And more importantly, the cards that had appeared were exactly what he had expected.

Which was the evidence of Lilianna’s forced shuffling.

Now, the question was why.

Why would she go to such lengths? To defeat him? To appeal to Grayson?

Seriously, whether she likes Grayson or not, it’s Grayson’s money that I’m losing if I lose. She shouldn’t deliberately make him lose.

Neville shook his head secretly.

Even if he already knew the dirty dealings of Lilianna, he still had to make sure that Lilianna wouldn’t notice.

At least, not until he reached the part where he won a lot.

Across the table, Lilianna swept the losing bets into the dealer’s tray.

But as she collected Neville’s chips, her gaze lingered on his face for a second.

Then the corner of her mouth curved.

Neville lost, and she was pleased.

’Good,’ her inner voice said. ’Keep it going.’

"Next hand," she announced. "Place your bets."

The second round hadn’t even properly begun, and Ciel was already running his mouth.

"Fifteen thousand?"

Ciel leaned forward in his chair, chips clicking between his fingers. His pale eyes slid toward Bryan in disbelief and disdain.

"What happened to you, old man? One blackjack and you’ve already gone soft?"

Bryan’s smile didn’t waver, and he simply said, "Unlike some people at this table, I don’t operate on the delusion that lightning strikes twice."

"Delusion?" Ciel’s voice cracked upward. "It’s called momentum—"

"It’s called the gambling fallacy," Bryan said pleasantly. "But by all means, keep educating us."

Ciel’s jaw tightened, and the vein near his temple pulsed. He was about to open his mouth to retort when a heavy hand settled on his shoulder.

Thiago didn’t squeeze tightly, but it was enough to keep Ciel in place. He took a sip from his glass without looking at Ciel, just keeping one hand on the other’s shoulder.

Was that enough to stop Ciel?

Of course not.

However, he did stop.

Because in Ciel’s peripheral vision, he caught Grayson’s gaze.

He had a dark expression on his face that said: If you ruin this evening, you won’t hear the end of it.

Ciel quickly cleared his throat, loudly. "Fine. Whatever. Place your bets however much you want."

Neville placed his chips forward and didn’t forget to put a neat stack of a thousand each on the side-bet zone, Player pair, and 21+3.

Ciel saw it and turned his head toward Neville. "Side bets again? What are you trying to do, bleed Grayson dry?"

Neville glanced up and smiled, unfazed. "Just having fun."

Grayson quickly sent a warning glance at Ciel to shut him up.

Ciel scrambled back to his original posture, nodding comically.

Lilianna watched the exchange from behind the dealer’s station.

’He did side bets again,’ her inner voice said, gloating. ’How foolish.’

I know, Lilianna replied, keeping herself from smirking. But it doesn’t matter. The shuffle is mine. No matter how much he bet, he would still lose.

’Don’t get overconfident. Some people might notice.’ Her inner voice warned.

I know, Lilianna lowered her gaze and planned the next deal.

Lilianna straightened her posture, and each card left the shoe with a soft thwip against the felt.

The cards landed on the players.

Bryan peeled his cards up: seven and a jack. Seventeen.

He pressed his lips together—not pleased, not displeased.

Sarah lifted her cards: nine and king. Nineteen.

Her eyes brightened immediately.

Julius checked his hand—Seven and three. Ten total.

Neville picked up his cards. Five and queen. Fifteen.

Ciel picked up his cards and immediately deflated.

"Queen and two." He stared at the cards as if they had personally wronged his family line. "Twelve. A Twelve."

Then Ciel looked at Lilianna’s face-up card: ten.

"A ten." Ciel threw his hands up. "Again."

"Is there any card in that shoe that isn’t a face card?"

"It’s a ten," Bryan pointed out mildly. "Not a face card."

"It has the same value! You know I—"

Ciel caught another warning grip from Thiago and strangled his outrage into a tight exhale.

"Never mind."

Bryan dipped his chin. "I’ll stand."

Lilianna announced, "Stand on seventeen."

Sarah pursed her lips, counting briefly, then waved her hand flat over her cards. "Stand."

"Nineteen stands."

Julius spoke next, his voice low and even. "Double. Face-down"

The card came face down, he folded his hands and waited.

Ciel’s head whipped toward him so fast it was a wonder he didn’t strain something.

"Double? On ten?" he asked, incredulously.

Julius met his stare with an impassive expression. "What?"

"Ten! You doubled on ten!" Ciel gestured at the face-down card. "How could you—"

"Let the man play," Bryan said from across the table, not even bothering to look up from his chips.

"Shut up, old man! Nobody asked you!"

Bryan raised his glass of yellow liquid on the rocks to his lips, unbothered.

Thiago sighed a resigned sigh behind Ciel.

He didn’t know what to do with this kid.

He was clearly old enough to be an adult, but he somehow managed to capitalize on his baby face to act like a teenager.

Julius decided that dealing with Ciel was beneath him and decisively ignored him.

Then it was Neville’s turn.

He looked at his fifteen—five and queen.

If it was what he thought it was, then what Lilianna’s face-down card was a Jack.

Then, the next card would be a three. After that, a queen.

Neville quickly made calculations.

If he stood on fifteen, the dealer’s twenty would crush him anyway.

If he hit and drew the three, he would have eighteen—still a loss against twenty, but a controlled loss.

The real play wasn’t about winning this hand.

It was about making Lilianna wonder, just her.

"Hit," Neville said.

Multiple heads turned.

Ciel’s reaction was as expected.

"You’re hitting on fifteen? Have you lost your mind? That’s—fifteen is a stand! Everybody knows that—well, it’s—it depends, but—"

He fumbled over his own outrage, unable to decide which reasonable argument to use.

"Why?!"

Neville tilted his head and let his smile widen just a little.

"For fun?"