The Eye Is Faster Than The Hand (2)

Kwang-!

Jak-sun’s palm slammed down on the table.

“Where do you think you’re pulling a bottom-deal from the very first round!?”

Normally, Jak-sun wouldn’t even dare meet Gambling Ghost’s eyes.

But now there was nothing to fear in his eyes. The Yin Yang Twin Monsters were protecting him, what was there to be afraid of?

Besides, he planned to leave the gambling table after this, so he showed no signs of backing down.

The gamblers watching from a distance murmured among themselves.

They couldn’t imagine the famed Gambling Ghost being caught bottom-dealing.

“Bottom-deal? I’m Gambling Ghost! Do you have any proof?”

“Enough, just open what you’re holding right now.”

While the standoff between Jak-sun and Gambling Ghost continued, Yu Jinsan raised one hand.

“That’s enough, just get on with the shuffling.”

How could he possibly produce proof?

But it wasn’t that he gained nothing; from now on Gambling Ghost would find it harder to use tricks.

With his granddaughter glaring from the entrance, petty sleight-of-hand was out of the question.

“Then we’ll start again.”

Clack-! Clack-! Clack-! Clack-! Clack-!

The sounds matched exactly. The uniform movements had not the slightest deviation.

The gambling truly began.

Because neither side used sleight-of-hand, the game naturally dragged on.

Before long ten rounds had passed, each winning and losing in turn.

Gambling Ghost no longer used tricks, but his fundamental skill hadn’t vanished. As time went on, it was Yu Jinsan’s funds that dwindled.

Among the hitters, there was nothing he could do, naturally he lost the most.

Then, a big pot appeared, rare and sizable.

“I’ll put in a modest ten coins of silver.”

At Jak-sun’s shout, Gambling Ghost pushed in twenty coins.

“I’ll take that and add ten coins more.”

Twenty coins of silver in a single round, that was an amount some would never earn in a lifetime.

The other gamblers swallowed hard in their seats and watched.

It was Yu Jinsan’s turn.

He had forty coins of silver left and held two twos in his hand.

It wasn’t a terrible combination, but in such a high-stakes pot it was a marginal hand. He couldn’t help but hesitate.

‘There is no other choice.’

Yu Jinsan ran a hand through his hair. As if on cue, Yu Seol’s telepathic whisper came to him.

• Two cranes went in.

She was his granddaughter, born with the immortal sense of pre-auditory perception.

Her innate memory and superhuman vision didn’t miss a thing, not even while the cards were being shuffled.

Every card that was ever flipped moved around in Yu Seol’s mind.

After confirming his granddaughter’s signal, Yu Jinsan shoved all his remaining silver in without hesitation.

“Forty coins in total. That’s my entire fortune.”

“Oh my, my heart is pounding, this might be the end of me.”

Jak-sun covered his cards while Gambling Ghost fell into thought.

Had he read something in Yu Jinsan’s subtly changing expression? After a moment’s hesitation, he confidently pushed in another twenty coins and revealed his hand.

“One high pair.”

A laugh escaped Yu Jinsan’s mouth for a moment.

“Heh!”

And as he flipped his cards, Gambling Ghost’s eyes widened.

Ridiculously, he had lost by a hair. He sensed something off, but had to let it go; if the opponent had used a trick, there was no way he wouldn’t have noticed.

“……”

Gambling Ghost’s bewildered expression made him laugh unconsciously.

“What are you so shocked about? Hurry up and shuffle the cards.”

Unlike the furious Gambling Ghost, Yu Jinsan and Jak-sun wore relaxed smiles. What was there to fear when they knew the opponent’s hand?

They won twelve rounds in succession between the two of them.

“Won again?”

“Ha ha!”

Playing together, their timing matched perfectly.

Yu Jinsan and Jak-sun clapped their hands together in the air.

Smack-!

Their assets had more than quintupled in an instant; of course they were pleased.

“What on earth trick are you pulling?”

“A trick? What trick?”

Gambling Ghost, who knew all the tricks of the gambling table, said this.

He tilted his head for a long time as if he couldn’t comprehend the current situation.

Yu Jinsan, who had been watching silently, urged him on.

“How long do you intend to keep us waiting? If you lack confidence, fold now.”

This was not the kind of Gambling Ghost who would back down. He was the sort to rather die than accept defeat.

Having blown through most of his silver, he pulled a small box from a silk bundle he’d prepared.

When he opened the box, gold flashed; fifty neatly arranged pieces of gold.

One coin of gold was worth ten times a coin of silver. It was that precious; ordinary people rarely even saw such currency.

“How about we change the game and play properly?”

Jak-sun was about to refuse outright, but Yu Jinsan raised his hand to signal assent.

They had already figured out the type of gamble and saw no problem with it.

“If you won’t accept that, play whatever game you want.”

Gambling Ghost spread his hands wide, and three small wooden cups flew from the opposite table in sequence.

Turup-! Turup-! Thud-!

The watching gamblers gasped.

A warrior who could even use void-manipulating techniques, so he really was a Blue Dragon troops?

Yu Jinsan admired it inwardly but felt no fear; he could imitate such lightweight moves himself.

Gambling Ghost flipped one cup and the dice tumbled out with a rattle. He picked up one of them.

“You must guess which of the three cups this die is under.”

It was simply a game of probability, so it wasn’t unfavorable.

“It’s simple, so we’ll settle this quickly. Let’s give it a try.”

When Yu Jinsan agreed, Jak-sun reluctantly nodded as well.

Gambling Ghost’s skill at grabbing and spinning the three cups was truly superb.

Ssssk-! Ssssss-sk-!!

Indeed, it was the handwork of a martial master.

So fast that the three cups seemed to multiply into dozens.

Not only Jak-sun, but even Yu Jinsan lost track of the movements from the start.

Thud-!

Gambling Ghost’s hands stopped.

Now all that remained was placing the bets.

• It’s on the left.

Yu Seol’s telepathic whisper reached both Yu Jinsan and Jak-sun at the same time.

They both shoved twenty coins of silver to the left.

The moment Gambling Ghost lifted two of the cups, a cheer burst from both of them as expected.

“Ha ha ha!”

“This is truly amusing.”

It was a game they couldn’t lose.

As the rounds continued, Gambling Ghost’s gold dwindled while smiles spread across Yu Jinsan and Jak-sun’s faces.

It was fun, but they weren’t there to linger for fun’s sake.

It was time to settle the match.

Ssssk-! Ssssss-sk-!!

The three wooden cups moved loudly again.

As if waiting, the granddaughter’s telepathic whisper reached both of them at once.

• Right.

Yu Jinsan took a breath. He intended to strip Gambling Ghost of all his funds this final round.

When he hesitated, Yu Seol sent the signal again.

• I’m sure!

If so, what was there to hesitate about?

Yu Jinsan and Jak-sun pushed all the funds they’d been stockpiling to the right.

Gold and silver piled high on the table.

None of the gamblers watching in silence had ever seen such a sum.

“Is this the final round?”

“Quick, reveal them.”

A suffocating tension filled the air.

A barely-there smile crossed Gambling Ghost’s face, then faded.

“I’ve enjoyed myself today.”

With that single line, he lifted the left and right cups simultaneously.

At that moment, Yu Jinsan and Jak-sun’s eyes snapped open in unison.

“…Huh?”

“Oh?”

There was no die, so it must be in the center.

They had certainly heard the granddaughter’s signal; could she have erred? It made no sense.

Yu Jinsan quickly lifted the center cup.

Turup-!

There, a die sat squarely in place.

The smiles drained from Yu Jinsan and Jak-sun’s faces; they went ashen, as if they’d lost the world.

They had ridden a wave of victories, yet now they’d lost everything in one round; the sense of loss was indescribable.

“I’ll return half, let’s finish it here.”

Normally, when an opponent loses everything, it’s customary to give at most a day’s wages back.

The reason he returned so much was the price of their lives; he feared reprisals from the Yin-Yang Twin Monsters.

“……”

Yu Jinsan and Jak-sun couldn’t speak; they were crushed.

Gambling Ghost was about to stack the cups he held.

Flash-!

Suddenly a bright flash flickered at the inn’s entrance.

And as the light dimmed, Yu Seol had already approached and clamped her fingers around Gambling Ghost’s wrist.

“Th-throw this, let go!”

Gambling Ghost tried to shake his wrist free, but it didn’t budge.

Three small, fern-like fingers gripped his wrist.

At first glance he might have seemed able to break free, but no matter what he did he remained immovable.

“Cheater!”

“Ch-cheater? What are you talking about?”

Was he finally sensing something amiss? Jak-sun leapt to his feet. After all, he was planning to leave this world of gambling today; he had nothing to lose.

“How dare you pull that trick in front of these people!? Don’t you know who they are?”

Maybe because the man who usually couldn’t even meet his gaze was now raging, Gambling Ghost couldn’t hide his fury despite his panic.

“…Jak-sun, have you gone mad?”

“You’re the mad one. I stake my entire fortune, and my neck, that you tampered with the cup in your hand.”

“……”

Yu Jinsan, having regained his composure, glared at him.

“What will you wager?”

“I’ll wager all my money.”

“That’s not enough. If you cheated, it’s all ours anyway. Besides, we’ve staked our necks; this isn’t profitable for us.”

“Then what on earth do you want…?”

“Everything you know.”

This was the intent from the start.

Blue Dragon Troops never break under interrogation.

But intelligence suggested Gambling Ghost was known to keep his word once spoken, so they changed tactics this time.

“Is that all?”

“Yes.”

Gambling Ghost couldn’t guess what the Yang Monster’s demand was; he hadn’t yet heard that the Yin-Yang Twin Fiends were hunting Blue Dragon Troops.

What mattered to him was that they hadn’t demanded his life. For some bits of information, he saw no reason to refuse. In truth, he never really had a choice.

The moment Gambling Ghost nodded, Yu Seol twisted his wrist with force.

“Ugh…”

It was the cup Yu Jinsan and Jak-sun had picked.

From inside, a die rolled out.

Plop-!

The gamblers craned their necks to confirm and reacted with disbelief.

“Th- there’s another die in there?”

“You hid one the whole time?”

“My word… the famed Gambling Ghost resorting to such a scam.”

He’d hidden a die from the very beginning.

He let them win to build up a big pot, intending to use it at the crucial moment.

Using a void-sealing technique, he had fixed a die to the upper inside of the cup and manipulated the game while showing dice from other cups.

Though he couldn’t fool the granddaughter’s gaze, it was nonetheless a flawless deception.

Thinking of the moment his chest had dropped just now, even Yu Jinsan couldn’t contain his anger.

“First, he needs a beating to start. Hold him tight and set him up.”

“W-wait…”

Yu Seol grabbed Gambling Ghost by the side and forced him to his feet.

Yu Jinsan slowly approached the man who couldn’t move.