Today's Tobesk was destined to be noisy, but according to the schedule, Princess Margaret of Anjou and her entourage would be entertained by the king's family today, so Shad had no chance to get close to the princess today.
Therefore, after leaving Tobesk Railway Station, Shad did not go to look for Miss Carina or search for Miss Sylvia. Instead, he left with the people from the Dawn Church and had lunch with Father Augustus in the church.
At noon after lunch, he received his early winter gift as a core believer. The autumn tomatoes among the seasonal fruits and vegetables were left by Shade, and Shade and Mia shared them on the road in the fog. The cat seemed to like this vegetable very much... ...or fruit.
Taking advantage of the free time at noon, Xia De went to the garbage disposal center in the west of the city and asked if the gems could be reimbursed. Then, at the entrance of the garbage disposal center, Xia De stopped a girl selling flowers and asked her if there was a vegetable market selling fresh vegetables nearby:
"Yes, sir. Turn right at the corner."
The little girl said timidly, not daring to get close to Shade, but still looking curiously at the yawning cat carried by Shade.
"Thanks."
Xia De smiled and thanked him. When he wanted to leave, he felt someone pulling his sleeve again. Then he realized that the girl was following him:
"Sir, would you like to buy some flowers?"
The girl, who spoke the Draerion language with a Tobesk accent in a childish voice, had a gray face and patched clothes, but still mustered up the courage to stop Shad.
"It's fine to buy flowers, but once you buy flowers you have to give them away, and that's a burden for me. But, this is for you."
He carefully placed the heaviest paper bag in his arms at the girl's feet. After smiling at the girl, he happily walked to the street corner, ready to complete the task of buying groceries alone.
"Meow~"
The cat on his shoulder wagged its tail, complaining that Shad didn't take it home for a nap.
The girl watched the young gentleman carrying the cat and its dangling tail disappear into the fog at the street corner, and then she looked at the paper bag, and was surprised to find that it was a bag of fresh vegetables. Meanwhile, Shad's boss, Director Anlos, was leaning against the door of the shoemaker's shop next to the city's garbage disposal center, watching the scene expressionlessly.
After thinking for a while and touching his pocket, the Director of MI6, Sir Dark Anros, decided to buy a bouquet of flowers.
After returning home in the afternoon, Shade put the vegetables he bought into the snow pile in the basement (note), and asked the lazy cat to look after the house, and then he set out for Huntington again. He had a feeling that the mysterious lake might also be waiting for his visit.
Although he saw the mysterious lake next to Lake Luther yesterday evening, Shade did not think that the lake would appear again in the same place. Therefore, he asked Professor Drake yesterday about the identities of the people who encountered the "Lady of the Lake". After searching last night, he decided to visit Mr. John Roland who lived in the city.
They still set out from the White River Valley Vineyard, but the weather in Huntington was a little bad today. When Shad rode into the city, he thought it might rain or snow. But when he changed carriages and arrived at Mr. John Rowland's apartment in the city, the sky was still gloomy, but it still didn't rain.
Mr. John Rowland is a local poet who is fluent in the Delarion language. Although he does not make much money from writing poetry, he still works as a translator in a bookstore. He is 36 years old, living alone and unmarried. According to the information provided by Professor Drake, Mr. Rowland met the Lady of the Lake this spring when he went out of town to collect materials.
Unfortunately, the apartment at 7 Bishop Human Street, which was paved with uneven checkered stone bricks, seemed to be empty this afternoon. But with the guidance of a neighbor, Shade finally found the poet playing Rhodes with someone in a pub at the corner of Bishop Human Street and Garden Walk.
The poet was not the thin one that Xia De had imagined. Instead, he was taller than Xia De and extremely strong.
He sat at a square table against the wall, his right fist clenched against his thigh, his left hand holding the hole cards, his sharp eyes carefully moving back and forth between the hole cards and his opponent's expression.
It is worth mentioning that he only has three fingers on his right hand, missing the outermost thumb and pinky. Each of the remaining three fingers is wearing a golden ring. When Shade got closer, he found that the three rings seemed to be pure gold and antiques with a certain age:
"So rich?"
The poet was obviously left-handed. He skillfully placed the cards on the table with his left hand, and then asked the man wearing a round hat opposite him:
"Do you want a fourth card?"
His tone was quite pronounced. This method of trying to use words to put psychological pressure on the opponent was similar to bragging about having won many games or bragging about the legendary experience of one's deck before playing cards.
The onlookers also started to make a noise, and Xia De was among them, and heard people calling the poet Mr. Roland "Lucky Roland".
In this game, Mr. Roland defeated his opponent by 20 points and won 20 pfennigs. In the currency of Carsenrick, the main currency is the Carsenrick crown, and the pfennig is a subsidiary currency. 95 pfennigs equal 1 crown. According to the current exchange rate of 11 to 12 gold pounds to 1 crown, their bet is not small.
Of course, Carsenrick also has another subsidiary currency called Orr. "Ore" is a small coin of pure silver, and generally 1 crown is equal to 7 Orr. The currency system consisting of "crown, Orr and pfennig" is more complicated than that of Delarion, but this is also related to the chaotic currency system between the member federations when the United Kingdom of Carsenrick was established.
The man in the round hat lost the game and wanted to make a comeback, but because he had no money in his pocket, he was forced to give up his seat to someone else.
Xia De did not join the game, but left the crowd and went to the bartender of the tavern to find out the news.
Both the bartenders at Delarion and Carsonrick seemed to enjoy information trading. When Shade took out a few small copper coins, the bartender who was wiping the cup understood what Shade was here for.
Mr. John Rowland is a well-known local Rhodes player. "Lucky Rowland" means that he has a very high winning rate and often defeats his opponents with unexpected luck. He even defeated the "King" with 21 points, which made the poet a legend among local Rhodes players.
Mr. Roland has two special cards in his hand, and he often goes to the Prophet's Association. Some people have questioned whether he is cheating, but no one has provided evidence. Although his winning rate is high, Mr. Roland is not a gambler. He only goes to the tavern occasionally when he has nothing to do. He has always been obsessed with poetry creation and is proud of his reputation as a poet.
"Has Mr. Roland always been lucky, or has he only started to get lucky recently?"
Holding a glass of beer, Shad asked the bartender, who was leaning on the counter and watching the people playing cards in the distance:
"Sir, your Kasenric is really bad... Roland's luck started to improve at the beginning of this year. I'm not jealous, but I always believe that a person's luck is conserved, so this year it's probably this gentleman's turn to get lucky."
Although the poet Roland's specific information appeared in Mr. Drake's data, the former did not say what he had traded with the "Lady of the Lake". Although the professor with crippled legs sent people to investigate, there was no result. Now it seems that John Roland is very likely to have been blessed by luck.
"I noticed that he was missing two fingers. Is this a congenital disease or is there another reason?"
Xia De asked again, the three people he had met who had encountered the Lady of the Lake all had physical disabilities.
The middle-aged bartender thought for a moment:
"I don't remember when the problem occurred with his fingers, but he has always been left-handed, so the impact was not that big. This appearance is actually quite intimidating. After all, when people see their Rhodes opponent missing two fingers, they will subconsciously imagine whether he has encountered something in an underground casino."
As he spoke, he began to laugh. Xia De also leaned against the counter and looked at the poet playing cards through the gap in the crowd:
"Lucky Roland? Yes, I see."
Because he was worried that he would encounter the same unlucky thing as yesterday evening, where he found the lake but watched it disappear before his eyes, Xia De didn't waste too much time. After saying goodbye to the bartender, he squeezed into the crowd watching the Rhodes card game again. Seeing that someone had lost his change in a round, he rushed to sit in the vacant seat.
The men playing Rhodes in the tavern were obviously familiar with each other, so when they saw a stranger joining the game, they curiously asked about his origins:
"I am a stranger who is traveling from Drarion to Carsenrick. Do you mind playing cards with me?"
Xia De waved his deck of cards at Mr. Roland who was counting the banknotes:
"We can play bigger. I haven't met any opponents worth mentioning in Carson Creek."
His "big talk" naturally attracted the laughter of the onlookers in the tavern. Mr. Roland, who originally didn't want to play cards with strangers, was also aroused by the foreigner's attitude. He raised his eyebrows and looked at Shade:
"Mr. Delarion, please make sure you have saved yourself some money for your trip home."
"Of course, I earn my travel expenses by playing Rhodes."
Xia De slapped the deck of cards on the wooden table and pulled it to the left, allowing the deck to unfold in an arc. This beautiful move also showed that he was not bragging:
"Look, I don't have any special cards."
He smiled, then saw the poet's cautious expression, he knew that Shade was "professional".
Since Mr. Roland was unwilling to tell others in detail about his encounter with the "Lady of the Lake", Shade had to find a way to make him talk about it.
Besides, he was also very curious about which one was more powerful: the unknown blessing of good fortune from the Lady of the Lake or the blessing from the Black Hunter of the Old Gods.
There is also the luck brought by the impermanence of all things, and the gifts from the thousands of souls in Midhill Castle.
The voice in my ear gave a gentle reminder, and at this time, both parties had already begun to exchange shuffles.
The poet Mr. Roland seemed very confident, a confidence that Shade usually found difficult to see in his opponents.
However, Xia De did not think that he would be able to defeat his opponent just because of the many blessings he had, so he took this game of cards very seriously, just as he took any of his other games of cards seriously.
Mr. Roland had two special cards in his deck, while Shad had no special cards in his deck. After checking and shuffling each other's cards, the game officially began. Taverns usually don't play with particularly complicated rules. Mr. Roland and Shad played a total of nine rounds. Each round of winning counted as 5 points, and a tie counted as 2 points. After the nine rounds, the one with more points won and received a bet of 5 pfennigs multiplied by his own points. This was a big bet, because if you were unlucky and lost all nine rounds, you would lose about half a crown, equivalent to five or six pounds.
Mr. Roland must have really good luck. After getting the first card of the first round, he just took a look at it and then turned the cards over with a smile on his face:
"Mr. Watson, it looks like I'm still lucky today."
He called the bartender to bring him another glass of beer, and then the poet put the "king" in the middle of the table. People around were talking about it, and Shade stretched his head to take a look, sighing that good luck is really amazing.
"Mr. Roland, you should go to the Big City Players this fall."
Xia De praised, without looking at the hole cards, but directly asked for the second card. According to the rules of Rhodes cards, the first hole card cannot be stopped. Mr. Roland's decision not to take the second card is actually a bit against the rules, after all, he can still bet that the second card is the king.
"Gather some crowns and go to Tobesk in Delarion. Maybe even Hamilton from Rejade can't beat you."
Shad said.
"No, no, you can't say that."
Mr. Roland was very reserved:
"I can probably only beat him by a small margin."
The people watching the excitement all laughed. Xia De got the third card and asked hesitantly:
"Then why didn't you go to Tobesk, Mr. Roland?"
He looked at the cards and was about to turn over his hole card and put it on the table, when he suddenly blinked as if he had sensed something and then looked at the back of his hole card.
Da~da~
The moment his fingers touched the bottom card, he seemed to hear the sound of the dice falling to the ground and spinning in his ears, as if the twenty-sided dice of fate suddenly started to move on their own. Then, Xia De naturally knew in his heart that he had definitely won this round.
"What's going on?"
He carefully grasped the moment just now, as if he had seen through the feeling of fate.
Outsider, when your luck intersects with that of your opponent, you will have some understanding of 'luck'.
"Lucky?"
If Shade could obtain the "Lucky" Spirit Rune in the next moment, he would not be surprised at all. From his experience in the past six months in this world, Shade believed that he had the greatest chance of getting "Lucky" at the poker table.
"I remember that one of Luvia's four core runes is bad luck... If I really get the lucky rune, what magic can it be associated with?"
He thought to himself and turned over the cards on the table.
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