Luck Is Enough When Gambling(5)

An unexpected situation. Everyone dislikes it when such new variables arise in their planned affairs.

And Pensia was no exception; he disliked unexpected variables so much that he would move directly to handle them whenever they arose.

Variables were always unnecessary things that shouldn’t exist. If one aimed for perfect mission completion, one couldn’t help but dislike them.

But what if the variable was too big to handle?

If it was a variable that didn’t just twist the plan but crushed it completely, anyone would show a similar reaction.

Falling into panic.

And this was the same for Pensia, now sitting next to Yujia.

‘Why… Why here?’

He hadn’t heard that this would happen.

The only order Pensia received when he was sent here with Ar was:

To plant demon crystals throughout the Phara Kingdom’s entertainment district, and after installing all the demon crystals, go to the casino and earn 500 gold for a confidential mission.

He certainly hadn’t heard anything about Yujia, one of the five humans considered the greatest enemies by demons, coming here during that process.

‘Well, it’s natural they couldn’t tell us since they didn’t expect it, but…’

The current time was 3 PM.

Who would have expected Yujia, who holds a professor position at the academy, to come here in broad daylight, not even at night?

Although it was natural they hadn’t heard about it, from Pensia’s position actually experiencing the situation, he couldn’t help but resent the Demon King.

Yujia. Pensia had fought once with her magical doppelganger.

Of course, being magically created, it wouldn’t match the original, but even as a doppelganger, it possessed considerable strength.

Moreover, he heard that Idea said she might have lost to the homunculus transformed into Yujia if not for the Demon God’s protection, even though she fought within her own space that could be called her domain.

‘If I fought Idea within her barrier, I wouldn’t even be able to touch her.’

Fighting her within the barrier Idea spread.

Pensia could be 100% certain about the result of that fight. That he would be overwhelmingly defeated.

And yet Idea said she might have lost without the Demon God’s protection, so even if Yujia might not be as strong as Aria, Pensia knew she wasn’t an opponent he could handle one-on-one.

‘With Ar together, maybe…’

At least Ar was beside him. If they fought together, the result was uncertain, but Ar didn’t even know that the person sitting next to Pensia was Yujia.

Unlike himself who had seen Yujia’s doppelganger on the Sky Island, Ar had never seen Yujia’s face even once.

In other words, this meant Pensia had to tell Ar that the person next to them was Yujia, but with Yujia glaring at Ar with wide eyes behind her mask, there was no way he could calmly do such a thing.

Crunch…

“…”

Moreover, as if knowing that Ar had used tricks while changing cards, the gold coins in Yujia’s fist turned to iron powder and flowed down.

The gold coins, ground so finely they wouldn’t even be caught in a sieve, showed how strong her grip was, indicating she was heated to the point of her head, causing Pensia to tremble even more than he already was.

“Ugh…”

His two legs shook like aspen leaves. His heart was beating so fast that even trying to calm down, he couldn’t easily do so.

And trembling so much while knowing the person next to him was Yujia, how could he possibly use the tricks he had been using until now?

“I, I don’t want to change.”

Pensia pushed the deck that came from Ar directly to Yujia with trembling hands.

“Then I’ll take three.”

As he pushed the deck, Yujia’s small but muscle-compressed to the limit hand took the deck. At the same time, Ar’s gaze flew from the side towards him who had just passed the deck.

It was Ar’s gaze as if asking why he suddenly acted like that, but Pensia had no leisure to care about that.

He was already consuming a lot of mental energy just trying to calm himself down.

In fact, if you think about it, Yujia still didn’t know their identities. Perhaps because she was a hand-to-hand fighter, she didn’t seem to notice the feminization magic cast on them.

Therefore, as long as she didn’t know their identities yet, there was no need to be so tense, but just having someone who could easily take his life next to him made it impossible not to be tense.

“Then I’ll bet.”

However, as if there was no time to leisurely relax, the betting time quickly arrived in the rapidly flowing time.

Naturally, the first to start was Ar, who pushed out five gold coins next to the one already out with a confident expression.

“Bet.”

Ar smiled quietly, having apparently made quite a good hand.

When his turn came next, Pensia naturally looked at his one pair hand and folded his cards.

“Fold.”

“I fold too.”

After Pensia folded, Yujia, whose turn came next, immediately put down her cards.

‘Looks like she didn’t use tricks…’

Seeing her put down the cards immediately, it seemed she didn’t use tricks right away even after seeing Ar use them. She might not be able to use them, but anyway, Yujia didn’t use tricks.

The money collected so far started with a base fund of 100 gold and including that, totaled 350 gold.

Pensia hoped that they could just continue like this, collect 500 gold, and then stand up from their seats normally.

If possible, he wanted to stand up from his seat right now, but that would draw too much suspicious attention and only raise doubts, so he couldn’t carelessly stand up.

Therefore, he wished for it to end safely.

But unfortunately, the remaining elf and ordinary human noble, whose turns were passed, seemed to still remember being beaten by them until now and raised the stakes with quite passive attitudes, and after one more round of betting turns, the hands of the remaining three except Pensia and Yujia were revealed.

Full house, three of a kind, straight.

“23 gold will go to this person.”

And naturally, the winner was Ar, who had the full house among the three revealed hands.

23 gold. It was a pitifully small amount compared to the money coming in until now, but they couldn’t complain.

Pensia handed his cards to the dealer, and the others also returned their cards to the dealer.

Soon the dealer started preparing for the next game while shuffling the cards. The number of spectators around had increased even more by now.

And by then, as his insides gradually started to calm down, Pensia opened his eyes straight.

‘Alright.’

If the opponent doesn’t know about us, we just need to collect money as fast as possible and leave.

Even if she knows we’re using tricks, the dealer and spectators couldn’t see at that speed anyway, so no one would believe it even if told.

So Pensia himself would also actively use tricks again to quickly scrape together money. Then he could stand up from this extremely dangerous seat as soon as possible.

Finishing that thought and planning, Pensia renewed his determination and.

“Excuse me, could I check the cards?”

At Yujia’s voice heard the next moment, Pensia’s body froze again.

Yujia reaching out to the dealer and requesting to check the cards.

Seeing her boldly demanding to check the cards, it seemed that this was the real start of the game from now on.

Pensia quietly swallowed saliva without her noticing.

---

I had no intention of giving up from the second round, even if I gave up the first round.

I asked the dealer to check the cards, and the dealer hesitated for a moment before handing me the cards he was holding.

“There are a lot of people checking the cards today. I’ll tell you in advance, if you touch the cards, you’ll be kicked out immediately.”

“I know.”

The cards moving from the dealer’s hands to mine.

I checked the cards one by one from the bottom up.

Since they used tricks first, I’m sorry to the dealer and other players, but I had to use tricks too.

Of course, by tricks, I don’t mean actually touching the cards or anything.

The trick I’ll use is just memorizing the order of the cards and checking where those cards are positioned while they’re being shuffled, then drawing the cards I want when it’s time to change hands.

It sounded like an impossible trick method just from hearing about it, but if you had physical abilities that were on a different level from ordinary people like that white-haired girl or me, it was quite possible.

Therefore, I checked and memorized all the cards one by one.

After hammering the order of all the cards into my head, I neatly gathered the cards again and returned them to the dealer.

“Here you go.”

“Then I’ll shuffle again.”

The dealer, after receiving the cards back from me, shuffled the cards again.

However, having already memorized the cards, even if the cards were shuffled, I could clearly see which card was going where.

Even after the dealer finished shuffling the cards, the cards were drawn in my mind from the top down.

The preparation was perfect, and my skill was superior.

Then all that remained was to bring down the hammer of justice on those who shamelessly used tricks in front of me.

I grabbed the five cards being dealt to me slowly while wearing a faint smile on my lips.

‘First, I should crush that arrogant white-haired girl here.’

And after crushing her in gambling, I would have to follow her out of the casino and check various things.

It’s not particularly revenge or being petty. I wasn’t that narrow-minded a person to begin with.

The only reason I took interest in that white-haired girl was because of her speed and technique that surpassed Arin who learns from me, while looking like an ordinary human girl.

No matter how I looked at it, she reeked of suspicion.

---

“It seems that person has finally made contact with Ar and Pensia…”

【Is that so? It was faster than expected. I wonder if this is what they mean by even foreseen choices being twisted.】

In the depths of the Demon King’s castle. There, Rose once again reported to the woman she was facing.

And after hearing Rose’s report, the woman let out a thoughtful hum as if it was unexpected. Seeing the woman like that, Rose hesitated for a moment before asking.

“Should I… go there directly?”

Among the orders Rose gave when sending Ar and Pensia to the Phara Kingdom, laying out demon crystals was out of necessity, but the subsequent order at the casino was not an order out of necessity.

That was merely a pretext to make the two contact that person.

Therefore, now that contact had been made as intended, Rose wanted to move directly to prepare for contingencies, but she was flatly refused by the woman’s words.

【You are the Demon King, Rose. Don’t move recklessly. A Demon King should always wait nobly for the hero.】

“I see…”

Although she had expected it, being met with the woman’s words without proper preparation, Rose couldn’t hide her dejected feelings.

But one more thing the woman added while looking at Rose like that was enough to make Rose’s expression bloom.

【The day to bring that person here is not far off. So be patient a little longer, Rose.】

“…Yes.”

Anticipating that day that would soon be right before them, as the woman said.

Rose looked at Yujia sitting in a chair at the distant casino, watching Ar and Pensia.

It was not too far in the future now.