“Hey there. Remember me?”
✦ ✦ ✦
Someone had taken a seat at his table.
“You’re… Ah. Yes.”
He didn’t remember his face, but that prosthetic left hand was familiar. It was a feature he’d shared with that character on the watch list, Ladd Russo.
He’d seen this man in passing at Firo Prochainezo’s casino and used him to harass Firo. To Melvi, the man was no more than a pebble he’d picked up to throw at his enemy.
What was someone like that doing here?
Inwardly, Melvi felt dubious. The man’s flesh-and-blood hand toyed with several orange chips, the most expensive denomination. “I did win on the slots, thanks to you.” His smile held clear hostility, and there was a glare in his superficially warm eyes. “I came to repay you, see?”
Something’s off. Is this really that timid fellow? Melvi felt a flash of suspicion, but he didn’t let it show in his expression. Well, that’s fine. I don’t know what he’s planning, but if he intends to give me money, I’ll take it. I can cheat, but I’m not letting scum like this get away with doing it to me.
Even after seeing those expensive orange chips, he held the man in contempt.
The man wasn’t an immortal, and he wasn’t anyone particularly unique. He was probably just a pathetic individual whose only talent was getting dragged into things.
Unaware of what was going through Melvi’s head, the man with the prosthetic hand gazed out over the area run by the Runoratas. “I see… All sorts of poker, blackjack, baccarat, and roulette, huh…? What, no slots?”
“Bringing them in would have been too difficult. Go ahead—play at any table you’d like.”
“Yeah… I’ll take my time and do that.”
✦ ✦ ✦
Carlotta, who had been watching as a guest, had seen this exchange play out. Later on, while she and the twin guards were having lunch together, she told them about it.
“Yes, Melvi was underestimating his opponent.
“He wasn’t completely careless, though… Just so you’re aware. For the sake of his honor.
✦ ✦ ✦
“After all, thirty minutes later, he’d become a complete laughingstock.”
Thirty minutes later
“Things are really noisy over there… It isn’t the ghost bear, is it?” Jacuzzi turned pale.
As Nice tugged him along, she looked a little exasperated. “Those are cheers, Jacuzzi. Not screams. It sounds like they’re coming from the Runorata Family’s area.”
“Eep?! Th-the Runoratas?! I’m scared, Nice—let’s not go!”
Jacuzzi’s eyes were teary, but when he realized he was being dragged toward a couple of familiar faces, he felt just a little relieved.
“Hey, Jacuzzi! You’re here, too, eh?!”
“Yes, and Nice!”
Isaac and Miria called to them cheerfully, and Nice took the opportunity to ask the question that was on her mind. “That’s quite a racket over here. What’s happening?” She tried to see through the cheering crowd, but it was too dense.
Excited, Isaac and Miria explained.
“Do you know Nader?! He’s Ladd’s friend, and he’s proxy gambling for Miss Genoard!”
“He just won reeeally big. He made fifty thousand dollars!”
“Fifty thou…” Just hearing that amount almost made Jacuzzi pass out.
Even if the recession had lowered values, in this era, fifty thousand dollars was a huge fortune.
During Prohibition, the salary of a special agent was between fifty and one hundred dollars a week, so this was clearly far too large a sum to win in a single night of gambling.
That said, some claimed Al Capone had made between ten million and thirty million dollars a year at the height of his career. Compared with that, this was chump change.
✦ ✦ ✦
So which was it? A vast fortune or chump change?
One look at the face of the man at the center of the crowd made the answer clear.
✦ ✦ ✦
Melvi Dormentaire was stunned, as if time had stopped.
The man who’d built a mountain of chips in front of him raised his prosthetic hand high, acknowledging the applause from the crowd.
At this point in time, there was no way for Nice, Jacuzzi, or most of the crowd to know what had gone down at that table.
However, even before the details got out—the name of a gambler raced through the casino party, leaping from one guest to another.
Nader Schasschule.
This was where the legend of the hero who pulled the Genoard family back from the brink of ruin began.
Several hours laterThe Beriam residence
“Something unusual has happened.
✦ ✦ ✦
“I’m told a man made off with quite a tidy sum in a solid winning streak at the Runorata Family’s table. The family took a significant loss, and he’s now being watched from several quarters,” said Senator Manfred Beriam.
From his seat on the sofa, Spike laughed cheerfully. “How ’bout that! So we’ve got ourselves a daredevil, huh? If that was just good luck, when you think about what’s bound to happen later, it was more like bad luck. Hell, the biggest bad luck of his life… If I dusted that guy, do you s’pose they’d let me keep the money?”
He leered, but what Beriam said next wiped the smile right off his face. “Nader Schasschule. That’s the name of the man who won that checkered luck.”
“’Scuse me?”
“It sounds as if he was once active in the Lemures with you.”
“…Huh?”
No, no, no, wait, hold up.
Is Mr. Beriam talking in his sleep or something?
“Nah, that can’t be right. I mean, he got…”
“He’s alive. That’s all that matters. I hadn’t mentioned it, but he’s the man who informed us of the Lemures’ detailed plans.”
“……”
The guy was alive.
That was astounding enough on its own, but it wasn’t all. The man was currently the center of attention at that casino party as well.
Beriam spoke in a matter-of-fact way. “The timing’s too good. I can’t help but think there’s something to it. Find out who’s backing him, what he’s after, everything. If this was set up by someone whose interests don’t align with ours, we may need to consider eliminating him.”
Spike shook his head slowly, stunned. “That’s just…nuts.”
As he sat there in shock, his ears picked up a distant gunshot.
It was his own apprentice, out on the firing range. Right now, though, it sounded much farther away to him than it usually did.
✦ ✦ ✦
Sonia, who was honing her sniping skills as usual, didn’t know yet.
She had no idea that the childhood friend she believed was a hero was currently very close, in more ways than one.
✦ ✦ ✦
Or that he’d become a con man who’d falsely assumed the title of “hero” and was trying to con the whole world.