Warm Southern Territory - 2
Roulette King Tanian showed no signs of stopping. And not stopping meant he hadn't yet reached the level of satisfaction where a man dusts off his seat and walks away. From what I'd watched alone he'd spun it maybe four times—just how badly was he tanking?
I was starting to get worried. If I'd only seen four, he'd almost certainly done more. The sad part was that the money Tanian had lost in that stretch still didn't even come to ten percent of what I'd just turned over to the Imperial Treasury.
"Take it easy. A clergyman carrying on like that doesn't look good."
"It's fine. I'm only enjoying myself lightly."
Lightly? Had I been misunderstanding the meaning of that word all this time?
"Brother. Gambling is despised precisely because a man stakes everything on odds that can never be guaranteed."
"If you know that, then stop."
Knowing and still doing it made it worse.
Even so, Tanian only smiled lightly and shook his head.
"I am not wagering on probability. I am merely paying a little money for the fleeting hope of winning a large sum in one stroke, and for the thrill that comes while the game is in progress."
"What."
Bullshit.
The only reason I didn't finish the sentence was the last shred of reason that still wanted to avoid a schism.
"Don't we spend money when we go to the theater or a café? I have simply spent money on a game for a moment's pleasure."
I stared blankly at Tanian as he finished that insane speech and shrugged. If I hadn't known this bastard was a Saint candidate from the Holy Kingdom, I would have taken him for some new cult leader. This was the next Saint?
Or had he simply entered full-on enjoyer mode and gone mad? Then again, when I thought about it, he wasn't entirely wrong.
As if possessed, I walked up to the roulette table, threw away five more large silver coins, and was finally able to return to the resort with Tanian. I'd only needed fifty, and somehow I'd paid the surcharge too. I hadn't expected to win, but I truly hadn't expected to lose that cleanly.
"Brother, it seems you aren't particularly lucky either."
"Tell me about it."
If I'd been lucky in the first place, I wouldn't have been stuck at the Academy with the lot of you.
When we entered the resort, students were wandering every which way. It was a fairly large place; they must have been sightseeing the interior. Even the lobby had seating areas and cafés—I could only imagine how polished the deliberately designed spaces were.
"Oh. An unexpected combination."
At Tanian's voice beside me I followed his gaze and saw Luise and Margeta sitting together. It really was an unexpected pairing.
Both of them looked bright-faced as they sat across from each other. Considering the Luise who had been sniffling after being thoroughly dismantled by Margeta, this was nothing short of a dramatic recovery of relations. Margeta had never actually held hostility toward Luise in the first place, and Luise had only been overwhelmed by her, not disliked her.
"Ah, Brother! Tanian!"
The moment Luise spotted us, Margeta also gave a small smile and waved.
"Shall we go over?"
"Let's."
I nodded at Tanian's words. There was nothing urgent to do anyway, so there was no need to pretend not to see them. I checked the surroundings just in case, but Irina wasn't around. Sitting with them would be fine.
As we drew near, Luise and Margeta shifted sideways to make room. I took the seat next to Margeta with a bit of social awareness, and Tanian settled contentedly beside Luise; I even heard Margeta let out a quiet little laugh. Was this what they meant by the greatest happiness for the greatest number?
Luise looked back and forth between Tanian and me, tilted her head, and spoke.
"I don't think I've ever seen the two of you walking around together before."
Just as I'd found the Luise-and-Margeta combination strange, Luise seemed to find me and Tanian strange. It wasn't only Tanian; I hadn't actually gone around alone with club members all that often to begin with.
"We ran into each other outside. We didn't leave together."
"Is that so? If Tanian went straight there, it must have been somewhere fun!"
Ah.
Ah.
At Luise's voice, bright with expectation, a fragment of an earlier conversation flashed through my head.
"The continent's greatest casino?"
"There are plenty of other places to enjoy, so don't worry about it."
How was I supposed not to worry about it now. Back then I hadn't known I'd be heading to a casino the moment the school trip began.
I glanced involuntarily at Tanian across from me; he smiled and gave a small nod. Right—you wouldn't want to plant the image of a bizarre priest who went to a casino in Luise's head either. I trusted him to make up something decent on his own.
"We were at the casino. I met Brother there as well."
No, you bastard, I looked at you so you'd cover for me, not so you'd say it for me.
Luise flinched, then gave me an awkward smile, and I felt Margeta's gaze from the side. It stung a little.
"I went because I had someone to meet. It's safer than most places, you know."
Casinos were packed with guards to protect the money they absorbed and to handle customers who couldn't accept the sudden change of fortune that came with losing and started causing a scene. Security and safety were actually excellent. There was a reason the Golden Duke had asked to meet in the VIP room.
So my only crime was going because I'd been summoned. I sent her a look full of pure innocence, and Luise seemed to accept it.
"Did Tanian go for an appointment too?"
"Ah, I went because I heard it was famous."
The completely unhidden, brazen answer actually seemed to take the wind out of Luise. When the other person is too confident, the brain starts accepting it as "well, that can happen." It had happened to me too.
"How could a servant who follows the Lord's will choose which places he may go? That place, too, is where the Lord's children gather."
He started running his mouth the same way he had with me, and Luise's expression went blank as she nodded along repeatedly. It was clearly an excuse, but the fact that the speaker was the next Saint gave it a strange persuasive power.
"It was also fun. I played a bit too much and lost quite a sum."
The problem was that he had to tack on that unnecessary footnote and shoot his own credibility in the foot. At the casual gambling confession, both Luise and Margeta either smiled awkwardly or cleared their throats.
"I-is that so? That must have been hard."
Luise's eyes darted around before she gave a vague reply. She was probably struggling with how to even answer something like that.
"I'm sure the next result will be better"? That was basically telling him to go back to the casino. "It happens, so don't worry too much"? A clergyman enjoying gambling was not something that "happened." I could only feel sorry for Luise, trapped in the ultimate impossible conversation.
"In truth, Brother must not feel good either. He lost as much as I did."
"Huh?"
"What?"
You little bastard.
Tanian's completely well-meaning massive betrayal landed on me, and two pairs of eyes stabbed into me as well. Looks full of the question Didn't you say you only went because of an appointment? mixed with a sense of betrayal.
"Junior. Might I ask how much Young Master Karl spent?"
"I believe it was five large silver coins."
Hearing the amount I'd thrown away like a surcharge, Margeta was silent for a moment, then turned her entire body toward me and sat properly.
"Young Master Karl. A word for a moment."
"Ah, yes."
Margeta's eyes had grown considerably sharper.
This was bad. This was something I had never even imagined.
I was going to leave the money to Karl once we married.
The future I had taken for granted was starting to creak a little. Karl had served in the Ministry of Finance—no, in the Audit Department itself. I had believed he would naturally be far more thorough with money management than I was.
What do I do...!
I knew that no one was perfect. I had always thought there might be flaws in Karl that I simply hadn't discovered yet, and I had sworn I would smile and embrace whatever they were. But of all things, gambling? That was too much. The one single flaw was far too large.
Of course, I had heard that the fortune Karl had accumulated so far was not small, and the Count House of Krasius that Karl would inherit was a prestigious martial family whose territory sat in the capital region. The Varenti ducal house went without saying. With the power of House Varenti, a little gambling was nothing; they could simply buy a few casinos and hand them to Karl.
But that wouldn't do. If their father Karl became a gambling addict, the children might go wrong. They might even come to look down on their father. That could not happen. Absolutely not.
"Young Master Karl."
"Yes, Mar."
Seeing Karl answer with his gaze lowered slightly made my heart ache, but this was not something I could yield on. For the happy future of Karl and me, and for the future of our children, a problem like this had to be seized firmly. Right now Karl could throw away a few large silver coins or a few gold coins without any real trouble, but who knew about later.
"Is what Junior said true?"
"Yes..."
My hand tightened on the fan. If he had said no here, I could have smiled and let it pass—that had been the last chance. But it was true. Still, the fact that Karl didn't lie and was honest was good—
No. This wasn't the time for that.
"Young Master Karl. A noble must always maintain dignity. Even when it is difficult, one must walk the proper path and never hope for chance."
I knew the madness of a casino well. I knew what sort of hearts gathered there. An ugly place unworthy of a noble. It was almost strange that a grand casino stood so openly in the city where the Golden Duke resided. His Grace was such a thoroughly noble man.
But even if the Golden Duke had done something puzzling, that was no reason for Karl to stray as well. To advance upright and lofty no matter what the surroundings were. To become the model for all people. That was what it meant to be a noble.
"I believe Young Master Karl is an excellent noble."
"I'm grateful to hear that."
"And you will continue to be one."
I carefully held out my little finger toward Karl. Doing even this much would let me feel at ease.
"I will never change that belief, but could Young Master Karl make just one promise for me as well?"
A promise that he would not go again from now on.
At the sight of Margeta tensely pressing her lips shut and holding out her little finger, bewilderment crashed over me. I didn't have a gambling hobby. Earlier I'd just gotten possessed by that mouth-fighting maniac and lost my mind.
But separate from those circumstances, the fact that I had spun the roulette a bit today was still true. Saying something like "it was only today" here would, even to my own ears, sound like nothing more than a pathetic addict's excuse.
I can't not go, though.
I was sorry to Margeta, but I had no choice but to visit the casino. The reward for successfully subduing the Kraken would be received there, and even afterward there would be occasions when I would need to drop by to deposit or withdraw funds.
If I explained those circumstances to Margeta she would understand perfectly well, but the fact that the casinos of the Boyar duchy functioned as the Imperial ATM was not an open secret—it was a confidential matter that had to be thoroughly concealed.
Tourists from every country on the continent came and spent money at those casinos. If a rumor spread that "the money you spend here strengthens the Empire's military power," the casinos would crash overnight and the Emperor would hunt down the bastard who had run his mouth and kill him.
"Young Master Karl...?"
When I hesitated a moment, Margeta's voice trembled. Her eyes looked moist, the very picture of a pitiful young woman who had just learned that her lover was a severe gambling addict.
I'm going crazy.
There was no other way. I would just have to be careful not to get caught.
In the end I quietly hooked my little finger with hers, and only then could Margeta break into a bright smile. Across from us Luise let out a sigh of relief, and Tanian gave a small round of applause as if everything had worked out well.
Was speaking the truth considered a virtue for a Dawn Church clergyman? That bastard. If he'd done it with real malice I would have dunked him in the sea, but he did it without even that.