Chapter 7 : Chapter 7

Chapter 7:

Kiyohara Jun was once again shocked by Mori Ougai’s duplicity, and in his heart, he highlighted Mori Ougai’s name in red and bold.

“Executive Candidate Kiyohara, you jest. Of course I am only an ordinary doctor.” The smile on Mori Ougai’s face remained unchanged. Nothing about him revealed that killing intent toward Kiyohara Jun had already arisen in his heart.

He looked at Kiyohara Jun. The white-haired boy had clearly said something like that, yet he still looked perfectly unruffled, as though it had only been a casual remark.

Mori Ougai could not help raising Kiyohara Jun’s difficulty level by another rank in his heart.

“As long as you are happy, Doctor Mori.” Kiyohara Jun looked at Mori Ougai with an indescribably complicated gaze. This man appeared to be nothing more than an ordinary doctor, yet in the future, he would dare to seize power—and even succeed.

Mori Ougai immediately felt as though something had lodged in his throat. He thought that Kiyohara Jun’s way of speaking truly lived up to its reputation.

Kiyohara Jun thought it over. Having Doctor Mori, who was duplicitous but still a normal person, as his superior would be far better than serving the current Boss, who was already so old that he was barely recognizable and had issued many insane orders. So he reached out and patted Mori Ougai on the shoulder.

“Doctor Mori, do your best,” Kiyohara Jun said beside Mori Ougai’s ear. “A wise bird chooses the tree where it will roost.”

Kiyohara Jun thought about it again and decided not to say outright, inside the Port Mafia building, that Mori Ougai intended to seize power. Instead, he used words he felt were much more tactful to pledge his allegiance to Mori Ougai.

After saying that, Kiyohara Jun, who believed he had successfully pledged himself to the future Boss, turned around and left in complete relief. Only Mori Ougai remained standing in place, watching Kiyohara Jun’s back with a gaze chilling enough to make one’s hair stand on end.

“Kiyohara Jun,” Mori Ougai murmured. He could not help letting out a soft laugh.

【The tension is here! I will take a polite sip of this ship.】

【The way Jun whispered was so handsome. Huff, huff, huff.】

【Wife, my destined wife—】

【More Scriptwriter Group clashes, more!】

【This counts as Jun making it clear to Mori Ougai that he knows Mori wants to seize power.】

【I feel like Mori Ougai’s wariness of Kiyohara Jun has deepened a lot too.】

【Of course. If anyone’s plan were suddenly exposed by someone, how could they not grow more wary of that person?】

【I have to say, Kiyohara Jun really is strong. How exactly did he know? I still cannot figure it out.】

【I think Mori Ougai probably cannot figure out how his plan was leaked either.】

【Personal guess: Mori Ougai will probably keep probing Kiyohara Jun later.】

The bullet comments really were a bunch of fools. Kiyohara Jun thought that he had already pledged allegiance to Doctor Mori, so how could Doctor Mori possibly be wary of him? After all, good subordinates like him were already rare. He had not expected that even the bullet comments, which could foresee the future and see the truth of matters, were fools too.

Mori Ougai: I truly ought to thank you properly. You nearly scared me into cardiac arrest. What a good subordinate you are.

Over the next few days, Kiyohara Jun went through the same cycle as always: processing documents, going out on missions, processing documents, going out on missions. His life was calm and uneventful, and there was absolutely no probing from Mori Ougai like the bullet comments had mentioned. This made Kiyohara Jun even more convinced that he had already succeeded in pledging allegiance.

Then, one sudden day, news came from the Boss’s office on the top floor of the Port Mafia. The previous Boss had passed away after an emergency operation failed, and under the witness of a boy, he had passed his position to his personal physician, Mori Ougai, before his death.

When Kiyohara Jun heard the news, he felt as though he had been waiting for this at last. Doctor Mori—no, he should be Boss Mori now—had finally succeeded in seizing power.

Forging a will after the Boss died of illness and using it to seize power was also a fairly good method.

The innocent Kiyohara Jun never imagined that there was an even more deranged method: kill the Boss, disguise it as death by illness after a failed operation, then forge a will and seize power.

In truth, the members of the Port Mafia had more or less already prepared themselves for the previous Boss’s death. Therefore, no one thought there was anything abnormal about the previous Boss dying of illness. However, the fact that the previous Boss had directly passed his position to a doctor still caused a certain amount of unrest within the Port Mafia.

Even so, this matter not only had a witness, but also seemed like something the already insane and muddleheaded previous Boss might have done. Therefore, the lower-ranking members did not object much. Some even breathed a sigh of relief because the insane previous Boss was dead.

The ones who truly caused unrest were the unwavering supporters of the previous Boss faction. They did not believe the previous Boss would pass his position to an ordinary doctor, so they made a great commotion within the Port Mafia.

However, no one expected Executive Ozaki Kouyou, the Black Lizard led by Hirotsu Ryuurou, and most unbelievably of all, Executive Candidate Kiyohara Jun, to all stand on Mori Ougai’s side.

Kiyohara Jun in particular was only a fourteen-year-old boy, but rumors had long circulated faintly that he was the strongest combat force within the Port Mafia.

Thus, with the Mori faction and the previous-Boss faction evenly matched in strength, and with persuasion from Colonel, the Executive from the neutral faction, the Port Mafia’s turmoil temporarily settled down.

Kiyohara Jun stood alone in one part of the hall. This was the succession ceremony for the Port Mafia’s new Boss, Mori Ougai. At the ceremony, the previous-Boss faction, the Mori faction, and the neutral faction were clearly divided. Only Kiyohara Jun stood alone to one side. On the surface, he was already a member of the Mori faction, yet he did not go to where the Mori faction stood.

Suddenly, Kiyohara Jun moved. Just as everyone thought he would walk into the Mori faction’s crowd, he merely went to the long table and casually picked up a glass of Scotch whisky.

Kiyohara Jun took a sip of the Scotch whisky. Then, with a somewhat puzzled gaze, he swept his eyes over the crowd, who were all looking at him for some reason.

In everyone else’s eyes, Kiyohara Jun, standing at the center of everyone’s attention, took a rather careless sip of alcohol. Then he swept his gaze over the people around him with eyes that made them feel as though they had already been completely seen through.

Everyone present was, to some extent, intimidated by Kiyohara Jun’s gaze. Just then, Mori Ougai appeared, already dressed in a black suit and coat, with the red scarf that symbolized the identity of the Port Mafia’s Boss around his neck. Everyone shifted their attention to Mori Ougai.

With a change of clothing, Mori Ougai’s presence was utterly different from before. Wearing a grief-stricken expression, he began to speak of his sorrow over the previous Boss’s passing.

Kiyohara Jun looked at Mori Ougai’s extremely convincing grief and could not help sighing inwardly. He had not expected Boss Mori’s feelings for the previous Boss to be so deep.

But if his feelings were that deep, why did he still seize power?

Kiyohara Jun was bewildered. Kiyohara Jun fell into deep thought.

【Mori Ougai really knows how to act.】

【Right? Looking at how grief-stricken he is, an ordinary person would never imagine that he killed the previous Boss.】

【Wait, look at Kiyohara Jun’s expression!】

【Damn, that expression! No way, no way!】

【Judging from his expression, I bet Kiyohara Jun has guessed that Mori, that scumbag, killed the old Boss.】

【I think so too.】

【Kiyohara Jun is incredible.】

【Kiyohara Jun is an old hand in the Scriptwriter Group.】

?????????

What??? Boss Mori killed the previous Boss???

Kiyohara Jun, who had just been lost in thought, fell into utter shock after seeing the bullet comments.

He looked at Mori Ougai, then at the bullet comments. He simply could not imagine that the man before him, who looked so grief-stricken, could be the murderer who had killed the previous Boss.

Boss Mori was so, so good at acting!

Kiyohara Jun, caught in shock, remained in his original posture the entire time, staring straight in Mori Ougai’s direction. Because of that, his golden eyes looked even more intimidating.

Mori Ougai, who was in the middle of his speech, noticed that especially conspicuous gaze. Outwardly, he continued his speech without the slightest change in expression, but in truth, he watched Kiyohara Jun for a while out of the corner of his eye.

When he saw Kiyohara Jun’s gaze and expression, an inexplicable feeling arose in Mori Ougai’s heart.

Kiyohara Jun knew.

And just as Kiyohara Jun was caught in shock, he suddenly realized something else.

Why did the bullet comments think he knew about Boss Mori’s seizure of power?

Kiyohara Jun felt a trace of exhaustion. But at this moment, he was no longer even surprised. After spending so long with the bullet comments, he already had some understanding of the image he held in their eyes.

An unfathomable Port Mafia Executive Candidate who could see through everything and had everything under control. That was the image the bullet comments had of him. In reality, Kiyohara Jun believed that apart from possessing a powerful ability, he was an utterly ordinary person.

Kogu Takuto, who had been silently standing beside Kiyohara Jun the whole time, noticed Kiyohara Jun’s expression from the corner of his eye. Kogu Takuto, who was extremely familiar with every one of Kiyohara Jun’s microexpressions, soberly and painfully realized that his immediate superior had successfully lost focus during the succession ceremony of their highest superior.

And so, Kiyohara Jun spent Mori Ougai’s entire speech lost in thought. Because of his expressionless, world-weary face and eyes that never revealed any emotion, everyone except Kogu Takuto believed that Kiyohara Jun had listened to Mori Ougai’s speech with great seriousness as they watched him stare at Mori Ougai the entire time.

After Mori Ougai’s speech ended, everyone raised their glasses together to congratulate Mori Ougai on his succession, and a banquet officially began.

As Kiyohara Jun absentmindedly thought about Mori Ougai killing the previous Boss, he occasionally took a sip of the Scotch whisky in his hand.

Just then, a boy draped in a black coat, with bandages wrapped all over his body, including around his right eye, appeared beside Kiyohara Jun.

“Scotch whisky?” The boy leaned his head over curiously. “How does it taste?”

Kiyohara Jun came back to his senses. Looking at the boy before him, who seemed about the same age as him, he directly pointed toward the long table and said, “There is some over there. You can take one yourself.”

If he was curious about the taste, would he not know after trying it himself? Why ask him? Kiyohara Jun was bewildered.

After hearing Kiyohara Jun’s words, the boy paused. Then he turned and also took a glass of Scotch whisky from the long table.

“It tastes acceptable,” the boy holding the Scotch whisky commented after taking a sip.

Kiyohara Jun did not respond.

The boy did not give up just because Kiyohara Jun had not responded. He seemed full of curiosity toward Kiyohara Jun. After openly observing Kiyohara Jun for a while, he finally introduced himself.

“I am Dazai, Dazai Osamu,” the boy said softly.