This Is the Academy! (1)
One small favor from the financial king, Hagen. He wanted his nephew and his nephew’s friends to have a drug-free sanctuary inside the Academy. After confirming the request through Salmo, we unanimously decided to grant it. Truth be told, it didn’t feel like we had any other choice.
While I phoned the wolves stationed at the Academy, Elena and Felicia seized the momentary absence of a mediator to start another round of their favorite pastime: verbal sparring.
“Elena, mind if I borrow your brother this Sunday?”
“Stealing another woman’s husband must be quite the thrill. What terrible taste.”
“He’s my husband too now, so I’d appreciate it if you didn’t look at it so negatively.”
“....”
Their little wars of nerves nearly always ended in Felicia’s victory, just like today. Elena glared at her as though she wanted to rip her throat out, and normally that look would be followed by a bit of casual violence. Felicia stood ready to counter at any second, practically daring her to make the first move… but Elena simply stared down at her with open contempt.
“...?”
It was the look of someone utterly certain that nothing Felicia did could ever shake what she and I shared. That, of course, only pissed Felicia off more. Whatever had happened between us, it was clearly tied to me. Felicia decided she would settle things once and for all this Sunday. After all, she wasn’t the only one who wanted me all to herself.
While my two wives were busy sniping at each other, I contacted Sarina and Cambara. I ordered the wolves to take immediate measures regarding Hagen’s nephew and his friends—specifically, to warn the student brokers and have both wolves and regular crew keep a close eye on them.
After hanging up, I tossed the words over my shoulder as if it were nothing.
“Elena, Felicia. I’m heading to the Academy for a bit.”
“...Is it necessary?”
“It’s about time we cleaned up the whole area around the Academy properly.”
The interior was already secured by roughly 140 men under my command, and the western district was being swept by one of the family’s caporegimes, Vanella. Still, we needed to move more aggressively. Especially with the Marinelli Family—which currently split Greenbug with another faction—potentially pushing upward.
“A shame, but it can’t be helped.”
Today was Tuesday, which meant it was supposed to be Felicia’s day. True to form, she drew a strict line between business and pleasure and simply told me not to worry.
“I’ll make sure I’m not back too late.”
“All right. I’ll be waiting.”
“....”
While Felicia and I spoke, Elena simply watched me in silence. The look in her eyes was so tender that anyone would have noticed. Felicia, naturally, refused to let it pass.
“You know how intimidating it is when someone your size stares like that, right?”
“Shut your mouth.”
“And try not to fight while I’m gone.”
As I headed for the Academy, I decided I should leave instructions with Carso and Armo.
“Ugh, no way. People are going to think we fight every single day,” Felicia grumbled playfully.
“Luke, see you later.”
Felicia kept up her light teasing while I gave the orders; Elena, as usual, ignored her completely and kept her gaze fixed on me. The three of us had been living in this strange arrangement for several weeks now, yet the tension between my wives showed no sign of easing.
....
Our relationship had moved far beyond improvement—it was practically drowning in love. That was the real problem.
When I climbed into the armored car outside the Rufus Carlton Hotel, Sarina and Cambara were already racing after another vehicle somewhere across town.
“Big Sis! Are we really supposed to keep chasing them?!”
“What the hell else would we do?! Floor it, you idiot!”
Right after receiving my call, Sarina and Cambara had passed my orders down to the wolves and crew under their command. Then, restless as always, Sarina had dragged Cambara out on patrol inside the Academy grounds and spotted something that set her blood boiling—students dealing drugs who weren’t even registered brokers.
“Run!”
The dealers had enough distance to reach their car and peel out. Sarina and Cambara jumped into their own vehicle a moment later and gave chase.
“I said step on it!”
“Big Sis! We’re going to crash at this rate!”
While the wolf behind the wheel debated whether to obey, the car ahead suddenly swerved and slammed straight into a streetlight near the Academy.
“Stupid bastards. They crashed all by themselves.”
The tires of their pursuers’ car screamed as it skidded to a halt. Sarina and Cambara were out in an instant, approaching the wrecked vehicle. The front end was a mangled wreck. The windshield had shattered completely on impact, and the occupants were still dazed.
“Cambara, you handle it this time.”
“M-me?”
Dealing with trash like this had grown unbearably tedious for Sarina and the wolves. Cambara, on the other hand, had only handled taxes and accounting back when he worked for the Gullyman gang. He had never killed anyone. That didn’t mean he was a stranger to violence—there were plenty of ways to vent it without taking a life.
“Start with the driver.”
The man in the driver’s seat seemed to be clinging to consciousness by a thread. Blood streamed down his forehead, but he could only shake his head uselessly.
“Kill him already, Cambara.”
“....”
Sarina’s cold order reached the man inside as well. The click of a pistol being drawn made him summon every ounce of strength he had left.
“N-no, please! Don’t! Fuck, I don’t want to di—”
BANG—!
The muzzle of Cambara’s gun trembled, but the shot that rang out didn’t come from it. Smoke never left his barrel. The gunshot had come from Sarina’s weapon.
“Cambara, if you hesitate to clean up scum like this, what are you going to do? These bastards will kill you the second you flinch! Stop thinking and just pull the damn trigger!”
With that, Sarina dispatched the passenger as well.
“....”
Cambara couldn’t tear his eyes away from the corpses.
“Goddammit, Cambara. Get a grip.”
Sarina didn’t look at him with contempt so much as pity. The underworld of this city was no place for the unprepared.
“Yes, ma’am…”
“Let’s get out of here before the cops show up.”
They climbed back into their own car, leaving two bodies behind at the scene.
By the time I reached the Academy, the pair was already waiting inside the union office to greet me.
“Luke, one moment.”
Sarina said she had something to report anyway. She gave me a full, precise account of the incident and the victims without needing to be prompted.
“Those guys really had no fear at all.”
“No kidding.”
With the kind of force we had at the Academy, only a death wish could explain trying something so stupid. It was as if the newest fashionable suicide method in this city had become “mess with the Academy.”
Well, it’s not the worst outcome.
I hadn’t even begun my father’s revenge, too busy meeting with movie stars and commissioning paintings from black artists. It was only natural they would underestimate me.
“There won’t be any problems, right?” Sarina asked.
“Shouldn’t be. There weren’t any witnesses, were there?”
Besides, dead men couldn’t testify. The chance that Sarina or Cambara would be identified as the killers was essentially zero. Once I confirmed there were no loose ends, it was time to put my plan into motion.
“Sarina. Get every single one of the Fangs ready.”
“Understood.”
Sarina never bothered asking why. If anything, the earlier incident had left her itching for more action. She had roughly thirty wolves in the Fangs under her command, plus the thirty wolf trainees I had brought to the Academy. We would start with those sixty. Any shortfall in numbers could be filled by Vanella’s subordinates.
“How far should we go?”
“Entering the city center is still too much, so clean up everything up to the river.”
“That sounds reasonable.”
“Boss, up to the river means…”
Seeing Cambara’s reaction, I clarified.
“We need to take all of River West.”
River West was the crucial corridor leading into the city center. Between the river and the port lay South Woodlawn, where the Academy stood. In simple terms, this operation would let us completely seize the South Woodlawn region and push our influence into River West.
“Cambara, contact Vanella.”
“Yes, sir.”
“Luke, then how should we handle the organizations in River West and South Woodlawn?”
It was unusual to see Sarina—who normally handled things on her own—asking for directions so persistently.
“I want to conserve our strength, so focus on the leaders. Take the heads and absorb the rest.”
“...That way we won’t get to have much fun.”
“There’ll be plenty of fun once we reach the city center.”
“Ah.”
Sarina reacted as though she had suddenly grasped the bigger picture. It might not be entertaining right now, but seeing the larger strategy mattered more. We would deal with the other organizations in River West and South Woodlawn, but instead of wiping them out, we would absorb them into our own forces. No matter how strong our wolves were, nothing beat numbers and money in a war.
“Oh, Luke. This is something Giovanni mentioned recently…”
I wasn’t particularly interested in whatever Giovanni had said, but the part about the Ratmen learning that the financial king Hagen had begun sponsoring us caught my attention.
“He thinks we might be able to buy information on the other five families from the Rat’s Den.”
“From the Rat’s Den? Is he sure?”
The Rat’s Den was the vast information network run by the city’s Ratmen—an organization perfectly named for them. I didn’t know what basis Giovanni had for the claim, but any information on the five families was worth pursuing.
“Tell Giovanni to approach them.”
Thanks to Hagen’s sponsorship, we had more than enough money to cover the information fees.