Chapter 17
Breck, the head of the Nostra Family's capital branch, started his mornings very early.
That was only natural for someone who dealt in information.
Thus, having entered the [Dale Newspaper] building, the Nostra Family's public-facing name, faster than anyone else, Breck immediately went up to the top floor.
Bang.
When he opened the top-floor door, the faint scent of cigars seemed to gently brush past his nose.
"Huh, he's already been here."
Guessing the owner of the cigar scent, Breck looked at the bundle of papers that had not been there when he left his seat the previous evening.
This was not the first time he had cooperated with Abel, but to think he could move this quickly.
"As expected, he must be in quite a hurry."
Bringing up the attack on [Glen Luna], a shop he frequented, had clearly been highly effective.
Breck lifted the bundle of papers Abel had given him—or rather, the ledgers of the other families—with both hands and tapped them neatly into a stack.
The bundle was considerably thick in his hands.
"..."
About three days had passed since Abel came to the capital.
The outline of the existing drug-purge operation was as follows.
The locations of the drug couriers had been identified long ago. They would capture those couriers, trace the drugs backward, and wipe out the source.
In the meantime, ability users had awakened through the drug. And since the people who created such a drug were almost certainly ability users themselves, that much was practically a given.
Therefore, it was only natural for Breck to commission Abel, the strongest ability user he knew.
However, this operation had begun to go awry from the very start.
"Damn Church..."
Breck unconsciously let out a small grudge against the Church, the cause of the operation's complications.
The Church. The Church.
They were people who could not handle matters discreetly like the Nostra Family and instead left conspicuous traces of their actions.
Of course, they were carrying out the operation as discreetly as possible, too.
The problem was, how discreet could an operation be when it was being conducted by people who were not experts?
The fact that the prominent families of the underworld had begun moving to purge [Mirage], the hottest drug in the Church's sights, had already spread throughout the underworld.
Because of that, the distribution of [Mirage] had come to a complete halt.
With the Church hunting down the drug as though trapping rats, that was the obvious thing for the suppliers to do.
"Haa..."
Of course, none of this situation was the Church's fault.
From the Church's perspective, even those of us hunting down the drugs were nothing more than criminals.
It would be strange for priests to come up with the idea of cooperating with criminals, and even if they did, they would deny it and turn away.
He was merely frustrated that an operation he had thought would be over quickly was dragging on.
Rustle. Rustle.
So, as a fallback, they had chosen to wipe out nearby minor families.
[Mirage] was no longer being circulated.
The drug distributors they had identified had all merely been selling supplies they received from the suppliers through two or three intermediaries.
Once the supplier cut off the supply, all the [Mirage] would inevitably run out.
So they needed information on minor families with even the slightest connection to [Mirage] in the past.
Piecing together the tiniest bits of information and following that thread upward was practically an everyday task for the Nostra Family.
Rustle, rustle.
And so he began reading and organizing the ledgers Abel had brought back after wiping out the nearby minor families.
"He really made a complete mess of these ledgers."
Even calling them ledgers, their notation, dates, and times were a complete mess.
They had not received professional training, so it was only natural, but there was no helping the sigh that escaped at the sight of ledgers filled with handwriting so atrocious it was nearly impossible to decipher.
He spent several hours examining the ledgers and summarizing their contents on the paper beside them.
Knock, knock.
Just as dawn began to break and sunlight poured through the window, he heard a knock.
"Come in."
Guessing who was behind the knock, Breck said so without even looking toward the door.
Creak.
"Excuse me, Mr. Breck."
"Ah, yes. Put them here."
At Breck's words, his secretary set down beside him the ledgers brought by members of the Nostra Family.
"These are the ledgers from the minor families we wiped out yesterday."
"Hmm... Seems a little thin."
Breck roughly assessed the amount of the ledgers his secretary had brought.
At a glance, there were clearly far fewer than the ledgers Abel had brought.
"Yes. We launched an attack, but the minor families had already learned about it and resisted, leaving many wounded..."
"Ah, enough. I can more or less guess."
The Church had already purged the drugs, and the Nostra Family was on the move.
Any family unaware of that fact naturally deserved to be left behind.
And the families they had attacked yesterday apparently hadn't been among those left behind.
No matter how dominant the Nostra Family was, they were still only humans who would die if shot, so they could do nothing if the other side resisted fiercely.
Having more or less guessed that, Breck cut off his secretary, who was trying to explain everything from one to a hundred.
He was a secretary whose abilities were excellent, but whose only flaw was that he explained things far too thoroughly.
"...Are these ledgers the ones Lord Abel brought?"
"Well, yes."
"Amazing."
The amount was obviously considerable.
There were so many organizations he must have plundered that it was impossible even to estimate the number.
Even if he was overwhelmingly strong, this side was an organization while the other side was an individual. How could there be such a difference?
"Mr. Breck, may I ask you something?"
The secretary, filled with curiosity, ended up asking Breck a question without realizing it.
"...What is it?"
"I already know that Lord Abel is strong."
From the outset, a single individual was being regarded as equal to the strongest organization among the countless organizations in the underworld.
That alone was more than enough to establish just how strong he was.
"But this can't be explained by strength alone, can it? How is something like this possible?"
He himself held a fairly high position within the Nostra Family.
However, because of the havoc Abel had wreaked on the Nostra Family in the past, the family had classified his information as top secret, leaving him with very little information he could learn.
At his secretary's curious question, Breck set down the ledger he had been reading and took a sip of the coffee his secretary had brought him.
"Hmm..."
If another member of the organization had asked such a question, Breck would have thrown him out on the spot, but this was his secretary asking.
The secretary probably knew his own position, which was why he had asked such a question.
Having guessed that, Breck gave a short laugh and slowly opened his mouth.
"Well, that bastard Abel's strength is certainly impressive."
However, that was not Abel's greatest strength.
After fighting Abel himself and facing him directly, Breck had discovered that Abel's greatest strength lay elsewhere.
"You know the characteristics of abilities, don't you?"
At Breck's question, the secretary began explaining the abilities he was familiar with.
"Yes. Since they awaken instinctively, unlike magic, they tend to be characterized by swift or unorthodox attacks."
Correct.
Abilities remained an unexplored realm whose awakening scientists and mages had yet to explain.
Their defining trait was that a special power had been layered onto mana itself, allowing ability users to exercise their powers simply by stirring their mana.
They stood at the exact opposite end from mages, who manipulated magic through reason.
"That's why I understand that most of them tend to be specialized in one particular area."
For example, an ability that was strong in a one-on-one situation might be weak against multiple enemies,
And the opposite was true as well.
The prevailing opinion in academic circles was that this was because abilities were influenced by a person's instincts or personality.
"Correct."
After hearing his secretary's explanation, Breck gave a slight nod of agreement.
"But that bastard Abel is different."
"Yes...?"
As he leisurely savored the fragrance filling his nostrils, Breck said this in a slightly lowered voice.
"The greatest advantage of his ability is that it forms a complete hexagon."
Its destructive power, manifestation, defensive power, range, and stealth.
"What's more, even in scouting and information warfare, he's first-rate and then some."
"That..."
At his secretary's astonished reaction, Breck gave a light laugh, as though enjoying an entertaining play.
Yes, he had been shocked when he first analyzed Abel's ability after directly confronting him.
If his ability had merely been powerful, there would have been plenty of ways to exploit it.
Even if he was a mana awakener, it would not have been impossible to kill him with a sniper using specially coated bullets.
Or he could have been worn down mentally and killed through a continuous barrage of attacks.
However, that was impossible with Abel.
"When Abel came to the Nostra Family alone that day, he had clones manifested through his ability."
An ability that gave him the upper hand in any situation, whether one-on-one or one-against-many.
"Each of those clones had roughly the strength of a knight. So how many clones do you think there were?"
"...Well... Maybe around twenty?"
The secretary sounded uncertain as he said this.
He could imagine an ability that created clones, but it was difficult to picture someone controlling twenty knight-level clones.
Perhaps because Breck had said it, he had inflated the number after considering Abel's strength.
At his secretary's words, Breck let out a hollow laugh and spoke.
"One hundred."
"Yes...?"
"That was the number of clones he used when he attacked our family that day."
It was complete domination.
The Nostra Family had resisted desperately, but that resistance melted away as easily as ice thrown into the street beneath the midsummer sun.
"..."
The secretary could only stare blankly as he listened to Breck.
"Well, even this speed is something that bastard Abel is deliberately controlling."
He probably wanted to wipe them all out, but doing so might cause the underworld's ecosystem to collapse.
Abel knew that as well, which was why he was moving quickly while still controlling his pace.
"So now you understand why our Nostra Family treats information about a single individual as top secret, right?"
"...Yes."
The secretary could only answer in a trembling voice at Breck's words.
***
In the center of the imperial capital, Mist and I found the city's busiest café, ordered some coffee, and sat across from each other.
"So."
I had deliberately chosen the most upscale area of the café—the secret room—and repeated what Mist had told me that morning.
"The House of Nebla has joined this drug purge as well. That's what you said?"
"Yes."
Having answered my question simply, she calmly began eating the dessert in front of her with a fork.
"Hmm..."
The House of Nebla had intervened in underworld affairs?
Well, they were a family known as the king of the underworld, so it was only natural.
The problem was...
"So, because of a single drug, the Nostra Family, the Church of Light, and the House of Nebla—all three of these factions—are moving?"
As I counted them off on my fingers one by one, the situation was quite a spectacle.
Should I call it overkill, or should I say they were good at uprooting disasters before they could occur?
"However, the House of Nebla has a request."
"Hm? A request?"
"Yes."
Click.
"The House of Nebla's execution squad is moving, and they want to examine an actual sample of the drug [Mirage]. So they would like to inspect the [Mirage] secured by the Nostra Family. They ask whether you can help."