Gambling Hall

After enduring the boredom of doing nothing but bothering the two adults for several more days, Ciel could move his arms again.

After he demonstrated his knife-like card skills, Jadiel and Lilian had consented letting him go outside. In his past life, Ciel loved playing with cards. This love continued into his second life. Even in the tower where there were no cards, Ciel had trained his limbs to be dexterous in anticipation for future card playing, occasionally making a few flimsy paper cards from the books he had finished reading.

Other than boredom, his other main reason to escape the tower was because the tower had no actual cards.

When he obtained permission to go outside, Ciel was incredibly happy, "I'll be back tomorrow!"

Then, his collar was grabbed.

Ciel was lifted up like a kitten as he dangled above the ground. Keeping Ciel steadily above the ground, Jadiel rubbed his forehead with his free hand.

"Why tomorrow? You should know it's morning right now?"

"Exploring takes a long time. Don't worry, I won't go to any dangerous places." Ciel smiled as harmlessly as he could when he turned his head to face Jadiel.

"Come back before the sky grows dark."

"Come on, if you keep acting this way, I'm going to start to think you really care about me. Don't forget I'm a kid of unknown origins who you met just a few weeks ago. I'm not even a eve like you."

Ciel laughed as he slipped out of the jacket that kept him above ground, leaving only a sleeveless black turtleneck shirt on.

"Don't worry, I'll come back." Ciel leapt onto the window ledge, remembering something, he turned around. "Ah, instead of being the resident child, it's better to treat me like a stray cat who occasionally comes in and out and contributes to the company sometimes."

With that, he jumped out and onto the tree next to the window. With his nimble getaway movements, his small figure really did look like a cat.

Jadiel's headache came back.

"At least use the damn door!"

~

The Fatalite base quarters was situated in the capital of Anatol near the palace and was disguised as a merchant guild. Its location made it convenient to trade with others when the trading routes with the eves were established, and later on in the novel, it would become the biggest merchant guild in the Eastern continent where Anatol was situated.

Ciel tied his hair up in a small ponytail as he stepped out of the base grounds. The only time he had gone to a capital's streets was back in the Acyuta capital, and that was at night.

Compared to back then, the capital was bustling with activity, and throngs of people were moving about. Both sides of the streets were crowded with shops, and there were various types of items being sold.

Different mana types mingled together and Ciel had a hard time piecing everything into shapes. But as soon as their mana was shaped into tangible shapes in his eyes, Ciel started to move impatiently.

—Bam!

Ciel's mana senses scattered as his vision went dark, and he squatted down, holding his throbbing forehead with both hands. His still developing tear glands were tearing up due to the unexpected pain.

'...f*ck.'

Damn it, as much as he was resistant to it, he hated pain.

After the headache subsided, Ciel quickly pieced together the scene before him. He had crashed headfirst into a tree.

"Are you ok? Such a big tree and you can still slam headfirst into it?" A voice came out from behind him. Ciel whipped around and quickly assembled the image of a boy around his age with fluffy hair standing behind him.

"I'm fine."

"By the way, miss, why do you wear a blindfold?" The boy asked curiously. He could tell how the girl before him crashed headfirst into such a big tree now.

"My eyes are sensitive to strong light, like the sun. Also, I'm a boy." Ciel smiled politely. It would be best to clarify misunderstandings like this if he didn't want to be stuffed in another dress in the future.

"Oh, pardon me. I haven't seen you around before, are you new to the capital?"

Ciel nodded.

The boy smiled happily, "Should I show you around then? My name is Cedric, what's yours?"

"Ciel."

"Ok Ciel, follow me. Rest assured, I know the capital like the back of my hand!" After exchanging names, Cedric became more casual as he took Ciel's hand. "With me here, you definitely won't get lost!"

***

"Looks like you don't know the back of your hand that well." Ciel looked around. Somehow, in the middle of the day, Cedric had gotten the two in a dead end in a dark alleyway.

'If he didn't dress and behave like a noble boy, I would suspect him for purposely leading me here.' Ciel looked at Cedric, who was turning red from embarrassment. He couldn't see the shade of red, but he could tell that the boy's cheeks were turning darker.

"I'm sure this is a shortcut to the dessert shop! We just went down a wrong turn." Cedric turned back from the dead end and dragged Ciel in a different direction.

A few minutes later, they came out from that direction and went another way.

The smile on Ciel's face was infused with schadenfreude, as if he wasn't one of the people lost, "We're lost right?"

Cedric shook his head. "No! No, we're not lost. We simply don't know where we are."

"..Isn't that lost?"

"Nope."

'Then what is it? Amnesia?' Ciel thought as he followed Cedric through yet another dark alleyway. He was starting to wonder how long it would take to get to an actual street again. But he was also curious where they would end up.

Three hours later…

"We got out!" Cedric raised his arms happily towards the main street. "See? I told you we wouldn't get lost with me around!"

He turned around. "Ciel?"

At some point, Ciel had disappeared.

~

The missing Ciel had sneaked away a long time ago. He was tired and bored of running around aimlessly and had plopped down on the ground. Taking into account the alley's shade, he took off his blindfold.

It was only then that he realized that the backstreet behind him was shining with multicolored neon lights. The lights were varied, but they had a natural dimness that didn't trigger Ciel's eyes.

'I probably won't be able to go home on time.' He looked at the sky. He had left in the early morning, now the sun was dropping from its highest point, it was probably around 2:00pm.

Ciel shrugged as he stood up. 'Oh well, it'll be fine.'

They knew what he could do, so they wouldn't worry about him. Feeling curious about the lights that were clearly bright, but didn't give him any pain or headaches, Ciel started off in the direction of the neon colored alley.

'Wow, this looks fun.'

The alleyway was small, but crowded with buildings. The lights came from the various buildings on each side of the walls.

Despite the lights, the backstreet was surprisingly quiet until Ciel walked further in. The alleyway started to widen the deeper he went. Soon, he could hear the shouts of people.

'Hmm? An open air gambling hall?'

At the end of the street, Ciel could see different games happening on tables scattered haphazardly around the wide circular area. There was mahjong, poker, blackjack, roulette, baccarat… even a dark green pool table was set up near the middle.

'How come the architecture here isn't as advanced as gambling?' Ciel approached a silver slot machine. His eyes caught sight of a magic array on the top of it. 'Oh right, magic.'

A hand tapped his shoulder.

"Hey, kid! You should leave, this isn't a place for children."

Ciel turned around to see a familiar face, or rather, a familiar mask.

Two voices sounded out at the same time.

""Stingy brat!""