Chapter 116 – Dice
“…Can you explain the rules?”
Her two neighbors sighed in frustration but the dealer stayed professional.
“Do you have any experience with dice games?”
“No.”
“All right. Let’s play the simplest game of pacirs. Are you two fine with that?”
“Whatever.”
“No.”
The second one stood up and left to play something else. The dealer momentarily looked at her before focusing on the two remaining ones.
“The rules are simple. I’m going to throw two dice. Players bet on low or high. Low goes from 2 to 6 and high goes from 8 to 12. 7 is my win. You’re not allowed to all bet on the same thing. Is it clear?”
Selva frowned, her brain going into overdrive to understand the rules. After a moment, she nodded and the game started.
I never imagined a game would be that rigged, even in a gambling house. With those rules, the gambling house would never lose any money but would still win once every sixth throw. Since the other player didn’t say anything, I guessed those sorts of terrible odds were normal here.
It was a good opportunity for me too. I needed to train my non-human observation skills and this game gave me the right to observe the dealer as much as I wanted. I focused all my attention on her, analyzing every one of her movements and facial expressions.
“Put your bets on the table.”
Selva looked troubled and turned toward me, presenting me with her gold coin. Fortunately for her, I understood what she wanted and took the gold coin back, giving her twenty silver coins in exchange for now. She placed one of these on the table and the other player did the same.
“High or low?”
“High.”
“…Low.”
Since Selva instantly answered high, the other player had no choice but to choose the other option. The dealer threw the dice and the result was 5 and 4. It was Selva’s victory.
“Yes!”
“Damn it!”
With now 21 silvers in hand, Selva put another coin down, awaiting the next game. The other customer did the same but immediately expressed his choice.
“High.”
“…Low.”
The dealer threw again and the result was 1 and 3. Selva won once more, making the girl exult.
“Yes! I knew I had a good feeling about this!”
However, the following games weren’t that great for her. She lost three times in a row, two to the other customer, and one to the dealer.
I had to admit, the dealer was great at her job. She kept her expression neutral, except when smiling professionally. I looked at her so hard that she became conscious of my gaze, sometimes glancing at me and squirming a little. It allowed me to notice a lot of things.
Obviously, the game was completely rigged, on top of the rules being already nonsensical. The woman had enough skills with the dice that she could get any result she wanted. She carefully gave wins to Selva at the start, to heighten the mood of the newbie gambler, and then made her lose, to force her to continue and recoup her losses. After that, she gave an equal number of wins to either player while trying hard to make it feel natural. From time to time, she would win herself, allowing the gambling house to earn some money.
This loop kept the players wanting to play since they felt themselves winning from time to time. However, if looking at reality, their total amount of coins was slowly dwindling. After a few games, the dealer discreetly pushed the players to bet more than one silver. From there, Selva's money disappeared even faster. Twenty games later, she only had five silvers left in hand.
“Argh! So close! Next time’s for real! I bet five silvers!”
Her opponent followed her bet due to winning the previous round. Seeing the larger amount of money, the dealer decided to take it all for herself and threw 3 and 4, making both players growl in exasperation. Selva turned to me, fire in her eyes.
“Tila! Give me more!”
“Are you su…”
“Yes! Hurry!”
She was already addicted. I gave her twenty silvers more and she directly bet five of them for the next round. Wico watched everything with a smile, enjoying her disciple learning a hard lesson about life, not caring about stopping her in the least. Selva’s mood was having great highs and lows, whenever she won or lost the current round. She was completely within the dealer’s palm.
Two hours later, she had already lost everything she earned so far. Her furious look when I refused her to pay the gold coin she would earn on the return trip was quite impressive. It disappeared right after Wico smacked her on the head, though. It was the first time I saw her physically handling her disciple and it worked well.
“If you annoy Tila more than this, I’ll spar with you for a week straight.”
This had the wonderful effect of immediately shutting her up. I knew well what would happen if people with such a disparity in ranks sparred for so long. I had spent a good portion of my life sparring with people way higher ranked than me, to my great displeasure.
Now in a terrible mood, Selva directly exited the gambling house, with us following soon after. The girl seemed to remember the way because she went straight to the inn without a single word. Once there, she headed toward her room and we heard the door slam from the lobby, startling the other clients. I queried Wico, who was still on my shoulders as always.
“How long until she calms down, master?”
“Just one night. She’s not one to brood for too long.”
“That’s good. So, what now?”
“You know well. My room’s the furthest away from Selva’s.”
I nodded happily. I already felt the excitement rushing through my veins. I quickly took the stairs to head to her room and, as soon as no one was around us anymore, I turned her around from behind my shoulders. She was now riding them from the front and I buried my head into her unprotected cloaca while still walking forward.
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