Chapter 61 Ritual

The Bagful of Gold wasn’t particularly large, probably no bigger than the White Chickadee Tavern.

And yet, the White Chickadee had felt much more spacious.

The reason was obvious.

Every scrap of open floor in the Bagful of Gold’s main hall had been crammed with gaming tables.

Cheers of triumph and howls of despair rose one after another, blending into the thick reek of alcohol that hung over the room.

Xia Nan kept one hand protectively over his pocket as he forced his way through the packed crowd of gamblers.

The halfling who had been beside him was already nowhere to be seen.

Alton barely reached Xia Nan’s waist. In a place this crowded, the halfling had been swallowed by the sea of bodies almost instantly.

Xia Nan wasn’t worried about him.

The tavern was only so large. Anyone coming or going, or any real commotion breaking out, would be difficult to miss.

Besides, Alton was an adventurer too. His abilities weren’t in question.

If anything, being a halfling probably made him even more at home in a place like this than Xia Nan.

Smack!

At a nearby table, someone slapped down a distinctive card depicting two Winter Wolves.

The gamblers crowded around it erupted at once, some cheering wildly, others groaning in despair.

Xia Nan glanced over, frowned, and quickly looked away.

Playing cards existed in this world too.

The pictures and values on them, however, were completely different from anything he’d known in his previous life.

The rules also changed from region to region.

He didn’t know enough to risk sitting down at a table. If he tried anyway, he might end up losing even the clothes on his back.

He had only followed Alton here to take a look around.

Most of his money was deposited in a bank in Rivervale Town, and most of what he’d brought on the road was back at the inn.

He had entered the tavern with exactly seven silver and three copper coins.

A rapid clatter of dice drew his attention.

Xia Nan followed the sound and spotted a dealer in a bartender’s uniform vigorously shaking a dice cup.

He headed over.

Compared with card games and their countless complicated rules, dice were much easier to understand.

There were still plenty of variations, and the laws of physics in this world were surely not identical to those of his old one, but basic mathematics was still mathematics.

Odd or even.

Quick, simple, easy to follow.

In a tavern like the Bagful of Gold, it was naturally one of the most popular games around.

Xia Nan had barely approached the table, before he’d even managed to squeeze through the crowd, when he froze.

Alton, who had vanished the moment they entered, was already sitting at the table.

And beside his hand sat a sizable pile of coins.

Xia Nan was still marveling at how quickly the halfling had gotten there when Alton abruptly shoved the entire pile forward under the eyes of the surrounding gamblers.

“All in!”

[What!?]

…

…

Drip, drip.

Cold, clear rain fell in fine threads, filling the uneven road with puddles of every size.

Standing beneath the tavern’s eaves, Xia Nan looked up at the dark clouds churning and crashing together overhead.

They showed no sign of thinning.

“A heavy storm is coming.”

Beside him, Alton tossed his Lucky Coin into the air, smiling as if he didn’t have a care in the world.

Xia Nan said nothing.

He merely stared at the halfling with a strange expression.

The last two hours replayed through his mind.

[Strange. Way too strange.]

At the gaming table, Alton had been exactly as Xia Nan remembered him – cheerful, optimistic, grinning from start to finish.

His betting style, however, had been more vicious than that of the craziest gambler in the room.

Every round.

All in.

And somehow, the results matched his identity as a believer in the Goddess of Fortune perfectly.

He either won or tied.

Not once did he lose.

By the end, even the gamblers who had never seen Alton before were staring at him like they’d witnessed something impossible.

Xia Nan had considered joining in.

But the longer he watched, the more something felt off.

So he’d gone over and asked Alton about it.

Alton had simply shaken his head.

That was enough for Xia Nan. He immediately abandoned the idea and settled for watching from the side.

Over the next two hours, he’d watched the pile of coins beside Alton grow higher and higher.

Even the dealer’s expression had gradually changed.

At one point, Xia Nan had faintly heard arguments and agitation coming from a room behind the tavern.

If not for the two swords on his back, someone probably would have come over to have a private word with them long ago.

Xia Nan had already prepared himself in case that happened.

Then, barely half a minute ago, Alton had pushed his mountain of winnings onto the table one more time.

Xia Nan had expected him to do what he’d done every round before – somehow guess the result as if he could see through the cup and take everything.

Instead, for the first time…

Alton lost.

And because he’d gone all in, every coin he’d won, along with his original stake, disappeared in a single round.

Now the only thing left on him was the Lucky Coin he was tossing through his fingers.

Yet there hadn’t been so much as a flicker of disappointment on his face.

He’d walked away laughing, as if what he’d lost was nothing more than a pile of stones by the roadside.

Xia Nan also remembered that when they’d left, a middle-aged man who looked like the tavern manager had personally approached Alton and invited him inside for a private conversation.

Alton had cheerfully declined.

Now the halfling was squatting beside the road, happily studying a puddle as though it were the most interesting thing he’d seen all day.

Xia Nan pressed a hand to his pocket.

The reassuring hardness of seven silver and three copper coins met his palm.

For some reason, his mouth suddenly felt dry.

He wet his lips.

“Back there… did you lose on purpose?”

Alton glanced up. “Which part?”

“The last round.”

“Yes and no.”

He poked a fingertip into the puddle.

The surface, already alive with countless ripples from the rain, spread into another ring of waves.

Xia Nan frowned. “What does that mean?”

“Luck is conserved.”

Alton suddenly stood and stretched his left hand beyond the shelter of the eaves.

Fine rain pattered against his palm.

A crystal-clear droplet landed on the tip of one finger, split under gravity, and slid down both sides.

“Everyone knows the Smiling Lady, who represents good fortune, has a sister whose domain is the exact opposite.”

“Good fortune and misfortune are really the same thing.”

With damp fingers, Alton pinched the brass-colored coin.

Then he tossed it into the air again.

“You can’t keep winning forever.”

The coin spun.

“And you won’t lose every game.”

Rain tapped against its surface.

Tiny droplets scattered from the turning brass, catching the dim gray light.

For a fleeting instant, Xia Nan thought he saw the long-haired woman engraved on the face of the coin become startlingly clear.

Then it clicked.

Maybe everything Alton had done inside the tavern really had been nothing more than a whim.

Something fun to pass the time.

But at the same time, every reckless bet, every victory, and that final deliberate loss had aligned almost perfectly with the teachings of the Goddess of Fortune, Tymora.

It hadn’t been gambling.

It had been a ritual.