章 19: A big gamble

"How... How are you wining! This is supposed to be a game of chance!"

After helping out with the whole Sosshi village matter, Magna invited Grim and the others to the place he and Yami frequented when they wanted to gamble and drink. Overhearing their conversation, Yami somehow managed to invite himself and forced the lot of them to play cards with him.

"My wages... My beautiful wages..." Rocking back and forward on the stone ground, Asta stared mournfully at his nearly empty coin purse.

"I lost... to a commoner..." Broken up over the fact that a commoner was beating her at something, Noelle found herself in a state of denial as she kept repeating herself while clutching her cards.

"Not bad kid, not bad..." Taking in a deep drag of his cigarette, Yami pulled out a large coin purse and slammed it down onto the table.

"I'll raise ya."

"Yami!" Magna looked over to him with a stunned expression.

Looking at the large coin purse in front of him, Grim who was winning looked at Yami with an unusal amount of confidence in his eyes.

"Are you sure you want to do that?"

"Yeah." Yami nodded.

"Hmm... Don't you think it looks a little light?"

While the memories of his past lives were gone, the lessons Grim had learnt and the things he had experienced were burnt into his very being. So while he may not have a lot of experience in playing this game, he was pretty sure he had played something similar in one of his past lives and was able to subconsciously draw on his past experiences.

Hearing Grim's commented, Yami couldn't help but frown before placing his Grimoire on the table.

"I'll add this."

"Captain!" Magna's eyes widened.

"Hmm?" Grim eyed the black grimoire before shaking his head. "As captain of the Black Bulls, it'd be bad if you didn't have that so... How about we use Magna's shades instead."

"Eh?"

"Deal." Yami agreed without any hesitation.

"EH!!"

"Its fine." Yami patted Magna's shoulder. "With the amount of money we're about to make you'll be able to buy 10 pairs of shades!"

"But that's only if you win!"

"Magna." Yami said in a serious voice. "Have I ever lead you astray?"

"...No..."

"Then trust me."

Seeing the confidence and determination in Yami's eyes, Magna took in a deep breath and agreed.

"Fine." Taking off his shades, he put them up to wager next to the big coin purse.

"We're all in you bastard!"

"Good... Good..." Grim smiled before nodding to the dealer.

Seeing that all parties were ready, the dealer shuffled the deck before handing the cards out.

Taking a look at his cards and then back at Yami's, Grim took a deep breath before revealing them.

Seeing the cards on the table, Yami took a look at his own before placing them face down and looking at Grim.

"Grim." He called out in a serious tone.

"Hmm?"

"As a member of the Black Bulls, I want to teach you about a sacred proverb that we all follow, its called taking one for the team."

For the next couple of minutes, Yami went over the meaning of taking one for the team and ended by saying "So you should always put the needs of your comrades first."

"I see." Grim nodded.

"Good." Yami nodded and continued. "Now lets forget abou-

"Before we do that." Grim interrupted, "I want to inform you of a special proverb that I live by, its called Don't fuck with me."

Hearing his words, the look of relief on Yami's face quickly faded and in its place was an expression of confusion.

"You see Yami, by forcing me to join your squad, you ended up fucking me, and I don't like to be fucked with." Grim chuckled lightly. "Now if I was a bigger man with a bigger heart, I'd simply shrug it off and let bygones be bygones... Its just a shame that I'm not that kind of guy. You screwed me over Yami, now I'm returning the favour. But don't worry, word on the street is you're already in so much debt that even if you kept all this money and managed to win my share, you still wouldn't be able to pay it off... Now dealer." He turned to look at the mustached card dealer. "I think its time to bring this game to a close."

Nodding his head, the dealer looked at down at Yami's cards before looking back up at him and raising a brow.

Knowing that the dealer was about to ask him to reveal his cards, Yami swore in his head.

'Fuck! If this carries on I'll be lose everything to that little prick! I've got to find a way for him to call the game off...'

While Yami was stuck figuring out how to deal with Grim's temper, he suddenly got an idea that just might work.

"A fight!"

"What?" Grim and Magna looked at him with confused expressions.

"You like to fight a lot right? If you call this game then I'll fight you, whaddya say?" Yami laughed lightly thinking that he had found a way to avoid losing more money. It was just a shame that Grim's next sentence poured cold water all over his plan.

"...Who told you I liked to fight?"

"Huh?" Both Yami and Magna looked at each other and then at Grim.

"I think you guys have got me confused. I don't like to fight, in fact I don't even like violence."

'Doesn't like to fight?'

"Bullshit!" Yami slammed his hand on the table. "I saw the way you and Luck we're grinning at each other the other day! You're both battle maniacs."

"Battle maniacs? Luck maybe, but I can assure you that I am not." Grim waved his hand in denial.

"Then how do you explain your lust for battle?! When we first met you said you wanted to be fight strong opponents and be stronger than the Wizard King! Hell, at Sosshi Village you were laughing like a maniac when you were fighting the scar faced guy and his henchmen. How do you explain that?" Magna asked.

"Ah, no wonder you guys are so confused, let me explain what I meant. To put it in simple terms, I can't stand people that are stronger than me being in my presence. It makes me sick to my stomach knowing that someone could crush me and I'd have no way to stop them. Its honestly revolting. So to deal with this problem of mine, the solution I came up with was to simply be stronger than everyone else. This way I can use my power to lord over everyone without having to worry about anyone beating me or defying my will. So to wrap this conversation up, the reason I fight so much is so I can show off my power and thoroughly crush anyone who had any pitiful intentions of challenging me and my actions..."

"That... sounds very ominous." Magna muttered. "But what about your fight with Luck and the henchmen! You were clearly enjoying yourself."

"Yeah." Grim nodded in agreement. "I can only measure how dangerous someone is by fighting them... In our captain's case, his aura alone is enough to deter me from fighting him for the time being. As for the reason I was laughing while fighting Luck and those henchmen, I was simply happy at the fact that they were at a level of power that I could deal with."

"But that doesn't explain why you keep inviting Luck to a fight every chance you get."

Grim shrugged, "Its the only way I can monitor his growth and ensure that he's not a level that surpasses my own."

"Wow..." Yami commented. "You're one despicable kid."

"Wait a second!" Noelle suddenly spoke up. "You said you laughed because Luck and those hooded guys were at a level you could handle... But you've been laughing and smiling this whole game!"