Auction (1)
James explained the true meaning behind the advice he had given Colt.
“It seemed to me that brief encounters, like instant food, weren’t giving Colt any real happiness. If anything, they looked like a way to waste Colt’s brilliant youth and precious time.”
“……”
“So I wanted you to meet women a little more seriously.”
“……”
Colt listened closely to James’s sincere advice.
“Of course, if you meet a wonderful woman you don’t want to lose, there’s nothing wrong with having children through marriage. That would be a truly happy thing.”
“Yeah. I guess so. It would be really happy.”
Colt could imagine the precious life that might one day be born between him and the woman he loved.
“But that doesn’t mean you should be thinking about marrying the Hojeong you’re seeing right now.”
“Ah...”
Just a moment ago, Colt had been thinking about what came after marrying Hojeong.
“Even learning how to date someone seriously takes practice, you know. It’s a completely different way of living from the life Colt’s had so far. But that choice should be Colt’s. In the direction Colt wants, when Colt wants it.”
In truth, that advice applied to James himself as well. It had been that way when he left Texas for Las Vegas, and again when he left Las Vegas.
When I lost the goal I’d been living for... and even when I tracked down that so-called biological father in Korea...
Every time, James had felt as though the world was trying to force change on him.
Even when my parents died in that gun accident back in Texas...
His parents’ deaths had been especially crushing, a loss so severe it was almost impossible to bear. And yet, through that painful time, James had come to a single conclusion.
If I have no choice but to change, then I should be the one steering it instead of being dragged along. That way I can live my own life. That way I can lead it the way I want.
Because of that, James had awakened to Mana and learned magic, and he’d also become capable of enduring the changes that came afterward. He was simply passing on the philosophy of life he had learned through his own experience.
“I never meant for you to decide according to my opinion. Who am I to decide Colt’s future? And forget that threat about castrating you. A joke is a joke—you just let it roll off. Colt should choose the life that’s right for him. Still, when I say I want Colt to be happier, I mean that sincerely.”
“...You really are a good guy.”
James brushed off Colt’s words as though he hadn’t heard them, and returned to the original subject.
“So what are you going to do with your house in Las Vegas?”
“I don’t know what the future holds, so selling it off feels wrong. I’m going to look for someone to rent it while the auction’s going on.”
Because the future was uncertain, selling the house outright felt like a foolish choice.
“I think that’s not a bad decision. Having a place to go back to broadens your options.”
“Your things are still there in the house. If you have time, you should go by and pick them up.”
When they had packed, they had assumed it was only a trip, so all their furniture and personal belongings had been left behind.
“You probably left more stuff there than I did, since it’s your house. Want me to hold on to it for you?”
Colt could picture the enormous magical warehouse James kept insisting was portable, a storage space the size of California.
“...I’d been thinking most of it should be thrown out, but maybe there’s no need.”
“My inventory still has plenty of room.”
To fill James’s inventory completely, he’d probably need to stuff California itself inside it.
“I’d kill for an inventory like that.”
“Tsk. Then you should’ve practiced the breathing method I taught you more seriously.”
“……”
Colt thought it might be time to reveal the effort he had been hiding from James all this time.
“You think I wouldn’t have tried?”
“Of course you did. But it didn’t seem like you were desperate. That’s why you didn’t make any progress.”
James had assumed that if Colt had invested enough time, he would have been able to feel at least a little Mana.
“Phew. Jimmy, ever since you first told me you were... a wizard, I’ve admired you a lot.”
“……”
“So when you taught me that breathing method, I was genuinely thrilled.”
“You were happy, all right.”
Colt’s feelings that day had been plain to see. Back then, he had been overflowing with anticipation and excitement.
“So every time you fell asleep, I practiced that breathing method.”
“……”
“Whenever I met a woman or drank with friends, I still woke up at the same hour and trained. For years. Not once did I skip a day.”
“……”
Not once? He was that devoted?
So Colt had been practicing that breathing method on his own, never once telling James what he was doing.
“What? Then why...”
“But I still... couldn’t feel anything. Jimmy, that power you call Mana—I couldn’t feel it at all.”
“……”
James felt that something was off. In his own case, he had learned the breathing method from a book—his master’s teaching—yet within a few years he had awakened to Mana and been able to use magic. Colt, meanwhile, had invested even more time than James had, and still hadn’t awakened to it.
Why?
Questions like why were the first step toward a new line of inquiry for a wizard.
Why can I do it, and Colt can’t?
James had thought this breathing method would work for anyone. The book his master, Mercia, had left behind had only been readable because James himself had stood on the boundary between life and death, but the breathing method that had been distilled from it was different. James only had to pass it on to others.
“Try it again now.”
“Now? Here?”
“No one’s going to recognize you anyway.”
“It’s too late to check now...”
“You never know. Maybe I can still find a solution.”
“...All right.”
Huuuuup... Sssssss...
The slow breath Colt drew in leaked back out just as slowly, so faintly that no one would have noticed unless they were looking closely.
Watching Colt breathe, James could tell. As Colt had said, there was no way he could manage such precise breathing unless he had been training for a very long time.
The rhythm itself is perfect, and the flow of Mana it produces is normal too...
James was seeing not only Colt’s outward breathing, but also the flow of Mana that no one else could have perceived. It was the special breathing method wizards used to sense and control Mana.
The Mana heading toward the chest...
The problem occurred in the chest, where Mana was supposed to condense and be stored.
...It all scatters?
Unlike James, Colt couldn’t hold on to it. Of course, if he couldn’t even feel Mana, it made sense that he couldn’t trap it with sheer will.
But some of it should still remain.
James knew this from his own experience. Even when he had been unable to control Mana through willpower alone, some of it had remained in his body, laying the foundation for the day he finally awakened to it and learned to command it. That was why he had been able to use the spell that lit a light on the very day he recognized Mana.
Why? Why is Colt’s Mana scattering like this?
If he had another example to compare against, that would have been helpful, but there were only the two of them.
“Tch.”
“Phew. I can stop now, right?”
“Yeah. I’ve seen enough. Looks like you really did train for a long time.”
“...Heh. So it really is a matter of talent?”
“Stay still.”
At Colt’s mention of talent, James drew in the Mana floating in the air and pushed it into Colt’s chest.
Whoosh.
Drawn by James’s hand, the gathered Mana compressed further and further before seeping into Colt’s chest.
“……”
But the result was the same. While James held it in place, it remained in Colt’s chest, but the instant he released control, it scattered like dust and vanished back into the air.
His chest isn’t accepting Mana at all.
“What did you just do? I felt something soft and warm in my chest. Just for a second, but...”
“Ah, just a simple test. Looks like you and this sort of thing are worlds apart.”
Colt might have been right about talent.
So not everyone can awaken to Mana? Does that mean becoming a wizard is decided from birth?
“I think so too. That’s why I stopped training a few months ago. I gave up.”
“For someone who gave up, you were pretty serious about it, Colt.”
“No need to comfort me. It was my own greed.”
“……”
James couldn’t find a solution, because he had never read of such a case in his master’s grimoire.
“I’m starting to think I gave you false hope.”
It had been the breathing method he had taught Colt, telling him that he too might become a wizard. Colt had trained, admiring the mysterious magic James used, only to gain nothing at all. In the end, it had only been a waste of time and effort.
“It’s not your fault. I’m still grateful you taught me at all.”
“...Hmm.”
“It’s late. I’m going home to rest, so you head up too. You’ll need to adjust to the time difference if you want to get through the auction.”
“...Yeah. See you at the auction tomorrow. You know the place, right?”
“Tsk. Why wouldn’t I? We went there every single day.”
The Sotheby’s auction would be held at the casino hotel where the two of them had performed so often. On top of that, it was the same casino where James had lost a fortune playing poker—and the same place where he had stolen five million dollars in cash.
“Don’t be nervous.”
“I’m not nervous!”
The next day, James entered the busy auction hall with Jake guiding him.
“This way, Mr. James.”
“Ah, Jake. Looks like you’ve even saved me a seat.”
Jake was guiding James to a seat where bidding was allowed.
“Though I wasn’t planning to attend the auction.”
“That won’t be a problem. This is a VIP seat.”
There was a phone on the table and a wide surface set aside for James alone. The other bidders also had phones at their seats, but they were packed close together. Jake had set this spot apart specifically for the two of them.
“Thanks for the consideration, Jake.”
“I see Mr. Colt is here as well.”
Colt arrived looking sharp after a long time dressing up properly. But despite James’s advice yesterday, he still looked tense.
“We don’t have a show today, do we? Because you look pretty sharp.”
“Pfft.”
Colt relaxed at James’s joke and sat down. James chuckled under his breath and took his own seat.
There was a pamphlet on the table along with the phone, and the two of them began leafing through it before the auction started.
“Romanée-Conti, 1945?”
The Sotheby’s auction had everything from art to jewelry, and vintage wine had been given a place as well. Colt looked as though it was the first time he’d learned wine could be auctioned off, but James had already studied Sotheby’s past records closely when he had once put gold coins and a crown up for auction.
“The estimate is forty thousand dollars.”
“Isn’t forty thousand dollars for a bottle of wine a little too much?”
“No. I think it’s priced too cheaply.”
“...Now that you’ve made so much money, has your sense of scale changed?”
“Heh. No, it’s because this wine had already gone through a Sotheby’s auction a few years back. I’m not planning to buy a forty-thousand-dollar bottle, either.”
“...How much did it sell for back then?”
“Six hundred and fifty thousand dollars for one bottle. Two bottles were listed, and the other one went for about the same. Maybe five hundred fifty thousand?”
“!!”
Just as James had said, forty thousand dollars was an absurdly low estimate.
“W-why? Why did it go for that much?”