Swish-
Delicate fingers shuffle the cards.
The girl in front of me, N-grade hero Scarlet, is a con artist.
Unlike the other members of the Gambler's Club, she doesn't use magic in her technique.
Pure skill.
She has been holding cards since she was born in a circus troupe.
Every subtle gesture and movement is a fake designed to bewilder the opponent. Her fingers are trained to the extreme, coupled with overwhelming psychological warfare.
While other gamblers rely on one cheat skill each, she is a monster among monsters, fighting solely with her pure skill.
In games, she would normally be a less interesting opponent, but now.
'She's the worst opponent to face.'
Watching her finish shuffling and dealing the cards, I broke into a cold sweat.
This girl doesn't cheat. Because if the victim doesn't realize they're being cheated, it's not considered cheating. Her skill is that cunning.
She doesn't even need to use a technique. With her innate poker skill alone, she could easily crush me.
Since she doesn't use magic, I can't flip the game by catching her cheat as I did with the previous gamblers.
And if we just play 1-on-1 poker, my defeat is as clear as day.
Now.
How will I bring down this girl?
"What are you thinking so deeply about, your highness?"
Scarlet, dealing the cards, smiled with her eyes.
"Don't do that, please focus on the game with me. Even though I look young, many people at my previous place considered playing cards with me as a lifetime wish."
"An idol, were you?"
"Hehe. It's a somewhat embarrassing nickname. The flower of the underground poker room, the mascot of the house... everyone adored me."
Snap-
After dealing our cards, Scarlet whispered softly.
"Then, they all got eaten by me."
Without any pretense, she radiated the aura of a true gambler.
Picking up the cards she gave me, I grinned.
"Well then... let's see if I can eat you."
***
I got completely fleeced.
"...You're too good at this."
I mumbled in disbelief, but Scarlet just smiled with her eyes and quietly shuffled the cards.
She was crushing me with a mere difference in skill, not using any con artist techniques.
After what happened to her colleagues, she must have decided to play it safe and go for a straightforward win.
A very accurate decision.
I had asked Damien to observe this round from the next room.
If he saw her using any sleight of hand to win, he would immediately intervene.
But Damien detected nothing from her. In other words, she's just playing poker normally.
And yet she's overwhelmingly beating me.
"..."
I was left with only 10 chips, having lost 90 to her.
Scarlet glanced at the chips piled on her table and licked her lips playfully. I laughed helplessly.
The poker in this world is similar to Earth's Texas Hold'em.
Two hole cards and five community cards are used to make the strongest five-card hand.
However, not all five community cards are revealed at the start.
Initially, three are opened, then one more each time, deciding whether to continue the game or give up and hand over the stakes to the opponent.
The crux of the skill lies here.
You need to read your hand, calculate the odds, and if it seems disadvantageous, you shouldn't hesitate to give up the stakes.
That's how you win the overall game.
In essence, 'it's a game where you win by losing well.'
I was inexperienced in this aspect. I overused bluffing even with a decent hand and was utterly crushed by Scarlet's sharp calculations.
As a result, I was left with only 10 chips.
Swish-
With incredibly smooth movements, she shuffled the cards. I casually asked her.
"Why did you choose to live as a gambler?"
"It wasn't my choice."
Scarlet replied nonchalantly as she finished shuffling.
"A commoner girl born in a circus troupe doesn't have the luxury of choice. I had to do whatever it took to make a living."
"..."
"Fortunately, it was the cards that chose me."
She said it was not her who chose the cards, but the cards that chose her.
I asked her again.
"If you had the chance to choose your life, would you still pick the cards?"
"..."
Scarlet paused, then,
"Yes."
She looked down at the cards and answered.
"Alright, Miss Scarlet."
I smiled faintly and gestured with my hand.
"I wish you would deal me a really good hand from now on, so I can definitely win."
"Hehe, I wish I could do that for you, but isn’t it all up to your luck, your highness?"
But from that round onward.
Suddenly, my hands started getting incredibly strong.
"Diamond flush."
"Full house."
"Four aces."
Impossibly strong hands started coming my way, and in no time, I had almost all of her chips.
The tide had turned: I had 190 chips, Scarlet had 10.
"...How?"
Scarlet looked at me with widened eyes, unable to believe the situation.
"How did you do it, just now...?"
"Well."
I grinned and dealt the last hand.
"I guess I'm just lucky today."
Spades 10, J, Q, K, A.
A royal straight flush.
The strongest hand in poker, practically unseen in reality.
I threw my hand forward, then drew her last chips towards me. Scarlet's mouth hung open in shock.
"This can't be real."
"No."
Standing up, I declared clearly.
"This is definitely a reality you created."
A little earlier, I told Scarlet.
- I wish you would deal me a really good hand from now on, so I can definitely win.
As I said this, I used [Gaze of Command].
Under conditional mind control, Scarlet, as a skilled con artist, sorted the cards during shuffling to give me the strongest combinations possible.
Sorting a deck to hand over a desired combination to the opponent?
A feat possible for a first-class con artist.
I used [Gaze of Command] believing in Scarlet's skills, and she faithfully lived up to my expectations.
"You're very competent, Scarlet."
Still bewildered and not understanding the situation, I patted her shoulder and left.
"It makes you easy to use, too."
I hope she doesn't find it too underhanded when she realizes the truth later.
After all, that's what gambling is. A fight of deception and not being deceived.
'Certainly, Scarlet is very strong as a con artist.'
Other gamblers using usual tricks would be easily crushed by her.
But in the end, she lacks magical talent. In other words, she has no means to counter my magic.
No matter how skilled she is in gambling, she's still an N-grade hero. She might have gained fame and a name for herself in the gambling world with her sleight of hand-
But this is a battlefield.
Fighting against real magic is, to put it simply, a battle of a different genre. From the start, it was an overwhelming challenge for her.
'But she can be very useful in other ways.'
Thinking this, I stepped out of the guest room and stretched my neck.
"So, where's the last one?"
***
The final round.
The location is the training ground. The opponent, SR-grade hero, Violet.
"..."
Sitting anxiously at the table placed in the training ground, Violet jumped up upon seeing me.
I sat down in front of her with a relaxed gesture.
With a pale face, Violet stuttered.
"My colleagues...?"
"They've turned into chips."
I said casually and winked.
"They all underestimated me too much. Right?"
"..."
"Playing tricks in front of royalty. Didn’t they cherish their lives? Or were they that confident in their skills?"
Violet bit her lip hard. I chuckled.
"So, Miss Violet. How are you planning to challenge me? Your trick has already been thwarted by me."
"Ugh..."
"It's okay to tuck your tail and run. Want to give up? Fold if you want. Then, at least your life will be spared."
As I taunted her, Violet gritted her teeth.
"Don't joke..."
"Hmm?"
"Don’t joke with me, you prince! How could I fold after coming this far?!"
Violet slammed her trilby hat on the ground, spitting out her words fiercely.
"Shit! I've rolled enough in all kinds of dirty back alleys! I've been at gunpoint, stabbed in the stomach! I've played poker while bleeding like a stuck pig and won my way here!"
Finally, I heard her true tone.
The formal tones she had been using, all awkward and ill-fitting, were gone.
Backed into a real corner, Violet finally let go of her pretenses and revealed her true colors.
"It's do or die now! If I can’t pull off a big score here, I’m as good as dead in the cold streets!"
Her coarse, cheap dialect clashed with her artificially dyed purple hair, meant to look noble.
"I’ve survived all kinds of hellish shit! Mafia bosses, arena champions, serial killers! I've beaten them all and crawled my way here to survive!"
I liked that.
"Think you can take down a prince-?!"
Screech!
Her violet eyes sparkled as she deployed her illusion field - [Violet Zone].
Smartly learning from our encounter yesterday.
Whoosh!
Her illusion field deployed around me but didn’t touch me, surrounding the entire lord’s mansion, but carefully controlled to avoid affecting my immediate area.
"Ho."
I genuinely admired her.
"Not bad at all, Violet."
"...My magic doesn’t work on you, but it works outside!"
[Unyielding Commander] has a limited range of effectiveness.
Outside of its range, I can't provide immunity to mental status effects for allies.
By now, the lord's mansion must be under the sway of Violet's illusions.
Visibly strained by the effort to maintain such a large area, Violet gasped for breath.
"While I hold you here, I’ll use my illusions to free my colleagues... and steal your gold bars! Then escape!"
"Right, right. You should have used it like this from the start."
I nodded.
"Your skills are too precious to waste just on gambling."
"What...?"
"Above all, I see clearly now, Violet."
I clicked my tongue briefly and snapped my fingers. Snap!
"Folding when you should, yet you hold a losing hand and challenge again. And even in such a situation, trying to save your colleagues..."
As I snapped my fingers,
Fwip-
Pop!
A rubber bullet, fired from the direction of the lord's mansion, struck Violet right on the forehead.
It was shot by Damien.
Damien's [Far-Sight] is not deceived by illusions like Violet's. I had already instructed him to prepare rubber bullet sniping in case of an emergency.
Violet crumpled to the ground without even a scream, knocked out cold, and her illusion field dissipated and dissolved.
Looking down at Violet, who fell foaming at the mouth, I clicked my tongue.
"You really don't suit being a gambler."
So, I’ll find a more useful way to employ you.
--TL Notes--
Hope you enjoyed this chapter. If you want to support me or give me feedback, you can do it at patreon.com/MattReading