"Mine! They're all mine!"
A short goblin jumped around inside the empty Gringotts vault, looking completely deranged.
"What's wrong with him?"
"All the clients he was responsible for withdrew their money."
Griphook looked at the goblin, then at the other empty vaults.
To goblins, an empty vault was more painful than death.
And now one of them had gone mad.
They passed through the VIP area where a dragon had once been chained as a guard.
Gringotts had originally intended to find another dragon.
But dragons had begun disappearing one after another, ruining the goblins' plans, so they had no choice but to use trolls as guards instead.
The trolls muttered to themselves, while one leaned on a massive wooden club and yawned.
At this point, Gringotts was almost completely useless.
The few vaults that still contained money either belonged to families whose descendants had all died, or to people currently imprisoned in Azkaban.
At this rate, Gringotts would collapse sooner or later.
"Damn John Wick," one goblin cursed.
If John Wick had not created the Magic Card, none of this would have happened.
More importantly, the Second Dynasty did not like storing its money in Gringotts.
No one knew who had started it, but they had begun keeping their Galleons at home instead.
That alone had taken away twenty-eight major clients.
No, twenty-seven.
The only one who did not keep their money at home was the Weasley family.
But the Weasley vault held fewer than a hundred Galleons in total.
Whenever Griphook entered it, he almost felt like leaving a Galleon behind before walking out.
The Second Dynasty's credibility was guaranteed, and more and more wizards were beginning to realise that.
It was only a matter of time before Gringotts was replaced.
Griphook looked worriedly at the vaults.
He could almost see how this would end.
He had always been one of the sharper goblins, which meant he could see further ahead than most.
"...Magic Card."
...
The birth of the Magic Card gave wizards a new greeting.
"Have you got a Magic Card yet?"
It carried the implication that anyone without one was already falling behind the times.
Some people had still been hesitating, but after being pushed like this, they simply went and applied for one too.
And once they did, they immediately realised how useful it was.
First of all, it was convenient.
There was no need to carry heavy money pouches everywhere.
You could simply use the Magic Card when making a payment.
Of course, it was limited to businesses under the Second Dynasty.
But in practice, almost all of Britain already supported it.
Any business that refused to join could simply wait for its customers to disappear.
They had originally thought it might make everyday life more inconvenient.
Instead, it turned out to be even more convenient.
The standard Magic Card was bronze.
The highest grade was the Black Magic Card.
Take the Weasley family, for example.
The twins had Black Cards.
Even Mr. Weasley had managed to get one.
After all, as the head of the family, he still had that much authority.
Only Ron was dissatisfied.
Why was his card still an ordinary one?
"You need to earn more money."
"One hundred thousand Galleons."
"Then you can apply for an upgrade."
"Ickle Ronniekins~"
At the Weasley dinner table, the twins took turns teasing him, making everyone struggle not to laugh.
Only Ron looked annoyed.
"Dad, you could just give me one."
Mr. Weasley paused while cutting his beef and said seriously, "I hope you can earn things like that through your own ability, Ron."
It was rare for him to sound so stern.
Percy had made him realise that he had indeed neglected some aspects of his children's education.
So when he heard Ron thinking like that, he became especially serious.
Apart from Ron and Ginny, everyone else in the Weasley family already had a job.
Mrs. Weasley nodded, agreeing with her husband.
"Fine."
Ron ate absent-mindedly.
Something was clearly bothering him.
It might as well have been written across his face.
George and Fred exchanged a glance.
Angelina noticed the silent exchange between the brothers and gave them a contemptuous look.
"Ron, have you been in contact with Lavender?"
As his sister-in-law, she decided to show some concern and asked him directly.
"Ah, no."
Ron panicked, stabbed a piece of broccoli with his fork, and shoved it into his mouth before pretending nothing was wrong.
"We stopped talking ages ago."
"Oh?" Fred chuckled. "You two used to be practically inseparable."
Ron looked away.
George added, "So... you've been talking to Hermione?"
"Pfft!"
Ron, who had guiltily picked up his pumpkin juice, immediately choked.
"You're really terrible at hiding things," George said with a shrug. "The last time Hermione came over, you couldn't take your eyes off her."
"I did not!"
He panicked.
Angelina was a girl, so she understood girls' feelings better.
"This might be a bit harsh," Angelina said, "but an outstanding girl like Hermione Granger isn't really suited to you."
"Angelina." Mrs. Weasley frowned in displeasure.
"Sorry," Fred apologised without the slightest sincerity. "Hermione has already joined the Ministry of Magic. Dad was praising how brilliant she was just the other day."
It was true.
One was a young man who had not even started working yet, while the other had already found a job in the Department for the Regulation and Control of Magical Creatures.
Ron looked somewhat dejected.
It was not that the twins did not support their brother.
They simply knew how close Hermione and John had once been.
How did that saying go again?
How could a woman who had once been protected by a lion fall in love with a dog?
Ron was not a dog, of course, but compared with the Second King, the difference was simply too great.
Too discouraged to keep eating, Ron said gloomily, "I'm full."
He stood and went upstairs.
Mrs. Weasley glared at the twins. "By Merlin, you're his brothers."
"That's exactly why we don't want him to suffer so much," George immediately replied.
Mrs. Weasley felt sorry for her son.
Mr. Weasley thought for a moment before saying, "You did go a little too far."
"All right," Fred said. "We'll take responsibility for cheering up our dear little brother."
"Don't mention..."
"We know. We won't mention John and Hermione."
George raised his hands in surrender.
Angelina did not think there was much hope.
Honestly, if she had met John in her first year, she was certain she would never have been interested in anyone else for the rest of her life.
...
The new credit system was already beginning to take hold.
Wizards could hardly put down their Magic Cards.
The Ministries of Magic in other countries quickly noticed this.
"Second King, what exactly is the meaning of this?"
At a meeting of the International Confederation of Wizards.
John looked at the person who had raised the objection.
It was Norway's new Minister for Magic.
He said casually, "I've noticed a flaw in the old system."
"What flaw?" Minister Roland asked, somewhat puzzled.
The system had been in place for hundreds of years. What flaw could it possibly have?
"Credit," John said. "Leaving aside the fact that Gringotts is controlled by greedy goblins, the bank itself has no real credit system beyond minting currency."
"Credit?"
The representatives looked at one another.
"Take the last attack on Gringotts as an example," John said, sweeping his gaze across the room. "How are the losses calculated?"
"If the losses suffered by wizards are entirely their own responsibility, then why do we need to deposit our money in Gringotts in the first place?"
John's question went straight to the heart of the matter.
"With the Magic Card, money that belongs to a wizard doesn't simply vanish because a branch somewhere suffers losses," John said calmly as everyone fell silent. "Once money is deposited into the Magic Card system, it is treated as circulating capital and begins operating immediately."
"As long as the data is properly preserved, even if the Magic Card itself is lost, it can simply be reissued."
He said calmly, "That is credit."
The Second Dynasty possessed an astonishing ability to circulate everything internally.
Even if every Galleon in the world disappeared, as long as they recognised the numbers recorded in the Magic Card system, transactions could continue without interruption based purely on those values.
It was a completely self-contained system.
The name John Wick itself was enough to reassure everyone.
As long as John remained, there would never be a situation like Gringotts, where losses were simply pushed onto individual wizards.
With Gringotts, once you left the counter, they refused responsibility.
With the Magic Card, once the money was deposited, it was protected.
This new credit system required an institution powerful enough to enforce it.
John glanced around at the gathered representatives.
He did not mind expanding it across the entire world.
After all, he had no intention of doing something absurd like declaring bankruptcy and running off with his clients' assets.
And so, after the proposal was passed, a completely new institution was born.
The International Confederation Financial Centre.
The First Wizarding Savings Bank.
What?
Wasn't Gringotts the first bank?
That was opened by goblins.
What did that have to do with wizards?
This new institution would be responsible for managing the financial system of the entire wizarding world.
Its first governor: John Wick!
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