fun after waking up.
In any case, I managed to deceive Elena.
Feeling a little guilty, I gave her a gentle hug.
“Luke?”
At that, Elena flushed and hugged me even tighter.
“I had a lot to talk about anyway.”
“Yeah, right.”
There were confirmations needed regarding Viola and the newly allocated territories too.
“Let’s settle things with Viola first.”
Viola Carmen, her territory, Anglewood, was initially supposed to be taken over by the Russo Family.
However, due to her involvement, it became her territory ahead of schedule.
Yesterday, while Elena fainted for a moment, Viola had contacted her directly to inform her. I shared this with Elena.
What mattered was what came after that.
I had an idea that I had in mind.
We succeeded in bringing the Russo Family to its knees, and the control of Anglewood was complete. But we couldn’t stop there.
We needed to leverage this momentum to take control of the rest of the northeastern territories, and Viola seemed the most suitable person to oversee that series of movements.
I asked Elena what she thought about putting Antonio Alini and Jacob Dread under Viola’s command to manage the northeastern takeover.
“Only Viola?”
“It’s fine to attach someone to monitor her separately.”
“I think the Russos might get sensitive about it… but yeah, anyway, we need to clean up the northeastern part.”
“If they act out, we have more than enough justification.”
Alini and Dread, given their territory, were intertwined with other organizations in the northeast in collaboration and opposition.
We could leverage these existing interests and claim a justification for consolidating the northeast before they could hinder the Russo Family’s support in case of emergencies.
In order to fight against dangerous elements like the Vipers, the Russo Family’s assistance was essential.
I decided to move according to my plan regarding Viola and the northeastern territories. Elena chose Giovanni and his pack of Wolves as monitors for Viola.
Those guys would act as both monitors and firefighters to help Viola.
“Now, let’s talk about something else. Let’s start with Granada.”
“Is there any news?”
“Yeah, looks like he’s expanding his territory.”
With that explosive handling skills, I didn’t think there was much to worry about. The issue was that using explosives attracted too much public attention.
“So that guy’s territory must be a total inferno by now.”
“No, not really. He’s seemingly saving his explosives and expanding slowly.”
“…Really? That’s a bit unexpected.”
It seemed Elena thought the same as I did.
Next, the place Elena brought up was Greenbug. Greenbug was occupied by the Gollymen, while the surrounding area was under the rule of Eccelotti, who was one of Elena’s underlings.
The clashes between those two Caporegimes were still ongoing. Surely, Elena would have warned them again since there had been signs of conflict before.
“At least it’s a relief it hasn’t clashed with Marinelli.”
“Yeah, but it’s not good that the border area with Marinelli is getting noisy.”
Elena seemed to have no intention of letting the disturbances around Greenbug and its surroundings continue anymore.
“Should we deal with both?”
I felt sorry for Kambara, but if necessary, there was no helping it.
“No, we’ll only deal with Eccelotti.”
“…Huh?”
Elena said that Eccelotti had provoked Zakaya pretty harshly this time. Normally, Eccelotti would poke at the passive Zakaya.
“It’s your underling, will it be okay?”
“Luke, because he’s my underling, this is happening. Doesn’t Eccelotti know my personality?”
In short, Eccelotti had committed this act while fully aware of the boss’s character.
He repeatedly disobeyed orders from the boss and ended up causing clashes with other Caporegimes, almost impacting relationships with other Families.
‘There’s plenty of justification.’
“Should I go myself?”
“It’d be nice if you could, but… are you okay?”
“Rather, it seems more fitting. I’ll approach to mediate the conflict between Eccelotti and Zakaya.”
“Alright, let’s proceed that way.”
The boss and the underboss. The influential figures of the family agreed on Eccelotti’s death.
“Elena, what about Eccelotti’s territory?”
“I’m thinking of handing it all over to the Gollymen.”
The Gollymen’s members, the alligator men and shark men, were quite a force.
However, Elena said she would only hand it over after ensuring they could bring more members from the outskirts of the city into Greenbug.
There was no reason for me to refuse Elena’s plan. It was rather good news to share with Kambara.
*
“I have something to discuss regarding the central part of the city.”
“Right, those Nun Robbers.”
“There’s been some progress with them.”
“Oh really?”
It seemed that while my two wives and I made some moves yesterday, some situation changed. It was clear Elena was only now mentioning that change to me.
“First, the location of that gang is in the northeastern part of Lumini’s territory.”
“Did Lumini move first?”
“Yeah. But those quick bastards didn’t fully catch them.”
“Do we have a grasp on where they are now?”
“South of Banella’s territory. I’m not entirely sure, but judging by the direction they moved, they should be around there.”
Learning from Lumini’s failure to catch the Nun Robbers, it seemed they were planning to fully take them down this time through a collaboration between Banella and Lumini.
“I don’t think you need to get involved.”
The fact that they escaped Lumini’s attack was likely just luck. But now that Banella had joined in, their luck should be running out.
“I think so too, but… you never know.”
Elena said she planned to send her underlings to the boundary between Banella and her territory.
This was to preemptively block any escape the gang might make into Elena’s territory.
“But Hagen didn’t specifically say to capture them alive?”
“He didn’t say anything like that. In the first place, Hagen and Bishop Smith wouldn’t make such demands.”
Unless the grudge was clear. Moreover, Hagen was a businessman, while Bishop Smith was a clergyman. Such people wouldn’t deal directly with targets.
“Then I’ll tell Banella and Lumini to handle it as planned.”
“Alright.”
I also had preparations to make for dealing with Eccelotti.
“Are you leaving already?”
“I’m just going to the Academy for a bit. I need to prepare to deal with Eccelotti.”
“…Got it.”
After a reluctant farewell from Elena, she got to work on what she needed to do.
She informed Eccelotti and Zakaya that an underboss would soon visit to mediate the conflict between the two.
Both Caporegimes would surely have similar thoughts.
The one to profit from this mediation would be themselves.
