"Isabella."

"Yes~ Papa."

"Are you following that fellow again?"

"Yes~"

"……One piece of good fortune is enough. If you lose it that way……"

"It is only three hundred million dollars~ The profit is safely put away."

"……" Dinner with his daughter at the house. Earl Rupert Hales was not entirely pleased by his daughter's steady success.

A hundred million dollars had become a full one billion three hundred million. Profit on that scale in the futures market is a level only a god of futures could reach.

This time as well his daughter has thrown herself into the adventure. By what she says, it appears she has reinvested only part of the profit she took earlier.

"Papa, do you still doubt Bear's ability as an investor?"

"……Do you suppose I have seen lucky men like that only once or twice in my life?"

"Bear is not like them."

"Different?"

Rupert set his knife down on the plate.

Clack.

"Of course, at the start they were all different."

"……" "They were different going into the market, and they were different making money. They had principles of their own and they were colder than anybody."

He lifted his wine glass and drank a mouthful of what was in it.

"At some point every one of them fell into the same mistake — believing they had understood the market."

"Bear does not make that mistake."

"And how are you certain of that?"

"……" For the first time, Isabella had no answer. Rupert looked straight into his daughter Isabella's eyes.

"For anybody, one success can be good fortune."

Rupert's voice settled low.

"And the second success raises the illusion of ability."

"……" "From the third success on, it becomes conviction."

Rupert set the wine glass down on the table.

"And above all, the futures market feeds on the conviction of a man with three successes behind him."

Isabella's fork stopped.

"Which is why…… I am investing only three hundred million dollars."

"What?"

"Even if I lose all of it, a billion is left over."

"……" Rupert was left with nothing to say to that.…