The Perfect Way to Seize Victory (2)
“Wow! Wowww!”
At Seok Geum-ryong’s fiery proposal, which came from someone who had looked as prim and proper as a bookworm, the quiet interior of Hoho-gak exploded into a frenzy.
It made sense. This was a dispute over debts and grudges born from gambling and wagers, so Seok Geum-ryong had boldly suggested that they settle it with gambling and wagers as well.
“What did you say? Words are like water, you know. Once they’re spoken, they’re not easy to take back.”
Hong Hwa-hui’s eyes gleamed as she pressed him.
She was certain this young master, who knew nothing of the world, was making a grave mistake, and she vowed to seize this chance of a lifetime.
“A man’s word is worth a thousand gold pieces. However young I may be, do you think I’d speak twice like a petty fool?”
Seok Geum-ryong smiled faintly, brimming with confidence.
What was even more surprising was the reaction of Na Cheon-lip and the others who had come with him.
Instead of trying to stop this reckless young master, they stood by with absolute trust and said nothing at all, to the point that Hong Hwa-hui nearly wondered whether they were made of wood and stone.
“All right! Then let’s do it! Let’s write the oath right now.”
Hong Hwa-hui hurried to pull out the pledge before this foolish, impulsive young master could change his mind.
The terms were simple.
Seok Geum-ryong would stake 700 gold taels, while Hong Hwa-hui would put up Red Shirt Elder’s debt forgiveness and freedom, and they would decide the winner through dice gambling.
“We’re using dice for the gamble, right?”
As she spoke, Hong Hwa-hui glanced subtly at Gui-su, Hoho-gak’s finest house manager, who stood behind her.
He nodded readily, as if to say he was there.
This young master, and even if Red Shirt Elder himself were to appear, I’d win every single time. Not a hundred times out of a hundred, no, even if we played a thousand times.
Gwi-su was confident he could win all three dice a thousand times over.
Ordinary people thought dice throwing was a matter of luck, but nothing could be further from the truth.
The house managers of gambling halls underwent relentless training so that when they rolled those three dice, the high numbers, especially sixes, would come up as desired.
As a result, if Gwi-su rolled the dice ten times, the odds of three sixes appearing were close to seventy percent, no, nearly eighty.
By comparison, Red Shirt Elder and Seok Geum-ryong would have to rely purely on luck, so they were in an overwhelmingly unfavorable position.
“Young Lord Seok. That man is called Gwi-su. He is the finest house manager in the western martial world, beyond Xi'an in Shaanxi, unmatched in dice gambling. Why would you agree to such an oath?”
Na Cheon-lip, the Heaven-Earth Scholar who knew Gwi-su all too well, tried to reason with Seok Geum-ryong.
Up to that point, the others had repeatedly insisted that everyone should trust Seok Geum-ryong and not interfere, so there had been no way to stop him.
“I’ll take his place instead.”
However slim the chances were, Na Cheon-lip believed he was the one who should step in, since he understood dice gambling’s nature better than anyone.
But Seok Geum-ryong thought differently.
“Please leave it to me.”
With his trademark kind and handsome smile, Seok Geum-ryong stepped forward, leaving Na Cheon-lip behind.
I don’t believe in odds, and I don’t believe in gambling.
He had never even rolled dice before, let alone gambled, but he was certain of something else.
That thing was none other than...
myself and my skill!
He had no doubt that only those could save his life and his companions.
“Ohohohoho! The young master is wonderfully spirited, isn’t he!”
But from the perspective of a third party like Hong Hwa-hui, who did not know Seok Geum-ryong’s true worth, he looked like nothing more than an ignorant rich boy throwing a tantrum.
Yet Shin Dan-woo, Im So-gun, and even Yeo Gwang-rae were smiling faintly.
They had no doubt that if it was Seok Geum-ryong, the Golden Prince, he would surely come up with some astonishing stratagem to break this situation apart.
“We’ll use dice gambling, but... let’s roll three dice and make it so that the lowest total, not the highest, wins. What do you think?”
Seok Geum-ryong suggested it with that same benevolent smile.
“Pffft!”
“Kekek!”
At that clumsy, seemingly half-baked remark, Hong Hwa-hui burst into laughter, and so did Gwi-su and even the chief manager of Hoho-gak.
They did not want to openly mock this impulsive young master in case he changed his mind, but at his suggestion of using the lower total, they could not help laughing.
This young master is stupid despite how he looks. Does he think changing it to the lower number will make him the one at an advantage?
We’ve won!
The house managers always rolled with sixes in mind, so Seok Geum-ryong must have thought changing to a low total would favor him.
In truth, it was nonsense.
Strictly speaking, the house managers of gambling halls were trained not to make high numbers appear, but to make whatever number they wanted come up at will.
In other words, high or low did not matter; they could make a six become a one whenever they liked.
So Seok Geum-ryong’s proposal was nothing more than a childish, awkward suggestion.
“Fine! The lowest total wins, no matter what!”
“Of course, that’s how it should be!”
Gwi-su and Hong Hwa-hui nodded, laughing openly.
“Who will go first?”
Trying to keep his expression under control before the fool in front of him, Gwi-su asked.
Of course, first or second did not matter to him.
“You go first.”
While everyone in Hoho-gak, along with the experienced gamblers, were mocking Seok Geum-ryong, he readily yielded the first turn to Gwi-su.
“Is that so? Yes, then.”
Gwi-su felt a little disappointed.
He had wanted to go second and savor, little by little, the look of despair on Seok Geum-ryong’s face.
Like leaving the most delicious dish until the very end so it could be enjoyed slowly.
“Then...”
Gwi-su, the house manager who boasted the finest dice skill in the western martial world beyond Hoho-gak.
Swish.
He overturned the large bowl commonly used in gambling halls and placed the three dice inside.
Normally, he would have used his worn, polished skill to roll them quickly, but since his opponent was merely a novice and an amateur, he deliberately moved slowly.
Well done, Gwi-su. If that blind young master happens to complain that you used a trick, we can’t afford to give him any excuse.
Highly satisfied with Gwi-su’s seasoned manner, Hong Hwa-hui smiled.
The chief manager, naturally, and all the staff of Hoho-gak were smiling as well.
The only one who could not smile was Na Cheon-lip.
He believed with almost complete certainty that Seok Geum-ryong would lose.
It was because he still did not truly know what kind of person Seok Geum-ryong was.
“I’ll begin.”
“Go on!”
At Gwi-su’s words announcing the start, Seok Geum-ryong answered readily.
Rumble-rumble!
At last, inside the overturned bowl, the three dice moved furiously, dancing in unseen patterns.
All he had to do was shake the bowl and see the numbers on the three dice, and a skilled house manager could make whatever number he wanted appear freely.
Swish.
At long last, Gwi-su’s roll came to an end, and beneath the bowl revealed the three dice...
“One! It’s one!”
“No way! All three dice are ones!”
“What’s so surprising? Wasn’t this the expected result?”
Just as expected.
All three dice showed the lowest number, one, for a total of 3.
That was also the lowest possible result in dice gambling.
“Ohohohohoho!”
“Hahahaha!”
With the gambling over from the very first round, Hong Hwa-hui and the chief manager burst into wild laughter.
700 gold taels? I could add another Hoho-gak branch with that!
Especially Hong Hwa-hui, the branch head of Hoho-gak, was already imagining the blissful future as if she had received those 700 gold taels right now.
And yet victory was not truly victory until the end was reached.
“Young master. The world is real life. You understand, don’t you?”
Having crushed him completely in the first round and seized victory, Gwi-su offered this little lesson with a smug air.
Damn it!
At that sight, Na Cheon-lip sank into despair, and just as a few others who had been hoping for a miracle were about to leave their seats—
“Now it’s my turn, right?”
Seok Geum-ryong said calmly, as if he had not just lost.
“Y-yes? What did you say?”
Gwi-su was taken aback. He had expected Seok Geum-ryong to cry or deny it, but instead he was far too innocent and cheerful as he announced his turn.
“Young Lord Seok, you may not know this because you’re still young, but there is no score lower than 3.”
The chief manager assumed Seok Geum-ryong had simply lost without even understanding why and casually explained it to him.
The expression on his face was steeped in triumph.
“Even so, a match should be played through to the end. Who knows? I might roll a 3 as well.”
Seok Geum-ryong smiled faintly.
He showed the look of one born to win.
At those words, Gwi-su laughed as if he had just remembered.
“Ah, right! There is a chance of a tie. Then go ahead and roll.”
The people of Hoho-gak believed, even if they died and came back to life, that Seok Geum-ryong would never roll a 3.
And even if he did, Gwi-su was confident that if he rolled ten times, he could make all ten results 3, so he had nothing to fear.
Hahaha!
The gathered crowd watching all this, especially the seasoned gamblers, laughed as well.
“He really doesn’t know how the world works.”
“Three ones, and he thinks 3 will come up again?”
“Even if we rolled hundreds of times, it’d still be highly unlikely for 3 to appear.”
Some had already lost interest, calling it a finished game, and were even off gambling with other house managers.
Clack.
By contrast, Seok Geum-ryong calmly and neatly picked up the large bowl and the dice.
He looked awkward enough that no one could tell where his move would go.
Gwi-su watched him while barely suppressing his laughter.
“Then... here I go!”
The moment Seok Geum-ryong dropped the three dice into the bowl and shook it—
His gaze changed immediately.
As though he had never once been pretending to be a clumsy, inexperienced young master, he now looked every bit the transcendent being.
Vooooom!
He stirred the bowl and rolled the dice with such force that the entire table shook.
At the sight of him straining with everything he had, Gwi-su and Hong Hwa-hui were slightly thrown off, but they forced a laugh.
Only a rare few who had reached the Upper Zenith Realm and beyond seemed to catch onto Seok Geum-ryong’s plan, and they smiled faintly.
And then, at last!
All of Geum-ryong’s movements stopped.
Everything he intended had now been accomplished.
“Well then, shall we open the bowl?”
Hong Hwa-hui, looking as if she were the one about to gamble directly, urged him on with a smug expression.
“Let’s see. Just how skilled are you?”
Gwi-su was the same.
Even if Seok Geum-ryong had unbelievable luck and rolled a 3, there was no danger of his spirit collapsing at all.
Swish.
At last, Seok Geum-ryong removed the large bowl, and what lay beneath was revealed. But how could this be?
The three dice that should have been there were not merely failing to show their numbers...
They had vanished completely, as though they had evaporated from the world.
“......!!”
At that absurd sight, everyone including Gwi-su stared in disbelief, thinking their eyes had deceived them.
Then Seok Geum-ryong spoke with complete composure.
“It should go without saying, but 0 is a number smaller than 3.”
He grinned.
And at that very moment, his meaningful smile shone with brilliance.