My Second Life as a Mafia Tyrant

Chapter 7: Campus Life & the Drug Trade

　Alois transferred from a “National Union” university to a “Federation” university, just as Heinrich had instructed. The academic standards were lower than at the “National Union” university, but he had to tell himself that just being able to attend college was better than nothing. After all, there were people who couldn’t afford tuition and had to work instead.

　Conversely, that implies that people who go to college have money.

Alois’s involvement with the drug business began at college.

“How’s college life?”

Alois calls out to the students.

Students who have left home yet still receive financial support from their parents, enjoying campus life. Only the wealthy can attend university in the “Federation,” and the exchange students from the “National Union” are also wealthy.

If you have money, you want to spend it. In an exciting way. In the coolest way possible.

Cars, motorcycles, travel, alcohol.

But what if that’s not enough excitement?

Drugs.

　Snow White. This is the progenitor of all drugs.

　Drugs derived from Snow White were legal until the 1930s. Snow White itself was a product you could buy at drugstores or alchemy shops. It was nothing out of the ordinary, and doctors casually prescribed drugs derived from Snow White as painkillers.

　But by the 1940s, things had changed.

　A wave of patients became addicted to the drugs prescribed as painkillers during World War II. It became a social phenomenon, with half of all World War II veterans suffering from some form of drug addiction.

After World War II, this issue was discussed at the newly established United Nations, and international drug control measures were considered. However, no treaty was ratified.

　Instead, the matter was left to the discretion of individual nations, and the “League of Nations” regulated all drugs related to Snow White.

However, not all drugs related to Snow White are dangerous enough to put one’s life at risk. Some merely provide a mild buzz. These are what are known as “beginner’s drugs.” In technical terms, they are “gateway drugs.”

Literally, they are drugs that serve as an entrance into the quagmire of drug use.

　Are they dangerous? Of course they are. A gateway drug is, by definition, an entrance. Eventually, users become accustomed to them and begin seeking out drugs with stronger effects. That is how people walk the path to ruin.

Alois’s first involvement in the drug trade began with the illicit sale of these gateway drugs. He sold them to students at the university who were seeking a thrill.

　The university was within the Wolf Cartel’s territory, and the police had been bribed. So Alois could sell drugs with complete peace of mind.

Students with money who were more interested in freedom and democracy—and in movements opposing the extreme anti-communism espoused by the current “National Union” government—than in their university lectures were easy targets. That’s because they were sloppy, ungrateful, and stupid.

“Forty ducats. Four bags, please.”

“Don’t get too high.”

Alois said this as he handed over the drug, processed into cigarette-like shapes, in a plastic bag. The bearded student grinned, took the bag, and walked away from Alois with his girlfriend, who was just as stupid as he was.

　People like that think getting high is a form of rebellion against their parents, against the state. What a load of nonsense. No matter how much they get high, the world won’t change. They’re just destroying themselves. If they want to ruin their lives, go right ahead.

Alois thought this to himself as he continued his drug business.

The first time he met her was, as it happened, in the drug trade.

“I hear you’re selling something interesting?”

She had lustrous brown skin and shimmering silver hair that fell to her shoulders. She was a South Elf.

　She had an outstanding figure; the curves of her body, outlined by tight jeans and a T-shirt, made her a slender beauty with nothing to fault from head to toe. However, the eerie red glow in her eyes—which were three-white eyes—brought unease to anyone who looked at her. Her pupils swirled in a vortex, as if they might swallow everything whole.

But Alois fell for her at first sight.

“Oh. You’re dealing in some interesting stuff. Did someone send you?”

“Just a little. I’m Maverick. What’s your name?”

“Alois. I’ll give you a free sample for your first visit.”

“No, thanks. I’ll pass on the drugs. I just came to see what kind of person deals in Snow White.”

Alois was taken aback.

“Police?”

“It’s a secret. A woman’s better off with a few secrets, don’t you think?”

The police have been bribed. Besides, the “Federation” investigative agencies surely aren’t idle enough to stick their noses into a petty business like Alois’s.

“You’re an exchange student from the ‘National Union,’ right?”

“Correct. I came to study the literature of the ‘Federation.’ Language training, you know.”

　The female student, who introduced herself as Maverick, flashed a suspicious smile.

“What are your hobbies?”

“Sex, drugs, and violence. I like stuff that’s so extreme it’s out there. I prefer works that are hopelessly hopeless, hopelessly depraved, hopelessly miserable, and hopelessly violent.”

“Nice hobbies.”

Alois thought to himself, That’s my life exactly.

“Why are you interested in Snow White?”

“Just on a whim. I was sure some tough-looking gangster type would be peddling it, but it turned out to be you. That’s quite the gap. A guy who looks like a straight-A student from every angle, peddling Snow White to a bunch of stupid hippies.”

“Well, yeah.”

Unlike the Alois of ten years later, the Alois of now didn’t have the wear and tear of hardship etched on his face. He still had the face of a pure-hearted young man. The body can be trained. Alois never skips his daily run, and he’s currently learning military hand-to-hand combat.

Even so, the shape of one’s face isn’t something that changes so easily.

“Well, I won’t be your customer, but I’ll have a drink with you.”

“Sounds good. How about tonight?”

“Sure.”

Alois wasn’t the kind of man who used to be approached by women so easily. But his experience serving as an executive in a drug cartel for ten years had stripped him of any resistance to this sort of thing.

A fleeting relationship. A purely physical relationship.

Alois knows. That having a family or a lover becomes a weakness as the boss of a drug cartel. For ten years, Alois had carried out that kind of blackmail, and he had actually gone so far as to kill the families of those involved.

So, he’ll keep it strictly to this kind of relationship. He won’t get serious. He mustn’t.

It was utterly hopeless, utterly depraved, utterly miserable, and utterly violent. That was the ten years Alois had spent.

　Alois is still wealthy. He has no trouble finding that kind of relationship. But he is selective. He can’t have the other person getting serious. Maverick didn’t seem to have that kind of obsession, and she seemed like an interesting woman.

We’d have a fun conversation over drinks, spend the night together, and then say goodbye.

It is, in every sense, the very definition of depravity.