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Chapter 215

She looks like she can't follow the story, so Ludvio puts his hand on her shoulder.

"I need you to step outside for a moment, we have something important to talk about."

But she shakes her head.

"No! No, I won't! If it's about my grandfather, I'll listen!"

With that, she clasped her hands together and rose from her seat to stand beside Ludwig as if she were his bodyguard.

He shook his head, furrowing his brow at the sight.

"Really, I can't resist, thenshould I call you Corleone, or Han?"

"Eugene will do. Maestro."

"Okay, I'll call you that then. Eugene. I can't help her stubbornness, so I hope you don't mind if she stays."

I'm in the position of the client. There's nothing I can do about it, because he trusts her.

"You can do whatever you're comfortable with."

"Thank you. I suppose you know the general story of why you came here?"

"Maestro was in trouble and he wanted me to go help him, that's all I was told."

That's when I remembered the quest window.

[Hidden Quest]

[Return of the Maestro]

[Ludvio is said to be the world's greatest shoemaker. He is in a difficult situation due to some events in his past. Help him solve his problems and become his benefactor.]

[Objective: Complete the Maestro's request]

[Reward: Increased favorability with the Maestro, influence on the island of Sicily.]

I vaguely remembered something from the game, but unfortunately, I couldn't recall the details since I'd skipped most of the subplots in favor of the story and faster progression.

"Then I guess I'll just have to tell you what I'm going through, even if it's just a simple story."

"Grandfather."

Elena puts a sympathetic hand on Ludvio's shoulder.

"Once upon a time, I was a mafioso in Sicily. I once borrowed a large sum of money from the Medici family, using my workshop as collateral. At the time, I thought I could pay it back."

Borrowed money?

"May I ask how much?"

Well, if it involves money, it's something I'm reasonably comfortable with.

I asked in such a lighthearted manner.

"I can't count."

"?"

"Fifteen years with compounding, you get the idea, it's just an astronomical price tag."

Ah, the obvious.

This wasn't something that could be paid for in the first place.

"Then why on earth did you borrow the money?"

It was Elena who answered this question.

"I was very sick when I was younger, and my grandfather mortgaged his workshop to cure me."

"I heard you're not his biological granddaughter, but what kind of relationship do you have with."

"Her father died because of me. More precisely, he died trying to protect me. Do you know what Italy was like in the past?"

"Yes. That's why my father left for another country, too."

The global dungeon binge.

Italy was one of the worst offenders, as the country was slow to respond, and for years lived in fear of monsters and dungeons.

Sicily, on the other hand, had a somewhat habitable environment, with mafiosi who had been vigilantes in the past fighting to protect their properties and farms, butin the end, they were just ordinary humans.

"We tried to survive in that environment. Oh, and your father, of course. I don't mean to criticize Corleone. Italy wasn't even a country then, just a landmass called the Italian peninsula, so it was only natural that each of us would go our separate ways to survive."

In the first place, they were the ones who stayed because they couldn't leave their homes.

Ludvio was the one who tried to protect his property and workshop, and it was Elena's father who helped him defend the village.

"He was a very strong man, an early awakened. No one in Sicily could fail to recognize his skill."

But he died.

The dungeon's overflow and the mutant entity that emerged from it took his life.

"And the gods began to take care of us."

Just when they thought it was all over. Reinforcements arrived from mainland Italy.

A newly reorganized military organization, led by the Pope, not the defunct Italian government.

The Crusaders'.

They were on the move and had begun to clear out all the dungeons and monsters across Italy.

"But it was hubris to think it saved everyone."

For every life saved, many more were lost.

"I thought I should help them, too."

So he began to use the fortune he had saved over the years to help rebuild the village. And in the process, he met Elena.

She had a mysterious illness.

"To save her, I needed a holy relic from the Vatican. They said she needed the Holy Blood, an elixir, so I bought it. I didn't have enough money so I borrowed money from the Medici family because I couldn't afford it after pulling in everything."

He thought it was natural, and he still thinks it is.

It was the right thing to do, he thought, and he didn't think it had changed now.

And this is what began to take everything away from him.

"I thought at the time that I would be able to pay it back with my skills, but the timing was not good."

He thought things would get better as Italy began to rebuild around the Vatican but he was mistaken.

The Vatican began to take all the materials the Crusades got abroad and sell them, unable to keep up with the rapidly rising inflation.

There were no patrons and everything fell apart in Italy.

Even though it was getting better, many areas were still dangerous, and most of his old contacts had fallen apart but he believed in his abilities.

He had no doubt that many people would come to him to help them overcome the difficulties.

Strangely, however, he didn't receive any requests, and his debts began to snowball.

"I was trying to survive somehow."

But even so, he was a maestro.

A title bestowed upon only one craftsman of each discipline in the world.

Eventually, over time, many began to seek him out.

He worked himself to death. To get out of this situation, he started working like a dog and paying off his debts.

But the trap that had been set for him was beyond his power to escape, for even if he paid it off, the interest would only settle the debt, and the principal he had borrowed would never be reduced.

"Then I heard news of the old Corleone boy. Who knew that the bravest and most just kid in the village was now a mafia boss who frightened the whole world?"

So he turned to Corleone for help.

The same kids he used to buy sweets for, the same kids who used to come to his workshop and listen to his old stories: Vito Corleone and Dominic Adambanto.

"Before I came to this place. There is something my godfather told me that I must tell you, Ludvio."

"What?"

"Corleone never forgets a debt."

Grasping his hand, which had grown gray as I spoke, I continued in a serious voice.

"I'm only here to repay a debt, too. Maestro."

A smile spreads across his face.

* * *

After all was said and done I joined Elena in front of the cliff outside the hut.

I wanted him to have a more relaxing meal after all the hard talk.

"I'm sorry I scared you just now."

"What?"

I stared at the waves below the cliff in silence when I heard Elena's voice.

"Like my grandfather said earlier. He's in danger because of the mafia, and I thought they sent you to collect money for the Medici again."

She turned her head toward me, her legs bouncing in the air as she sat on the cliff, and bowed her head.

"SoI'm so sorry, and thank you so much for coming to help us."

I waved a hand at her sudden apology.

"It's okay. It's understandable, even I would be wary if someone suddenly told me they were a member of a mafia family."

"Thank you for understanding."

She replies, tossing back her hair, which has been tousled by the sea breeze.

"If, ever, you need my help, just let me know."

"yes?"

"I'm actually pretty strong."

Saying that, she opens her palm.

At the same time, a breeze begins to gather around her palm, and a canary with a bluish tinge appears above it.

"Spirit?"

"Ah. I see you know her, yes. Her name is Tinkerbell. She's always by my side, protecting me."

I'd sensed something about her from the first time I'd seen her; she had a pact with a spirit.

"I've heard that Elementalists are quite rare, and I never thought I'd stumble upon one. If you don't mind me asking, when did you awaken?"

She may not be able to take the form of a bird like a canary, but she has a contract with a mid-level spirit.

If so, she must have been with them for a long time, at least.

"From what I've heard, I've been awakened since I drank the Holy Blood, and Tinkerbell has been with me since I was a child."

It's more than I could have imagined.

With that much time together, she must have been able to handle Intermediate Elementals at that age.

"Surely, an intermediate elementalist would be helpful."

"Wouldn't it?!"

"But I'm going to have to decline."

"What?"

Her smiling face crumbles into a grimace.

"Why, what the hell, you said it would help?"

"It would be helpful, but do you think Mr. Ludvio would like it?"

He had spent his entire fortune to protect her in the first place and if she got involved in something dangerous again he would surely tell her to stop now.

"I'll talk him out of it."

"But you can't."

"Not this time!"

Why she can't be with me?

"You. You're weak."

"?"

She was too weak to move with me.

"You can certainly consider yourself strong for your age, using a mid-level elemental, but that doesn't mean you're strong enough to take on the Medici family."

"You don't know that yet!"

"Well, do you want to bet?"

"Bet ?"

It's so simple, how to convince people to do anything.

"Let's duel lightly, I'll use my left arm and you use your full strength against me, and if you succeed in knocking me out, I'll let you join."

That's what it was: power over power.

And a very overwhelming one at that.

"Deal?"

Let's see her talent.