Chapter 15…
I decided to buy that ornament.
“Sure, why not!”
“Oh my, such a pretty and kind young lady.”
No one had ever called me kind before. My face looks fierce, and my personality even more so.
They must be trying every trick to lure an easy mark to the table.
“Well, since buying the bracelet makes us acquaintances, I’ll play a round with you, mister.”
After the man sat down, I glanced around the table.
Good. I’d succeeded in getting him to sit down.
‘This should be enough… I can be a little bolder now.’
By this point, it was clear that none of the people at the table were playing honestly.
They were even switching up their seating order to pull tricks strategically.
If that’s how they want to play, I’ll bring my own cards to the table.
I drew upon my magic.
‘I’ve already got the bracelet—but I can’t just leave it at that.
No way I’ll let anyone keep money earned by selling Artea’s bracelet.’
Normally, it’s impossible for a mage to gamble and use magic at the same time.
But once in a while, a desperate or arrogant mage would show up at a gambling den.
That’s why these days, the cards in casinos are coated with anti-magic solution.
‘But that anti-magic coating isn’t foolproof.’
I learned that thanks to a senior mage at the Tower.
She was the kind of person who’d relieve stress by playing cruel tricks on “ordinary people” whenever her research hit a wall.
— Hey, hey! Does that even make sense? A mage invented the anti-magic solution, so how can another mage possibly bypass it!?
Her rant—loud enough to make my ears bleed—ended with,
“Find me a way to get around it.”
Not because I was scared of her, but because I found the anti-magic solution interesting too,
I came back to her some days later—with an answer.
‘Anti-magic works by disrupting the flow of mana.
So if you match your casting pattern to that disrupted flow, it’ll go through.’
The pattern was incredibly complex and tricky,
but once memorized, it wasn’t impossible to use.
— Are you mocking me right now?
Of course, she shouted that I was trying to mess with her.
‘So basically, you just have to do it well.’
Clairvoyance magic and teleportation magic—
casting two spells back-to-back without a chant or hand signs was already difficult.
Doing that while bypassing the anti-magic coating made it even harder.
Still, the result wasn’t bad.
‘It’s not like we’re talking about the weight of a whole card, anyway.’
<8, 7, 6, 5, 4 Straight>
<A, K, Q, J, 10 Royal Straight>
As I used magic to sweep every round,
the place erupted into noise.
“What the hell? Are you cheating?”
“That guy falling for a trick? He’s the one who cleaned me out!”
“I’ve never seen that lady before!”
“No, it’s not her—it’s the guy sitting now…”
I clapped my hands together.
“Oh my, I had two pairs, but look—a K popped up! That makes a full house, doesn’t it?”
“What the…?”
At that point, there was no need to even pretend to lose occasionally.
I won everything in sight.
And since it turned out this man was involved in Artea’s kidnapping, I didn’t bother holding back.
“What the hell kind of hand is that? You’re totally cheating!”
The man shouted in anger.
Well, I guess anyone would be shocked after losing so badly.
“I had a flush last round and a full house this time! How the hell do you get a royal straight flush!?”
If this were any normal game, that hand would’ve taken the entire pot.
Only an idiot wouldn’t go all in on that.
“She’s a con artist, I’m telling you!”
As absurdly lucky hands kept appearing,
even the people who had lost to me earlier joined forces, ready to gang up on me.
“You all talk like you’re innocent!
You—pulled a card out of your sleeve.
You—marked your cards.
And you—whispered something to the dealer, didn’t you?”
I tilted my chin toward Erios.
“You can handle this alone, right?”
“Yeah.”
That was all that needed to be said.
Erios took a single step forward.
He didn’t even need to draw his sword.
In the blink of an eye, like a gust of wind had passed,
everyone at the table went down.
He’d taken them all out using just his sheathed blade.
“If you’ve got a problem, take it up with the Duke of Killiet.”
“H-Huh?”
No ropes were needed. They lay sprawled on the floor, barely able to move.
Even then, upon realizing their opponent was the Duke’s household, they immediately began begging for forgiveness.
It was a pathetic attempt to survive—but I had no intention of being merciful.
“I know you were involved in kidnapping the Lady.”
The playful, carefree tone I’d had before vanished.
I released my mana, letting the weight of it press down on them.
“Where did you get this bracelet?”
“T-that… I don’t know anything! I just did what I was told!”
“Sure. You were following orders.
Then tell me exactly what that person told you to do.
If you do, maybe a small fry like you walks away free.”
At that, they all nodded desperately.
‘Just as I thought.’
Artea must have escaped on her own midway through.
The butler would’ve turned on his accomplices,
and naturally, that would cause cracks in their group.
‘Not to mention, he never even paid them.’
So these thugs told me everything they knew.
Apparently, they’d been taking the butler’s orders and carrying out shady jobs more than once.
They didn’t know how to contact him directly,
but they revealed that if you sent a letter to one of the knights in the Duke’s castle,
the message would always reach the butler.
‘That’s enough.’
With that, I decided to use Artea’s jewelry, the letter, and the testimonies of the knight and coachman
to bring the butler down.
Meanwhile…
Killiet household’s butler, Selium, was panicking.
The governess had fallen asleep, and the young lady had vanished.
Blaming them would’ve been easy enough—but for some reason, he had a bad feeling that this investigation would drag on.
‘What if this comes back to me?
Why did those fools let the girl slip away in the first place!?’
He had slipped sleeping incense into the room,
and his hired men were supposed to take Artea away while everyone was unconscious.
Everything had gone perfectly—up to that point.
But the idiots had grown careless, thinking their target was just a sleeping child.
Leaving her alone, unwatched in a room?
If they’d kept her restrained, the whole household would’ve been too busy searching to notice anything,
and Selium could’ve cleaned up the mess quietly afterward.
Instead, Artea had turned up in the most unexpected place—
at her aunt’s mansion, the Viscountess of Sortis!
[Why haven’t you sent the payment we agreed on?
Send the money as soon as you read this.
We can’t wait any longer.]
The very men who botched the job were now demanding payment.
Payment?
After losing the girl?
[You call that a job well done? You have the nerve to talk about payment?]
He couldn’t hold back his anger.
If they had even a shred of decency, they’d be keeping their mouths shut right now.
But instead—
[We only did what we were told.
You never even said she was the Duke’s daughter!
Pay us ten times the promised amount.
If you don’t, we’ll tell the Duke everything.]
If they did that, they’d be finished too—so how could they call this a threat?
He had warned them not to send any letters, but these idiots clearly had no sense of danger.
[Once we get the money, we’ll disappear from the Empire forever.]
Maybe, Selium thought, they were acting out because they truly had nothing left to lose—
no tomorrow to live for.
Still, there was no money to give.
If he’d had that kind of money, he never would have betrayed the Duke’s household to begin with.
‘No sane man would agree to kidnapping the Duke’s daughter…’
In Killiet territory, no armed group existed outside the Duke’s control,
but it seemed he had picked the worst kind of scum for the job.
And now…
‘The girl’s aunt is coming here—to become the new Duchess?’
A chill ran down his spine.
