Incarnation of Luck

Taking a seat at the desk opposite of Astur's group, with two well built men on either side, the man introduces himself as the manager of the casino.

"Bribing the bouncer at the door to allow minors to enter our establishment as well as two charges of cheating at the table. Anything to say about this?"

"She's not a minor," Astur says, pointing towards Elizabeth.

"That doesn't have anything to do with the situation at hand. The manager was talking about your daughter anyways," Elizabeth turns to the manager, "Also I have nothing to do with the cheating allegations, but I do admit to witnessing the bribery take place. Sir, we are capable of paying a fine so perhaps we can just drop the situation before it grows into a larger problem after we recoup you for the losses my companions made today. It would be in both of our interest to keep the authorities out of this, am I right?"

"A reasonable offer. I am willing to look the other way under the conditions that the losses are paid back at… how about 150%?" the casino manager asks.

Going over the available finances in her head, Elizabeth is fairly confident that they will be able to pay back the amount the casino is asking for. It will leave a dent in the Holy Oulvgar State's budget, but Elizabeth figures she can take it out from the money set aside for Astur's personal use to lessen the burden on the budget of the State.

However, Elizabeth made a mistake. When going over where to get the money from, she thought of Astur's name, allowing the woman in question to know where the money is from. And the last thing she wants is to lose money for something she believes to be a trivial matter.

"I believe we can afford to--"

Cutting Elizabeth off, Astur says, "I didn't cheat so I don't think I need to pay anything back. At most, a fine for bribery."

Initially, the casino manager was glad to be able to deal with the situation quickly and easily after hearing Elizabeth's proposal. Although it doesn't look good for the casino to have cheaters running around, he was almost able to extort a fair bit of money from Astur's group. Catching a couple of cheaters and punishing them with a large fine would raise his standing with his superiors. But as soon as he heard the words coming out of Astur's mouth, his expression took a grim turn as the atmosphere of the room chilled.

As if pouring oil on a raging fire, Kretea says, "I also didn't cheat."

Both Elizabeth and Ystur can't help but facepalm. The situation already took a turn for the worse with Astur's meddling, but Kretea in all her genius fails to read the air and blurt out the first thing on her mind. In her defense, Kretea really didn't cheat, she's simply lucky beyond belief. Astur has actually long known that Kretea is virtually the incarnation of luck but Elizabeth and Ystur are only now learning about Kretea's luck. But for the people of the casino, they wouldn't know this and believe that Kretea was cheating, even if they aren't sure how.

Composing himself, the casino manager says, "It would seem your companions are not as agreeable as you are, Young Miss."

Looking at Astur whose eyes are closed, Elizabeth says, "Whatever you are thinking, don't do it and let me handle this. You're going to keep causing trouble so please just don't say anything."

"I can't decide, should I just walk out using brute force or make a call and see if he can settle this?" Astur says.

The casino manager has seen some unruly people over the years he's spent here, but this is the first time someone has blatantly said they were considering using force to run while in his office. Immediately, one of the men beside him contacts his coworkers as more bouncers show up, two more standing on guard within the office with several more on the other side of the door.

Noticing the movement of the bouncers, Kretea's hair straightens and readies herself for a potential battle. Meanwhile, Astur ignores their movements and dials a number on her phone.

"Hello, it's the resident genius speaking. Can you come to the casino right now? … Why? Because I said so. We had some good luck but they thought we were cheating and now they want us to pay up. You might? Well, We're in the manager's office, so hurry up," Astur says, ending the call and slipping her phone into her pocket.

Elizabeth quickly figures out who it was that Astur had called. Ystur figures it was the person Astur had called when they arrived in the city. But Kretea has no idea who it was on the other side of the line, but she still figures that since Astur called them, they should be able to deal with their current predicament.

"Give us…" Astur pauses for a moment to light a blunt, "4 minutes and 20.69 seconds. Then this whole ordeal will be over. You'll let us go."

"I don't believe it, but I'll play along. It's not like you can go anywhere," the manager has a chair moved to the table in front of the sofa where Astur and the others are sitting, taking a seat and placing a deck of cards on the table, "How about a few rounds of blackjack. We can see if you were really cheating or not."

Given that there isn't much else to do besides awkwardly stare at each other, they agree to the game. But a rule is put forth that Astur's group isn't allowed to touch the cards to prevent them from cheating, with a bouncer for each of them to handle the cards for them.

As time passes, both the manager and the bouncers in the room can't help but retract their cheating accusations towards Kretea. Somehow, despite all odds, she managed to hit 21 with only the first two cards dealt to her, every single round. During the last round before the allotted time was up they even stacked the deck in their favour yet Kretea still managed to get 21 with only her initial cards. The casino manager and the bouncers were left astounded, they've never seen someone as lucky as Kretea. But they were basically able to determine with complete certainty that Astur was definitely cheating previously. Astur had been unable to reach above 10 on her initial cards and would always go over 21 after drawing more.

Immediately after 4 minutes and 20.69 seconds were up, a woman in a suit enters the room and says, "Sir, Young Master Dresuar is here to see you."

"Tell him to wait, I'm busy, if it's not family head or the old master then there isn't a need to rush," the manager then turns back to the group, "How about a few more games, let's change it up and play a few different ones."

Astur remains calm as if she was expecting this, while Kretea doesn't really care either way. But Elizabeth and Ystur are confused at how things ended up this way. "What happened to being in trouble?" the two of them thought.

"I don't see the harm in it, so why not… I still need to win at least one game… no I need to at the very least not lose," Astur says with a strange sense of determination.

With Astur's agreement, the people in the office continue their card games for another 30 minutes. Naturally, Astur never won once, but she managed to not lose the games that allowed for it, and Kretea still managed to win every single game that was played.

After the current game is over, the casino manager looks to Kretea and asks, "Would you like to work here as a dealer Miss?"

Astur grabs hold of Kretea and pulls her close, "No, she's my lucky-- I mean bodyguard! I'm not handing her over!"

With the exception of Kretea, the others in the room look at Astur with a strange expression as they collectively think, "She was about to call her a lucky charm, right?"

But ignoring the stares, Kretea says, "As you heard, I'm Lady Astur's bodyguard. But even if that weren't the case, I would have declined the offer."

"Is that so? That's unfortunate. Given your er… talent in this field, I'm sure you would have made a great dealer," the manager turns his focus to Astur, "We got a bit side tracked but was it the Young Master Dresuar that you contacted earlier?"

Seeing Astur nod, the manager continues, "Although the Young Master doesn't have the ability to sweep the previous matter under the rug, his family does have the influence to do so, this casino is their property so I unfortunately don't think I can get much money out of you," moving back to his desk, the manager presses a button and speaks into a microphone, "tell the Young Master he can come in now."