The Vatican’s Proposal
James was handling the last of his business in Korea, completely unaware that the Vatican was already searching for him.
“Your request has been received. You may leave now.”
“When can I expect to hear back?”
“If any records remain, we’ll contact you by mobile phone in the near future.”
“...I see.”
It was a request to find James’s biological parents, but the civil servant on duty was as detached as if this were just another routine case.
I never had high hopes to begin with.
He stepped out of the building without any lingering attachment, only for Su-ji, who had come with him, to grumble beside him.
“That guy was way too rude, wasn’t he? You were adopted overseas and spent your whole life not even knowing your parents, so couldn’t he at least have been a little more sincere?”
“If I can’t find them, then I can’t find them.”
“Aren’t you even curious, oppa?”
“If I weren’t curious, do you think I’d have come all the way here to look?”
“......”
“But if I don’t find them, that’s fine too. I can still make a living without them.”
“Still. It’s better than getting your hopes up and being disappointed, I guess...”
“I’m just trying to find out why.”
“Why they abandoned you?”
“Yeah.”
“......”
“I’m really curious. What kind of grand reason could they possibly have had to abandon the child they gave birth to?”
His adoptive parents in the United States had been overflowing with love, enough to raise a child they hadn’t even given birth to, and an Asian child with a different skin color at that. By contrast, the people who had given birth to him had sent a newborn baby to an orphanage. No matter how much he searched his memories with magic, there had never been anyone who came looking for him, which meant they were clearly people who had never once returned.
That was why he had never attached any special meaning to finding them. If he did find them, all he wanted was to ask why they had thrown him away. That was the entirety of his purpose.
“Don’t look at me like that. I grew up with plenty of love in America.”
“That’s a relief. Since you had your adoptive parents...”
“They’re dead now, though.”
“...Huh?”
Su-ji had never heard that during all the time she had been dating James.
“They died. Both of them, when I was in high school.”
“......”
“You’re making that face again.”
“S-sorry.”
“...Once I became an adult and started living with Colt, I got a lot better.”
“Is that why you stay with Colt?”
“Colt’s one of the few people you can actually trust in a fiercely individualistic society like America.”
He was someone James trusted enough to even tell that he was learning magic.
“I... I want to be someone like that for you too, James.”
James couldn’t bring himself to say that she already was.
Su-ji, ...the future is something no one can know.
A man and a woman could become strangers again at any moment, even today. That was the conclusion he’d reached countless times while watching Colt all these years.
“Now that we’re done with what we came to do, why don’t we go sightseeing in Seoul today? Can you show me somewhere good for a date?”
“...Let’s go. I’ll make sure you have fun today, James.”
Su-ji guided James to Insadong.
“There are so many young people here.”
“Right?”
The streets were lined with food stalls, and there were quite a lot of antique and jewelry shops as well. Street performers were easy to find too.
“Busking?”
“Some of them are really good. Some of them, not so much.”
“Oh. There’s a magician over there too.”
“There is?”
Since it was James’s field, his feet naturally turned in that direction.
“Let’s go.”
James nodded as he read the performer’s hand movements and tricks while the man did a card routine.
He’s practiced a lot.
At a glance, James could see just how much work had gone into reaching this level. To a magician like James, it was easy to learn, but for an ordinary person, it was no simple trick.
In my case, learning magic made me used to drawing magic circles by hand, so it came easily.
Drawing a magic circle with mana allowed no mistakes, not even small ones. Perfect circles and perfect straight lines were fundamental, and the corresponding runes had to be placed precisely throughout. Only when that finished magic circle was fed perfectly refined mana at exactly the right points could the spell be activated. Because magic only worked when everything was perfect, the movement of the hands, the very first step, was more important than anything else.
With a sharp flick, a card appeared in the street magician’s hand, and then he kept naming the cards as they multiplied one after another.
“Ooooh!”
To the cheers and applause of the crowd, the magician tipped his hat with a small bow.
Clap, clap, clap.
James watched the performance and applauded too, lending his support.
“He’s good. Right?”
“Yeah. He’s not bad.”
The magician approached the crowd to begin his next trick.
“Would anyone like to lend me a bill?”
People usually hesitated to step forward, so James quickly pulled money from his pocket.
“Here.”
“A handsome gentleman has generously offered... a whole...”
What James handed over was another hundred-dollar bill.
“A hundred dollars?”
“Do whatever you want with it.”
“Hahaha. I’ll be sure to return it.”
But the magician who had promised to return it took the bill in one hand, pulled out a lighter, and set it on fire.
Whoosh.
In an instant, the bill burned to ash without leaving even a trace behind, and the people around them kept looking back and forth between James and the magician.
“Hahaha.”
Even though his money had just gone up in flames, James was clapping and laughing all the same.
“Oppa, that guy just burned your money...”
“It’s fine.”
The magician moved toward another spectator as he said, “I wondered where that hundred dollars had flown off to...”
His hand reached into the spectator’s chest pocket and came out with the same hundred-dollar bill.
“There it is.”
“Ooooooh!”
The magician returned to James, holding the hundred-dollar bill.
“I usually don’t return it, but that’s a little too much money.”
“Take it as the cost of the show.”
“Pardon?”
“Think of it as admission, beginner.”
At the nickname, the magician tilted his head in confusion, then slowly opened his mouth in astonishment. James had looked familiar, but only because he was someone the magician knew all too well.
I’ve definitely seen him on YouTube!
“Y-you are...”
“Do you know me?”
“James! James Kane! Wow! I can’t believe I’m meeting James Kane in Korea!”
“You are right!”
“My oppa really is famous... especially for magicians. I guess it’d be weird not to know him.”
The magician shouted to the crowd, “Ladies and gentlemen, we have James Kane here today, the famous magician of telekinesis from Las Vegas!”
All eyes turned to James. After that introduction, he couldn’t exactly stay hidden.
Magicians introduce themselves through magic.
James might have been a wizard, but he was also a veteran magician.
With a flick, a deck of trump cards burst up from James’s hand.
Flit-flit-flit.
The cards that soared into the air flapped like butterflies, drawing everyone’s attention.
Flutter, flutter.
“......”
“......”
“......”
The spectators didn’t even think to cheer; they just stood there with their mouths open, eyes locked on the dancing cards. It was a breathtaking sight.
Flutter.
Two cards joined together, beating like wings as they flew over and landed on the fingertip James held high.
“Hello, everyone. I’m James Kane.”
When James spread both hands, all the cards that had been fluttering like butterflies flew together in one direction. Into James’s own hands.
Shhha-ra-raak.
It took only a moment to gather every last card.
That’s enough for a short greeting. It isn’t my show.
A wave of cheers rose toward James as he bowed in an elegant pose.
“Wooooooah!!”
“Amazing!”
“That was an incredible trick.”
There must have been foreign spectators too, because someone who recognized him shouted out, “James! I love you!”
After shaking hands with the magician who had originally been performing, James slipped away quickly through the crowd to find Su-ji.
“Wow.”
“Why are you so surprised? I’m a magician, remember?”
“Oppa, you were seriously so cool.”
“Pfft.”
Weren’t you just telling me not to use magic in front of people? And now you’re looking at me like I’m some kind of legend.
Su-ji cupped James’s smiling face in both hands and pulled him down before kissing him deeply. Then she said, “...You’re so cool it’s a problem.”
“Heh.”
“And why is your skin so nice? You’re not secretly using some expensive skincare without telling me, are you?”
“My skin?”
James stroked his cheek and figured out the reason his skin had been improving lately.
Maybe because I haven’t been performing much lately?
“Actually, it might be better because I haven’t been getting stage makeup on.”
“Hmm. Maybe I should cut back on makeup too.”
“Let’s go. I want to try Korean food too.”
“Then let me show you Korea’s heat!”
After James left, the street magician quickly began packing up as well. After witnessing a trick that seemed impossible even in dreams, anything he showed afterward would feel underwhelming, no matter how impressive it was.
“Ha-young. When did you get in touch with James Kane? That was seriously insane.”
“......”
At his friend’s question, the one who had helped prepare the card trick he was using gave a bitter smile.
“Do I look like the kind of guy who’d have exchanged phone numbers with someone that famous?”
“Then?”
“Obviously I just met him for the first time! It was a coincidence.”
“......”
His friend looked completely unconvinced.
“Hey. How can you pull off a trick like that without any preparation?”
“It’s James Kane, for crying out loud. James Kane, the Las Vegas magician of telekinesis!”
“Wow. Should we prepare something like that too? You’ve got a good eye, so you could probably figure out what trick he used right away...”
“...No idea. I couldn’t see a single trick.”
“Ah, come on. You’re hiding it from me... You’ve got to tell me if you want me to help prep next time.”
“I’m telling you, I really don’t know. I have no idea how he made the cards fly like butterflies.”
“Then maybe he used some special machine?”
“Fine, let’s say the butterfly cards make sense. Then how do you explain them turning back into cards and returning?”
“Uh...”
“When I first met James Kane, I was just excited. But now I feel like I’ve run straight into a wall. A huge wall I’ll never be able to climb... It was magic that felt like actual magic.”
In the end, it had been real magic, with no trick at all.
Buzz.
“Hello?”
“-...Excuse me. Are you Mr. James? This is...”
James had answered the phone in Korean, assuming it was Su-ji. From the other person’s voice, though, he immediately knew who it was. After all, there weren’t many foreigners calling him to begin with.
“Jake? I’m James.”
“-I thought I must have dialed the wrong number. Your Korean is quite good.”
“I’m from Korea.”
“-Oh! I thought you were Japanese.”
“The fact that you’re calling me means you’ve found something out about my item, I take it?”
“-That’s right. The authenticity checks are finished.”
“Then I suppose the gold coins are genuine, of course...”
James had never once considered that King Arthur’s gold coins might be fake.
“-Yes. We received replies from both the British Museum and the Vatican Museums. Both places believe there is a strong possibility they’re authentic.”
“Then should I just bring you the remaining two pieces?”
“-That too, but... the land issue is a bit more urgent.”
“......”
He was talking about the Texas property where the gold coins had been found, and James felt inexplicably uneasy.
There’s nothing there. Why are they in such a hurry?
“Let’s talk about that later. I wasn’t saying I’d refuse to hand it over anyway... Let’s finish the auction matter first.”
“-James. The land issue is more urgent than the international auction.”
“...Haa. Sotheby’s seems awfully impatient about this.”
“-It isn’t Sotheby’s anymore.”
“What?”
“-An envoy from Vatican City came here personally with a request. They said they would buy the land where King Arthur’s gold coins were found, no matter what the price was.”
“...The Vatican wants to buy my land?”
It had been Father Stefano from the Vatican Museums who came to see Jake at Sotheby’s.
“-We’ve developed a bit of interest in that property too, but not enough to make things uncomfortable with the Vatican Museums over it. So we decided to yield...”
“......”
...You’re not even the owner, so what exactly are you yielding?
“-That’s why I’m calling to check James’s wishes first.”
“What if something else really does turn up there?”
“-I wasn’t planning to tell you this, but...”
Jake hesitated for a moment before continuing.
“-The Vatican is making the purchase on the condition that if any relics are discovered on the land, they’ll take ownership of only part of them and hand the rest over to Sotheby’s. That’s more than enough compensation for us yielding the land purchase.”
“Part of them?”
James couldn’t tell what the Vatican wanted.
“What exactly are they trying to get their hands on...”
“-We don’t know either. We have no way of predicting what relic the Vatican is after.”
James came to the conclusion that, since it was just empty land anyway, it wouldn’t matter much who bought it.
Better them than Sotheby’s taking a loss...
Since Sotheby’s would still profit by selling his coins at a higher price, it wasn’t losing out no matter how the deal unfolded. There was nothing objectionable about Vatican City wasting money on a patch of land. It had nothing to do with him in the first place.
“Jake. Then let’s sell the land to the Vatican. But make sure they know it isn’t possible unless the price is appropriate.”
“-As it happens, the Vatican has already made an offer.”
“How much are they offering?”
“-Ten million dollars.”
“......”
But he hadn’t been expecting to receive this much.
“-If that isn’t enough, I can try negotiating further.”
So I could get even more here?
“-They said the American lawyer handling the property transfer would be prepared by the Vatican. James’s only job for the ownership transfer is to sign.”
“...Huh.”
It meant they’d already prepared everything before he’d even agreed to sell. Considering the ten-million-dollar land offer and the fact that they’d even arranged a lawyer, it seemed like they were after something other than King Arthur’s gold coins.
“-And... there’s one final proposal from Vatican City.”
“......”
I knew it. There’s no way that was all.
“Go on.”
“-The Vatican is requesting a private meeting with you, Mr. James.”
Me?
“-They said they’d like to meet as soon as the land purchase is finalized... Ah, a guest has just arrived, so... may I call you back later?”
“Any time.”