Dice game
The patrol ended uneventfully as usual.
I was just wandering around, chatting with the ladies, beating up a few guys who didn’t go to work, and telling the kids stories, and then it was time to leave work.
He returned to the headquarters of the Foreign Guard, reported to the captain, and came out after hearing how muscular his meaty arms were.
“But why are you following me?”
“If I just send the leader, what kind of trouble will he cause? Let’s go together. Let’s try not to make a big fuss and finish it quickly.”
Kel grumbled the whole time, and followed me with a displeased expression. It was clear that he had smelled money.
“Tsk. Nine to one.”
“···What does that mean?”
“Okay, arm in arm.”
“No, please explain it to me…”
“Stop being so greedy.”
“What are you talking about? It doesn’t matter. Let’s just finish this quickly.”
I thought he was just a horny guy who was into women, but he was actually quite good at bargaining.
I headed to District 5. Maybe it was because the sun was setting, but everyone was moving around busily.
The ‘Sick Mermaid’ pub was located in the center of District 5. It was the most desirable location, and rumor had it that Joseph, the pub owner, had been given a good spot because his ancestor was particularly good at hammering when building Castle Cassadyck.
The ‘Sick Mermaid’ bar is built on the third floor, one level higher than the others, so it is the first thing you see when you enter District 5.
“Can’t you see Derek?”
I nodded to Kel’s question.
Popular bars like the ‘Sick Mermaid’ hire their own guards to keep drunkards from getting drunk, and the Sick Mermaid’s guard was Derek. He was a big, fierce-looking guy, but contrary to his appearance, he was actually gentle enough to have never hit anyone.
However, I heard that he was hired because he had a scary appearance and was effective against travelers and foreigners. Even drunk guys would watch their actions when Derek was standing or loitering around.
He was the guy who was always in front of the ‘Sick Mermaid’ bar, but today he was nowhere to be seen.
I paused in front of the ‘Sick Mermaid’ bar. There was no need to bring Kel in. Even if I did, she would just nag me.
“You’ll know once you go in. You catch the guys coming out from the front.”
“Captain, are you thinking of going in alone?”
Kel looked at me with worried eyes. It was strange because he had never looked at me like that before.
“Why? Are you worried?”
“If the captain goes in alone, wouldn’t you be worried about what might happen inside? He doesn’t have even a shred of self-control.”
It was not me he was worried about, but what I was going to do inside. I was dumbfounded that a horny medieval guy would belittle me.
“What do you mean… I’ll just beat up a few swindlers. Anyway, catch all the guys coming out in front and make them kneel.”
“Yes. I trust you, Captain. Are you just going to beat me up?”
“I told you, I got it.”
“It’s true! It’s the guys from Group 2 tonight! They’re not the guys that you can talk to like the other groups!”
‘If you were going to grumble like that, why did you come with me?’
I waved my hand at the continued nagging and grabbed the bar door.
He must have made a lot of money because the handle was bigger than other places and it was three times more shiny.
I pushed open the door and went in. The sweet smell of incense filled the air.
There were twenty round wooden tables in the hall. On the wall hung a deer head, obviously dead, and beneath it was a shabby hammer. It seemed that his ancestors were indeed good at hammering.
‘About seven people.’
I slowly looked around the inside of the bar, which had suddenly become quiet. Perhaps because I had just come home from work, or perhaps because rumors had spread through the small castle, there were no customers.
They were spread out everywhere, pretending not to be armed.
At one table sat a man in thin leather armor and a shabby-looking fellow wrapped in cloth, two large men leaning against the wall talking to each other, and a cold-eyed fellow right next to the door I had come through.
‘And one in front of the girl.’
At a round table in the center of the hall, larger than the other tables, sat a girl in a thick tunic and a man in chainmail.
‘That conman is wearing chain mail.’
I smiled without realizing it. And out of habit, I looked closely at the sword hanging from the man’s waist. It was short and wide, and at first glance, it looked like a sword used in Chinese houses.
They all had fierce eyes and each held a piece of iron, but except for the man sitting across from the girl, they were all just kids.
Even though I pretended not to notice, I felt the eyes gathering on me. Amidst the decorated mess, a thick boundary poked at me. In response, I smiled and raised my hand.
“Hey, Joseph! Can I have a beer?”
On the other side of the hall, at the entrance to the kitchen, a familiar man stood with a pale face. The emotions on his face were despair and distress.
“Ah···Aaron, you are definitely prohibited···.”
The owner of the sick mermaid, Joseph, scratched his characteristic goatee with his fingers and looked back and forth between me and the man in front of the girl. Judging from his expression, he seemed to be troubled. Which of the two would cause the least harm?
It was heartbreaking to see Joseph’s eyes turn towards the man. Instead of the guard captain, he chose a punk who rolled in from somewhere.
Of course, this was something that was going to happen regardless of Joseph’s choice. I headed straight to the table where the girl was sitting.
The surrounding guys flinched noticeably at his reckless movements. They seemed to think he was fooling them well, but it felt strangely clumsy.
‘Considering their level of armament, they seem to be quite the tough guys.’
At first, I thought they were just a family of scammers, but they seemed to belong to some group. They had the characteristic viciousness of back-alley guys who would pull out their knives at any moment, and they had the roughness of trying to inflate their size.
“Can I sit down?”
I looked at the man with the long scar on his cheek in front of the girl and asked. The man’s eyes scanned me quickly. He was a basic guy.
‘Are you admiring this perfect armor?’
I rather shrugged my shoulders and showed off the majesty of my fancy armor.
“···Put.”
At that moment, the girl laughed, and the man nodded and pulled his chair back, stepping back. Even so, the man’s center of gravity was still focused forward. It felt like an unspoken threat that he would draw his sword if he was even slightly off track, but it wasn’t threatening at all.
‘It’s a game of dice.’
Dice was the best of the men’s games. The rules were simple. One die was placed on the table, and each player passed it around in his cup. The one with the higher number won. If there was a tie, it was rolled again.
I have never lost a game of dice.
I leaned back against the chair, and the old chair gave a small scream under the weight.
“joy.”
The girl in front of me snorted softly. Only then could I confirm her appearance.
Her hair was an uncommon shade of purple, and it was greasy and tangled, as if she hadn’t taken care of it properly. Still, she ate her meals on time, and her face was shiny, but her eyes didn’t match that of a child.
Dead eyes. They were the kind of eyes that would come from a mercenary who had participated in a territory war, but seeing that they belonged to a child who hadn’t even reached adolescence, it seemed like he had lived a short but intense life.
The child looked around sideways and flapped his hands.
‘You look just like an abandoned stray cat.’
The child looked a lot like the cat I picked up on the street a long time ago and raised out of pity. The look in his eyes, the way he dressed, and the situation were all similar.
He smirked at him and glanced at the child’s palm. The child’s palm was smooth. It didn’t have the calluses that are typical of gamblers.
‘···I’m not a gambler.’
I was wondering how on earth he could draw 6 four times in a row. As I was looking at the child, our eyes met.
The child flinched in surprise, visibly, but did not let go of the cup and dice in his hands.
The child glanced at the man who had stepped aside, seemingly anxious, and his appearance closely resembled that of the stray cat that had been getting wet in the rain.
To that, I smiled as brightly as I could to ease the child’s guard.
‘Because nothing is better than a smile to let go of boundaries.’
The child’s eyes opened wide, and I smiled even brighter.
***
Kanna was not happy with the current situation.
‘He’s so weird! He’s so weird!’
A colorful armor, worn by someone who picked up discarded items from somewhere. A body that was a head larger than the others.
When the man first entered the bar, Kanna almost screamed, thinking it was an orc.
A man who had been looking around for a while sat down in front of Kanna. Kanna bit her lip at that.
‘Why, at this time!’
If only we had a little more time, we could have put our plan into action, but things got messed up when the man came in.
‘If not now, I’ll be dragged around by those guys again.’
Kanna glanced sideways at the people subtly surrounding the table she was sitting at.
Either because he was oblivious or because he was too drunk to think straight, the whole thing was a mess because of a man who entered the obviously dangerous bar without a care in the world.
The man stared at Kanna, opened his pocket, and placed a silver coin on the table. Clang. When the man’s pocket opened, a rather heavy sound was heard.
The swordsman next to him grinned and twirled his thumb. It was a signal to proceed.
‘You idiots! Even though your boss told you to hide, you couldn’t help it and caused trouble in this tiny castle!’
The curse rose to the tip of my tongue, but I couldn’t help it. No matter how much of a wizard she was, all the magic she could use was useless, so in the end she was just a powerless girl.
‘Calm down, Kanna. You can do it. Even if it’s them, if they catch you, it’s over.’
Kanna took a deep breath, calming her trembling heart.
At that moment, my eyes met with the man sitting in front of me.
It was the first time I saw someone with so many scars on their face. His face was covered with thick scars, as if he had been scratched by a wild beast. He seemed handsome on paper, but the scars on top of that were covering him up.
Deep eyes that didn’t match. So deep that it was impossible to tell what they were thinking. It was a look I had seen before. But it was an eye I would never see again.
‘···He’s dead. You have to come to your senses.’
Kanna practiced by gently spinning the cup without avoiding the man’s eyes. She could feel the dice inside the cup spinning around through her fingertips.
Suddenly, the man raised the corners of his mouth. At that, the man’s mouth opened wide, and the long scar next to his mouth became ugly. However, his eyes were not smiling, so it was an ugly sight that I was afraid to see in my dreams.
‘What…what!’
Kanna desperately held back her scream. The hand that was turning the cup trembled without her knowing it. In that moment, her mana was disrupted.
‘Do you know something?’
The man’s grotesque… no, hideous expression sent shivers down Kanna’s spine. Her spine stood on end and her palms became sweaty.
At that moment, the swordsman tapped his fingers on the table. It was a signal to proceed.
No matter how stupidly colorful the man’s armor was, they were only looking at the quality of his armor and how full his pockets were.
In response, Kanna cleared her throat.
“···Do you want to play dice?”
A voice so young that it was almost dazzling. Kanna lowered her head in embarrassment even though she had said it herself. It wasn’t bad.
The fools will be fooled by this innocent appearance and will wear a hypocritical warm mask without even realizing that my neck is exposed. A mask that will fall off in an instant.
“Okay, then.”
A deep voice, like the growling of a beast, came out of the man’s mouth.
Kanna was slightly surprised, but tried to act as if nothing had happened and touched the cup.
“I···will start from here.”
I pretended to be clumsy and grabbed the cup roughly. Then I rolled the dice inside the cup.
‘Phew···.’
Kanna moved her mana. A foreign sensation tickled her. She tried to suppress the unpleasant feeling of ants crawling on her, and controlled her mana.
The dice she was rolling had been exposed to her mana from before, so they immediately responded. At that moment, she stopped the cup, and even though she hadn’t opened it, she knew that the dice were pointing to 2.
Genius! Genius! A warm voice came to mind, and Kanna twisted the corners of her lips. How can someone who just uses dice to empty the pockets of commoners be called a genius magician?
‘···A slump wizard who gave up on books.’
It was a derogatory term used to refer to people like her. A derogatory term that made it look good for those trash who gave up on learning and just barely managed to survive with the low-level magic they had learned.
Kanna didn’t give up, but in the end, she was doing this crap. And Kanna knew that people only looked at the last sentence. They didn’t pay attention to the center part.
In the last sentence they read, Kanna was a ‘book-abandoning, straggler sorceress’, and the process by which she became that was beyond their interest.
When Kanna lifted the cup, the dice pointed to 2.
“I’m out of luck.”
The man muttered, still with a sinister expression on his face. He picked up the cup, and his dice showed a four.
“You’re lucky.”
The man who had been muttering softly smiled and took the silver coin from in front of Kanna, placing it back in front of me.
‘···You idiot!’
Not knowing that she was already in the swamp, she liked it! Kanna suppressed her laughter and took out two silver coins while maintaining a dazed expression.
Four silver coins were placed on the table.
Again, the dice were rolled.
This time, Kanna was 1 and the man was 2.
The man muttered again, ‘I’m lucky,’ and took the silver coins and piled them in front of me.
‘It’s too fast.’
The betting amount was rising quickly as the man was betting again right after he made his bet. This was what he wanted, but it was happening faster than usual.
I glanced at the swordsman out of the corner of my eye. The swordsman was smiling broadly as he looked at the man’s thick pockets. Then he stroked the sword hanging on his waist.
‘Phew···.’
In any case, it was a play whose outcome was already decided. Kanna once again took out four silver coins while controlling her expression.
This time, Kanna’s dice pointed to 1, and the man’s dice pointed to 2.
The man took the silver coins and stacked eight of them in front of me.
Kanna took out eight silver coins and put them up.
The dice were rolled again, and Kanna got a 2 and the man got a 3.
The man took eight silver coins and placed them in a pile in front of me, making a total of sixteen coins.
At that moment, Shaq swung his fist. It was a signal to start getting lucky.
“Ah··· Time···! I have to go now···.”
Kanna pretended to be in a hurry. She had done it so many times that what had been difficult at first was now becoming easy. Perhaps her talent was not in magic, but in acting. Kanna pondered to herself.
“Really? It was fun.”
At that moment, the man opened his pocket as if he was satisfied and put in the silver coins that were on the table.
Only then did Kanna realize the source of the discomfort she had been feeling since earlier. Even though the man had won quite a lot of silver coins, he only let out a small exclamation, and did not blush and become excited like the others.
I just liked it in a small way, like playing a simple game.
When the man came out like that, it was Kanna who became anxious. Kanna looked at Shap in a hurry, and Shap glared at her and tapped the sword on his waist with his finger.
It was a signal to proceed somehow. A signal that if you don’t eat that man, I’ll skin you. Kanna swallowed dry saliva and opened her mouth hurriedly.
“Ma… Shall we have one last game? I think we can have one more game…”
“Why? You said you were busy?”
“Ha··· One game···.”
Usually, at times like this, the other person would be anxious because they couldn’t eat him up, but this guy was patting his stomach as if he was satisfied, as if he had no greed.
“Hmm… what should I do….”
Behind the man, the swordsman, Shap, tapped the handle of his sword with a fierce expression, ready to swing his sword if the man resisted any longer.
The boss had given him such strong instructions, but the fool seemed to have forgotten them all. If the swordsman had committed a murder, it was clear that everything would have gone from a mess to the worst.
“I can even make one judgment!”
In an urgent situation, Kanna shouted urgently without realizing it. It was a disaster. It was certain that it would look even more strange to the other person.
‘No. This reaction is more natural! How many silver coins have I lost!’
Kanna rode that momentum and glared at her opponent with her sharp eyes. Her eyes glared at someone who was trying to run away.
“Okay, if you answer my question, I’ll give you another round.”
The man answered with his usual sinister expression. Kanna trembled in fear.
‘question?’
The man’s unexpected words made my head stiffen for a moment, but I came back to my senses when I saw the half-drawn sword of the swordsman. Yeah, what does it matter if it’s a question or something?
“Okay… ask me anything.”
“Oh, you know how to do a cold spell? Like making beer cold.”
Kanna’s eyes widened at the man’s question. A multitude of thoughts came to her mind in an instant, then burst out. How did he know that I was a wizard?
Kanna was so flustered by the man’s question that she didn’t even notice that the mask on her face had been removed.
The difference between a witch and a wizard was a thin sheet of paper. There was a very subtle difference between the two, and he called it ‘pride’.
And since casting a spell on dice to deceive others was clearly an act of abandoning pride, Kanna was now a witch. A witch who was tied to a strange wooden stick and burned to death in front of everyone.
While Kanna was panicking, the men, including the swordsman Shaq, slowly approached. They all had their iron weapons drawn more than half an inch away. The tension filled the space, as if it would burst at any moment.
“Aren’t you going to answer?”
Whether he was clueless or trusted the colorful armor, the man muttered in a calm voice, then searched through his pockets and took something out. It was a brilliant gold coin.
Gulp. The sound of someone swallowing saliva echoed loudly. At the sight of the gold coin, Kanna miraculously came to her senses.
‘Yeah, he’s going to die anyway. Let’s just think of it as hanging out together.’
After taking out the gold coin and realizing that Kanna was a witch, there was no chance of her surviving. The gold coin was worth the hassle of moving the castle.
“Yes. If you want, you can even float some ice.”
Kanna answered in her natural tone. There was no need to act any longer.
“Really? Sounds good.”
What’s so good about it? Kanna narrowed her eyes at the man’s answer. At that moment, the man was also staring at Kanna, and his gaze was just…
A sinister gaze, as if looking at a coveted, desperately wanted object.
Kanna swallowed dry saliva at the naked desire contained within.
But the problem was elsewhere. She didn’t have even one gold coin in her hand. How much could she have earned by robbing a small castle in a mountain valley? Now all she had left were 46 silver coins.
“Oh, just be there, walk away. That’s fun.”
The man suggested first, seeing Kanna hesitate.
‘···Idiot.’
Perhaps, since she had won so far, she thought she would win again. Only then did Kanna feel a little better.
“Thank you. That’s all.”
“What, to this extent.”
The man yawned as if he was bored. Kanna snorted inwardly at his reaction. She thought there was something there, but it turned out he was just a stupid, arrogant, and vicious-looking guy.
Kanna tried to relax, but she kept getting distracted by the gold coins on the table.
I grabbed the cup with trembling hands. I took a deep breath and slowly moved my hand. Now, the number of draws was 6. It didn’t matter what the opponent drew. From now on, I’ll only draw 6.
Boom. Kanna picked up the cup, and inside was a die with the number 6 facing up.
‘Ha, you idiot.’
I turned my gaze, anticipating how the face of the arrogant man just now would have been wrinkled up so beautifully and deliciously. However, he was even more stupid than I thought, and the corners of his mouth were still up.
“Is it my turn?”
The man turned the cup, and the only sounds in the bar were someone swallowing and the clanking of the dice as they rolled across the cup. Crunch. After a moment, the cup stopped, and the man lifted it with that same hideous expression on his face.
“···Meat?! What is this!”
The biggest and most stupid of the onlookers screamed. The man’s dice showed a six.
“You’re lucky.”
The man muttered in a flat voice as if it was nothing and placed the cup on the dice again.
“This time, me first.”
The man with that evil expression on his face turned the cup around again.
‘Did you have a talent for one thing?’
The swordsman, Shaq, no longer had any intention of hiding his presence, so he stood openly next to the man and looked down at him. Shaq’s sword was now hanging loosely in its scabbard.
Knock. A stop was heard, and the man lifted the cup with a light hand.
“You’re lucky.”
The dice showed 6 again.
The man muttered as if he had no fear, staring at the shark looking down from the side.
‘···That’s ridiculous.’
Kanna had been focused on the man’s hand since the moment he started rolling the cup. But she couldn’t find anything strange. Was she really as lucky as the man said?
Kanna bit her lip and picked up the cup. It didn’t matter if it was luck or anything. She, who casted magic without pride, would continue to draw 6s. Whether it was luck or dexterity, her opponent would eventually hit rock bottom.
Kanna spun the cup and got a 6. The game was back to square one.
“This time, me first.”
Kanna grabbed the cup and shouted confidently so as not to let anyone know she was nervous.
At that moment, the men next to him took a step closer. Now, the desolation of the iron was palpable, and Kanna felt pressured instead.
The swordsman struck the blade with a clang. That murderous sound kept disturbing Kanna’s concentration.
‘You idiots!’
Rather than helping, you’re actually getting in the way! Kanna bit her lip.
‘Let’s focus. It’s just a game of dice. It’s not even a magic axe.’
Kanna muttered to herself as she turned the cup. The sound of the dice rolling down the cup echoed. She concentrated again on moving her mana.
Then, the man suddenly opened his mouth.
“Why did you give up on the book?”
It was just a casual remark from a man, but it struck Kanna right in the eye and tore open her deepest scars.
And already, in a situation where concentration was disrupted by the pressure of the surroundings, it was decisive.
“Who gives up? What do you know···”
It was a flop. My concentration suddenly broke, my hand sprained, and the dice flew out of the cup and bounced around the table.
“···This crazy bitch.”
The swordsman swore, and the men around him all pulled out their iron clubs. Clang! The cool, sharp sound of the iron clubs combined with the rattling sound of the dice.
As the eerie irons around them pointed to them, the dice rolling on the table stopped.
The number that came up on the dice was 5. It was a stroke of luck.
‘···Not bad. It’s a sufficient number.’
Kanna muttered as if whispering to herself. The people around her seemed to have similar thoughts, so they all nodded and lightly bit their swords.
‘Yeah, 5 is a high number. We can win.’
Kanna forced the corners of her lips to rise and glared at her opponent.
“I’m out of luck.”
Even though everyone was staring at him, the other person muttered nonchalantly and grabbed the cup.
‘You’re out of luck. 5 is a high enough number…’
Drumroll. The sound of the dice hitting the cup echoed throughout the room, and everyone forgot to breathe and focused on the man’s hand.
The swordsman pulled out his blunt sword and pointed it at the man’s hand. It was an unspoken pressure to cut him off immediately if he showed even the slightest sign of playing with his hands.
Soon the man’s hand stopped.
The cup was slowly lifted.
“You’re lucky.”
The man made his usual expression as he looked at the dice that showed a 6.
Only then did Kanna realize that the man’s evil and brutal expression was a smile.
“Joseph, is the beer still far away?”
Amidst the cold iron objects aimed at him, the man was smiling.
