“Hurry!” Marie shouted at me.
“How come unscripted problems like this keep coming out of left field?!”
As soon I found Marie, she dragged me toward the onboard casino. In our previous world, that wouldn’t have been an appropriate place for students, but it was perfectly legal for us to enter in this world. In fact, a number of students had visited the casino since we first boarded, and some had already blown all the money they had on hand.
A crowd had gathered in one section of the casino. We immediately headed that way. As soon as I realized what was going on, my face tensed. “You’ve got to be kidding me.”
Sitting there with cards in her hands, betting money she didn’t have, was Olivia.
“Those two at the table with her are Dolly and Donna,” Marie informed me. “I hear they strong-armed Olivia into joining them.”
The two girls wore sinister smirks. I could tell instantly from the location of the chips on the table that they were winning. Something was off about the whole scene, though.
“Those two are cheating, aren’t they?” I said, revolted.
Luxion, who was using his cloaking device, whispered beside me, “Yes, they are.”
Meanwhile, Olivia was losing repeatedly.
“What a pain. Looks like I won again,” Dolly said loudly, a hint of glee in her voice. “You really are bad at this.”
Donna’s sharp incisor teeth protruded as she snickered. “Aw. What a shame. Looks like all your chips are gone. How far does that put you in the hole? Like, sorry, but I wasn’t counting, so I can’t tell you.”
That basically answered my question about how Olivia got the chips to begin with.
Marie grimaced. “That means they put her in debt by getting her those chips.”
“I can’t believe they’d go that far,” I replied.
Given how rich the two were, whatever money they’d given Olivia was probably negligible to them. But to a commoner like Olivia, it was an exorbitant amount she could never hope to pay back.
Olivia was deathly pale. On top of that, her breathing was erratic, and her eyes had clouded over. She wasn’t just physically ill, but also at her breaking point mentally. It was painful to watch.
Marie grabbed my sleeve, tugging it several times in quick succession. “What’re we gonna do?”
What she really wanted to ask was whether we’d keep our nose out of things this time, too. I couldn’t give her an immediate answer. Luxion and I had just discussed exactly this—that I wanted to steer clear of the protagonist as much as possible. What irony that the situation unfolding in front of me challenged that immediately.
It was the love interests who were supposed to swoop in and save Olivia from this sort of thing, but they were all either part of a different trip group or hadn’t been able to attend at all. None of them were here to rescue her.
“She’ll go bankrupt at this rate,” Marie said, panicked.
I had no idea how much those two girls were forcing Olivia to bet on their games, but however much it was, it would be well beyond her means to repay.
Tears streaming down her cheeks, Olivia pleaded, “Please have mercy. There’s no way I can pay all this back.” Her voice hitched with a sob.
Dolly and Donna’s smiles vanished. Donna reached over and snatched a fistful of Olivia’s hair, shoving her head against the table.
“I don’t want to hear about how you can’t repay it,’” she snapped. “You’re going to! You went into debt to get those chips, remember? I’m not asking for anything unreasonable, am I?”
Not only had Donna cheated to win, she was now determined to make Olivia repay her losses, no matter what.
“Disgusting,” I muttered under my breath. I couldn’t help it. The worst part of all this was glancing around and seeing quite a few students grinning and supporting Dolly and Donna.
“Feels good to see that commoner get her just deserts.”
“It’s her own fault for throwing the prince’s name around.”
“She acted way too pretentious for someone with no rank.”
Not a single person was interested in helping Olivia. A few probably thought Dolly and Donna had crossed a line, but they weren’t about to stick their necks out for a commoner. I couldn’t even blame them. There was no merit to doing the right thing in this case. Everyone knew that the prince favored Olivia, but most assumed it was a passing fancy and that he was only having fun. Thus, none wanted to risk the ire of two ladies whose fathers were among the Redgrave faction’s foremost members.
If I hadn’t had prior knowledge of the game, I probably wouldn’t have felt inclined to help the protagonist, either. I wasn’t so nice a guy that I’d happily risk myself to save someone else’s skin.
“What’re you doing?!” a familiar voice cried.
Everyone’s attention shifted to the young elf who’d arrived. Kyle must’ve heard about the fuss and rushed here to aid Olivia. Although he found himself surrounded on all sides by aristocrats, he kept his chin held high.
Kyle stomped over to his mistress and grabbed her arm. “Let’s be off, Mistress.” Even though Olivia didn’t respond, he tried to drag her along anyway.
Dolly slammed her fist as hard as she could against the table. “Hold it! Who said she could leave? Don’t make this a bigger pain than it already is.”
Kyle flinched initially but put on a brave face. “I should ask you whether you understand what you’re doing. Have you forgotten who favors my mistress? If Prince Julius hears about this, he won’t let it go unpunished.”
In mentioning the one name he shouldn’t have, Kyle had made a costly mistake. The whole room erupted in loud murmurs.
Marie’s shoulders slumped in relief. “That should put a stop to this.”
Studying Dolly and Donna’s expressions, though, I knew it would only do the opposite. “He just added fuel to the fire.”