Martial Elf

“Uaaah! Damn! Clearly, it was this way!”

“Uaaaah!! Yay! I won! I won!”

The crowd was diverse, with some people screaming while holding their heads at a table, while others were grinning, receiving money pouches filled with silver coins from the man inside the table.

As the man inside the table began to juggle cups on top of one another and solicit customers after handing out money pouches to several people, I asked.

“What’s that?”

“Ah… It’s a type of gambling where you have to find the cup with the marble among three cups.”

“Cups? Oh, you mean mugs. Hmm…”

‘Gambling…’

I had never tried it before, but there were tales in the Central Plains about losing family property to gambling due to card games and dice thrown. It was not uncommon to hear stories about gambling wrecking households.

It seemed like a difficult time for people to secure food, clothing, and shelter, and yet gambling was already starting to develop; it was astonishing.

Many people had gathered to watch the gambling, but there were also quite a few who were participating in it.

‘What a chaotic world.’

I thought this, but surprisingly, the lively atmosphere and my lack of experience watching gambling sparked my curiosity.

I moved my steps towards the area where street gambling was taking place.

“Araya… you shouldn’t participate directly, right?”

Somehow, maybe because the risks of gambling were generally known, Kyle gave me an anxious look and warned me.

I was just interested and had no intention of participating in the gambling, so I stood among the spectators, watching the gambling involving the marbles and cups.

The gambler seemed to think enough participants had gathered again and began reopening the round.

“Alright, place your bets! Triple your money if you guess right!”

The gambler’s hands were quick, just as one would expect from someone living off gambling.

After showing the cup with the marble, he slowly picked up speed while either showing the inside or moving the marble to another cup.

“Here, here, not here, here, oh! Here, it’s speeding up! Here it goes! It’s speeding up! Watch closely!”

“Ah! I missed it!”

“……”

As the cups moved faster, leaving only an afterimage in the eyes of ordinary people, there were those who sighed after losing sight of the position and those who watched the movement of the cups without saying a word, their eyes wide open with tension to avoid losing focus.

As it sped up, spectators marveled at the skill of the gambler.

To my eyes, the movements were all ordinary, so I wasn’t particularly interested in gambling, but I found the gambler himself intriguing.

The precision with which power was transferred from his shoulders to his elbows and wrists was remarkable.

Though he wasn’t lacking in technique since he lacked internal energy, the level of completion was excellent.

In a time where learning was rare, if he had realized this on his own, I would have wanted to praise him even more.

‘…He’s using shallow tricks.’

However, just as the gambler’s tricks were reaching their peak, I frowned.

The cups that had been moving so quickly began to cross, and in the square created between them, the marble that was originally in one cup was bounced away.

The problem was that the marble was not bouncing between cups but rather shot towards the gambler, disappearing.

As the three cups slowly slowed down, there was no marble to be found in any of them.

‘To think he’d use such skills for mere cheating.’

The ability to consciously and effortlessly distribute power through his shoulders, elbows, and wrists was excellent, but more than that, his fingers were long, and his wrist movements were fluid.

He wasn’t built robustly like a strong martial artist based on solid strength like Hwang Bohka or Pengka, but his movements were delicate and high in accuracy.

If he learned stealth techniques, he would easily succeed, and even if he learned the Golden Nas Technique, he would advance a step ahead of others.

‘His mental acuity is beyond measure as well.’

In throwing techniques, such as stealth techniques, mental acuity is just as important as martial arts.

Unlike weapons attacking from a short distance, throwing techniques imply attacking from a distance and thus provide more time for preparation.

Hence, a top-notch throwing artist must utilize various psychological elements that prevent the opponent from reacting.

Seeing him so boldly tricking everyone without changing his expression while so many were watching showed excellent talent.

“Now, where’s the marble? If the marble is in the cup you bet on, you get three times your money!”

The once fast-moving cups finally came to a stop, and at that moment, the gambler began encouraging people to participate.

While there was some justification in earning from his talents, I found it quite irritating to see someone deceive common folks and gain unfair advantages, and I decided to give him a little punishment.

“I’ll bet here.”

As I placed my pouch in front of the cup in the center, it clashed with a heavy sound, spilling silver coins onto the table.

“Oooooh!”

When a sudden newcomer placed a bet amounting to at least 40 to 50 silver coins, the crowd seemed excited, cheering loudly.

Is gambling something that drives both the gamblers and the spectators crazy?

Would the person betting face ruin, or would the gambler face ruin? The spectators were eagerly awaiting the outcome of the gambling with thrilled expressions.

Only Kyle turned pale, peering into the hat as he whispered.

“Hey!! Didn’t you say you wouldn’t do it?”

“Isn’t it okay if I win?”

“…I’ve never seen anyone who said that actually win. But you bet quite a lot, didn’t you?”

“That’s all I have.”

“^%!@#%$#%#%#%$”

Kyle cried out in a bizarre expression, exhibiting fear, surprise, anger, and despair as he uttered incomprehensible words, but it seemed like this gambling would be easy to win if things went as I hoped.

If I were to lose… I’d think about that later.

The gambler swallowed hard and began counting the silver coins in the raised pouch.

“Let’s see the face of the one betting. I’ve been watching since earlier, and what’s that weird hat on your head?”

“Turning up the heat like this, and you won’t even show your face!”

“Looking at how you’re dressed, you seem like the daughter of a noble house.”

“But where could there be a family with such beautiful golden hair?”

The reactions around me got me a bit amused, so I tipped my hat back.

“Oh…”

The moment I removed my hat, the market’s noise remained as it was, but the clamor dissipated momentarily in this gambling area, and someone’s gasp brought others back to their senses.

Honestly, I thought this kind of reaction might become a little addictive.

“There are 47 silver coins.”

“Oooooh.”

The specific amount of the bet exceeded one gold coin, and perhaps due to the beauty I was betting on, the excited crowd’s energy began to rise even further.

Maybe seeing a chance, the gambler signaled to a man nearby with his eyes.

That moment, the man he glanced at was someone who had just lost money, covering his head.

Receiving the gambler’s signal, the man took out a pouch for himself and placed it in the same spot as mine.

“I’ve won and lost today, but I think I’ll bet on the adorable child who seems to bring luck today!”

“Oooo!! The stakes are getting higher!”

‘Was he a shill?’

If they were all in cohorts, I wouldn’t have to worry about how much I lost.

Originally, it seemed the shill’s job was to create a big stakes scenario in a specific area, lose, and then sweep everything away, but now that I had bet a lot of money, they would seize the opportunity to raise the stakes even more.

When it got to this level, the atmosphere shifted from excitement to near madness, and even passersby in the market had begun to come and see what was happening.

Many bets were being placed all around, but the mound of coins stacked in the center seemed to be twice as much as that on the other side.

Honestly, at this point, it looked like even the gambler was having a hard time maintaining his composure, swallowing hard.

“Okay! Then let’s see where the marble is!”

“Wait a minute.”

As I looked at the gambler’s hand moving toward the central cup, I pressed my index finger on the central cup.

The gambler, flustered that the cup he was about to open wasn’t moving at all when only an index finger touched it, seemed taken aback.

We can’t let this go on. The marble should be in your possession.

He probably intended to first open this cup to confirm my defeat and then insert the marble into a suitable cup.

The marble needed to be brought to the stage.

“You’re a great gambler, but your method of entertaining customers could use improvement.”

“Eh…? What do you mean?”

“This bet has the highest amount of money staked in today’s gambling, so wouldn’t it be less entertaining to start by opening the most important one? Let’s open another one first.”

“…Huh?”

“Oh, are we doing the opposite this time? That sounds fun too.”

“Hey! Hurry up and open it! I can’t wait!”

The sudden action surprised the gambler, but soon he gathered himself and began to proceed.

“Haha… you’re quite a lively customer. Then let’s open the least betted one first.”

“Oooo! Hurry up and open!”

As people started gathering in excitement, the gambler broke out in a cold sweat and opened the smallest cup first.

“Nothing! Nothing!”

“If the next one has nothing, then it’ll be three times that pile of money.”

“It seems bound to exceed 100 silver coins; this is quite the round.”

‘Did my request for entertainment anger him?’

I thought he would put the marble in the least betted cup, but the gambler opened it quietly without any tricks.

Thanks to that, the atmosphere rose as excited gazes turned toward the second cup.

“Alright… I’ll open it…!”

As the gambler opened the cup with one hand, he must have had the marble in his grasp, as it fell inside the opening cup.

In that corner behind the cup, no one could see.

‘I’ve been waiting!’

In that split second, I slightly lifted the cup I had pressed down on with my index finger, and using my left hand, I flicked the marble with a gust as it fell.

Before the marble could settle into the cup the gambler opened, it was deflected by the gust and bounced into the central cup.

I covered the marble with the cup that I had lifted.

However, if nothing changed, I’d notice something strange when the marble collided with the cup due to the added velocity, so as soon as the marble touched the inner side of the cup, I created a whirlpool of internal energy inside.

As soon as I felt the marble inside lose speed, cheers erupted around me.

“Uaaahhhh!”

“He really did win it!”

“With this one, I ended up having more than I lost today!”

“I sometimes thought this gambling was a scam, but I guess it was just my luck that ran out.”

While the crowd was excited, the gambler stood dumbfounded, his expression in shock as he mumbled blankly.

“Uh… Ah?… Why…? Surely…”

The man playing the role of the shill glared at the gambler with a distorted face.

“I don’t know why you look so angry.”

“Open it!”

“Yes, hurry up and open it!”

Kyle, too, joined in on the madness, urging him to open it quickly.

Despite having been the one to hold me back before.

I chuckled at that attitude and lifted the cup I had pressed down on.

“Why are you so upset? Didn’t you win a lot of money?”

I addressed the shill, but he just tightened his frown, his face growing red.

Inside the opened cup was, of course, a perfectly carved marble.

“The goddess of fortune has brought victory to me.”

---