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Chapter 38 – Evaluations of the Three from the Sailor’s Perspective Part 1
Masques took the dice game equipment from the captain’s room and headed to the passenger cabin.
Inside, Wataru and two women were waiting.
But who was this man? William said he was a traveling merchant, but his identity was unknown. Are those stunning women his wives or lovers? They certainly seem close. Oh, that beastman named Aire is watching me. What a ridiculous monster he has with him.
Captain Masques often commands battles against monsters.
He is skilled with a curved sword and has defeated dozens of monsters.
His experience has given him an overwhelming sense of Aire’s strength.
How much money did he spend to make such a warrior follow him wholeheartedly?
Masques was interested, but as a host, he kept his curiosity to himself.
“This is the tool we use for our dice game. There are five dice in this box. When you press the button, the dice are automatically rolled, and the numbers appear.”
“Wow, that’s convenient!”
“It’s custom-made to prevent cheating. You make a hand based on the dice rolls. The possible hands are one pair, two pairs, triple, full house, straight, quadruple, and quintuple.”
“Hmm, I see. It’s like poker.”
“Poker? Is that what you call it? We call them one through six.”
Masques showed Wataru the dice rolls and explained the roles, but Wataru understood immediately.
It seemed like he had already played a similar game before rather than being smart.
The dice themselves were simple, so it wasn’t surprising that they had spread everywhere.
“You can keep the good rolls and roll again once.”
“So it’s easier to get a good hand. What happens if you get the same hand?”
“The higher number wins. But competing just for the numbers isn’t very interesting. It just becomes a game of luck.”
“That’s true. There’s no strategy involved.”
“That’s why you hide the numbers and reveal them one at a time. Then, you bet chips.”
“Is this gambling?”
“What? You don’t like it?”
That was unexpected.
Many men like gambling.
I thought Wataru would be one of them. He seemed to have money to spare, but his reaction was dull.
“Well, I don’t do it much. But in this case, I have Mariel and Aire, so it’s not very fair, is it?”
But then there’s a possibility that all three of you could lose badly.”
“That’s true, but… All right, let’s set a limit. No matter how much we lose, the maximum is one gold coin. That’s the most I can bet today.”
“Hmph, you’re betting big. All right.”
Masques laughed fiercely.
Betting one gold coin was a big gamble.
He wasn’t trying to trap them or make a quick buck. For sailors, though, dice were a game in which they had invested a lot of time and money.
He was a master of psychological warfare.
Gambling brings out a person’s true nature because it involves an element of psychological warfare.
Masques’s main purpose in inviting the passengers to play dice was to assess them.
He could tell at a glance whether they were people he could do business with.
Winning is better, but losing isn’t a big deal.
It was accepted as an investment in getting to know the other person.
Some people become cocky when they’re winning, while others try to safeguard their winnings.
Some people lose their cool when they’re losing and dig themselves into a deeper hole, while others try to minimize their losses or stage a dramatic comeback.
Then there are those who refuse to let their rhythm falter, whether they are winning or losing.
There are all kinds of people.
“Ugh! I lost again!”
“Haha, Aire is so easy to read.”
“Maybe it’s because you’re his master? At least I can’t tell.”
“Okay, hide the dice. Press the buttons at the same time and roll.”
At Masques’s command, everyone put up screens in front of the dice to hide their rolls.
When the buttons were pressed, there was a clacking sound, making it impossible to manipulate the dice secretly.
(This beastman is surprisingly easy to trick.)
“Mmm, mmm… Next, it’s my turn!”
“Don’t let your guard down.”
“Oh, I think I got a good hand!”
“Hey, seriously? What should I do?”
For Masques, playing mind games with beastmen like Aire was second nature.
They used their superior senses to read their opponents’ emotions.
A poker face doesn’t work on them.
But Masques had figured out how to outsmart them.
When he had a good hand, he would recall the memory of a major business failure. When he had a bad hand, he would vividly recall a battle on a ship. This slightly deceived his body’s reactions.
Beastmen place absolute trust in their abilities, whether consciously or unconsciously, which is why they fall so easily for Masques’s bluffs.
They’re so confident that they’ll win that they naturally bet more, and their losses pile up when they lose.
That said, they sometimes show sudden flashes of heightened senses, so I can’t let my guard down.
The scary thing about Aire is that she will randomly reroll dice that would have likely resulted in a pair.
You could call it foresight. She rerolls dice that, according to standard strategy, she should definitely keep, based on her intuition.
As a result, she ends up with higher hands, such as a full house or quads.
That said, Masques won about seven out of ten games against Aire.
“Next time, I’ll win!”
“Haha, good luck. I won’t lose either.”
“I won’t lose either.”
“Muki!”
The three of them were playing in a friendly atmosphere. However, Mariel was a formidable opponent.
She remained calm and collected, whether she had a good hand or a bad one, and she never took big risks.
No matter what move she made, she kept a straight face.
However, after making small moves, she would suddenly make a ridiculous bluff.
This type of player isn’t a strong opponent, but Mariel had the strength to steadily gain ground.
Masques had the upper hand against Mariel, with the score now at 6–4.
Based on experience, however, Masques has a slight advantage over Mariel, and the match will probably end in a draw.
(Well, she’s a woman who can’t be let down for a second. With a woman like that as his assistant, his business is bound to be successful.)
An exceptionally strong warrior and a clever assistant.
Wataru’s reputation was on the rise.
(But the one thing I can’t figure out is Wataru. What the hell is going on with him?)
Masques maintained a poker face, but inside, he was panicking.
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