My Second Life as a Mafia Tyrant

Chapter 19: The Alois-Victor Network

　Victor trusted Alois, and the first Snow Pearl deal began.

　Alois covered the costs for the first transaction. Heinrich also agreed with Alois’s approach, so the price for the first deal was discounted.

　The exchange students from the “National Union” transport the Snow Pearls. To make money for fun, to make money to buy drugs. Without realizing that if the goods they were carrying were found by the police or border guards, they would face a 10-year prison sentence.

The drugs transported to the “National Union” are first received by cartel members.

Then they are handed over to Victor and his group.

　The first shipment of Snow Pearls isn’t divided into smaller portions. It’s transported in bags stuffed with beads and handed over to Victor and his crew just as is. The first batch is free. From the second batch onward, they have to pay the appropriate price.

Victor and his crew had asked Alois if they could set the retail price freely. Alois answered yes. He told them they could sell it for whatever price they wanted—300 ducats, 400 ducats, or even 1,000 ducats.

Of course, if they set the price too high, their main customers—the poor—wouldn’t be able to afford it.

Well, as far as Alois was concerned, as long as they paid the full 100 ducats for the 5 milligrams he supplied, there was no problem. He made enough profit that he didn’t mind if Victor and his crew kept whatever they wanted.

　Alois wanted a reliable business partner, and Victor and his crew were the perfect fit.

Victor and his crew don’t pocket all those massive profits either. Money goes out to hire dealers, bribe the police, secure storage for Snow Pearl, and cover all sorts of other expenses. But their profits are by no means small. That’s exactly why they keep doing business.

　Snow Pearls continued to flow from the “Federation” to the “National Union,” and massive profits continued to be recorded. In other words, drugs were reaching the customers of the “National Union.” That meant the number of junkies hooked on drugs was constantly increasing.

Alois didn’t let that weigh on his mind. Whether countless junkies died of overdoses or went bankrupt was none of his business.

　He was struggling enough just to ensure his own survival.

The Alois-Victor Network was nearly complete.

Snow Pearl flowed, money flowed, and vast sums poured into Alois’s pockets. Whenever Victor demanded more product, Alois turned “National Union” exchange students into dealers and increased the scale of smuggling. The initial smuggling volume of 30 kilograms was doubled to 60 kilograms.

　Victor’s foreign gang continued to handle the doubled volume, steadily turning a profit as they purchased drugs from Alois and his crew.

The wealth generated by the Alois-Victor Network was immense. After deducting the 50% cut paid to Heinrich, hundreds of millions of ducats poured into Alois’s coffers.

　Heinrich was also satisfied with the Alois-Victor network. The fact that he could conduct large-scale drug deals without relying on small gangs, as he had in the past, was a great relief to him.

Until now, he had relied on small gangs, but those small gangs handled only small transaction amounts, sales were often disrupted by their own turf wars, and the police arrest rate was high.

　But the Alois-Victor Network had none of those weaknesses.

Victor’s gang was organized from former Foreign Legionnaires and was highly structured. No other gang would dare to pick a fight with them. They weren’t bothered by petty turf wars, so their deals never stalled.

And they were professionals. They knew how to avoid police raids. Some of them were dealing drugs as part of the fight against communism. None of them were foolish enough to touch the merchandise themselves; they were selective about their customers and knew how to evade police scrutiny.

If previous deals with gangs were like transactions with small, struggling retail shops in a declining shopping district, the Alois-Victor Network was like a solid convenience store franchise. Open 24 hours a day, 365 days a year. They bought and sold drugs reliably, without a break.

　Heinrich recognized the significant increase in transaction volume and raised Alois’s cut to 70 percent.

The 60 kilograms of Snow Pearl currently handled by the Alois-Victor Network is worth 840 million ducats.

　That amount is deposited every month into an account at a private bank in Alois’s tax haven. The funds have been laundered multiple times; even if investigated by financial crime experts, no one would be able to tell that this is drug money.

As Alois looked at the profits generated by the Alois-Victor Network, he thought to himself: This is still not enough.

　Without more money, he couldn’t amass the necessary force. Without force, he couldn’t seize power. And without power, he couldn’t correct Heinrich’s mistake.

That would mean Alois’s ruin, and it would mean his peace of mind slipping further away.

Alois didn’t squander the incoming money; he went about his daily life as usual.

　If he were simply seeking raw violence, he could acquire it solely through the profits from the Alois-Victor Network. In fact, it was as if Alois were purchasing the services of Victor’s gang, the Broken Skulls.

Victor is a professional. A former Foreign Legionnaire. But he likely has no intention of wielding violence for Alois’s sake. At the very least, he won’t serve as Alois’s private soldier. And Victor is too old.

　Acquiring young, professional mercenaries would cost even more. The compensation for them wouldn’t be covered by just 800 million ducats. For an annual contract, that’s 500 million ducats per person. For a company-sized unit, he should budget 100 billion ducats.

There would likely be an additional f*e for dangerous jobs. He must take that into account as well.

Alois believes the drug business offers huge profits, but the necessary expenses are also enormous.

　That said, the Alois-Victor Network is his first real job. His very first job in the true sense of the word. The drug business at the university wasn’t even enough to make pocket money.

From now on, he’ll develop more profitable deals and solidify Alois’s empire.

“How’s business going, handsome?”

“Well, it’s going okay. Mr. Victor, the guy you introduced me to, was a nice guy.”

“Really?”

“He brought in a fortune just because I held a gun to his head.”

“A gun to his head?”

“Yeah. He said he’d shoot me dead.”

When Maverick heard that story at Alois’s apartment, he burst out laughing.

“You’re doing business with a guy who tried to shoot you dead?”

“I can’t do business with someone I’ve actually killed, but I can do business with someone who tried to kill me, right?”

“I suppose so.”

Maverick chuckled softly.

The Alois-Victor Network continued to generate wealth to this day, and neither the “Federation” nor the “National Union” investigative agencies had been able to uncover its true nature.