Even in the public sphere, these families wield immense wealth and influence.
The two families were the Di Malvento and the Del Fiore.
Their power was absolute and balanced—an unspoken rule of the underworld.
Sylas is the protagonist Shou who belongs to the Di Malvento family, while Laxus is the charming protagonist Gong who belongs to the Del Fiore family.
As for Rocco himself, he was Rocco Di Malvento—the second son of the Di Malvento family, one of the Two Great Families.
Unfortunately, Rocco was a useless side character who would be dead in the early stage of the story.
But why him?
Rocco was an excessively spoiled kid and had a weak body since he was born, which is a terrible fit for the mafia world.
He was, to put it bluntly just a brat.
Even so, the fact that he getting killed seemed a little bit too much.
To make matters worse, Rocco had been labeled an "unloved child" from birth, thanks to his connection to the family's despised second wife.
Let's unpack this.
The Di Malvento family consisted of the father, the mother, the older brother, and Rocco.
His older brother, Sylas Di Malvento, was in fact his half-brother.
Their father, the head of the Di Malvento family, had deeply loved his first wife, but she was tragically killed in a family conflict.
His father who is devastated because of the loss of his beloved wife vowed to never remarry again.
But life rarely goes as planned.
Not long after the beloved first wife's death, an incident shook the family.
One day, a woman claiming to carry the Di Malvento bloodline appeared at the family's gates.
That woman was Rocco's biological mother.
His mother is a noblewoman from a prestigious duke's family and she was also a fervent stalker who had been obsessively in love with his father.
Upon hearing of the first wife's death, she saw her chance.
Stealing his father's sperm—yes, stealing it—she impregnated herself.
Even remembering this was enough to make Rocco want to cry from sheer horror.
Thus, Rocco's mother conveniently ended up pregnant with his father's child, which is him.
It might sound absurd, but let's roll with it; after all, this is a novel's world.
In this world, magic could perform something akin to a DNA test, and Rocco's bloodline was unmistakably confirmed.
Given the risk of letting a child with Di Malvento's powerful genes roam unchecked, his father had no choice but to acknowledge him.
Rocco couldn't help but feel guilty.
Since his mother was a noblewoman from a duke's family, his father couldn't simply take the baby and cast her out.
Reluctantly, he accepted her as his second wife.
And so Rocco's life as Rocco Di Malvento began.
His backstory was so heavy that it left no room for him to laugh.
From this point, we delve into Rocco's journey from birth to the present.
As expected, even as a baby, Rocco was promptly moved to a remote annex far from the main estate.