The bastard child becomes the empires royal consort-Chapter 66: Gamble [2]

Alan slumped in the chair, staring ahead into the eyes of Felix, the roaring cheers didn't register in his ears, he was only focused on the man before him.

"Statistically speaking." Felix began, neatly stacking the tower of chips. "That shouldn't have happened, the odds of a full house running into a four of a kind are... well, higher than they should be, but that's only statistically speaking."

"You cheated." Alan whispered, looking up, he wasn't angry, in fact, his lips pulled into a faint, amused smile. "I don't know how, but you definitely cheated."

"You're taking this loss a little differently than I imagined." Felix raised a brow, leaning in on the table he placed the black box on it. "But cheating, huh? That's a pretty strong word and accusation, you know?"

"Yeah, nah, you absolutely cheated, ain't nobody gets lucky like that."

"I really wonder." Felix replied simply with a carefree shrug of his shoulders.

While the two of them were having their conversation, two massive shadows suddenly fell over Felix.

"Hmm?" Felix glanced up.

Standing behind him were two brutes, the very same security guards who had hauled the screaming loser out earlier.

"Can I help you—"

Grip

They didn't say a word, they gripped Felix's arms and hoisted him clean off his seat.

"Not this shit again," Felix grumbled, his fedora tilting forward as he was yanked upward, he wasn't even surprised by the sudden turn of events, he looked more annoyed by the inconvenience than the physical threat.

Alan watched, at a total loss for words, as the artifact merchant was carried, not dragged, but literally carried, toward the exit like a misbehaving child.

The entire tavern erupted into a fresh wave of wild laughter, some pounding their tables in delight at the sight.

"What… was that?" Alan asked, blinking at the empty chair.

"First time seeing this?" the dealer asked, her hands were already busy resetting the deck.

"Yeah."

"Well." she said, her voice dry and even. If someone wins far too much money, they get escorted out whether they are cheating or not, a man who empties the pockets of everyone is bad for business."

"So... he just lost all of his money?"

"Eh." The dealer shook her head. "We aren't that cruel, he'll get his money just delivered in... let's just say a harsher manner."

"Well, as long as he isn't losing out, I guess." Alan stood up from his seat, stretching his arms.

"Are you leaving, sir?" the dealer asked, as Alan turned away.

"Well..." Alan glanced down at the bare, empty felt in front of his seat. "I don't exactly have anything left to play with, do I?"

"That's true..." She conceded with a faint, sympathetic tilt of her head.

Chuckling to himself, Alan stepped forward, snatching the black box Felix left behind, as he walked away from the poker table.

Well, logically speaking, he should be in a fairly foul mood, because he quite literally fumbled and gave away his own life savings, meaning he was completely broke right now.

But why did that matter? He had the literal princess in his little cohort, surely she would carry around cash in her dimensional artifacts, enough to perhaps last him a lifetime?

With those thoughts, Alan pushed through the busy crowd of the tavern in a lighter mood than before, as if the loss of his savings didn't affect him... although it'd be a lie to say it didn't.

As he pushed past the final hurdle of people, he reached the same corner table he left the group at previously.

It didn't take long to find them, he quickly spotted Lucian engaged in some sort of a conversation with Iris as they took occasional sips from their mugs.

Meanwhile, Julia seemed to completely lose interest in the food and instead was attempting to stack breadsticks on Sparky's head... which was surprisingly working.

How did she even balance breadsticks, of all things, on top of a cat's head?

Alan entertained such thoughts for about half a second, and brushed it off, because Julia had the strange habit of just attempting questionable things that didn't make sense.

During their travels to the seaport city, one time the group was in need of firewood to create a campfire, what did Julia do? She cut down half of the forest and stacked the wood on top of each other.

She then proceeded to set the entire tower of wood ablaze, effectively half of that forest along with it.

Julia definitely has a personality, not saying it's a bad thing, but she certainly has something.

"You're back," Lucian noted, looking up from his meal.

"Yeah, how's the food?" Alan asked, eyeing the table as he slid into the seat next to Lucian.

While Alan was busy losing his shit at the poker table, the waitress had already delivered a hefty, steaming plate of food to each of them.

"It's edible." Iris answered, taking a sip of her murky drink.

Alan turned to Julia, expecting a more enthusiastic reply, but she just pouted and stared at the wall with a look of profound betrayal.

"She's been like that ever since we refused to give her alcohol." Iris explained with a tired sigh.

"Fair point." Alan said, he reached into his pocket and placed the small, humming black box in the centre of the table.

The vibrations were subtle, but the sudden, artificial silence that wrapped around their table made everyone pay attention to Alan.

"Ehem, alright, everyone." Alan cleared his throat first. "Listen up. I've got good news and bad news, which do you want first?"

"Bad news." Lucian said instantly.

"I lost my entire savings."

Lucian paused amidst a bite of his food. "...Huh?"

"So I can't pay for this meal, or the rooms for the night, or anything, really."

"Alan... you had like forty gold in your savings, that's enough to buy this place—"

"Now for the good news!" Alan cut Lucian off, snatching the black box and holding it up in his hand. "Can anyone guess what this is?"

"An artifact?" Iris asked, her brow furrowing. "And more importantly, why do you even have that?"

"Bingo! It is an artifact!" Ignoring her last words, Alan kept going. "But can anyone guess who made this artifact?"

"How would we guess that—"

"Felix!" Alan answered for them, perhaps a bit too loudly, but the noise didn't matter, after all, he was suppressing any sound from leaking with the help of the black box in his hand.

Alan never usually paid special attention to artifacts, finding it a waste of time and money, but only today did he realise the convenience it could provide.

"Who?" The three of them asked in unison, even Julia broke her pout to look confused.

"Remember the man we met in the capital." Alan urged.

"Wow, that really narrows it down."

"Okay, think of the one who we met in the third district."

"The one who sold us the blindfolds?" Iris finally connected the dots, while Lucian simply nodded, having suspected as much the moment he saw the fedora from across the room.

But Julia was still having trouble remembering, as she rubbed her head, trying to remember.

"The one with the cat ears." So Alan dropped the biggest hint he could.

"Oh!" Julia's eyes flew open, her sulkiness momentarily forgotten. "The cat-man!"

"What's he doing here?" Iris asked.

"Well, he did say he was a travelling merchant, didn't he?" Alan recalled what Felix said back then. "So it's not that much of a surprise to suddenly see him here in the seaport city, the city of trades."

"I suppose so, but how is this good news?"

"Work on your memory games a little." Alan clicked his tongue dramatically. "Do you remember where he said he was headed when we last saw him?"

"The Eastern continent..." Lucian answered slowly, his eyes sharpening as he caught onto Alan's train of thought.

"Exactly!" Alan leaned in, his voice rising even higher. "His destination is the Eastern continent, so the fact that he's still here in Kahl means one thing, that last ship departing tomorrow? He's got to have tickets for it!"

"That is... surprisingly favorable." Iris admitted, looking impressed despite herself, while Julia seemed lost, staring at the empty space for whatever reason.

"But did you actually ask him about any of this?" Lucian raised the real question. "Or did you just lose your money and come back here?"

Alan froze, the recent memory of Felix being dragged out of the tavern came to mind, followed by the realisation he didn't actually discuss with Felix any of the things he just talked about.

"...Yeah." Alan's voice trailed off.

"No, you didn't," Lucian sighed, gesturing toward the plate of stew in front of Alan. "Just eat. Your food is getting cold, apparently it's the last thing you can afford as well."

"No, you didn't." Lucian sighed, gesturing to the plate in front of Alan, he said. "Just eat, food is getting cold."

"Good idea," Alan muttered, picking up his spoon.