Episode 2 of the Overly Competent Villain

Chapter 23

Unfinished team-up

The triad circle, which had the greatest power in Lombardy, a large city in the south, suffered devastating damage.

The bank that stored a large amount of cash was burnt down, the key swordsmen of the Forgore family, who were in charge of the armed forces of the allied organization, were killed or arrested, and the Luciano family, who were smuggling through the port, looked at the burnt port and rolled their feet.

Most of all, the Nicola family suffered the most serious damage, and they lost all the drugs they were smuggling through the Luciano family, and also blew up the farms and manufacturing facilities that produce poppy, the raw material.

“These damn bastards!!”

Bruno Nicola, the boss of the triad circle Nicola family, couldn’t control his anger and hit the desk so that it was broken.

“Calm down, Bruno. Don’t come to the meeting with drugs.”

“I didn’t wash it!”

Bruno took offense at Gustavo Porgore at the same table. He shrugged his shoulders and listened to the drug addict’s disbelieving explanation.

“It’s not time to fight among ourselves. The alliance is shaking. It’s uprooted.”

Smuggling Luciano. Michelo Luciano made the seriousness of the situation known.

“The swordsmen that Porgore boasted of are dead.

“Didn’t the commander of the action take out a lot of my men to stop him, Abdeslam? They’re all roasted. I don’t know where to replenish the members. How did the port restoration go?”

“It’s completely destroyed. The harbor has to be intact for ships to come in, but it needs to be repaired for at least another month. Even if it’s repaired, it’s a problem. The warehouses to store the goods have all been blown away.”

The Luciano family, which manages contraband goods, is in a state of arteriosclerosis.

There were no ports for smuggled goods and no warehouses to store them. Even the astronomical damage from the smuggled goods burned was no greater damage than that.

“Hmph, it’s the same for us. The production area has disappeared. It was a poppy to be distributed all over the South… but the Bureau of Investigation confiscated it, so we have to start looking for the production area again.”

“The National Police Agency is also strangely probing us these days. They said they would stop the investigation, but they are catching our children together.”

“More bribes… Damn it, the bank’s gone.”

Manpower, finances, and personal connections were all shattered. It is as if a storm had struck, accompanied by thunder and lightning, an earthquake, and even a tsunami.

A truly unprecedented crisis. Since the establishment of the Triad Circle, it was an unimaginable crisis for those who wielded uncontrollable power in the south.

“Damn Jacques Pietro! I didn’t touch him!”

All of this by Jacques Pietro. It’s hard to believe that it happened by just one person.

Abdeslam and the Bureau of Investigations brought in by him caused devastating damage to the Triad Circle.

Because the armed forces and financial power, which are the main agents of the gang, have been destroyed to an irreversible level.

Of course, it is not impossible to recover if you spend time and money, but there is no way that Jacques Pietro will wait for that.

He is a global criminal who thoroughly runs a point organization and appears in all parts of the world, but that is why he is a tycoon who has built a greater criminal empire than anyone else.

If he decides to attack the Circle, he will not stop until it is uprooted.

“So, where is he now? Wasn’t he hanging around with the Bureau?”

“The Bureau of Investigation seems to have gone after Pietro, too.”

“Free the kids and find them, Gustavo! You have to deal with him first before you can do anything!”

“Don’t order, Bruno. If you want to stick with Jacques Pietro like that, you can do it.”

Several agendas were raised, but all three bosses had three heads in my nose.

I wouldn’t know it normally, but the opponent is too big. Having already been devastated by Jacques Pietro, none of them stepped forward. I didn’t even have the strength to step out.

“So…! Luciano, you guys still have enough energy, so mobilize your subordinates——!”

“Stop talking bullsh*t! Do you know how much this side is spending on port restoration? They can’t even pay their men!”

“As long as that monstrous female knight from the Investigation Bureau exists, I will only manage the club for the time being. That’s not an ordinary knight.”

Even if it is a coalition of southern mafia organizations, it is just a gang that pursues its own interests in the end. They had no intention of being loyal to colleagues who would normally collaborate for profit.

Then how could they come together as a union in the first place?

-What, what, you guys!

-Come closer, kuaaak!

“”······!!””

The harsh voices fade as if time has stopped.

Who are the reckless thugs who raid the place where the bosses of the Triad Circle are gathered?

It took less than a minute for the subordinates he had put up outside to be subdued in an instant.

– Quaang!

A group of people dressed in dark coats rushes through the door of the conference hall.

Despite the crowd of swordsmen wearing swords, it was a man who stepped out among them that the bosses of the Triad Circle were on edge.

“Ahhh······.!”

Even those made up of swordsmen are their minions. This man is a messenger sent by ‘they’.

“Ha, Lord Hauser!”

Udangtang! The chairs were knocked back by the bosses of the circle who reflexively stood up.

In an instant, they are crushed by the swordsmen surrounding them, and feel the thrill of approaching people.

The bosses of the Triad Circle were the undisputed rulers who were fearless in the South. However, they were just foxes who wielded power on behalf of their masters.

“They say the organization’s resources have been lost recently. It’s disappointing.”

“”······.””

The bosses who gulp and swallow dry saliva in tension. They couldn’t make any excuses in front of the ‘Judge’, the messenger of the real power.

“Jacques Pietro. Find him. I’ll make him pay.”

The Judge and his direct subordinates sent by the ‘Society’. As they met their sharp eyes, the bosses of the Triad Circle felt numb.

* * * *

[Count Janssen von Wittenberg. He was a great sword of the empire, subjugating the evil cultists——]

It is a day when it rains incessantly.

Upon the death of Count Janssen von Wittenberg, condolences came from the imperial family, the military, and the knights.

Even though he’s fallen, he’s the former knight commander anyway. It is because there is a funeral procedure of its own.

The end of Count Jansen was splendid, apart from the poverty he faced in his later years.

“Then, would you like to proceed with cremation at the end of the funeral?”

“Yes… please.”

“You’ve chosen well. Count Janssen unfortunately lost the right to be enshrined in the imperial grave. Of course… he was a great knight.”

“I know.”

Count Jansen is a case in which he was promoted to the commander of the imperial knights after living his entire life dealing with barbarians and monsters in the frontier.

He could not have known if he had maintained his position as an imperial knight, but he was retired for dishonorable reasons in the middle and could not fulfill the conditions to be enshrined in the imperial tomb.

Previously, Elysia would have resented all of this, saying it was Jacques Pietro’s fault.

“Look and judge for yourself. Beside Jacques Pietro. See, judge and choose with your will.”

A will left to a person who had regarded him as the family’s enemy for half his life.

Elysia couldn’t understand that. But I couldn’t pour out my blind rage like before.

“The Count is just a good soldier who did as he was ordered, but that is no excuse. You have the right to avenge him.”

“Then——”

“But not Elysia.”

From noble mtl dot com

The question is whether he is really evil. The one who stands up to the great mage Aburak Abdeslam for the sake of those he has broken?

I don’t know.

The relationship between father and Jacques.

what happened between the two of them.

The terrorist incident of just 12 years ago will not be the whole story.

Elysia sat down on a nearby bench to clear her mind, which had become complicated while preparing for her father’s funeral.

“Did you decide to have a cremation?”

Behind Elysia’s back, he appeared without warning.

“······You must be being chased right now?”

For the funeral of the former Imperial Knight Commander, he boldly appeared at a scene crowded with Imperial Knights and officials…

“I’m always being chased.”

“What is your purpose?”

“I’m not cool enough to use the bereaved family of the dead. I’m just here to watch my old friend go.”

what? Elysia was about to say something when she realized that he had asked how to burial.

“You mean makeup…?”

“Yes, watch carefully from beginning to end. Follow your father’s path, and do not allow impure people to get in. Black magicians who want the body of the Sword Master are scattered everywhere.”

It is the age of knights and wizards. In an era where black magic of the corpse-related system also existed, corpse magicians who stole corpses were notorious.

There were many cases where grave robbers, not necessarily corpse machinists, sold corpses for research purposes.

“Yes… Thank you for your concern.”

Elysia was surprised that the day had come to express her gratitude to Jacques Pietro. It feels like something that has been clogged has been relieved a little.

But it hasn’t completely washed away what’s left. The relationship between the two was still full of questions.

“What happened between you and your father?”

what kind of relationship Even though they created such a deep grudge, did Father and Zach even show a cool attitude towards each other?

The two maintained a subtle temperature for a simple grudge relationship. It was a fact I would never have known if my father hadn’t come to his senses.

“If the Count hasn’t told you, it’s because he thinks information must be controlled. He left options for me and for you.”

Will Jacques Pietro reveal the inside story to Elysia?

And what choice will Elysia make regarding Zach?

“I am······.”

Elysia had been in agony all along.

He pursued Jacques Pietro all his life and found the family’s enemy.

To her, Jacques Pietro was an absolute evil, a crippled enemy, a criminal who should be hanged on the gallows with his own hands.

However, when he suspected that the reality might be different from what he thought, his blind hatred shook like a lantern in the wind.

“My father died because of you. If the family hadn’t fallen in the first place, he wouldn’t have declined in a harsh environment.”

This is also true. It is undoubtedly Jacques Pietro who provided a clue to the downfall of Wittenberg, putting aside the successive relationship.

Still, he was Elysia’s, family foe, and she has reasons to continue her revenge.

“But I’ll put my personal grudge aside. I don’t know enough about right or wrong.”

So I need to know myself. What happened between the two of them, and why did this happen?

Father didn’t tell you, and Zach doesn’t seem to want to tell you, so you’ll have to find it yourself.

“Okay, then it’s my turn to make a choice.”

Elysia involuntarily swallowed her saliva. The relationship between his father and Jacques, which has been a question all along. Because it was the first time I had access to the truth.

Why would Zach betray his father and us?

What kind of bad relationship did your father have with Zach?

This man has the answers to all these questions.

“My answer is ‘no’.”

“yes?”

Elysia turned to him for a moment at the faint rejection. However, Jacques continued with a smile that made him hateful.

“I am driven by a tightly controlled environment and plan. That’s a villain named Jacques Pietro. You are a variable that will have a big impact on my plan. A variable that may be a good or bad influence.”

“No, then why the hell—”

Shhh, Zach blocks her lips. His eyes smile softly.

“So if you want to get information from me, get my trust first. Nothing comes for free in this world.”

– Wow!

Zach licks his lips and stands up from the bench. He disappeared into the crowd, away from Elysia, who stared blankly at him.

At some point, Elysia, who watched him disappear as if he never existed from the beginning, put on an expression of absurdity.

“What, such a person…!”

It seemed that teaming up with him would never end.

·········

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…

Acquired ＜Protection of the Sword Star＞.