GH | Chapter 1.2

“I didn’t want to make a mess of things…”

Neil clicked his tongue briefly, glanced once at Ethan Roach’s cooling corpse, and went on.

“Anyway, it’s only a matter of time before Ethan Roach’s body is found. So how about you stop wasting time and cooperate?”

He had seen, several times, that as Ethan Roach’s lover he shamelessly flirted even with the organization’s executives. No Serpente member dared treat Neil carelessly because he was the beta the boss treasured, but to think he had actually planted tracking devices and surveillance cameras. This beta named Neil was just what on earth…?

“Who the hell are you?”

“You don’t know me, but I know you. Schmidt Blair. Twenty-four. Alpha. Your father ran off after owing Serpente a huge debt, and because of that debt, your omega older brother almost got dragged in, so you took his place and became mafia, right?”

“…!”

Hearing his real name and personal details spoken by Neil, Schmidt stared at him in shock. There was still wariness in Schmidt’s eyes, but after confirming that he no longer seemed intent on attacking, Neil loosened the restraint. Freed from him, Schmidt let out a weak groan and tried to rise, and Neil knelt on one knee in front of him to meet his eyes.

“Just hand that ledger over to me, and this is all over. Wasn’t that absurd stunt because you wanted to get out of this disgusting underworld? I can make what you want happen. Perfectly.”

“……”

“You should go home, Schmidt.”

Neil held out his hand with a gentle smile, as if comforting a child, even though Schmidt was well over twenty. In that moment, with his gray eyes shining silver in the moonlight, Schmidt felt as if he understood why the cruel and cold-blooded boss of Serpente had fallen for him.

And then, the very next day, news spread across the United States that Serpente’s executives and members, as well as the companies and politicians tied to Serpente, had been arrested one after another or shot dead while resisting. As Neil had said, mafia Serpente, who had once controlled the Chicago area, vanished from American society overnight.

Watching the breaking news reports in succession about Serpente, Schmidt became convinced of one thing. That was not the result of just one ledger he had handed over, as though spellbound, to Neil. The ledger he had passed over had probably been only one piece of evidence Neil needed to obtain.

The man he had thought was just a foolish beta blinded by money and power, fluttering around the boss of Serpente, had taken only ten days to bring down Serpente, the mafia even the American police could not touch. The truth of his identity, revealed later, was that he was an agent of Amabile, a private intelligence agency and information company, a man known by the codename “Ro.”

✿ • ✿ • ✿

“Goodness, you were already here.”

Sitting in a quiet cafe tucked away in a remote area, with few customers coming in, Schmidt looked up at the deep voice dropping over his head. There stood a tall, platinum-blond man with blue eyes, smiling softly as he looked at him. Schmidt’s instincts, honed through years of living as a mafia member, told him this middle-aged man was definitely no ordinary person.

“Nice to meet you. My name is Robert.”

“…Schmidt Blair.”

When Robert introduced himself first and offered a handshake, Schmidt took his hand and returned the greeting. After the brief introductions, Robert took the seat across from Schmidt, and as if he had ordered in advance, a cafe employee brought coffee for Schmidt and Robert.

Robert took a sip of coffee and smiled in satisfaction. To Schmidt, his manner looked extremely refined. He could not figure out why someone like this had asked to meet him, someone who had until just days ago been a mafia member.

“I can’t have made you waste your time after calling you here, so let’s get straight to the point.”

Putting down his cup, Robert smiled quietly and spoke.

“I heard that two days ago, you handed over the ledger stolen from Ethan Roach’s mansion, the boss of Serpente, to our side. First, let me thank you. Thanks to that, things moved smoothly.”

The words he said so casually made Schmidt flinch and glance toward the cafe staff at the counter. It was a topic that was already hot enough across the United States, and the contents of what he had said were not even something that had been made public to ordinary people.

“No, it’s nothing. But is it really okay to talk about that in a public place like this?”

At Schmidt’s question, Robert chuckled softly and instead asked back.

“Why do you think this is a public place, Schmidt?”

“Pardon?”

“Don’t worry. Whatever conversation you and I have here will never leak outside.”

At Robert’s calm words, Schmidt realized his hunch had been right. As expected, this man was no ordinary person. On the surface it seemed to be a quiet cafe with very few customers, but according to Robert, this was probably not the “ordinary cafe” Schmidt had assumed.

“When you contacted me, I thought you were a police officer.”

“If you thought I was a police officer, why did you come so obediently? What were you planning to do if I arrested you, a former Serpente member?”

“If you were a cop trying to arrest me, I didn’t think you’d call me to a cafe like this.”

“Fair enough.”

Robert gave a pleasant laugh, adjusted his posture, and handed over a business card. Printed on it were the company name of the information firm Amabile and Robert’s name as its president.

“I’m not here to arrest you. I’m here to make you an offer.”

“An offer?”

“The meticulous plan you used to steal Serpente’s ledger all by yourself, and the execution that actually carried it out, stood out to me. It was also very interesting that Serpente failed to notice anything at all until you had already pulled off the ledger theft. Thanks to that, our own agent almost got burned, though he complained about it later.”

Agent? At the word coming from Robert’s mouth, Schmidt’s mind raced.

“You’re the reason this went wrong.”

Neil’s words from two days ago in Serpente’s boss’s mansion flashed back to him.

“Could the agent who almost got burned be the blond one with gray eyes…?”

“That’s right. For you, the name Neil Burke is probably more familiar.”

So he really had not been an ordinary beta. Schmidt quietly looked at the business card Robert had handed him. If he went in there, might he see him again? The man who had suddenly disappeared two days ago after taking the ledger Schmidt had stolen and promising to get him out of the underworld. He had kept that promise in less than a day.

Thanks to that, he had obtained the freedom he wanted so badly, but the stigma of being a Serpente member did not seem like something that would disappear easily. It would be a life where watching eyes could appear anywhere, and where it would not be strange if he were arrested at any time.

“If I accept this offer, what happens?”

“You will do many things under me. They might be righteous things, or they might not. The danger that comes with them will always be there as well. Amabile is a gray zone that moves in the blind spots of the law.”

After finishing his words, Robert handed Schmidt several sheets of paper.

“This is Amabile’s employment contract. Of course, it’s only an external document, but still, it’s better than nothing, wouldn’t you say? I’m not asking you to decide right away, so take your time reading it…”

Before Robert could even finish, Schmidt took a pen from his coat pocket and signed his name at the very bottom of the last page of the contract.

“…Schmidt, contracts are one of those documents you should read carefully.”

Seeing Schmidt sign without even checking the contents, Robert spoke with a slightly troubled smile. Schmidt was not really interested in examining the terms and conditions in order to get a good job, so he quickly flipped through the contract at Robert’s reluctant urging. Then, suddenly, his eyes stopped at a certain line.

“We use separate forms of address inside the company? Like nicknames?”

“That’s right. For security reasons, Amabile does not use real names, so each agent is given a codename. If you don’t have one you want in particular, choose one from the names listed here.”

As if he had been waiting for this, Robert handed over a tablet. On the screen he offered were Greek letters that looked vaguely familiar. Alpha, beta, and omega were missing altogether, perhaps because they were terms for secondary genders and could cause confusion, and the letters that could not be selected had an X marked beside them.

Schmidt quickly scanned the Greek letters with his eyes. Among them was the one he knew only because Neil had called it out in a grumbling voice, Upsilon. Two days ago he had not understood what Neil meant when he said “Upsilon” to the air, but now he realized it had been the codename of the person who sniped Ethan Roach, the boss of Serpente.

Wait, then did that mean the person with the codename Upsilon was also someone at Amabile taking orders from Robert? Which meant the one who had given the order to kill the boss of Serpente was… Schmidt looked at Robert, who was sitting elegantly before him.

“How is it? Do you have a codename you like?”

Maybe Amabile, and Robert, the man who ran it, were even bigger players than he had imagined.

“I’ll take this one.”

“Good.”

Robert checked the letter Schmidt had chosen and nodded lightly. A gentle smile remained on his lips.