Episode 2 of the Overly Competent Villain

Rules of the Lawless Zone

Much of the western part of the Empire is said to be wasteland and lawless, but it’s not necessarily all that barren.

Trading cities adjacent to the coast accumulated enormous wealth through the sea and the sea route, and in the wasteland, which was no different from an extraterritorial zone, there were many cities of pleasure built by gangs.

“It’s arrived, ladies.”

A city of pleasure and luxury. In other words, Kelberg City, also known as the City of Corruption. A limousine car stops at a top-notch hotel there.

Although the limousine itself is not common in the city of Kelberg, which provides high-end limousine service for the city’s tourists, the distinctive emblem was enough to attract a lot of attention.

A goddess statue emblem made of pure gold. This is the emblem of a conglomerate group that has a huge reputation in the empire.

“Aris. Aris, wake up.”

“Hmmm…”

Inside the limousine, the driver and passenger shook, but the gorgeous blonde girl showed no signs of waking up.

It was a long flight to Kelberg, and an hour from the airfield to the city.

The conditions were sufficient for fatigue to build up, but the fellow passenger decided that it was better to rest on a mattress in a hotel than in a limousine.

“Nephew, wake up.”

“Who’s the nephew! Who!”

The blonde girl, who had been asleep a while ago, jumped up in a huff. I forgot that I was in the car.

-thud!

“evil!”

“My lady! Are you all right!”

“Ah, I’m not sure…”

“Wake up once you wake up.”

“Miss Mir…”

The dark-haired girl called Mir patted Aris, who was grabbing the top of her head. Actually, Aris was only annoyed by shaking off her arm.

“Profit…! Tired!”

“You were the one who asked me to come here.”

When Mir asked why he had come all the way to this place with his gaze, Aris boasted as if he didn’t know anything.

“Don’t you know what a heavy mission we’ve come for?”

“I know. He said he came to buy something.”

“Exactly! The Mayer Group must own the item that is going to be traded here at the auction house! My dad, to be exact!”

To come to such a crime zone just to get something from the black market held at a casino.

Mir couldn’t understand Aris’ overconfidence, but he trusted her ‘judgment’ itself.

Aris M. Mayer, chairman of the Mayer Group, is a special being who is blessed with golden protection.

The fact that her ‘golden eyes’ were shining meant that it was a great money-making.

“That’s right, and you! You kept telling me not to call me nephew!”

Aris asks for the word that woke her up as if having a seizure even though she fell asleep. But Mir shrugged and told the truth.

“You’re my nephew.”

“Are you and I the same age?”

“Hangyeolsang’s nephew.”

If your dad asks what to do with me being half a brother and sister, Aris has nothing to say.

“Anyway, you want me to get rid of that disgusting title?”

“Yes, nephew.”

“profit!”

Mir touched the seizure point of his nephew of the same age and at one point looked around the city of pleasure with pupils torn like snakes.

Western Lawless Zone.

‘The man’s domain.’

Mir hit once again what he had been doing ever since Aris said he was visiting the city of Kelberg in the west.

Because her eyes have the supernatural power to tell fortunes just by looking at the sky.

‘not good.’

From the time of departure to the present day, the divination is still evil. The problem was the contradiction that Gil was also with them.

* * * *

10 years later.

In the future when catastrophe came, I was one of the top executives of the ‘Society’.

Those who defeated the Sword Star and received the protection of countless stars, my country was destroyed by the villain, the Gwangseong received my grace, and I established the Beast Star.

Of course, my network did a great job in the process.

I don’t even need to explain what the network that I built up in my hometown, the west, did to bring down the empire.

However, my network is, strictly speaking, a cluster of point organizations.

A hydra-like organization that quickly grows two new heads even if one head is cut off.

Naturally, there is no choice but to have people who judge by ‘self’ inside the organization, and they did ‘free contract’ without me knowing.

“With this, the main characters are finished.”

Ronin, Jenna, Lloyd, Axel, Audrey and Frederick.

All of them are the bosses of the family who play a part in my network… They are executives who are, for example, regional leaders.

[Star Catastrophe has improved by a total of 1.6%. Such a crazy guy…]

‘That’s a bit harsh, yes.’

[How do you get more recognition from Relics than just killing Humpty with a few of your subordinates? You are the axis of evil! Axis of Evil!]

Yes. The subordinates I’ve dealt with so far are seeds that will play a part in the catastrophe of the world by trading with the society in the future.

Currently, he is growing his power under my command, but later he will grow his strength and run his own business.

Because it is a point organization, it is difficult to manage.

‘But we haven’t eliminated the real threat yet. I’m aiming for something bigger.’

[A bigger mogul? I’m sure you didn’t come to the west to do a purge… You’re drawing a big picture, right?]

‘Isn’t it time to learn a new soul magic? I have to grow up to become a great wizard.’

[Ha~ He’s a master magician who can’t even do simple magic alone. You are far from becoming a great wizard.]

‘Well, since the Swordsman and the Sorcerer are serving as teachers, wouldn’t the future be promising?’

As soon as the words were finished, the platinum knight approached this way.

“Ellie, why haven’t you slept yet? Do you want to have a late-night snack?”

“Well… that’s there too.”

I realized in the last few days, Elysia was a really big glutton. Originally, knights consume a lot of calories, so they say that if you fight once, you have to eat several times as much as others, but I wonder how you endured it so far.

“I’ll bring you something simple to eat. How about kimchi pancake?”

“Kimchijeon? What is it?”

“The good thing about being rich is that you can ask a professional to make similar creative dishes with food that doesn’t exist in this world.”

“What kind of small grain is that?”

With a smile, I took out the kimchi from the refrigerator, thanking Mr. Bordouin for reproducing the food of my hometown with only rough explanations.

Bastien, who knows my appetite, always fills the airship with food from his hometown. While the pre-divided kimchi pancake ingredients are grilled in a frying pan, let’s make kimchi fried rice.

Rice itself is a food that has spread here as well, and fried rice is completed by stir-frying finely chopped kimchi and sausage.

Elysia had a good appetite, so she gave her two servings. In addition, three pieces of kimchi jeon fried to a golden brown.

“Is it pilaf?”

“It’s similar. Fried rice dishes, because each region has one.”

“What about these red vegetables?”

“Food from the Far East, the Land of the Calm Dawn. Never offend them. They are home to star players who have mastered the arts of war.”

“Dae, it seems that there is even a great power.”

It’s been a long time since I talked about my hometown, but I laughed for no reason. For me, it was a story from 40 years ago.

Elysia made a surprised face while eating the fried rice I gave her. Then, after eating kimchi pancake with a fork and knife, I was impressed.

“Bird, it’s much better than I thought…”

“Is it delicious?”

“Yes, it’s very… I’m not used to the smell.”

Looking at the slightly raised cheeks, he seems satisfied. You may not be familiar with the ingredient called kimchi, but I also do some research because I have a taste for kojaeng now.

“It’s great. I’ve seen your virtue the past few days, so it would be nice to be able to return it.”

“That part…”

Elysia was hesitant to answer, wondering if there was something unclear about it.

“After all, they were killing your men. Of course they were… heinous criminals.”

“In terms of ferocity, there is no one like me. Compared to me, they are small children.”

Elysia does not know about the catastrophe of the star. That they were involved in the catastrophe of this world.

She willingly drew the sword for this partnership of eradicating criminals, but she must have felt a contradiction in her own way.

The real criminal to be punished is me right in front of my eyes.

“Aside from discussing the heinous nature of the crime, this is a necessary step.”

“Procedure… you mean?”

“Even in the underworld there are rules. Loyalty, trustworthiness, strictness.”

“It’s sometimes portrayed as the hypocrisy of criminals. But it’s a matter of survival. Those who break the rules have to be eliminated, and that leads to survival.”

“There can be no exceptions. That’s the rule of the underworld.”

Elysia listened to me and gave me a suspicious look.

“You’re an outlaw, aren’t you? This is a lawless zone.”

“Yes, it’s necessary because it’s a lawless zone. It’s a rule that only an outlaw needs. It’s a mess and arbitrary rule.”

Elysia has lived in the sun all her life. Her way of thinking is normal people and common sense, within the discipline of the law.

“That’s why honest discipline is precious. Eli, in your world, laws and rules exist in everything from murder to finance, even walking and driving. What makes it possible is the powerful force of public authority.”

But the lawless zone is different.

“In the world I live in, there is neither the power to enforce laws, nor the order based on educated morality. So I have no choice but to be the discipline myself.”

Thus, a new discipline was established in the lawless zone.

A discipline called Jacques Pietro.

“·······.”

Elysia seemed lost in thought. She is following me and reporting my achievements to the Bureau as a solver of various crimes, but I do it because I ordered it, not for her purpose.

The reason she decided to follow me was—

“Does this have anything to do with saving the world?”

Because I remember the conversation that day. So I smiled and told the truth without lies.

“Of course. We’re taking steps to save the world.”

[Looks like a scammer.]

It’s real, but it hurts my heart to say that fact.

Anyway, Elysia stared at me with strange eyes, then sighed and pushed the empty bowl away.

“One more air.”

There was an empty bowl of kimchi fried rice for two people.

* * * *

Jacques Pietro is a big-time criminal, like the King of the West.

He had his fortune tellers scattered all over the West, and they ran the business smoothly through Jacques Pietro’s meticulously organized network, with each family boss paying a percentage of the payout.

Basically, there were managers like Bastien who received quarterly reports, but even that was just a manager to keep the huge web-like network of the West running smoothly.

Jacques Pietro did not touch anything special, only providing amazing business items or earning profits through linkage of each network.

– Aren’t you just going to sit back and make money?

-In the end, we do all the hard work.

– I’m trying to suck too much to the bone marrow by supporting the initial business fund!

Several gang bosses complained about the bounty paid to Zach, but Doris Blanc, boss of the Blanc family, thought it was stupid bullsh*t.

‘You fools. It’s like idiots who don’t even know how great this system Pietro built in the West is.’

Doris Blanck is the most trusted organization under Pietro.

As the scale is large, I was able to approach the Pietro network spread out in the west, and I could see how huge and organic it was.

Land, sea, air… From all transportation routes, landlords and bureaucrats in each region are roasted through complicated cash laundering.

What is terrifying about Jacques Pietro is not only his ability to bury his enemies with elaborate stratagems, but also the skill with which he builds these networks.

‘This is not something anyone can follow. You have to have the ability to conceive and realize for a long time.’

Doris says that this means that Jacques Pietro is thirteen. It was creepy that he started building it when he was the boss of the back alleys of the slums.

At the age of elementary school, he became a loser in the back alley, and even before entering the military academy, he was already a tycoon who controlled a city.

A monster with thousands of serpents lurking behind a relaxed, gentlemanly smile.

So he was full of doubts about the rumors that had recently started spreading in the West.

– The bosses of Pietro’s organization are being assassinated!

– They said they’ve already been beaten seven times!

-The executives who survived the vacancy are taking care of it, but it’s still not enough!

News of the successive deaths of bosses affiliated with the Pietro Network. It stimulated the ambitious people who were weighed down by the huge name of Pietro.

-Is Pietro’s organization weakening?

-Wait, then me too?

-At this point, independent of Pietro, a unique route?

– Herpesson pups. I didn’t like it, but if I hit and absorb them now that they’re weakened…

When the news that successive Pietro-affiliated organizations were shaking was heard, each of them dreamed of the ambition of ‘free contract’.

Wild beasts who could not collide under the same Pietro Sanha rule are aiming for each other.

“Something’s strange… why haven’t you heard from Bastien, let alone Pietro?”

No matter how flashy he is in the east and in the west, even if he is Jacques Pietro, he tends to keep in touch at least through a communication magic tool.

Most of all, Bastien, who manages the west on his behalf, was preventing conflicts between affiliated organizations.

“Brother, shouldn’t we do something too?”

“That’s right! Of course, I don’t mean to betray Pietro-san, but how about taking this opportunity to wipe out the unlucky Curs family?”

“If you absorb the cuss, not even Mr. Pietro will be able to ignore the boss and our gang!”

Looking at her subordinates looking for opportunities in crisis, Doris gave a pitiful look.

He saw from beginning to end how Jacques took control of the city and how he sat on the throne to rule the West.

It was for this reason that he, who is often called a loyalist, showed a particularly weak side to Zac.

Unlike her subordinates who had air in their lungs, Doris began to analyze the situation coolly.

Ronin, Jenna, Lloyd, Axel, Audrey and Frederick.

All far from loyalists, those who prefer loose ‘free contracts’. There are also rumors that they are collaborating with warlocks or ‘beasts’ who have recently started to make their way to the west, or that they are distributing drugs.

“uh?”

Doris blurted out the possibility that flashed in her mind.

“purge?”

Let’s spit out that possibility, goose bumps goose bumps on the skin.

Jacques Pietro is a person who is good at making people roll by using psychology, situations, and rumors.

He understands the physiology of the Dark World better than anyone else, and nonetheless sets the rules in this lawless area.

There is no one in his close circle of high-ranking officials who can be said to know how harsh he can be to those who break the rules.

What if this was a painting by Jacques Pietro?

If so, it could be seen that his intention was so wonderfully successful.

In fact, when the organization was shaken a little, those who showed ambition were revealed.

The only criminal capable of such artistic painting is Jacques Pietro.

“Sat, communication hole! Activate the communication hole right now!”

“Yes? To whom—”

“Bastien! Bastien Moreau! If you don’t receive it, leave the password!”

“What, what should I leave behind?”

When asked by her subordinates, Doris answered without hesitation.

“The more guns, the better!”

To avoid this great purge, you must be a gun pointed at those who are to be purged.

At this moment, it was a common decision among the quick-witted bosses, including Doris.