The London Police Station
On London’s night, dazzling and bright, James Kane walked the streets alone.
“Was it this way?”
He had left Colt behind at the hotel, since showing his face could make things go wrong, and was heading alone toward the currency exchange office. Soon, a small sign caught his eye, and he slipped lightly into an alley. The exchange office was doing brisk business tonight as well.
“How may I help you?”
“I have quite a few dollars... It’s not easy to exchange them at a bank, is it?”
“How much are we talking?”
“Thirty thousand dollars.”
He was deliberately exchanging more dollars than Colt, because if they both exchanged twenty thousand, it would seem suspicious.
“!”
James felt the surprise of the man behind the iron bars, whose face he could not even see, and took three bundles of hundred-dollar bills from inside his coat. Exactly thirty thousand dollars.
“Hmm. Wait.”
Even though James had not waited long, the man returned quickly.
“Twenty-three thousand pounds.”
“That’s too little.”
“...Then go somewhere else.”
“Can’t be helped. I do need cash in a hurry.”
James set down the thirty thousand dollars and took the bundled British pounds offered through the bars.
“Good luck.”
After offering his farewell, James left the exchange office as though he knew nothing, and the clerk there picked up his mobile phone.
“...It’s a bigger one than yesterday. Follow him well.”
“How much?”
“Tank.”
Tank was the nickname given to the guard at the exchange office because of his huge frame.
“Twenty-three thousand.”
“Oh.”
“Take care of it for sure. You never know when trouble will come.”
“Okay. Once we handle this one, we can rest for a bit.”
How long that little bit would be depended not on their choice, but on James’s.
While * * *
The moment James left the exchange office, he could feel eyes fixed on him.
‘...Just how dull is Colt’s sense, anyway?'
Even without mana warning him, the hostility was so clear he could almost taste it. But thanks to that, he had learned the exchange office was in league with pickpockets, so from here on it was simply a matter of carrying out the plan as intended.
‘Before that, shall I collect some side income?’
The dollars James had handed over this time still carried a definite trace of mana.
‘Mana trace confirmed. Location fixed. Link established. Mana gathering. Response gate open.’
It was a teleportation spell that had become easier to use after he learned a new high-level magic. The corresponding magic circle was the hotel room where Colt was staying.
‘Illusion deployed. Teleport. Action!’
In that instant, the thirty thousand dollars inside the exchange office safe vanished cleanly along with the other cash and valuables nearby, and unless they opened the safe and looked inside, the men would never notice.
‘Ah. I should send mine too.’
Teleportation activated again, and most of the pounds in James’s hand disappeared.
‘Shall we begin?’
* * *
Thud, thud, thud.
“!”
Colt’s eyes widened in shock as bundles of dollar bills fell from the air.
“I-it really works...”
He had known money could be taken by magic, but seeing it with his own eyes was different.
“Whoa. There’s gold bars too!”
Gold bars alone were incredible, but there were also piles of foreign currency.
“My wallet too!”
But Colt could not get close; he could only watch from afar. James had firmly warned him that he might get caught up in the spell.
Thump.
And then the pounds teleported in a little late. It was the cash James had sent separately.
‘That alone would more than cover everything that was taken from me.’
But that money was not Colt’s share.
* * *
After finishing the safe teleportation, James’s steps drifted lightly toward the entertainment district.
‘When are they planning to make a move?’
The men only watched him from a distance and never came close.
‘They’re cautious ones.’
With no other choice, James went into a club alone and had to drink a few glasses there. Colt had said he did the same, so James figured the men would target him if he drank too. Then he left the club again, staggering as he searched for another place to pass the time.
Only then did the men draw near.
“Hey, man. We know a great place.”
“......”
James answered in a drunken drawl.
“...Heh heh. Yeah, let’s go. A great place...”
“I’ll show you the way.”
“...Wait. Hold on. I need to piss first. Feels like I’m about to burst.”
James went on his own into a dim alley, fumbling open his zipper and starting to relieve himself.
Step.
A few more men appeared behind him and took positions at the alley entrance, keeping watch.
“Just as easy as yesterday, huh?”
“Yeah, no kidding.”
While James was finishing up and shaking himself off, the men had moved right up behind him.
‘I really hate violence.’
The things he had experienced at school as a child had left him with a deep trauma. The end of violence was always tragedy. Thanks to becoming a magician, he had been able to turn tragedy into beautiful revenge, but ending someone’s life was not what James wanted.
‘It was different back then.’
There was something James had realized while carrying out his revenge on Andrew with a vicious spell.
‘People don’t change easily.’
When James turned around, he could see the men surrounding him.
“W-what the hell?”
He flinched backward at the sudden appearance of so many men, but cruel smiles spread across their faces instead.
“......”
“......”
“......”
Snap.
One of the men grabbed James by the collar, while the others drew knives to threaten him.
“Keep your eyes on the ground. It’d be better if you don’t look at our faces.”
“......”
James, looking thoroughly frightened, hung his head low, and the men swung their fists the same way they had at Colt.
Pow!
“Urk!”
Thump. Thwack.
As James crouched on the cement floor, the men’s feet crossed back and forth over him. There was someone quietly watching that scene: a person wearing the exact same clothes as James, with the exact same face.
“......”
In truth, James was watching from the side as the men kicked away in the alley. The James crouched on the ground was an illusion created by magic, and the men were happily kicking at a pile of trash, mistaking it for James.
The illusion spell James had cast was a complete illusion, one that made sight, sound, and even touch feel real, so it was impossible for them to recognize reality and break free of the magic.
‘Keep right on doing that.’
Because of the illusion affecting their eyes, James himself was effectively invisible to them.
‘He should be around here somewhere...’
Meanwhile, James, who had come out of the alley, was looking for someone else, not the men.
‘Bingo. Found you.’
The reason he had followed the men this far without going elsewhere was precisely to find this person.
‘Mana of the mirage... illusion. Action.’
James cast illusion magic on him as well, and soon the man, bewitched by the spell, headed toward the alley where the fake James was being beaten.
“W-who are you people? What are you doing?!”
Snap.
The men caught in the illusion did not know his identity and dragged him into the alley.
“Shut up!”
Pow!
What happened next was no different from what had just happened to James. The men threatened him with knives and delightedly rained down fists and kicks.
But his true identity was something else entirely.
Beep!
The emergency whistle in his mouth let out a high shriek. Startled by the sudden, loud sound, the men recoiled, and he immediately spoke into the radio in his coat, calling for help.
“I’m being attacked by thugs in the alley by Thor Club. Requesting urgent armed police support!”
“Uh...”
“P-police?”
The man was a real police officer, complete with a ridiculous cap over his uniform. He had been patrolling the area around the club as usual when James had caught sight of him. But most British police officers could not carry firearms under the country’s demilitarized policy, and all he had was a whistle and a baton.
‘Guess I should lend a hand too.’
Taking advantage of the confusion, James, who had swapped places with the fake one, let out a groan at the right moment from the floor.
“Nggh... Officer... please help me.”
The officer picked up the radio again.
“Victim of assault reported. Request an ambulance.”
James added to his words.
“Please contact the U.S. Embassy... I’m an American citizen.”
“!”
“Dammit.”
“...Run.”
The men tried to flee once they realized their opponent was a police officer, but James’s magic was faster. With no firearm for the officer to use, James had no choice but to step in.
‘Multi Web. Action.’
Crash.
Not only the men trying to escape from inside, but even those near the mouth of the alley found their feet glued to the ground.
“Ugh! My feet won’t move!”
“What the hell is this?”
Club districts in central London were always watched by the British police, so backup arrived before long, and right on time James released the spell.
“......”
“......”
The men who had been stuck to the ground were all handed over to the police. This time, it was not magic, but armed officers carrying firearms, so the men could not move recklessly even if they wanted to.
“Damn it...”
Seeing them all fall into police hands, James brushed off his clothes and stood up.
“Officer...”
“Ugh. Are you all right?”
“You look more beaten up than I do, officer...”
“...Damn.”
James was unharmed because the trash pile had taken the blows for him, but the officer had been exposed directly to their violence, so his condition was miserable.
“Ugh. You said you’re American?”
“James Kane. I’m traveling here from Las Vegas.”
“Hmm. Why do you look so familiar?”
James took out his trademark card and showed it to him. A Trump card was James’s business card.
“If you’ve been to Las Vegas, maybe you saw my show. I do magic performances.”
“James... Kane? Ah! Now I remember.”
James had been performing magic for quite a long time, so there were people who recognized him everywhere. Even if they had not seen him in person, one of the performance videos often introduced on YouTube as mysterious magic was James’s very own show.
“I finally had a chance to rest from performing and came out on a trip, and I never imagined I’d end up looking like this.”
“...Well, that makes me sorry to a famous man. On behalf of Britain and the city of London, I apologize.”
“I’ll still need to go to the police station, right?”
“Just cooperate a little and it’ll be fine. The victim statement won’t take long.”
“Thank you, officer.”
“Call me Eddie.”
“By the way, Eddie... I have something a little suspicious I’d like you to hear about.”
“What is it?”
James was not satisfied with the men who had just been arrested.
“...I exchanged three thousand dollars at a place nearby, then had a quick drink at a club, and after I came out those guys came straight for me.”
“An exchange?”
“I thought it was an official exchange office, but I’m starting to think it might be connected to them. Since those guys knew I had money on me, didn’t they bring me here on purpose?”
“Where is it?”
With the armed police here, this was the perfect chance.
“Not far from here.”
* * *
Following James’s guidance, the armed police stormed the exchange office, where they discovered multiple safes James had not had time to empty, as well as mobile phones that served as proof of collusion with pickpockets. Since it had been an illegal exchange office operating without the country’s permission in the first place, there was no room for excuses.
“Thanks to James, we’ve put up impressive results.”
“Eddie’s happiness is my happiness.”
“But... the exchange office ledger says you exchanged quite a lot of pounds...”
The men had been keeping records, and there was an entry showing as much as thirty thousand dollars exchanged. There was no sign of the three thousand dollars James claimed to have exchanged.
“Maybe they recorded the three thousand dollars incorrectly? I really only exchanged three thousand dollars for pounds. There are pounds left over here too.”
James took out his wallet and showed him the remaining cash, a little over two thousand pounds. Most of the twenty-three thousand pounds from the exchange were already gone by teleportation.
“A bunch of incompetent fools.”
He concluded they had simply written the numbers down wrong.
“Let’s go to the police station. I’ll give my statement to the officer and then head back to the hotel.”
“I’d appreciate that.”
* * *
Colt, who had been anxiously waiting for James at the hotel, was only able to see him in the morning. In contrast to what Eddie the officer had said, the questioning had taken far longer.
“Yawn. You back?”
“Do you know who I’ve been suffering at the police station for all this time because of... and you’re sleepy?”
The investigation that was supposed to end quickly dragged on for a considerable time because the statements from the illegal money changers and the violent thugs did not match James’s account. That was why he had only now returned to the hotel.
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