Chapter 100
Chapter 100
The friendly match was being held in a tournament format, and my next match was tomorrow.
‘As expected... it’s Brother Lux. He toyed with a promising swordsman of the Imperial Family like he was a plaything. He didn’t even properly bring out his full strength.’
Lux Winterbell.
The winner of the previous friendly match.
Perhaps he was the man closest to becoming the next Patriarch.
If not for the rumors that followed him around, he would probably have been in a far more advantageous position than he was now.
‘I really can’t even begin to gauge just how strong he is.’
That was all the more true because he was someone who rarely revealed his true power.
‘If I keep advancing, I’ll end up crossing swords with him in this tournament. If I had been able to use mana, I wouldn’t have even been a match for him. This is better, actually. At least this way, I can still test my blade against his.’
Together with Cecil, I headed for Winterbell’s outer castle. I had heard rumors that the gambling dens were in an uproar because of this friendly match. The fact that the Patriarch had not stepped in personally meant that, implicitly, he was allowing all of this to happen. Nobles from the capital and many others had gathered, so enormous sums of money were surely changing hands.
Naturally, the highest odds would be on Lux Winterbell, the previous winner, and Ryan Winterbell, the eldest son and the strongest candidate for next Patriarch. And then...
‘Especially Ran Winterbell, me. There’s no doubt the odds placed on me will be the lowest.’
A smile naturally spread across my lips at the thought of disguising myself as an unknown gambler and sweeping up their money.
Because I was certain that I would win.
“Young Master, going to a dangerous place like this is...”
At Cecil’s worried voice, I shook my head.
“Dangerous? In Winterbell territory, and you’re saying that?”
Cecil let out a soft chuckle.
“I wanted to try saying something like that at least once.”
It was a joke.
As I rode, I looked up at the sky. The moonlight was dim, veiled behind the clouds. It was perfect weather for dealing with gamblers.
When we entered the outer castle, it was exactly as I had expected. The streets were crowded with people, and the sounds of bargaining could be heard everywhere.
“Lux Winterbell! I’ll bet 100 gold on Lux Winterbell!”
“I’m betting on Ryan Winterbell! 1000 gold on Ryan Winterbell! The winner is obviously Ryan.”
“What the hell are you talking about? Are your eyes just for decoration? You saw Lux Winterbell crush the Third Prince, and you’re still spouting that nonsense? You idiot! The winner is obviously Lux Winterbell!”
“I’ll bet 5000 gold on Ran Winterbell.”
“What? Ran Winterbell? Who’s that?”
“The youngest young master of the Winterbell Family.”
“The youngest of the Winterbell Family... you mean that half-cripple!? That man is entering the friendly match?”
“Isn’t it hanging right there on the nameplate?”
“Puhahahahaha! If you’ve got money like that, why not donate it to me instead? I’ll put it to good use.”
The gamblers were already fired up. They defended the people they had put money on, mocked the other side, and sometimes it even escalated into fistfights.
“Cecil.”
“Yes, Young Master.”
“What we’re looking for is the biggest table. Find the place where my name is being mentioned.”
At my words, Cecil quietly nodded. As always, she had grasped my intention exactly. The places where truly large sums moved around were never displayed this openly.
We got off our horses and stepped into a narrow alley. Somewhere here, there would be a big game where thousands of gold were being wagered. And they wouldn’t know it.
That Ran Winterbell, the very man they were certain would lose, was standing right in front of them.
“Young Master, over there.”
At Cecil’s words, I turned my head.
A staircase leading down into the basement of a shabby building.
And standing guard in front of it were sturdy men.
A smile curved my lips. My heart raced at the thought of sweeping up every last bit of their money tonight.
Since Cecil and I were wearing masks, there would be no one who could recognize us.
I looked at the two men standing in front of the stairs.
They were twins, with identical faces and identical builds. There was an unusual aura in their eyes. I could tell at once that they were martial artists in the Seventh Star realm.
“Halt.”
The man on the left spoke first. There was an overbearing edge to his voice.
“Do you have an admission ticket or an invitation?”
The man on the right followed up. Their gazes swept back and forth between me and Cecil.
When I answered calmly, the eyes of the two men sharpened.
“No.”
The twins picked up each other’s words. Something like a sneer hung at the corners of their mouths. They seemed to think there was no way a young man like me would know the password.
“Then you cannot enter.”
“Unless, of course, you know the password...”
I muttered under my breath.
“The password, huh...”
“That’s right, the password. Do you know it?”
I put on a look as though I were thinking for a moment. Of course, there was no way I would know any password. But that did not matter. The moment I blurted out just anything, the expressions of the two men turned fierce.
“The blue moon...”
Their tone became even rougher. The aura of Seventh Star realm martial artists spread faintly outward. They were threatening us.
“Wrong. Now get lost.”
“This isn’t a place for someone like you.”
I spoke calmly. Cecil still stood quietly by my side.
“Cecil, it looks like these gentlemen are trying to throw us out.”
Cecil stared at the men expressionlessly.
The men snorted and said,
“I’ll say this one last time. Back off right now.”
“Otherwise, we’ll personally...”
Just as the twins were about to continue, I smiled faintly. They had no idea. They did not know who they were dealing with.
“How amusing. Fools who don’t even know their place...”
The man on the left raised his fist at me. It was a blow carrying the power of the Seventh Star realm.
If a martial artist around the Fifth Star level were hit by that fist, his skull would have burst open and he would have died on the spot.
“What the hell is an insect like you saying!”
But before his arm could even reach me, Cecil moved far faster. Her hand shot out like lightning and seized the man’s wrist.
“How dare you raise your hand against Young Master?”
Cecil’s cold voice rang out. From her grip came the sound of bone breaking. The man’s arm bent at an unnatural angle.
“Kuaaaagh!!!!!”
The man on the right charged in with furious eyes.
“Brother!”
His kick flew toward Cecil’s side. But Cecil did not so much as flinch.
Whoosh.
One of Cecil’s hands caught the man by the ankle. The attack of a man who prided himself on being a martial artist in the Seventh Star realm looked like nothing more than a child’s game.
“How utterly rude.”
Cecil gave her wrist a slight twist. In that instant, the man on the right was flung into the air before being smashed down onto the floor. The concrete ground was gouged deeply.
“Kuugh! You baastard!”
The man on the left, clutching his injured arm, charged again. This time, he hurled himself at Cecil with all the force in his body. But Cecil’s movement was even faster.
Chaang!
The edge of Cecil’s hand brushed the back of the man’s neck. At once, his body staggered and collapsed. In a single movement, she had subdued a martial artist in the Seventh Star realm.
“T-this can’t be...!”
The man on the floor muttered as if he could not believe it. He tried to get back up, but even Cecil’s gaze alone seemed enough to freeze his body in place.
“The price for showing disrespect to Young Master.”
Cecil’s voice remained calm. But the killing intent contained within it sent a chill down the spines of the two men.
“Still not come to your senses?”
Cecil took a step forward. At that single step, both men’s faces turned pale. They had felt it. Cecil’s true power.
If she could subdue them this easily, then she was surely an Eighth Star martial artist, or perhaps even higher. They knew that if they kept acting up here, their necks would not remain attached for long.
Thud. Thud. Thud.
The sound of Cecil’s footsteps echoed out. At that sound, the two men’s bodies trembled violently. Now they understood. Just how foolish they had been.
The two men bowed their heads to the floor at the same time. Their arrogant attitude from just moments ago had vanished without a trace.
“Forgive... please forgive us. We failed to recognize an honored guest. We are sorry.”
“We are sorry. We are truly sorry. We acted disrespectfully. Please forgive us just this once.”
Cecil asked me,
“Young Master, what shall we do?”
Smiling, I shook my head.
“That’s enough. This is sufficient.”
Relief spread across the faces of the two men.
But only for a moment.
“However...”
As I continued, they stopped breathing.
“From now on, be a little more mindful of how you greet your guests. You never know what kind of guest might come. For the sake of your own lives, that would be best.”
They nodded desperately.
“W-we, we understand!”
“We will remember it without fail!”
Now, standing before us were no longer experts of the Seventh Star realm, but merely two frightened men.
I let out a faint chuckle and placed a hand on each of their shoulders.
“Then we may go in now, yes?”
“O-of course!”
I took out two gold coins from my pocket, flicked them, and tossed them to the men. After catching the coins, the twins asked with bewildered expressions,
“...A-are we really allowed to accept these?”
I smiled.
“Think of it as treatment costs, and whatever remains as pocket money.”
“Th-thank you!”
Cecil and I passed them and headed down into the basement. As we descended the stairs, I asked Cecil,
“Cecil.”
“Yes.”
“You looked pretty cool back there.”
“...You were about to have hands laid on you, Young Master. I could hardly just stand there and watch.”
“The old Cecil would have cut off their heads on the spot. You held back well, didn’t you?”
“...There was no need to see blood unnecessarily.”
“You did well.”
“I... did well?”
“Yeah.”
After descending about two full turns of the spiral staircase, a huge iron door came into view.
When we opened the door and stepped inside, a vast gambling hall spread out before us.
People of all kinds were staring at the betting boards with cautious expressions, while some were drinking and chatting loudly.
A strange smell stabbed at my nose.
It was probably the kind of expensive medicinal herbs and poisonous herbs that were hard to obtain on the market, or perhaps hallucinogens.
It seemed this place was not simply running a gambling den, but was also serving as a black market.
‘To think something like this was being run inside Winterbell territory... fascinating.’
Cecil pointed somewhere.
“Young Master. It seems the gambling table over there is the largest one. Listening closely, I think your name is being mentioned there from time to time as well.”
I turned my head and looked over there too.
It was the place in this gambling hall where the most people had gathered.
“2,000 platinum coins on Lux Winterbell.”
“Confirmed.”
“1,000 platinum coins on Ron Winterbell.”
“Yes, confirmed.”
The scale of money moving here was definitely different from the gambling stalls aboveground. One platinum coin was worth 1,000 gold coins. And yet this was a betting pool where 1,000 such platinum coins were changing hands.
Wasn’t that beyond imagination!
Slipping in among the gamblers, I shouted loudly,
“10,000 platinum coins on Ran Winterbell!”