Masquerade Ball (3)
"This is fucking impossible!"
The rail-thin man sitting beside me shot to his feet and bellowed in my face. The same guy who'd sneered the moment he first laid eyes on me now looked haggard, his cheeks sucked hollow. Then again, I probably would've looked the same in his shoes. After all, that walking skeleton had torched twenty billion won gambling against me and handed every last coin over as tribute.
"Dealer! This is... this has to be a scam! How does some brat who couldn't even place a proper bet at the start suddenly flip a switch and start vacuuming up all the money like this?!"
He shrieked at the dealer, veins standing out on his neck, and I let a smug little grin spread across my face for everyone to see. He was right. It was a scam. But if I was the only one who could pull it off, didn't that make it skill?
Angel beamed with pride from in front of me, then turned that same grin on the skinny man. A partner after my own heart. She had just as fine a character as I did.
"Dealer! Dealer...! I'm telling you it's a scam no matter what! Yeah... this bastard's an ability user, that's it... He's using some power to pull this shit! Isn't that right, you son of a bitch!"
The man lunged and seized me by the collar. I could have thrown him off in a heartbeat if I'd wanted to, but I decided to let it slide. I'd taken twenty billion off the guy. After that, what wouldn't I forgive? Every twitch and sputter of his just looked cute.
"Sir."
The dealer in the bird mask cocked his head at an angle and spoke in a tone that brooked no argument. Something lived in that low, weighted voice, and the skinny man flinched, his fingers slipping from my collar of their own accord.
"You know better than anyone that isn't possible. At Fantasia, absolutely no one can cheat."
Ahem. I coughed inwardly, a little sting of guilt pricking at me.
"So long as our participants are wearing those bracelets, any attempt to interfere with the games using an ability would be spotted in an instant. A guest of your caliber would already be well aware of that, would you not?"
"N-no! I'm telling you that bastard is...!"
Even after the dealer's explanation, the skinny man clung to denial, hostility still burning in his eyes as he glared at me.
"Ugh, you sure do love the sound of your own voice. People who suck at gambling always have the longest tails, don't they?"
Angel clucked her tongue and laughed in the skinny man's face. I said nothing, just smiled and watched the show unfold with genuine interest.
"Allow me to make this perfectly clear once more, sir. The answer is absolutely not."
The dealer's eyes flashed through the slits of the bird mask. The unspoken pressure in that gaze sent a tremor through the skinny man's whole body.
"And a participant wearing a black bracelet cheating? That is even less possible."
The dealer glanced my way and tossed me a wink. Hmm. So this was the VIP treatment. My confidence in this casino climbed another notch.
"Aaaah...."
Thud.
The skinny man heard the dealer out and crumpled bonelessly into his chair. Watching him go slack as the fact that he'd burned twenty billion finally sank in, his eyes empty, drove home just how dangerous gambling really was. Yeah. Gambling was a bad thing after all.
"My love, it's about to begin. We should get going."
From behind me, the Chairwoman in the fox mask smiled prettily and kneaded my shoulders.
"Ah, has it already been that long?"
An hour and forty-five minutes had vanished in a blink since we'd walked into the casino, and in that sliver of time I had made forty billion won. Was this even real? The money I'd spent an entire previous lifetime scraping together couldn't hold a candle to what I'd earned in this one sitting. The value of currency warped so violently in my head that for a glittering instant it felt like a piece of my mind had simply checked out.
"Honored guest. I do hope you thoroughly enjoy the main course of tonight's masquerade."
The bird-masked dealer offered the words with a knowing little smile, as if he were well aware of the Black Market's existence, and directed them at both me and the Chairwoman.
"Yeah. We'll have a good time."
I rose from the table, swept a look over the other dazed participants who had so generously donated their remaining twenty billion, and moved off at an unhurried pace with the Chairwoman.
"Hehe. My love. You said you had a surefire strategy, and you really did win, didn't you?"
I had her lovely hand, sheathed in a white glove, resting on my arm as we walked, and she gave a low, delighted laugh.
"Miss, I told you. I couldn't lose."
I tossed a wink toward Angel, who would be watching from the celestial realm. A sharp little thing like her would have seen that just now and silently stuck up a thumb, no question.
"My love really is something special."
Her crimson eyes curved softly behind the fox mask. She pressed the arm that held her hand tight against herself, leaning her weight into me, and added one more thing.
"And adorable, besides."
Whoa now. What had gotten into the Chairwoman today? Maybe it was the mask, but she was coming on a lot harder than usual.
A soft give.
The moment she leaned in, her devastating chest settled naturally against my arm. Savoring that destructive, impossibly abundant sensation, the two of us arrived at our destination in front of the elevator.
"Welcome, honored participants. May I ask where you'll be heading?"
The staff member waiting by the elevator bowed at the waist and greeted us.
"Here."
I lifted my right wrist and showed him the black bracelet coiled around it. A meaningful smile touched his mouth. He nodded and opened the elevator for us.
"Please, enjoy the luxury of our masquerade to the fullest."
The doors parted with a clunk. We stepped into an elevator gilded from floor to ceiling, and the staff member bowed once more before vanishing behind the closing doors.
A low hum. A jolt.
The elevator shuddered, and I felt us descending. The floor buttons in front of me only ran from one to twelve, but we were going down.
Hahh.
I let out a breath thick with excitement and gathered my thoughts. In the game, I'd never gotten to take part in this event directly. It had been a simple random event: you handed money to an ally who'd asked around about it, and that ally brought back a random item from the black market. But now I was walking into the black market itself, where I could definitely sit in on the auction and buy whatever I wanted. Tonight's goal was to pick out the good gear with the eyes of a veteran who'd played this world for years, then put the forty billion I'd just made together with the Chairwoman's money and load up on equipment tailored for me and our lovely ladies.
A soft jolt.
The elevator trembled, announcing our arrival.
"Shall we, Miss?"
I held out my hand with a practiced ease.
"Yes, my love."
The Chairwoman laughed under her breath and laid her hand over mine as if it were the most natural thing in the world.
A smooth whir.
The elevator doors opened, and a new staff member bowed low to receive us.
"Welcome to the true masquerade ball."
"Whoa."
The black market that unfolded before my eyes dragged a sound of genuine awe out of me. I'd sworn up and down that after all the luxury upstairs, nothing would surprise me. This was different. One floor down, and the glittering casino atmosphere had flipped into something gloomy and faintly damp, a thin film of darkness laid over everything. And more than that—
I swallowed.
The outfits on the staff waiting to greet us at the elevator were blatant. They wore skin-tight black high-leg leotards that put every last curve of a woman's body on shameless display, paired with cute rabbit masks and bunny-ear headbands. What a magnificent sight. And it wasn't just them. Every other staff member I could see in the black market was dressed just as outrageously. The most ideal among them was a woman who had nothing but patches covering the important bits, her body all but fully exposed. There were men on the staff too, of course, but that particular detail threatened to rot my eyes, so I didn't spare them a glance.
"Ah, guest! Judging by that look, this must be your first time at our masquerade!"
A bright clap.
The rabbit staffer brought her hands together with a bubbly little flourish. So she'd read it off my face.
"Ah, yeah. Something like that."
"Oh! Is that so?!"
She hopped forward and caught both of my hands in hers.
"Then would it be all right if I showed you around?"
"Sure, why not."
Everything I knew about the black market said it was a secret auction house. I had never imagined a place like this, so getting a guided tour didn't seem like a bad idea. And if a tiny, tiny bit of ulterior motive had mixed itself in, well, that wasn't entirely untrue.
"Yes, sir. Right this way, then~"
She let go of my hands and trotted on ahead. Thanks to that, I was treated to the sight of a plump, pillowy ass swallowed by the high-leg, and the tiny tail perched adorably on top of it.
"Mm!"
Now that was a rabbit with excellent historical accuracy. I'd stared a little too openly, so I snuck a look at the Chairwoman — but she only offered me a gentle smile, without a trace of the hostility Alice would have shown. What a relief. Beloved, generous Chairwoman. I adore you.
I followed the rabbit staffer and let my gaze wander, and the place was a spectacle.
Slurp. Slurp.
A woman with heavy, swaying breasts had burrowed between a man's thighs and was greedily sucking him down. A massive man rolled his hips, devouring the woman pinned beneath him. And then there was the man who'd climbed onto a table in some bizarre position, two lovely women attending to his ass and his cock at the same time. This wasn't a black market. It was an orgy hall, the kind of place where people were going at it on every available surface.
"Ah, guest. The area off to the side here is the bar we provide."
The rabbit staffer spun on her heel, extending a polite hand to introduce it. I looked. An elegant bar stretched there, glittering glassware and wine bottles lined up in neat rows.
Oh, for fuck's sake.
No exception there either. The orgy was in full swing. Filthy wet sounds drifted up from beneath a gentleman who appeared to be sipping his drink with perfect composure, and someone else was just pouring wine all over themselves while they took a woman right there in the open. Or, flipping the thought around — maybe it was the women taking the men?
"Of course, everything we provide here is free of charge."
The rabbit staffer smiled and stared straight through me. Then she dragged her tongue across her lips and ran a hand down the curves of her own body, leaving nothing to the imagination. Holy hell. I was speechless. So this was a place where you could just grab any staff member who walked by and go at it.
She wasn't even pretending anymore. She hooked the high-leg up as she walked, putting the plump flesh of her ass on full, deliberate display, and sashayed along in front of me with a little sway in every step. And the tour kept going. A movie theater, a restaurant, an arcade — the black market had all kinds of facilities, and every last one of them was an orgy. That said, there were people like me and the Chairwoman who existed here perfectly normally without joining in.
We followed the rabbit staffer a little farther, and a vast stone chamber opened up ahead of us. After the long, narrow corridor, the space suddenly yawned wide. The bunny-eared staffer turned once more and addressed us.
"And this is the reason for our masquerade — the Black Market that will begin shortly. Seating has been arranged so that parties who purchased tickets may sit together. Once the black market starts, simply follow where your bracelet leads you."
"Ooh~."
A stage hung with a red curtain, tables and chairs set out in front of it. So this was where the auction would take place.
"However, honored participant..."
She licked her lips and looked at me with naked hunger in her eyes.
"As I said, I am free. So..."
She eased one shoulder strap of the high-leg down, letting her chest slip into view, a breath away from spilling free.
"How about tasting me in the time we have before the black market begins?"
In that instant, the staffer painted head to toe in a rabbit concept no longer looked like a shy, adorable bunny. She looked like a snake, coiled tight with the desire to mate.