Nothing Yet Everything (1)
The Academy. It was nothing, yet it was everything.
When my father, Vito Fellini, first sank his teeth into the throats of the five families, this place became one of the family’s earliest territories alongside the port. But the real money only started pouring in after I took charge of it. Come to think of it, one reporter once described what I’d done here in rather dramatic fashion: “The Academy’s administrators joined hands with the mafia to build a vast criminal empire!”
An empire? I thought that was a little excessive. All I did was supply the services the Academy demanded. Ambitious students paid a set fee and could breeze through their master’s and doctoral programs without much pain. Professors received generous compensation instead of having to wring their students dry. And our family earned the war chest we needed to fight the five families. A world where everyone was happy. I had accomplished what even the villains in those comic books could never manage.
At first, quite a few professors recoiled in disgust, asking if I was trying to buy them. But once I handed over sums large enough to silence their scruples, they became our friends. Of course, there were a few who held out until the end. The goblin professor I was meeting right now was exactly that kind of man.
“I appreciate your cooperation last time, Professor.”
“Not at all, Mr. Luke.”
He was now a faithful collaborator, but back when Professor Bottari of the humanities department rebelled against our family, Vier Kalma had only pretended to side with Bottari while actually feeding us information. Naturally, he hadn’t told us everything. For instance, he’d failed to mention that the Russo Family was trying to seize the Academy while we were distracted.
“By the way, are you taking over management of the Academy again, Mr. Luke?”
“Professor.”
“Ah, my apologies.”
Managing the Academy? What kind of conspiracy-theory nonsense was that? I was merely the vice president of the Academy faculty union.
“It’s fine. Since things have changed, please don’t get confused from now on.”
The professor took the business card I offered, nodded as if he understood perfectly, and slipped it into his pocket.
“I intend to restart the businesses that were suspended.”
“...Is there anything else I can assist with?”
“I’d like you to fill the vacancy left by Professor Bottari, who is no longer with us.”
“It doesn’t seem I have much choice, does it?”
This was the same man who had rejected my recruitment attempts multiple times before. Now he was reading the situation and responding appropriately without me even having to spell it out. Quite the leap forward.
“It’ll be better for both sides this way.”
“Understood.”
He was already an associate of our Fellini Family. Not a made man, but there was no doubt he shared our fate now.
“First, I want to discuss two issues.”
“Please go ahead.”
Before resuming operations at the Academy, I planned to shift the fundamental direction of how we ran things. I started with the issue most closely tied to the students.
“I want to lower the cost of degree purchases a bit from current levels.”
“....”
“How much are the current fees?”
“It varies by department, but they generally run around three thousand pounds.”
“What about law and medicine?”
“I’m not certain, but from what I heard from Professor Bottari, both departments exceeded four thousand pounds.”
“That’s quite a bit higher than when I was managing things.”
“Yes, quite a lot of time has passed.”
I suspected Elena’s influence. She had wanted to prove to our father that she could run the Academy just as well. The problem was that her method involved squeezing it for every last drop. Still, she was my beloved wife now. I decided not to dwell on her faults.
“Do you have a specific reduction in mind?”
“Yes. Please inform all the professors that degree fees should be lowered by about five hundred pounds.”
“Even for law and medicine?”
“For those two, we’ll reduce by seven hundred pounds.”
That still left them at around thirty-three hundred. When I had managed the Academy it was thirty-one hundred, so I was willing to concede the extra two hundred.
“Mr. Luke, this may be out of line, but… if you lower the degree fees, the professors will complain bitterly.”
“Tell them not to worry about that. We’ll be raising the price of the drugs.”
It was the same trick my old world called “giving with one hand and taking with the other.” I moved on to the second issue with the professor: the drug price increase. I would raise it to one and a half times the current rate for now, with plans to increase it further over time.
“Then for the professors…”
“We’ll give them a cut of the drug sales to fill their pockets.”
After that, the professor stopped raising any objections about his colleagues’ dissatisfaction. Student complaints? What could they possibly do to us?
Roughly twenty of my subordinates from the port. About thirty Wolves from Sarina’s Fangs. Around thirty wolf trainees who hadn’t finished their education yet. Ten or so Gulliman organization members who came with Cambara. And approximately fifty members of the Academy faculty union. In total, about one hundred and forty combatants were holding position with me at the Academy. This count didn’t even include union members who weren’t yet our associates. Even those who weren’t directly tied to us could be mobilized anytime since we controlled the union.
Professor Vier Kalma hurried away. He needed to relay my decisions to the other faculty members. After he left, I headed to the union office located on the Academy grounds.
Just as the family’s made men showed respect to me as underboss, everywhere I went the Academy’s professors, staff, and students bowed their heads in deference. The vice president’s office inside the union building was my office, since I was the vice president.
“Ah, boss.”
“What’s going on? Where’s Sarina?”
When I opened the door, Cambara greeted me. He seemed to have grown somewhat accustomed to working under me. Even the way he addressed me had changed to “boss.”
“Sister left for a moment to handle a small problem that came up.”
“Sarina went herself?”
It must have been something serious. Cambara explained that it wasn’t anything major, but the moment Sarina heard about it she had rushed off.
Ah, I get it now.
After we drove off even the Russo Family, there was almost nothing left for her and the Wolves to do at the Academy. She probably just wanted to stretch her muscles, and the moment an opportunity appeared she had jumped on it.
“Cambara, that goblin professor will be handling the faculty from now on.”
“A goblin? Wait, the professor whose race is goblin… his name is…”
“Kalma.”
“Ah, Vier Kalma. He’s in the same humanities department as the previous one.”
“That’s right.”
Cambara quickly grasped the minor personnel change, and I summarized what I had discussed with Professor Kalma.
“Boss, besides lowering the degree purchase fees, are you planning to touch the exam-passing bribes at all?”
“Leave that alone. We should give the professors some breathing room.”
The exam-passing bribes and degree fees Cambara mentioned were the professors’ main sources of criminal income. Even though we gave them a share of the drug sales, it still wasn’t enough to call it their primary revenue. In fact, those bribes were what had drawn my attention to the Academy in the first place. One of the Wolves under me had somehow started dating an Academy professor, and she had told him that children from wealthy upper-class families were offering enormous bribes to pass their exams.
That sounds like it could make decent money.
That was how it all began, eventually developing into what the press called a criminal empire.
While I was chatting with Cambara, someone knocked on the office door.
“Come in.”
“Vice President, there are students outside asking to see you.”
“Send them away.”
“Understood.”
The union member quickly closed the door after hearing my order.
“Boss, are you sure you don’t need to meet them?”
“No need. It’s obvious what they want.”
Among the Academy students were those who sold drugs to their peers. They were essentially our underlings. They had probably caught wind of the upcoming price increase through the grapevine and come running. But I needed to make it clear that just because they wanted to see me didn’t mean they could.
“Mr. Luke! Please wait!”
A desperate voice calling my name came from beyond the office door, but I didn’t react at all. Eventually the union members must have pushed them out, because the office grew quiet again.
Just as I was enjoying the returned peace, the telephone on my desk suddenly began ringing loudly.
“....”
Since a direct approach hadn’t worked, it seemed the students had resorted to calling me. I picked up the receiver, ready to hear what nonsense they would spout this time.
"Luke."
“Ah, Elena. What’s the matter?”
But the person who had actually called wasn’t a student—it was Elena. Well, she had been an Academy student once too. While my father and I were out hunting the bastards marked by the five families, she had received various educations here and lived in comfort. Father had wanted her, at least, to live a different life from ours. I felt the same way.
“Nothing much. I was just wondering how things are at the Academy.”
I couldn’t exactly say, I just eased up a little on the way you were squeezing the Academy dry.
“No major problems. I should have full control soon, and we’ll be able to start proper drug sales before long.”
“Really? That’s good to hear.”
“Elena, is something wrong?”
“Huh? No, it’s nothing like that. It’s just…”
I waited patiently for her to finish.
“There’s this famous black painter these days. I was thinking maybe we could have him paint your portrait.”
“My portrait?”
It wasn’t a bad idea. Her father had just died, yet her so-called son was meeting actors from mafia movies and now commissioning portraits from black painters. Even I had to admit it made me look utterly pathetic.
“It wouldn’t be bad for maintaining our cover.”
“It would also look good hanging next to Father’s portrait in the hotel restaurant.”
“…Yeah, that sounds good too.”
Elena seemed to want to keep talking, but she wasn’t exactly free either.
“I’ll see you later then.”
“Okay.”
After the call with Elena ended, Cambara asked, “Was that from the young lady?”
I answered honestly. “Yeah. She wants to commission a portrait of me from that black painter.”
“From a black painter?”
“Better than one of the other races, I suppose.”
“Hahaha! True enough.”
The hierarchy of races in this city was simple. Among humans, whites stood at the very top, while the numerous other races were at the very bottom. Blacks occupied the middle ground. In the world I came from, blacks had suffered at the hands of whites, and here they did the same thing to the other races—venting the discrimination and humiliation they received from whites onto them.
“W-wait a moment!”
The area outside the office suddenly became noisy again.
“Are those the same kids from before?”
I thought the students were attempting another direct assault. But when the door opened, what appeared was a blood-soaked Sarina.
“…Sarina?”
“Ah, this isn’t my blood.”
No, I don’t think that’s the important part right now.