novelraw Chapter 74
Chapter 74
Chapter 74
In short, Lucky Anubis’s faction collapsed far faster than expected.
「Genorua Family」
The only mafia family still in existence, and one of the Five Major Forces that moved the Free Planetary Alliance.
Some might have found this puzzling.
How could one of the Five Major Forces, powerful enough to sway entire planets, collapse so quickly?
No matter that troops had been pulled away by Stero Mer’s orders to suppress riots breaking out all across District 11, it was still clearly irrational that intruders had been allowed to breach the interior of the mansion in less than an hour.
“Why, didn’t I explain that?”
At Jin Crow’s question, Tita Genorua tore the neck clean off an android that had been charging at her, flicked off the oil splattered across her face in place of blood, and answered.
“Many people tend to be mistaken.”
You know the image, don’t you?
When one thinks of the mafia—English spoken with a thick Sicilian accent, a fedora and cane, and the cool, merciless shadow of skyscrapers.
Of course, they too were unquestionably part of the family’s fighting strength.
And it was also true that most matters were settled at their level.
However, when what was needed was not simple business or cleanup, but real combat power, the ones who stepped in were their true strength—the Murder Company.
“If they had taken Lucky Anubis’s side, I would have given up all thoughts of revenge and run. Of course, they would have chased me to the ends of hell and taken my life anyway.”
She spoke calmly, yet did not bother to hide the subtle fear that seeped into her voice.
They pledged absolute loyalty to whoever became the ‘godfather’ through ‘legitimate procedures,’ and never took sides in internal family conflicts.
Had there really never been internal strife within the family until now?
There had never been a Judas as shocking as Lucky Anubis, but there had been no shortage of challengers to the name Genorua.
Yet none of the factions that had ever sparked internal conflict had attempted to move the Murder Company.
No—rather, they had been grateful, and even relieved, that the company did not side with their opponents.
“A blade so sharp that even those who wield it cannot help but fear it. That’s the shield that protected us from other forces.”
Even now, they were likely watching this absurd and merciless family quarrel from the shadows, while keeping the other forces in check.
That was, after all, what they existed for.
“Then if you become queen, you’re planning to use them to strike Stero Mer.”
“That’s right. That’s why Geum Gang-hyeok approached someone like me, who was at a disadvantage in terms of power.”
If there had been no chance of victory, that bastard would have neatly captured her, taken her to the Committee as spoils of war, killed her prettily, preserved her body, and used it as a tourist attraction.
The title would probably have been something like ‘The Fall of the Mafia.’
In the end, however things went, it wasn’t bad for them.
Even if the judgment came from a hard-to-believe, eel-like sharp-eared creature, it was more than enough to give them confidence.
“Khk!”
“Miller, it’s been a while.”
“…Damn it.”
Tita Genorua grabbed the collar of the fallen man with a hand clad in a leather glove soaked in blood.
She yanked him up so hard their breaths nearly touched, making the scene look dangerous at a glance—but there was no need to worry, since she had already torn off both of his arms.
“…Everything, khk. For the family, khk.”
Whether Miller was trying to beg for his life through his blurred vision, or merely clinging to his beliefs, he swallowed those words—but there was no way they would ever reach Tita Genorua.
Naturally so.
She already knew all too well, from an insider, exactly what he had done in that alley not long ago.
Perhaps because of that.
She looked down at him with eyes utterly devoid of even a trace of sympathy, then casually twisted his neck and whispered,
“Blood for blood. That’s the family rule.”
With a dull crack, the wretched betrayer’s body collapsed.
Kikikik!
“Kuhk!”
At that very moment, Jin Crow also tore out the mechanical heart of a cyborg that had been aiming for them from behind a wall, wiped the oil splashed across his cheek without a care, and said,
“I’ll admit it—we have to admit what’s due. The riot seems to have siphoned off a lot of their strength.”
“Yeah.”
On that point, Tita Genorua had no choice but to agree.
In reality, they had entered the mansion far more easily than expected, and even the enemies guarding the interior were all only Triple Gear–class.
Of course, Triple Gear–class forces were nothing to be optimistic about under normal circumstances—but didn’t she have a ‘mercenary Jin’ who had promised a total of six billion dollars?
“…We greet the Consigliere!”
“P-please, show mercy.”
Even mafiosos valued their lives.
If it were an external invasion, perhaps things would have been different.
But faced with her appearance, backed by flawless justification, those who had been cornered—or who had never liked Lucky Anubis much to begin with—deliberated and ultimately surrendered.
“This is the place.”
“…Yeah.”
Soon, they arrived before the door to the office located in the deepest part of the mansion.
Jin Crow calmly wiped the blood and bits of flesh—whose they were, he didn’t know—from his dagger using a cloth taken from his chest, and asked, but the voice with which Tita Genorua answered was steeped in regret.
Naturally.
Until recently, this corridor and door had been ones she walked through to see her father, who was not a traitor.
“Hoo.”
Still, she understood perfectly well that she had no leeway to waste any more time here.
Using a short, deep breath as a signal, she roughly kicked the door open and entered.
What awaited them was exactly as expected: a villain holding a shotgun, his face twisted and his appearance a complete mess—the vicious face of Lucky Anubis.
“Sit down, Tita.”
…It wasn’t like that at all.
Jin Crow instinctively spun the inner gears of his body, bracing for a possible ambush or attack, but instead, the surroundings were so quiet it was almost disconcerting.
Yes—so much so that it felt like a safety house entirely unrelated to the smell of blood and the shouts outside.
Struck by that strangeness, both Jin Crow and Tita Genorua were left momentarily speechless.
Then Lucky Anubis gave a bitter smile, as if his throat were parched, took a sip of the whiskey before him, and spoke.
“I’ve heard about you. The mercenary Tita hired, yes? You should sit as well.”
Naturally, neither of them had any intention of sitting down.
Perhaps knowing that well, Lucky Anubis did not press the matter further and continued.
“I was caught off guard.”
The emotions in his voice were impossibly complex.
If there was one thing that was certain, it was that they were closer to regret than anything else.
Only then did Tita Genorua regain her composure. She stared at him intently, then drew her pistol, aimed it at him, and said,
“What is it? Now that it’s time to die, do you want to live?”
“Of course not. A Judas’s end must be miserable.”
Calling himself Judas, he let out a dry laugh and downed the half-remaining whiskey in one go.
At length, the smoke from the cigar whose ember was dying out drifted between him and her, and the one who broke the silence was Lucky Anubis.
“Your father, my godfather, was an upright man.”
“How dare you…….”
“Listen. This is something you need to hear as well, Consigliere.”
She had come before him chewing over nothing but revenge, yet in the voice of Lucky Anubis, standing at death’s door, there was something irresistible.
So much so that Jin Crow gently caught her heated shoulder and stopped her.
Lucky Anubis then conveyed his thanks to Jin Crow with a glance, took a drag from his cigar, and continued.
“Our beginning was to protect the community. To protect ourselves from pitiful and foolish enemies who, unable to direct the violence and contempt inflicted upon them toward the state, the system, and the real enemy, instead vented it on the weak—those just as wretched and destitute as themselves—simply because they were human.”
The beginning was not grand.
They took up guns to stop robberies next door, took in their neighbors’ orphans, and fought to protect their daughters’ night streets, their children’s playgrounds, and young men’s jobs.
They were vigilantes, family, and an order born from lawlessness.
“But when people gather, and when force and power whose meaning has faded accumulate, they are inevitably forced to choose. The light or the shadows. We chose the shadows.”
Now people called them mafia.
But they were not rejected.
They were criminals, yet they were still vigilantes.
“We are beings of contradiction.”
They distributed awakening drugs and all manner of narcotics for money.
Yet drugs meant solely for extreme pleasure were thoroughly incinerated and banned from distribution.
They strictly forbade harming civilians, and protected the lives of those living in their territory from the gangs that inevitably sprang up.
They built orphanages and took in orphans.
They created jobs for widows and put a stop to the tyranny of other forces.
And yet, at times, they took money and created orphans and widows.
“The black suits we wear are original sins borne in anticipation of tomorrow’s funerals.”
They were villains, yet not villains.
Drifting thoroughly in a gray zone, pitiable and deserving of contempt—on the very edge of criminality.
Goodwill was dismissed as hypocrisy.
Guilt was treated as excuse.
Such was the fate of those branded as mafia.
If that was the case, wasn’t it better to accept being villains and live with the brand carved into one’s own forehead?
“Even if someone who committed crimes their entire life atones, repents, and becomes a priest, the moment the silver candlesticks of a cathedral go missing, people will suspect him first. That is humanity, and it is only natural.”
“……You always thought too much, Anubis. Is that why you killed my father? Because your loyalty wasn’t satisfied by proof alone, since you’re so damn contradictory?”
At Tita Genorua’s words up to that point, Lucky Anubis closed his eyes.
“We had to make a choice, Tita.”
And what followed was concise.
“Stero Mer will soon seize the creatures—those beasts—and start a galactic war whenever he wishes. No, any force that refuses will be purged first.”
“You were afraid of just that……!”
“How can you not be afraid!”
Bang!
Lucky Anubis slammed his fist down on the table.
“He’s already gone beyond human. It’s not just the creatures that are terrifying. Black Mer under his command could wipe out District 11 in an instant with orbital bombardment! You ask if that’s possible? It is for him. Why? Because he’s a monster!”
What filled his voice was conviction, denunciation, and something close to confession.
“We had to choose. Either cling to what we built with contradictions and be hurled into hell together with the innocent, or cast off the contradictions even now and live thoroughly as villains!”
That was why he killed the unit that refused Stero Mer’s orders.
Because he didn’t want to die, because he was sick of contradictions, because he wanted to seize even a future mired in mud and disgrace, because he didn’t want to run headlong into a visible inferno carrying a bomb on his back.
Thud-.
Lucky Anubis collapsed back into his chair and soon opened a desk drawer, taking something out.
A forged ID that looked to have been made quite some time ago, a little worn with age, and a small chip containing CCTV footage.
“……The truth is in here. You’d do well to look at it once everything is over.”
Speaking to Tita Genorua, who looked at him with complicated eyes, in a bitter yet gentle voice, he then slowly drew a silver revolver from his chest.
Despite the fact that he was clearly drawing a weapon, Jin Crow did not move from a step behind her.
Perhaps because he sensed what was about to happen.
“W-wait—.”
Tita Genorua’s pupils shook.
She reached out, thinking this was wrong, but unfortunately Lucky Anubis was a Single Gear–class Superhuman.
Meaning he was more than capable of pulling the trigger just a bit faster.
Bang!
With a short, crisp sound, Lucky Anubis’s head flew apart.
“……Ah.”
Tita Genorua, her face full of confusion, couldn’t even think to wipe away the blood splattered across her face. Then a breeze from somewhere revealed a small note beneath the ID he had placed on the table moments ago.
「Tita, you trouble me to the very end. Once I’ve been sufficiently scolded by the godfather in hell, I’ll tell him. That he raised you to be just like him.」
Taking in the entire scene, Jin Crow silently placed a cigarette between his lips and looked at the mouth of the dead Lucky Anubis.
“…….”
At the corner of the lips of the man who had called himself a wretched Judas, there lingered a strangely relieved smile.