Raging Mana
Since his flight home still had plenty of time left, James stayed at the hotel and took care of his newly swollen fortune.
“Tom. You saw the additional deposit, right?”
“...James. What on earth have you been doing? That’s not the kind of money you make from a performance. And I haven’t even heard that you’ve been up on stage doing magic in Las Vegas lately.”
Tom worked for a Citi Bank–affiliated investment firm, and the Las Vegas branch was his territory. James had just deposited the enormous sum he’d won at poker into the account Tom managed.
“Haha.”
“How on earth does your assets jump by more than twenty million dollars in one go?”
“I went to a casino yesterday. It was one of those days when Lady Luck was on my side.”
“Wow. So there really are people who can beat the casino?”
“The table was a little larger than usual. It was VIP poker, after all.”
If he’s startled by only twenty million dollars, what’s he going to do when the more than two billion dollars in auction money starts rolling in?
James had already planted that seed with Tom in advance.
“There’ll be an even larger amount coming in soon. This deposit is nothing.”
“Are you investing through another firm too? That hurts.”
“Next time, I’ll make sure to invest through you.”
“Promise me that.”
“Of course.”
There was something else James wanted to ask Tom.
“Tom. Would it be all right if I asked about some of the influential people in the Las Vegas area?”
“As long as it doesn’t involve private information, I’ll help however I can. Are you planning to come to Las Vegas?”
“I’m actually here on business. The VIP poker game took place at Diamond Casino.”
“You’re in Las Vegas right now?”
“Sorry I didn’t tell you sooner.”
“You should’ve said something. We could’ve had dinner before you left.”
Tom had once earned a share of the profits after James pointed him toward an investment opportunity, and he’d said he’d thank him properly later.
“I still have time before I leave, so I’m sure we can meet.”
“That’s a relief. I’ll treat you to somewhere nice. Haha.”
But there was another question that mattered more right now.
“More importantly, is there a gathering that only Las Vegas’s influential people attend? I imagine they meet separately to build connections and socialize.”
“Of course there is. But I only know about the regular meetings for people who’ve deposited a certain amount of money with our CitiBank Investment branch. The other gatherings are a league of their own, so they’re hard for me to track.”
“That’s enough for me. Do you know when the next meeting is? If it’s before I leave, I’d like to attend. Ah, of course, I’d need to qualify first, but I’m sure you can handle that for me, right?”
“You’ve already earned two hundred million dollars before, and now you’ve added another twenty million. You’re more than qualified. You don’t even need me to pull strings. In fact, that meeting happens in two days. Haha.”
“Then how about you come along too, Tom? It sounds better than arranging a separate meeting just for us.”
“That wouldn’t be bad. I’d need to introduce you to the others anyway, so I was going to attend.”
“Then send me the time and the location. I’ll be there on time.”
James had other plans that day, so after ending the call he left his hotel room. He didn’t go far, though, because the meeting place was inside the hotel itself.
Knock, knock.
He was standing outside another room in the hotel, knocking on the door, and Jake soon opened it to greet him.
“James.”
“Jake. Am I finally going to see my item?”
Normally, auction winnings were handed over in person, but because James was acquainted with Jake, he’d been able to receive the old book separately.
“Yes. I brought it safely packed. Come on in.”
James followed Jake inside and saw a wooden box sitting on the table.
“......”
At last...
The old book James had won at auction was important, but for Jake, what mattered most was that the payment for the other artifact had already been settled.
“The money will be wired to the account James gave us today. The settlement went very smoothly...”
“I’m sure you handled it properly... Can I take this?”
“Ah... of course. The CEO of Sotheby’s, Ted, said to give the old book you won as a gift, so there’s no separate payment to make.”
“Hmph. Really? Then I’ll gratefully accept the gift.”
Considering the two billion dollars James was going to receive, twenty-three thousand dollars was nothing more than a trinket.
“You do understand this is also a gift asking you to use Sotheby’s again next time, right?”
“Of course. Do you really think I’d go knocking on Christie's door?”
“Haha.”
James carried the box back to his room, his anticipation swelling.
Master. You assured me there was nothing else left behind, and yet you really did leave something like this behind, didn’t you?
It was impossible to tell from the blurred photograph in the pamphlet what the book recorded, but James could clearly tell that it was an inheritance from his master, Mercia Lynchberg.
Because it was written in Master’s hand, in his own script and characters.
James had long believed that The Basics of Magic, the magical primer he’d found years ago in an antique shop, was the only book his master had ever let out into the world, so the old tome he’d acquired today filled him with intense curiosity.
He opened the box slowly. Then, without touching it with his hands, he lifted the book with mana. Since it was so old, he handled it with great care.
It’s definitely Master’s handwriting.
Even the title on the cover was written in his master’s hand.
Gift of Brilliant Mana: How to Withstand the Power of Surging Mana
I leave this book for my old friends.
My old friends Arthur, Gawain, Lancelot, Percival...
I taught my old friends how to control surging mana, and through them I was able to explore the most efficient way to govern mana. Unlike the mana used by mages...
Surging mana...?
The characters no one else could read were being deciphered in James’s mind.
He used mana once again, carefully turning the cover to open to the next page.
Rustle.
I leave this book for my old friends.
My old friends Arthur, Gawain, Lancelot, Percival...
I taught my old friends how to control surging mana, and through them I was able to explore the most efficient way to govern mana. Unlike the mana used by mages, the mana of knights is rougher, stronger, and far more ferocious...
“Wait...”
James thought he finally understood what surging mana meant.
“This isn’t a book left behind for mages...”
It definitely wasn’t a book written for mages.
“...It’s a manual for controlling a knight’s mana?”
It was a text describing how to use mana as a knight. His master had passed down the methods of controlling mana that he knew to his friends, and “surging mana” did not mean mana for mages at all, but rather mana for knights. At last, James also understood why the Knights of the Round Table had always risen so far and so fast. If they had learned how to control the surging mana that came from another world, ordinary knights would never have stood a chance against them.
“Do I even need this?”
Disappointment crept into James’s gaze as he looked at the old book floating in the air by mana alone.
“Haah. It’s not something I could even tell anyone about...”
His disappointment lasted only a moment. He had thought there was no way to explain this to anyone else, but then someone came to mind.
Colt.
Colt had failed to learn even the mana breathing method James had taught him, though that method was supposed to allow someone to become a mage.
“If it’s this... maybe he can do it?”
James’s eyes began to shine again.
Whirr. Creak.
James was stepping back into the home he missed so much after a long time away.
“Been gone for a few months and the place has turned into a complete mess.”
It was the house Colt had been renting from James, and the yard was overrun with weeds. Since the lawn hadn’t been cut recently, that was only natural.
“Colt! You in there?”
At James’s call from outside, Colt opened the door.
“I was waiting for you. Come in.”
“Oh.”
The moment James stepped inside, he scanned the mana throughout the house and found something surprising.
“What? Why?”
No trace of a woman having been here?
“...You could tell that too? What can’t magic do, anyway?”
“People always leave traces behind.”
After the auction ended, James had let Colt go free, fully expecting that he’d bring a woman home at some point in the meantime. But now, after checking the traces left in the mana, he could tell that no one had entered the house at all.
“Why not?”
“It just felt uninteresting. I already told you I wasn’t going to meet anyone.”
Even with the freedom James had granted him, Colt hadn’t felt much desire to seek out women. It wasn’t as though he’d lacked opportunities; women had approached him at the party after the auction, but nothing stirred in him.
“You didn’t want to feel free for the first time in a while?”
“How should I put it... it just felt a little foolish.”
Colt felt a deep skepticism toward the whole path of winning a woman over with smooth words and heading for the bed afterward, and even the things he’d done with women in the past now seemed utterly pointless.
“You got the deposit too, right?”
“Ah, the meteorite money? Yeah, it came through.”
Colt’s share of the proceeds from the meteorite that had sold for thirteen million dollars had also been deposited, after fees were taken out.
“Maybe it was money after all. When you suddenly have a lot of it, your mind can change.”
Colt shook his head at James’s words and objected.
“No. I had money before, too.”
He had made a fortune from robbing the casino, and even then, meeting women and sleeping with them had still been part of his life.
“Hmm. You are getting on a bit now, though.”
James expected Colt to bristle and denounce that as being treated like a has-been, but Colt only nodded readily.
“Maybe. I’m old now, after all. My body’s starting to creak, and my stamina isn’t what it used to be...”
“......”
“Hah. I still don’t know. Once I’m back in Korea, I’ll have more to think about.”
It’s something Colt will have to decide for himself.
James left the matter there and looked around the house.
“Did you pack your things in the meantime?”
“Yeah. I had nothing else to do, so I got ready in advance. I threw out what I didn’t need and kept what I did. And I think the rent will come in soon, too. A lot of people are looking for houses.”
The living room was full of bags and bundles Colt had already packed to clear out of the house.
“Oh, and I left your room alone since you told me not to touch it.”
“Good.”
James twirled his hand once, a black hole opened, and it swallowed the piled-up luggage whole. From the beginning, he had told Colt he would store his things for him.
“...I can accept the other magic well enough, but this still feels impossible to get used to.”
“You’ll get used to it with time.”
James went upstairs to his room, swept every last bit of clothing and miscellaneous junk into his inventory, and came back down almost immediately.
“Is that everything?”
“Yeah. The rest is just cleaning the house and tidying the garden. I was going to—”
“Come on, why wear yourself out doing it by hand?”
James spread mana outward to make sure no one was watching, then cast his spell.
All Clean. Action.
A refreshing breeze brushed through Colt’s hair and swept around the house.
Whoooosh.
And just like that, the house was spotless, not a speck of dust left behind.
“Ah, I’ve seen that one a lot.”
This cleaning spell was one Colt had seen many times before, back when they’d lived together. James had used magic to handle most of the small chores around the house while he was renting the place.
“One more. Wind Cutting. Action.”
Wind Cutting. Action.
The grass that had grown thick across the yard was sliced apart by a sharp wind of mana and gathered into a single pile. For James, who had always applied magic to everyday life, it was nothing difficult.
“Garden’s done too.”
At James’s words, Colt looked out the window at the yard.
“......”
It was the kind of job that would have taken him all day, yet James had finished everything with a single wave of his hand.