[R1999] Short Stories' Collection

A chaotic incident in Sicily (7)

10:30am, April 17th, 1955, Palermo, Sicily's Office, in the Chief's room

"You said there was a group of seven unknown arcanists appearing in the wedding's massacre?"

The man lightly tapped his finger on the table as he listened to the person on the other side of the telephone.

"They helped the Marino?"

"Uh-huh. I got it."

His expression darkened a little bit.

"How about their appearances?"

"A violent short guy with wolves, a tall woman wearing trousers and wide-brimmed hat, a freaky white and black-haired girl with balloons, an orange-haired chick and a gray-haired chick, the female boss who didn't talk much and a man who could summon an army helicopter?"

The man slightly raised his voice as he repeated the words of the other person. His tapping speed also became faster.

"I know who they are."

He answered in a calm manner.

"Yes. Let me handle them."

He hung up the phone and took a deep breath. As soon as he exhaled, he began to swear.

"Those f*cking stupid shithead mafias!"

He glared at the telephone and punched really hard on the table that created a resounding sound.

"Think you were powerful enough to deal with those people with superpowers on your own? You egotistical shithead!"

The more he recalled the disgusting, discriminatory looks on their faces, the more he wanted to shoot three times in the back of their heads. The man, or we could call him the Sicily's Chief, was extremely mad about how his temporary cooperators hadn't informed him about such a big deal until now.

"There's no record of any of them ever appearing in Sicily before April 15th, 1955. So their presence at the Marino clan's wedding might be just a coincidence."

He murmured to himself.

"Those Marino bastards were hard to be affiliated with."

"Even my current connection with them, no, the Sicily's Office with them, is thanks to the tireless attempt of the former's Chief."

The Marino clan's origin dated back to the 1850s. They weren't mafia at first, but a small group of Sicilian revolutionaries consisted of peasants, fisherman and lazzaroni who fought against the Bourbon's regime with the hope of regaining the independence of Sicily. They were just one of the revolutionary groups at that time and gradually expanded their clan from the unification of Italy period till now.

(*lazzaroni: the poorest of the lower class in the city)

What made them a mafia clan that could make other clans afraid of was neither the long history nor strong force, but their people who were at every corner of Sicily. It was really difficult to tell if someone you met accidentally on the street was actually a Marino, regardless of their age, gender or jobs.

The Sicily's Office was formed even before the beginning of the Marino clan. Originally, arcanists and humans kept their distance and didn't violate each other's boundaries. Nonetheless, that situation changed when the former Chief of the Sicily's Office proposed a friendship with a mafia clan during the 1910s.

The chosen mafia clan was the Marino clan, who didn't advocate prioritizing violence and had a large information network in Sicily. Miraculously, the former Chief succeeded in just 5 years with her ceaseless efforts.