Ryuu thought.
Under the contract, Mr. Darby's first ability was to steal a target's soul under specific conditions.
And the other ability was none other than mind reading.
'But that doesn't mean it can perfectly read what's in my heart.'
Judging from the questions the Magus had asked her during the game so far, the scope of that ability was probably limited to a binary choice.
In other words, it was most likely some kind of divine lie detector that could distinguish whether the answer to a given question was true or false.
'For a game like this, there's probably no stronger ability than that.'
That was only true when both sides were roughly evenly matched.
But from what she had confirmed through the gameplay so far, the Magus's poker skill was only at the level of someone who had barely mastered the basics.
There wasn't the slightest sign of him cheating, hiding cards, or even the faintest hint of such a thing.
In other words, he was playing fair and square.
To put it another way, he was the model answer.
'Impossible!'
Ryuu flatly denied the reality before her.
Outwardly, the Magus had not used a single trick or underhanded move throughout the game.
No one had found any evidence of such a thing.
But there had to be... something.
Something else in this game that everyone here, including herself, did not know.
Otherwise, there was no way someone with such amateurish skill could produce results like this.
'I'm not sure whether it's Syr's technique or simply her own luck, but the strength of the hands we've been dealt has definitely not been weak on our side either.'
They had been hands that, under normal circumstances, would have been hard to lose with.
And yet she kept losing the game in the strangest way.
Always by the narrowest of margins.
Could she really dismiss a string of results like that as mere coincidence?
There was no way.
'I have to find out! The identity of the weapon the Magus has besides mind reading...!'
And that would be the final, decisive means by which the Magus had won every game so far.
'But I don't know! What kind of trick did the Magus use...?'
"I can hear the sound of your eyeballs, and even the gears in your brain, spinning very clearly from here."
"Could you not?"
"Oh, come now. I can't do that. In a serious contest like this, that would be poor gentlemanly manners."
"Sure it would. It's not like this is anything more than your little pastime anyway."
"Hmm, is that so?"
"...What's with that question?"
"Well, that means you're half right."
"So that means half of this is a real game, doesn't it?"
"Hahahaha, I suppose it does."
At the Magus's mocking laughter, Ryuu's brow twitched slightly.
But he paid her no mind, changed one card, and immediately resumed the match.
[Ryuu: Three of a Kind, 9s]
[Magus: Three of a Kind, 10s]
"Next game."
"Are you sure? You only have six chips left of your own now."
"Next."
"I see. You're not even shaken by this anymore. Good. Excellent focus."
Leaving the light banter behind, the cards were shuffled once more.
With the soft shhk, shhk of the cards as background noise, Ryuu resumed her questioning.
She wanted to resolve one more doubt that had formed along the way.
"I have one more question."
"And what is it?"
"Your purpose."
Snap.
Syr's hands stopped shuffling the cards.
It was a question she had also been curious about.
At the very least, the Magus they knew was not the sort of person who would get involved in such a trivial trouble for no reason and no purpose at all.
As if speaking her thoughts for her, Ryuu continued.
"I'll say this now. There are many things about your reason for interfering here tonight that are hard to understand."
"I don't think there's anything particularly suspicious about it. This is just a little service for a regular customer I'm close with..."
"That is exactly the point."
Ryuu said it as if making a declaration.
Before she knew it, the outcome of the game between them had been pushed completely to the background.
Neither of them had even touched the cards that had been dealt.
That was how strongly Ryuu's sharp intuition was warning her.
She must not let this chance slip away.
"You said it yourself before. A Magus has a soft spot for his own people."
"I did, yes. And?"
"Who in the world calls their own people, their trusted 'acquaintances,' 'customers'?"
"Oh..."
A sharp point.
At that, a sincere note of admiration slipped from the Magus's mouth.
But that alone was not enough.
She still needed a little more information.
So Ryuu's interrogation did not stop.
"Even though you could end the match at any time by defeating me outright, you keep the game going. Each time, you only bet the minimum number of chips."
"Hmm... so? What exactly are you trying to say, our hero?"
"The first all-in was obviously meant to use Miss Anna as a sacrifice to drag me into the game. That much anyone could see. But the games after that are all strangely ambiguous. Even though you can win for certain, you don't, and instead keep the game going."
At first, she had thought it was just a vulgar trick to humiliate her and her companion Syr in front of the wealthy patrons here.
But now, thinking back on it again.
She realized that could not possibly be all there was to it.
Because a man like him would never do something so lowly, so lacking in romance.
After turning the matter over and over in her mind, Ryuu finally arrived at one possible conclusion.
"You're stalling. What exactly are you after?"
"Fufufufu."
There was no answer to her question.
Only that same strange laughter as always.
"Hey! What are you doing, Magus! Why don't you just settle this already!"
At that moment, a third voice cut in between them, the owner's anxious urging.
In response, the Magus smiled slyly and lifted the cards dealt to his side of the table to show them off.
Then came the declaration of victory.
"Royal Straight Flush."
Woohoo, super lucky~
A victory declaration so light and frivolous that it showed no trace of seriousness whatsoever.
And just as the Magus's hand moved to collect the chips, his spoils of war—
"Mister Magus."
The goddess stepped in.
"Hmm? What is it, lovely dealer?"
"Are you really planning to take those chips?"
"Of course. They're the spoils of my victory. Is there some problem with the winner taking them?"
"A problem..."
Syr trailed off, looking vaguely suspicious.
And with that, an inexplicable sense of unease washed over the Magus's back.
Could it be...?
"Do you know something, Mister Magus?"
"Know what, exactly?"
"Women are very sensitive to men's lies."
"What are you talking about... Are you saying I cheated here just now?"
At his question, Syr said nothing. She simply looked at him with her usual bright smile.
Even so, the Magus remained confident.
Yes, he had definitely used tricks throughout the game so far.
But as he had already made clear, if the other side could not see through the trick, then it could not be called a trick at all!
Therefore, there was no change to his victory.
There should have been no change...
"How interesting. What the lady just said means you succeeded in seeing through my trick. Am I correct in saying that?"
"Hmm, who knows?"
At the Magus's question, Syr gave no real answer.
She simply shuffled the deck skillfully for the final game.
She clearly looked as though she had noticed something, but she refused to reveal what it was.
At that strange contradiction, the Magus stared at her for a moment, then shrugged and let out a dry laugh.
So there was something after all? Or was it just bluffing?
'No, maybe not even that.'
The others here did not know, but the Magus did.
He knew the true identity of the waitress before him.
So he instead drew up all the composure left in him, bracing himself to act as though he were the one bluffing.
It's fine. You've gotten this far without being caught, haven't you? He told himself to stay calm.
'Yeah. She probably figured out roughly what I'm doing. With that superior-species advantage of hers, there's no way she wouldn't.'
Without a doubt.
This woman before him, the smiling witch, had seen through his final trick.
No, not the final one.
In truth, this was the Magus's real trick.
That binary-choice mind reading was nothing more than a fake meant to conceal the true method.
Perhaps she had already seen through that too?
But showing that to others, making them understand, accept, and believe it, was a different matter entirely.
And so there was no problem.
...Or so the Magus analyzed and judged once more, and just as the cards began to be dealt—
["The World"]
Time, stop!
With a tiny whisper no one else could hear, he activated his trump card.
That legendary Magecraft, simplified but improved from before, now more efficient than ever.
Time stop!
-1 second elapsed.
And in that interval, he checked every card that had been dealt.
Because it was a simplified version, he could only stop time for three seconds, but all he was doing right now was playing a card game at a table.
For that, it was more than enough time for him to work his tricks.
"If this had been before, I would have waited until the cards were safely dealt before pulling my little stunt."
In any case, this was the final round.
Since he only had to do it once, he decided to hurry and settle the match at once.
"Sorry, but I'm going to have to win the match itself."
Of course, he had no intention of completely stealing their souls.
He would simply give them a brief clinical experience as the price of victory, then restore them to their original state once his goal was achieved.
Especially one of them, who was not a normal case at all—this was a golden opportunity to pull her out, examine her in detail, and observe her closely...
"Mister Magus."
Jolt!
In that instant, the Magus shuddered involuntarily at a chill that ran down his spine.
For a moment, the world had come to a complete stop.
Within it, the only one free to move should have been the Magus, the caster of the spell.
That should have been the case...
"Didn't you say it wasn't a trick if it wasn't found out?"
Within that frozen world, there was one other person moving.
Yes.
Syr slowly turned her head and looked this way.
No, Goddess Freya.
Gogogogogogogogogogo...!
"My, my. So you were. Caught."
Playfully, yet somehow chillingly.
Like a dorm supervisor catching a child who had secretly been up to no good.
Seeing her grin, the Magus screamed inwardly.
Fr-Freyaaaaaaaaaaaaaa!!!!!!
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