章 22: The Devil's Luck

The next day, I did my daily routine of eating breakfast, getting into my armour, and doing some practices outside with my sword. The only difference today is that I had Erik as a sparring partner.

CLANG

Our blades hit each other so many times. It was only a mock and I wasn't performing at absolute best, but he was doing quite well against my strikes. He parried and struck back with some great precision, and kept me on my toes for quite a while.

"Try putting a bit more force into your blows." I told him. "You'll be able to deal more damage if you can hit hard enough to make the opponent drop his blade."

CLANG

Two more strikes and two more parried. I could feel my wrist starting to ache a little from him upping the force on his strikes. The exercise continued for another hour before I called it to an end.

"You're doing well Erik." I said with a smile. "I can see why you were chosen as a personal guard."

"Thank you sir." Erik replied, putting his blade back in its sheath. "Though I know that you're holding back on me. I ask that you don't hold back next time."

"I won't." I answered. "I know that you can handle it now."

Eventually I saw Rissa come down with two glasses of water. Her tail swished around from side to side as she handed both me and Erik a glass. We thanked her and took a drink to cool off after that training.

"Hey Keita." Rissa said. "Ah heard that there was a gambling section added to the tavern. Maybe we could go there and check it out?"

A gambling section? This could be a good opportunity to get some money. With Rissa's roguish skills and my own skills at the games, we could get some serious cash in.

"Get Azraea then." I replied. "I wouldn't mind having a few games, maybe we could get some good money out of it."

"My thoughts exactly." Rissa grinned. She went back inside, likely to get Azraea so that we could leave. Just like I thought, she soon came back with Azraea in tow.

"So what are we doing?" Azraea asked. "Are we going there just to test some things out or are we aiming to get a profit?"

"Both actually." I replied. "I know my way around a few games. I can at least get us a decent profit."

"Let's go then." Azraea answered. "So long as we don't spend too long in there."

I nodded and we started to move on, locking the house doors before heading over to the Guild building.

When we finally arrived, there were quite a few people in the tavern section of the building. I spotted someone sitting at a table with quite a lot of dice and two cups. I pointed this out to the rest of the group.

"Let's go there first." I said. "It seems to be a simple game so we can test some things."

The others nodded and we headed toward the table. The man sitting there greeted us quite warmly as we sat down.

"Hello!" he called. "Here to play a few rounds of dice?"

"We are." Azraea replied. "What are the betting rules?"

"I ask that you use a minimum of a single gold, and a maximum of fifty." the man answered happily. "The winner of three rounds takes the pot. It's just that simple."

"Alright. I'll try it." Azraea continued. "What are the rules of the game?"

"Well. You roll a set of four dice inside of this cup." the man answered. "The person with the highest total at the end of the round wins that round. Simple game right?"

That seemed too simple. Very exploitable too for the game-master. He may be prone to use cheats in order to get the highest total.

"It sounds simple enough." Azraea said. "I'll go first."

With that Azraea laid a single gold coin on the table. Likely just to test the waters. The man had also laid a gold coin on the table. An equal bet.

"Now begin." the man called.

With that, Azraea and the man both shook up their dice inside of their cups. The totals came out for the first round. Azraea had a total of twelve. The game-master had a total of eight. Azraea won that round.

"Round two." the man continued.

Once again they rolled their dice and spilled out the totals. Azraea had thirteen. The game-master had sixteen. He won the second round. That makes this one the deciding round. Even if it's only a small amount to Azraea, two gold is worth quite a lot here. He may cheat to get it.

"Round three." the man called out.

Again they rolled their dice. It was for a brief second but I could see his free hand move. The totals came out. Azraea had ten. The game-master…had twenty three. A landslide win.

"Bad luck." he said. "It was a good game though."

"Thank you for playing." Azraea said. The game-master took the two gold.

He wasn't the best at cheating now was he? That was too small an amount to risk being caught and yet he did it anyway. I guess he was hoping to keep winning against a bunch of drunks. I think I know how to expose it though.

"I'll go next." I said.

"Good good." the game-master replied with a smile. "How much are you betting?"

He'll probably lose composure if I go with a larger bet than one gold. I placed forty gold on the table, much to Azraea's and his surprise.

"Are you crazy?" Azraea asked with a look of shock. "What if you lose all of that?"

"I won't." I said. "I'm confident in my abilities."

"Well, if you're betting so much…" the game-master said before placing a full fifty gold on the table. "Then I have to oblige."

"The stakes are high." I told him. "This makes the game fun."

"Indeed it does." he replied. "First round."

We shook our dice up as I kept watchful eye over his movements. We spilt the dice out and counted the totals. Fifteen to me and eleven to him. A good start to try and make me overconfident.

"Second round."

Once again we shook the dice and counted. I watched him move his hand again. Eight to me and ten to him. I think now I know how to beat him. Luck beats all.

"Third round."

We rolled the dice once again. This time I kept a close eye on his hand. I think he's using a basic magic to magnetise weighted dice. I simply hoped that I could pull through on this one. The totals came out.

He had twenty three again. It was too suspicious. My assumption was correct. But he didn't win this time.

I had twenty four. Four sixes.

"W-What?" he questioned in awe. "Four sixes…"

The others seemed equally in awe. I wasn't going to point out his cheating. He'd try to pull the money away if I did that. Instead I loaded all ninety gold pieces into my pouch.

"That was a good game." I said with a smirk. "I guess I'm just lucky."

In complete honesty it was only a hope that I got a full total like that. If this is more of a stat-based world, then I was right to assume that my luck would be calculated and predetermine a result. I had essentially won from the start, though I still had to hope that I could win it.

"The devil's luck clearly…" the game-master said. "A straight line of sixes should be impossible. It's difficult enough to get two without resorting to underhanded tactics."

"Oh?" I asked. "Then how did you get three sixes in a row? Twice in fact. You must either be equally lucky as I am, or you cheated. I won't say which."

"How do I know that you didn't cheat?" the game-master replied with mild frustration.

"Because I've been honest this whole time." I answered. "I had three people on this side with me. One of them would surely see me cheat. So I didn't. Look. I won, let's leave it at that."

He grumbled lightly as I stood up with the others. We went to sit down at the counter where we ordered ourselves some drinks and a bit of food. Soon enough four glasses of ale were in front of us. I didn't know this world's laws too well so I didn't know if Erik could drink or not. But I assumed he could since Azraea didn't take it off of him.

We took a swig each of our drinks and started to eat. The food at this tavern was pretty good, nothing like the food you'd find in an old bar back home. A long story short- we ate and drank for a good while using the money I'd won us. By the end of the night, we were down by twenty gold. I had to carry Azraea and Erik back home. It seemed that they were both not very good at holding down a drink.

So ended our little day of fun. Back to adventures tomorrow.