"Chief, you're back!"
"Welcome back, Chief! We missed you!"
"Chief, there are a mountain of documents that desperately need your signature!"
"...."
Finn stood in the grand foyer of his Crocus office, silently rubbing his exhausted eyes. The heavy, sweet scent of expensive rose perfume and freshly brewed black coffee filled the air. Surrounding him was a swarm of his hand-picked secretaries—beautiful, fiercely devoted women whose impossibly tight pencil skirts and heavily unbuttoned blouses left very little to the imagination. Their cheeks were flushed with obsessive loyalty, their eyes practically glowing as they looked at him.
He really just wanted to stay at his coastal mansion in Hargeon, listening to the crashing waves, but duty called. Managing an underworld empire masquerading as a government branch required a hands-on approach.
His businesses were maintained by these "extensions" of himself—people who were either fanatical cultists utterly devoted to him, pawns whose darkest secrets he held hostage, or politicians whose financial interests were hopelessly chained to his own.
As for concepts like family, genuine love, or self-sacrificing emotion? Finn found them incredibly hard to swallow. Growing up as a starving orphan on the freezing streets had taught him that the world was inherently rotten. People were simply the worst.
Even Fairy Tail, universally romanticized as the greatest and warmest guild in Fiore, was a prime example of this hypocrisy. They caused catastrophic collateral damage wherever they went. People worshipped them for their "freedom." But in a world constricted by harsh laws, total freedom was just another word for chaos.
And once their core members vanished, that legendary glory evaporated overnight.
This is the true price of freedom, Finn thought as he sat behind his massive mahogany desk, the soft velvet of his chair sinking beneath him.
While Finn's life was rigidly chained to the system, it was absolutely unshakeable. He was the system. Meanwhile, Fairy Tail was a rotting carcass. Without their heavy hitters, they were living off scraps, forced to grovel and borrow money from him just to keep the lights on. They routinely pawned their historic guild artifacts, mortgaged their lands, and signed away their futures to him.
Frankly, Finn was the fairest loan shark in the underworld. He used a modern banking interest system, whereas normal Fiore loan sharks would have buried the guild in despair-inducing rates. Yet, despite his "generosity," Macao and the remaining members still squandered the money from the quests Finn secretly funneled them. They blew it on cheap booze, cigarettes, and gambling, paying only the bare minimum interest and never touching the principal debt.
In normal circumstances, a debtor who squandered their money would just act miserable, begging the lender for forgiveness while playing the victim. It was a bizarre societal flaw where the lender—the one who actually lost money—was painted as the villain.
If Finn were just a normal merchant, Fairy Tail would have undoubtedly tried to default and play the victim card. But because he was the White Devil of the Magic Council, no one dared. If they missed a single payment, he could instantly revoke their guild license or place them on probation, legally starving them to death.
So, where does all my money actually come from?
His official Magic Council salary wasn't nearly enough to fund a bottomless pit like Fairy Tail. His true wealth was a sprawling, terrifyingly efficient shadow empire.
First came the extortion. He pulled in massive, untraceable sums of physical cash and gold from "White Guilds" who wanted their collateral damage swept under the rug—like Sabertooth. He also drafted highly illegal "convenience contracts" for Merchant and Dark Guilds who paid a premium to avoid being raided by his Rune Knights. This liquid slush fund alone sat at around 500,000,000 Jewels.
Second was his real estate empire. Whenever the Council eradicated a Dark Guild or a cult, Finn quietly consolidated their seized lands. He developed the properties and leased them out to high-end property developers and luxury boutiques, amassing a real estate portfolio worth over a billion Jewels.
Third was his absolute monopoly on Fiore's maritime and aerial shipping routes. Using his vast network of avian Take Over familiars, he controlled the skies and the seas. If a merchant wanted their commercial crates to move safely through his protected routes without "accidentally" sinking, they paid him a percentage. That racket brought in another 700,000,000 Jewels.
Fourth was the auction house, where he liquidated seized magical vehicles, rare lacrima, and weapons confiscated from corrupt officials.
Lastly, there was the pawnshop, which he fully intended to evolve into Fiore's first centralized modern bank.
Running all of this meant he barely slept three hours a night. He was incredibly thankful for the Manager system, which automated the heavy mental processing, seamlessly directing his fanatical followers to execute his will without him having to micro-manage every single detail.
But politics and money were only half of his ambition.
Late that night, Finn descended the spiraling stone steps into the deepest, most secure vault beneath his Crocus estate. The air down here was freezing, smelling heavily of ancient ozone and the coppery tang of dried blood.
Looming in the center of the dimly lit chamber was the colossal corpse of Kurunugi, the Sword Saint Dragon.
Finn didn't want to waste any time. If he let the corpse rot, the magical potential would degrade. He stepped forward, his hand reaching out to touch the cold, impenetrable steel-like scales of the beast. He was fully prepared to begin the grueling process of forging a weapon.
But the moment his bare skin made contact with the dragon, a mechanical chime echoed in his skull.
[Notice. The genetic and magical compatibility is absolute.]
"Huh?" Finn blinked, his hand freezing on the scales.
[Notice. It is possible for the host to use Take Over Magic on the Dragon Sword Saint, Kurunugi.]
[Do you wish to initiate the Take Over?]
"....."
Finn stared blindly into the dark vault, his heart suddenly hammering against his ribs.