My Second Life as a Mafia Tyrant

Ten Years Ago A Second Life ……………………

　Ah. The sky is beautiful.

　Alois von Netesheim looked up at the sky and thought that.

　A dull ache resonated through him. His abdomen, where the 9mm bullet had passed through, ached. He could feel the blood flowing out. It wouldn’t stop. A chill crept over him. His body temperature is dropping rapidly.

“Alois von Netesheim!”

The man holding the magic-powered pistol that shot Alois comes into view.

A man in a suit, clad in body armor marked “DEA,” approaches while keeping the pistol aimed at Alois. He’s wearing a suit, but his shoes are hiking boots.

“You… You’re finished… Do you have any idea who I am? Do you think you’ve become a hero? If you go back to your country, your career, your life—everything will be over, you son of a bitch…”

Alois puts on a brave front, which is unlike him.

Chased by the gunman, his adrenaline is pumping like crazy. He feels absolutely terrible.

“I don’t give a damn. I’m going to carry out my own sense of justice. I don’t care what the country, the government, or the president thinks. People are dying because of you. Hundreds of thousands of people are dying. Because of fighting over the goods you deal in, and because of using the goods you deal in.”

“What a sense of justice you have, Agent Felix Faust…”

　A man burning with a sense of justice so extreme it was beyond belief.

He had kicked aside everything—the nation’s plans, the cartel’s plans, Alois’s plans, everything.

I can only say “bravo” to a man who cast aside even his own country’s intentions to carry out justice.

“Hey, could you spare a cigarette…? You know, that last one before you die…”

“Why should I?”

“I suppose not…”

Alois smirked. This guy really does hate me.

“But if it’s your last words, I’ll listen.”

“Unfortunately, I’m an atheist… I have no intention of confessing…”

“Even atheists die when their time comes. Are you really sure you have nothing left to say?”

“Well…”

Alois pondered Felix’s words.

“I’d tell my ten-year-old self: Stop doing stupid things. Live a peaceful life. That’s…”

Ah. Damn it. The sky really is beautiful.

……………………

……………………

“Young Master.”

Alois suddenly woke up.

“Huh…? Did I make it…?”

For a moment, Alois wondered if that man, burning with righteousness, had somehow stopped his bleeding and carried him somewhere, but as he looked around, he realized that wasn’t the case.

　This was the manor. His family’s manor in the village of Neue Netesheim.

There was no way that man would have brought him here. If he were to bring him anywhere, it would be to prison.

“Young Master…?”

A man in his fifties, with a receding hairline and dressed in a butler’s uniform, looked at Alois with a puzzled expression.

“Wh… Ivo…? You… you died in an accident seven years ago…”

“Are you all right, Young Master? It’s not me this time—it’s the Lady of the House who is unwell…”

Mother’s condition!

Alois’s brain cells suddenly sprang into action.

Yes, it was that summer day in 1975.

　The world was screaming like a paranoid patient locked away in a psychiatric ward.

The Fifth Element Weapons—weapons possessing immense power and high toxicity capable of creating the Fifth Element, the Element of Nothingness—were being detonated one after another in testing grounds by the two superpowers dividing the world, as they threatened one another.

　From small tactical-class Fifth Element weapons to strategic-class Fifth Element weapons capable of obliterating entire cities, all manner of weapons of mass destruction continued to be manufactured, and it was believed the world would be blown to smithereens by them.

The superpower representing the capitalist bloc, the “Federal Republic of Lobernia by the People and the Union of Free Cities of Reni and Zaltant”—commonly known as the “People’s Union.”

　The president of the “People’s Union” was loudly denouncing the threat of communism.

“We must protect our freedom. If the free world in which we live is eroded by communism and we lose our freedom, it will be synonymous with the destruction of the world.”

　And this “Meria Federation”—commonly known as “the Federation”—a political colony of the “People’s Union,” also belonged to the capitalist bloc and was emphasizing its commitment to fighting the communist threat.

The television is reporting the news.

It’s the news that the “Great Republic of Skumar,” belonging to the communist bloc, has newly armed itself with Fifth Element weapons. Ah, I remember this news.

　Because it’s news from ten years before Alois was shot by that man.

Yes, exactly ten years ago.

The events of that time are firmly etched into Alois’s memory.

After all, that was when Alois’s life began to spiral out of control.

“Young Master. Your father is asking for you. If you look tired, I’ll tell him so…”

“Y-y-yeah. I am a little tired. Tell Dad I’ll see him later.”

Alois nodded vigorously as he said this.

“Very well, I’ll pass that along.”

The butler, called Ivo, said this and left the room.

“Damn it. What the hell.”

It was late at night two days ago that Alois received a telegram stating his mother was in critical condition and that he must return immediately from the “National Union.” Alois had been studying abroad at the prestigious medical school of the “National Union” and had flown back to this “Federation.”

Alois’s father was a federal prosecutor—a guardian of justice… or so he was supposed to be.

　But on this day, Alois was about to find out.

That his father was not only involved in corruption, but was also a major player in the drug trade.

Alois remembered it all.

That he had been forced to help run his father’s drug operation, and that after his father’s death, he would be the one to take over the business.

　And that his fate would be to be shot dead by Felix Faust, an investigator with the National Union’s Drug Enforcement Agency.

Alois knew that the drug trade would destroy not just those around him, but himself as well. He had to avoid getting involved in the drug trade at all costs.

But Alois wondered how he could explain this to his father.

　He certainly can’t just say he knows what will happen ten years from now—that wouldn’t make any sense.

After all, Alois is a man from the world of science, having studied pharmacy. If he were to claim that he died ten years in the future and was sent back ten years, he might avoid being dragged into the drug business, but he’d likely end up committed to a psychiatric ward.

　After all, even in his first life, Alois had been shocked to learn his father was involved in the drug trade and had intended to refuse the offer to become his business partner. What had he said back then that caused him to fail…?

“Young Master.”

Just as Alois was racking his brain, Ivo returned.

“If you’re not feeling well, would you like to rest? The Master says it’s fine to wait until you’ve recovered.”

“Ah. I’ll rest. I got a little airsick.”

Saying that, Alois headed for his room in the mansion.

Alois’s room was exactly as it had been when he left for the “National Union” university. It had been cleaned, but his mementos were still in their usual places.

　While he felt nostalgic, a sense of inevitability welled up within him—that he would eventually have to leave this place. This room was like a ship’s anchor. It was a weight meant to bind Alois to this “Federation” and keep him entangled in the drug business.

Alois lay on his bed, mulling over how he could refuse his father’s offer.