Palermo Cathedral
Sicily's Palermo, the city situated there.
Victimae paschali laudes.
(Praise the Paschal Victim.)
The voices of the choir singing hymns echoed through the interior of Palermo Cathedral.
Light filtering from the ceiling and the marble statues bathed in it, giving off a warm glow. A man sitting alone in prayer, surrounded by them, slowly rose as he heard the clicking of heels approaching from behind.
"Amen."
Finishing his prayer, he slowly lifted his head and asked quietly.
"……What is it. I told you not to disturb me during Mass."
"My apologies, Don. The matter is urgent."
"Urgent? Fine, let's hear it. Why disturb Mass?"
The man hesitated for a moment before leaning close to his ear and whispering.
"It's Calione. The Calione junior wishes an audience with you, Don."
"……What?"
The man let out a disbelieving chuckle.
"Calione junior. That kid came all the way to Italy?"
"Yes. He carries items symbolizing his affiliation with Calione, and his appearance matches the description the former boss gave……."
"Enough—."
The man raised a hand gently to cut him off.
"That's sufficient…… Bring Calione junior to me."
"Understood, Don Medici."
The man departed at Medici's command, and Medici stared blankly at the cross ahead, listening to the choir.
Agnus redemit oves:
(The Lamb has redeemed the sheep.)
At the same time, the sound of shoes from behind.
Click
Click
Click
Cli—
The footsteps halted abruptly. Someone in a black suit sat naturally beside Medici, clasping his hands in prayer.
Medici slowly turned to look at the one seated next to him.
"Amen."
Finishing his brief prayer, the man raised his face, turned slowly, and met Medici's eyes.
"Pleased to meet you. Don Medici."
A mix of leisure, tension, and intrigue in his expression as he spoke first. Intrigued, Medici lowered his sunglasses slightly.
"……Calione junior. I never imagined meeting you here."
"Nor did I expect to meet you so soon. The last time was surely…… Walpurgis Night, wasn't it? From afar, but still."
Eugene straightened fully as he spoke. Amused, Medici's lips curled up.
"Yes, I saw you then. But what brings you here, interrupting another's Mass?"
Eugene glanced at the cross, then back.
"Nothing major."
"Just here to make a proposal."
"A proposal?"
Tu nobis, victor Rex, miserere.
(Have mercy on us, victorious King.)
"──The debt Maestro owes. I'll pay it all off for you."
Amen. Alleluia.
(Amen. Praise the Lord.)
The choir's song ended, and silence descended upon the cathedral.
He stared at me silently through his sunglasses. But right now, he couldn't take any action against me.
This was a cathedral.
A sacred place where force was taboo, bound by holy promise.
"Ha!"
Finally breaking the silence, his first sound was a booming laugh.
"Haha! Hahaha! Hahahahaha! That's why! That's why you came to me! Uhhat! Hahahaha!"
Laughing so hard the cathedral shook, he slipped a hand under his sunglasses to wipe tears.
"I never imagined that old man would bring Calione. So, what did he say? That he'd help you if you cleared his debt?"
"Precisely because Calione owed him…… From what I know, was there anyone in Sicily without debt to Ludovico Maestro?"
I was certain there wasn't.
He was the type who'd poured his wealth freely into Sicily and its people since ancient times.
"……To that old man, it was just a few loaves of bread. Unrelated to this matter."
"So Medici Famiglia sees it that way. Unlike Calione."
"Calione must be fools. 'Medici seeks the present and future. And reality even in the past.'"
I couldn't help snorting at the Medici family motto from his lips.
It meant he had no intention of backing down on this.
"Then no choice. Begging for mercy seems difficult with you, Don Medici…… So I'll approach differently."
"Differently…… What, planning war? Here?"
Medici shrugged, glancing around.
A inviolable space where even mafia couldn't resort to violence.
Thus, most deals and negotiations happened in cathedrals.
"War? Surely you don't think I'd come with such reckless intent? Calione doesn't start wars lightly like some."
"You little……."
Even behind the sunglasses, his glare pierced like a blade.
But I smiled calmly in response.
"My proposal to you, Don Medici, is business."
"Business? Regrettably, Calione junior, even you can't erase his debt—."
"──Etna Volcano."
He stopped at my words.
"You're in quite a bind because of Etna Volcano, aren't you?"
I smiled lightly, as if it were trivial. His trembling hand slowly removed the sunglasses, placing them on the chair table.
Deep eyes etched with years, rough hands. Rubbing his dry face hard, he looked at me with a gaze heavy with gravity and spoke quietly.
"──Who told you. Calione?"
A completely different demeanor.
Playfulness gone from his voice, now icy cold; his ever-smiling lips a straight line.
"Calione?."
"……It's a fact I've hidden for years. If even you know, doesn't that mean Calione's intel has uncovered it all?"
Medici was a non-Awakener, an ordinary man.
One who'd risen to the top through cunning alone, leading even Awakeners.
Perhaps that's why.
"Don't say Calione doesn't know. Or I'd have to kill you myself, Calione junior……."
I felt immense pressure from him now.
This was Sicily's Godfather.
Shylock Medici.
But.
"Think you could?"
I smiled as leisurely as possible, glancing at the cathedral cross.
"Here."
Only then did realization dawn; his eyes wavered faintly.
"You planned this from the start. Coming to the cathedral was deliberate."
"Of course. Meeting no one less than Don Medici, did you think I'd come unprepared? And to answer your question from moments ago, no one in Calione except me knows about 'Etna Volcano' yet."
"What?"
"You know what that means…… Surely."
A man like him wouldn't miss it.
If he did, it'd be disappointing.
"Hmm……."
Hearing my answer, he leaned back against the chair.
"Is that so. But why tell me? Didn't I say if you're the only one who knows, you'll die?"
He meant it sincerely.
He could kill Calione's heir—me—and cover it up to bury the Etna info.
He saw the present, not the future.
But.
"Did I seem easy to kill at Walpurgis Night?"
I kept smiling, pulling a carefully folded paper from my pocket and waving it.
Medici's face twisted instantly.
"……That's."
"You know what this is, Don Medici."
◈ Tear to summon dozens of mad fairies
A strategic weapon that could summon dozens of mad fairies just by tearing it.
"Go ahead. Tear this now, and I'll leave Medici with only the past."
I spoke with sincere tone to prove it wasn't bluff.
If they weren't prepared, sure—but summoning fairies here, I was confident it'd devastate Shylock Medici and his Famiglia.
"……Using that in a cathedral?"
"You're the one who threatened to kill me here. Why quibble now? Besides, the violence would be by the fairies, not me. You know about them……?"
They followed only their Fairy King, ignoring Catholicism entirely.
"……Kids these days are terrifying."
"Far from terrifying yet."
We hadn't even started the real talk.
"I know what you seek from Etna Volcano. Even why you tricked the contract to incur debt from Maestro Ludovico."
"You know that?"
"Because of the Ignis Giant, right?"
The monster coiled deep in Etna Volcano's dungeon.
Ignis Giant.
Medici Famiglia had prepared for years to eliminate it.
"……You know that much. Then you know why I hunt the Ignis Giant."
"Byproducts from hunting Ignis Giant. Using them to shake Europe's economy—or so many think, but that's just a plausible excuse. The real reason is the Ignis essence, isn't it?"
For the first time, his expression cracked.
"H-how do you……?"
Opponent begins to feel fear toward the user.
Irresistible Proposal has activated.
Everything flowed as planned.
I lightly tapped my temple with a finger and spoke to him.
"What's important now isn't how I know. Don Medici, you should think hard why I'm spilling this info so freely."
The atmosphere flipped; his confident face crumbled completely.
It made sense— a lifelong secret known only to him and a few trusted aides, now from my mouth.
So I tossed him a sliver of hope.
"I'll help you."
"……What?"
"I'll assist in conquering the Ignis Giant in Etna Volcano. As you know, Don Medici, I'm quite the expert in such matters. Like Pafnir on Jeju Island."
Humans find hope amid fear.
"Cheap price. A token of sincerity for hiring me, and clearing Maestro Ludovico's debt—simple as that, and you get the Ignis essence. How about it?"
──He'd have no choice but to pick up the hope before him.
"Don Medici."
In the end.
Humans fear the future more than reality.