Hello, Boss

"Hey, old man, looks like you've landed a big deal. How about paying last month's protection money?"

A mocking voice reached the old man's ears. A burly young man approached with two or three other youths, and the old man's face turned pale. "S... sir... this money is just this gentleman's deposit. The goods... the goods haven't been made yet. I can't touch this money, sir."

"Hm? A deposit?"

The young man looked at Chiba's back and patted him on the shoulder, grinning. "Kid, you don't look like a local. If you can afford a deal this big, you must be rich. You know this street is my boss's turf, right? If you're smart, hand over fifty thousand J right now, and I'll guarantee your safety for a month!"

Chiba turned around and gave him a calm glance. "What if I don't?"

"You won't? Ha!" The young man laughed and pointed at Chiba. "My boss is Alili. Everyone in the village has to show him respect, and a kid like you dares refuse to pay? You believe my boss will come beat you up?"

Alili???

Well, well, someone I know.

Chiba smiled too and nodded. "Sure, go get your boss to beat me up."

"Fuck! You ungrateful little brat!"

The young man flew into a rage and swung a palm at Chiba, but Chiba caught it with one hand.

"Go play somewhere else."

Chakra erupted from Chiba's wrist, sending him and the other two youths flying.

"You!"

The young man's face flushed red, and he snapped, "If you've got the guts, tell me where you live!"

"The house outside the village. Come whenever you like, but I won't treat you to dinner." Chiba wasn't afraid of them coming to cause trouble. If they came, he would train every last one of them into an obedient son.

"The house outside the village?" The young man stared blankly.

"Boss, there's only one house outside the village. I hear three siblings live there. I remember... the older sister's name is Mirajane. She's a pretty little beauty," the young man's lackey whispered.

The young man remembered then. He licked his dry lips and laughed. "So that's who you are. You're the kid that little girl Mira picked up on the mountain. What's this? Got plenty of money, huh? Have you paid back what you owe my boss?"

Chiba said, "I was just about to. Why don't you call him over?"

"You? You think you're worthy of making our boss come here himself?" The young man got to his feet, a vicious grin spreading across his face. "Kid, I bet you've never seen what my boss can do, have you?"

Chiba: "..."

Can I tell him I've not only seen it, but also beaten him up twice?

Forget it. I'll give him some face.

Chiba rubbed his chin and said with interest, "Yeah, go on. Call him over and show me what he can do."

"You just wait! If you've got the fucking guts, wait right here!"

The young man pointed at him, his voice full of threats. Then he and the two lackeys ran off, afraid Chiba would chase after them.

"..."

"Young man, you'd better hurry and leave. Alili is a notorious bully in this village. Nothing good will come of crossing him." Once the three had left, the old man at the smithy hurriedly offered him a kind warning.

Chiba smiled. "It's all right, sir. I'll wait right here for them today."

A bully? Could he be a cockroach bully? Even if Spider Detective and Scorpion Lailai showed up today, I sure as hell wouldn't run away.

"This..."

The old man sighed. Chiba was an outsider, after all; he didn't know what the local strongman could do.

After a while, a dozen or twenty young men approached from not far away. The one leading them was tall and burly, his fleshy face full of menace.

"Boss! That's the kid! It's bad enough he wouldn't pay the protection money, but he even openly challenged you and called you a grandson!"

The young man from before spoke indignantly at Alili's side.

"Oh?! Which little bastard?! Is he tired of living? Where is he?" Alili's face was full of menace, and his voice rumbled like thunder.

"There, right over there!" The young man pointed in Chiba's direction.

Chiba: "..."

The voices stopped abruptly.

The next instant, they sprang backward like frightened monkeys. Alili was so scared he even stammered, "B... boss, what are you doing here?"

His panicked words stunned everyone present except Alili and the dozen or so young men he had brought.

Whoa, so those two beatings scared him so badly he's even calling me boss.

"What? I'm not allowed to come to the smithy?" Chiba asked.

"You are! You are! How could you not be? You're the boss, whatever you say goes!" Alili bowed and scraped, with none of the imposing air he'd had when they first met.

"This..."

The old man was even more shocked to see Alili acting like this, and was left speechless.

Who was Alili? The village bully. Everyone except the village chief and the priest had to give him some deference. And now he was acting so humbly before a boy who looked no more than twelve or thirteen?

It wasn't just the old man at the smithy. The passersby around them, accustomed to Alili's arrogant behavior, could hardly believe their eyes when they saw him acting like this.

Chiba looked at Alili and suddenly smiled. "Your lackey just asked if I was worthy of making you come here yourself."

"Fuck, he's asking for a beating." Alili immediately flew into a rage and slapped the young man beside him to the ground. "Yani, who gave you the guts to talk back to the boss like that?"

"I... I..." Yani still hadn't recovered. With half his face swollen, his words were slurred.

"Still talking back?! Huh?! Hurry up and apologize to the boss!" Alili kicked him and shouted.

Yani begged for mercy over and over. "S... sorry... boss... I was wrong... I didn't know it was you, boss. Please, you have to spare me..."

Chiba frowned, no longer wanting to waste time with them. He took a banknote from inside his clothes and handed it to Alili. "Here, I'm paying back the money."

Alili didn't dare take it. "Boss, consider this little bit of money a gift from the brothers. Please, keep it!"

"Cut the crap. I told you to take it, so take it," Chiba snapped, glaring at him.

Alili's expression softened, and he accepted it.

Chiba headed home and said calmly, "And don't call me boss. I'm not your boss. I don't have a bunch of lackeys who bully the weak. Also, if I see your men bullying this old man like that again, I don't mind beating every one of you into the hospital."

Alili froze.

Thud!

He suddenly dropped to his knees.

"Boss, please accept me as your lackey!"

The pleading voice reached Chiba's ears. The boy turned around and saw Alili prostrated on the ground.

Chiba stared blankly.

"Did I trigger a hidden plot?"

He muttered to himself.

He now understood that part of the reason Alili was so humble was that he had easily beaten him twice. Another part was probably that Alili had been won over by his strength and genuinely wanted to acknowledge him as his boss.