**DO YOU REALLY THINK SO?**

YUKIME

I was enjoying a quiet evening drink by the fireplace when I felt a sudden draft.

I glanced back to find the window standing wide open. Then, the sharp clink of a fingernail flicking metal echoed through the room.

“Is that you, John-han...?”

A man in a suit stepped out of the shadows. He had a perfectly toned build, a white mask, and a smirk that screamed ‘I know something you don’t.’

He took the seat across from me, idly toyed with a single gold coin, and سپس flipped it into the air.

“This single gold coin is about to swell many times over. What we see now is nothing more than a fleeting illusion of credit...”

His voice was low, resonant, and practiced. I realized immediately he was talking about those banknotes that have been everywhere lately.

“The scraps of paper the masses call money aren't actually money. Technically, they’re just deposit receipts—vouchers for cash. Mitsugoshi Bank turned these receipts into a currency by giving them a settlement function. At first, you could only use them within the Mitsugoshi Company Group, but now that ‘credit’ has spread, every shop in the Royal Capital accepts them. The commoners actually believe these slips of paper are worth as much as real gold...”

He laid two notes on the table: a Mitsugoshi Company Note and a Great Commerce Alliance Note.

I had to hand it to Mitsugoshi. Their greatest achievement wasn't the bank itself—it was the psychological warfare required to make people believe a receipt was as good as a gold coin. Because of that trick, they could turn one coin into a mountain of digital wealth.

“Mitsugoshi Bank hands out banknotes as deposit receipts, then uses those same deposits as collateral to lend more banknotes. They loop this process over and over until the currency in circulation is many times the amount of actual gold in their vaults. A single coin in a safe is ‘lent’ to dozens of people, and Mitsugoshi Bank rakes in the interest on all of them...”

The person running Mitsugoshi is the ultimate swindler, I thought. I’d love to meet the person who came up with this ruthless, brilliant scheme just to see what kind of monster they are.

I took a sip of my washu.

“But does this scrap of paper actually have the value the masses think it does...?” John asked.

Now, if a commoner heard this, they’d be losing their minds. But to a Great Commerce Alliance Executive, this was common knowledge. They’d already sniffed out the Mitsugoshi Company’s play and were moving to copy it.

I couldn't figure out why John was telling me this. Surely he knew that I already knew?

“Look at these two notes,” he said. “One from Mitsugoshi, one from the Great Commerce Alliance. See anything interesting?”

“Anything... interesting?”

I stared at them with my usual sharp gaze. The designs were different, obviously, but he wasn't looking for a critique of the art.

Wait. Could it be...?

“The presence of a watermark?”

“Exactly. And the Great Commerce Alliance’s design is much cruder. Do you see the implications...?”

I mean, I saw that they were easy to forge, but that didn't change the big picture. Or so I thought.

“They’re easy to fake. Yukime, let’s make a killing on counterfeit notes.”

“...H-Huh?”

I blinked. Even the Great Commerce Alliance knew their notes were easy to forge. They’d issued them anyway. Did John really not get the strategy here?

“John-han, are you being serious? The Great Commerce Alliance Note is only used in the Royal Capital right now. If we flooded the market with fakes, they’d trace the source in a heartbeat.”

John froze. Like, completely static.

“If we do this on a small scale, we might get away with it, but that’s just pocket change. If we go big, we’re caught, and it’s game over.”

The Alliance had traded security for speed. They wanted to crush Mitsugoshi now, and they could easily monitor the narrow circulation area for forgeries. They figured they’d fix the security issues before the notes went international. They were choosing to monopolize the banking industry and steal the watermark tech later. Nobody was dumb enough to pick a fight with the Great Commerce Alliance anyway.

“Um... John-han...?”

His shoulders slumped. He looked like a kid who’d just asked his friend to go on a magical treasure hunt, only to be hit with a lecture on property law and geology. He looked... depressed.

Wait, was he actually serious about the counterfeiting? I almost wanted to smile. He was actually kind of cute when he was sulking.

Then the air turned heavy.

A staggering, suffocating pressure began radiating from his slumped form.

“Wh—!?”

“Do you really think so...?”

His voice sounded like it was being dragged up from the bottom of an abyss.

This wasn't just Magic Power. It was a physical manifestation of his will. It felt like he was telling me my entire reality was wrong. He was testing me—seeing if I actually had the brains to be his partner.

Think, Yukime! What did I miss?!

I replayed everything in my head. Mitsugoshi vs. the Alliance.

Then it hit me. The difference in their foundations.

Mitsugoshi issued notes based on actual deposits. But the Alliance? They were just printing paper backed by their brand name and the trust Mitsugoshi had already built. They didn't have the deposits yet. Most of the cash backing their notes was their own capital.

They were lending notes at lower rates than Mitsugoshi to steal the market, but while everyone wanted to borrow money to join the Royal Capital’s investment boom, nobody was depositing with the Alliance. Everyone’s gold was already sitting in Mitsugoshi’s vaults.

Which meant...

“They’ve issued notes worth dozens of times their actual capital, and the circulation is growing faster than they expected. But those notes are just vouchers for gold. If even ten percent of the people tried to cash out at once, the Great Commerce Alliance would...”

It would be a disaster. They were over-leveraged and desperate to crush Mitsugoshi. The gap between their gold and their paper was a ticking time bomb.

Wait... is he suggesting—?!

“You’re going to flood the market with counterfeit notes to destroy their credit and force a bank run on purpose?!”

The Alliance was already on the edge. If we dropped a mountain of fakes, people would panic and demand their gold. We could cash out our own fakes for real gold, securing a fortune while simultaneously choosing exactly when to pull the plug on their entire organization.

Setting up a massive forgery operation is hard, but I have the Lawless City to hide in. By the time the Alliance realizes what’s happening, they’ll be bankrupt and we’ll be sitting on all their gold.

I realized why John had slumped his shoulders. He wasn't depressed; he was disappointed in me. He was testing my vision, and I had failed to see the grand design.

I felt a chill run down my spine.

“B-But even if that destroys the Alliance, it doesn't kill Mitsugoshi Bank.”

If anything, it would just leave Mitsugoshi as the only player left.

The pressure stopped. Total silence for three seconds.

“Do you really think so?”

“Ack—!”

The pressure returned, ten times stronger than before.

I missed something else?! I scrambled for the answer. Think! Think!

“...I see! The Alliance fails because they can’t cover the exchanges. But that panic will spread. The people will start doubting Mitsugoshi’s notes, too! Mitsugoshi is also playing the credit creation game. They won't be able to handle a total market panic either. They’ll collapse right alongside the Alliance, and we’ll be the only ones left with a mountain of actual gold!”

Once they were both dead, we could use that gold to buy up their technology, their buildings—everything.

He hadn't just suggested making fakes for the hell of it. This was a perfectly calculated, total-war strategy to decapitate the entire global economy.

When he’d asked if the paper had the value people believed it did, he was predicting the death of credit itself. When he explained Mitsugoshi’s methods, he was pointing out the structural weakness of the entire system.

Every single word he said was a setup for this reveal—?!

I broke into a cold sweat. This man’s intellect was terrifying.

But he wasn't done.

“Do you really think so—?”

“Wh—!!”

The pressure increased again. It was crushing me into the sofa.

There’s more?! What else could there possibly be?!

I racked my brain until it hurt, but I had nothing. John’s eyes watched me from behind that mask, peering into my soul.

This is bad. If I stay silent, he’ll discard me...

“...I... I think so,” I whispered, looking down. I couldn't find a single flaw. I didn't have another answer.

I waited for the judgment. I waited for him to tell me I was too stupid to stand by his side.

But the pressure vanished instantly.

“...Correct.”

“Eh...?”

It was a trick?!

If I had panicked and made up some nonsense just to satisfy him, he probably would have killed me on the spot. He was testing my honesty. My sincerity.

I had barely survived the interview. My legs felt like jelly as I sank into the cushions.

I had to prove my worth now to make up for my slow start.

“Let’s do it. Leave the manufacturing and distribution to me. Speed is everything here. We circulate the fakes, grab the gold, and burn the house down before they can track us. The investigation will be intense, so we’ll handle the cleanup on our end, but I’ll need your help if things get messy.”

“Understood.”

“I’ll have the details for you soon.”

“...Fine.”

John flicked a gold coin into the air. It spun, catching the firelight, and hit the table with a sharp ping.

By the time the sound faded, he was gone.

The coin rolled to a stop at my feet. I picked it up and flicked it, just like he had.

“So that is John... the man who was once Shadow...”

What a mind.

What a presence.

What a monster.

“He really is in a league of his own...”

I let out a long, shaky breath.

I had originally teamed up with him because I needed his muscle. But he wasn't just a blunt instrument. He had a god-tier intellect and the sheer balls to gamble with the fate of the world.

Maybe he already knows... if he finds out my true goal, will he be angry?

I couldn't help but offer a small, lonely smile.