Seriously? This guy is really going there?

The guy was glaring at me and clearly upset while the others around the table had mixed reactions.

One of the other girls and a guy was also giving me accusatory looks while the other pair was just looking at the guy in disbelief.

"You’re cheating!!" He accused again, his finger shaking angrily at me.

Dude, calm down... Your face looks like you are going to pop a vein right now...

I leaned back in my seat and gave him the most innocent look I could, "I am most definitely not but I’m curious what would even make you think I am cheating to begin with?"

"You think you’re slick? I saw your hands moving around just now! You switched out your cards!!"

"Moving around? Wait... You mean when I moved to tap on the console? Are you serious? How would I even switch my cards there if I didn’t even touch my cards when I did that?"

"I don’t know but I know you cheated!! Just own up!!"

"There’s nothing for me to own up to because I did not do it."

"You really take us for idiots, huh? Dealer!! Check her right now!!"

The dealer pursed her lips, "Dear guest... I should point out that she is wearing nothing but a swimsuit right now... Where would she be hiding the extra cards?"

Yeah... Everyone here is in their swimsuits and swimming trunks right now... Like where does this guy even think I would be hiding my cards? I don’t even have sleeves that I could just hide my cards in and switch out the cards on the table you know?

The guy scoffed and his lips curled up into a rather disconcerting smile, "Isn’t it obvious where she’s hiding them? It’s in that swimsuit of hers! Strip right now and let us search you!"

I narrowed my eyes at him, finally figuring out what this was about.

He just wants to see me get stripped to enjoy a free show.

But there’s no way they’re going to just do that because of one guy’s accusations rig--

One of the other guys raised his hand, "I agree."

"I agree as well, she should be checked thoroughly!" The girl who was also shooting accusatory glances at me cried out.

... Are these three people in cahoots?

Is this some kind of scam ring or something where they try and bully someone out of their table or something?

This makes no sense... What’s their goal here?

I crossed my arms and I was just about to tell them off and demand for him to give evidence for his accusations when someone stepped up behind me.

"Oh? What is going on here?"

That voice...

I spun around, only to see a familiar dark skinned Dragonling standing behind me.

She was wearing a frilly, white one piece swimsuit with a sun hat resting on top of her head.

She also had a pareo wrapped around her shoulders and even I could tell that whatever quality her outfit was made of was definitely expensive.

Interestingly... She was also wearing white stockings as part of her outfit and seeing that they weren’t soaked through in the water, they must have been designed to be used in water specifically.

And I’m going to assume this is actually part of some fashion as well so maybe Renata actually picked these stockings for me as part of the fashion and not just because she wants to keep touching my legs.

The people around us went silent upon seeing her, clearly recognising who she was.

Either that or the fact that she was being accompanied by an entourage of Dragonlings who were also in swimming attire behind her, all of them currently glaring at everyone around this table.

I was momentarily distracted by the bountiful obsidian coloured bosoms bouncing in front of me before I shifted my gaze up to her face.

"Lady Vieretha," I greeted her.

Her demeanour changed as she flashed me a smile that showed her pearly white teeth, "Oh? Didn’t I already tell you, Lady Tera? Please call me Vier~"

I looked around, "I think the present company demands proper decorum to be observed, no?"

Vieretha tilted her head, "Oh? Is there someone else here that can tell me what is the supposed proper decorum that should be observed instead of me?"

No one else said anything.

In fact, everyone else seemed to be purposefully averting their gaze from her, pretending to be occupied with looking at something else instead.

Vieretha then slid over to my side, her smile still present on her lips as she drifted through the water to float to the seat beside mine gracefully.

"Hmm~ Hmm~ I see Lady Tera is into these kinds of games~ But what did I hear about someone accusing you of cheating?"

I wasn’t sure what to say to that since she said it in a rather accusatory tone. The only thing was that I wasn’t sure if she was directing those accusations at me or the three people who claimed that I was cheating.

I wasn’t the only one who was confused either as the others at the table also gave each other curious looks before turning back to look at me.

Clearly they were hoping that I would be the one to deal with her.

I shrugged, "I’m not sure... They had accused me of cheating without any proof and I know for a fact that I did not cheat."

"Fufufu~ Of course not. Why would you need to cheat in the first place, Lady Tera? Such things are beneath you aren’t they? Now I’m curious if your accusers actually have any evidence to present to us to substantiate their claim?"

Everyone looked at the three people around the table that were now looking quite panicked.

Almost immediately, they turned on each other as the guy pointed a finger at the one who accused me of cheating.

"He... He’s the one who said it! We... We merely followed along! We don’t know anything!"

It became quite obvious that these three were in cahoots when that guy shot him a glare, clearly upset that he was ratted out by who was probably his friend.

He quickly tapped on the console in front of him to close it up, forfeiting himself from the match as he raised a hand to wave at us with a slight bow.

"I’m sorry, I’m pretty sure I was mistaken about this. Please ignore me! I will take my leave now!"

The other two also quickly tapped on their screens to close up shop while mumbling apologies to everyone.

Vieretha wasn’t amused by their response, however.

"Ara? You’re all leaving? And here I was ready to play a game with all the people here. You’re really going to just leave me here when I voluntarily showed up in front of you? That’s quite bold~"

The other Dragonlings floated out to surround the table, blocking all escape routes from the table.

The guy who accused me quickly pulled himself back to his seat, "Ah! It seems like I was truly mistaken!! Please forgive me! We can continue the game right now!"

Vieretha giggled, "Fufufu~ That’s what I like to hear~ Now let’s see here... What is the buy-in for this table?"

She’s really just going to insert herself in here like it’s no big deal huh...

Seeing that no one was stopping her and the dealer was also keeping her mouth shut, I guess everyone is just going to play along here...

"Ara? Only this many Credits? I suppose this is just a table where people play for fun isn’t it?"

To be fair, I would say that the price is also relatively cheap for me and I’m really just playing for fun and not to earn Credits here.

Vieretha tapped on her console and paid the buy-in price, officially joining the game as one of the players.

She then nodded, "Go ahead~ You can start the game now~"

The dealer hesitated for a moment before she nodded, moving the chips that indicated the big blind and the small blind to the next person.

She handed out the cards and it seems like everyone was just happy to forget about the accusations that I was subjected to and I decided not to raise a fuss about it as well.

Of course I wasn’t going to let it go just yet... But I will decide what to do with those three later.

I picked up my cards and even before I could take a look at them, Vieretha was already tapping on the screen in front of her.

"All in~" She giggled, pushing out a large amount of Credits to the centre of the table.

Everyone else folded immediately without even a single word.

As for me, I wanted to at least have a little bit of a challenge here so I chose not to fold and picked up my cards to peek at them.

A six and a seven of hearts...

Am I really going to challenge her with this hand?

Ah fuck it, let’s go all in!!