My Second Life as a Mafia Tyrant

Chapter 13: Lover and Lover

　The next evening, Maverick showed up at Alois’s apartment.

“So, how was it?”

“What?”

“The drug party. Did you get any action with that girl, Elke?”

“Nothing happened with her.”

Alois said that and rummaged through the fridge. There was nothing edible.

“I’m ordering delivery. What do you want?”

“Pizza sounds good.”

“Got it.”

Alois called the pizza place to order delivery.

“So, you say nothing happened? That’s impossible. Didn’t you like that girl? It’s impossible that you wouldn’t take advantage of her when she was completely wasted on drugs and alcohol at a drug party.”

“But that’s the truth. Nothing happened. Besides, sharing a bed with a junkie isn’t fun.”

“Is that how it is?”

“That’s how it is.”

The only difference between a dead woman and a junkie is whether or not your stomach gets full. That’s what Alois thought, and he had no intention of sharing a bed with a dead woman either.

“Then there was no point in offering her drugs.”

“No, there wasn’t. If there was any point, it was just that I wasted one of the ‘Federation’s’ few promising talents. That girl will probably keep getting deeper into drugs from now on. A transformation from a promising talent into a worthless junkie. As a member of the ‘Federation,’ it pains me.”

“Do you really feel that way?”

“No, I don’t.”

Elke’s descent into drug addiction stirred up a huge wave of emotion within Alois. Pleasure and pain. Alois isn’t a masochist who takes joy in his own misery. He doesn’t equate pain with pleasure. Pleasure and pain are two different reactions.

　There was a sense of satisfaction, as if he had achieved revenge, in seeing Elke’s downfall. At the same time, there was the agony of knowing he had done something irreversible.

“If you’re struggling, I’m here to listen.”

Maverick leaned in close to Alois and said this.

Alois poured out his innermost feelings honestly.

“Hmm. Well, it’s not unusual. It’s the duality of human nature.”

“Like a split personality?”

“It’s different from that. Take a soldier, for example. Soldiers kill people on missions. While they’re killing the enemy, they feel like they’re taking out hated foes, and the adrenaline is pumping. But when the battle ends and they’ve overrun the enemy’s position, along with the sense of accomplishment, they look at the enemy corpses strewn about and think, ‘I did it, you bastards,’ but at the same time, they also think, ‘What have I done?’”

“I see. But I’m not at war. I just got one woman hooked on drugs. Does that kind of thing still happen?”

“It does. It’s a daily occurrence. Fried chicken is delicious. But killing chickens is cruel. There’s a moral conflict alongside the profit. Don’t you have that kind of experience?”

“True.”

Over the past ten years, Alois had mercilessly killed the families of rival cartel leaders and uncooperative journalists. Since their deaths served Alois’s interests, he was satisfied. But looking back now, he realized he had done something terribly cruel.

The Alois of today is not the same man who spent those ten years—a man whose spirit was worn down by schemes and murder. Although he retained the memories of those ten years, he was able to separate himself from them. He had the memories, but they hadn’t yet affected his mind.

The impact on the mind can also be physical. Damage to the brain itself can lead to psychological damage. Therefore, even though he had inherited those memories, Alois’s mind was not exactly the same as that of the Alois who had lived through those ten years.

“What should I do in a situation like this?”

“Well, I don’t bother thinking about such troublesome things. But it does tempt me. It feels like ruin is waiting in the wings. That girl Elke is bound to be ruined. And by your hand, no less. When I hear such a thrilling story, the only thing that comes to mind is pleasure.”

“Even if you were in my shoes?”

“If I were in your shoes, I’d have already slept with that girl Elke. Then I’d say goodbye. I’m not into junkies as a hobby, but I could enjoy it for just one night.”

Maverick had known from early on that she was bisexual. She observed women from a woman’s perspective and, at the same time, observed them through the lens of female desire. The same applied to men. For her, gender made no difference when it came to partners of this sort.

　Religious figures make a big fuss about homosexuality, and the current conservative “National Union” government stubbornly refuses to recognize it. But Maverick had made up her mind: she couldn’t care less about any of that.

In fact, I’d seen Maverick walking around with female students, and I’d even seen them kissing. Still, since we both understood that we were the ones who would end up together in the end, I never felt jealous.

　No interference in each other’s relationships. It was truly comfortable.

But Alois thought it would be different with Elke. If he dated Elke, she would surely demand that he take on the responsibilities that came with it. She didn’t know Alois’s true identity. She didn’t know that he was the son of a key figure in the drug trade.

　Maverick probably doesn’t know either, but she does know that Alois is at the center of the drug trade at the university. She also knows that Alois is in a dangerous position.

Maverick is dating him fully aware of the risks.

But what about Elke?

She’s just an ordinary college student who knows nothing—and she’s a junkie.

　Whether Alois finds her appealing or she makes him jealous, Elke is unaware of the risks involved in dating him.

“I don’t really mind if I have one or two more lovers. Isn’t that just the nature of our relationship anyway?”

“Well, this feels about right.”

I think of Elke.

　She was born into a wealthy family and raised without want. Even so, she came to college and found herself under a lot of stress. That’s why she turned to drugs.

It would be fine if it were just a physical relationship, Alois thinks.

I don’t want anything more than that. After all, she’s a junkie. Besides, a straight-A student like Elke can’t date someone like Maverick. Or rather, maybe Maverick is the exception. Ordinary men and women probably date with a certain degree of responsibility.

“Maybe I’ll make Elke my mistress.”

“Do whatever you want. Just don’t drag me into any drama. Don’t get me involved.”

“I’ll be careful.”

After that, Alois and Maverick talked about the hippies at the university.

　They laughed off the idiots who dabbled in drugs out of rebellion against their parents or the government, and also mentioned that these guys were dealing in synthetic drugs—drugs that had nothing to do with Snow White. Drug cartels were showing interest in synthetic drugs as well, thinking it might become a new business.

But Snow White was still the most profitable. Once you tried the real Snow White, there was no going back. Snow White had enough value to make synthetic drugs look like cheap knockoffs.

Drugs. Drugs. Drugs.

Alois thought drugs were absolute shit, yet he understood that he was already deeply immersed in the drug business himself.

He couldn’t escape the drug business.

So, he decided he had to seize as much power as possible to secure as much peace of mind as he could.