The glass of alcohol untouched, I waited for about 10 minutes when a man with a neat but somewhat shady appearance entered and sat across from me.

“Hello, Miss Rischefeld. I’m William Gardner.”

“Nice to meet you, Count Gardner. Your welcome greeting was quite aggressive.”

As I shook his outstretched hand and expressed my displeasure, Gardner burst into laughter as if something was amusing.

“Hahaha, I apologize. It seems my staff have been rude. I hope the lady will be understanding.”

His gold tooth gleamed between his exposed teeth. He was the stereotypical image of an incredibly shady villain.

The Count leaned back deeply into the sofa and crossed his legs. He didn’t seem to be treating me as a guest.

“You may not know this, lady, but this casino is a place I’ve dedicated my entire life to. It’s a kingdom for those chasing dreams and fantasies, built with all the sweat and passion of my youth.”

Seems he’s the type to start with a long introduction. I don’t particularly want to know such TMI.

“However, lately I’ve been having headaches because of some troublemakers muddying the waters. It seems there are often people in this empire who know how to use magic, and they tend to ruin the sacred atmosphere of the casino with magic. That’s why we always thoroughly inspect our guests, but sometimes it’s difficult to filter out artifacts with faint magical powers.”

“So, are you saying that I unfairly profited using that artifact?”

I was the first to raise my hand, tired of the drawn-out conversation. William seemed somewhat disappointed that his speech was cut short.

“I’m not suspecting you, but since an artifact has been found, we can’t just let it slide. In fact, you correctly guessed the roulette number twice.”

The Count put on a detestable mask of being an innocent victim and showed a troubled expression.

Now I understood a bit better. From the beginning, it wasn’t that someone reported me, but they became suspicious and investigated because I had guessed the numbers consecutively with an impossible probability. And then they happened to find the artifact.

Well, I was a bit suspicious too. It doesn’t make sense that someone with such bad luck as to draw Ravenne out of all the possible characters would guess the roulette number twice.

“So? Are you going to confiscate all the chips I have?”

“I’m sorry to say this, but the casino rules are a bit strict. It seems we’ll have to inform the Duke about this serious matter.”

“The Duke?”

“Of course, Duke Celestine.”

“……”

After hearing that, I fell into thought for a moment.

It felt like the last puzzle piece was clicking into place.

The Duke’s fiancée came to the largest casino in the empire and committed fraud using an artifact. And they will inform the Duke about this fact.

For moral reasons?

No, what moral sense would a person running a casino have? Rather, he would be someone who moves strictly according to his own interests.

And by informing the Duke about this fact, what he could gain was leverage in his relationship with the Duke, a weakness.

The fact that his fiancée committed fraud. Just threatening to spread this to the media would deal a tremendous blow to the Celestine name.

This… is not bad?

Having grasped the Count’s intentions, I quickly changed my attitude and smiled brightly.

“Oh my, Count. So you’re going to contact the Duke?”

“Yes?”

Surprised by the unexpected response, the Count looked at me with startled rabbit eyes.

“Since the matter is serious, it would be better for the Duke to come in person, right? I’ll wait here quietly until then.”

“Ah, I see.”

Flustered, Gardner stammered without realizing it. He looked as if he hadn’t expected me to admit my fault so readily.

I could have made excuses saying I did it unknowingly, but there was no reason to do so. If I play this right, I might be able to get kicked out by Ilion.

They say the enemy of my enemy is my friend, and I couldn’t miss this chance to join hands with the best ally.

With a lightened heart, I picked up the glass of alcohol on the table. Shall I try some high-class liquor?

***

“Master, we’ve received a communication from Count Gardner.”

“Count Gardner?”

There shouldn’t be any reason for him to contact me.

We weren’t close enough to keep in touch, and the Count, who was obsessed with money, wouldn’t waste magic stones to inquire about unnecessary greetings.

Ilion instructed to connect the communication device for now.

“Hello, Duke. It’s been a while.”

He greeted with his gold tooth gleaming. Ilion returned the greeting out of courtesy and immediately asked about the main point.

If he missed the timing, he would have to listen to Gardner’s long introduction endlessly.

“Actually, Miss Rischefeld came to our casino, and I have an urgent matter to discuss regarding that.”

“Rischefeld?”

A name that shouldn’t come out of Gardner’s mouth suddenly popped up. I thought she had been quiet since taking the blank check, but she went to the casino already.

Although I think every day that I never know what she’ll do next, my fiancée always manages to surpass those thoughts.

Ilion inwardly swallowed a sigh and asked.

“Is there a problem?”

“There are many problems. For example, the lady entering wearing an artifact, or unfairly taking winnings using the artifact.”

“An artifact?”

Had she purchased such an expensive item? Ilion looked at Sebastian. He had told him to buy whatever she needed within reason, but there shouldn’t have been any artifacts among those.

Sebastian shook his head as if it was news to him. Artifacts weren’t just a few coins, they started from at least 100 gold, so it wasn’t likely that they would have bought such items so easily.

Then it means Ravenne caused trouble somewhere again… Could she have bought it with the blank check I gave her today?

“Could you put Ravenne on, please?”

At Ilion’s request, the communication device flickered slightly, and Ravenne’s face appeared.

“Duke! Hello!”

“What are you doing there?”

“Drinking alcohol. I didn’t know, but there’s a lot of delicious alcohol here!”

Ilion unconsciously pressed his forehead with his hand. Ravenne already seemed slightly drunk.

“I want to hear the situation directly from you. Explain.”

“Um, actually, I played roulette earlier? And every time I played, the ball kept landing on the number I picked! Do you want to see? I got two gold chips.”

Saying that, Ravenne laughed cheerfully.

“And then?”

“Oh, the Count said I should take responsibility for unfairly profiting using an artifact…”

“And drinking alcohol is taking responsibility?”

“Ah, I drank because it was here. I didn’t drink much. Really, just a tiny bit.”

“Ravenne!”

“…Yes, sir.”

When he raised his voice firmly cutting off her words, Ravenne, who had been grinning drunkenly, straightened up.

“Did you know it was an artifact when you took it?”

Ravenne mumbled, unable to answer.

“I asked if you knew when you took it.”

“Yes.”

An affirmative answer was heard from Ravenne, who had lowered her head.

“Let’s talk when you get here. It seems we have a lot to discuss.”

Ilion unconsciously frowned at Gardner’s behavior, arbitrarily cutting in before the conversation was over.

However, he agreed with Gardner’s suggestion that it would be better to meet and talk in person. Ilion replied that he would come soon and turned off the communication device.

“Sebastian, prepare the carriage. We’re leaving immediately.”

After Sebastian left, Ilion stared silently at the turned-off communication device.

He hadn’t decided to marry expecting something from Ravenne. This marriage was solely based on Ilion’s needs.

If his decision would bring shame to the Celestine family, Ilion was someone who would cut off Ravenne without hesitation.

And Ravenne’s behavior today was enough to make Ilion regret his decision. There was no need to deliberate on how to deal with Ravenne.

But why, Ilion wondered, had he hoped for Ravenne to answer ‘no’ to his question.

Even as he asked, he knew. That the situation wouldn’t change even if he heard the answer.

Knowing this, in that brief moment he waited for her answer, he thought not about breaking off the engagement with Ravenne, but about ways to prove her innocence.

However, as if mocking his thoughts, Ravenne admitted to all her faults. For a moment, an indescribable disappointment and inexplicable anger washed over him.

It was hard to comprehend. The situation wouldn’t have changed based on Ravenne’s answer, and the action he needed to take was already decided.

Yet, he couldn’t understand why he felt even betrayed.

The emotion that wouldn’t easily subside kept rearing its head, consuming Ilion.

Sebastian watched Ilion coming down the stairs roughly.

His master wasn’t someone who showed emotions like this. More precisely, he was someone accustomed to killing his own emotions.

But today, he looked like someone who didn’t know how to handle the boiling anger visible to anyone.

From Sebastian’s perspective, this change in Ilion was both welcome and worrying.

Because he was so accustomed to killing his emotions, he didn’t know how to deal with them when they overflowed. The overflowing emotions were helpful neither to Ilion’s body nor to the matter he was trying to resolve now.

If he sent Ilion like this, he would surely mess things up.

“Think calmly.”

“I am thinking calmly.”

“Then may I ask one thing?”

Taking the lack of response as permission, Sebastian continued.

“Would Miss Ravenne need to use an artifact to profit from the casino?”

“Well…”

Ilion hesitated for a moment as he was about to give a reason.

Ravenne wasn’t someone who lacked money. He had given her a blank check with his own hands, allowing her to use as much money as she needed.

It was truly unexpected that she went to the casino with it, but anyway, there was no reason for her to use an artifact.

Ilion recalled the words Ravenne had said.

‘Come to think of it, she said the ball landed exactly on the number she picked…’

He knew the rules of roulette to some extent. It was a game where a roulette wheel with 37 numbers spins dizzily, and a metal ball rolls around the edge of the wheel, eventually slowing down and falling into one of the slots.

If she had guessed the numbers with an artifact, it would require implementing magic precise enough to make the ball land exactly on the picked number.

The roulette wheel spinning chaotically, the metal ball rolling randomly, and 37 different numbers. There were too many variables.

Although he didn’t know how to use magic, based on his knowledge, it seemed like a difficult magic to contain in an artifact.

‘Perhaps the premise was wrong from the start.’

Sebastian felt relieved as he watched Ilion pondering the question he had thrown, furrowing his brow. It seemed the anger that had threatened to consume him had subsided a bit.