Hyper Luck

At first,

Thud!

A dull sound resounded.

And after that,

“Umph!”

A terrifying scream was heard.

Crash!

Suyaman looked up at Kea with a frightened expression after he rolled on the floor.

“Y...you crazy bitch...!”

Whack!

Before he could finish his words, Khea's fist slammed into his face.

The recoil hit the back of the pig's head and bounced off the floor.

“Gurgh!”

In an instant, blood spewed from his squashed nose and his burst lips.

“Y-you... Do you know who I am?”

Suyaman tried to get up from the floor as he glared at Khea with vengeful eyes.

“Looks like you’ve called off your guards because you wanted to play around with the girls you called from the brothel, huh?”

Suyaman’s legs lost their strength as he collapsed back onto the floor, unable to even meet his eyes with Khea’s as she approached him with an overbearing force.

“Too bad for you~ Today was the day that the money you paid your guards was going to finally pay off.”

Khea unwrapped the napkin that was on the table and wrapped it around her right hand with her sarcastic speech.

“I wouldn’t want your dirty blood to stain my fist.”

And she slammed her fist into his side.

Whack!

“Aack!!!”

Her clenched fists smote his face much like a combo attack.

Thwack!

The sound of the hit resounded in such a grotesque way that it made me frown. The tableware in the living room shook a little making rattling noises as Suyaman collapsed to the floor with a thud after taking several punches to the face.

“Wh...what do you want from me!”

“Shh, don’t talk yet. I haven’t beaten you enough.”

Khea’s cold and resolute voice as she continued to beat Suyaman despite his desperate screaming, had made me feel a chill down my spine.

“Mose, I think you can come out now.”

She called for me. I got out from my spot and took a look at him.

Oh my god.

He was soaked in his own blood as he collapsed on the floor. His HP bar was almost at the verge of reaching zero too.

He was muttering something while barely breathing. One could even call him a living corpse in the state he was in.

“Sorry, I got angry all of a sudden and wanted to vent a little.”

“O...Okay...”

Khea took off the bloody napkin and threw it on the table.

I couldn't even imagine what kind of expression she had on her face while she was beating Suyaman up.

“Now, then~ I’m going to start asking so I hope you can answer me well.”

When Khea lowered her head to meet Suyaman’s eye level, his body started to twitch like having a seizure even though he was just on the verge of dying.

Then he started to nod so quickly that his chin started to flutter.

“What’s happening at the Path of Olives?”

“Th...that’s......”

“Mose, bring the napkin.”

“O-okay! I’ll tell you everything, so please!”

After appealing desperately with a few teeth missing from his mouth, he started to tell us everything he knew in a flow.

“There’s only one thing that would ever happen within Tikris...”

“Get to the point.”

“Dice, numbers, cars, and coins. These are the four things that move Tikris around…”

At his words, Khea wrapped a new napkin around her right hand with no hesitation.

Then Suyaman suddenly started to desperately shake his head along with his hand and opened up his mouth to speak up.

“Gamble! It’s gambling! Gambles always happen at the Path of Olives!”

“Gambling?”

“Gambling? At the Path of Olives?”

An unexpected answer.

He began to foam blood on the corners of his mouth, and he continued to speak with a gurgling sound.

“There’s a social gathering organized by the nobles! It’s called the ‘Silver Cats’! They hire ‘necromancers’ to ‘bound’ strong spirits to the Path of Olives and release them around...!”

“What the hell even is that...”

At my question, Suyaman took another deep breath and glanced at Khea.

“Then they secretly lure the immortals or mercenaries to fight the evil spirit...! It’s like a colosseum gambling...!”

“Oh my god...”

“What the hell are they doing? Do they think that human life is some kind of a joke?”

Khea and I looked at each other in absolute absurdity. Suyaman continued to talk, having his eyes only focused on the napkin held in Khea’s hand.

“They created a giant gambling ground where few thousands to dozens of thousands of gold are moved around per match. Not to mention... that the evil spirits at the Paths of Olives have gotten stronger through the battles... So not anyone can fight against those spirits anymore…”

They were literally playing an insane gamble.

They raised spirits and used great rewards to lure ordinary players to fight.

It was shocking that all of that fight was a planned gamble.

“But he said it’d be different this time, the Gold Head of that information guild...!”

Virens was actively involved in the gamble at the Path of Olives.

“He said that he’s brought an incredible one even amongst the players...! So I was going to bet a lot of money since I thought it was trustworthy information......”

“How could you even think about betting your money as you watch those poor people get murdered by those evil spirits?!”

Khea’s wrathful shout made his shoulders sag down.

“When spirits kill living people, they become evil spirits and are forced to exist in great pain!”

Her anger seemed to have reached its peak since she had lost a close friend of hers very recently.

Suyaman lost consciousness after Khea’s wrathful thundering roar.

“Khea, that’s enough.”

“People like this deserve to die!”

“He will lose his life after the truth is revealed anyways. What would people do when they learn that there was no Ormachon token in the machines after all?”

She calmed down after hearing my words.

“This man deserves judgment from more people than just us.”

She nodded her head briefly as if she understood my words.

Then she went up the stairs without a word and brought back a huge sack after causing a little commotion upstairs.

“Let’s go.”

“Yup.”

As we got out of the mansion to the yard, we were met by young Lympus who looked at us with twinkling eyes.

“We kept it a secret, Mr. Knight!”

“Did the big fat pig get punished?”

I smiled at the innocent questions of the children.

Then I pulled out my sword in a cool fashion, swung it a few times, and put it back into its sheath.

“Of course. That pig will never be able to hit you ever again.”

“Yay!”

“They defeated the pig!”

“That fat greedy pig!”

Khea approached and handed her huge sack to the cheering little ones.

“And now, we will be giving you a very important mission to you all.”

“A mission?!”

“Are we knights now?”

“You fool! We’re their vassals now!”

“Because we kept the secret!”

“Hurray!”

The young Lympus reacted with tremendous energy to her words, waving their tails dizzyingly as if all their tails were about to be blown away.

“This sack contains the money that pig earned through deceiving people. I want you kids to divide it and put it all into the slot machines.”

“How many should we put in each machine?”

“Hm, like 500 each?”

“Wow! 500?!”

“Then people are going to start shouting hurrays every time they use the machine!”

“Then the street will no longer be called the ‘Street of Coins’,  it will be called the ‘Street of Hurrays’!”

“Everyone’s going to be yelling, ‘let’s goooo’!”

The little children started to imitate slot machine users by holding up the coins in the sack.

“You will still have leftover coins even after you finish your mission. The leftover coins will be yours so you can use it to your will. And make sure to listen to your big brother Poche, alright?”

“Yaay!!”

“Okay!”

“Let’s go do it, quick!”

“Let’s gooo!”

“You’re imitating that old man again!”

As soon as Khea’s order dropped, the little children picked up the coins from the sacks and ran outside.

“Should we go for some slot machines tomorrow, if possible?”

“Sounds great.”

Khea answered my joke.

Khea and I left the mansion with serious expressions on our faces. The sun was setting and it had already become evening time.

As I stepped outside, I could hear the busy footsteps of young Lympus everywhere.

Then we hurriedly reached the Mount of Marlock located in the back side of Tikris.

Dozens of colorful wagons were already parked in an orderly fashion around the foot of the mountain.

There was a path covered in red carpet. The tall trees on either side of the carpet were lit up in the leaves, illuminating the trail.

As I approached carefully along the carpeted road, I caught a glimpse of a giant grandstand.

Many people had already gathered.

Everyone was wearing a silver cat mask. The sight of all those people wearing emotionless masks sent a chill down my spine. At that moment, a man's voice was heard from the bottom of the stand.

“Welcome. To all the nobles who participated in the game full of secret entertainment!”

It was Virens.

He was pretty far away, but I was able to figure out it was him just by looking at the earrings hanging down from his two ears.

“I see more people than usual gathered here today! My ambitious preparation has paid off! I present to you the first game of the night!”

Virens stretched out his arms and pointed to the scene behind him.

The whole Path of Olives was visible at a glance.

After a while, someone appeared on the Path of Olives.

Virens’ introduction began.

“The champion’s corner, with the legend of 31 win streaks! The strongest champion of the Path of Olives! It’s the ‘Evil Spirit of Sleep’!”

As soon as Virens’ introduction was over, thunderous cheers began to erupt from the audience.

Then the space around the audience began to distort like a mirror.

Even so, the one silently approaching the Path of Olives continued to walk as if he had not caught anything strange about the place.

It was most likely that the sound didn't leak out from this place.

“This evil spirit is the strongest evil spirit ever created by the Silver Cat Society! A spirit created by working on a swordsman who happened to be sleeping at the Path of Olives! That is why his alias is the ‘Evil Spirit of Sleep’! But woah! This evil spirit’s sword technique skills! I reckon all of you are already aware!”

In the midst of continuing the introduction in a funny tone, the man who appeared around Path of Olives finally entered the site of the huge mansion.

“And on the challenger side! He’s here to become the new champion! He has finished his archery course at the Black Spire! The fearless challenger! He is an immortal too! A brave warrior who has cleared as many as 8 Silver Head missions! I introduce you to the ‘Big Archer’!”

This time the noises from the crowd was a mixture of cheers and boos.

In the meantime, Khea managed to somehow get a silver cat mask from somewhere.

“Where did you get that?”

“Everyone started shouting, and one of them just happened to faint for some reason.”

Khea carefully put on the silver cat mask after answering me in a joking way. After a while, something strange happened in Path of Olives.

The evil spirit arose from the floor with green energy, with its white ribs exposed, and a long robe hung around his waist. The half-skeleton spirit quickly approached the player who was surprised to see him with a daunting force.

The player quickly drew a bow and fired an arrow at him.

“Ah~ He’s shooting his arrows very quickly!”

Virens started to commentate the battle.

However, they were all blocked by the long sword in the hand of the evil spirit.

“Yikes! Not even close!”

I started hearing some giggles from the audience at the ridiculous tone of his voice.

The sword in the hand of the evil spirit suddenly disappeared. The player he was dealing with showed a bewildered look.

“Ah~ Here it comes! The finishing move from the Evil Spirit of Sleep!

And then from the audience,

“Crush his skull!”

“Rip him open!”

“The head, arms, legs, and torso! Rip it all up!”

Evil cheers erupted. As if in response, the evil spirit swung his hand in the air.

The player didn’t seem to know how to react to the spirit’s movement.

A sword suddenly appeared in front of the player,

was swung by the will of the black evil spirit.

And the player was slashed.

“Ah! There’s the blow!”

“That’s right!”

“Get him harder!”

The player, who had shed a lot of blood in an instant, took a step back and hurriedly began to drink potions from the inventory.

Nevertheless, the evil spirit came like the grim reaper and waved his hand in the air several times as if he was sentencing the player to death.

The player’s complexion became increasingly pale.

And a moment later,

The sword that appeared in front of him with smoke endlessly and mercilessly started to slash him down.

His body was instantly cut into pieces, collapsing to the ground in vain.

“Duuumbaaasss! You can’t even block that?!”

“Kyahaha, he died like a squealing pig!”

“My money! I thought it’d be different this time!”

The rejoicing crowd acted as if they were watching a comedy TV program.

Khea suddenly looked at me, as she was biting her lower lip after watching a horrific murder show.

“Mose, I believe in you. I know you will complete this mission well. So I want you to liberate that tormented evil spirit.”

“Of course, I will.”

I answered her immediately with no hesitation.

Even if that spirit was stronger than me, it was a battle that I had almost no choice but to win.

“And Mose, I will be betting 100 Ormachon tokens on your victory.”

“100...?!”

“Of course. I’m part of the Silver Cat Society, so it’d make sense to have that much money, right?”

It was a moment when her characteristic wit was again shown without any remorse.

“So, while we free the evil spirit, and...?”

“We rob them of their money too.”

I started to move in a hurry as soon as I heard Khea’s plan. Khea also hurriedly mixed into the audience after watching my movement.

I hurried down to the periphery of Path of Olives and walked towards the ruins with my shoulders back.

***

Joy began to fill Virens’ face.

“Everyone! Finally, the incredible opponent has reached the Path of Olives. I introduce you to the Sworder of Asparagan, Mose! He’s an immortal and yet he is a Sworder! He is the fearless immortal warrior!”

“Oh!”

“Amazing!”

“He doesn’t seem that different from the player that just got destroyed, though?”

“Yeah, I agree.”

“Alright, then. We will now start the bet! The battle will begin very shortly, so you must hurry!”

“Obviously, 4 on the evil spirit.”

“14 on the evil spirit!!!”

“Might as well try 1 for the challenger.”

“Hahaha!”

“That must be the dumbest investment of the day!”

“8 on the evil spirit, of course!”

Just before the series of bets ended, the voice of a woman wearing a silver cat mask burst out.

It was a very ugly voice as if she tightened her vocal cord on purpose.

“I’d like to bet 100 on the challenger.”

A strange silence came to find the audience for a brief moment.

And,

The hottest cheers erupted in the history of arena gambling of the Path of Olives.