"I bet it all on red"
A balding middle-aged man announced his intentions with a smirk on his face as he pushed all his remaining chips towards the center of the table. The dealer expressed some concern regarding the man's decision, but he quickly turned back into the same expressionless face he had had since the beginning of the night.
The balding man showed no signs of regret, instead his face displayed enjoyment as it had been for the past hour, where he had lost most of his initial fortune and now was betting all his remaining funds on the hope of recovering some of the money he had lost.
The dealer turned his face towards the other person on the table, showing no emotion at all, as it had been for all of the night.
"Mister, what is your bet?"
The person that the dealer referred to sat a few chairs away from the senior gambler, wearing a grey hooded coat that covered most of his head, while displaying a cheap silver mask over his eyes that concealed the rest of his face.
'It's been a while since someone referred to me as a mister.'
The young man merely picked a few of his cheapest chips and threw them to the square representing the black color. He wasn't expecting to win or to lose, his only intention was to go unnoticed for as long as he could. After all, he knew what the best way of making money was.
"Hey man what's your problem?!" Apparently, the alcohol had finally started to take his effect on the gambler "Do you think that I will lose? Is that why you bet against me!?"
The dealer was about to intervene, but the young man interrupted the yelling by raising his hand, hidden behind a glove, and pushed his chips to the same of the blading man.
"Yeah, that's what I thought! You better be thankful for this senior! I've been betting for more time than you have been alive! Haha! I'm expecting your thanks for when we both win."
The young man did a small bow and turned towards the dealer, he didn't want to have the same bet as the old man, because he knew that if you could actually develop a skill in betting, that guy definitely didn't have one. Not after the amount of money he had lost on the past night.
But he also knew that the best way to appease a drunk and possible violent man was often via compliance. This method was not always effective, but it seemed like often was going to work for this situation.
'Besides, I don't want to be the one he blames when he loses all his money.'
The old man however, still had something to complain about to the dealer, so while that happened the cloaked individual decided to check the rest of the underground casino.
The place had a low ceiling that was the height of about two people, it was painted with a simple red pattern that scattered across the top and the walls. The place itself didn't have any walls that divided it into rooms, it just consisted of many tables and mana-powered machines where people were suffering the same luck as the guy next to him.
He would have loved to keep inspecting the place if it weren't for the multiple fumes coming from both the cigars and the weird incenses that they burnt to keep the odors bearable inside bearable.
And the worst part was that there were no windows! Not one at all! Yes, in their favor the place was somewhat of an underground illegal gambling facility, but the nerve to not even have some ventilation! The only way where air could flow freely was through the principal door, and it had been closed since the beginning of the night!
Granted, he suspected they were using some sort of magical solution for this place, or else they would have asphyxiated long ago, but still.
As he waited for the old man to stop arguing with the dealer, the young man started wondering that it should be time. He was not very fond of casinos in the first place but the fact they did not have any clock inside or any way of tracking time really pissed him of.
"I am telling you! My wife doesn't want to understand that the best way of making money is through gambling! And she even tells me that I'm 'addicted' can you believe that?! Besides if I was really addicted would I still be —"
And so the pacific illusion of the night was broken by the impact of multiple explosions on the floor above them. They rang loudly, shaking furiously the building, with chunks of debris falling from the walls and the ceiling. The magical powered lamps started flickering, as they main supply of mana was probably getting tampered with.
Even though the young man had been prepared for this situation, it took him some moments to regain his composure.
He quickly moved his hands toward the huge pile of chips belonging to the old man and shamelessly pocketed them. He then dashed towards one of the machines that was on his left while listening to the new sounds that started to fill the place. Most of them were just out of panic, but they quickly turned into fear when figures started emerging from the main door.
He hid behind one of the many machines and peeked to his left for what was happening. Apparently, the information he had was somewhat correct, the masked men that rushed into the casino using mana powered explosive devices were in fact there to rob the place.
Sadly the other piece of information he had was that they were not very fond of keeping hostages, so that's why he decided to hide.
'Around twenty? No, thirty it seems.'
They were clashing against the security, and, as the dealer had said before, they do seem like the real deal. There were few in comparison, a mere ten of them, but they were fighting with less favorable numbers and still weren't being overwhelmed. Yet.
The fight itself was bit too much for the young man, for he wasn't used to seeing this amount of brutality and magical might displayed on a fight. The warriors swiftly moved across the bandits, gracefully parrying and merciless piercing their flesh as they deemed fit. The casino's security was clearly superior in overall force, slaying the bandits as they came without posing much of a threat and yet, the fatigue was getting visibly stacked.
In any case, he was pretty certain who would win this fight regardless, so his current objective was a more pressing one. He had to exploit their fight for his escape. And so he did, he slowly walked sticking to a wall, carefully staring at the raging fight that was ensuing inside at the entrance, thanking their incessant combat for working as a perfect cover for him.
Even though the bandits clearly had more losses than the security, the cost of those seemed to be noticeable. They were visibly exhausted, Although the fight couldn't have lasted more than a few moments, they were out of stamina and had small injuries all across their bodies.
'In any case, my cue for leaving should be coming here any —"
And so another set of explosions rang, only that this time he could see them, and they had targeted the bandits. A bright red light blinded him for a moment, quickly followed by the high pitch sound of the air quickly expanding.
She had arrived.
A tall woman wearing the same outfit as the rest of the staff walked slowly some distance away from the entrance, carrying a deathly sight on her green eyes, while she wore a small hat on top of her long bright violet hair.
"Damn it! We were told there were no wizards inside!"
"Boss! What do we do?"
"That Fireball does not look like one from an Inspired!"
"You got to be kidding me! A Follower? Here? Everybody be caref—"
His head got reduced to bits. The woman, now pointing a red wooden wand towards the dead man simply moved his hand to another bandit and started chanting.
'Now!'
He ran with all his forces towards the exit, now that everyone's attention was on her, gave him the opportunity he had been waiting for.
"EVERYBODY! GET HER!"
And so they started clashing once again, gracefully allowing for his escape, which he promptly took by swiftly passing through the hole in the wall that used to be a beautiful door a couple of moments ago.
He sprinted through the beautiful, ornamented stairs, now filled with dirt and debris and reached the ground floor, which was totally wasted. Smoke, blood and human remains filled the ground, its walls shattered by the earlier explosions while the people that had been once guarding this place weren't on sight.
The man tried to avoid as much blood as he could while running away from the building as quickly as he could. Now that most of the structure had been destroyed, there wasn't really any need to go through the main entrance.
And so as he ran in the night, the man got reminded once again what the best way of making money was. Stealing it!
— — —
The young man ran in the dark night for quite a while, the roads of the city only illuminated by the bright two moons. Apparently, the Count had said that the city didn't produce enough money to pay for magical lamps, so they had to settle with the moon as their guide.
He didn't mind this though. Quite the contrary, most of the time it worked in his favor allowing him to easily get away when taking part in his… recreational activities.
The young man took of his hood and mask, revealing the appearance of a boy couldn't be older than sixteen years old. His blonde hair shined in tune with the moon while his brown eyes carefully studied the darkness beyond him.
After walking for some time, the boy reached his destination. A small shop placed between two houses welcomed him with an orange light coming from behind the windows. The young man peeked through them, only to see the owner of the store sitting behind the counter, peacefully reading a book.
As he proceeded into the store, a small sound of a bell came from the door, announcing his arrival. The old man sitting behind the counter didn't even bother to look at him as he continued his reading.
With wrinkles around his eyes, a hairline that had long given up and two brown eyes that hid between a pair of glasses, the old man continued to focus on his book.
"It took you long enough kid."
The young man approached the counter and dropped the bag containing the chips he had just stolen from the casino, and spoke for the first time since the beginning of the night.
"I'm not a kid, old man."
He said this while placing his coat and mask over the counter, right beside the coins and sighing heavily as he dropped himself on a chair right in front of the owner.
"Finally… I can rest a bit. Unless you are planning to double cross me? You aren't right? I had enough thrill for one day. Or night? Whatever."
"Don't talk to your elders like that insolent boy" The old man kept staring at his book, refusing to make eye contact with the boy. "Besides, what do you even know about hard work? You know back in my days —"
"Yeah, sorry I don't care, especially not today. Can we hurry this up? I'll give you fifteen percent as promised for exchanging these coins."
The old man closed his book and finally took a sight at the young boy, refusing to make any sort of expression.
"It was twenty-five percent. Don't try to swindle a swindler. Besides you forgot the hush money and the exchange fees. So I will take fifty percent and be glad I don't take more, besides I don't think there are more people than me willing to take the risk of playing against the house."
"Fifty?! This is insane! I almost lost my life there! Have some empathy, would you? Besides what do you even need the money for? You have a year left to live if at most."
"Hey! I'm still in my seventy's insolent brat! Don't go around wishing my death! Besides I need the money to keep the front of the store going! Or do you think the bribes to the city officials are going to get paid for themselves? Huh?"
"Cheapskate. So can you give me the money or not? This junior has some other business to attend."
The old man raised an eyebrow in confusion but decided not to pry any further and just started counting the chips.
"I have around seven hundred Cres" He said after counting all off the casino's chips "That's three hundred fifty for you kid."
The old man gave the money to him using multiple coins of different colors, with each carrying a different value. The young man promptly took them, stood up and started reaching to the door for leaving until the owner interrupted him.
"Hey kid… I know I shouldn't be asking but, why do you even need this money? This has to be one most dangerous theft you've done so far, I can't even imagine what they will do to you if they find out that you are responsible for providing the fake intel.
"Relax old man, the Follower took care of them, so there's nothing that can be traced to me."
"I know." He said while shaking his head "I know, and yet I'm still worried. Why kid? I know that you suffered after what happened to your sister, but this is just —"
"I'm just a greedy person, what else can I say? May I go now?"
The owner simply sighed and gestured for him to leave, to which he did, leaving the coat he had used on purpose on top of the counter as he did commonly after any job he worked on. The old man would then burn the coat or maybe plant it somewhere else to hide or mislead possible evidence against him.
He had finally obtained the money he needed for this month, so he went towards his final destination.
The walk to this destination took longer than the previous one, mostly due to the distance between the shop and his home.
And so he walked for some time until finally reaching his neighborhood, however before he could approach his house, a figure interrupted him.
"Hey Klad. Been waiting for a while for you to come back."
"Tari. Did I not tell you that your face bothers me?"
A girl about the age of Klad stood some distance away from him, leaning beside a house. She stared at him from her vibrant green eyes as she played with her long black hair.
"Rude. Did I not tell you that talking like that to women will make them hate you?"
"Funny, you speak as if you were a woman."
"Wow, that's even worse. What were you doing this late anyways?"
"Why do you care?" Klad looked a bit annoyed by this commentary, he certainly couldn't tell her that he had been stealing again, cloud he?
"So, to what do I owe the favor?"
Tari's face instantly turned sour, staying silent for a few moments.
"Today's her anniversary, don't you remember?"
Right. It was today.
"I was planning on visiting her grave. Figured it was best to go the both of us."
"Why do you care? You barely knew her."
"Of course I care! How can you even say that? She was my friend! Our friend."
"So? It's late, can't we go tomorrow?"
"You know I can't. I have to work on dad's workshop. If he evens hears that I'm out at this hour… well, I don't want to even imagine it. So can we go? Please?"
Klad's expression was really saying that he didn't want to go. But Tari was right, even if it meant nothing to him, he should at least accompany her.
"Fine. Let's go, I don't have all night, or well what remains of it."
"Don't worry, it's winter after all, the Moon bless us with longer nights to protect our souls from the Curse."
"Yeah right…"
They walked in silence for some time, only accompanied by the dim light of the moons.
Eventually Tari broke the silence with another question.
"So Klad, what were you really doing? I tried knocking in your house but —"
"You knocked in my house? How many times have I told you not to do that?"
"Relax, we both know that your fat— I mean, him, can't harm me. He truly fears my father after all."
"That's not why — Look, don't go knocking into my house any longer, I don't want him doing anything to you or anyone else. Please"
"Sure. But are you really sure that's it? You are not hiding something?"
"Yes, I have a rotting corpse in my kitchen and I'm afraid you might find it. Can we continue know?"
"Sheesh, talk about having no sense of humor. Fine. So can you tell me why you were late today?"
"I certainly can, but should I? Regardless, we are already here."
Klad and Tari stood at the fences of the cemetery. It looked as rundown as he remembered, the steel fences filled with leaves and plants while the place where the gates that once restricted the access to the cemetery were long gone. Most probably stolen. Not by Klad though.
They passed the frame where the gates once stood and ventured into the darkness of the resting place. There were a lot of graves, the grass which had not been trimmed in a long time scraped Klad's pants while the smell of wet dirt filled the air.
They walked for a while until they reached a small grey grave, similar to all of the ones that filled the place. It had so many plants and vines that the tombstone couldn't even be read.
Tari kneeled down and started ripping them off, throwing a mean look at Klad for not helping her, to which he clearly made a confusing look as though he didn't understand what she meant.
"You are gonna dirty your pants."
"Shut up and help instead of being an ass."
"Oh no, the weeping of the deceased is so loud I can't hear you!"
She continued vigorously until the stone finally read:
'Ita - 1512 – 1521: Here rests the best sister a brother could have asked for'
A small grim appeared on Klad's face when he read this while Tari, oblivious to his expression, knelt in front of the grave, with one knee facing her chest and the other one pressed against the floor, she reached with the palm of her hand to the front of her face and started to murmur a blessing.
This was a traditional prayer on the Empire, from the Blessed Church, one that Klad didn't share much of their dogmas with, so he just waited for her to finish her prayers.
After a short time, she finally stood up and looked at Klad with a cold expression.
"Hey. Aren't you going to pray for her?"
"No. Besides, you already know my thoughts regarding religion."
"Yes, and this also has nothing to do with you. How much of a bastard can you be to not even wish for her wellness in heaven?"
"I know there's no heaven out there. And even if there was, we both know that —"
"You know what? I don't want to hear it" she said, with her face twisting in a disgusted expression. She turned and looked once again at the grave, now wearing the same sad smile she had since they came here.
"I'm sorry this guy is your brother Ita. I hope that you are eating a lot up there. Let's see each other later. You aren't going to say anything to your sister?"
"Just… Stop it, Tari. We both know she is not here."
A painful expression appeared once more on Tari's face, only that this time she chose not to say anything and just started walking back towards the entrance. The walk back towards his house was a silent one, occasionally interrupted by a quiet sob coming from Tari.
They reached the front of Klad's house where they parted with each other without saying much. Klad reached towards his door and remembered that he hadn't brought the keys with him because of the plans he had for the night.
So instead, he reached his hand towards a tile near his door that hid a key below it. Oldest trick in the book.
He pushed the key through the keyhole and pressed the handle down, allowing the door to move inwards towards the house. He entered without minding the noise he was making, he knew that no one was there after all.
His so-called father was probably sleeping on a nearby tavern wasted by alcohol. And his mother, well, he didn't know where she was and couldn't care less about her anyways.
Klad placed the key on the kitchen table and turned the lights of the house with a magical artifact inserted near the entrance wall.
The whole room turned into a dim orange, he specifically set it to a low brightness. Refilling with mana those artifacts wasn't particularly cheap.
He reached towards the kitchen and grabbed a wooden plate, utensils and placed a salted half piece of meat on the plate. With this Klad went towards the main corridor, reaching the end of the house where a door that had a key inserted in the keyhole awaited.
He twisted the key and pushed forward, and as the door moved, the inside of the room became clear. Only lit by a small burning candle placed on the floor, with boarded up windows and no furniture at all. At the end of said room was an iron rod stuck to the wall, followed by a metal chain that was connected to one end of the rod. The other said end met a metal shackle that was trapping the ankle of a girl.
The girl sat there, resting on top of her pure long white hair while she stared at the ceiling. Her eyes didn't look like eyes at all, instead they were pitch black, with shiny white dots scattered around the darkness, resembling the night sky Klad had been seeing since the beginning of this long night. Her mouth turned into a big smile when she noticed that someone had entered the room and turned towards Klad.
"Brother! You are finally here, I'm starving!"
She was her not so dead sister, Ita.