High Risk, High Return
“I’ll be going then.”
I spoke up toward Vita, who was already preparing to leave the moment the new contract was sealed.
“Take today to get used to your new body. You can start the promotions tomorrow.”
“Ah, yes.”
Her tone was thoroughly half-hearted, and that only made me like her more. Preferences vary from person to person, but at least I have never been fond of the type who puts on airs or plays coy.
In any case, once Vita left, only Jamie and I remained on the second floor.
“Come to think of it, next week is your last as well.”
“Oh, has the time already come?”
I nodded and headed for the kitchen.
“It feels like the days have flown by much faster than usual.”
“Is that something I should take as a positive?”
“Would you like an honest answer?”
We had reached the point where we could trade light jokes, yet as I had just said, next week would be the time to part ways with her.
“I’ll pass on hearing the answer.”
“That’s a little disappointing. I had prepared one in advance.”
“Yes. That’s exactly why I’m not listening.”
“You’re too cruel.”
I pulled two bottles of mineral water from the refrigerator and tossed one to Jamie.
“Thank you.”
“Don’t mention it.”
After cooling my throat thoroughly, I returned to the living room and found her watching me with a look that asked what came next.
“Do you have any cash on you?”
“I always carry a reasonable amount.”
Jamie drew a long wallet from her coat and held it out to me.
“Ah, no need to hand it over. Instead, leave just one bill inside and take the rest out, would you?”
“May I look forward a little to whatever you’re about to show me this time?”
“Who knows.”
I was mildly curious what sort of reaction she would give if the result came out well.
“I’ve left only one bill.”
“Hold it just like that.”
I stretched out a hand and lightly touched the wallet gripped in Jamie’s fingers.
“Deposit.”
“……?”
Jamie tilted her head slightly; I withdrew my hand.
“Am I supposed to open it?”
“Yes.”
She glanced back and forth between me and the wallet, then carefully opened it.
“It’s the same.”
“So it is. Close it again.”
Jamie closed the wallet. This time I activated the Benefit Bank and brought my hand to it once more.
“Deposit.”
Deposit 1,000 Mora?
A small system window floated before my eyes; I pressed Yes.
Converted to 100 Won according to the exchange rate.
100 Won has been deposited.
“Open it?”
When I nodded, Jamie opened the wallet without hesitation this time.
“…It’s gone?”
“It’s gone.”
Jamie blinked; I gave a light laugh.
“Fill it again, please.”
“Are you returning it to me?”
I had been waiting for that question.
“I’ll give you two options.”
“I’ll listen, at least.”
After nearly a month of living with me she had finished gauging what sort of man I was, so Jamie remained considerably cautious.
“One: once the tests are finished, you get the principal back.”
“Ugh… Priest. Please do not lead me into temptation.”
“If you insist, we’ll pretend the second option never existed.”
“Don’t do that. Can’t I at least hear it?”
The era was closer to modern times than the Middle Ages, yet the variety of ordinary pastimes and diversions was still pitifully scarce compared with the modern world. And after a few days of walking the slums with her, I had confirmed that entertainment worth enjoying inside the slums was even more limited than outside.
Drinking, drugs, sex, assault, and murder.
One might wonder how assault and murder could count as entertainment, but in the slums they surprisingly did. Gambling existed as well, yet even there it was a pastime reserved for the upper crust. The reason was the same assault and murder mentioned earlier. In a place where trust simply did not exist by default, if a bunch of ordinary thugs gathered to gamble and one of them lost his money, flipped out, and gunned down everyone present with a hidden pistol, no one would find it strange. That was the kind of place the slums were.
And the woman in front of me was a member of Mad Dog, skilled enough that Ms. Secretary had entrusted her with my protection. In other words, even if she did not quite rank among the upper class of the slums, she sat somewhere in the middle. Moreover, from what I had observed while living with her, Jamie—despite trying to appear composed—thoroughly enjoyed incidents that flooded her with adrenaline and dopamine.
“If you put it that way.”
“I’m ready to hear it.”
She was sharp enough that she had already guessed what I was about to propose.
“The second option is to make a bet with me.”
“A bet, is it.”
Her eyes were shining brighter than they had all of yesterday and today combined, so I withdrew one hundred thousand won—that is, one million Mora.
A bundle of ten-thousand-Mora bills thumped down at my feet, and her gaze naturally followed the pile of cash now stacked there.
“We’ll run about five tests. If you never once guess wrong whether the money has vanished or not, I’ll give you one million Mora.”
Gulp.
Jamie swallowed hard once, then lifted her head again and met my eyes.
“And if I get it wrong even once?”
“Then you hand over every bit of cash you’re holding right now.”
High risk, high return. All or nothing. Personally I am of the opinion that gambling should never have a middle ground. Why do gambling addicts never quit? Because their brains are wrecked by the dopamine hit of winning a huge sum in one go. That is why gambling must have no middle. Either you lose everything or you take everything. Only two choices.
“Haa—”
“Raising the stakes is also possible.”
“Cough, cough!!”
While her coughing subsided I stacked another million Mora at my feet. The cost of summoning a contract was negligible compared with the money I held, so I set that aside. The Nectar I had bought from the Benefit Shop a few days earlier had been expensive enough that the balance left in the bank, rounded cleanly, still sat at 2.1 billion. I had no idea how long the exchange rate would stay at ten-to-one, but even if it dropped to one-to-one, 2.1 billion Mora was enough to remodel an entire slum district and still have plenty left over.
“Th-this is all the cash I have on me right now.”
“What you’re staking is labor.”
“La…bor?”
“Yes. Your contract period ends next week, doesn’t it?”
“That’s right.”
I spread the fingers of my left hand wide.
“Miss once and you lose all the money. Miss twice and you work an extra week. If you don’t get a single one right, you lose the money and work for me another full month.”
I closed every finger, then opened my hand again before she could speak, cutting her off.
“Of course you prioritize whatever the organization assigns you. I’m not asking you to come every single day in a row. Just drop by whenever you have free time after work.”
“I’ll do it.”
That answer, too, was expected. From Jamie’s perspective it was harder to find a reason not to take the bet. The money in her wallet had been roughly thirty thousand Mora—about three million won when converted—yet considering the prices in the slums it was not a particularly large sum. On the other hand, if she won the bet against me she would walk away with two million Mora, sixty times the principal, roughly two hundred million won. To Jamie, thirty thousand Mora was the sort of amount she could take or leave; she could replenish it in no time by shaking down a few passersby.
“Shall we begin, then?”
“Yes.”
She held out the wallet without even being told.
“No. This time put it in your inner pocket.”
“Understood.”
Jamie swiftly slipped it into the inner pocket of the coat she was wearing.
“Excuse me for a moment.”
“As much as you like…”
Full of fighting spirit, she flinched the instant my hand touched her left breast.
“Ahem.”
An awkward little cough.
“Deposit.”
Deposit 1,000 Mora?
Even with the coat and the wallet acting as walls, the Benefit Bank reacted precisely to the bill inside.
No.
The window vanished. I lifted my head and asked the woman who was staring fixedly at my face.
“Which is it?”
“I’ll bet it disappeared.”
The answer shot out without a second of hesitation; I blinked once.
“Instant reply.”
“Please call it excellent observation.”
“Hmm.”
Her powers of observation truly were excellent. The reason she had answered so quickly was almost certainly that she had seen me gesturing at empty air before.
“I’ll open it.”
I shrugged and took my hand away from the soft swell of her chest. Jamie immediately pulled the wallet from her coat and flipped it open.
“…….”
“Think of it as a shell game.”
I smiled, plucked the single thousand-Mora bill from her left hand, and filled the empty wallet with it.
“Jamie.”
“I refuse.”
“Just listen.”
“No.”
True to the bodyguard Ms. Secretary had sent me, the speed with which she clawed her way free of desire was impressive.
“There are a lot of corners I want to test. All you have to do is provide places to hide the wallet. For every place you offer, I’ll give you an extra chance.”
“…Extra… chances?”
Apparently two million Mora was not a sum she could abandon so easily.
“Yes.”
I took another bill from Jamie’s left hand and brushed it against her neck and lower abdomen.
“If you provide the locations, we’ll treat the miss just now as if it never happened.”
“Y-you’re not seriously planning to put the wallet…?”
“Of course not. Only the bill.”
In that instant both of Jamie’s eyes sparkled.
“I’ll do it. No—please use me.”
“I like how straightforward you are.”
Reading Jamie’s thoughts was far too easy. She had seized the additional offer because she believed there was no way she could fail to notice a bill vanishing from inside her own body.
Unfortunately for her, this bet had never contained an option in which she walked away with the money.
“Th-this is a scam!!”
“Gambling’s always like that.”
They say the one who gets taken is the fool.
That day Jamie lost not only the money she carried and her labor, but even the single pair of underwear she was wearing was stripped off by me, and she cried.
Of course, in a slightly different sense of the word.