Gambling Is the Fast Track to Ruin
“W-well, Lady Idnia, as a daughter of the Betelgeuse ducal house—guardians of the East—you wouldn’t simply ignore the troubles of us Euros students, would you? Surely not?”
The male student’s gaze was trembling.
He could not keep still, fidgeting restlessly like someone in the grip of a drug addiction, all the while avoiding Idnia’s eyes.
Looks like dopamine withdrawal.
Something had already clicked in Idnia’s mind, but she asked anyway, just to be sure.
“A request to borrow money is a little startling. I don’t think money should change hands between students. Why do you need it? Tell me. I might be able to help.”
“Th-then… would you come with me to the lounge before dinner?”
“The lounge… you mean the salon Notos Dormitory has opened?”
“Yes.”
“Hmm. Very well. But I won’t go alone. I’ll bring my companions.”
Idnia made the promise.
“Th-the lounge?”
“Of course we’re going.”
When Idnia asked for their help, Christian, Percifire, and Athos agreed at once.
Marie was delighted as well.
“Huh? M-me too?”
“Ah, yes, Miss Marie. You’re not busy, are you? I hope I’m not forcing you.”
“No! If I can be of help to Lady Idnia, of course I will. I wanted to see the lounge myself, actually. But going alone felt awkward, and I don’t have money, so… Ah, let’s hurry! Is there anything I should bring?”
Grateful that Idnia had included her, Marie started reaching for her purse.
These people—Marie and the rest of the Wizard Ball club members—were gradually turning into something like Idnia’s personal guard.
As she headed for the promised salon with them, Idnia gathered what little advance information she could.
“What? He asked Lady Idnia to lend him money? Culkin did?”
“Yes. Do any of you have an idea what this is about? What’s going on in the lounge?”
“Ah… I’ve heard people play card games and wager on billiards there.”
“Wagered billiards…”
It was an event that had appeared in the game, so Idnia already knew, but she pretended otherwise. Looking like she knew everything would only make people around her suspicious.
“Do you know the game called billiards? It’s really fun.”
Well, once billiards spread through the European courts, plenty of people ruined themselves over it. In an age with no video games or television, plenty of people got obsessed with chess, shogi, or go—and billiards has far more intuitive rules than those board games.
Idnia understood perfectly well how powerful billiards and gambling could be in a world without other thrills.
Even on Earth, with television and the internet, people who got hooked on billiards claimed they saw billiard tables on the ceiling when they lay down and couldn’t sleep.
“You all seem to have enjoyed it yourselves.”
“Yes. They said it was free for allies at first, but waiting for a free table took forever, so…”
“So in the end they started charging.”
“How much per game?”
“Ten Aka Coins an hour, or four shillings.”
“Aka Coins are far more expensive than shillings, aren’t they?”
“Ah, well, you can buy Aka Coins cheaply from the auditors.”
“Is that so?”
“Yes. The auditors—alumni who audit classes—apparently have leftover Aka Coins they never used.”
“Don’t Aka Coins reset at the end of the term?”
“The ones left on a student ID reset, but the ones issued as certificates stay valid, apparently.”
Just like the certificate the Duke of Betelgeuse had sent Idnia, Aka Coin certificates received in exchange for dungeon spoils remained valid even after the term ended.
Auditors holding those certificates were selling Aka Coins cheaply to current students.
I see. So that’s why the students have been spending so freely at the school store lately. That little detail never appeared in the original game.
Idnia was surprised to learn that Aka Coins were being traded differently than in the game.
Then a wave of hot air suddenly washed over her face.
“Ah…”
The salon doors had opened, and the muggy heat inside came pouring out.
Students from every dormitory—and even auditors—had crowded in until the place was packed wall to wall.
Starved for entertainment and amusement, they had gathered without regard for dormitory lines.
“Oh, you’ve arrived, Lady Idnia.”
Near the entrance, the male student who had asked her for help—more precisely, who had asked to borrow money—was still fidgeting restlessly.
“That’s right. Tell them Lady Idnia came on my introduction.”
“……”
The Notos student actually managing the place looked flustered.
This crazy bastard. I told him I’d reduce his debt if he brought in new customers, and he went and fetched Lady Idnia.
What do I do? Having Lady Idnia here is good, of course, but should I report this to Young Master Lorenzo?
Hey. You’ve been staring too long.
Idnia spoke to them first.
“So. May my friends and I come inside?”
“Ah—o-of course.”
“Welcome, everyone.”
“Thank you.”
Idnia entered with Marie and looked around.
There were card tables, chess boards, and even a makeshift snack counter.
Especially large crowds clustered around the billiard tables—apparently because spectators could watch for free.
—Click!
The sharp crack of ivory billiard balls colliding made Marie jump.
“Ah, what in the world is…?”
“It’s a game called billiards. The balls are made from ivory or hard monster parts, so they’re quite expensive.”
Idnia explained, then turned back to the student who had introduced her.
“So. How exactly am I supposed to help you?”
“Ah—since you came on my introduction, just relax and enjoy yourselves. I-I’ll go play a game now.”
“A game?”
Idnia asked, but the boy was already hurrying over to a Notos student wearing rabbit ears—apparently a floor attendant—and speaking rapidly.
“I brought that many people on my introduction, so you owe me an introduction fee, right?”
“Introduction gets your debt reduced. It doesn’t pay cash. Actually handing out introduction money would cause problems.”
“Th-then how am I supposed to win it back and pay you?”
“Adding more debt on top of what you already owe isn’t a good idea. I’m warning you. Stop digging the hole deeper. Wait for overnight leave or the end of term, get allowance from your parents, and pay it off then. Or send a servant home for money and wait.”
“I can’t do that, that’s why I’m here! I already have to pay for every single meal at the dorm—how am I supposed to live without a single coin? Fine! Just lend me the same amount you reduced, and I’ll win it back!”
Apparently the student, crushed under gambling debt, had introduced Idnia’s group, received a debt reduction for it, and now wanted to borrow that reduced amount again so he could gamble it and pay everything off.
“…Good heavens.”
Christian and Athos, both raised in good families, were appalled. Percifire, a former adventurer, and Marie, a farmer’s daughter, remained surprisingly calm—perhaps they had seen this sort of thing often enough.
“Haa… Fine.”
The Notos attendant, pretending reluctance, handed over casino chips.
The student snatched them and rushed to a card table.
It looked like a kind of blackjack: the dealer revealed two cards and played against up to five students’ hands.
As expected, wagered billiards has long game cycles, so it’s not ideal for creating gambling addiction. Though Mozart apparently managed to squander a fortune on it anyway…
Idnia watched Culkin with a cold gaze.
Athos couldn’t stand it any longer.
“Hey, Culkin! Have you lost your mind? You introduce Lady Idnia just so you can borrow money and gamble?!”
“I-if I win it’s fine! Lady Idnia said she’d help Euros students! This doesn’t actually hurt her, right?”
Pure self-serving logic.
But Culkin, already deep in gambling addiction, was beyond rational thought.
Athos flared with anger at the sight.
“I’m a Euros student too, so why do you get the introduction fee for bringing Lady Idnia?! If anyone should get it, it’s me!”
“……”
Every Euros student present went blank for a moment.
“W-wait… is that actually a valid point?”
“I-I’m starting to respect him a little.”
They even began looking at Athos with newfound admiration.
“Enough. Leave it like this and every student here will turn into an idiot.”
Idnia stepped in herself.
“Culkin. Stop. Pay your debt and don’t come back here.”
“B-but—”
Culkin, who had just sat down and received his cards, looked flustered.
When Idnia intervened, the dealer also paused, watching the situation.
“Lady Idnia is the dormitory head, but you don’t have the authority to order me not to use the lounge.”
He was so desperate to gamble that he resorted to that pitiful excuse. Technically, he wasn’t wrong.
A dormitory head might be held responsible for accidents that happened inside, yet had almost no real coercive power over individual students.
Idnia could steer them with coupons and the shared shop system, but those were only carrots. She had no stick.
Still—openly talking back to the daughter of an Elector house? School might overlook it, but what about once he entered society?
Even now, shocked murmurs erupted through the lounge.
Hah?!
Whoa, did you hear that?
He used Lady Idnia just to get his debt reduced, and now he’s talking to her like that? Ballsy.
That guy’s finished.
Then Idnia spoke to Culkin.
“Of course, as dormitory head I cannot force you. I can only advise. However… a duel is a different matter.”
“…What?”
Culkin froze.
“In the name of Trismegistus, god of magic, I stake your access to this lounge… and…”
Idnia drew from her pocket one of the Aka Coin certificates her father had sent her—a five-hundred-Aka-Coin note.
“…five hundred Aka Coins. How about it?”
“Uh… um.”
Culkin panicked. The students who had crowded around, already starving for entertainment, lit up the moment Idnia challenged him to a duel.
“Whoa!”
“A duel! A duel!”
“Take it! Take it!”
“If you run from this, you’re no mage!”
But Culkin, being a Euros student, knew better than anyone.
His skill was nowhere near enough to face Idnia.
“I am no match for Lady Idnia. I refuse the duel—”
“Booo!”
“What a complete piece of trash!”
“Hey! Expel him already! What kind of guy is that?!”
The surrounding students poured scorn on Culkin for refusing and trying to crawl away.
Then Idnia spoke again.
“Of course I never intended to fight the duel myself. Miss Marie.”
“Yes?!”
“…Would you be willing to stand in for me?”
Idnia asked Marie to act as her champion in the duel.