Chapter 122: Etiquette Injector

TL: LittlePeach

A change in perspective wasn't all that difficult.

'I am Nguyen Kodam. A hitman from Southeast Asia who's here to kill the owner of this restaurant. You didn't steal my target from me first, did you?'

'Oh, my. You must have had quite the rough time. We'll hand him over nice and easy, so take him away and carve him up to your heart's content.'

Just by changing a few words like that, a path opened up where everyone could walk away happy without anyone getting hurt.

Just as expected, the thugs hurriedly huddled together and began whispering among themselves.

"Fuck. Why would a contract come out of Scampia?"

"Th-that's where all those terrifying bastards are...."

"A-are we fucked?"

"Tsk. Quit crowding me and shut up for a second...."

After they finished their emergency conference.

"H-hey. My name's Gambino. What about you?"

The man who appeared to be their leader cautiously stepped forward.

He raised both hands in surrender and slowly crept toward me.

"Nguyen Kodam."

"Right, buddy. Looks like there's been some misunderstanding. We have nothing to do with the owner of this place. We're only here because someone paid us too."

"Is that so? Tsk."

I had no intention of giving them even a moment to catch their breath.

I licked my lips, ready to really lay it on thick.

"That complicates things. Would you mind sharing why you're camped out here?"

"O-of course. Uh.... We took a job from the landlord of this building. The restaurant was doing so well that he wanted to run it himself, so he decided to drive out the original owner. We harassed the employees a little and caused trouble around the place like this. Sure enough, fewer customers started coming in, just like we planned."

So these bastards were the reason the restaurant employees had trembled and dodged the subject every time Bella called asking about Maximilien's whereabouts.

I carefully hid my expression and shrugged.

"Not a bad idea."

"Right? The restaurant owner eventually dropped out of sight, so everything went according to plan. But then the landlord who hired us vanished without even paying us properly. That's why we've been sitting around here, stuck with no idea what the hell to do."

The landlord had gone into hiding?

I frowned at the suspicious story, and several of the men watching my expression gulped nervously.

"Forget the landlord. You have absolutely no idea where the restaurant owner went?"

"No. Haven't seen hide nor hair of him."

So Maximilien hadn't been kidnapped by these guys after all.

That alone was a relief.

"B-by the way, what kind of job did you take?"

"To kill the owner of this restaurant."

"Uh.... Why?"

"I don't know the reason. I've already received the advance, so he has to die by my hand."

"R-right...."

The moment the word kill rolled casually from my mouth, their faces grew visibly queasy.

For neighborhood punks whose idea of crime was squatting in someone else's restaurant and disrupting business, that reaction was only natural.

"He's fucking terrifying...."

"I know. Look at that crazy look in his eyes."

"He's obviously a real fucking psycho killer."

"Shh. Don't make eye contact."

While they fidgeted and watched me nervously, I rubbed my mouth and put on a tired expression.

"How about this? My only objective is to kill the restaurant owner. Once I locate him, my job is finished. One bullet on the spot is all it'll take."

"Y-yeah, I guess?"

"But with all of you so openly occupying this restaurant, it seems the owner got scared and decided not to show himself."

I slowly looked over the thugs one by one.

Gulp.

Someone among them loudly swallowed.

"So I'd like you to clear out for a while."

"...Now that you mention it, you're right."

"Yeah. We shouldn't have been sitting here occupying the place so openly."

The thugs busily murmured among themselves and nodded.

Whatever the reason, convincing them wasn't difficult.

"I'll lie in ambush inside this restaurant for a while. If the owner lets his guard down and comes inside to pick something up, I plan to shoot him dead on the spot. So I'd prefer it if none of you came inside for the time being. I don't want to make another corpse because of some pointless misunderstanding."

"R-right, of couuurse...."

"You only need to stay away for about a week. If the owner hasn't returned by then, I'll assume he's gone into hiding, abandon the contract, and leave."

I jerked my chin without changing my expression.

The stiff-faced thugs all turned their eyes toward their leader.

"...W-well, s-s-s-sure. Th-that's n-not a bad proposal, huh?"

Gambino's lips trembled as he forced a nonchalant shrug.

Even if I hadn't asked, they probably wanted nothing more than to run away from this place immediately.

"S-so you'll clear out after a week, right?"

"Yeah. Give me your number and I'll send you a text before I leave."

"R-right. That's awfully kind of you...."

"I work in the service industry. Tell your friend on the floor I'm sorry."

"N-no, it's fine. He grabbed you by the collar first, so he deserved to get hit. Absolutely."

"Yeah, exactly. At least he didn't get shot, right?"

As expected, anyone became a Confucian dragon when staring down the barrel of a gun.

Before long, the bastards began leaving one after another.

Each of them glanced at my jacket, where they believed a handgun was hidden, then dragged the last man lying on the floor outside with them.

"G-good luck."

"Hope the job goes well."

"Yeah."

Once the last man had finally left.

Creak, click.

The door closed.

After checking the surroundings once more, I took the phone from my pocket.

The call had been connected since before I entered the restaurant, with everything transmitted over speakerphone.

"You heard all that, right?"

-I heard every word. I'll be right there.

Almost as soon as the call ended, Bella arrived at the restaurant.

Now that she could finally get a proper look at the wrecked interior, flames seemed to flare in her eyes.

"Those sons of bitches.... I can't take this anymore!"

"Hold it in. You'll get a chance to pay them back later."

"No! I won't feel better until I get revenge right now."

Bella immediately opened the laptop she'd brought tucked under her arm.

"I already planted malware on every one of their phones when they started using the restaurant Wi-Fi without a care in the world."

"Oh."

If she could actually do that, then I supposed she really was skilled enough to call herself a hacker.

Bella rapidly tapped away at the keyboard, deftly operating some program I couldn't recognize.

"I'm going to show them exactly what I can do.... I'll start by draining every last cent from those idiots' pathetic bank accounts!"

"Oh."

"And I'll dump every pathetic text they sent begging their ex-girlfriends to take them back all over the internet!"

"Oh...."

Fumble, fumble.

Reading the room, I quietly turned off the Wi-Fi on my phone first.

'...Can she hack me through that too?'

Bluetooth too, just in case.

Bella suddenly stopped typing and looked at me with a strange expression.

"By the way, you're seriously amazing. I never thought you'd drive all those thugs out with just a few words."

She had no idea they'd run because they'd seen the Walther PPK under my jacket.

There was no reason to tell her, so I shamelessly shrugged.

"They were all size and no substance."

"Maybe it was because you were so intimidating. But earlier, you were going on about Scampia apartments and all that.... How do you know so much about this stuff? Are you actually a hitman or something?"

"It's a similar line of work. I use my body for a living too."

"And the name Nguyen?"

"Obviously an alias."

To fool the enemy, sometimes you had to fool your allies too.

I brushed off the question and changed the subject.

"Was there anything about Maximilien in their messages?"

"Nothing like that. From what I heard, it doesn't seem like those thugs kidnapped my brother either."

That was what mattered right now.

Maximilien's whereabouts were still completely unknown.

Bella finally seemed to remember that fact and let out a sigh heavy enough to sink the floor.

"Haah. So in the end, we still have no idea where my brother is."

"He went into hiding on his own, so there's no telling when he'll show himself."

"Exactly. Why would he suddenly vanish like this without saying a single word to me?"

Unlike Bella, I thought I knew the reason.

He probably hadn't wanted his only sister getting dragged into the same dangerous mess as him.

That was why he'd smashed his phone and thrown it into the dumpster behind the restaurant.

Of course, he could never have imagined that she would stubbornly fish the phone out and restore it to working condition.

I had a rough idea where he might be too.

'He's probably preparing his revenge.'

The target he'd be going after at this point was obvious.

"Don't worry too much. I'll stay in Italy for a few days and look for Maximilien."

"...Thank you. Looks like I'm going to end up owing you for everything, start to finish."

Bella forced a smile.

Seeing the lonely look on her face left a bitter taste in my mouth as well.

Then, at some point, she looked quietly up at me with slightly damp eyes.

"...It's already late. Want to have a glass of wine? I feel like drinking tonight."

It seemed she needed some comfort.

It wasn't an offer I could refuse.

***

"Mmmng. I think I'm druuunk."

"I'll take you home."

"No. I don't wanna gooo...."

We went to a nearby hotel restaurant so I could cheer her up.

Bella had been tossing back wine like it was nothing, with all the confidence of an Italian, but surprisingly, she seemed to be a lightweight.

"Zzz."

After booking a hotel room and tucking Bella safely into bed, I came back out that evening, packed only the essentials, and headed into Naples alone.

Jingle.

I opened the door to Maximilien's restaurant to the cheerful chime of the bell.

"...."

Pitch-black darkness hung heavily over the empty restaurant.

Human intuition tended to become especially sharp in an environment like this.

From somewhere deeper inside the restaurant, now deserted after the thugs had drained away like the tide, I sensed a faint trace of warmth.

"Maximilien. Lower the gun. It's me, Sunny Kick."

"...."

Maximilien had probably been lingering around the restaurant, waiting for an opening.

I'd suspected as much ever since I heard that Naples rent was so expensive he'd been eating and sleeping inside the restaurant.

So with the thugs gone, I figured he'd sneak inside, even if only for a moment, to retrieve whatever valuables he'd hidden here.

"...Sunny Kick?"

Just as expected.

Rustle.

Along with the sound of footsteps, someone began approaching from the darkness.

As he closed the distance, the man's face slowly emerged as a faint outline.

Then he let out a short, incredulous laugh.

"Well, look who it is.... It really is you?"

"Yeah. Been a while."

Maximilien slipped the handgun in his hand back inside his coat.

Then, after hesitating, he held out his hand for a shake.

"How the hell did you know to come here?"

"I called you yesterday, but your little sister answered instead."

"Huh? That's impossible. I smashed that phone to pieces before I left...."

"She somehow managed to restore the phone you destroyed. She told me her brother had been out of contact for a week, so I rushed over as soon as I could."

"Mamma mia...."

Maximilien deeply furrowed his brow and pressed a hand to his forehead.

He'd gone as far as destroying his phone to keep his sister from getting caught up in his situation, only for the whole thing to be rendered pointless.

From an older brother's perspective, it had to be maddening.

"Then you met my sister in person?"

"Yeah. I was with her until just a little while ago. I got a room at a nearby hotel and put her to bed before coming here."

"...What?"

At that moment, Maximilien's shoulders went rigid.

Now that I'd said it out loud, it did sound a little strange.

'You dare ask me to introduce you to my angelic little sister?'

Come to think of it, Maximilien had always been infamous among his colleagues for being a doting fool when it came to his sister.

Back when someone on the Chernobog Team saw a picture of Bella, called her pretty, and asked Maximilien for an introduction, the guy had lost his mind and sprayed a submachine gun into the barracks ceiling.

'You filthy, disgusting, horny pig! I'll put a bullet through your dick!'

'Aaaaargh! You crazy bastard, I only asked!'

'Eeeeeek!'

Sure enough, his breathing gradually turned into a growl.

I hurriedly waved both hands.

"Don't misunderstand. We only had a few glasses of wine. She got drunk almost immediately, so I booked her a hotel room and put her to sleep...."

"What? You gave my angelic little sister alcohol, then had the nerve to put her in a hotel bed?"

"No...."

"Do you even know what it means to ask an Italian out for a drink?!"

I tilted my head.

Strictly speaking, if that was the issue, Bella had been the one who suggested drinking in the first place.

"You got my sister, who can drink like a fish, drunk! How much did you make her drink?"

"Huh? No, Bella was the one who passed out almost immediately...."

"What? Bella? You dare call my little sister by that adorable nickname without even getting my permission!"

Clack!

Maximilien abruptly grabbed the handgun he'd just put away and drew it again.

"Even if it's you, Sunny Kick, I can never forgive this!"

"...."

He refused to listen no matter what I said.

At this point, I was starting to get pissed off too.

'Guess he forgot what kind of temper I have.'

Now that he'd drawn a handgun, answering with another handgun didn't seem nearly enough.

Ting.

"Huh?"

So I took a grenade from inside my coat and smoothly pulled the safety pin right in front of his eyes.

The fuze hadn't activated yet.

"...."

"...."

Silence hung between us for a while.

Only after finally grasping the situation did Maximilien's eyes turn docile.

"...Sunny Kick, my friend. It seems there's been a misunderstanding between us. How about we talk this out?"

There truly was no better etiquette injector in the world.

*****

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