“Since we won, then next...”
As he spoke, footsteps unexpectedly echoed from the stairs behind them; a third person had successfully reached this place.
Shad and Miss Princess were greatly surprised, and the wraiths and the Captain were even more so. Everyone and every monster, who had previously been hostile toward one another, now looked toward the stairwell. The first to see the person was Miss Princess, being closest to the stairs; her eyes widened instantly.
The third Ring-wielder to break in here had removed his mask, just as Shad and Miss Princess had, and it was a face they actually recognized. This was Mr. Darkness, the man who had played cards with Shad in the tavern this afternoon and used despicable means to cheat.
Though it was unclear by what means he had reached this place, the left half of his body seemed to be covered by writhing darkness and shadows. The man's complexion was terrible, and there were traces of foul blood on the normal half of his body.
Miss Princess was just about to speak and ask him to help, but unexpectedly, the middle-aged man merely glanced at the situation and immediately retreated. The receding footsteps indicated that Mr. Darkness had actually fled.
“The last time three people from a single batch reached this place was 1,500 years ago.”
The Captain's hoarse, low voice made Shad realize that the danger had not yet been lifted. Amidst the restless whispers of the wraiths, he turned and took Miss Princess's hand, giving her a reassuring look, and then walked together to the table.
Shad sat down in an empty chair at one end of the long table, directly opposite the exceptionally hideous Captain. Miss Princess stood behind Shad, her hand resting on the back of the chair, bathed in the golden light emanating from him.
The subsequent gamble would be handled by Shad; she truly did not possess the mental strength to sit at the same table as the sailors and the Captain unscathed.
The wooden table before him looked quite old; the legs were covered in sludge, and the tabletop, laden with various delicacies, was a weave of black and brown. Although the wood had not yet rotted and appeared sturdy, the smell of decay became apparent as soon as he drew near.
This scent made Shad even hungrier; for a fleeting moment, he even had the urge to taste the wood to see if it was delicious.
No one stopped him from sitting down; having won the duel, he had earned the right to sit.
“I want to leave this place,” Shad said, folding his hands on the table, avoiding the Captain's face.
“Gamble one round with me. If you win, you leave; if you lose, you sit here forever.”
The Captain pressed both hands onto the table, and the whispers of the surrounding wraiths became denser. The skull chandelier overhead swayed, and an eerie laughter drifted into his ears from an unknown source.
“Sitting here forever” likely referred to joining the ship; if Shad lost, he too would become a part of this vessel.
“Wait, I also want to take my companion with me. We came here together.” He pointed behind him.
“Then let her gamble with me as well.”
“I will gamble on her behalf; we can make the stakes higher,” Shad added. Before him sat a golden basin of milky-white fish soup. Though he didn't know why these foods had no scent, just one look made him unable to resist.
The sounds of hunger from his stomach were continuous; he felt as if he could sense his intestines and stomach writhing in dissatisfaction. Although the food before him had no smell, seeing it inevitably reminded him of the high-end restaurant he had visited with Miss Louisa, bringing back the taste of delicious fish soup.
“Facing such a situation, you actually still want to take someone with you?”
The Captain, wearing a tricorne hat, burst into laughter, and the grotesque sailor wraiths around the table began to jeer. Their laughter caused the ship to vibrate; the Captain, the wraiths, and the ship were one—everyone was a part of the Relic.
“Fine. Since you want to raise the stakes, why not raise them even further? If you win, I will let everyone on the ship leave.”
The Captain spoke amidst that irritating laughter, but Shad immediately shook his head.
The higher the stakes, the lower his probability of winning. While he sympathized with the others caught up in this accident, he didn't want to risk himself and Miss Princess being unable to leave because of it.
He would naturally help others when he could, but this wasn't like rolling a die where the probability was around 10; this was like rolling a die where the probability was likely less than five.
“No, I only gamble for myself and the companion behind me,” Shad emphasized.
“That is not up to you.”
The Captain tore open the buttons of his coat, but what was revealed was not a body covered in scars, but a withered, skeletal frame like a mummy. The surface of the mummy was covered in fish scales, and on the shriveled gray chest was a black mermaid tattoo the size of a forearm. The mermaid in the tattoo originally had her eyes closed, but in the next moment, they snapped open abruptly. Her once-beautiful face became sinister, and then, the mermaid suddenly detached from the Captain's scale-covered body, leaped onto the table, and vanished abruptly.
“Three rounds. If you win two, I'll let all of you leave. If you refuse to gamble, the woman behind you can gamble for her own freedom. First round: you guess which plate the mermaid is hiding under.”
The Captain pointed to the table with his chest exposed
“First round: if you win, I will give you the method to resolve your hunger state. If you guess wrong, you must eat whatever you guessed.”
The restless wraiths jeered, and the cold wind made Shad, whose body was shaking from extreme hunger, feel even more uncomfortable. At that moment, Miss Princess's hand rested on his shoulder. He turned to look up, his eyes meeting her emerald green ones.
Once, the black-haired maid Miss Tifa Servet had looked at Shad in the same way; he had to admit that the maid was the person with the best figure he had known in this world.
Miss Princess said nothing, but her gaze put Shad at ease; this time, he was not alone.
He knew that no matter what he said, he could not refuse the Captain's malicious expansion of the stakes. He turned back to the fish-featured Captain across the table, golden light trails scattering around like sparks with his movements.
“I'll gamble with you, but you must swear to your god that once I win two rounds, you will let everyone on the cruise ship leave.”
“No problem. I swear by my Lord, the [Lord of the Crimson Spiral], that if you win, you may all leave!”
“Very well.”
Shad's eyes stared at the table, and he asked in his mind: *“Where is it?”*
【The traces of the element are obvious. The silver basin on the left, beneath those white breads.】
“Under the white bread,” Shad said.
“You guessed wrong,” the Captain laughed. Simultaneously, the voice in his mind reminded him again
【It shifted positions; it is now under that plate of roasted meat.】
“Under the roas—”
“You only have one chance. You lost the first round!”
With a wave of his hand, the flat mermaid tattoo flew directly out of the roasted meat and pasted itself back onto the Captain's chest.
(End of Chapter)