The House of Amaryllis was one of the most popular sites in all Moldun.
An absurd amount of money flowed in and out of the establishment every single day. Naturally, more money flowed in than out.
Such was the nature of gambling houses.
Betting games could net someone a large sum of money, but the chances of that happening were lower than the chance of losing money. Thus, the gambling houses never worried about paying out hefty sums of money to customers—the money would come right back.
Although the gambling sector constituted most of the house’s income, it wasn’t the only source. Food and entertainment also played their part in returning a profit.
“Welcome to the House of Amaryllis, Little X!”
Meya eyed him as she presented the main floor.
The young boy’s lost eyes roamed everywhere, never focusing on a singular thing for more than a couple seconds. After a minute, a booming voice echoed throughout the main room.
“Come one! Come all! The Glory of Upstan and the Lazure Plague begins in 5 minutes!”
The announcement caught their attention and the boy looked at Meya inquisitively.
“That’s a theatrical play, do you want to see it? It’s pretty popular, normally the seats are full. We don’t have to worry about seating though.”
She gestured towards his room token.
“Okay, let’s see it.”
The boy nodded and Meya guided him away from the main floor.
Before long, they found themselves seated in a VIP area, overlooking a huge stage below. Surrounding the stage were hundreds of seats all filled with bodies. Families and couples waited with abated breaths for the play to begin.
“Meya, why does the room token allow us to be treated so well?”
Simply having the token was like being treated as royalty, which seemed odd to the boy.
“Oh, that’s simple. The House of Amaryllis is owned by Madam Lexene. She owns both the hotel and this place, as well as many other popular locations. Having a purple room token is equivalent to being a VIP in every location owned by her.”
Madam Lexene…
The name echoed in his thoughts.
He was familiar with the name by now. The first time he encountered it was from the alchemy shop manager in East Moldun, but strangers even mentioned it during his travels.
“Although Madam Lexene has a good public image… stay away from her, okay?”
She spoke in a hushed tone, quickly glancing around.
“Why?”
“Madam Lexene is a very powerful and dangerous woman. Just stay away from her.”
Her voice dropped another note lower.
The boy nodded.
Might as well. It’s like not I’d seek her out anyway.
A blaring voice interrupted their conversation.
“The Glory of Upstan and The Lazure Plague!”
The announcer roared, sparking a massive cheer from the crowd.
The lights dimmed and soon the play began.
It was a simple but powerful tale of a young hero named Upstan who grew up in poverty. In order to protect his family, the hero left on a wild adventure.
He conquered many trials and tribulations while simultaneously becoming a prestigious alchemist. Unfortunately, he also made many enemies. Eventually one of them, an evil alchemist, created a plague that turned people into mindless bodies that attacked anyone in sight.
Upstan fought his way into the evil alchemist’s lair, putting an end to the madness, while simultaneously discovering a cure for those infected. Unfortunately, people who had been infected for too long weren’t able to be saved.
Nonetheless, his name became legend from that point forward, ending the play.
The lights brightened as the play ended, causing another wave of cheers to shake the arena. The actors lingered on stage to greet their fans and accept gifts.
“How did you like the play, Little X?”
Meya asked as they made their way out of the room.
“Hmm… It was good, but why is it so popular?”
“Well you see, it’s based on a true story! Upstan was a real person, and the Lazure Plague was also real. In fact, I hear there are forbidden zones in the tower that still have the Lazure Plague. Ever since Upstan disappeared, no one has been able to enter these forbidden zones.”
Meya explained.
“Wow, Upstan must have been really powerful then.”
“That’s right! If it weren’t for Upstan, the plague would likely have spread everywhere.”
“I see…”
While the play was entertaining, the boy felt as if it weren’t his cup of tea. To him, sitting there for a couple hours felt like a waste of time.
“Let’s go check out the games!”
Meya spoke up almost as if she could read his mind.
The boy simply let Meya drag him off to another location, the gambling tables.
“This is the main attraction of a gambling house. Let’s go over there and watch them play, I’ll teach you.”
She pointed to an incredibly popular set of tables. Crowds covered the seats, while others chose to idle by the side and watch the players win or lose.
The boy saw a sign labeled Chaos Round, and unbeknown to Meya, he had been actively listening to the ongoing games around him, Chaos Round included. As soon as they were able to see the table, the boy linked together different information he previously overhead.
“Do you see those orbs? Each player gets three orbs, and one of them is blank. The list of what each orb can possible have inside is over there.”
She pointed to a wall with a multitude of different animals, objects, and concepts etched into it. Next to each depiction was a probability. Two of them in particular boasted a probability that was less than 1%.
“What happens if you get Harmony or Chaos?”
The boy pointed out these two anomalies.
“If anyone gets Harmony, then the dealer, also known as the house, wins by default, but if you get Chaos then everybody at the table wins. While that might seem even, Harmony actually has a higher chance to be drawn. Also, Chaos can only be used in certain scenarios. If the conditions aren’t right, then Chaos just acts as a replacement for anything of your choice.”
The boy came to an understanding with her explanation.
Two orbs were known from the start and could not be changed, the third orb was unknown but would be revealed later. Each round, the player would receive two additional unknown orbs. The player would then receive a score based on the combination of their orbs once the gambling was finished.
During each gambling rotation, the player had the choice to exchange their third orb for a new one. The biggest way for players to lose was for the house to obtain certain combinations that would allow it to win by default.
This was how the house made their money.
“So basically… Everyone draws from the pool of orbs. If anyone gets the Harmony orb, then the house wins. If the house draws any of the winning combinations, then the house wins. The percentages are in favor of the house.”
The boy summarized the game back to Meya.
Her eyes widened in surprise. She only explained it once, and yet he already seemed familiar with the concept of the game.
“Er, yes! Look there. That guy has one ocean and one lightning. This is a good combination if he gets any of the fish type animals as his third orb. Then with the two unknown orbs he’ll pray for an opposite combination. This is also a good way to win.”
The round played out. Unfortunately, the man completely lost, but two others next to him beat the house score. The house itself didn’t draw any of its winning combinations.
“So now those two are winners, while that guy loses the money he bet.”
The boy nodded. In fact, those two weren’t the only winners. At this single table there were 50 people gambling at once, and of these 50 people, only about 23 had won.
His gaze intensified. He was thoroughly intrigued.
“Meya, can we watch for a while?”
His eyes never left the table for even a second.
“Sure, come this way and we can find some seats. Then we can watch all the tables at once.”
She dragged the reluctant boy upstairs, coming to a balcony that overlooked the entire floor.
Sitting at a table, Meya motioned towards the center where a crystal film displayed an overhead view of a random gambling table. She swiped her fingers across the screen repeatedly, changing the view until she found one that displayed Chaos Round.
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The boy stared at the screen intensely.
Ah, he seems so focused. How adorable.
Her heart melted as she imprinted the scene into her memories.
Before long, the boy used his finger to trace the screen.
“What are you up to Little X?”
Meya found his actions odd but asked anyway.
“I think… that player will win this round.”
He pointed to one of the orb sets.
Meya studied the orb combination. It was halfway between two decent combinations, but together it wasn’t anything special.
“Why is that?”
She was skeptical, with good reason.
“Well… the percentages on the board over there. If they’re correct. Then based off the other orbs that have been drawn, that player has an 83% chance of winning.”
The moment he gave this assertive number, the round finished—the player won.
“What the…”
Meya stared at the combination that turned out to be just above the threshold to win. The orb set didn’t even match the two combinations that she had in her mind; they were mediocre at best.
The next round began.
Within no time, the boy began mumbling with his fingers as if he were counting to himself.
“Those two have a really good chance of winning. These four will definitely lose.”
The number of guesses increased.
Meya watched the game intently. The round finished, and the results—100% accurate! The two players had indeed won, while the other four lost miserably.
“Little X… are you sure you’re not an expert at this?”
The shock in her voice couldn’t be contained.
He tilted his head to the side in thought.
“Hmm, no? I just learned right now. Isn’t this how you play the game?”
His innocence was too much at times.
“Little X, people play the game by gambling. It’s a risk, but how are you so accurate?”
“I just count the numbers and use the chart over there. The percentages can be used, along with which orbs are already on the table.”
While he made it sound easy, it was anything but that.
The number of calculations required to make even one educated guess required a decent amount of training, let alone doing the math for six individual people. Little did Meya know; he still wasn’t used to it and was improving at an extremely fast pace.
“That’s, really incredible…”
The next round started, and Meya resumed her watch.
In her head, she was trying to find all the orbs on the table and remember their percentages, and then attempt some guesses at which orbs could be revealed. It was arduous to say the least, and her thoughts were scattered all over the place.
The round came to an end without her bothering to make a single guess.
“Meya, let’s play Chaos Round.”
The boy looked up at her expectantly.
“Well… I don’t really want you to gamble. It’s not good you see. People who gamble always lose money in the end. It’s just how these places work.”
She denied him.
Despite taking him here, she only intended to show him around. She never wanted to introduce him to gambling.
She knew firsthand how gambling could consume people and cause addiction issues that ruined lives. Witnessing this scene many times in the past, each one ended in a miserable experience for the addict.
“Oh…”
The boy resumed watching the game.
Meya could feel the downcast atmosphere radiating outward, causing her to regret denying him. She bit her lip in thought.
“How about I do the gambling. If you still want to play, then you can sit next to me and call the shots. How does that sound? I have a little bit of spending money. I don’t mind if we lose it all.”
Meya offered thoughtfully, causing the boy’s ears to perk up instantly.
“Let’s do it!”
He rushed to his feet, invoking a muffled giggle from Meya.
“Slow down, the game isn’t going to fly away. Okay, let’s find a seat at a low-cost table.”
Making their way downstairs, Meya explained the hierarchy and rules for betting tables.
“The low entry tables are colored green, let’s find one of those. Above green are the yellow tables, and between green and yellow they make up the majority of players.”
After a couple of minutes, they were seated at a green-clothed table. Meya revealed a low-rank spirit shard, which was the minimum price to play.
“After yellow is red. Each table has a minimum price to play which increases with the color.”
She placed the low-rank spirit shard on the tabletop.
“This is the price for green tables. Yellow tables cost a mid-rank spirit shard, while red tables cost a high-rank spirit shard.”
The boy pointed to a purple-clothed table in the distance. There was only one on the entire floor.
“What about the purple table?”
“Oh, that? That’s for very wealthy patrons. People like me wouldn’t dream of playing at those tables. The minimum buy-in for purple is ten high-rank spirit shards. Pretty extravagant, right?”
The boy shrugged his shoulders. What could he possibly know about extravagance?
“Bets in.”
The dealer finished serving everyone’s first set of orbs, allowing them to place their initial bets.
Meya checked her orb combination, Magma and Salamander.
“What do you think, Little X?”
She fidgeted hesitantly before receiving a nod in response. He wanted her to place a bet, so she increased her one spirit shard to two spirit shards.
The third orb came out; a cloudy mountain swirled within.
She increased her bet once again, totaling to three spirit shards, and held her breath as the last two orbs came out.
“Should be a 77% chance of winning.”
The boy mumbled beside her. Meya’s cheeks flushed red, was it the adrenaline? or was it the close contact? She didn’t know.
Magma, Salamander, Mountain, Flower, Lightning Serpent. The combination wasn’t perfect, but it was mostly synergistic besides the flower orb.
However, above all else, it scored higher than the dealer. Simply put, it was a win, and the money she sacrificed for betting was returned—doubled.
Before she could celebrate, the next round began. This time, there was no signal to continue betting, so Meya left her bet alone.
Little X must think our odds are low. Looking at the two orbs… grass and winter… they don’t make for a good combination.
Of course, the boy’s estimation wasn’t purely based off the grass and winter orbs. His eyes scanned the entire table, inspecting everyone’s options and the different probabilities of what could happen.
He concluded that Meya had less than a 30% chance to win—odds that he wasn’t a fan of.
Just as he predicted, Meya lost her single spirit shard. Still, she was positive two spirit shards between the two rounds.
Multiple rounds went by, allowing Meya to become more comfortable with gaining and losing spirit shards. She also started noticing patterns as to when the boy told her to bet more or withdraw.
Naturally, the boy wasn’t always correct.
So far, Little X is mostly accurate in his predictions, but sometimes they’re wrong. Is he really calculating everything out?
So far, they had earned 65 low-rank spirit shards from consistently winning.
The next round started and the boy signaled Meya.
She increased the bet from one spirit shard to 45, which was a large portion of their winnings. The third orb came out and the boy nodded again. She increased the bet to 60 spirit shards.
Two nods in a row, this means he’s very certain.
A system developed between them over time. If he was confident, then he would say to bet increase the bet from the start. If he increased the bet after the third orb was revealed, it meant that he was almost certain of a win.
Meya’s heart pounded as the dealer called out for last bets. Her palms glistened with a sheen of sweat as the thrill set in.
The final two orbs were dealt to each player. Meya closed her eyes and released a steady stream of air from her lips.
The orbs were revealed.
A landslide victory, netting her 1 mid-rank spirit shard and 20 low-rank spirit shards. She stood up in excitement and hugged the boy next to her, unintentionally smothering his face in her ample chest.
He tapped her back in an attempt to escape, only then did she realize how caught up she had been.
“You, said.”
The boy spoke while catching his breath.
“The yellow tables.”
Once he mentioned the yellow tables, Meya realized what he was asking.
Now that we have a middle-rank spirit shards, Little X wants to play at the more expensive table.
She shook her head.
“No, we should play here at the green table for tonight, is that okay? Besides it’s only one mid-rank spirit shard. If we lost the first round then we’d have to go back to the green table anyway.”
It wasn’t like the green table had a betting cap, only it was bad manners to bet large at the lower priced tables.
“That makes sense… Okay, let’s see how many spirit shards we can get tonight from this table!”
From the way he spoke, Meya could sense his happiness from underneath the mask.
“Mm!”
Hours passed by.
They slowly increased their betting limits from 50 low-rank spirit shards to 2 mid-rank spirit shards, and before long, finally they bet 10 mid-rank spirit shards as their last bet. They won the final bet, netting them a total of 23 mid-rank spirit shards for the night.
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The morning sun shared its gentle warmth over Moldun. It was almost blinding to the pair as they walked back to the hotel—exhausted from all the excitement.
“Little X, you’re amazing...”
Meya spoke to him in awe.
Only after the gambling frenzy was over did she realize how much money she profited. If she told anyone that she bet 3 low-rank spirit shards to earn 23 mid-rank spirit shards, people would think she were crazy.
Nobody would ever believe such a fairy tale story, and yet it happened right before her eyes.
“Do you think so? It really wasn’t much though…”
The boy tilted his head in thought.
“No, it really is amazing! Not just anyone can make money from gambling like that.”
Meya asserted the extraordinariness of the accomplishment. How could this foolish boy not understand?
“Why don’t I teach you then? I think once I show you, then you’ll see that it’s nothing much.”
The boy offered casually. In his eyes, teaching someone how to play a gambling game didn’t amount to anything.
However, this meant something else entirely to Meya. How could someone freely give away the secret to a gambling game? Wouldn’t this secret be worth millions of spirit shards? Just how much money could someone make in their lifetime by abusing it?
“I can’t… It’s your secret. Don’t you realize how much it’s worth? You wouldn’t need money at all if you sold it to a wealthy person.”
Meya immediately rejected.
“Perhaps a year ago I would have needed the money, but now… I really don’t mind.”
His response was apathetic.
“I-“
“You’re my maid right?”
“Yes…”
Her voice grew meek in response. That’s right, she wasn’t his stalwart guardian, but merely just a maid.
“Then I demand my maid to know how to play this fun game. We’re not going back in there until you’ve mastered the technique!”
The boy declared without a single break in his stride.
Meya was dumbstruck.
Was he always capable of such… a domineering aura?
She stood still, her heart racing.
He is really going to teach me…
The boy stopped just ahead and looked back.
“Meya?”
She held her soul crystal in her outstretched palm with tears in her eyes. How many times had she reread the tower’s trial?
Obtain one peak grade spirit-shard.
“Mm! I promise to learn the best I can. Thank you for this opportunity!”
She wiped her tears and caught up to the boy.
“O-okay. Really it’s nothing…”
He gave an awkward reply and they happily chatted their way to the hotel.
Once inside the room, the boy removed his cloak and mask, revealing his handsome visage. He flourished the cloak and flipped his hair to the side.
She averted her eyes when he glanced her way. It was only just yesterday that she was showing him the wonders of a heated bath, since when did he become so mature?
“I think I’ll take a bath now. This time can you show me how to turn the water on?”
“Y-yes! Of course!”
Meya scurried off to the washroom and swiftly cleaned it. Despite their gambling adventure, she never forgot her duties as a maid. Towels and bathrobes were prepped, while candles and soaps was displayed appropriately.
A few minutes later, the boy entered the room.
“Come here. Twist thing, and it’ll reveal these two buttons. Just press this one and turn this dial. The dial is the temperature, so however hot you want the water to be. The other button is for taking a shower instead. See look.”
Meya pressed the other button, causing water to sprinkle down from above. The concept fascinated the boy greatly.
“Shower! I want the shower!”
Meya to stifled a laugh and excused herself from the room. She didn’t intend to overstay her welcome this time.
A few minutes after she left, her employee token alerted her that the pink mist was nearby. The boy once again chose the crimson candles.
“Is he really not affected by the candles?”
She whispered in wonder.
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Inside the shower, a comforting blanket of water enveloped the seated boy. His eyes were shut, fully immersed in the soothing environment.
Steam rolled and pillowed across the bathing area, diffusing itself with the pink mist that swirled about.
The water droplets crashed into him as if they were trying to rinse away his fatigue. They drummed on the top of his head and the rest of his body in a rhythmic manner. He slowly swayed side to side, renewing the sensation each time he moved his body.
After half an hour, he finally washed his body with soap and escaped the shower’s embrace. He dried himself off with a prepared towel and buried himself in a bathrobe.
Exiting the washroom, he spied Meya in the distance arranging a collection of orbs on a table.
“I’ve decided that I really like showers.”
He ambled closer and inspected the orbs, easily recognizing them. It was the game, Chaos Round.
“Hey.”
Meya collected the orbs and placed them back into a small bag. As an employee, she was able to easily acquire a set of orbs to arrange the game within the hotel. Private gambling parties were regularly hosted among the hotel’s guests.
“I borrowed a set.”
She gestured to the small bag, which acted as a dimension storage for each of the pieces.
The boy nodded in response and reached into the bag. A mental image of all of the orbs placed in the bag surfaced in his head. There were many orbs, which attributed to the complexity of the game.
“How about we start after a nap.”
The boy offered, noticing traces of exhaustion in Meya’s eyes. She bit her lip, realizing she had been too eager to acquire this money-making method.
“Okay… I’ll take my leave. As always, I’ll be in the room if you need anything.”
She bowed and turned heel. After a moment, she turned back.
“And thank you, again, I hope I don’t disappoint you and learn quickly.”
Naturally the boy had no idea what she was talking about. It was impossible for him to understand that the moment she detected his untapped potential, her image of him had shifted away from a young teen needing protection to a future powerhouse that would one day rule the land—at least monetarily.
Minutes later, the boy found himself lost in the sheets of his massive bed located in the master bedroom. During his sleep, an incredible dream unraveled itself.