The dealers' faces were filled with astonishment. Under Su Ya's instruction, their hands trembling, eyes wide, they reluctantly yet self-consolingly pushed 29 chips into the '3' square, their expressions grim.
Everyone in the casino hall was practically suffocating. They looked at Su Ya with a mixture of disbelief and exasperated disappointment, wishing they could slap their thighs and curse, What the hell are you thinking, kid? So you're just going to burn money, huh? Get out of here, even I could do that!
And no matter what they were thinking—
Click! Click! Click! Click...
One by one, the steel balls dropped into the squares. A hundred gambling tables, a hundred roulette wheels, a hundred steel balls, as if guided by the hand of fate itself.
Finally, they all rolled into the square labeled '3'.
The result from all hundred gambling tables was—
3!
In a game of luck where even Einstein would have to resort to cheating, Su Ya, in his overpowered protagonist style, successfully won this round!
The moment the results were announced, the bustling casino hall became so quiet you could hear a pin drop.
Then,
"F**K!"
"WHAT THE F**K!?"
Crude exclamations erupted from the mouths of gentlemen and ladies. Then, everyone looked at the newly minted millionaire at the head of the hall with expressions of shock, as if seeing God himself!
However, they were surprised to find that they couldn't detect a single hint of a victor's joy on the handsome blond young knight's face.
He had just won a staggering 1.2 million gold pounds, a super fortune that would allow him to walk sideways like a crab in the capital from now on.
Yet, he looked like a dolphin drowning in a sea of people, his emerald-clear eyes trembling slightly, his face etched with an incomprehensible fear.
"Su Ya, we won!"
"I can't believe it!"
"This, this..."
His ears were filled with Merlin's joyous laughter, so thrilled she wanted to give him a princess carry and spin him around forty-nine times before giving him a big smooch, Sir Gawain's dazed exclamation of surprise, and the red-dressed girl's stammering murmur.
In an instant, the distant and unfamiliar grey world seemed to regain its colors. The other noisy human voices, curses, table slams, and shouts of 'this is rigged' were automatically filtered out.
Su Ya gasped for air, finally breaking free from that sense of absurdity, loneliness, and a vague feeling of being controlled.
And then, the casino manager, or rather, the Vice Commander of the Royal Capital's Royal Guard Knights – Myles's expression suddenly became extremely serious, as if he had made some extremely important decision.
He bowed slightly, raised a hand, and gestured towards the grand archway at the end of the hall. "Sir Su Ya, please follow me."
Su Ya's expression stiffened; he instinctively wanted to resist. But soon, he clenched his fists, hesitated for a moment, and finally chose to follow Myles without a word.
3.
In Celtic mythology, it is a sacred number. Whether it's the three strongest Swords of the Lake, Gawain's Holy Saint duration, or countless other myths, they are all related to this number.
And for this destined sacred number to appear on a hundred roulette wheels spun towards unknown chaos, it was clearly the result of manipulation, and a method Su Ya completely failed to comprehend.
Combined with everything he had experienced before, Su Ya sharply realized—
Things were starting to go awry.
From the moment the giant beast crisis erupted in the capital, when he was rescued from the ruins by Gawain and heard the news that the Golden Iron Curtain was about to fall, his first choice wasn't to rush back to the tavern with Lucan and the others to discuss sharing their belongings and going back to their peaceful lives, claiming the capital was too dangerous and they couldn't handle it.
Instead, he inexplicably chose to run to the casino for an overpowered protagonist-style gamble.
This itself was very strange and completely inconsistent with Su Ya's behavioral logic.
What did he initially want to do again—
Live.
Living was the first priority. Only by living, slowly understanding this world, and steadily becoming stronger could he truly control his own destiny.
If the capital was gone, there was London; if London was gone, there was Canterbury; if Canterbury was gone, there was Manchester, and Glasgow. At worst, he could just take a boat and run to the Arctic Ocean, find a small island to hide on and become a pirate, or surrender directly in another country.
What about drawing swords or not drawing swords? The waters here were too deep. If he couldn't handle it, couldn't he just run?
But now, his actions and thoughts completely contradicted each other. Su Ya clearly wanted to find a place to hide his head like a turtle, training for a thousand years, yet his body honestly and actively participated in one seemingly complex event after another.
He was caught in the vortex called destiny.
And now, he found that this destiny was actually a little girl dressed up by others, and someone could even manipulate such an esoteric thing from a higher level?
No, how do you even fight this?
However, after careful consideration, Su Ya had to admit that his chips were too few, his strength too weak. Even if he discovered the anomaly and sensed something was wrong, choosing to actively withdraw from the game at this point would likely lead to even greater danger.
And right now, the path to improving his strength and learning more secrets was right before him.
Even if he wanted to run, to escape this vortex, he had to become stronger and know more!
"Whew!"
With this thought, Su Ya's eyes became resolute. While still retaining a third of his caution, he chose to actively follow Myles towards the grand archway at the end of the casino hall.
Soon, Myles led the way. Su Ya's group—Merlin, Gawain, and Griflet—followed his guidance, passing through the bustling casino hall, ascending the stairs behind the door, then gradually climbing through the opulent, grand staircase, passing the second floor with only 6 gambling tables, and the third floor with 1 gambling table.
Finally, they reached the fourth-floor spire of this Gothic building, arriving before an intricately decorated, exceedingly noble door.
And then, Merlin came to her senses, looking strangely at Griflet, who had followed them all the way here. She blinked and asked, "Um, I've been meaning to ask... why did you come up with us?"
"We're... not that close, are we?"
Hearing this, Myles and Griflet couldn't help but smile simultaneously. Su Ya, however, shook his head, turned around, and looked at the girl his age behind him, stating with certainty:
"You are Griflet."
Griflet smiled slightly, snapping her folding fan shut. Then, in the deserted corridor, she placed a hand on her chest, slightly lifted her skirt, and slowly knelt before Su Ya.
"Knight King, Su Ya Pendragon."
"Griflet, head of the Cadell family, salutes you."
Su Ya looked at her without surprise. He had already guessed this when she was frequently gesturing and communicating with Sir Myles behind his back.
However, at this moment, his expression turned serious as he looked at Griflet and asked:
"Now, I have arrived at the fourth floor of the Winchester Grand Casino."
"So, may I ask, what do you wish to gamble with me, Your Excellency?"
Griflet took a deep breath, and with a resounding tone utterly unlike a lady or a merchant, like a true knight, she knelt, earnestly asking Su Ya:
"What I wish to gamble with you is—"
"This Royal Capital, the future of your three million subjects!"