Ning watched the 3 of them go over to a table and sit down. He didn't immediately sit down too as there were only 3 spots at the table.
"You can go elsewhere and play if you like," Lisa said.
"It's fine," Ning said. "I will just watch for now." He stood behind the 3 of them and looked at the dealer who was handing out cards.
It had been a long time, so he had forgotten about the specifics on almost everything back on earth. He knew about cards and how many there were, or he thought he did, he couldn't remember any of the games that were played with the cards.
"What are we playing?" Lisa asked.
"This table is for 'find the duplicate'," Elina said. The dealer was a bald man wearing a white shirt under a red waistcoat. Ning was quite surprised to see a rather massive stack of cards in his hand.
As far as he knew, there shouldn't have been this many cards in general. He leaned onto Reever and asked, "do you know about this game?"
"Huh? Ah, yeah," Reever said. "It's a rather simple game actually. There should be about 10 different types of cards with him in that stack, all numbered 1 to 10. 1,2…5. Since there are 5 of us here, there should be about 100 cards in his hands. He will pass them along into 20 cards for each of us."
"Then, we put how much we want to stake in this match and start putting down the cards. I believe it will be us 4 against the dealer, so we will have to put down a card that he puts down. If we do it, we win the money, if he puts down a card that we have, he wins the money."
Ning wasn't sure he understood the explanation, so he decided to wait for the match.
"Please put in your bet," the dealer said.
The man that was already on the table put out a red coin worth 100 Gols. Reever and Lisa decided to start low, so they both brought out 20 and 40 Gols worth of coins each. Elina on the other hand brought out 100 Gols worth of coins as well.
Seeing that they had all dropped their bet, the dealer passed along the card. He was very proficient in what he was doing, so before anyone knew it, he was done.
Lisa and Reever's rings pulsed a bit, letting them know that he was using Aether. Ning noticed it too.
'Enchantment? On his body to make it faster perhaps?' Ning thought.
Once the dealer passed the cards, he waited for the people to be done. Ning watched the people shuffle their cards on their own and placed them down on the table.
"Shall I begin?" the dealer asked. After getting the confirmation from all of them, the dealer turned over the first card.
4.
From right to left, Elina, Lisa, Reever, and the other guy turned theirs over.
5, 7, 5, 10
None of them won. The dealer then took another card from his deck on the table and flipped it.
7.
"Aww, I lost," Lisa said, seeing the flipped 7.
The dealer nodded and took away her 40 coins. He then looked at the rest and asked, "Would you like to increase the bet before you proceed?"
None of them accepted and simply turned over their cards.
6, 8,1
It was the dealer's turn again, and he flipped a card.
6
Elina lost. The dealer took away her coins as well. Then, he asked the same question, "Would you like to increase the bet before you proceed?" the reply to which was a no.
Reever and the other guy flipped their cards.
4, 2
The dealer turned his card around.
1
He then asked the same question again, but this time, the other man accepted and added a 100.
Once done, they turned their cards again.
2, 9
The dealer said nothing and turned his cards.
9
"Dammit!" the man cried out, seeing 200 Gols being taken away by the dealer. "Screw this," he shouted and left the table.
Ning took the man's seat and waited.
"Would you like to add, sir?" the dealer asked.
Reever felt tempted. The match had been going on for a while and he had only bet 20 Gols. "Yes," he said and put in 30 gols to increase it up to 50.
His hands shook as he slowly turned over his card.
8
The dealer then turned his card.
6
"Oh god," Reever said. "This suspense is gonna give me a heart attack soon."
"Sir, wou—"
Before even listening to the dealer, Reever turned around his card.
6
"Wait… Did I win? I won! Yay!!" he shouted out loud as he celebrated winning 50 Gols.
Lisa and Elina congratulated him. While Ning took out his own coins to play. "Another round?" he asked them.
"Of course," they all responded and started playing all over again. They played for maybe 10 more minutes before they were fed up and wanted to find something else.
By then, Ning had lost about 400 Gols, Reever won about 200 Gols, Lisa was up only 20 gols, and Elina was down about 100.
"What else is there?" Lisa asked. She was fully engrossed with gambling, looking forward to the next table.
"Let me see," Elina was about to look around when someone spoke close to them.
"Eh? You are already allowed to leave the house?" A voice appeared from behind them. The four of them turned to see a handsome young man, barely in his mid-20s.
He was wearing a hat that covered most of his head, but there were parts of his head that were still visible.
'Blonde hair?' Ning thought with a hint of surprise on his face. 'Which means…'
"Brother Gilian, I didn't think I would see you in this place as well," Lisa said with a smile on her face. However, there was nothing warm about that smile at all.
'Gilian Xanders,' Ning thought. 'The 2nd son of the Emperor, one of the only 3 to children to inherit the golden hair.... the one that sent assassins after us.'
