You don't even want to call me godfather

That's right. After all, he is a wolf hunter. Although he has no hostility towards him, he is definitely not the kind of person who can stay in someone else's house with peace of mind.

Koshe stood up and stretched. He opened the wardrobe, changed out of his casual clothes and put on formal clothes.

After opening the door, Koshe walked out of the room. When he passed Destiny's closed door, he paused, but then went downstairs.

The house was still as quiet as ever, just like when he lived alone.

Koshei took his coat from the hanger at the door and put it on, then pushed open the door.

"At this time, my father should still be at the mansion and not leave."

After checking the time, Koshe partially covered his eyes with his hands. After he had completely adapted to the light outside, he walked towards the Godfather's residence.

But after walking a short distance, Koshe stopped.

"I say... Hong, don't you take a rest during the day?"

Because he felt that feeling of being watched again.

"Um, Red, have you been discovered?"

This time, Hong immediately walked out of an alley beside him, but unlike last night, she let down her guard.

"If you could suppress the burning look in your eyes when you looked at my tail, maybe I wouldn't have noticed you." Koshei held his forehead helplessly, then called Hong over. "Listen, Hong, I'm going to see the godfather now, the godfather of Syracuse. Can you please not follow me this morning?"

"No, protecting Koshei is Red's mission. Red, you cannot interrupt the mission."

But Hong was obviously unwilling to leave, so he used the mission as an excuse.

"Ah... I knew it... Can you promise me, Hong, that you won't do anything to the Godfather?"

"Red, yes, Red, I have never received an order to kill the Godfather."

"Be good, wait outside for a while when we get to Hong."

Rubbing Red's head, Koshei ignored this little follower and continued on his way.

In less than ten minutes, he arrived at the Godfather's residence.

The door of the Godfather's mansion is always ajar and never closed, and sometimes there are family members watching outside.

Because in Syracuse, people often came to the Godfather for help, so this became a long-standing habit of the Godfather.

Anyway, no one dares to steal things from the Godfather's house, right?

Koshe turned around and Hong's figure disappeared again, but that gaze did not disappear. It seemed that she was very obedient and was waiting outside.

After greeting the two gang members at the door of the mansion, Koshe walked in.

He walked through the same corridor where he had undergone his coming-of-age ceremony a few days ago and came to the innermost study.

"godfather."

When I walked into the study, I saw the godfather sitting in the armchair, as if he had been waiting for a long time.

"You're here, kid," the godfather said, turning his chair around, playing with an unlit cigar in his hand. "I don't think you're here to reminisce about the past with me today, are you?"

"Yes, Godfather, there are some things I want to ask you--"

"Before that, can you tell me what's going on with the kid behind you, Koshe?"

Koshe was interrupted by the Godfather halfway through his words.

"Eh?"

He was stunned for a moment, and after realizing what the godfather meant, he quickly turned around.

I saw that Hong, who had just disappeared, was standing behind Koshei, and the ear exposed under the hood trembled.

There was no respect in her eyes as she looked at her godfather.

Chapter 19 Undercurrent

"Red! I didn't ask you to--" Koshei realized, and he quickly lowered his head to his father, "Sorry, Godfather, I will kick her out now--"

"No need, child." The godfather raised his hand to stop Koshei from speaking. He sighed and said, "There are some things that I should let you know."

"Godfather, what do you mean?"

"Come here, Red."

To Koshe's surprise, the Godfather seemed to know Hong and called her to him.

Hong also obediently walked forward and half squatted in front of the godfather.

"'Grandma' is not in Syracuse right now. For the next period of time, Hong will temporarily obey my orders. Is that okay?"

The Godfather said this while looking at Hong who was half-kneeling on the ground.

"Hong, I can accept it. Hong, I believe you."

Although Hong did not show any respect to the Godfather, she maintained an obedient attitude as if she was facing a superior.

"Why... Godfather, what's going on?" Kosh was confused. He was just worried about whether Hong would endanger his father's safety, but the current situation caught him off guard. "Why can you order Hong, a wolf hunter?"

"My child, many things in the world are like this, changing constantly." The godfather was still as steady as ever, as if it had nothing to do with him. "I believe that there are some things that you can understand without me saying anything."

"No, I don't understand, Godfather," Koshe stepped forward excitedly and said, "If the Wolf Hunters are the power of the Cascade family, then... no, I can't accept it."

"Ah..." The Godfather sighed. He stood up from his seat, walked around Hong and Koshei, walked to a row of bookshelves, and took a book from the bookshelf. "If I remember correctly, you sent people to inquire about the past of each family a few days ago. The information should have been delivered to you yesterday, in that jazz club."

"Yes... Godfather, I know a little bit about it." Koshei vaguely knew why the Godfather suddenly brought up this topic, so he admitted, "The contact person told me that this was something you explicitly allowed."

"Since you have learned the truth about these things, you should be able to discover something." The Godfather opened the book and turned to a certain page. He paused for a moment and then continued, "What do you think the Cascade family relied on to sit on the top of Syracuse, Koshe? With your wisdom, it is not difficult to guess."

"..."

Koshe was silent. He didn't want to believe that the Cascade family would train wolf hunters that were feared by all Syracuse people.

"Behind great wealth and great power, there are hidden sins." The Godfather's fingers slowly slid across the pages of the book, and finally stopped on a certain sentence. "If history has taught us anything, if life has taught us anything, it is that we can kill anyone, Koshei. To put it bluntly, if it is for this family, I don't care whether I use dishonorable means."

"..."

"By the way, did you have an argument with a guest at the club last night?" Seeing that Koshei remained silent, the Godfather knew that he could not accept this fact for the time being, so he changed the subject and said, "Jimmy told me that you were very angry last night and treated everyone very badly."

"I'm sorry, Godfather. I couldn't control my emotions last night."

"Is it because of Lapland?"

"..."

The Godfather's words today were very sharp and Koshe was having trouble adapting.

"If the matter of Lappland has troubled you, Koshei, why not let it become a thing of the past?" The godfather closed the book and put it back on the bookshelf. "Let's talk about the man named Jace."

"Jace took some of the commission from a family transaction without authorization."

Regarding the topic of Jess, Koshe expressed his own views.

"So you laid hands on him?"

"He's a thief who stole the family's money."

Koshe said so.

"That's not a reason for you to attack him, Koshe," the godfather returned to his chair and said, "Can I understand that you threatened him?"

"Yes, Godfather, I threatened him," Koshe said, "Only in this way can I warn him not to do such a thing again."

"But have you ever thought about what the consequences would be if your threats to him didn't work?"

"Please go ahead, Godfather."

"Although I haven't mentioned this to you, I thought you should be able to figure it out yourself," the Godfather took out a box of cigars from the drawer and lit one for himself, "The best threat is not to take action. Under the pressure of the family, Jace will not do this again, but if you make threats and it doesn't work, then he will no longer be afraid of threats. You think beating him up will teach him a lesson, but have you ever thought about whether doing so will make him start to bear a grudge?"

"…I'm sorry, Godfather. I was so overwhelmed by my emotions at the time that I didn't think of that."

Koshe acquiesced and later apologized.

"My child, you have to know that I don't know everything about Syracuse all the time. If it weren't for Jimmy, I might never know that you had done such a stupid thing." The Godfather took a deep puff of his cigarette, and then suddenly asked Koshei, "Do you know where Jimmy went? I asked him to come to my house this morning, but I didn't see him."

"This..." Koshei suddenly felt uneasy. "Jimmy is not the kind of person who would break an appointment, especially since it's your order..."

"I'm a little worried. Although Jimmy is not very courageous, he is a very reliable party member. I wanted to promote him to a family cadre after his father was discharged from the hospital." The godfather took two puffs of the cigar, cut off the cigar head, put it on the table, and said, "Koshei, this matter is left to you. Ensure Jimmy's safety and your own safety."

"Yes, Godfather, I understand."

……

After leaving the Godfather's mansion, Koshe began looking for Jimmy in several places where he often appeared.

Of course, Red followed suit.

As if because Koshei had already known the nature of the wolf hunter's existence, Hong no longer had the need to hide in the dark. She simply followed Koshei like a little follower.

"Hey, Jose," Koshe came to the door of the jazz club, hugged Jose, and then asked, "Have you seen Jimmy since last night?"

"Jimmy?" Jose quickly recalled and replied, "Sorry, I don't know. I haven't seen him today. He didn't come here."

"Is that so? I understand," Koshe patted his arm and said, "Watch this place. Let me know if there's any news about Jimmy."

"Boss, is something wrong with Jimmy?"

Even a big fool like Jose noticed that something was wrong.

"No, it's okay. Just do your job well and leave the rest that needs to be worried about to me."

After calming down Jose's eagerness to go searching with him, Koshe ran to the next place.

He asked everyone who was related to Jimmy, everyone who was present last night, even last night's contact person and Jace, the person he least wanted to see, but the answers were all the same.

Jimmy hadn't come to see them, and they hadn't seen Jimmy today.

With a bad feeling, he rushed to Jill's bar.

Jill often listens to guests telling her about various things, and perhaps she can get some information from her.

Chapter 20 Powerless

"So, this is why you came to the bar in broad daylight and found it was closed, so you called me directly to come over?"

At this time, in the Valhalla Bar, although the sign hanging outside the door still said "Closed", there were two people standing in front and behind the bar.

"Well, come on, this is important."

"Sit down and talk. There won't be any customers at this time." Jill took the lead and walked around the bar and sat down on the high chair next to Koshe. "Although based on the part of what you said on the phone, I don't remember anyone telling me about this last night, but if you can tell me in more detail now, maybe I can remember something."

"Can I have a cigarette?"

Koshe also sat down on a high chair, took out a cigarette case and asked.

"Tobacco has never been banned here, Koshei, and it seems that you really have a lot on your mind right now."

Jill half leaned on the bar, facing Koshei, looking at him worriedly, and spoke bluntly.

Koshe took two cigarettes from the box and handed them to Jill, who politely took the one from the box.

He wanted to light a fire, but after searching his pockets, he found that his lighter was missing at some point.

"I have a fire here, let's make do with it for now." Jill actually took out a box of matches from a decanter on the bar, lit it, helped Koshei light his cigarette, and lit his own cigarette, then extinguished the match and said, "Tell me about your friend."

"His name is Jimmy, and he's also a member of the family," Koshei said, facing the bar with his arms resting on it, unlike Jill. "I met Jimmy about four years ago. At that time, he didn't belong to the Cascade family. He was just an ordinary kid."

"Hmm, it looks like this story is going to be a long one."

"Well, Jimmy and I met once on the street. I saw a man robbing a lady's handbag. My godfather taught me to always lend a helping hand to others, so I chased after the man."

Koshe moved the ashtray on the bar counter in front of him and flicked the ashes. He frowned, as if the cigarette made him feel uncomfortable.

"But how could a 14-year-old catch up with an adult? So in less than a few minutes, the man was about to fade out of my sight, but at this moment, a child who was slightly older than me rushed out from the side of the road."

"Is that Jimmy?"

"Yes, he was out shopping with his parents at the time. After seeing the robbery, he tried to stop it immediately despite his young age," Koshe asked Jill halfway through his speech, "Do you have any wine? I feel a little thirsty."

"I'll get it for you, just continue."

Jill stood up, walked to the bar, took out a bottle of whiskey and two glasses from the wine cabinet and filled them up, then simply stood behind the bar, leaning on the bar, and continued to listen to Koshe's story.