Chapter 138

Chapter 138

The interior of Avilat’s gambling house was as opulent as it looked.

Gold threads adorned the closed windows, with a green flag symbolizing the neutral zone flying below.

The dealers milling around looked very familiar...... just like the ones I had seen in the game.

We exchanged our gold coins and headed inside.

There is a rule that you have to place bets and play using Imperial chips, which is the only currency available here.

Our mission here is, to put it simply, the Neutral Zone. To stop things that shouldn’t be happening, even if they are outside the law.

For example, the illegal auction of slaves and the oppression of a race.

To search for them, we were issued fake identities. Of course, the story with the coachman is a moot point, but you have to be careful here anyway.

I clicked my tongue as Paracelsus looked at the masked men and women around him and felt a sense of dreariness. He sighed and scratched his head.

His mask, by the way, came off.

I wondered if he was conscious of his unpleasant appearance.

“...... You’re a good man, Hagan{sic}, but you choose to come to this rotten place for a mission. ...I’m sure you’re not the only one.”

“Shut up. Commoner.”

I returned Paracelsus’s sarcasm with a modicum of sarcasm, then smirked.

The reason?

It was obvious.

It’s because the unit itself, Paracelsus, and this place don’t exactly go together.

‘Paracelsus’ luck is twofold, and I’m pretty sure he was born to be in a place like this.’

At my age, I’m used to having a Luck stat of 2, but this guy is different.

Paracelsus blossoms a hidden trait in the second half.

That is.

“Ha... I can’t help it, I’ve come this far, I might as well gamble.”

[a gambling addict] and.

“Uh...? Isn’t this machine broken? Why are my chips already gone?”

[The harms of gambling] / [Campaign against gambling addiction].

Thanks to the addictive nature of a game called .......

It’s a crazy combination that leaves you speechless, and in the second half of the game, Paracelsus is unable to collect any gold coins at all, despite his skill.

There is no explanation for this.

This is the gambling house of Avilat.

You’ll make a killing here.

‘I can see his future.’

There are good reasons for bringing him here earlier in his life. To familiarize him with the area, for example.

As for Leon, I brought him along just to take all the work off his plate. As for Eleanor, well, I was afraid she might run out of money.

For Talia, I was afraid she’d kill me if I didn’t bring her.

I don’t know what else, but I have an ominous, terrifying premonition that I won’t be able to handle that last one.

Damn it.

Why am I like this.......

No, no, no. Let’s just play the game for now.

It’s best to stimulate the brain’s central nervous system at times like this.

“Let’s get started, then.”

I took Talia, Leone, and Eleanor with me as we slowly made our way inside.

In the meantime, Paracelsus had already lost half of the seventy gold coins he had brought with him. How could he be in such terrible shape?

You almost wonder if he’s been conspiring with someone behind the scenes.

“Parakelsus-ssi seems to be... a bit under the weather, and I’d advise against going near him for a while.”

Leon said that bluntly, and then sat down with an innocent look on his face as if he didn’t know anything.

It’s a place where you play sip and savor, and if you get the right answer, you win the amount you bet. {TN: Craps table}

“Do you want to play odd or even?”

Leon was dressed in a black suit and a black lion mask, but he chose the black hole like it was nothing.

“How much do you want to bet?”

“I’ll bet everything I have.”

“......? Paracelsus the man said, and here’s another lamb who doesn’t know what the world is.......”

Eleanor was stunned. She hadn’t planned on playing the game in the first place; she had simply followed my suggestion.

She had recently mentioned that the top of the Rivalin family had had their carriage hijacked on the way to the academy and had lost some of their goods, and that they had ended up here.

Well, no wonder they’re biting. {The other gamblers}

For reference, she’s a fox mask, and Zitri is a yellow canary mask.

I’m a white cat, for some reason. Talia is a white jaguar, as if to match me.

Either way, they’re dishonest.

“Come on, let’s get going.”

I say, and look at Leon, who has now won over 3,000 chips, and Paracelsus, who has borrowed from him and lost another 400 or so chips.

Then it happened.

Out of the corner of my eye, I saw a man stop us.

“You’re a lucky bunch. ......except for that one gentleman.”

“Why not me? You’re a... scammer, aren’t you? Talk to me straight. Before I cut you down.”

Paracelsus drew his sword and raised it, so I stopped him and quietly handed him a few chips behind his back. He calmed down a bit.

“Since you have so much money, I would like to invite you to an auction where you can purchase some interesting items. Would you be interested?”

The man in black said.

‘This is the real start of Chapter Two.’

I was convinced. This is the main story.

The beginning of the second chapter.

{TN: Why say it three times???}

“I’d be willing to take a listen, but.......”

I nodded, and the man in the suit seemed to see it coming. He smiled at me, the kind of smile that comes with being a young master of a noble family.

Have you ever seen such an asshole?

He continued to demand.

“First of all, before you can enter the auction hall, you need to pay one thousand gold coins to raise your membership level.......”

“Cut the bullshit.”

This time, I barged in as Paracelsus.

If you ask me why, the reason is simple. What brought us here?

Because the Eldain Academy had our backs, demanding that we uncover the corruption. In other words, we already had.

“You don’t recognize a VIP, do you want to walk out of here with your wrists shackled?”

We had a VIP card.

If you’re asking me why I played the game anyway, first of all.

Because I felt like I needed to distract them.

And secondly, because there’s some good stuff in this dirty auction house. Especially since the artifacts you get here can be used quite a bit later in the game, so it’s definitely worth grabbing.

“......Oops, sorry. I didn’t recognize the VIP.......”

The man quickly bent his back to 90 degrees. However, he lifted his head for a moment to look at Paracelsus, as if he were wondering.

“Uh... By the way, are you a VIP, too? You were losing so much money earlier.......”

“I only lost on purpose.”

Paracelsus said nonchalantly, as if he didn’t know when he’d lost money. The man gave me a look of disbelief and led us to the underground auction house.

And there.

We could witness.

countless rare artifacts and slaves of other races.

It was almost sinful to look at, especially when elves, dwarves, and others were half-naked and branded with magic so that they could not escape.

“This is.......”

Talia rhymed, and Eleanor picked up.

“There’s some stuff stolen from us over there.”

...Although I was surprised at another point.

But that was me, too, so there’s nothing more to say.

I turn my gaze.

It lingers on a spot in the dimly lit underground auction house, for it is one of the Masterpiece units I have been searching for.

A boy with fierce-looking brown hair.

He has another one of the [Genius] traits, [Genius of Command], making him one of those characters that becomes an all-rounder in the late game.

Our gazes meet for a moment.

His black eyes stare at me intently.

Then his head turns completely around with an expression of disbelief.

“......that asshole.”

I mutter to myself.

I’m going to have to pick him up and roll him around for a while. Fixing the head first is the whole point of an introduction to assholeology.

“Have a seat, then.”

As soon as we heard the voice, the five of us took our seats.

The auction was about to begin.



{1} : Spent 30 min looking up what this tinnitus phrase is and couldn’t figure it out, any help would be appreciated.