Chapter 442
"We've included her in the recruitment candidates, but honestly? I think it's better not to recruit this one."
"I agree with Judeus-kun. It's better to hold off on this girl."
The moment Petra Lone's turn came up, the two Entertainer leaders who likely investigated her both showed reluctance to recruit her.
Up until now, the two had opposed recruiting several people, but opposing someone right from the start was unusual, and everyone around tilted their heads in confusion.
"If you oppose her that much, why did you even present the review materials? That seems contradictory, don't you think?"
If they thought it was better not to recruit her, they could have simply not submitted the materials. Why didn't they? Judeus and Shalia looked at each other, exchanging glances about what to do.
Claudia's question was valid.
And I know the reason why the two look hesitant to speak.
"As Lady Claudia says. Looking at the materials, she has circles for personality, circles for literacy and arithmetic, and even circles for herbalism, medicine, and healing magic—showing high suitability as a doctor. If this person were to come as a teacher, I would think her an incredibly useful asset for Freihait... Her drawback is the gambling addiction written in the final注意事项, but couldn't we manage that on our end?"
However, that's only because I know it from FBO. Looking at the materials, she appears so excellent that even Esmeralda agrees with Claudia, unable to accept the opposition based on the documents.
The gambling addiction listed in the注意事项.
The two are underestimating that single line.
"It's impossible, Esmeralda. She's not the kind of ordinary gambler you're imagining. She's a genuinely dangerous, purebred gambler who easily surpasses double your想象."
"Liberta, do you know this person?"
"Well, yeah."
When I explained the reason on behalf of the hesitant two, everyone's gaze shifted from Judeus and the others to me.
They seemed curious why I knew, but as usual, they let it slide with an "it's Liberta."
"Petra Lone. To put her in a word, she's certainly a good person. She does her job properly, and she's sincere in her relationships with people. But even with that goodness, her evaluation becomes negative because in her private life, she's a purebred gambler."
So, I leaned back in my chair and recalled Petra.
She is an extremely excellent healer.
Her situational judgment is superb, and her abilities are flawless.
She's the kind of person you'd say was blessed with everything—beauty and talent.
An appearance that evokes a gentle maternal feeling, and a calm personality to match.
She doesn't commit crimes, and she does her work seriously.
"Is she that bad?"
"The 'gambling addiction' written in the注意事项 on this paper says it all."
If you were to list her flaws, the first thing that would come up is the gambling.
Judging by the tone of Nell's timid question, it seemed she understood I was serious.
"Yeah, I only saw a little of it, but it was bad."
"She does her job seriously, though. She works at a clinic. Her interactions with patients are perfectly normal. She's even popular."
Shalia, who had been investigating recruitment targets while also dealing with Gurgle, nodded deeply without defending Petra, and Judeus next to her nodded similarly.
"But when she's off work, she's seriously bad."
"She goes to the dog racing track and throws all the money she needs for living expenses into gambling."
"Eh, how does she live then?"
"'Debt.'"
"......"
This person Petra is a former noble.
Whether it's because her family line has a gambling predisposition, during its heyday it was a noble house that boasted considerable authority in the medical field. However, in her grandfather's generation, they lost big in a gamble and fell from grace.
Because she studied medicine, she has no trouble eating and even gets a good salary, but she can't resist her bloodline and has fallen into the quagmire of gambling.
"She doesn't seem to have debts from dangerous places yet, but from my assessment, I think it's only a matter of time."
"Yeah, she should be getting a pretty good salary at the clinic, but the rented house she lives in is really run-down."
Judeus and the others say she's not just up to her knees, but up to both legs, past her waist, and nearly to her shoulders in gambling, unable to pull herself out.
She's excellent, really excellent.
But if you give her money, it disappears immediately.
"...If only she were good at gambling, it might be fine, but..."
"...She's average. Not bad, but, well, not skilled enough to make a living at it."
"It's not like she's a bad player who loves the game. Should we call her an ordinary gambling addict?"
"With 'severe' attached to her head."
She's not particularly weak, but she's not good enough to consistently win either.
Yet she misses the timing to stop.
As the two speak wistfully, murmuring that she'd be perfect without the gambling habit, everyone understands both the reason for including her in the recruitment list and the reason for avoiding her, and a微妙 atmosphere flows through the room.
"...To avoid the risk of her teaching students about gambling if we recruited her as a teacher, it's probably best not to recruit her."
"Well, that's true, but..."
"Liberta, is there something you're fixated on about her? I understand she's capable, but someone who goes into debt over gambling is out of the question."
Upon hearing their report, Esmeralda judged that recruiting such a person was impossible and marked a cross on her materials, writing "NO."
I thought that reaction was understandable, but knowing something specific, I felt it was a bit of a waste and let a comment slip.
"Hmm, well, maybe it's fine. She has a unique skill, you see. Her gambling狂ness is also influenced by that skill."
Whenever something is up, my reactions are easy to read for my long-time party members, so including Claudia, everyone's gaze focused on me again.
Deciding it couldn't be helped to hide it, I glanced once at Nell and then explained.
Petra's unique skill.
"Her unique skill, 'Paradox Dice.' This skill can intervene in various random elements—a truly valuable skill. Depending on how it's used, it can do things similar to Nell."
"Intervene in random elements? But if that's the case, I heard she's not very good at gambling."
"The skill only allows intervention, not manipulation, you see."
In FBO, Petra was the唯一 character with a skill that could intervene in drop rates.
It could also interfere with other skills that had randomness, making it seem amazing at first glance.
But all it can do is扰乱 probabilities.
"For example, suppose there's a game where you flip a coin and guess heads or tails, right?"
"Yes."
"In that case, basically the probability for both heads and tails is one-half."
"That's right."
Petra unconsciously uses this skill, which is why her gambling results are always inconsistent.
"But when she uses Paradox Dice, that one-half probability gets扰乱了. The amount it扰乱s depends on the number rolled on the dice."
"...I don't understand. Please explain in more detail."
When Petra consciously uses the skill, a six-sided or ten-sided die appears in her mind, and it's automatically rolled.
If the color of that die is red, it扰乱了 probability in a positive direction; if blue, in a negative direction. The number rolled... for example, if a red die shows a 2, the probability of the side she bet on in the coin toss doubles.
"Wait a moment. Isn't that quite amazing? It's like bending fate itself."
With red or blue dice, each with different effects, it's undoubtedly a skill that changes fate, and Claudia understood why I was struggling.
"Exactly. However, the drawback of this skill is that it's completely random. She can choose whether to use it or not, and she can also choose the target. But everything after that is completely random. She can't choose whether it's a red die or a blue die, nor can she choose between a six-sided or ten-sided die."
"Choose the target... Does that mean it can also be applied to attack skills!?"
Surprisingly, it was Judeus who noticed next.
Realizing with a start, he asked me with a "could it be" tone, and I nodded in affirmation.
Yes, the target of this Paradox Dice can also be applied to skills.
"Though, it only works on areas influenced by probability. But there are various skills with strong random elements. A dangerous one among such skills is, for example, Lucky Meteor, whose power is determined randomly. The number of stars that fall and their size change probabilistically. At its weakest, it just lightly showers down pebble-sized stones, yet it consumes a full eighty percent of your magic power."
"So she could change the probability so that the higher-power version of that skill activates?"
"But there's also a good chance of the opposite happening. While it could double the probability of maximum power, it could just as easily double the probability of minimum power."
Because it's such a skill full of possibilities, in FBO it was popular as a gag character for "gamble build" units.
When it works, it's quite strong, but when it fails, it becomes the weakest character.
It's also possible to use her as a healer without using the unique skill, but most players strip away all healing elements and fully invest in gambling性能.
"Hmm, I just thought of something. What would happen if she were together with Nell?"
"Ah."
At Amina's remark about an existence that might be Petra's完全上位互換, everyone's gaze simultaneously turned to Nell.
"That's the thing. When Nell's incredible luck is trending in a good direction, it's fine, but if it activates when it's trending in a bad direction, I feel like it could attract something terrible."
My concern is whether this combination would be a dangerous mix or a godly mix.
Nell's luck isn't a skill; it's truly something dwelling within her body.
But Petra's manifests完全 as a skill.
When these two meet, even I have no idea what will happen.
"If it were just Petra alone, I could manage somehow. I could even make her work seriously."
"You can? That gambling狂. Your worry is about Nell-chan?"
The troublesome part here is that this aspect is completely未知.
If it were just the Petra I know from FBO, I could use my experience to deal with even things that would surprise Judeus.
"That's it. If some clumsy fate manipulation were to cause anything to happen to Nell, I'd never forgive myself."
But this time, there are too many未知 factors.
"You're loved, aren't you♪ Nell-chan."
"...Well, I suppose so."
I ended up saying something a bit bold, but my concern is genuine.
At my sudden remark, Nell fidgets with her hair, her cheeks reddening.
As she glances at me, unsure how to react, Shalia turns her heartwarming gaze away from Nell and instead directs a teasing look at me.
"Then, if we could just decide not to accept her... but it's not that simple, is it?"
"No. Leaving this skill unattended is dangerous. It might be fine now, but if the Heretic Church were to get their hands on her and do something strange with her, it wouldn't end well."
I thought meeting her would be much later, but encountering her at this timing—is it the work of some 'force,' or just coincidence?
"It's not something we need to decide immediately. Let's put Petra's recruitment on hold for now."
Postponing the resolution of the issue, this agenda item was temporarily concluded.