Crushing Them with Cash

The auction carried on.

There was something strange about it. The 'Owls' were nowhere to be seen whenever an item unrelated to magic came up, but the moment anything so much as marginally useful to a mage hit the block, they barged in and forced the purchase through without leaving a shred of room for negotiation.

They drove the price up without sparing the figures a single glance, as if money meant nothing at all.

Even as resentful, questioning messages flooded the chat, the Owls never once dignified them with a response. They'd win an item, slip quietly away, and simply watch until the next lot appeared. There was no telling how many of them were keeping an eye on this auction.

So multiple people are taking turns monitoring the auction house.

That level of commitment bordered on madness. The sheer will to monopolize every last artifact practically radiated off them.

But.

The item coming up next would not be theirs.

There it was, at last. The item I'd been waiting for all this time.

A starting bid of 500 million. That was a steep price for a consumable that wasn't even an elixir — and yet, considering this item's potential, it was practically a bargain.

Dumping money on it right away would be foolish.

I needed to watch how things unfolded and bid strategically.

[Bid: 510,000,000G]

[Bid: 540,000,000G]

I waited a while, and the price began to creep upward — far more tepidly than before, of course.

Well, they can't help it.

They had no idea what this item actually was.

Right now was still a period when the existence of hidden gates hadn't spread very far. This was simply an 'entry-condition gate' that had earned itself a premium on account of its rarity and landed on the black-grade auction house's block.

You people are going to beat your heads against the floor with regret later.

Smiling inwardly, I began to participate in earnest.

Start off light.

I entered the bid amount and registered it.

[Bid: 600,000,000G]

600 million. Not a huge jump in raw numbers, but a significant swing compared to the previous bids. Normally that much would be enough to close things out cleanly —

[Bid: 700,000,000G]

"...Figures."

These Owls weren't the type to sit back and watch.

More likely than not, they'd reacted to the words 'Magic City' written on the ticket — deciding they could farm artifacts and grimoires inside it, presumably.

Which suits me just fine.

Now the real war of capital began.

[Bid: 750,000,000G]

[Bid: 800,000,000G]

The moment I raised my bid, an immediate counter came back. Then it was only right that I return fire in kind.

[Bid: 1,000,000,000G]

One billion. They hadn't expected me to leap 200 million in a single stroke, and the other side seemed to waver — the price sat frozen for quite a long while.

[Bid: 1,300,000,000G]

Just before the hammer, another 300 million. My opponent had no doubt racked their brains over that one. If this had been an artifact with guaranteed effects, they'd have charged in without looking back.

But this is nothing more than a gate admission ticket, after all.

Even a Magic City didn't drop exclusively magic-related loot. From the UK Magic Tower's perspective, that made them dangerously cautious — to them, this ticket was a gamble, plain and simple.

Whereas I know exactly what I can get out of this gate.

I even knew its value was so immense that a few tens of billions of gold couldn't begin to convert it. This was no gamble at all from the start. It was more like a card game where you'd already seen every card in your opponent's hand.

[Bid: 1,500,000,000G]

Without a moment's hesitation, I added another ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠200 million. 1.5 billion in total.

The first round was my overwhelming victory.

"...You failed at the auction?"

"Th-that is..."

The male mage wiped sweat from his brow as he barely managed to report what had just transpired — both that a curious item had surfaced at the auction, and that they had failed to purchase it.

"Did I not make myself clear? Anything with even the faintest connection to magic belongs to the Tower!"

SLAM!

The woman with the enchanting silver hair stomped her foot in irritation, and the mana in the air shuddered all at once, coalescing into an overwhelmingly oppressive atmosphere.

Gulp.

The mage delivering his report swallowed dryly. The woman standing before him was the very pinnacle of modern magic — the strongest hunter of the magical discipline. Above all, she was one of the 'World Rankers' who made up Britain's golden generation.

Diana. A being classified alongside the 'Lion King' David as Britain's foremost fighting force, and her wrath was nothing anyone could easily endure. Merely shifting her mood was enough to close a throat; her mana was already crushing the man before her ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠as though he might faint on the spot.

"Hrk...!"

He scraped together his voice by the skin of his teeth.

"It was just... too uncertain, ma'am!"

"Uncertain?"

The man began his explanation — one made purely to stay alive. And by the time Diana had heard it all, her irritation had eased a degree.

"...I see. If it's merely an item that accomplishes nothing but 'gate entry,' then a great many variables could come into play."

She was intrigued by a gate that could only be entered with a ticket, true. But if things went badly, they could pay out a fortune and walk away with nothing of value.

"Hmm..."

Still, one thing bothered her. Someone had spent billions upon billions to buy an item that carried that much risk of being worthless.

Going by the circumstances, a single person drove every one of those price wars...

Did that someone know the ticket's hidden value?

"M-Madam Tower Master!"

"What is it."

"The ticket just came up for auction again!"

"...What did you say?"

The man shared his screen.

Just as he'd said — another ticket, identical, sat on the auction block.

"Could it be... less precious than we assumed...?"

"No. No, it isn't."

Diana smiled a wicked, dangerous smile.

I'd nearly forgotten. Gates, by their very nature, are conquered by many hands together.

This gate was no different. The number of tickets, she realized, was the number of people who could enter.

Now I'm curious.

What exactly was this ticket? And what waited on the other side of that gate? Licking her lips, she activated the bracelet at her wrist.

The second ticket went up for auction.

However, this round was nowhere near as easy as the first. To begin with, more people besides me and the Owls had taken an interest in the ticket.

The 1.5-billion sale from before had apparently caught their attention. Still, once the price climbed past reasonable bounds, most of the ordinary folk dropped away.

[Bid: 2,300,000,000G]

It had long since blown past the first ticket's price. Once it crossed 2 billion, an air of collective surrender began to settle in — even for them, they must have felt, pouring this much into a consumable that wasn't an elixir was overreaching.

"Giving up already?"

Had even the Tower headquarters judged this excessive? I waited for the hammer to fall, feeling a faint twinge of disappointment. And then, at that very moment —

[Bid: 3,000,000,000G]

In an instant, the bid leapt to 3 billion.

A grin spread across my face before I knew it.

"There you are."

That's right — it'd be a shame if things ended here.

[Bid: 3,100,000,000G]

[Bid: 3,400,000,000G]

The moment I closed the gap, they tacked on another 300 million. A firm declaration that this time, the ticket would be theirs without question.

Let's see how far that resolve of yours carries you.

I was curious now — just how much did you people value this ticket?

[Bid: 4,000,000,000G]

When the leading digit flipped, the chat room erupted.

Now then, try to keep up.

Perhaps they were deliberating, because the price sat unchanged for a long stretch. The end of a wait ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠that felt long and short all at once.

"...Oh?"

Soon enough, the bid renewed.

[Bid: 4,500,000,000G]

A full 500 million gold — 4.5 billion in total. An amount so reckless it bordered on excessive for an item that hadn't even been verified. No doubt it was their final Maginot Line, the farthest they could go without real conviction.

Well then.

All that remained was to hand them that conviction.

cheerfully typed in my bid.

[Bid: 5,000,000,000G]

A clean 5 billion gold. With the bid surging yet again, this time the price never budged, right up to the end.

And so the second round, too, ended in my victory. The chat boiled over with speculation — what the ticket really was, and who this 'Anonymous10' could be, the one who'd paid such an obscene sum without blinking.

Now there's just one left.

There were three gate tickets in total. Once I had the last one, everything related to Magic Crafting would be ours and ours alone. I was settling into the next auction with a faint smile when —

Ding!

An alarm rang out from nowhere.

An Owl. Which meant someone from the UK Magic Tower.

"Ms. Yeon-ha."

"What is it? Don't tell me something's gone wrong?"

"Not exactly, but... do you happen to know who '1stOwl' is?"

"...Wh-why would you suddenly ask me that?"

"Because a message just came in from them."

"WHAT?!"

Ji Yeon-ha shrieked — an uncharacteristic sound for her.

"That woman is the Supreme Tower Master of the British Magic Tower!"

"The Tower Master of Britain, you say..."

"You idiot! It's Diana!"

I glanced over to find Ah Seo-ah wearing an expression roughly fifteen times more shocked than Yeon-ha's.

"Huh. Is that so."

"How can you be so calm?! You just received a personal message from Diana herself! Do you have any idea how absurd that is?!"

I wasn't ignorant of it. Diana's standing transcended the magical world; she was famous across the entire globe. That went for anyone at the World Ranker level.

"But why on earth would she message you out of nowhere...?"

Even Yeon-ha seemed slightly on edge. She, after all, had personally stood before Diana once before.

To be appointed a national tower master, you're required to visit the British headquarters in person.

A purely ceremonial procedure, apparently, meant to cement Britain's status as the birthplace of the Magic Tower. In any case, that alone meant Yeon-ha had crossed paths with her at least once.

"What kind of person is she, exactly, that you'd react like that?"

Even before my regression, Diana had been nothing more than a name to me. World Rankers weren't people you glimpsed every day.

"She was... the kind of being whose very rank as a living creature felt different. As if I were standing before something that wasn't human at all."

"That severe?"

For a mage of Yeon-ha's caliber to be cowed...

"That boundless mana of hers gave even ME vertigo."

"Hmm."

"Her personality was haughty and cold, too. A great archmage straight out of a painting... that is Diana, Supreme Master of the Mother Tower."

By now my interest was piqued. What message could a person like that possibly have for me?

Without any reason to delay, I opened the private message window.

...Hm?