A Christmas That Will Never Come Again
A Christmas That Will Never Come Again
The woman holding Daniel's hand introduced herself as Ref.
She didn't tell him anything besides her name, but Daniel wasn't particularly curious either, so he didn't press the matter.
After exchanging names, the two headed to a nearby general store. Daniel, having heard that the game Ref had bet on was a type of poker, suggested they buy playing cards.
Ref, who had ended up following Daniel on a whim, paid for two decks of cards and returned to the front of the tavern.
"...Hey."
Ref, unable to understand what any of this was about, looked up at Daniel.
"Why did you buy playing cards? Two decks, at that."
"You said they were cheating, didn't you, my lady? Then beating them by normal means is impossible."
Daniel opened one of the card boxes, took out the deck, and sorted through it, pulling a few cards.
He put the remaining cards back into the box and handed it to Ref.
"Hold on to this. Consider it a good-luck charm."
Ref took the box with a puzzled look as Daniel slipped the cards he had pulled out into his sleeve.
While Ref was still wondering, Daniel grasped the tavern's door handle and opened it.
The noisy interior unfolded before them.
Smelling the faint alcohol and the savory aroma of various snacks, Daniel stepped inside.
As Ref followed behind him, the tavern patrons turned to look at Daniel one by one.
They were wary of a stranger entering with a woman who had just been kicked out for causing a disturbance.
The tavern owner approached Daniel, who was observing the room from behind his sunglasses.
"What brings you here? If you're some kind of hired mercenary for that girl..."
"A glass of rum, please. Ah, if you have tequila, I'll take that instead."
Daniel's casual drink order left the owner speechless.
Daniel looked at the owner and offered a good-natured smile.
"Don't worry. I'm not here to cause trouble. I just came to drink and gamble a little."
'So he hired a card sharp.' Finally understanding, the owner called out into the crowd.
"Pramkol! This gentleman wants to play a round!"
Pramkol, who had been leaning against the wall in a corner booth stacking his chips, raised his head.
Scrawny Pramkol glanced at Daniel once, then let out a thin smile.
"A sucker is always welcome. Come over."
With permission granted, Daniel walked over, pulled out a chair, and sat down.
The tavern owner followed Daniel, then claimed a seat at the table as well.
"Now then..."
the owner said.
"I'm not sure if you've heard, but the game at my establishment is poker. Also, there's no betting limit. If you understand, nod your head."
Daniel nodded, and the owner placed a thick pouch from his belt onto the table with a thud.
A quick peek inside revealed a pile of old chips.
"Decide how much you'll gamble with. I'll exchange it for chips."
"Ah. The lady behind me will cover that."
Ref, now singled out, flinched.
She had known it would come to this, but it was still unpleasant now that it was actually happening.
"...How much do you need?"
"Bet as much as you trust me."
'How do I trust someone I've just met?' Ref was dumbfounded, but since she had come this far, she decided to see it through and opened her wallet.
"Fine. I'll bet it all."
Ref pulled every bill from her leather wallet and handed them to the owner.
The owner was flustered by the considerable sum, but he quickly composed himself and accepted it.
He then rummaged through his pouch, pulled out several dozen chips, and placed them on Daniel's side of the table.
"Here you are."
Daniel nodded and put his hand in his pocket.
"Ah. But may I ask a favor?"
"What is it?"
Daniel took the card box from his pocket and handed it to the owner.
"The lady wishes for a fair game. She seems to suspect cheating. I don't really believe it, but just in case, I'd like you to replace the deck."
Since there was no reason to refuse, the owner took the box.
He opened it, checked the cards once, and nodded.
"Looks like you bought these from the shop next door. I've confirmed they aren't rigged, so we'll use them. Pramkol. No objections, right?"
Pramkol playfully shrugged at the owner's question.
From that reaction, Daniel could tell the cheating Ref mentioned was not a matter of rigged cards.
If the trick were rigged cards, Pramkol would have tried to stop the deck from being replaced.
'Then what kind of cheat is it?'
No need to rush. He could figure it out as they went along.
"Then we shall begin."
The owner, signaling the start of the game, dealt two cards each to Daniel and Pramkol.
After the initial betting, they went through the flop and the turn, and then came the river.
Once all five cards were revealed, Daniel checked his hand.
'Two pair.'
The probability of getting two pair in poker was fairly low.
It meant his hand was worth betting on.
While he was deliberating, Pramkol called out without even bothering with psychological warfare.
"Raise."
He was raising the stakes.
Daniel was silent for a moment, then called and revealed his hand.
Pramkol's hand was 'three of a kind.'
Daniel, with two pair, lost, and Pramkol grinned as he raked in the chips.
"I thought the lady had brought me a real player. Disappointing."
Daniel didn't reply, only offered a faint smile.
They played five more rounds, but Daniel didn't win a single one.
At this point, Ref was starting to get nervous.
'What the hell are you doing? You idiot...!'
She wasn't sure if he was just throwing money around because it wasn't his, but watching Daniel call with just a single pair instead of folding was giving her heartburn.
Daniel, on the other hand, was as calm as a still pond.
Because he had figured out Pramkol's trick.
'He's using a shallow trick.'
Pramkol had won by razor-thin margins all five times.
Finding a cheater at the gambling table was easy enough. But always winning by a hair?
That meant Pramkol had an accomplice among the spectators.
'His partner is telling him my hand with hand signals.'
Pramkol, seeing those signals, was staging his narrow victories to avoid suspicion.
Now that he knew how his opponent was cheating, he simply needed to turn it against him.
"You're quite skilled."
Daniel offered a compliment that wasn't really a compliment, and began his sixth round against Pramkol.
Receiving his cards from the owner, who served as dealer, Daniel played through until they reached the final river card.
The five cards in his hand made no pair.
It was garbage that normally called for a fold.
Yet Daniel calmly pushed all his chips to the center of the table.
"All in."
Pramkol, and even the spectators, were shocked and started murmuring.
Ref, watching right behind him, was just as stunned.
'You crazy bastard! What are you doing!?'
Just as she was questioning his sanity, Pramkol let out a snicker.
'He's trying to bluff. Sorry, but I can see every card in your hand.'
Thinking it was a shame because he had intended to let the poor sap win at least once, Pramkol opened his mouth.
"Call."
Pramkol pushed most of his own chips into the center.
In that moment, Daniel channeled mana into his central nervous system and accelerated his nerves.
Within the slowed time, he slipped his hand into his sleeve, switched his cards in a flash, and then stopped the neural acceleration.
It had happened so fast that Pramkol never even suspected Daniel had changed his cards, and he revealed his own hand.
"Two pair. You?"
He already knew, but he asked as a formality.
Daniel, fully aware of Pramkol's intention, unveiled his own hand just as casually.
"Royal straight flush."
Pramkol's eyes went wide at the sight of the highest possible hand in poker.
'What? When the hell did he...?'
To Pramkol, who hadn't even seen his hand move, it felt as though he had been bewitched by a ghost.
He stared blankly at the cards for a while, then raised his head, a cold sweat breaking out.
Daniel was smiling. As if he had planned this all along.
"What? Never seen a royal straight flush before?"
At Daniel's sneer, Pramkol gritted his teeth.
"You son of a bitch...! Where do you get off cheating, you piece of shit!"
"Cheating? Where's the proof that I cheated?"
"Don't play dumb! You clearly...!"
Carried away by his anger, Pramkol was about to expose the hand Daniel originally had when he froze.
He realized the hostile glares of the spectators were now fixed on him.
If he blurted out Daniel's original hand here, Pramkol would essentially be admitting that he had been cheating at poker the whole time.
In the descending silence, Daniel lifted the glass of tequila the owner had given him and took a sip.
Even while drinking, his eyes remained on Pramkol.
'You cheated the others the same way you just tried to cheat me. Isn't that right, Pramkol?'
As Daniel expected, there were many here who had lost money to Pramkol.
Because of this, Pramkol's reputation in the tavern these days had fallen to the level of garbage.
Look at them now.
Even though several of the spectators had belatedly noticed Daniel switching his cards, they were keeping their mouths shut.
That was how badly the spectators wanted to see Pramkol lose.
In an atmosphere this hostile, the moment he admitted to cheating all this time by revealing Daniel's original hand, he could very well be beaten to death.
Pramkol's pupils trembled faintly as he realized he had dug his own grave.
"Oh dear, Pramkol."
Daniel looked at Pramkol with an expression of concern.
"If I were you, I'd quietly accept the result. Otherwise..."
Daniel leaned forward, resting his arms on the table.
With a smile still on his face, he continued in a soft voice.
"You'll leave here half-crippled tonight."
Hearing that chilly voice, Pramkol could only bite back his protests and nod his head.
*
While Daniel was enjoying himself at the gambling table, Lucy spent her days occupied with work at the General Headquarters.
After long hours of overtime, she finished all her tasks and organized her documents.
"Lieutenant Colonel. It's time to leave..."
The end of Lucy's sentence, spoken almost reflexively as she glanced toward the command desk, trailed off.
Daniel wasn't there.
He had been dispatched to Belanos as a diplomatic envoy.
"..."
Without Daniel, who always said something silly whenever it was time to go home, a strange emptiness lingered.
Lucy blinked quietly for a moment, then shook her head and got up from her seat.
He was coming back soon anyway; there was no need to get needlessly sentimental.
Gathering her briefcase, she was about to leave the office when she stopped short.
Because she heard footsteps coming from the hallway.
Just as she wondered who it was, the office door opened and Ernst walked in.
"Assistant Chief of Operations Staff."
Lucy saluted, and Ernst returned it weakly.
Sensing his unusually subdued demeanor, Lucy lowered her hand with a puzzled look.
"Assistant Chief. Has something happened?"
At Lucy's question, Ernst clenched his jaw and then nodded.
He took a moment to steady his breathing, then looked at Lucy.
"First Lieutenant Lucy. I will only say this once, so listen carefully. The diplomatic vessel that your superior, Lieutenant Colonel Daniel, was aboard..."
Perhaps finding it too difficult to look at Lucy, Ernst lowered his gaze.
"...has reportedly been sunk by a terrorist attack."
Sunk.
The weight of that word brought Lucy's thoughts to a halt.
She remained still for a long moment, as if unable to comprehend, then asked,
"Is that... a confirmed fact?"
There was no way the Assistant Chief of Operations, Ernst, would lie about something like this.
Lucy's rational mind knew that all too well.
But she asked anyway, as if it were a defense mechanism to deny reality.
When Ernst let out a trembling breath and nodded, Lucy's lips parted slightly.
Amid the heavy silence, she chose her words, then bowed her head toward Ernst.
"...I will be taking my leave now."
Fully understanding what she must be feeling, Ernst did not stop her.
And so Lucy walked out of the office, her footsteps echoing down the corridor.
A myriad of memories tangled in her mind, sometimes merging, sometimes scattering.
In the stream of thoughts that flowed moment by moment, Lucy's breathing grew shakier.
'Why...'
Why had the ship carrying Daniel Steiner been sunk?
Why had she not known about it?
Why was she only finding out this news now?
Tossing these questions with no clear answers around in her heart, Lucy descended the stairs.
'I have to find out...'
She wanted to contact a spy operating in the capital and learn the full story of what happened.
In the midst of that thought, as she hurried down the stairs, Lucy's foot slipped.
Her ankle twisted sideways and her body lurched.
She quickly grabbed the stair railing, lowering her body and keeping her balance.
She didn't fall, but her breath had become more ragged than before.
Her haste had caused her to make a mistake she would never normally make.
With her eyes half-open and panting, Lucy slowly closed her eyes.
Amid her hazy thoughts, the words Daniel had said to her in front of the General Headquarters surfaced.
─ If you have time on Christmas, you may come with me. If you want, that is.
She could see Daniel's face, playfully suggesting they eat stollen together, as clearly as day.
But Lucy knew.
A Christmas where they ate stollen together would never come, now that Daniel was dead.
Before she knew it, she was biting her lower lip hard. Lucy slowly opened her eyes.
The emotion contained in her tear-brimmed crimson eyes was closer to fury than sorrow.
Because she felt she knew who had given the order to sink that diplomatic vessel.
'If the Allied Nations really did attack the diplomatic vessel carrying Daniel...'
Then she could no longer trust Count Kaledra.