Chapter 195
There was only one reason I was so surprised.
It was more of an astonishment that an item I hadn’t heard of in the game, and one with a significant effect, had appeared right in front of me.
“Oh, Godfather. Is this……?”
“Ah, Eugene, you’ve never seen this before. This……is a ring my father gave me the day I immigrated to Korea. I used to wear it often, but I don’t need it anymore.”
He smiled and looked at the ring in the box.
There was so much in his eyes.
“Are you sure you can give it to me……?”
He was giving me a ring that was practically a memento of his father.
No, I like it, but if he says that to me…….
‘That’s a lot of weight!’
He gave me a look of disbelief, as if my concerns were irrelevant.
“Then whom shall I give, when to me you are already as good as my own son.”
And once again, he thrusts the ring toward me.
“Take it. You can use it better than I can.”
With those words, I slowly took the ring and slipped it on my finger.
The ring slipped effortlessly onto my finger, as if to assert that it was no ordinary object.
“By the way, Eugene, you have the Appraisal skill, so I don’t have to explain that, do I?”
“Yes. Seriously, thank you so much for giving me something like this.”
“Well, I’m glad you seem to like it. It’s your day off, and I’ve kept you too long, haven’t I? Go back and get some rest.”
As he said this, he waved his hand in the air then turned away and began to finish the last of his papers.
Recognizing that this was his way of hiding his embarrassment, I gave him a quick bow and walked out of the study.
‘……Wow, a lot has happened.’
A business trip abroad, a raid, and now this unexpected artifact.
When I realized it was over, I felt the fatigue set in so I started to walk away, vowing to stay in my room for the rest of the day and get some rest.
“Ah, Master.”
When I returned, I ran into Han Seo-joon, who was still working on the back end of the mission, holding a stack of papers.
According to the route, the only place behind this is Godfather’s study and office…….
“What’s that?”
“Oh, it’s a bunch of papers about materials and other matters for the mining camp we captured today.”
“……ah.”
Apparently, the papers came from the secretary’s office.
For some reason, I remembered the expression on my godfather’s face when he was hiding his embarrassment but was excited that he would soon be able to rest.
* * *
Class A’s morning was much quieter than usual, except for the occasional squawk and furious tapping on tablets.
Some kids even had wireless earphones plugged in their ears and their eyes closed.
“Good morning!!!”
But the silence is cut short by the appearance of Jin-woo, who bursts through the door with a flourish and everyone stares at him.
“……Ewww! What is it? Why is everyone looking at me like that?”
He asks, puzzled by how quiet the normally noisy class is.
Frustrated by the response, Young-jae sighed and said,
“It’s the exam.”
“Exams? Aren’t the midterms over?”
Instead, Se-ah, who was looking at Young-jae strangely, let out a frustrated “Ugh!” and beat her chest.
“Are the final exams over? If the midterms are over, it’s only natural that the final exams are coming!”
“Ah.”
Nodding as if he finally understands, he quietly closes the classroom door and meekly returns to his seat.
“Then you should be quiet.”
He immediately slumped down on his desk but I grabbed him by the nape of his neck and pulled him to his feet.
“Are you going to flunk this class?”
“I’m not going to fail!”
How did he even get into the academy?
“The final exam is different from the midterm, it’s more of a written exam, although there are some practicals mixed in.”
“Huh? What happens then?”
“If you flunk, obviously, you’ll take remedial classes over vacation and the extracurricular activities will be limited.”
“Wait! But then…….”
“Yeah, and your paycheck will be gone.”
“!!!”
Jin-woo looks like his world is about to fall apart.
That’s because he’d be in a lot of trouble if he didn’t have the money from club activities.
“I’ve already paid for the reservation this time. If I don’t get paid, I won’t be able to eat breakfast!”
Se-ah shook her head at that.
“Who threatened you with a knife?”
“Naaaaaaah!!!”
He had long since sold out the present to the future.
“……So. I’m supposed to study from now on?”
“Yes.”
“Really?”
“Really.”
Finally hearing my words, Jin-woo sighed, stood up from his seat, and trudged to his locker at the back of the classroom.
Each person had huge lockers as a result of the class ranking battle and when he opened it, all the textbooks the academy had given him spilled out.
“Holy. Seriously. When did I get organized?”
Eventually, he comes in with a few textbooks, sets them down on the desk, and sits down.
He picks one up and frowns when he sees what’s inside.
“Um…… boss.”
“What is it?”
“I’m really, really, really sorry, but I don’t understand…… at all. What should I do?”
I wonder what I’m going to do with this punk.
The sitting Young-jae shook his head a few times, then turned around and opened his mouth.
“Then how about we all get together and study today? If there’s anything you don’t understand, I’ll teach you.”
“All together? Oh. That sounds fun.”
He smirked, not wanting to study, but wanting to get together.
“Do you think I should skip an afternoon to study?”
“Then I’ll lose as much progress as the classes I missed. Wow~”
Se-ah waved her body back and forth with an exaggerated gesture as if to tell him not to say something ridiculous.
Jin-woo’s mouth drops open at the sight.
“That doesn’t mean I can’t go home after class, and it’s my life’s work to get home before the sun goes down every day.”
“Then we can go to your house.”
“My house is──my house, that’s nice, isn’t it?”
Se-ah says it without thinking, but Jin-woo catches it in his eyes with interest, and his mouth twitches.
“No, no, no, wait. Are you really suggesting we go to Jin-woo’s house to study? In a mafia den?”
Se-ah jumps to her feet, furious that she’s just remembered that Jin-woo’s family is the Bevalts under Corleone.
“What if we get kidnapped or robbed or something? That’s a little scary!”
“You won’t! What are you thinking, Corleone is the neighborhood bully! If I just say they’re my friends, nothing will happen to you!”
……It sounds like it would if you didn’t say we are your friends.
Anyway, as Jin-woo said, it was obvious that nothing would happen, but in the eyes of the general public, it still looks like that, but it’s more like a synonym for fear.
I’m so normal. I go there when I’m bored, and they give me pocket money.
“I’ll be okay, and I think it’ll be fun. Eugene, what do you think?”
Young-jae looks at me to see if I think it’s not a bad idea.
“It’s Jin-woo’s house…….”
I was definitely curious.
The Bevalt family’s lair was a kind of fantasyland, a place where you couldn’t easily enter because there was no one else but Antonio Bevalt.
Of course, I managed to get in a few times…….
‘I didn’t even get to look around that closely, I just grabbed stuff and ran.’
Although the nature of the Bevalts made it all the more so.
Well, that’s how monstrous Antonio Bevalt is.
“I don’t think it matters.”
As his friend’s son and Corleone successor, I wonder what the Bevalt family’s mansion will be like.
I activated my smart lens and sent a message to Han Seo-joon.
[I’ll be stopping by the Bevalt mansion after school today with the heir of the Bevalt family. All the other kids don’t know about me, so tell them to treat me as Jin-woo’s friend.]
Hopefully, they won’t freak out or do anything weird when they suddenly see me.
Yeah, I’m sure everything will be fine until then.
* * *
Incheon, a maritime city on the Korean Peninsula once known as the Land of Demons and Songdo, the most developed of them all, a city that was once destroyed by an invasion of sea monsters.
It was here that Jin-woo’s home, the Bevalt family mansion, stood.
“Wow, it’s so windy here, it’s like a big fan.”
With the ocean all around them, the steady breeze and the salty smell it brought to their noses was a reminder that they were by the sea.
“It’s the beach. It’s going to be windy. Come on, let’s go. That’s my house.”
Like Jin-woo, who always takes public transportation close to home, we also took public transportation, so it was a short walk to the Bevalt family’s mansion.
The buildings were sparsely lit, and craters dotted the roads as if to prove the invasion of demons in the past but even the sight was familiar, and Jin-woo’s steps were unhurried.
“There’s no good nightlife in Song City. It’s all open, and I can’t think of a crime to commit with it.”
Suddenly, he starts singing a strange song.
“What kind of weird song is that?”
Se-ah asks, frowning at the strange lyrics she’s never heard before, and Jin-woo looks at her as if she’s serious.
“You don’t know the beautiful Songdo, it’s reggae. It’s like Songdo’s anthem or something……Ah, we’ve arrived. That’s my house.”
He stops and points ahead and a huge building stands where Jin-woo’s finger pointed.
It was a building so tall I was afraid to count its floors but it was uninhabited, with broken windows and no lights anywhere.
And underneath such a building.
“””Welcome, Master!”””
There was the mansion of the Bevalt family.
“Huh? Why are all the uncles out? What’s wrong with you all? You don’t usually do this. Are you saving my ass because my friends are here?”
Almost the entire Bevalt family came out and bowed their heads.
At this, Se-ah looks alarmed and steps cautiously behind me, while Young-jae looks at them in wonder.
Actually, it’s not that I don’t have an idea why they’re acting like that.
‘Maybe it’s because of me…….’
I should have told them to be as oblivious as possible, but I didn’t expect them to greet me like that.
“Say hello to them, they’re my uncles from the family.”
Jin-woo doesn’t seem to notice, though, as he smiles and introduces us to the rest of the organization.
“Hi, I’m Young-jae, Jin-woo’s friend.”
“Hi, I’m Kim Se-ah.”
“……I’m Eugene Han.”
Only after I said my final greeting did they raise their heads in unison, moving in unison as if they had practiced beforehand, creating a path to the mansion.
“””The entire Bevalt family would like to extend a hearty welcome to your friends!!!”””
“……I see you uncles are in full force. What do you have today, really?”
Jin-woo looked at the path made by the gang members in a daze.
Maybe I had done something I shouldn’t have.
…… What should I do?
