High-Level Camouflage (1)
The wolves led by Giovanni and Sarina.
Added to that were the experienced Vanella, who had climbed from the bottom of the organization all the way to caporegime, and his subordinates.
From the protesters’ point of view, it was like a bolt from the blue.
“You’re not going to overdo it, are you?”
“Then why send the wolves in the first place?”
“No, it should be fine. Sarina might be a problem, but Giovanni’s with her.”
Somehow both Giovanni and Vanella had ended up going along, but Giovanni’s presence put my mind at ease. If Sarina was a runaway train, Giovanni was the emergency brake.
But there was one thing I hadn’t anticipated.
That there weren’t one but two runaway trains.
Ding-dong—!
The moment the elevator reached the first floor, the three who had come down from the restaurant moved out with their subordinates.
“What the hell do these bastards think this place is, some goddamn amusement park?!”
Vanella shouted first. His face was savage, the kind of expression that told you exactly how brutal the road he had walked had been.
At the appearance of Vanella and the wolves, the protesters faltered. They might have been armed, but they were no match for criminals hardened by years of killing.
And above all—
“What are you waiting for? Break every bone in their bodies! Make their mothers scream!”
“Hold on!”
Sarina, who was every bit as vicious as Vanella if not more so, sprang into action.
“No guns!”
Giovanni had set one condition to prevent the worst outcome. It didn’t carry much weight.
Just as Sarina ordered, she and the wolves—using everything but actual firearms—set about shattering every bone they could reach with baseball bats, brass knuckles, and an assortment of blades.
“Hahaha! Where do you think you’re running, you piece of shit!”
....
When even Vanella and his men joined in with glee, the situation flipped in an instant.
The only one left sweating was Giovanni, who was already wondering how he would explain this mess to his boss and older brother.
Not that he needed to.
Elena, Felicia, and I watched the entire spectacle from the windows on the restaurant floor.
“They’re not going to kill all of them, are they?”
“No. They’re not stupid enough to cross that line.”
Felicia nodded at my words, but the longer she watched the wolves, the more doubt clouded her face.
“That much is fine. Those idiots need a proper lesson.”
Elena went on to mention one of the businesses run by our Fellini Family and the other crime organizations—territory protection.
In exchange for collecting protection money from our people in the area, we provided the service that let them feel truly safe.
In this case, with protesters suddenly storming the port, we were protecting our own.
“If we hesitate to show bastards like that what happens when they run wild in our territory, who’s going to trust us?”
Exactly. I hoped they learned the lesson that acting like mad dogs in our district ended exactly like this.
....
Felicia seemed to accept the logic in Elena’s words and offered no further argument.
Besides, Elena was the boss of the Fellini Family. Felicia couldn’t interfere with her decisions.
“Elena, there’s something I need to discuss with you.”
“What is it?”
“The wolves. Once I take charge of the Academy, I can’t bring every single one of them with me.”
“...So what do you want to do?”
“I’ll take Sarina and the wolves under her. Giovanni and Carso’s wolves will stay at the port and follow your orders.”
“Will that be all right?”
At Elena’s question, Felicia looked at me in silence.
Staring into those deep eyes, I couldn’t begin to guess what she was thinking.
“Luke.”
Of course Elena had no intention of letting me keep gazing at her.
“You’re the boss now. It’s only natural.”
“Luke, exactly how many wolves does Sarina have?”
Suddenly Felicia wanted the precise number of wolves I planned to take to the Academy.
As the eldest daughter of the Marinelli Family, I wondered if it was wise to tell her. But she was my wife just the same.
“All together, thirty or forty.”
“Isn’t that too few?”
“He’s right, Luke. That’s definitely too few.”
For once the two of them agreed. Of course I had never planned to control the entire vast Academy with such a small force.
“That’s why I’m bringing others as well. Elena, I’ll take all the wolves currently in training too.”
It got confusing with all the talk of wolves, but the ones I referred to were the orphans the five families of this city had raised to serve as their executioners.
After my father rose above the five families, our Fellini Family had begun training wolves professionally.
“How many are there in total?”
“Around thirty.”
“...All right. Do it.”
“And I’ll take some of the useful ones from the Goleman crew as well.”
“The Goleman crew?”
Because I was born with a small frame, I had been forced to master all kinds of dirty tricks to subdue men who were stronger and larger than me.
But some needed no such tricks.
Especially among the Goleman organization members, there were plenty like that—monsters whose physiques were simply a gift of birth.
“I don’t know how many useful ones there will be, but if I add the Academy faculty union members… we should clear a hundred easily.”
“That’s almost the size of an entire family.”
Elena’s words made me tense for a moment. I wondered if she thought the force I was gathering at the Academy was too large.
....
Felicia seemed to think the same—that Elena would never permit me that scale of power.
“Fine. Do it.”
“...Really?”
“On one condition. Next Sunday you choose me.”
“What, you want to beat me that badly?”
“No. I simply want to spend time with Luke. What happens to you is none of my concern.”
“Actually, same here.”
....
When Elena occasionally lost control of her temper and came on strong, Felicia was a master at deflecting it with feigned innocence.
“Both of you, enough.”
I took their hands so they wouldn’t wound each other.
....
....
Whenever this happened, they would glare at each other while silently focusing on my touch.
It felt like the uneasy peace of the interwar years, but peace was still peace.
I could finally understand, at least a little, how that British prime minister felt when he signed the agreement with the German who had the funny mustache and declared “peace for our time.”
“Miss. Luke.”
Anthony Salmo, the family’s consigliere, approached us.
It has a nice ring to it.
The way Salmo quickly called out to both Elena and me sounded almost like a melody.
“Since Botari is dead, the young miss’s subordinates arrested at the Academy should be released soon.”
“Right. As soon as they return, put them in charge of port management.”
“Understood. I’ll make the arrangements.”
Salmo knew exactly what his job was and never overstepped. The same had been true when he defended our family in court. He really was his father’s son.
“Luke, once my men return, we’ll have more breathing room at the port. What do you think?”
“About what?”
“You could take more of your own men from the port.”
....
She was willing to pull even more manpower? I wondered if Elena was serious.
“Elena, you had about thirty men arrested, right?”
“Yes. That’s why I’m saying it.”
She was offering to let me pull another twenty or so from the port district under my command.
“Only that many?”
“Elena. It’s good to secure the Academy as our territory, but I also have to worry about you and the port.”
My father was dead. Killed by one of the five—now four—families.
There was no guarantee the same thing wouldn’t happen to Elena. Vincent Lumini, the Russo Family, and various factions both inside and outside the family might be plotting to seize the port.
“This is enough. There are still plenty of people at the Academy willing to cooperate with us.”
“All right.”
That was how our general policy regarding the Academy was decided.
The protesters who had recklessly stormed the port learned a very harsh lesson—that despite the Godfather’s death, the Fellini Family was still very much alive and strong.
“Stop! Everyone stop! Pull back now!”
After venting their rage to their hearts’ content, both Sarina and Vanella obeyed Giovanni’s order.
I then asked Zakaya, the Goleman boss, whether he had any suitable organization members I could take to the Academy.
“Mr. Luke, what do you think of my younger brother?”
Since Zakaya mentioned that his brother was downstairs, I had him called up to the restaurant.
....
“It is a true honor to meet you.”
I never expected another alligator-man of similar size to the former Goleman boss I had dealt with—what was his name, Nierele or something.
But the impression was completely different.
This one seemed far more intelligent. His clothes were neat and he even wore glasses, which probably contributed to the feeling.
“Your name?”
“Kambara Zakaya.”
He apparently handled accounting duties within the Goleman organization.
“Accounting with that build?”
“Luke.”
Elena worried my comment might sound like racial discrimination.
“It is rather difficult, to be honest. Finding tools suited to our species isn’t easy.”
“I suppose that makes sense.”
I asked Zakaya to hand over his younger brother and a few other subordinates.
I was giving the guys who had been fooling around on the city outskirts a chance to shine in the city—specifically at the Academy.
Zakaya agreed, and I laid out several conditions. His brother Kambara was, of course, automatically accepted.
*
The next day was Monday.
Today was Elena’s day to have me all to herself.
“Get out.”
“...Seriously. Isn’t this a bit much?”
What Elena did first thing in the morning was shove Felicia, who had been sleeping with me in her suite, right out of the bed.
When the two looked ready to fight again at dawn, I pulled both of them into my arms without even fully waking up.
Because I had been half-asleep, I didn’t remember clearly what happened afterward.
I only remembered that evening, when Elena began leaving her marks on my shoulder while I slept soundly.
“Elena, if you bite that hard it’ll scar.”
“...That’s why I’m doing it.”
Elena’s feelings were complicated. She didn’t want to hurt her older brother and husband, yet the desire to mark me as hers was stronger.
Of course, pain of that level was nothing to me.
I had undergone all kinds of training under my father, including sessions on how not to spill information if I were ever captured by enemies.
Elena, who wasn’t a wolf, wouldn’t know about that part.
Then Tuesday arrived. Felicia came early in the morning to drag me to her own suite.
....
Still half-asleep, I let her pull me along and lay down again on the bed in her room.
....
“Hev, come here.”
Felicia looked at me lying on her bed with satisfaction, then suddenly called for Hev.
The giant silkmoth flew straight onto my stomach the moment its name was spoken.
“What is it?”
“Luke, what are these marks?”
“It’s nothing.”
“Elena did this, didn’t she?”
....
My silence was as good as confirmation.
“Well, I don’t mind. After all, I’m the one who loves you most.”
With those words, Felicia used Hev to cleanly erase the scars Elena had left on my body.
“...Felicia. I thought you said you didn’t mind?”
....
But that Tuesday evening, Felicia completely forgot what she had said in the morning and left marks on my other shoulder identical to Elena’s.
She was a descendant of the golden dragon—in other words, a dragonian. Naturally her teeth were far more vicious than an elf’s.
Before we knew it, Wednesday had come.
When Elena saw the marks Felicia had left—worse than her own—she looked ready to tear her apart immediately.
“Elena, wait.”
“Let go! I’m going to rip that bitch’s mouth open!”
The exquisite moment I caught Elena as she tried to storm out of the room—the telephone began to ring loudly.
"Boss, do you have a moment right now?"
While still holding Elena back, I listened as Carso explained the situation. A famous movie actor had requested an interview with me because he wanted reference material for a film he was about to appear in.
“What does that crazy bastard want now?”
My thoughts exactly matched Elena’s.
“All right. Go ahead and schedule it.”
Still, this wasn’t a bad opportunity.
It was perfect for disguising myself to the five families—and the entire city—as an idiot who did nothing but fool around with movie actors instead of avenging my father.
After hearing my intentions, Elena finally seemed convinced.
“Even so, I’m still going to beat Felicia.”
“Ah, Elena, please…”