Chapter 79

"Just a small piece of the stone, and you won all these chips. I can imagine how much that lovely black sword you carry is worth."

Emily teases Dio.

"We need to play now. We agreed to start with four bronze chips."

Bogrol shouted.

There were four bronze chips for each player. They were thrown into the middle of the table, where they were magically stacked.

A deck appeared in the center of the table; it shuffled itself quickly, and two cards were dealt to each of us.

This happened in a split second.

When the four of them touched their cards, three more were placed in the center of the table for all of them to see.

"I bet two more."

Borgol shouted while throwing two more bronze chips.

"I cover."

"Me too."

The old man and Emily also threw their chips.

"I raise."

Dio said this while throwing a silver chip into the bronze pile.

Everyone looks at Dio as if he were an idiot.

They're not wrong; Dio is playing poker against a demon, a being who is infamous for being the one who invented cheating in games.

In addition, Dio's knowledge of the game comes from watching it on the internet. This definitely makes him look like an idiot.

Fortunately, poker isn't played with a hand, but with a bluff.

To know how everyone bluffs, Dio has to make things go out of control in the beginning—just a small change in the rhythm.

After that, he can start playing seriously and patiently.

It seems to have worked.

"I'll pay to see."

Emily shouted excitedly when the fourth card appeared next to the others and flipped it up.

Looking at his cards in hand, Dio saw that he had a likely combination of numbers but not enough.

Bogrol covered Dio's raise and continued the game.

"It looks like it's going to be easy to clean up your stack, kid."

Bogrol said.

"Would you like a drink, sir?"

A voice behind Dio's sounded, breaking his focus on the game.

Dio looked back and saw a woman with red hair wearing a small dress with wings and horns while holding a tray.

Thinking about it, the idea isn't bad.

While regular drinks don't affect him, drinks made by other species, like dwarves, can make him drunk.

These special drinks can only be found easily in places like this. Unfortunately, it wouldn't be a good idea at the moment.

"Give me a normal wine."

Dio told her and handed her a silver chip.

"For this chip, you probably want a special service later, am I right?"

She asked while smiling.

"Should I call the police?"

Emily asked and looked at the waitress, who seemed not to care. She raised her hand to her empty tray, and a glass of wine appeared on it.

"Enjoy."

She said that and placed the drink next to my arm, then swayed away.

'It's getting hard to control myself.'

"Children shouldn't start drinking so young."

The old man advised Dio while still looking down at the game.

"Stop giving moral lessons, old man. At his age, you invaded another wizard's tower, stole their personal tome, and set it on fire when he came out."

Bogrol said.

Homo-magi age more slowly than humans, and it seems that the more powerful the wizard becomes, the slower this process gets.

So, this old man next to him might very well have been young in the time of Merlin.

Making the final bet, Dio raised the glass and took a sip of the wine, and the taste was amazing.

Dio already mentioned that common drinks don't get him drunk, so he doesn't see the point in drinking them.

In addition, with his sense of taste, they all taste awful to him.

But wine is an exception to this rule, so much so that Zatanna sealed the cellar of her house.

So the game continued, and it's no surprise that Dio lost the first round by a landslide.

The demon's cards were the second-highest possible combination in the game.

Dio knew he was going to cheat, but at least he hoped he would hide it a bit. The chances of getting a play like that are ridiculously low.

The surprise came from the old wizard; he had the second-best hand. It seems he is the second-toughest opponent.

Emily ended up with the fourth-best hand. She was here to have fun, not necessarily to win.

"Not to be impolite, but may I ask a question?"

Dio inquire.

"Go ahead, dear."

Emily said while looking at him as the new round began.

"How long has it been since you were turned?"

Dio asked.

There are very few vampires from what he know, and the older they are, the more powerful they become.

Emily doesn't seem very old; they don't age physically, but all beings that live a long time give off a certain feeling that Dio does not sense in her, like Diana or the Lord of Order.

Dio also recalls hearing her name somewhere.

"It's been four years now. I got a bite as a gift after a fashion show in Gotham."

Emily replied after taking another sip from her glass.

Of course, it was in Gotham.

"I'm sorry to hear that."

Dio said to her.

"No need. Now I'll be eternally beautiful."

Emily said while smiling at him, and her lips were stained with blood that she cleaned with her tongue.

"I was referring to your career."

Dio corrected her.

Vampires cannot be photographed or filmed, which undoubtedly ended her modeling career.

"Aw, you're a sweetheart. It was really tough at first, but a year after getting used to it and accepting myself, I started my own business, LOOKER, my own modeling agency."

'Now I remember where I saw her name.'

Robin once investigated LOOKER, and he brought it up once at the Tower.

There were some strange incidents where men ended up injured after attempting to attack some models from a particular agency.

After looking into it, he found that a vampire was running the company because the injuries were not normal.

Surprisingly, the vampire in question not only didn't harm any models but also protected them seriously. She was involved in all situations to keep the models from getting hurt or attacked.

Batgirl and Robin must still be keeping an eye on her, but not directly because she hasn't done anything to prove it.

It also means that Emily is not going down the wrong path if the Dark Knight hasn't done anything about it, even though he knows who she is.

"Are you hiring?"

Dio asked while tossing some chips onto the table.

"Sorry, I don't hire male models, even though you would be very, very successful."

Emily replied.

"It's not for me."

"Enough, you two. Are you going to play or not?"

Bogrol unhappily shouted.

"Later, then."

Dio said to her, and she nodded.

'I promised a job to Kori, and Emily might be a good option.'

There's no need for Dio to worry about her working with a vampire because her energy blasts, which were named "Starfire," are just highly concentrated solar energy, which vampires naturally hate.

So the game continued, and Dio even managed to win a few rounds and keep many chips.

The stakes increased as the number of rounds grew.

Bogrol and the Old Wizard had the most chips, with Emily and Dio close behind.

The purpose of these games was to understand how these two were manipulating the game.

Dio knew it involved magic, but the type or form it took was revealed as they went along.

The Old Wizard was the easiest to understand; he simply cast an illusion on the cards while changing them.

It wasn't a simple illusion; his skills were impressive, but they were quite useless against Dio's eyes.

He used his trick for the first time when two of the spades appeared on the table.

The Old Wizard held up the fourth while Emily displayed the third. Dio had already left the game, but he hadn't revealed that his hand also had an ace, the actual last ace.

Emily wasn't trying to win, but she did learn something that gave her the advantage: she could use her super senses to see the signals each of them gave.

When she looked at Dio with those red eyes, he felt like she wanted to drain all his blood.

That's exactly what she wants, as vampires can't survive without blood, and newly transformed vampires have a hard time controlling their hunger and thirst.

It's admirable that she can do it so well at such a young age.

Lastly, there's Bogrol. He was also swaying the odds in his favor by influencing the cards on the table rather than the ones in his hand.

How he was doing this is still a mystery; he may have some deal with the house's dealer.

Dio only noticed that something was off when he felt a slight delay in the dealing when he stayed in the game for just a millisecond.

It may not seem like it, but this game is sharpening Dio's senses more and more.

It's exhausting, as he was used to shutting out the world to avoid being overwhelmed, but it will certainly be useful in the future.

'I'll start training my senses from now on.'

"Why don't we speed things up a bit?"

Dio asked without expecting a response, and he put almost all his chips in the pile.

"Do you want to go home early?"

Emily asked while looking at his chips.

"I just think it's time to end the game."

Dio replied.

"You haven't even seen your cards yet."

Bogrol said.

'He was right; I haven't seen them yet.'

"And does that matter?"

Dio asked with a smile.

"In fact, no."

Bogrol replied and smiled while covering his bet.

"It's so good to be young."

The old man murmured while also covering his bet.

"I'm out."

The woman in red, next to Dio, threw her cards on the table.

Emily only left the game to watch the show.

When the fourth card was about to be revealed, Dio made his move.

The table took a millisecond to give the card; it's not enough time to raise suspicions, and the card is placed in the center of the table.

Then Dio looked at his cards and almost smiled at his luck, unlike Bogrol, who looked at the fourth card on the table, and his left eyebrow raised a bit, a tic he has when his cards are not good.

Dio raises the bet; now he only has ten percent of his chips in hand, the rest is on the table, and everyone bets again and covers his move.

"So, let's see."

Then, the last card was placed on the table, and once again, there was a slight delay, this time created by Dio.

"How is this possible?"

Bogrol asked while suddenly standing up from his chair and looking at the card.

Dio turned his two cards in hand and showed my combination, the highest hand, and when the Old Man turned his card for the first time, he also seemed surprised by them, but it was a movement of Dio.

...

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