Descendants of the Golden Dragon (2)
Before I headed to the Dragon Hill Hotel, the Marinelli Family’s headquarters, a man who had offered unwavering loyalty to his dead father arrived at the port with his subordinates. His name was Richard Banella. His real name was Ricardo Banella. He was one of the caporegimes managing a separate district near the Academy. He had long been famous under the nickname of the Madman.
Mafia nicknames are usually earned for all sorts of reasons. In his case, the label fit because he had done a great many abnormal things.
When Banella was still a regular made man, an order came down. He was to travel to a city other than Hevilly. The job was to teach a certain man a lesson—the man who had slept with the wife of a made man from the Fellini Family.
Handing the task to the cuckolded husband himself would have been predictable. He would have killed the adulterer and kept going. That was why a third party had to step in.
Banella was given a deliveryman’s uniform and a suitable truck, then drove to the adulterer’s house. He knocked on the door with a package in his arms. Posing as a deliveryman is one of the mafia’s oldest and most reliable tricks. People rarely suspect someone who claims to have a parcel for them. Even if they never ordered anything, curiosity usually wins.
“A delivery?”
But the person who opened the door was not the adulterer. It was a woman who appeared to be part of his family.
“Out of my way!”
Banella shoved her aside, stormed inside, and found the man. He pressed a knife to his throat and tied him to a large billiard table.
“Wait, what the hell is this?”
“I’m delivering the punishment that matches what you’ve done, you son of a bitch.”
In one swift motion he yanked the man’s pants down and sliced off his testicles. As Banella himself later described it, the spray of blood happened to splatter across two nearby billiard balls. Acts like that were exactly why everyone called him the Madman.
“I’ve got no personal feelings about it. Just doing the job.”
After finishing his work, that was all Banella had said.
“Banella. It’s been a while.”
“Mr. Luke!”
I welcomed him and his men without hesitation. He was far more reliable than Lumini. The only strange thing was the way he kept sticking his tongue out and pulling it back in.
“....”
The wolves around him told him to stop, but I let it pass. With that in mind, it seemed wiser to put him in charge of defending either the north or south side of the port instead of Lumini. I had Carso relay the suggestion to Elena. She was still asleep.
On the way from the port to the hotel, the memory of sleeping beside Elena kept resurfacing. It was practically the first time since we became husband and wife. The feeling was oddly delicate. I didn’t dislike it, but it felt awkward.
In truth I had never been especially fond of Elena. She possessed the same black hair and the same red eyes as my father. It was impossible not to think of him whenever I looked at her. That wasn’t her fault.
Come to think of it, our first meeting had not been unpleasant. I was still a child, struggling through the brutal training all wolves had to endure, when Father suddenly brought a newborn and held her out to me.
“Luke, this is your little sister, Elena.”
“My sister?”
The joy on his face as he showed me the infant Elena was unmistakable. In the world I came from I had already raised several younger siblings, so I thought I could handle one more without trouble.
Yet watching that bright, genuine smile, a single thought rose inside me.
So that’s the smile a real father gives his own child.
Elena was undeniably cute and lovable. But at that moment I instinctively understood I could never become Father’s true son. My body might have been young, but my mind was already that of an adult. Perhaps that was why I tried to outperform her in everything and subtly pressured her. Once I realized I could never truly compete, I stopped even that.
No matter what excuses I made, it had been my fault. In my previous life I had grown up lacking nothing in a loving family. In this life the only thing I lacked was height—at first. Later I discovered I also lacked a real family. Maybe that absence had left me slightly crooked.
Still, humans are creatures of adaptation. In the end I adapted by claiming the wolves as my new family. Giovanni, Carso, Sarina. Those three in particular were special. When I underwent the training to become a wolf, only the four of us survived. Now I simply had to make room inside that circle for Elena as well.
“Boss, we’ve almost arrived.”
“Good.”
The driver announced our arrival. Only after the car came to a complete stop did I step out with the men who had ridden with me.
“Luke. You’re earlier than expected.”
“Manfredi.”
Vito Marinelli’s eldest son and Felicia’s younger brother. Like his sister he had golden hair, but he kept it cropped short in a way that suggested he couldn’t be bothered. His clothes were practical rather than flashy, setting him apart from the rest of his family.
Aside from appearances, Manfredi and Felicia were the two pillars holding up the family now that their father had become little more than a ruin.
“Yeah.”
I rarely met him, unlike Felicia. In only a few short years the man had clearly endured and grown through brutal storms.
“Father and Felicia are waiting.”
“Then let’s not waste time.”
There was no reason to linger. I followed Manfredi deeper into the opulent hotel.
“What? Why the hell is he here?”
The moment I stepped off the elevator, Vito Marinelli’s youngest son appeared. I was sure his name was… no, it escaped me. No matter how hard I tried, I couldn’t recall it.
“Luca, Father and Felicia summoned him. Move.”
“What? Father did?”
Ah, yes—Luca. The boy clearly didn’t believe his older brother. Unlike the others, he had black hair like mine. He was small in stature too, and his face still carried the softness of youth. I couldn’t help thinking he looked rather pathetic.
As if sensing my thoughts, he immediately started in on me.
“Hey, you! Can’t you read the room?”
“What? I was killing men before you were out of diapers.”
“So what? Looks like you’re the one who needs diapers now.”
“....”
The best response to that kind of provocation is a single clean blow.
Thud.
The boy staggered, then collapsed after my fist connected with his jaw.
“....”
Manfredi stared down at his youngest brother. My subordinates tensed, unsure what he would do.
“Manfredi, your brother started it.”
“Just follow me.”
Fortunately Manfredi chose to escort me to Vito first. Soon I stood before the man himself.
“....”
His frame was far larger than an ordinary person’s. The gaudy clothes and golden hair remained unchanged. But the blue tint in his eyes made it obvious what he had been doing.
“...Is that Blue Eyes?”
“Yes. His condition isn’t good enough for every word to make sense.”
Manfredi warned me not to read too much into anything his father said. Even rude remarks were not to be taken to heart.
“After you speak with Father, talk with me and Felicia separately. It’ll be easier on you that way.”
“Fine.”
Once Manfredi had given me every caution about his father, I approached Vito Marinelli where he sat alone in the vast room. Felicia and her sisters watched from nearby. They stood clustered together, whispering, but the moment Felicia saw me her eyes curved into a smile.
“Vito Marinelli. A pleasure.”
“....”
“Father, the little wolf has arrived.”
When I received no reply, Manfredi called out from a distance.
“...What did you say?”
He reacted to his son’s voice. A father was still a father, it seemed. Vito looked at me, ignoring his disheveled hair. I quickly removed my hat and gave a slight bow of respect.
“Ah… I see.”
Something seemed to click. “No need for that. You’re a boss now too, aren’t you? Have you ever seen one boss bow to another?”
“....”
I wasn’t sure how to answer. He seemed far more lucid than I had expected.
“No. I am not yet a boss.”
“What?”
The cloudiness had left Vito’s eyes. Old sharpness had returned, though I couldn’t guess why.
“...Didn’t the wolf die?”
“Elena Fellini. She is the new boss.”
I answered before he could say anything strange.
“Ha!”
Vito laughed as though the situation were absurd. “You made a truly difficult choice.”
“Not particularly.”
Not compared to someone else’s children. I was thinking of the Marinelli siblings.
“I won’t offer condolences.”
“....”
I hadn’t expected any. The bosses of the five families had always regarded my father as their mortal enemy.
“I hated the man you called Father.”
“May I ask why?”
The words were openly mocking, yet he didn’t seem to feel the sting.
“You really don’t know? He handed me my only defeat, then died whenever he pleased. So what does that make me? An eternal loser!”
The same Vito—yet for one man he had been an eternal victor, for the other an eternal loser.
“Thank you for warning me of my father’s crisis through Felicia.”
“You say the strangest things.”
He seemed ready to reach the main topic. That suited me; I had no intention of leaving the port unattended for long.
“Coming here means you at least think a conversation with me is worthwhile, yes?”
“I’m not certain yet.”
“Hahaha!”
He laughed loudly, or at least pretended to. “I’ll be brief. My daughter, Felicia. How would you feel about marrying her?”
“....”
I looked straight at Felicia. She didn’t avoid my gaze. Instead she met it with open confidence, as if this had been her plan all along. Her beautiful younger sisters stood beside her.
“It wouldn’t be a bad deal for you.”
“Nor for the Marinelli Family.”
“Exactly. Otherwise I would never hand over my precious daughter.”
“....”
Instead of answering at once I gave a formal reply. “As I said before, I am the underboss of the Fellini Family. Elena is the boss. I will need time to discuss this with her.”
“Insolent. To treat my daughter with such half-hearted courtesy.”
“I meant no disrespect.”
He studied my expression with a subtle look.
“Very well. But I will not wait long.”
“Understood.”
I left the Dragon Hill Hotel immediately, leaving Vito Marinelli, Manfredi, and Felicia behind. I returned straight to the eastern port and relayed the proposal to Elena and the other executives.
“No.”
Elena’s answer flew out without the slightest hesitation.
“Absolutely not!”
Sarina joined her in fierce opposition.