I Became a Mafia in the Academy

Chapter 309

In the heat of the moment, the two stare at each other.

“Don’t you think Sasha might be a little hard on your friend?”

Latte, who has been watching the scene with me, makes a ‘hmm…….’ sound and mutters.

“What makes you think that?”

“Well, that kid. It’s not like Don brought her here without thinking. Do you know what her nickname was in Russia?”

──Baba Yaga (Баба-Яга).

“They call her Baba Yaga because every place she walks is stained red with blood. You know, Baba Yaga, the witch from Russian folklore.”

“That’s Sasha?”

Of course I knew the Russian Baba Yaga, a legendary villain hunter who usually showed up late in the game.

She always wore a mask that covered her entire face, making it impossible to tell what she looked like or even her gender.

“Ah. Here we go.”

As if they had made a pact, the two lunged at each other at the same time.

Sparks flew as the blades in their hands clashed.

“Seriously, I really, really didn’t want to fight, but you asked for a fight?!”

“I don’t know……but you’re the one who provoked me.”

“I didn’t provoke anything!”

Their blades intersect countless times in thin air.

Jin-woo, who specializes in speed, utilizes his abilities to unleash a flurry of swift attacks. Sasha, however, seems to have read his every move, parrying them with ease.

“It’s because of her ability.”

Latte tells me in a whisper.

“It’s like an instinct or something. It’s almost like she can see the future, so she blocks all the light attacks.”

Her words reminded me of my first attack on Sasha.

Surely she had blocked my first attack then, too, right? After that, I’d beaten her like a dog and knocked her out.

“Funny.”

Surely, at that level, she can easily handle C-class villains or unregistered villains.

“Раздражающий (annoying).”

Sasha, who was constantly being attacked, finally spoke up and began to fight back.

Instead of fighting with daggers, she tried to close the gap and mix it up.

She leapt forward, deflecting Jin-woo’s blow with a well-timed parry.

“Hic?!”

With the attack coming up to his face in an instant, Jin-woo slashed at her knee with his left hand and tried to swing his sword toward her waist.

But Sasha reversed it, grabbing Jin-woo’s head and slamming it into the ground, trying to break his center.

In an instant, the genre changes from action fighting to wrestling.

“Ugh!”

Jin-woo manages to avoid falling headfirst by straining his neck, but he still hits the ground with a loud thud.

“Alas, it’s almost over.”

Latte shakes her head at the sight, while the others let out a collective gasp.

“Is it?”

I knew Jin-woo better than anyone in this room, otherwise I wouldn’t have brought him to Familia, let alone raised him to the level he is now.

“That’s it. Jin-woo Bevalt.”

Sasha finishes by stomping her foot down on the floor and everyone cheers wildly, certain that Jin-woo’s defeat is sealed.

“… … Oh really. I didn’t want to use it because it was so bad.”

Suddenly, something happens in the cool darkness of the training center.

Kwang───!

With a tremendous explosion, Sasha’s body was thrown backward and sent flying. A fierce gust of wind rushed in at the same time.

-Wind?

-Was the wind like this in Darkness?

And then they could clearly see the figure of the one who caused this phenomenon.

“That’s right, I’m pretty sure you’re an Awakened, aren’t you? Huh?! So you’re a master?”

She was wondering why he was being beaten so foolishly, but he seemed to think that Sasha, who didn’t use any abilities, was an ordinary person.

As a result, he felt weird while being beaten and used his abilities in a hurry.

“Wow, that. I’ve heard rumors of Don Antonio’s bloodline abilities, but I’ve never seen it in person.”

It’s the first time she’s seen Jin-woo use his ability, and she turns her head toward him, spitting out a voice of interest.

“Kaaaahhhh── Tsk! You’re bleeding!”

Spitting out the blood that had pooled in his mouth, Jin-woo wipes the blood from the corner of his mouth.

His expression was much more serious than it had been at the beginning.

“But Sasha still has the upper hand, because the shock just now must not have been small, and her breathing, posture, and body tremors don’t seem to be unusual…….”

Latte strokes her chin and murmurs, “I’m sure she’s fine.”

“Latte.”

“Hmm?”

Apparently, she doesn’t realize it yet.

“Maybe it’s because you’ve been hanging around me a lot lately.”

──Well, she’s quite the genius.

“You think using your powers will change that, Jin-woo Bevalt?”

Sasha, who had been kept at a distance by Jin-woo’s powers, approaches, tying her disheveled hair back.

“It won’t make a difference, so give it up. It would be to your own detriment to get further injured here.”

“What are you saying? Now that I’ve used my ability, you’re finished. People who have survived after seeing my power…well, actually, there are a ton of them!”

With a gust of wind beneath his feet, Jin-woo shot forward.

He was already close to Sasha but as if she’d seen it coming, Sasha sidesteps the attack with a quick twist of her body and was about to strike at Jin-woo’s back.

“Huh?!”

A sudden gust of wind slowed her timing and Jin-woo counterattacked by surrounding himself once more with a gust of wind, spinning his body.

“Pa-cheon Jin-cheon Kick!”

Shouting out a fancy name for a technique that has nothing to do with his movements, Jin-woo drives a powerful kick into Sasha’s side.

“Ugh!”

Sasha’s face contorts as she is hit by the spinning kick, though it’s pretty amazing that she managed to hold on to Jin-woo’s foot through the pain.

“You want to have a dog fight?”

Unfortunately, that’s Jin-woo’s specialty.

He’d been a bounty hunter or something since he was a student, constantly battling the budding villains.

“──I love it~”

Smirking, he swings his other leg, which is still attached to the ground, and twists his waist to deliver a kick to Sasha’s head.

“Ouch!”

Sasha, who hadn’t anticipated this situation, allows her head to be hit while still holding onto Jin-woo’s foot.

The weighted blow causes her to lose her grip on Jin-woo’s leg.

Latte looks on in amazement as she watches the scene unfold.

“How is he able to move like that in that condition? He must be in a lot of pain, and he can’t even move his body properly.”

“Latte.”

“What?”

“Well, I give one-on-one coaching to the kids in the club once or twice a week, focusing on what they need most.”

“Oh, so that’s what you always do.”

“Yeah. So, the question is, when I tutor Jin-woo, do you know what I focus on?”

“How do you do it?”

“Defeat.”

“That’s……?”

“Just hit. Keep hitting. Whether he takes it, begs for mercy, or tries to fight back with curses, just keep hitting. Do you know why I do this?”

“Well?”

“There’s a stereotype among assassins that if the ambush doesn’t work, they think they’re going to lose, and if it’s one-on-one, they think they’re at a disadvantage. They’ll either run away, hoping for another chance, or they’ll fight to the death and if they get hit back, their mentality starts to falter.”

Maybe it’s because he’s an assassin.

Surprise is a powerful advantage in and of itself, and to fail at it would be a sure indicator of the gap between you and the enemy.

“But how does a guy who’s been hit a lot do it?”

It changes the way you think.

“He’s going to fight back? He’s just going to get his ass kicked.”

“He’s hurting and I’m going to make it hurt more.”

“You’re just being evil.”

An assassin who kills his opponent in hand-to-hand combat if the assassination fails.

You might ask how that’s an assassination, but it is. It’s an assassination if all the witnesses are dead.

“And the funny thing is. Jin-woo, he’s following it.”

He’s an assassin, but he’s also a hand-to-hand combatant.

I don’t know if it’s because of me or not, but he’s gotten to the point where he’s as good as any tank.

“That’s a weapon of my own creation.”

Is that why? Even as Sasha was being beaten, I was taking pride in his battle.

I could see every move he was making now was a reflection of the stance I’d used to beat Jin-woo.

“I raised him well.”

As I watched the two of them battle, a smirk on my face beneath my mask, I felt Latte’s eyes on me.

“Hey…….What the hell are you doing at the Academy?”

“Training, of course.”

Because that’s what the Academy is supposed to do.

* * *

In the end, the winner of the battle was Jin-woo, but that’s not to say that Sasha was lacking.

She remained undeterred by the onslaught of attacks and kept trying to fight back, and in fact, she even managed to pull off a few counterattacks but her defeat was clear.

‘It was her first time fighting someone with Jin-woo’s abilities and the fighting style that utilizes them.’

In other words, inexperience.

“Oh, really. What kind of duel has gotten so intense?”

Jin-woo, who had been breathing heavily, glanced at Sasha sprawled out on the ground, then staggered over to her side.

“……What, are you trying to finish the job?”

Sasha sighs heavily and closes her eyes, seemingly powerless to fight back.

“Have it your way, I’ve lost.”

As Sasha says that in a stuttering voice, Jin-woo…….

“Phew!”

Burst out laughing.

“What are you talking about, seriously? I was going to say ‘good job,’ but are you having delusions of persecution all by yourself?”

“What? Delusions?”

“I’m fucking hurting too, and I don’t think I can help you, but here, eat this.”

With that, he pulls something out of his pocket and throws it at Sasha.

Sasha’s eyes widen as she recognizes the red bottle next to her head.

“What is……?”

“It’s a potion made from the blood of trolls──my father gave it to me to take if I catch a cold, but I don’t catch colds, so you should take it. It’s good for you.”

A type of potion called “Troll’s Blood”.

It was a potion that temporarily boosted the drinker’s health regeneration by a large amount, and it was sold for a considerable price.

“Are you really giving it to me?”

“It’s unopened, you might want to check it!”

“No, it’s not like that…What about you? You’re pretty wounded, too.”

“Me? I can’t even fit this into the wound axis. When you come to the academy, you’ll see how much I’ve been beaten up…I shudder just thinking about it, really.”

Saying that, he spun around.

“Anyway. Eat that or not, it’s up to you. I’m going to train with that sword you didn’t want to use first.”

With that, Jin-woo staggers toward the sword on the ground.

As I watched, I quietly handed Latte an item.

“Latte. Give this to Jin-woo.”

“What? What is this?”

Latte looks at the pile of grass in her hand, puzzled.

“Weeds that I just picked around here, they’re good for the body.”

This is why I can’t hate Jin-woo.