"Since you don't believe me, then the moment to witness a miracle is next..." Ayanokouji Kiyohira said, speaking in a very magician-like tone, then lowered his head and lifted the bowl.
Under the bowl was no rainbow ball, but a pink orchid.
This orchid was not plastic, but a real, vibrant flower, still bearing dewdrops.
The audience was stunned; a sudden flower was even more shocking than a rainbow ball appearing, and some even applauded his performance.
"Senpai, this orchid is for you." Ayanokouji Kiyohira, with a smile, placed the flower in Miharu Taki Sakura's hand.
"...Thank you." Miharu Taki Sakura thanked him calmly, taking the flower with a strained face, as if it were a very ordinary matter.
But only Ayanokouji Kiyohira noticed that her hand was trembling slightly.
With Ayanokouji Kiyohira giving her a flower in public, even though it was a magic trick, it felt like he was "showing affection" to her, and even Miharu Taki Sakura couldn't help but panic internally; if she hadn't suppressed it, she might have truly blushed.
Moreover, for some reason, she suddenly felt a sense of perverse excitement, as if she were doing something bad behind her fiancé Mibuomi Aoi's back...
Seeing Ayanokouji Kiyohira "flirting" in front of him, completely disregarding him, Hanagata Kensuke yelled in great annoyance, "Hey, don't forget you're gambling with me right now! Don't do unnecessary things like that!"
"In my opinion, gambling with you is the unnecessary thing." Ayanokouji Kiyohira looked at him helplessly: "Since you can't wait any longer, then choose a bowl. Guess which bowl the small ball is in."
Hanagata Kensuke was instantly stunned.
He still had to guess the small ball? But wasn't the rainbow ball thrown out by him?
Could it be that he could conjure small balls out of thin air?
"Alright, don't waste time, choose quickly." Ayanokouji Kiyohira re-covered the bowl he had just opened, then stepped back: "There are three bowls in total, choose one."
At the very beginning, Hanagata Kensuke was full of confidence, believing he would surely win.
But after Ayanokouji Kiyohira's three rounds of performance, he had realized that the gap in skill between himself and Ayanokouji Kiyohira was too vast; he couldn't detect when he had performed his tricks at all.
He was now at a loss, not knowing which one to choose.
Aside from the bowl from which the flower was taken, which couldn't be chosen, he would just pick one at random. He had now completely entrusted victory to "guessing," hoping he would be lucky enough to choose the correct answer...
He casually selected a bowl and reached out to open it—as he expected, the bowl was indeed empty.
Since it's not this one, does that mean it's the other one?
He reached out and opened the other bowl; however, this bowl was also empty.
His eyes regained their sparkle, "Is there a possibility that all three bowls are empty...?"
Before he could utter this sentence, Ayanokouji Kiyohira seemed to have anticipated his action, gesturing to Miharu Taki Sakura to open the last bowl for him, the one where the flower had been—
A colorful bouncy ball lay quietly beneath it.
The presence of this small ball not only announced the end of Ayanokouji Kiyohira's magic trick but also Hanagata Kensuke's defeat.
Hanagata Kensuke's eyes lost their light.
Three rounds were over.
Ayanokouji Kiyohira picked up the small ball and looked at him with a smile, "Three rounds are over. A bet is a bet. Hand over the money."
This was 1.5 million yen; if he lost this money, he didn't know how long it would take to save up 5 million... He regretted it immensely.
If only he had known, he wouldn't have been so aggressive; now he was losing everything.
With Miharu Taki Sakura, the Dealer, present, he dared not renege on his debt. With a gloomy face, he took the money from his pocket and slapped it heavily on the table.
The money hadn't even warmed his hands before it was lost again.
He didn't dare vent his anger on Ayanokouji Kiyohira and Miharu Taki Sakura, only glaring fiercely at the stall owner, then pushing through the crowd of onlookers and storming out angrily.
Ayanokouji Kiyohira looked up and smiled at everyone, "Alright, everyone, the show is over. You can disperse now. Don't crowd around here and disrupt order."
They hadn't expected to see not only a gamble but also a wonderful magic show... The crowd dispersed, fully satisfied.
The stall owner who had been targeted earlier excitedly approached Ayanokouji Kiyohira, thanking him repeatedly, "Thank you so much! If it weren't for you, I wouldn't know what to do!"
"It's nothing, I'm the Beautification Committee, and that guy violated order, so this is what I should do."
Ayanokouji Kiyohira picked up the stack of banknotes, and in front of the stall owner, he put the money into his pocket, saying calmly, "This money is what I won, it's my reward. Don't expect me to give it back to you. Just remember this hard-won victory and don't get carried away again."
"Of course, you deserve it!" He nodded repeatedly.
He was already very relieved to be rid of Hanagata Kensuke's harassment; he hadn't even thought of asking Ayanokouji Kiyohira to return the money to him.
After all, most of this money he had won from others, and the remaining portion of his own money he considered tuition fees.
Leaving the stall owner who was repeatedly thanking them, Miharu Taki Sakura showed a slight smile: "Ayanokouji Kiyohira, thank you for stepping in. If I had stepped in, at most I would have just scolded Hanagata Kensuke and driven him away, but it definitely wouldn't have taught him a lesson."
"It's nothing. That guy was too aggressive, and I couldn't stand it either." Ayanokouji Kiyohira smiled and shook his head, "It's my honor to be able to help Miharu Taki Senior."
"Oh, wait a moment."
Ayanokouji Kiyohira suddenly stopped, then, in front of Miharu Taki Sakura, he shook his sleeve and tugged at his clothes, and then, two colorful bouncy balls rolled out from his clothes and dropped to the ground.
Miharu Taki Sakura picked up the ball and looked at Ayanokouji Kiyohira with a surprised expression: "When did you put these balls on you? There's no way they just appeared out of thin air, right?"
"Ayanokoji, how did you do that?" Miharu Taki Sakura couldn't help but ask.
Miharu Taki Sakura, who had been standing by as the Dealer, watching the entire process, was extremely surprised.
She had been staring at Ayanokoji the whole time, yet she didn't know when he had hidden a flower, or when he had placed it under the bowl right under her nose… He hadn't even touched the bowl.
Like the stall owner who performed earlier, although his hand speed was very fast, she could still discern his subtle hand movements to judge whether he had hidden the ball in his hand or not.
But with Ayanokouji Kiyohira's game, she couldn't find any flaw. She simply didn't see when Ayanakoji Kiyotaka had slipped the small ball into the bowl… It was as if the ball had appeared out of thin air.
Her curiosity wasn't strong, but at this moment, she really wanted to know how Ayanokouji Kiyohira did it.
Ayanokoji smiled slightly, didn't respond to her, but shook his head mysteriously: "That's a magician's secret. Some magic loses its mystery when you know the truth, so it's better not to ask."
Since Ayanokoji said so… then she wouldn't ask.
Miharu Taki Sakura suppressed her curiosity.
Only Ayanokouji Kiyohira himself knew that the principle of the magic he used was actually not complicated.
But the reason no one could see through his technique was because others were performing magic and tricks, using props and sleight of hand to deceive people's eyes, but what Ayanokoji used was true "magic"—he utilized the power of the "System."
There were quite a few of these bouncy balls in Ayanokoji's mailbox, all belonging to the type of exquisite fashion junk.
Ayanokouji Kiyohira used the System's mailbox during the gambling process, directly materializing the colorful bouncy balls stored in the mailbox into the bowl.
Just as Miharu Taki Sakura casually guessed, his small ball appeared out of thin air, so of course no one could see any flaws.
Hanagata Kensuke made his guess first, but Ayanokouji Kiyohira responded later but arrived first.
It was like playing rock-paper-scissors; he threw scissors first, and after seeing his result, Ayanokouji Kiyohira then threw a fist.
It would be a miracle if he could win even one round.
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