Aliceia was defeated in the game. It was a constant cycle of, “I will win next time. I won!! So I will win next time too.” Thus, she got hooked into the quagmire of gambling and was completely defeated.
“Too bad, ojou-chan. How is it? Do you want to continue? You can bet that sword on your waist too, you know?”
“…I-I was just getting started!”
“Well said!”
To think I would lose so much… I-it’s okay. I should be able to win it back in the next game!!
“Step aside, I’ll do it.”
Fay, who had been watching all this time, placed a hand Aliceia’s shoulder and pulled her back. He sat down to face the man with a short beard.
“Oh my? Fay-sama, you’re gambling?”
“Yo-you, since when did you…”
“Ara ara, Ali-something-sama, thank you for earlier.”
“Thank you, you said… weren’t you depressed earlier… Also, my name is Aliceia. This is important.”
“I simply thought that it’s meaningless to stay depressed forever, so I proceeded to hang out by skipping around town then here I am, meeting with Fay-sama for the third time~♪”
You recover too quiiiicklyyy!! Moreover, don’t reunite with us so soon!!
Mordred was waving her hand at Fay, but their reunion was quick since Fay ignored her and glanced down at the card backs.
“By the way, you sure got swindled easily.”
“Eh? You mean me?”
“Who else? You’re the only idiot who got fooled to the fullest. Just because he occasionally lets you win, you get hooked onto gambling and now continue to compete recklessly.”
“Hey… Don’t make fun of me.”
Mordred whispered to Aliceia. Aliceia had a blue streak on her forehead, but Mordred, who made fun of her, was laughing. \n“Rather than that, how about we watch Fay-sama gamble?”
“I’m not pleased by how you suddenly changed the topic… but okay.”
Before their eyes was Fay, who had just been dealt five cards. He was betting all of his cash… in addition to his katana and his spare sword, putting his entire fortune on the line.
“Can Fay win?”
“He isn’t as foolish as you, so I think he could win.”
“Aah?”
Fay didn’t even look at the faces of the cards he was dealt with. He just pushed one forward while it was still facing down.
“…Oi oi, nii-chan. Don’t you need to see the card?”
“There’s no need to look. I’m a man who will win naturally.”
“…”
Fay didn’t move any more than that. The man also freezed up at the fact that Fay didn’t look at the card.
He glanced at the monkey on the ceiling.
Don’t tell me he noticed it?
The monkey in this shop was his assistant. That monkey would move around, look at his opponent’s card, and tell him the card’s value through its cries. The bearded man would just choose his card according to what his opponent has. It was a guaranteed victory.
Occasionally, he would let his opponent win. However, he would always win when it mattered the most. By repeating that process, he continued to make money.
It was a simple thing to do using the trained monkey.
However, Fay didn’t even look at his own card and randomly pushed one out while the card was still facing down. Nobody could have known what he chose in this way.
“…”
Fay silently waited for his opponent to play his card. And…
◆◆
I was invited to a gambling game by two people who looked like hoodlums. This… should be my event. There was no doubt about it. I was the protagonist, so it was natural for events to come my way. Aliceia, whom I didn’t know whether was actually a mob character or a heroine or something else, was also full of motivation.
What kind of character was this girl? I had no idea after all. She felt a lot thinner compared to me, the protagonist, though.
We were taken to the gambling place. Uwaah, this looked nice, it felt as though a bunch of cannon fodders gathered together as a delinquent group. I didn’t hate such an atmosphere, you know?
Ah, there was something like a monkey here.
A monkey (saru) couldn’t gamble so it should just quietly leave (saru).
…Well then, Aliceia just lost all of her money. She ended up playing more just because she won occasionally, was she a fool?
It felt like something that would happen to a cannon fodder type of character. Somehow, the possibility that she was a person who became the stand-in for the protagonist and bought time until the protagonist was ready had also become apparent now?
Well then, it was my turn next. I would bet everything, be it my money, katana, or sword. After all, there was no way I would lose against this group of low-lifes.
It might sound like prejudice, but there was no way I could lose against this shortly bearded hoodlum.
But… And it was just a ‘maybe’, but did he cheat? It was something often done by characters with short beards. It might just be prejudice, though.
For example, Aliceia only lost when she bet a lot. That man would only lose when there was little at stake, so there must be something going on.
U-hn, does he have a pattern on the back of the card? No, it didn’t feel like he was paying attention to the back of the card at all.
Once, she chose her card near her thighs so the back wouldn’t be visible, but the shortly bearded man immediately took out his card in response, so there shouldn’t have been any time for him to observe such a thing.\nDid he have some sort of supernatural power? Like an ability to read another person’s mind, for example? No, a person with such an ability would likely appear in other places over the course of the plot of Round Table Heroes.
There was no way this dude with a short beard could have such a power in this den of cannon fodders.
U-hn, but he definitely picked his cards after Aliceia, so this man was definitely cheating. I pondered on how it was done, but at that moment, a memory sparked through my mind.\n[“Fa-Fay-kun… Do you know what is different with me today…?”]
[“…Is it your hairstyle?”]
It happened once during my morning practice with Yururu-shishou. She came in with her beautiful silver hair in pigtails and asked me for my impression of it, so I thought she harbored feelings for me back then…
But it was actually foreshadowing this moment.
Pigtails → twin → her hair split → even if it got split, her body (Yururu) was still one → the enemy might look like one person, but perhaps there were actually two of them.
In that case… there was an insider who peeked at Aliceia’s hand and told mister short beard what card she played?
\nFuh, as expected of shishou. She pushed me forward properly even when she wasn’t around.
If it were a commoner or a normal person… they would likely have been unable to interpret the hidden message in Yururu-shishou’s hairstyle.
But I was the protagonist after all. I could tell because I was her beloved disciple. That instance was foreshadowing this moment. I really appreciate her help.
In that case, there should be an insider… but there wasn’t anyone behind me… was it that monkey? Perhaps that monkey peeked at her hand…? Or was there an invisible person in this room who secretly peeked and told the short beard dude…?
Well, regardless of the case, there shouldn’t be a problem as long as nobody knows what card I play, right? It should be okay since I didn’t even look at my own card. Even in the unlikely chance they used telepathy, it was useless since I didn’t know what the card was.
It was a complete gamble, but a proper gamble. However, I wouldn’t lose. I would definitely win in this condition, that man with the short beard couldn’t win.
Both destiny and the world were on my side. I would definitely win in this fifty-fifty chance game of luck. I would win, winwinwinwinwinwin, it was obvious I would win, total victory without defeat was normal. \nTherefore, I won.
It was three consecutive victories. Three times in a row. I will take the money now. You can wonder all you want about why you lost today.
Okay, good bye. \nAh, Mordred, you were here? Since when were you… Well, whatever. Rather than that, it was already noon, so let’s have some lunch before going to the dungeon.
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Also, Tsukii has picked up a new series called “A Story of a Cannon Fodder who Firmly Believed He was the Protagonist, Misunderstood the Actual Protagonist as the Cannon Fodder, and Ended up Victorious!” The title really says it all. Early access to more chapters for this story is available on Patreon.\n