The Great Merchant: Derick Walker-3

It was a game at one gold per point. Converted into Korean won, that came to ten million won a point—the kind of stakes that almost never came up unless you were playing some internet game.

I had brought five hundred gold in total. Astonishingly, Grea had brought the exact same sum.

"Looks like we're of one mind. Heh-heh~!"

Grea hummed a little tune, clearly delighted. I could more or less see what was going through her head. She intended to fleece me in this round and then leave Coulon behind.

A blueprint of the future was already drawn in Grea's mind. She would make a fresh start somewhere new—not as a gambler, but as a merchant. That much was certain.

A thousand gold converted to ten platinum. To be honest, that was enough to buy an entire mid-sized merchant company outright.

"Shall we start with poker?"

"Sure."

The Master himself dealt. He shuffled the deck and distributed the cards. The format was the same as seven-card poker back in the real world.

The fundamental rule of poker is to complete a rarer hand than your opponent. In this world's version they shuffled the deck after every single hand to prevent card counting, so you had to play on nothing but luck and a poker face.

"One pair."

"High card. You read me."

"Oppa, your expression management is decent enough, but your whole body gives you away. Heh heh. Can a merchant really afford to be that bad at lying?"

"A merchant's lifeblood is honesty."

I lost the two chips I'd bet. Twenty million won, gone. I didn't give it a second thought. I kept playing.

I read her, I won, I lost, I won again. My win rate hovered right around fifty percent. Even so, I was down twenty-nine chips. Grea lost a little and won a lot.

She never got impatient. I wouldn't leave my seat until I had either lost every coin I'd brought or taken every coin she had. She knew that, and so she cooked me slowly.

"Let's take a short break. Master. A little more vanilla rum."

"Understood."

The Master went to the bar to mix the drinks. Grea announced she was going to the washroom and rose from her seat. I glanced at Luna. She nodded.

"That woman is employing deception. It is extremely precise and clandestine. To be honest, had Master not given me prior warning, I would not have noticed."

Cheating. A cardsharp's hands are never honest. Grea's hands were hypocrisy made flesh.

"But it is astonishing. To deceive an opponent with nothing but pure sleight of hand, without relying on magic or any special item."

Turning the uncertain probabilities of gambling into a predictable profit model by every trick in the book was the same here as it was in the real world. Back home, criminals using X-ray glasses, marked cards, or hidden cameras for fraudulent gambling still made the news from time to time.

The gambling dens of Solari World were no exception. Because cheating with special items was far from rare, the techniques for detecting such methods had advanced accordingly.

Establishments like this one—the Silver and Dice, where games ran every day—kept devices for detecting those items. Specifically, a contraption called a Mana Bell that registered mana. The moment an artificial flow of mana occurred, the bell would ring.

Of course the Mana Bell did not catch every special item. Even so, the mere existence of such a safeguard was enough to keep most fraudulent gamblers in check.

Grea, however, borrowed none of mana's power. She deceived her opponents with sleight of hand alone—or more precisely, with sleight of hand and a handful of tools she had fashioned herself. Not mana-powered tools. Tools of her own making.

As the proverb goes, it is darkest beneath the lamp. Because she cheated with human craft rather than magic, she had slipped past the suspicion of every other gambler and even the Master himself. The original game-based novel laid out Grea's methods in considerable detail.

"In this poker game, Grea drew a card from her wristband to complete her hand. Her wrist appears to be bare skin, yet she is wearing a band that perfectly mimics flesh. Remarkable ingenuity."

"She's probably in the washroom right now to restock the band with the right cards. Grea knows I tend to drink and take a rest after a few hands of poker."

I had barely finished speaking when Grea emerged from the washroom. I looked at her left arm. Honestly, I could not believe she was wearing a band at all. At this level it was practically an item.

"Shall we get started again?"

"Hmm. Poker's getting a bit stale. Let's switch games."

Even after I said that, Grea's expression did not so much as flicker.

"What shall we play? I'm fine with anything."

Grea scattered a captivating smile as she spoke.

"Master. The dice."

At my word the Master brought two dice and a cup. The dice were smaller than the span of a ring finger. The cup was a crude wooden thing.

"Odds and evens, I see."

"That's right. Odds and evens."

The rules were simple, and it was a game we had played often enough. Odds and evens meant rolling two dice in a cup and guessing whether the sum would come up odd or even.

One player rolled; the other declared odd or even. Guess correctly and you took chips equal to the sum of the pips. Guess wrong and the roller took the same. The two players alternated rolling and calling.

The one peculiarity was when both dice showed the same number: regardless of odd or even, the roller took the sum. For the one holding the cup, double sixes was the best possible result.

"Heh heh. These dice nestle right into the hand."

Grea rolled the dice once across her palm. To an unsuspecting eye there was nothing remarkable about the motion. In truth, it was the sleight that swapped the dice. Even I would never have caught it if I had not known in advance.

My Agility exceeded two hundred. Of course the Synchronization Rate penalty in Solari World brought the number lower than that, but even so my reflexes belonged to a different league from any ordinary person's. And even I found myself marveling at her technique.

The cardsharp's sleight of hand was completed in the space of a single blink. It was not merely a matter of speed. The motion was so perfectly natural that unless you were watching for it, suspicion was impossible.

"Then let's begin~"

Each of us took a die and threw. The higher number would roll first. I came up five; she came up three.

"I'll roll first."

"Aha! Double sixes. I'll take it!"

Grea swept in the equivalent of a hundred and twenty million won. I had already lost more than two hundred chips.

In this game Grea could produce double sixes whenever she pleased. The secret was the swapped dice and the magnet hidden inside her wristband. She would pretend to roll, slip her arm beneath the table, and manipulate the dice. Wooden chips were piled high in front of her. Even the Master marveled at a pot of a size he had never seen in his life.

"As expected of a gambler who stakes everything on the Goddess of Fortune. That's the fourth double six. Astonishing, Grea."

"Thank you, Master~! If I win a lot, I'll slip you a tip too~!"

We had rolled perhaps thirty times, and double sixes had come up four. Statistically rare, but not in the same realm of impossibility as a royal flush.

"Hmm. Looks like I'll have to start offering tribute to the Goddess from tomorrow."

I said it with a frown, then set a sack heavy with gold on the table. Grea's eyes went wide at the sight.

"What's that?"

"At this trickle we'll still be here when the sun comes up. How about we ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠do the next round like this? Instead of calling odd or even, we call the exact number."

"Um… that's several times harder than calling odd or even, isn't it?"

She tilted her head.

"Of course it is. That's why we raise the stakes. Guess the number exactly and you take a hundred chips. Miss, and you lose a quarter of that—twenty-five chips. How about it?"

Grea snorted a laugh.

"That's enormously stacked against the caller. The odds of hitting the exact number are only one in thirty-six."

I shook my head.

"No. For a gambler, the winning probability is always fifty-fifty."

Grea's face lit up with a bright smile. Those were the eyes of a woman looking at a lovable sucker. She would accept. There was no doubt.

"Heh heh. That's right. Probability is fifty percent for anything. All right. I accept."

Her gaze slid to my money pouch. She was already acting as if she had won it. I quietly drew an item from my inventory and closed my fingers around it.

The Mana Bell could not detect every item. Moreover, the special items obtained through the power of the Unix Cube were fundamentally different from the mana-using artifacts of Solari World.

It was the item I had obtained by killing Count Coulomb's two sons. One of the reasons I had decided to claim Grea for myself was this very item.

The golden four-leaf clover in my hand crumbled to powder and vanished.

"Then who rolls first?"

"We throw. Higher number rolls first."

"Fine."

We threw together. Mine came up six; Grea's came up four.

The four-leaf clover's effect is already showing.

I took the cup and rolled the dice.

Thud. Thud. Thud.

With nothing but raw strength I shook the cup hard enough to make the table ring. The wooden cup took the imprint of my fingers.

"Uh… Oppa?"

Grea's voice had gone vacant. A loud, regular clatter issued from inside the cup. The wood could not withstand my grip and simply came apart.

"Ah, clumsy of me. Sorry, Master. I've gone ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠and broken your precious cup."

"No, it's quite all right. It's merely a cheap piece. I shall replace it."

"Do. Clear this away."

The Master gathered the shattered cup and the dice together and carried them off. He returned with a new cup and a new pair of dice. I glanced at Grea. Not a hint of agitation showed on her face.

As I thought. The way she normally displayed emotion was itself her poker face. Not a blank expression—an expressive poker face. A terrifying woman.

I shook the wooden cup. This time, ordinarily.

"Call the number."

"Eight."

I lifted the cup. The dice showed three and four. Short by one. Grea wordlessly pushed twenty-five chips toward me.

"Now it's Oppa's turn."

Grea rolled. What was she thinking? Perhaps that her ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠cheat had been exposed. The way I had swapped the cup and dice had been unnatural no matter who was watching.

"Grea. Do you think luck is something that falls into your lap, or something you seize?"

She smiled as she answered.

"Luck is something you seize, of course. With your own hands."

"Is that so? Then I'll try seizing some luck myself. With these hands."

The motion of Grea's cup stopped. I declared the number at once.

"Twelve."

"Oh… so full of confidence."

"Probability is fifty-fifty. A full fifty percent. No reason not to have confidence."

Grea slowly lifted the cup. The two dice sat side by side, both showing six.

"……"

"I'll take those hundred chips back. Tonight looks like it's going to be a long one."

I raked in the chips piled in front of her. Grea looked at me with a sour expression. For the first time tonight, I felt as if I were seeing behind her mask.

"Yeah…. Tonight's going to be long."

That was all Grea said.