The House Always Loses—Unless You're Kim Tae-hyun
Kim Tae-hyun knew perfectly well that gambling in a casino was a losing game.
Casinos were built to win from the start. Gambling here probably wasn’t much different.
But there was one difference.
His luck.
The swagger of a man with over 2500 Luck.
Honestly, if there was any place where Luck could be used most directly, it was somewhere like this.
“Oho! Tae-hyun! I knew we could count on you!”
“As expected of the Avatar of Archisus!”
Nekdon and Pelmas trailed after him, positively buzzing with excitement.
Who was Archisus?
The god of luck and gamblers, of course.
With such a god on their side, even two men who had done nothing but lose until now surely had their chance to turn their lives around.
Grinning from ear to ear, they followed behind Tae-hyun.
“Hold it.”
“...?”
Tae-hyun and the other two, who had been about to stroll in naturally, came to a halt.
The man standing at the front gate had stopped them.
What level is he, exactly?
At a glance, he looked like the kind of NPC far beyond their ability to handle.
Tae-hyun grumbled inwardly.
What kind of casino has tighter security than a royal palace?
“Why are you blocking us? Got a problem?!”
And as usual, Pelmas stepped up at exactly this kind of moment.
Puffing himself up, he pointed a finger.
The man frowned in annoyance, grabbed Pelmas by the collar, and hoisted him into the air.
Pelmas kicked helplessly, dangling.
“You, get lost. Why do you keep coming here when you don’t even have any money? The one I need to speak to is him.”
The man pointed at Tae-hyun.
“Me?”
“Yeah. You. Hold still for a moment...”
The man took out a strange white stone and aimed it at Tae-hyun.
In an instant, the stone turned bright red.
“...!”
“What’s that?”
Tae-hyun asked Pelmas and Nekdon under his breath, but they didn’t know either.
“No idea...”
“Are you two useful for anything?”
“Haha. Tae-hyun. Someday we’ll be useful.”
By then, the man had put the stone away.
Then he bowed politely.
“Please come this way. I’ll escort you.”
“...?”
“Ah. You two beggars, get lost.”
Nekdon and Pelmas bristled at that.
How dare he look down on them like that?
“Y-you bastard!”
“Tae-hyun! Say something to him!”
But Tae-hyun was cold-blooded.
“See you later.”
“Tae-hyun?!”
Tae-hyun waved a hand and followed the man inside.
Forcing the issue and dragging those two in with him would only end badly—he had a fierce hunch of that.
The man led Tae-hyun through a separate door into a secret corridor.
A red carpet ran underfoot, and bright white magic lamps were set into the ceiling.
In other words...
Yeah, this place was built by someone obscenely rich.
Thinking that, Tae-hyun followed behind the man.
But he never stopped observing.
That black magic pouch at his waist... and that material definitely isn’t ordinary iron... silver? Adamantium? The armor’s not full plate, though...
Tell me what gear you’re wearing, and I’ll tell you what kind of person you are.
Tae-hyun genuinely believed he could do that.
If someone wore heavy, thick plate armor and carried a shield on their back?
There was a good chance they were a tank-type warrior with solid defensive power.
If they wore light armor and carried only weapons?
Then they were probably a damage-dealing warrior or rogue type—someone who dodged attacks with agility and evasion, then struck hard.
Robes and cloth armor, meanwhile, meant mage or production-class lines.
By that standard, this man felt somewhere between a tank and a damage dealer.
Moderately thick armor, a longsword.
An all-rounder with decent defense, offense, and agility?
“My name is Rufo. I’m sure you’re wondering why I called you aside like this.”
“I am.”
“I also know about those two idiots outside. My mistress knows about them as well.”
“Mistress?”
“You mean you don’t know the owner of this casino, the great merchant McCraney?”
“Oh. Well, maybe not. I came from another kingdom. Do I have to know her?”
Tae-hyun caught on as soon as he noticed the man speaking to him politely.
So they need something from me.
That meant he could afford to push.
Just as he expected, Rufo looked flustered and continued.
“...She’s extremely famous... In any case, Lady McCraney is a great merchant. She dominates Genoma City, and there are few in the kingdom who don’t know her...”
“Yeah, yeah. Fine. She’s amazing. So what? What’s that got to do with the idiots outside?”
A quick prod.
Rufo’s expression grew increasingly awkward, but he nodded.
“Those two idiots are searching for the incarnation of a god. The Avatar of Archisus.”
“...!”
Tae-hyun said nothing.
Just how much have those lunatics been running their mouths?
Come to think of it, they had lost the ancient text containing Archisus’s secret arts here at the casino too...
At that point, it wouldn’t be strange if other people had heard of it.
“That’s just a rumor.”
“For a rumor, those documents were rather convincing. Quite detailed, too. And I think a god called Archisus probably does exist. If he didn’t, people wouldn’t be talking like this in the first place.”
Sharp bastard.
For a warrior-type, Rufo seemed to think fast.
“In any case, after hearing those idiots speak, my mistress became interested.”
“Why?”
“Isn’t it obvious? A god of luck. Who wouldn’t like that?”
“Yeah, fair point.”
No one disliked luck.
And if this great merchant also ran a casino...
“There are a few other reasons as well.”
“Let’s hear them.”
“The churches on the continent are all powerful now. Even if someone like my mistress donates a vast fortune, they barely bother to make a token show of gratitude.”
The continental churches lacked for nothing.
They already had temples all over the place, holy knights and priests, plenty of believers, and plenty of donations.
Nothing left them desperate.
If they acted stiff even toward nobles and royalty, naturally they were even stiffer with merchants.
“It seems my mistress is quite angry about that. So she thought perhaps...”
“Perhaps?”
“Wouldn’t it be better to support a new church from the start?”
If the Avatar of Archisus truly existed, founding a new church wouldn’t be impossible.
And if she helped a great deal in the process, then compared with the established churches, she could extract far, far more from the arrangement.
It was a very merchant-like line of thinking.
“That’s why she entrusted me with this stone.”
“What kind of stone is it?”
The red-hot stone from earlier.
Rufo took it out.
“It reacts to a person’s luck. We assumed that if someone truly were the Avatar of Archisus, they would naturally possess immense luck.”
“...”
Tae-hyun clicked his tongue inwardly.
If something like that exists, then building up gold in a casino’s going to be impossible.
“And we figured those two idiots, if they ever found the Avatar, would be so excited they’d definitely come running to the casino.”
“...”
“We’re here. Lady McCraney. It’s Rufo.”
“Come in.”
The door opened.
The room beyond was plainer than the corridor.
No decorations. Just one enormous desk.
And behind it sat an old woman.
She wore glasses, but her eyes were razor-sharp.
Tae-hyun swept the room with a quick glance, then met her gaze.
“So that’s the Avatar of Archisus?”
“I can’t say for sure, but the stone you gave me definitely reacted.”
“How strongly?”
“Bright red.”
“Then he’s the one.”
Tae-hyun yawned as he listened to the two of them talk.
“Rufo explained things on the way, I assume?”
“More or less.”
“And what I want?”
“If I found a church, you want to be on friendly terms with it... something like that?”
“Exactly.”
McCraney nodded.
“I have a great deal of money.”
“So do I.”
“But money isn’t power in itself. The major churches don’t move just because I offer coin. They flutter around royalty and nobles, but they look down on merchants like me. I find that offensive beyond measure.”
“Well... maybe you should’ve just bought a noble title. Or been born a noble. Sounds like you didn’t put in enough effort to be born into the aristocracy.”
Rufo jabbed Tae-hyun in the side.
It was his way of saying, Shut your mouth.
But if there had been a skill for provoking people with your tongue, Tae-hyun would’ve maxed it out already.
A vein stood out clearly on McCraney’s forehead.
“Do you think my proposal is a joke?”
“Not exactly. But if you drag somebody in when they were just trying to walk through the door, you ought to understand if they get a little irritated.”
“Rufo dragged you in?”
When the sparks suddenly flew his way, Rufo panicked.
“What? No! I didn’t drag him in!”
“Maybe not literally, but it was basically the same thing.”
“When did I ever—? I brought you in politely!”
In the blink of an eye, Rufo had become the fool who’d disobeyed orders in front of his mistress. He clutched at his chest and glared at Tae-hyun in wounded indignation.
What the hell is wrong with this guy?
“You call it polite, but it felt threatening to me. You also left my friends outside. Grabbed one of them by the collar too, if I’m not mistaken?”
“...”
Rufo went dumb and shut his mouth.
McCraney shook her head as if exhausted by him.
“Then you must mean those two idiots. I’d appreciate your understanding there. They’re a plague on this casino. Every time they come, they lose money and then try to borrow more by putting up absurd collateral. And not just once or twice. Do you know how many times Rufo has thrown them out?”
They were the absolute worst kind of problem customers.
Pelmas and Nekdon had already earned themselves that reputation here.
“Still, some of the collateral you got from them must’ve turned a profit.”
“You mean the old manuscript? The one about Archisus?”
“Yeah.”
“Yes. That was an unexpectedly excellent harvest. It told us they were searching for the Avatar. Until then, I’d assumed they were simply insane gambling addicts.”
“They are insane gambling addicts.”
“There’s no need to disguise your followers in front of me. We can work together.”
“No, I mean that sincerely.”
McCraney seemed convinced that, to deceive the eyes of others, Tae-hyun had specifically instructed them to live like that.
Because if he hadn’t, then they were just too hopeless.
But Tae-hyun had never given any such order.
Pelmas and Nekdon were naturally like that.
“In any case, I apologize for the discourtesy shown to those idiots outside, but surely it would be better to join hands with me than with them.”
“Hmm. Even that’s a bit...”
McCraney’s face tightened.
“Why?”
“Because those idiots are too stupid to try to use me. You, on the other hand, look like you’d definitely try.”
“Use? It would be mutually beneficial. You found a church, and I support it.”
“And I’d have to pay the price for that. Hm. The more I think about it, the more I feel like I might be better off going my own way.”
“...”
McCraney frowned even harder.
At this point, she was clearly the one with more to lose.
Whatever Tae-hyun was thinking, he could simply reject her offer, walk out, and make his own moves.
“What do you want?”
“Now we’re finally talking. Support, cooperation, all that sounds great. But let’s keep it reasonable. You give a reasonable amount of support, and you take a reasonable return. Don’t try to swallow everything whole.”
“...If it’s only that much...”
“And let those idiots outside into the church too. Don’t even think about driving them off.”
“That’s a bit...”
McCraney looked genuinely revolted.
She really did not want those trainwrecks in a newly founded church.