The scene shifts again.
Anastasia deals the cards, as reliable as an undercover agent, and every time Wayne’s hand is a 10, sweeping 3 to 0 without leaving a shred of suspense.
"Sigh, won again. It’s hard even to lose, which really shouldn’t be the case."
Wayne shook his head with a sigh, and Dreyne hadn’t guessed wrong; he was indeed cheating. Generally, where there’s gambling, there’s deceit; there’s no way he could win every time without cheating.
He just hadn’t tampered with the cards on the table, so Dreyne couldn’t find any proof.
At that moment, an ancient silver coin appeared on Wayne’s chest.
It was a courtesy of Grew, the "Observer" and one of the Proxies of the Goddess of Death, a Lucky Ancient Silver Coin sponsored by Austin.
In the beginning, Austin was reluctant to hand it over because the coin could suppress the power of the Dark Knight and hide his identity from others.
No one knew what would happen if a Death Knight got their hands on a silver coin from Death.
It wasn’t until recently, as Austin began to reconcile with his identity as a Dark Knight, that he gradually let go of his obsession with the ancient silver coin. Moreover, he discovered something else: without the coin, his power grew faster and faster.
Clearly, the Goddess of Death hadn’t given the Dark Knight the ancient silver coin with good intentions.
Once Wayne got the silver coin, The Book of Greed opened its gaping maw and consumed two strange things.
One was the suppressing dark divine power, and the other was somewhat indescribable but probably linked to luck.
Luck is ethereal and indescribable but manifested concretely in the ancient silver coin.
The Book of Greed pilfered this luck, storing it within the book’s cover, which was also Wayne’s skin.
This was the third time Wayne sensed a force that was different from elemental, natural, death, heavenly, and other forms of knowledge. He believed they were governed by Information Laws, essentially a type of concept. The Book of Greed’s categorization must have profound significance.
The ancient silver coin itself was also quite extraordinary; its raw material came from Windsor. Each Magic Department higher-up had one, and after being blessed by Grew, it turned into a thorough Divine Artifact.
Just like the Divine Artifacts that come with knights like the Shadowmare, the information inside the ancient coin persisted even after being seized by The Book of Greed.
But back to the main point, after the final three games ended, Wayne began to clean up the table, muttering about yearning for a loss, claiming that even if the Gambler God and the Gambling Saint appeared, they’d lose their undershorts to him – he might as well be called a Gambling Monster!
"Hold on, who said you could leave? Sit down; we’re not done."
"Are you serious, more?"
Wayne chuckled inwardly, but put on a helpless face, "Dreyne, a deal’s a deal; you don’t have any chips left."
"I swear, this is the absolute last time!"
Dreyne was unflustered and unashamed. She’d already broken her word, so what harm in one more time? Besides, would Wayne dare to broadcast their little game?
Even better if he did; they would offend a God-chosen Knight and end up dragged into card games daily.
"Who are you swearing by, the Moonlight Goddess?"
Dreyne’s shamelessness made everyone sweat profusely, lucky for the current company that none were devotees of the Moonlight Goddess. Otherwise, witnessing the Moonlight Knight’s moves, they might’ve passionately advised against it to the point of death by headbutting the gambling table.
Wayne shrugged and sat down with an air of resignation: "I can see it now; you won’t rest till you win. Losing chips doesn’t even faze you."
"What, you have a problem with that?"
"How could I not have a problem? I’m eager to go back to sleep!"
Wayne grumbled under his breath, then sized up Dreyne, saying, "Alright then, let’s raise the stakes. Only if it hurts you will you let me go."
"Oh? What do you want?" Dreyne was intrigued.
The young man couldn’t possibly be coveting her beauty, could he?
Interesting, he’s got guts!
Wayne furrowed his brows and pondered for a moment, then said eagerly, "Here’s the deal: Mr. Mula is too busy to teach me swordsmanship, but you have free time every other day. I’ll play cards with you in the morning, and you teach me swordplay in the afternoon."
Wayne looked skeptical and added, "One more thing, I want to learn archery. Is that alright, too?"
The full map had been unfolded, revealing the dagger at the end!
"No problem, I can teach you both. But, I have a condition, too..."
Dreyne raised her eyebrows – her map was just as expansive: "Your luck with cards is outstanding. How do you do it? Can you teach me a few tricks, so we both can improve together?"
So this was the Moonlight Knight, feeling no different from Chris, Philomena, and the like, whose main attribute seemed to be giving away for free. Once he put a bit of effort in, he could extract nine lives out of his opponent in one game of cards.