Say Cheese
The guns and drugs were to be taken away by the other members of the organization who were still in Italy. Through them, they planned to deal with the old Mafia families operating in the shadows there and gradually expand their territory.
“We leave tomorrow, so make sure our goods are properly secured.”
“Yes, Boss. We’ll check the cargo again.”
“Don’t just check the outside. Inspect the inside, too.”
Their conversation reached the wizard’s ears with eerie clarity.
I checked the containers along Line A-7 as I came through, and Line B-6 as well…
And the container the men who had met with Frank went to was on Line A-8.
Creaaak.
They opened the container and shone a light inside.
“Check. Complete.”
“Looks exactly like what we saw before.”
It had been wrapped in brown paper on the outside, so he couldn’t see through it, but it was obvious the contents were picture frames.
…They kept it stored separately from the Holy Grail.
The art pieces stolen from the Vatican Museum were loaded into this container, while the Holy Grail, still carrying traces of mana, was kept in the warehouse. It was the most important item, so Frank had personally taken charge of it.
What I need to do first is…
James decided the artwork was not his first priority. That didn’t make the Holy Grail his first priority, either.
Drugs and guns…
Now that he knew there were two things he hated most in the world, those had to be dealt with first.
Should I take the guns out now?
He had dulled his aversion to firearms by buying a lot of guns in America and even trying them out at the range himself, but that still didn’t mean he could stand by and watch something as grotesque as drugs flood into Italy.
Still maintaining the Illusion magic, James began checking the containers along Line A-7. It had been the path he’d already taken, but the interiors he hadn’t been able to verify had to be examined again, one by one.
Third Eye. Multi Action.
James’s vision-sharing spell split into several streams and seeped into each container.
Pass. Pass. Pass.
Most of the containers were packed with ordinary consumer goods and industrial machinery.
Not this one… not this one either…
And near the far end of Line A-7, he found black-coated firearms and body armor.
One container is all of it?
Inside were guns, ammunition, and all kinds of military supplies enough to fully arm a squad. After confirming that, James left behind only the traces of mana and moved on to Line B-6. There, in one of the containers, he found tightly wrapped sacks. Drugs, of course.
That scale is…
The container was stuffed full of what appeared to be narcotics. At least several tons of the stuff. If it were released into Italy, the whole country would probably be crawling with addicts.
…Mana trace engraving. Check complete.
Now all that remained was to make sure the bastards couldn’t leave tomorrow.
James pulled his hood low and adjusted his sunglasses. Then he drew out a pair of leather gloves, slipped them on, and took two handguns from his waist.
“Now, then. Shall we begin the party?”
James let the Illusion magic drop and headed for the warehouse.
Iron Shield. Action.
Ziiing.
Shield magic replaced the Illusion magic, spreading out around him.
* * *
Bang!
The small iron door swung open with a loud crash, and James strode boldly inside.
The organization members waiting within were already aiming their guns at him, as if they’d been prepared for this exact moment.
Click. Clack.
“Who the hell are you!”
“……”
Just as it seemed a storm of bullets might be unleashed at any second, James held both empty hands high.
Then he said something that absolutely did not belong in the moment.
“Say Cheese.”
“…What?”
Great Flash. Action.
Fwoosh!
A blinding burst of light exploded inside the warehouse, so brilliant it was impossible to even open one’s eyes. It was as if several flashbangs had gone off at once.
“Agh!”
Every single person aiming at James was caught full in that light. It was bright enough to cause instant blindness.
In the blaze, James drew the gun tucked at his waist and took aim.
One in each arm and leg, nice and even.
Bang. Bang.
As he put bullets into the bodies of the men who were clutching at their eyes and hunching over in pain, James felt his mental state growing steadier than before.
This is it! This is what a wizard should be like.
Bang. Bang!
Even as he fired a gun that had nothing at all to do with a wizard, James still thought he looked every bit the part.
Rat-a-tat-tat.
The men were firing back blindly in the dark, but James was safely protected by Iron Shield.
Ting. Ting.
He felt the bullets ricocheting off the shield as he stuck the muzzle out just past its edge.
Go ahead and shoot all you want!
It didn’t take long to neutralize everyone inside. They had no way to deal with a wizard who was so far outside the ordinary.
Bang. Rat-a-tat-tat.
Tididit.
Their sight, lost to the sudden flash, began to return little by little, but the situation had not changed one bit.
Great Flash. Action.
By the time their vision had nearly come back, a light far beyond any flashbang was blinding them all over again.
“Agh! Again?”
“Cover your eyes!”
Bang. Bang!
He was a wizard who neatly neutralized each man with just two bullets.
Two bullets apiece. Three would be a waste.
* * *
“Is this more or less cleaned up?”
Among the people left in the warehouse, there wasn’t a single one still standing properly. Each and every one of them lay on the floor with gunshot wounds in their arms or legs, and all the guns they’d been carrying had been separated to one side.
“Ggh…”
“Aagh! My leg!”
James confirmed that he’d finished dealing with everyone left inside and stepped back out of the warehouse.
Then he took out his phone. It was Yosef, the Vatican Chamberlain he had agreed to contact.
“Brother James. I’m glad you called.”
“Did you have something to say? Or are you thinking of asking me for a favor now?”
“After you left, I gave it a great deal of thought, and I’ve come to believe that it would not be right for you to take the lead on this.”
“…Is that so?”
“We’ll handle the matter of the Vatican Museum in cooperation with the Italian authorities. Those men are far too dangerous.”
“…They are dangerous, yes.”
The dangerous men in question had already been neutralized, and each one was now groaning as he scraped helplessly at the warehouse floor.
“With that in mind, I’ll share a small piece of information. It seems they intended to slip overseas, so…”
“…Every route out of the country will already be blocked. The Italian authorities are sealing the northern border and the airports right now.”
“They came down from the south, not the north.”
“Ah… as for that side…”
Since all the vehicles they had used were headed north, the southern side had been left poorly guarded.
“The place they hid to avoid the authorities’ attention is the Port of Bari on the Adriatic.”
“!!”
“It looks like they packed all the art stolen from the Vatican into containers. If you open every container in the Port of Bari, you should find it in one of them. I suspect they were planning to leave for Albania.”
While James was on the phone, two men who had been watching from outside crept closer, killing their footsteps.
Then they saw the intruder making a gesture into the air while speaking on the phone, and that became the last thing they remembered that day.
Deep Sleep. Action.
Thunk. Thunk.
Who barges in on a phone call?
After putting the two men to sleep, James kept his attention fixed on the movement he could sense inside the warehouse. He could tell from the traces of mana that the Holy Grail was being moved. The cause was Frank, who had gone deep into the warehouse to check on it.
It looks like getting the Holy Grail back to the Vatican is going to be difficult.
Retrieving it wasn’t the problem; the issue was that the Holy Grail itself might create further trouble for the Vatican. James decided he would keep it in the wizard’s inventory, the safest place in the world.
I’ll keep the Holy Grail safe for now, and later… later I’ll return it.
Frank, having taken the Grail, was escaping the warehouse through another exit.
“But it seems the Holy Grail isn’t in the containers.”
“What?”
“It looks like they kept the Holy Grail and the Holy Paten separate from the artwork. That’s all I’ve learned… the rest I’ll leave to you, Chamberlain.”
“Are you certain?”
James knew that if he tried to explain in more detail, it would only sound like an excuse.
“I’ll be hanging up now. A flight from Rome to Korea is about to depart.”
“How did you learn the Bari information while you’re in Rome…”
“…Let’s just say I overheard a little.”
“Ah…”
If the Italian authorities caught the men in Bari, the rest would take care of itself.
“I’ll dispatch the police to Bari immediately.”
“Please send ambulances too. It seems there’s been an internal conflict among them. When the goods are that expensive, greed is bound to creep in.”
“Ah! Internal conflict!”
“I’m hanging up. Take care~”
After ending the call, James turned away at a leisurely pace, sensing the Holy Grail moving farther and farther off.
“Ah.”
He stopped mid-step. In his hand, as always, was a gun.
Bang! Bang! Bang. Bang!
The two men he’d put to sleep were given gunshot wounds in their arms and legs, just like the rest of the organization members.
“That’s only fair.”
And the place James reached next was the one that still held the traces of mana, aside from the Holy Grail.
Recover the drugs and guns first.
James’s inventory, a great black maw, swallowed the two massive containers in succession.
Where do you think he’s going?
Then he began following the mana trace.
* * *
“Hah… hah…”
Frank had been running ever since he left the warehouse with only the Holy Grail and the Holy Paten.
How the hell—!
When he had turned back after hearing gunfire from inside, Frank had judged that, based on nothing but the screams of his men, he needed to flee at once—and he had acted on that decision immediately.
It was definitely only our guys who were getting hit.
“Kill them! Shoot!”
The organization’s shouts were followed by gunfire, and then by screams. But those screams had come from his own men, not the enemy.
“Aagh!”
“My eyes!”
A blinding light, which he assumed had been a flashbang, had spilled through the gap in the door, and the screams and gunfire had continued without pause. Frank had needed no more than that to realize the operation had gone wrong.
“Huff… huff…”
After running hard for a long while, Frank reached his destination and untied the rope from a small boat moored at the harbor. It had been a jet boat prepared for use by the men stationed here.
Armed police are definitely already here. I need to get out too.
Vroooom.
The engine roared to life, and the calm waves spread white foam as they were pushed aside.
“Hah.”
Only after he got out onto the sea did Frank allow himself a little relief.
Vrooom.
The problem began now. He held his phone and hesitated.
If I report today’s situation to the Boss…
He remembered the failure of the operation that had turned David into a cardinal and inserted him into the Vatican. If not for the sudden outbreak of fighting between the organizations, Frank himself would have been arrested at the airport that day along with David and the others. In the end, despite all the planning that had gone into it over many years, they had fallen into a trap and had to hand their implicated men over to the police—and because of that failure, the Boss had gone berserk, threatening to execute every last clan member active in Italy.
If I hadn’t prepared another plan back then, I would have definitely…
It had only been because Frank had prepared a backup plan in case of exactly this sort of thing. And only a few minutes ago, he had been certain he’d successfully shaken the police and stolen the artwork.
This time I’m really dead.
Frank was feeling the same fear as he had then. Right now, he had no idea where the information leak had even started.
I can’t report without knowing anything…
Frank tossed the phone he’d been holding into the sea instead of keeping it in his coat, then his eyes hardened as he grabbed the controls.
“I have to disappear like this. Somewhere the Boss can’t find me…”
Frank turned the boat away from Albania and toward Croatia.
* * *
After realizing that Frank had just taken the boat out to sea, James had applauded and praised the man’s decision.
“Bravo. Perfect.”
If he’d fled into Bari, there would have been all kinds of annoying complications. But if he went out onto the empty sea where no one could see him, James could use whatever magic he liked. Thanks to that, he could now fly over the water with Fly magic and keep after the man like this.
Flap.
James flew over the boat slicing through the waves beneath him, keeping close watch on everything Frank did.
“At this point, no one should know, right?”
Flrrr.
The sound of the hem of his jumper whipping in the wind drifted down toward the water.
Should I say hello?
As Frank was checking the map and steering the boat toward Croatia, he heard a strange noise and turned his head to the right.
“Hm. A person is flying.”
Then he looked back down at the map, and his eyes gradually widened. He snapped his head to the right again.
“P-person?”
The person flying freely above the sea had his face hidden behind dark sunglasses and a mask, making the whole thing feel utterly unreal.
“Am I dreaming?”
Smack.
Only after slapping his own cheek did he realize it wasn’t a dream. The other man was even greeting him.
“Lovely night air, isn’t it? Feels like perfect weather for taking a boat out, hahaha.”
“……”
“Where are you headed? Doesn’t look like fishing…”
“Y-you… who are you?”
“Mind if I borrow your time for a moment?”
Before Frank could answer, James straightened his body in midair and landed lightly on the boat.
“Whew. That was tiring. Still, it feels refreshing to fly again after so long.”
“……”
At that moment, Frank was carefully moving one hand behind his back.
Whoever this guy is…
He had to get to a place where no one knew him and live as if dead. Which meant he couldn’t leave a witness alive.
Click.
“Ah, let’s not draw that gun, Frank.”
“…!”
Before Frank could even take out his gun, James was already aiming a pistol at his forehead.
“Hands up. Turn around.”
“D-damn it.”
James pulled the handgun from Frank’s waist as he turned and tossed it aside, then took the bag that had been sitting beside the boat seat and stowed it in his inventory.
Holy Grail and Holy Paten recovered.
The traces of mana James had left in the bag vanished the instant it was stored in the inventory.
“Now. I’d appreciate it if you answered my questions honestly from here on.”
“……”
“Who’s your Boss?”
“……”
“Honestly… people never listen unless you say it out loud.”
True Marionette. Action.
James cast the spell on Frank, who was still turned away, and lowered the muzzle. It was the same magic he had used on Park Jin-tae.
“Turn around.”
Click.
Frank turned around and started darting his eyes this way and that, searching for some way to turn the tables.
Then his eyes fell on the handgun lying on the floor.
My gun. If I can just get that in my hands…
But once James’s questions began, he could no longer think about the gun.
“Start by telling me the name of the person you call Boss.”
“Toby Taylor. Huh!”
I said the Boss’s name…
Frank himself seemed shocked by what had just come out of his mouth.
“Toby Taylor, huh…”
James tilted his head.
Why does that sound familiar? Where have I heard it before?
It wasn’t the first time he’d heard the name.
“Where’s he from? And what organization are you with?”
“The Boss is from London, England, and he’s the Boss of the British Mafia. We’re part of the British Mafia, and we were newly deployed to Italy as a clan… Wh-why am I…”
As Frank reeled in horror, James realized the names England and Toby Taylor sounded far too familiar.
“Ah! I remember.”
James recalled the gang of pickpockets from the currency exchange he’d encountered when he’d gone to England with Colt. It had been while the British police were interrogating the men who had been brought in.
Who’s your clan Boss?
Toby Taylor… Ugh. I shouldn’t be saying this…
He had definitely said their clan had branches all over Britain, with headquarters near London City Hall.
“Right. That pickpocket also said his Boss was Toby Taylor. And London matches too.”
At James’s words, Frank’s own memory came back to him.
“…Pickpockets? Then the arrest of the currency exchange organization in England was…”
“Yeah. My friend got targeted by them. So I turned them over to the police.”
“The Boss won’t let you get away with this.”
“And yet, I’ve been perfectly fine up until now.”
And he planned to stay safe going forward too.
“I’m done with you, Frank.”
“……”
James thought about how to deal with Frank, who knew he was a wizard, but Frank suddenly lurched for his own handgun. James acted first.
“Don’t point it at me, Frank.”
“Ghk!”
Frank couldn’t aim the gun at James. His hand, as if caught by the poles of a magnet, kept drifting uselessly away. It was the effect of the Marionette spell James had cast.
“I already took the Grail you hid away separately. And the Vatican Museum’s artwork will be recovered by the Italian police. I’m calling the police right now.”
“…Damn it.”
“Oh, and the drugs and guns you prepared won’t be getting out into the world either. Why would you unleash something that filthy here? Let’s all try to live in peace.”
“……”
Hope gradually drained from Frank’s eyes.
“As for your mafia men, I left them alive. I can’t just kill people at random. I’ll only tamper with your memory a little. It won’t hurt much.”
Click.
Before James could stop him, Frank had turned the gun on his own head. James hadn’t expected that, and his command came a fraction too late. The result of that hesitation was devastating.
“…I’m done for.”
“Hey! Stop—”
Bang.
James staggered back, staring at the man who had decided to kill himself and done it in an instant.
“And yet guys like Park Jin-tae and Choi Jeong-san are still alive, so why are you dying now? Why!”
Men who had died in the Vatican, and Father Stefano too, had certainly deserved it. But James had intended to spare this one.
“If you’d been caught, I could’ve taken Toby down with you…”
The true boss moving these men from behind the scenes was still out there. Based on what he’d learned through the warehouse conversation, Frank was the only person who could contact Toby Taylor. But now that the link named Frank was gone, there was no way to get to their Boss.
“Haa. What am I supposed to do now? I’ve got so much to handle…”
James checked the watch on his wrist. His flight time was almost here.
“And I still didn’t even get the guy’s location…”
Even if Toby Taylor had a headquarters in London, pinning down the exact place would take time. In the first place, James had intended to leave that job to the Italian police, which was why he’d planned to hand Frank over to them. But by then the bullet had already gone through his head, and even James’s healing magic was useless.
“Consider yourself lucky, Toby. Fly. Action.”
James rose from the boat into the air above the sea and summoned a small flame into his hand.
Whoosh.
“I’m even doing this bastard’s funeral. Tch.”
The tiny flame he let go of his hand grew larger and larger, swelling to several times the size of the boat by the time it reached it.
Bang!
Just as the small flame bloomed over the sea, James was teleporting to the airport in Rome.
Fwoosh.