Chương 24: Old Habits Die Hard
The neighborhood of District 6 was wealthier compared to both districts Brian has visited today. It can be seen in the houses of the people living in this place. Not a mansion or anything close to that but Brian thinks they should be somewhat in the middle class.
The dwarven blacksmith told him the direction of the Guild where goblins and other races are gathered to receive jobs specific for manual labor. The place where Raju works also can be seen here but it is a different Guild.
If one does not have a job at all, he or she has the option to go to one of these Guilds that are plenty in District 6. Except for the Adventurer's Guild which can be located in District 2, all smaller branches for specific roles are spread throughout the roads.
Raju who specializes in hunting Pests or what they call beasts without intelligence here has found a stable job in the Hunting Guild. Their service extends to restaurant and market owners who need the meat of Pests to even medicine and alchemy that needs certain parts of the said creatures.
However, the guild Brian specifically will be going to today is the 'Collecto Guild'. The tavern type of vibe two-story building is where gatherers of all races can be located.
Their service is for those who need a mass supply of materials that can be gathered without the use of violence. Mining is one of them and goblins are the race taking most of the mining requests in their guild.
'I say goblin but they are just humans with distinct green skin.' If the dwarf has not told Brian that they were goblins, he will think it is another race that can only be found inside this continent.
Brian has met a lot of goblins during his time as a knight. Some of them were even mutated but their horrendous appearance was still present despite their evolution. The goblins he was sitting with now cannot even be compared. He will feel awful if he treats these honest workers to the monsters he was hacking and slashing back in Auzeweth.
The way how their service work is that there is a list of groups who do not have any task given to them at the moment. They will be then called back here in the tavern to meet with the client and negotiate the prices.
Also included in the book of lists given to Brian, there are starting price and a brief description of the group. For example, a group that has Wolf in their name consists of 4 members. And their starting price to hire was 80 coppers per day.
'So it's 20 coppers per member of the group. That's a bit expensive' Brian assumed.
Brian was not sure what he wanted himself. He was conflicted about whether he should hire a group capable of harvesting a lot of ore or whether he should start small and see from there.
First of all, he does not have any predicted profit draft for his blacksmith and how much he will be earning. He gets a gist of what prices his wares would be base on the blacksmith owned by the dwarf before coming here although he does not know how many he will be selling.
Paia was pulling Brian's hair while he was thinking. When her father stopped moving for quite a while now, she became bored sitting on his shoulders. Her eyes fell anywhere she can see was interesting.
On a table where a group of 7 green humans, she can see that they were playing something. She immediately called her father to go there.
As a loving father Brian was, he went over the side where the goblins were playing a popular card game of their city. By card game he means a variant of Old Maid.
"You wanna join brat?"
"Oi! It's a human… Be careful on what you say." One goblin with complete vision of me told his mate who just felt someone was staring at his back.
"Tsk, why are you scared… This is our place. He cannot be haughty here unless he wants to be the enemy of everyone here." Not even trying to hide his disdain, he turned around to get a closer look at the human watching them.
"What's your business here…?"
"My daughter just wanted to see what you guys were playing."
"Do whatever you want..." The older goblin with a beard went back to focus on his cards.
Their conversation should have ended there but Brian knows her daughter will not hear the end of it especially when she felt the other side just dissed her father. He really likes her protectiveness of him however he was not able to stop Paia from calling out the man.
"Ugly old man! I bet Father win that!"
Somehow someway, Paia was able to understand what they were talking about shout those words in the monster language. She might be a genius but she is too much of a genius or specific on the words she learned during the short period of time Raine was teaching her.
"Hoho~ This young human girl wants to bet. How about the father?"
One of the purposes of Brian for leaving Paia under Raine's care is because she wanted her to be out of trouble with prejudice against human normal in the city. He never predicted his daughter will actually be the one who is bringing the trouble to them. Twice she brought Paia to other Districts and both times she wanted to defend her father.
She was still too young to differentiate when the other party is hostile or barely cares at all.
In the meantime, he needs to repress the situation… But when he looked at the expectant eyes of Paia, he did not want to disappoint her.
"So how do you play it?" Brian accepted the challenge.
"That's the spirit. But we don't simply play here. You should prepare at least 10 cooper."
"Wait, Leader! Why are you hinting five times the stakes?" One goblin among his party members was surprised when the bearded goblin raised ten fingers to show how much is the wager.
The bearded goblin ignored his companions' complaints. He was waiting for the human to bite and teach him a lesson. He never met a human with a good heart so he was already set to take revenge for the previous time other humans ridiculed him.
"It's easy. You just have to…" The bearded goblin explained the rules to Brian properly. He might hate humans but he will not fall that low to trick an individual.
When Brian heard the condition of winning, he realized it has the same concept as Old Maid only that it was the opposite with a bit of variation. Instead of trying to pair up everything and leave safely, the winner will be the Old Maid or the odd man out who cannot pair anymore.
The order will be counter-clockwise and they should only drop a single pair per rotation. They then pick cards from their left before the round starts again. This means the joker card will be their saving grace and one should aim to pick it if possible.
Brian understood these kinds of things so it only took one run-through before he sat on the empty seat near the table.
Despite complaining and creating a small ruckus, no one left. So with Brian as their new player, the total wager was 80 copper coins for a single round. It only accumulated to such an amount because the rules made sure it was the last man standing to be crowned the winner.
Having copper coins stacked in the middle of the table, it was more than enough for an individual to have three good meals a day in a week.
Brian can see that all expect the one who invited him were nervous. The wager was really high for them and no one wants to lose ten copper coins just like that.
'I really don't want to get involved in any type of gambling.' It was not only because Brian hated his gambling life but also because there was a reason he lost a lot.
Brian was never a lucky person.
He never expects to win. He only wanted to show his courage in front of his daughter that believes his father will not back down in a challenge. Brian can only hope that his daughter will learn that her father is just a really unlucky person.
'Well it's just ten coppers. I have almost a hundred gold left from selling the artifact so money won't be an issue.'
The dealer then distributed the cards. The joker was on Brian's hands but he did not feel confident it will stay at his side for long.
One pair then another until it went back to the first person. Then another pair was placed on the table, then another… After how many rounds, two people were left. One has the joker and another card while the other has only one card. He needs to pick the joker, or he would get a pair and lose. If he does, then he has the chance to go offensive. This ending sequence can usually last for a bit of time but at this moment, a winner was already decided.
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