I Became a Mafia in the Academy
chapter-308

Chapter 308

Along with the eerie voice came a pitch-black darkness of unknown depth.

At first, I thought I had simply lost my vision. It was the only way to explain the sudden blackness.

But that wasn’t the whole story.

I tried moving my arm.

I must have moved my arm, but I didn’t feel anything. I try stroking my arm with my other hand.

No, did it even move? Is it touching my hand?

I’m definitely thinking, but I can’t feel my body moving at all. It’s as if my body doesn’t exist.

The next thing I felt was fear.

Am I even breathing right now? If I screamed, would I be heard? No, I don’t hear any sound.

I can’t hear anything.

I can’t see.

I don’t feel anything.

There is only thought.

Can this even be called existence?

Just as my thoughts were about to fade away──

-Hwaaaaah!

I began to see the light once again.

The first thing I noticed was the damp stone floor.

As I was frantically racking my brain to figure out what happened.

-Thud.

Water had fallen from somewhere and soaked the floor once again.

Water? I’m pretty sure there wasn’t any water before.

I frantically grope around.

“……?”

I realized it all came from my own eyes and mouth.

* * *

Sasha scrambled to her feet as she realized she was done. The time she held out was approximately…….

“Three minutes? You lasted longer than I thought.”

-I thought she would last about 30 seconds, but she’s tougher than I thought.

As we stare at the time and talk, Sasha looks over at me in bewilderment.

“Uh, Master. This is…….”

“The ability of Black Hand. It blocks the opponent’s five senses. To learn the art of the Dark Spirits, one must basically have immunity to darkness.”

The horror of suddenly losing your senses is unimaginable. If you don’t control it correctly, your mind can collapse in an instant.

It’s a training method that could be considered harsh.

“Do you think it’s too much?”

Sasha wipes the fluid from the corner of her mouth and lets out a ragged breath. She shakes her head in response to my question.

“……No, because if it was the enemy, they wouldn’t even give me that much time.”

Did I mention that she had been a mercenary in the past, so her mindset was definitely different.

But…….

“Black hand. Can we stop that?”

-If that’s……You mean Jin-woo Bevalt?

He’s still rolling around on the floor, screaming.

No, why is he singing in that situation?

“Isn’t he already losing his mind?”

I ask with genuine concern, and Black Hand waves a hand in the air.

-No, he hasn’t had a mental breakdown yet, according to my senses. It’s just……being that kind of human.

“……That?”

Now he’s just lying on his back and being still. What’s even funnier is that his chest is moving up and down evenly.

“No way, is that sleeping?”

-……I think he’s sleeping.

What the hell is wrong with this guy’s mind?

Sasha is actually looking at Jin-woo with a look of disbelief.

“Is that……Jin-woo Bevalt having the same experience as me right now? Is this it?”

-Yes, I’ve never seen anything like this before, so I’m surprised.

Really, I don’t know if I should call it amazing…….

“Black Hand, wake him up.”

-Yes, Master.”

Black Hand snapped its fingers, and Jin-woo’s body jumped up like a spring.

“The floor is cold, what’s wrong, what’s wrong, what’s wrong, what’s wrong?”

Speaking as someone who had also experienced Black Hand’s darkness, that reaction was truly bizarre.

“Young Boss, what just happened? It’s like my body just disappeared.”

I can’t believe that’s the first thing he asks when he sees me.

“It’s Black Hand’s ability.”

“Black Hand? Oh, you’re Don. I was also surprised because I thought something was wrong with my body.”

Jin-woo chuckles and scratches his head as if it’s no big deal.

“Normally, you’d have to be extremely frightened or mentally delirious to do that, so how on earth did you manage to stay sane?”

“What? Well, uh……smell? I just focused on the smell.”

“The……smell?”

“Yeah, like, all my other senses were gone, but I could still smell the familiar earthy odor, so I focused on that.”

At that answer, Latte looked in my direction, surprised, and whispered.

“Not bad, huh? Jin-woo Bevalt. Does that mean he’s your chosen one after all?”

No, I didn’t think he was either.

I turned my head to look at Black Hand overseeing this test.

“Is that possible?”

-Yes, I definitely didn’t remove his sense of smell, but I didn’t expect him to focus all his senses on it…….

Ha, I didn’t know Jin-woo had such a talent.

I wondered if he was really an assassin, maybe it was the result of his separate training in the Bevalt Family.

“……Master, I have a question for you.”

Suddenly, Sasha called out to me.

“What is it?”

“I don’t know if I should ask this, but I was wondering if you have experienced this too.”

“You mean the training you guys just did?”

Sasha nods at my question.

“We did…..but it wasn’t as significant as we thought it would be.”

“You mean it didn’t have significant results……?”

“I tried to block out all my senses……for a while, but it broke right away.”

“……? What do you mean, it broke?”

“Yes.”

Due to the strong status abnormality resistance of [Dragon Slayer], the darkness spell was forcibly destroyed.

The trait that keeps me cool at all times [Hitman]. Thanks to this, there was virtually no mental damage.

It was more like someone suddenly turned off the lights.

“So, Black Hand. Will they be enough?”

Turning back to the topic at hand, I asked if these two could receive the Dark Spirit’s techniques.

-Yes, I think they’re strong enough to learn it.

“Good.”

We had created a curriculum for learning the Dark Spirits’ secret technique, but there were only a few people who could learn them.

Darkness resistance was the minimum requirement to learn the secret arts.

The number of people who possessed it was much smaller than I thought, to be precise, only a handful of the dozens who applied this time.

Well, they had all mastered the basic techniques.

“Then I’ll ask Black Hand, right away.”

As I said that and stood next to Jin-woo, Sasha and Jin-woo turned their heads toward me.

“Will Young Boss be learning with us?”

“Master is listening too?”

What’s wrong with them?

“Isn’t it natural?”

I created this opportunity, of course I should learn.

We stood in front of Black Hand.

He glanced this way and that, nodded once, then rolled up his sleeves and showed us his hands.

-First of all, to deal with the darkness, you must feel it. You can all feel the mana in the air, so that should make it a little easier.

“What specifically does it mean that it’s important to feel the darkness?”

Sasha is the first to raise her hand and ask, presumably bruised by the fact that she’s been pushed aside by Jin-woo.

-It’s simpler than you think. Feel the fire. Touch the dirt. Scoop up water. Run your palm through the wind. You ‘feel’ the darkness in the same way.

It’s a bit abstract because it’s not a tangible object.

It’s easy to say, but not everyone can do it.

If everyone could feel darkness that way, this world would already be full of elementalists.

The other kids actually struggled to understand what he was talking about.

Of course.

“Is this what it feels like?”

-!!

It didn’t apply to me.

I had already dealt with so much darkness. Could it be because I’ve been using Black Mist made from the core of a dark spirit for a long time, as well as using techniques such as black flame, mines, and spirit beams like a meal?

Black energy begins to gather in the palm of my hand as soon as I realize it.

I felt something different from mana, something lukewarm, somewhere between cold and warm.

-You’re different, Master!

Black Hand looked at the black smoke curling around my hand and spoke with admiration.

-This must be your first experience with the darkness, and what an affinity you have for it. At this rate, you’ll soon reach the level of a Lesser Elemental.

I thought I was pretty good, but I’m still a lowly Elemental.

But once I get the hang of it, it shouldn’t be too difficult to raise my level.

-Come on, everyone else, give it a try, and if you’re having trouble, I’ll help you with the darkness.

Leaving the first successful one behind, Black Hand approaches the others and begins to show them how to operate the darkness.

Looking at the two who eagerly snapped their fingers with his help, I smiled with satisfaction behind my mask.

* * *

Inside the Darkness, an arena where countless spirits and members of the organization train.

In the center of it all, one man and woman faced each other, engaged in a fiery battle of nerves.

Jin-woo was smiling triumphantly and Sasha was glaring coldly at him.

“I’ve been trying to cover my tracks, and now here’s my chance.”

“That’s what you thought, too? This is an incredible coincidence?”

And between the two of them was a sword as dark as pitch.

The Dark Sword, a weapon forged by the Dark Spirits.

This was the cause of this conflict.

It all started with a simple word.

Black Hand made arrangements for the two people who couldn’t feel the darkness after so long.

-It seems that you can’t sense with your bare hands, so I’ll give you a little help.

He drew the sword at his waist.

-This is a dark sword, the weapon of dark spirits. It was forged in the darkness, using the darkness to forge the blade, and it will help you increase your affinity. I’m giving it to you, so why don’t you each take turns wielding it?

One sword, two people.

You’d think they’d fight to get it first, but……unexpectedly, the fight went the other way.

‘You go first. I think you’ll be fine without it.’

Jin-woo made the first concession.

He was probably trying to be considerate of Sasha since he’s weak to beauty, but the problem was that she, who was burning against Jin-woo, took it the wrong way.

Perhaps she understood it as, ‘I don’t need this shit, so use it on you, who’s a loser.’

And of course, this set up a confrontation between Jin-woo, who refused, and Sasha, who exploded.

Seriously.

“You’re not even……kids, what the hell are you doing?”

As I sighed at the scene, Latte, who was standing next to me, chuckled and said.

“They’re kids, sure, but at least they’re bringing a lot of energy to the town, right?”

True to her word, it was already a party around us.

-The two humans of Corleone fight!

-How do the members of the Corleone organization fight?

-I haven’t seen a fight in a long time!

Is it because it’s the first time they’ve seen a fight between humans? The spirits look on in anticipation.

“Newcomers?”

“You said one of them is a master of the Bevalt family?”

“A duel between the ones you’ve marked, sounds interesting.”

Even the members of the organization came out to support.

The deck was stacked against us.

Well, that’s the way it is.

“We’ll do it the Corleone’s way.”

They say that the surest way to prove a man’s worth is through strength.

As the superior of the two, it’s my responsibility to referee such a confrontation.

It wasn’t because I was curious to see who would win if they fought.

No, really.