Chapter 180
Translator: Ryuma
Chapter: 180
Chapter Title: This Isn't What You Gave Me These Powers For (4)
I hate gambling.
I hated it so much it made me sick.
Despite that, I’d encountered gambling quite a bit in my past life.
And I'm not just talking about my time with the pushover knight.
A horrific war that lasted nearly ten years.
It was impossible to stay sane in the midst of it.
Even the lords, armed with grand causes or ambitions, were swept up in madness.
Knights, clad in the iron armor of noble chivalry and firm conviction, also fell to corruption.
As for the common soldiers, it went without saying.
Days when no one could be certain of tomorrow.
You'd wake up to find a noble house had fallen, or that an entire legion you'd marched with had vanished.
It was no longer surprising when a comrade or lover you'd laughed with yesterday became a cold corpse overnight.
Behind the relief of surviving today was always the anxiety of dying tomorrow.
The surviving soldiers became extremely cheerful.
They lived with compulsive jokes on their lips, turning everything into a farce.
Comrades, even their own deaths, were nothing more than the subject of a jest.
It was as if, without it, the blade they'd erected in their hearts would snap and jut out.
And that jutting blade would carve up themselves and their comrades.
The longer a soldier survived, the more pathologically they clung to jokes.
But that alone wasn't enough to completely relax a mind stretched beyond its limits.
After a battle, soldiers would engage in all sorts of eccentric behavior to relieve the tension.
One of those was gambling.
Sometimes they'd wager their lives or pay on a few cards; other times, they'd bet their meager supplies on a crude die.
Sometimes they'd bet the spoils they'd acquired while rolling through the battlefields, and other times, their own swords and armor.
And sometimes, an entire unit would get together and wager their next mission.
On the battlefield, gambling wasn't just a way to kill time.
It was another battle that had to be won, by any means necessary.
‘Yan. Keep the stakes from getting too high. Cut them off at a reasonable point.’
‘What?’
‘Right. You can just play with them.’
‘Not stop them entirely?’
‘The soldiers need to breathe, too.’
Yanick gave me the mission of preventing the soldiers' diversions from crossing the line.
I didn't understand.
Why entrust a mission that the legion's gambling addicts would have welcomed with open arms to someone like me?
He of all people should have known I despised gambling.
‘That's why I'm giving it to you. Because you hate it.’
Surprisingly, I performed that duty quite well.
It seemed Yanick had expected it.
Something about how a man with a good eye for the battlefield is also good at cards.
His boast that he, too, had a knack for gambling was just a bonus.
For a long time, I was in charge of cutting the soldiers' diversions off at a reasonable point.
I didn't like it.
The memory of being sold off as a stake in a bet was still too vivid.
I barely had enough time to train, so being forced to sit at a gambling table didn't sit well with me at all.
Still, as I did it, I came to understand the soldiers' feelings to some extent.
Of course, that didn't mean I could go easy on them.
The heartless Yanick didn't even provide a stake, so the funds needed for the mission came straight from my own pocket.
For both the soldiers and me, winning by any means necessary was the only option.
So.
“Hah. The young fellow wins again.”
“He's got an incredible eye for the game.”
The fact that I was now mobilizing the powers of truth-seekers for a mere card game wasn't because I was despicable. It was simply the desperate mindset from my past life, where even gambling was treated as a battle, seeping out.
Really.
“Thanks.”
I pulled the pile of winnings stacked on the table toward me.
“Hmph.”
I forced the corners of my rising mouth back down.
Looking at the shiny silver coins, my mood, which had sunk while recalling memories of my past life, began to lift again.
Money is blameless, after all.
“Well now. There's so much money piled up, there's no room for the cards. What to do?”
I wasn't just saying it to provoke them.
There really was no space to place the cards.
It was about time to clear things up.
“You can exchange for gold coins here, right? Exchange all but a hundred of these silver coins for gold.”
At my words, a casino employee approached as if he'd been waiting.
“Not just any plain ones. Imperial gold coins. The ones with the dragon on them.”
But at my next words, he flinched and froze on the spot.
“If you exchange for engraved Imperial gold coins, you'll take a big loss on the exchange rate, and the commission is quite high. Plus, if you damage them while carrying them around, it could cause problems... and also...”
His feigned tone of concern made it seem like he was looking out for me.
“I don't care, just give me the Imperial gold coins.”
Of course, I paid him no mind.
There was nothing more foolish than trusting the gold coins from a place like this.
Nine times out of ten, they'd give you fake gold coins with poor purity.
But I could trust the Imperial gold coins engraved with the Azure Dragon.
The Azure Dragon, used alongside celestial patterns as a symbol of the Imperial family.
Messing with gold coins engraved with such a dragon was the surest of all the many suicide methods available in the Empire.
The hesitant employee only brought the gold coins after the woman with the cigarette nodded her head.
“...After a ten percent commission and accounting for the exchange rate, that's exactly five engraved gold coins. Please confirm.”
I quickly took the proffered gold coins and tucked them deep inside my clothes.
I didn't do something foolish like biting the coins.
Putting a coin in my mouth when I didn't even know whose hands it had passed through... I didn't even want to think about it.
*Shhhk.*
The game, which had been briefly paused, resumed.
“I fold this hand.”
If I thought I would lose, I'd pull out right then and there.
“I'll see you and raise.”
If I thought I would win, I'd raise the stakes and go all in.
“You have a really good eye. No, is it good intuition?”
“At this rate, I'd believe it if you said you were playing with a full view of our hands.”
By this point, it wasn't strange that my opponents were starting to suspect me.
Of course, I didn't even blink.
Their suspicions were useless.
There was no way ordinary humans could recognize the power of a Starseeker.
As expected, their suspicions ended with them pointlessly changing the deck of cards several times.
The game resumed again.
I flipped my cards.
It was a pretty good hand.
I stacked my cards, covered them with my hand, and looked up.
The players were checking their hands with expressionless faces.
I quietly studied their faces.
These were experts, wearing experience like masks and cloaked in conscious gestures and exaggerated acting.
The emotions they showed were by no means real.
Even their breathing, the inhales and exhales, was nothing but a fabrication.
But before the discerning eyes of a Starseeker, it was useless.
The sage's eyes, which peer beyond the surface of the world, saw everything clearly.
Something much larger than the individual emotions of those sitting at the table.
I could faintly see and feel the entire flow of the game.
That flow was telling me.
This hand was mine.
“I'll see you and raise fifty silver. No, let's bet a gold coin.”
I raised the stakes.
The players didn't flinch, even though the pot had suddenly grown.
“The young fellow plays big. I'm out.”
“Me too. I'm not getting any good cards.”
They just folded at the right moment, as they had been doing all along.
All except one.
“I'll call.”
A man with unusually thin lips pulled a small pouch from his clothes and placed it on the table.
*Ching.*
Silver coins poured out of the bag.
It was roughly the same amount as the Imperial gold coin I had bet.
“One more.”
The man placed another pouch on the table.
And at that moment.
“Hm?”
The flow of the game changed.
The goddess of victory turned her head.
Her gaze, which had been on me, was now fixed on the man.
The cards had already been dealt.
There was only one reason for the outcome to change so suddenly.
“Hold it.”
At my words, the players flinched and froze.
“Everyone, hands off the table.”
Words alone weren't enough.
“Anyone who moves from now on loses a wrist.”
I placed the knife I had hidden in my clothes on the table.
The kitchen knife, which I had sneakily borrowed from the inn's chef, was still caked in pork grease.
That made it look all the more menacing.
“Uh, young man. What are you suddenly...”
“This joke is going a bit too far. Hahaha.”
The players tried to laugh it off as if it were nothing.
“Do I look like I'm joking?”
I grinned at them.
“Go on, try me.”
*Thunk.*
I slammed the kitchen knife into the table.
The man who had been slyly moving his hand toward the cards froze.
I felt a bustling presence behind me.
“I was wondering why you were just standing there.”
A group of thugs had surrounded me.
“Hey, kid. Didn't your mommy tell you not to play with knives?”
At his glaring words, I couldn't help but laugh.
This situation was all too familiar.
Me clutching the kitchen knife, the man who cheated, and the thugs who approached to cover it up.
It was a scene I had seen and experienced countless times during the war.
For some reason, I started to enjoy it.
The boring card game had finally gotten a little interesting.
“You're laughing?”
The thug's expression grew even more menacing.
He must have lived a rough life; a murderous glint shone in his yellowed eyes.
I felt even better.
But as I did, an unknown sense of regret also deepened.
It felt like something important was missing, but I just couldn't figure out what it was.
“Ah!”
After thinking for a moment, I let out a cry.
“Let's step outside first, kid. Leave the money there. That's right. Now, be a good boy, okay? If you listen to us nicely, you won't get hurt—?”
The thug, who had been sweeping the money off the table as if it were his, looked at his hand and froze stiff.
“Aargh! My hand! My fingers!”
A scream erupted a moment too late.
The smell of blood stung my nostrils.
I smiled in satisfaction.
I felt as if that missing something had finally been filled.
“Y-you crazy brat, you're laughing? You turned a man's hand into that mess and you can still laugh?”
“You bastard, you'd better give up any thought of leaving here alive.”
The thugs each pulled out their weapons.
“Are you really going to do this?”
I asked, leaning back leisurely in my chair.
“You maimed a man and now you're spouting this bull—”
“I wasn't asking you, so shut your mouth.”
“What...?”
I silenced the chattering thugs and asked again.
“Are you really going to do this? It doesn't matter to me either way, but I don't think it's the same for you.”
Just as the thugs were about to erupt again.
“Everyone, step back.”
The woman with the cigarette stepped forward.
“But, ma'am! If we let him go, everyone else will think we're pushovers...”
“Are you going to make me say it twice?”
The woman's tone was still gentle, but the thugs turned pale as if they'd received a death sentence.
“What did you mean when you said it wouldn't be the same for us?”
“Don't play dumb when you know exactly what I meant.”
If the thugs didn't back down here, it would be as good as admitting that the man and the gambling den were in it together.
In short, it was the perfect situation to be misunderstood as a gambling den that used cheating and then tried to cover it up with force when caught.
The reason I deliberately complicated a situation that could have been easily resolved was to give them a chance to correct that misunderstanding.
“For someone trying to clear up a misunderstanding, you certainly escalated things. Blood was spilled.”
“Anyone who touches the pot deserves to lose not just their fingers, but their whole wrist.”
“You look young, but you're well-versed in these matters, aren't you?”
“Do people in this town play cards with their age? You keep bringing that up.”
The woman laughed as I grumbled.
“For now, let's clear up the misunderstanding first.”
At her gesture, one of the thugs stepped forward.
“Handle him according to the industry rules. The rest of you, get out.”
“Huh? This wasn't part of the deal...! I just did what I was told... Mmph!”
“While you're at it, fix that mouth of his too.”
“Yes, ma'am!”
One of the thugs dragged the man away.
The other players and thugs followed them out.
“Should that be enough to clear up the misunderstanding?”
“Without even checking the cards?”
“He's famous for his bad habits. I'll take this chance to clean house. Something like that.”
There was no need to point out, here and now, that she was the one who had instigated the troublesome cheater.
“You should sit down, too.”
The pushover knight, who had been observing the situation from the sidelines until now, quickly sat down.
Of course, I had put my blindfold back on.
I'd have to check his information too, but not right now.
“What in the world is going on?”
He seemed to have many questions, but he didn't look like he intended to press the issue here.
I gave him a nod of thanks and turned back to the woman.
She was quietly waiting for me to speak.
She seemed to believe I had some other business with her.
Quick on the uptake, isn't she.
“Well, it's nothing much.”
I didn't hesitate to state my business.
“Since I'm here, there's something I'd like to request.”
The woman took a deep drag from her cigarette.
Her eyes, which had been as hazy as the thick smoke, sharpened.