novel(10)
| ← Ch.131 | Ch.133 → |
Down the long stairs and past a fancy door, the scenery inside the underground casino was quite luxurious. A crystal chandelier glistened as it hung from the ten-meter-high ceiling, which displayed a splendid painting.
Delicious-looking foods were lined up like a buffet all over the casino, and there were bands playing sweet music in the center of the hall. Flam and I looked around as if we were some country bumpkins who just arrived from the countryside.
Rosellis looked over at us and grinned."Follow me."
The place that Rosellis led us to was a casino branch of the imperial bank. Bank employees were civil servants, so they should have left work by now. Yet, the bank consultants were still here, and they maintained their business smile.
"Is this place managed by the imperial family?"
If it were not being run by the imperial family, there definitely would not be bank civil servants at a casino like this.
Rosellis shook her head."No. As far as I know, the casino owner established a branch of a bank here in conjunction with the Prime Minister."
She shrugged to indicate that she didn't know. If Rosellis's words were true, the owner of the casino was quite a big shot.
"What can I do for you?"
Rosellis handed over her bank book and ID card to the consultant who was giving her customer service smile.
"Please take out a bag of silver coins."
Usually, a bag of silver coins contained 100 coins. My salary was one silver and ten refined bronze coins, so it was eight to nine years' worth of my salary.
"All right. Would you like to change all the silver coins into chips?"
Rosellis nodded at the consultant's question."Oh, and could you provide us with two user guides?"
"Yes. Please wait a moment."
The consultant put the bank book and the ID card in a magic tool and operated it. Then the consultant piled up the chips used in the casino and pushed them to Rosellis along with two thin pamphlets.
"The withdrawal is complete." Rosellis divided the chips into chip containers and gave them to Flam and me.
"Is it okay for you to give us so much?" Flam felt burdened by the large number of chips.
Rosellis snorted."It's not even a lot. I get a few dozen times more than that from completing a single request."
To hire a platinum plate adventurer, a reward with gold coins as the base unit was required. There were also many dangerous requests as the reward was high. Flam knew that fact but still could not readily accept the chips that Rosellis was handing over.
But not me.
"Do I just have to go around and play with this?" I asked as I accepted the chips without any hesitation.
Rosellis laughed happily and nodded, "Hahaha, yes. Just receive it coolly like this, you old man.
Rosellis forcibly handed the chips to Flam. With an arm around my shoulder, she said, "I'm going to play with this guy, so you go play on your own."
Then she waved her hands as if she was gesturing to me to hurry along like she was annoyed.
Flam nodded with a quivering face and asked me, "Okay. Scream if Noonim tries to jump you. I'll save you somehow."
Rosellis picked up one of her chips and threw it at Flam."Hurry up and leave!"
Flam skillfully grabbed the chip thrown at him from the air and ran away.
Seeing the back of Flam's head, I feigned a smile."Is it okay to leave him alone like that?"
Rosellis shrugged her shoulders."Well, he's not weak enough to go around getting beat up."
The nuance was that I was weak and needed to be protected. Of course, of course, I'm a feeble civil servant.
"You're on good terms."
Rosellis snorted at my words."Hmmph, what good terms. He's annoying."
Despite her words, they seemed quite friendly. I thought she might get angry if I said it, so I swallowed my words and headed to the place where the food was.
"Is the food free?"
"It's basically free for customers who come in with chips. In addition to the food here, they'll deliver the food to you if you order it, but you have to pay for that."
Basically, the chips were used in place of money in the casino. Food had to be paid for with chips too. I grabbed a plate and picked up some delicious-looking food.
"Hmm? This is good." The food in the casino was more delicious than I thought.
Rosellis also nodded, sweeping the meat onto her plate."This place is targeted towards nobles, so they seem to make an effort in the food's quality."
The casino was a playground for rich people. Since it was a place to bet money to win money, you were not allowed to enter if you did not have the base level of funds.
"Oh, just in case, don't get addicted. There are countless nobles who have gone bankrupt here. Well, even if you get addicted, I'll hit you and stop you."
"Hahaha, I got it." I smiled and nodded. In reality, casinos were like real-life dark games in which people risk their lives if something were to go wrong.
There were even rumors that if you went bankrupt here and failed to pay back the money, you would be sold to the black magicians for human experimentation. Of course, it probably wasn't true. At the worst, it probably just ended with selling off a member of the family or the title of nobility.
For reference, a noble's title could not be transferred or sold for money. However, the imperial family provided money if you returned a title of nobility to them, so it was essentially possible to sell it.
There was also a rumor that the prime minister was intentionally driving the fallen nobles into a corner. It wasn't good for the empire if the number of nobles increased too much in the long run.
Come to think of it, although it was just a conspiracy theory, perhaps this casino was part of a plan to mass-produce debtors.
I took my plate of food and headed to a place with a card game where there were two others sitting there.
"Would you like to play?"
I sat down with a nod at the dealer's question."It's been a long time, but I guess I'll try it too."
Rosellis also sat next to me and put the chip on the table. The dealer took out new playing cards and skillfully laid the cards on the table.
"Since there happen to be four guests, how do you all feel about starting with an easy one, seven poker?"
One of the guests, a woman wearing a black veil, smiled and nodded."It's fine with me."
Yet, it was a voice I had heard somewhere before. The woman with the black veil smiled at Rosellis and me and laughed."Hohoho, it's been a while."
The woman who greeted us suddenly removed her black veil.
"Uh!" Rosellis got up in surprise.
The woman with the black veil put her index finger on her lips."Shh."
Rosellis calmed herself and sat down at the woman's gesture. The woman with the black veil had a face that I recognized.
The secretly mischievous and smiling woman was the saintess, Hillis.
"How..."
Hillis slightly lowered her head as she watched the flustered Rosellis. Then she gave me a smile with her eyes and said hello."We've seen each other before."
"Yes, was it the day before the New Year's Festival?"
Previously, she had been swept away by the crowd and was sent charging towards me. I tried to avoid her but ended up catching her.
Rosellis looked alternately at Hillis and me in a fluster because she did not know how we knew each other.
"Do you know each other?" Rosellis looked at me with incredulous eyes. From the way she was looking at me, Rosellis seemed to know that Hillis was the saintess.
"We don't necessarily know each other. We just passed by-"
"He saved me." Hillis smiled and cut me off, that mischievous smile showing itself again.
Hillis was playing a joke on me.
"What?"
Passing over Rosellis's surprised gaze towards me, I spoke to Hillis."Iya, can it be said like that?"
Hillis looked straight into my eyes and smiled."Of course. You threw yourself to save me."
She wasn't wrong. I did save the expensive-looking clothes from muddy water. Hillis's mischievous smile suddenly made me want to play pranks too.
"I don't see the well-built gentleman who was with you the other day. Did he just step away for a moment?"
I didn't feel the presence of any paladins at all. If the paladins were good enough to mislead my senses, it meant Hillis must have ditched her escorts and come to the casino.
Then Rosellis looked around too and realized that there were no escorts.
Hillis's face hardened slightly at my words."Hohoho, we don't always travel together."
Then she glanced at Rosellis. She might've been thinking that Rosellis would tell the temple that Hilli had gone to the casino without escorts. If it weren't for me, Rosellis wouldn't have noticed that there were no escorts. The escorts I saw at that time were so skilled at hiding that you wouldn't detect them unless you tried to find them.
Rosellis never thought Hillis would come without an escort and looked quite shocked. Even if they were good at hiding, at her level, she should have been able to find traces of them if she concentrated. However, it seemed she could not find any. Of course, there were no such paladins here.
Hahahaha! You still have a long way to go, you baby.
Hillis and I looked at each other and smiled refreshingly. As expected, this woman was my type of person.
"Hooho, I think I could become good friends with you."
"What a coincidence. I think so, too."
While we were smiling at each other, another guest, a woman wearing a swan mask with a white feather decoration, raised her hand slightly.
"Excuse me. Are we not going to play the game?"
When Swan Mask interjected, we realized that the dealer was waiting with a smile on his face with the cards still laid out.
"Of course we will."
"Yes, it would be stupid to come and not play the game."
Hillis and I put a chip on the table. I touched Rosellis's shoulder as she was still looking around, dumbfounded.
"What are you doing? Let's play."
"Huh? Yeah, okay." Rosellis was still out of it as she looked at the cards spread out on the table. It seems the sucker has been chosen for this round.
Perhaps we were thinking the same thing because Hillis also looked at Rosellis and snickered.
How dare you be distracted in front of the sacred card? There will be nothing to say even if you lose everything.
"Abracadabra. Now, I think we can get started."
"Then I will start." The dealer nodded and skillfully collected the cards again.
Laying out and showing the cards in the first game was an important first step to show that there was nothing wrong with the cards. Of course, with the dealer's dexterity, it would be easy to slip away the bottom card, so it was just a formality.
The dealer quickly shuffled the cards.
| ← Ch. 131 | Ch. 133 → |