***
Where did it all… go wrong?
Everything before my eyes went black.
The man smiling across from me.
Leon Silberg.
He opened his mouth.
“With this, I am all in. So let us have our final showdown.”
As if it were nothing,
his light tone pressed down on me. Looking at that detestable sight, I had no choice but to admit it.
I had already been driven to the edge of a cliff.
And once again,
I looked at the hand I held
and the coin he had put forward, my face twisting.
The coin Leon Silberg had put down was no ordinary coin.
It was what was commonly called a “Silberg Coin.”
In the past, when the imperial family bestowed rewards upon the Viscount House of Silberg, who refused both titles and material compensation, they had used it as a kind of blank check.
The coin’s purpose was simple.
With that in hand, one could “demand” anything of the imperial family.
And so long as it was within their power to grant, the imperial family could not refuse their request.
That included all manner of material rewards,
and even abdication—the ultimate master key.
It was the best measure the imperial family could take for the Silberg family, whose contributions since the founding of the nation had been far too great.
And over the course of several generations,
dozens of those coins had flowed into the Silberg family.
However, they had never once used them.
It was as if they regarded the coins as nothing more than tokens for settling matters of empty praise.
And so people had come to believe it, without ever saying it aloud.
That the Silberg family would never use those coins.
But why?
Why now?
Why, of all days, had he brought that out today?
“Hmm? What are you hesitating over?”
“Kuh…! Le-Leon Silberg… P-please wait a moment.”
“Why, think as long as you like. Huhuhut.”
The problem was that I could not win.
Because the Silberg Coin carried the tremendous condition that it could demand anything from the imperial family, there was also one restriction attached to it.
That was…
…if anyone outside the direct Silberg line came to possess that coin.
They would be charged with treason.
It was a rule the imperial family had made so that the Silberg family would not suffer harm because of that coin.
If that rule had not existed, then no matter how much they were Silberg, there would have been many who targeted them.
In any case…
For that reason, I was currently caught in a no-win situation.
This was not a matter of whether my hand was good or bad.
…If I won?
My life would end that very day.
Not only would I be beheaded for treason, but under guilt by association, my family, my subordinates, my knights, and even my servants—
all of them would die.
But that did not mean I could lose, either.
According to the rules of Noble Poker,
if someone forfeited before any cards were revealed in a game where a player had declared all in, that person had to compensate the one who went all in with an amount equal to what they had wagered.
In other words, if I declared defeat in this game now,
it meant I would have to provide compensation worthy of that coin.
There was no way I had anything like that.
Then there was only one method.
Accept his bet, open my hand, and lose.
If that happened, I would only have to pay the roughly 100 gold I had wagered before, and it would be over.
However.
The hand in my grasp was—
♠10 ♠J ♠Q ♠K ♠A
A royal straight flush.
It was the highest-ranking hand in poker, an invincible hand.
A hand that anyone who played poker might receive once in a lifetime, if ever, was now in my grasp.
In other words, there was no possible way for me to lose by the cards.
I had no idea how he had managed this in a game where we dealt the cards ourselves without even a dealer,
but this was probably…
a trap that Silberg had dug.
“Ugh… Uuuugh.”
My hands trembled.
Because it was Silberg, I should have been even more careful.
I had been foolish.
I had been deceived by that easy smile.
But now, there was no turning back.
And the choices left to me… practically did not exist.
Because I was already
prey caught in Silberg’s trap.
All that remained now… was to be eaten.
In the end, I
“I………… have lost.”
had no choice but to lay down my cards.
***
The game ended.
After agonizing for quite some time, Count Rugner placed his cards on the table and declared defeat.
Hmm.
I thought he had gone in so boldly because he had a good hand,
but seeing this now, it seemed he had been bluffing, just like me.
“…What do you desire as compensation?”
But just as I was about to shuffle the cards as the winner, Count Rugner asked me a strange question.
Wondering what he meant, I tilted my head,
and amidst the murmurs around me, I heard people talking about Noble Poker.
Okay, so.
If someone goes all in and their opponent declares defeat—in other words, forfeits—then the one who went all in has to be compensated with as much as they bet?
At that, I looked at the coin I had pushed forward.
A coin a little bigger than a 500-won coin.
It was golden in color,
but according to Cecil,
it was not real gold.
Then, roughly speaking, if it was plated…
Would it be worth about ten thousand won?
“Hmm…”
Then I felt like I understood why Count Rugner had asked me that question.
He probably could not decide what to give in return for something that looked like a toy.
But it would be ridiculous for nobles to exchange an object worth ten thousand won between themselves.
So it seemed he wanted to hear what kind of thing I wanted and then prepare something appropriate.
As expected of Brother Rugner.
What a generous man.
“Huhut. Please prepare something appropriately matching its value.”
However, that did not mean I wanted to receive something too good.
I already felt sorry that I had come to his daughter’s birthday party without properly preparing a gift, and now I was going to receive a gift instead?
To be honest, that would prick my conscience far too much.
“…Understood. I will prepare it and send it to your room.”
“?”
But what was this?
Just as I was about to shuffle the cards for the next game, Count Rugner rose from his seat.
Seeing that, I considered asking him to stay for just one more game, but I figured he must have his reasons and let him go.
Well, if I thought about it positively…
Perhaps he was being considerate so that no one would see me going completely broke?
And that was
“Huh? A royal straight flush?”
proven by the other nobles, who apparently judged the game to be over and began flipping over the cards as they pleased.
No, he folded with a royal straight flush in poker?
That meant only one thing.
Wow… Brother Rugner. Truly.
You were letting this younger brother off so that I would not go broke.
A deep wave of emotion welled up in me all over again.
Then, at that moment,
one of the nobles who had looked at Brother Rugner’s hand asked me,
“Um… Viscount, may we know what hand you had?”
At those words, I showed them the cards still lying in front of me.
When I did, the nobles who saw my hand were shocked.
“N-no pair…!”
Well, to be honest, the cards had not been what mattered in this game.
It seemed they had failed to read Brother Rugner’s grand intention.
So I kindly explained it to them.
“It was merely a result that had already been decided.”
Though I phrased it a little indirectly.
To say outright that it had been Count Rugner’s grand design… would have looked rather uncouth, and besides, it would have been rude to Brother Rugner, who had silently conveyed his feelings.
“As expected…!”
“Kuh! Count Rugner…!”
As expected, they were intelligent nobles.
It seemed they understood with just that much.
Perhaps moved by Brother Rugner’s magnanimity, some even wiped away tears.
Hut.
Wasn’t this a heartwarming conclusion?
And so, the night at the party deepened.
***
The moment the poker game ended, the party came to a close.
It was quite late.
The gathered nobles were guided by the count’s servants to their accommodations.
According to Cecil, whenever there was a party like this, staying one night was standard.
“This way.”
For that reason, I, too, was being guided somewhere within the mansion by a servant.
But I grew slightly uneasy.
Unlike the other nobles, who had been guided to the annex, I alone was being guided deeper into the main building.
“Hmmm~ How interesting.”
“What is?”
“It’s nothing. Master, then I will return to the carriage.”
“Hm? Cecil. Why? Why not ask them to give you a room here?”
“No. I don’t think this is a situation for me to interfere in, and it doesn’t look like you particularly need guarding, either. And the other knights in the carriage should have made their own preparations, so I will stay there.”
“Uh… okay.”
On top of that, Cecil, my guard, said that and left.
To be honest, I had not understood even half of what she had said, but Cecil’s way of expressing herself was always strange to begin with, so by now I simply accepted it.
Because of that, my anxiety grew even more.
However, I soon calmed myself.
In truth, when I thought about it, I did not really need protection.
There were five or six marquises here, and counts were so numerous you could trip over them, yet someone would target a mere viscount who ruled a small territory?
For a villain infiltrating a count’s mansion, that would be far too petty.
So perhaps Serin, having realized that fact early on, had gone off to take her own rest.
Well, she was with me every single day.
It would be good for her to rest a bit while she had the chance.
Thinking that, I followed the servant.
“…How far are we going?”
“We are almost there. There is a place where the master has prepared the compensation for the game… so we must go a little farther in.”
“Ah! I see.”
And the anxiety that had arisen after Cecil left lasted only a moment.
The uneasy feeling that we seemed to be going strangely deep into the mansion was resolved by the servant’s explanation.
Brother Rugner had probably prepared some sort of gift.
And perhaps he was being considerate, thinking that giving it to me in a place where the other nobles were present might make me uncomfortable.
Either way,
there had to be a reason.
“It is here.”
And so, I was assigned a room.
A large door.
I was a noble myself, after all, so I knew a little about the structure of noble mansions.
The fact that a door of this size was used meant that the room was that important.
So assigning me such a room was also one of Brother Rugner’s considerations.
“Do I just go in?”
“…Yes. Then I will take my leave.”
“Huh?”
But something was strange.
The servant suddenly left me behind and hurried away with quick, small steps.
She was not someone under my command, so I could not do anything about it. Once she left, I was the only one remaining in the long corridor.
“…What is this?”
Or was this originally part of their culture?
At the Silberg mansion, the servants opened every door and even attended outside the room, so I had naturally assumed the servant who had brought me here would take care of such conveniences.
But now that she had left, I could only be bewildered.
Still, even in my previous life, every household had its own culture.
And this place was a romance-fantasy world, so if anything, such differences would be even more extreme, not less… Thinking that, I decided to let it pass.
Perhaps leaving a guest like this was one of the customs of the Count Rugner household.
Most likely, she had stepped away so I could rest comfortably.
“Do I just go in…?”
In any case, after the servant left, I carefully opened the door.
It was a heavy door.
“Excuse me~”
As someone from the Republic of Korea, I entered while offering a greeting,
and a massive room came into view.
Even judging only by the silhouette visible near the window, it was a room so large that most lecture halls could not compare.
Various pieces of furniture were also arranged inside, so I could tell just from the entrance that it was an extremely fine room.
However, perhaps no one had thought to check, for the magic lamps were off, and it was dim.
I went inside to turn on the lights.
—Click.
“Damn it, you scared me.”
And the moment I entered, the door closed behind me.
There had been no one in the corridor a moment ago, so it must have been made to close by magic.
In any case, I first closed my eyes.
I had seen it once on some TV program long ago.
If you closed your eyes like this for about thirty seconds and then opened them again, they said you could see better in the dark.
But then.
—Rustle.
“…Hm?”
A sound reached my ears, made more sensitive by my closed eyes.
At first, I thought I had misheard.
However,
“…”
I soon understood.
Someone was here.
Startled, I hastily grabbed an object nearby.
My eyes had not adjusted to the darkness yet, so I did not know what I had picked up, but it felt like some sort of club.
And then I slowly approached the place where I sensed a presence.
To think someone had actually hidden themselves inside the count’s mansion.
I had thought there would be no such incident,
but it seemed they had instead chosen an easy-looking viscount as their target.
No wonder. Even if they were going to give me compensation for the game, there had been no need to bring me all the way to a room this far inside.
Since we had just finished our poker game on such a heartwarming note, Brother Rugner would not be involved.
Then the culprit was obvious.
There was no way a planned assassination request had come in for me, when I had no grudges with anyone in particular… so it was probably one of the nobles I had cleaned out during the poker game.
If it was someone I had taken money from, then that narrowed it down to one or two.
And the servant from a moment ago must have been a bribed accomplice.
Thinking that, everything fit.
Hmm… So that was how it was?
If the scenario I had guessed was correct, then rather than fleeing, it would be better to attack first.
Because hastily made plans tended to collapse rapidly
when they were disrupted by an unexpected variable.
Fortunately, the intruder did not seem to have noticed my approach.
They remained crouched in one spot without moving.
One step.
Two steps.
I walked slowly.
“…”
And the moment I reached the place where I sensed the presence,
First strike wins!
I swung the club in my hand.
—Thwack!
And at the same time, a loud sound rang out.
“Kyaaaah!! U-ugh…!”
It was a woman’s scream.
…What the hell is this?