“I see.”
“That's why I'm rearranging my luggage. I can't bring so many clothes.”
Louise pointed to her luggage that had gotten lighter by a bagful.
“So I have to work even though it's summer vacation...”
Saito muttered sadly.
“Stop loafing around. Come on, we're leaving now!”
After all of this happened, the two left for Tristania. In order to hide their social status, they could not use a coach. The horses at the academy were the academy's, so they could not use those. In the end, they walked.
Louise and Saito walked on the road under the scorching sun, heading towards Tristania. It takes two days to get there.
Looking reproachfully at the sun, Saito whispered,
“Damn... even though I should be at Siesta's house drinking cold water right now...”
“Don't complain! Come on! Walk!”
Louise, who had her familiar carry all of the luggage, shouted angrily.
After arriving at the city, the two first visited the financial affairs office to exchange the note for gold coins. Six-hundred in new gold coins. Four-hundred écus.
Saito remembered the money from Henrietta in the pouch attached to his belt. About four hundred new gold coins remained. So around two-hundred seventy écus.
Saito first found a tailor and bought plain clothes for Louise. Louise didn't like it, but wearing a mantle with a pentagram would completely expose her as a noble. It would be impossible to blend in with commoners and gather information. There would be no meaning walking here.
But Louise, forced to wear plain clothes, looked unsatisfied.
“What's wrong?”
“It's not enough.”
“What is?”
“The money we got for this mission. With only four-hundred écus, we would be broke after buying a horse.”
“We don't need a horse. It was written for you to hide your social status, right? In other words, you're supposed to act like a commoner. Walk. You have legs.”
“I'll act like a commoner, but I can't get satisfying services without a horse.”
“A cheap horse is fine, right? Compromise here.”
“Those horses are useless when we really need them! We also need a harness. And also... we won't be able to stay at a strange inn. With this amount of money, it'll be gone after staying for just two and a half months!”
What kind of Inn could cost up to six-hundred gold coins?
“A cheap inn is fine, right?”
“No way! I can't sleep well in a cheap room!”
As expected of a noble's daughter. Even though she has a mission to blend in with commoners and gather information, she plans to stay at a high class inn. Saito wondered, What is she thinking?
“I have some too. I'll share some with you.”
“...That's still not enough. Services cost money.”
“Then what should we do?”
“Isn't there a way to earn more money?”
And like that, while disputing about earning more money and finding a cheap place, they entered a bar where Saito found a gambling area set up in a corner of the store. Over there, drunk men and suspicious women were taking chips and having their chips taken.
Without caring about Louise narrowing her eyebrows at them, Saito gazed at the gambling.
“What are you looking at?”
“Well, I was just thinking about earning money with this. How about it?”
“Isn't that gambling? What a thing!”
“Now, just watch me. I've done it a lot of times before in games.”
Saito exchanged chips for thirty new gold coins... twenty écus and headed towards the table with the spinning disk. The disk's circumference was split into thirty-seven parts, each having their own number and colored red or black.
An iron ball spun around inside the disk. And near the disk, there were men and women with changed eye colors staring at this intently.
It was roulette.
Saito looked at the placing guests. First, I'll test my luck. Copying the winning guests, Saito placed a chip worth about ten écus on red.
The ball entered a red pocket.
“See, look. I earned some! I'm amazing!”
Saito was somewhat stingy, so he placed cautiously and earned about thirty écus worth of chips.
“See, look! The money we have for completing the mission increased! Geez, it's a big difference compared to a certain someone who only complains!”
Saito said while turning his chest away. Louise's eyes flashed.
“Lend some to me.”
“You shouldn't. It's impossible for you.”
“What are you saying? If the familiar is winning, then the master will win ten times over if she tries.”
Louise immediately placed what Saito had won on black. But... she was off. What Saito had won was lost in a moment.
“What are you doing?! Even though I finally earned some!”
“Sh-shut up.”
“Geez... Even though you always act proud, you can't properly earn money at all. Learn from Siesta a bit. Learn to cook something. Then go work as a cook at some restaurant. That's what laboring is.”
Something lit up in Louise at the words “Learn from Siesta”.
“J-j-just watch me. Who the hell will lose?”
“Louise?”
Saito trembled at her.
Thirty minutes later...
Louise was drooping her shoulders and looking hatefully at the board. The chips she had placed a moment ago quietly disappeared by the banker's hand. The pretty blond girl's shoulders remained drooping for a while, but then raising her head proudly, she tried to place all of her chips onto one point. Saito, who had been looking from behind her, grabbed her shoulders.
“Louise...”
“What?”
Louise muttered in a clearly grumpy voice. Saito bluntly said,
“Let's stop already.”
“I'll win next time. I'll definitely win.”
“How many times do you think you've said that?!”
Saito's scream resounded. The guests placing chips turned around and put on bitter smiles.
It was a scene that occurred every day.
“You haven't even won once.”
Saito stuck his finger in front of Louise's nose. This was the first time Saito saw a human who was so bad at gambling. Louise had already lost four-hundred écus... most of the money required for the mission. If they turned Louise's remaining chips into money, they wouldn't get more than thirty écus. If they lost this, they would be broke.
“It's okay. I'll unleash my certain winning method next.”
“Tell me about it.”
“Until now, I've been betting on red or black, right?”
“Yeah. To miss fifteen times betting on red or black... you'd be better off dead.”
“Shut up. Listen? In that case, if I won, I only get a few times more. Why?”
“That's normal.”
“And then I realized it. Even if I get red or black right, I only win double. But...”
“But, what?”
Saito was shaking. Louise was speaking as if possessed by something.
“If I win by numbers, I get thirty-five times my bet. I'll be able to get back what we lost plus more. I should have done this in the first place!”
“That's your certain winning method?”
Louise gave a big nod.
Saito silently grabbed Louise's arm and pulled.
“What are you doing?”
“The probability of you winning is one in thirty-seven!”
“So what?! I've already lost fifteen times. No matter how you think about it, I'll win next time. It'd be weird if I didn't. If I'm going to win, I might as well win big!”
Louise's reddish-brown eyes were glittering. It reminded him of the eyes of his uncle, who had failed at stock and ran away at night. He had these eyes the last time Saito saw him.