Although a Villain, My Wish is World Peace

Next hand, when the game started and I checked my cards, I took a deep breath. I quickly composed my expression, but anyone sitting at this table wouldn’t have missed my reaction.

People serious about poker always glance at the person next to them while pretending to look at their own cards.

Every time cards were revealed, I leaked hints like that.

Making everyone think I must have something.

Nikki, who had been fooled by my poker face several times, looked at me with suspicious eyes.

As if wondering what I was up to.

I shrugged and smiled.

—Don’t you need to say something to deceive those guys?

‘No.’

—How are you going to deceive them without saying anything?

‘Actions are enough in this place.’

It might be impossible in other situations, but right now, the people sitting at this poker table in progress were constantly following each other’s expressions, gestures, and breaths with their eyes.

So my gestures soon become like words, and these words pile up to become bait.

It doesn’t matter whether they really think I have something or think all my actions are sloppy bluffing. The important thing is to plant a seed of doubt that I ‘might have something’.

I kept raising the pot as if I had something.

People looked at me with bewildered expressions at my aggressive betting.

“I’m curious what’s in that hand.”

Even the man in his 50s who hadn’t spoken mumbled like this without realizing.

“It seems too awful to be a bluff, so I don’t want to follow…”

Nikki grumbled like that but still called my bet, and the bespectacled August also followed my raise while fiddling with his glasses.

‘That guy seems likely to be an accomplice, doesn’t he?’

—Are you thinking that because he won earlier?

‘That too, and despite acting timid, he doesn’t waver in his betting.’

His seemingly timid personality also felt like an act.

Well, it’s not unheard of to fake personalities at a poker table, but bold betting is different.

Without absolute confidence in winning, that kind of betting is difficult.

‘Unless I have a royal straight flush in my hand, I can turn the tables anytime.’

—What’s that?

‘Simply put, it’s the strongest hand in poker. The probability of getting it is ridiculously low.’

The probability of getting a royal straight flush, or RSF for short, consisting of 10, J, Q, K, A of the same suit is about 0.000152%.

It’s unlikely to get that hand you might see once in a lifetime now. The cards laid in front of the dealer didn’t match a royal straight flush either.

So they can follow my betting with confidence.

—The others are also getting swept up in your betting just the same.

‘There’s hesitation, doubt and anguish too. But that guy shows no such hesitation at all.’

The betting continued a few more times like that. I kept betting aggressively, and the pot reached the highest point so far.

Finally, when all betting was over and it was time to open cards.

Everyone’s eyes focused on me at once.

My talent is lying.

The ability to lay groundwork and make people believe what comes out of my mouth, whether it’s logical or not, through that groundwork.

‘Please.’

At my signal, Ray neutralized the bracelet, and I made eye contact with everyone and triggered the groundwork I had laid.

“Royal straight flush.”

At my words, people looked at me with surprised faces. They surely couldn’t have completed a royal flush with the cards they were seeing.

“Wait, a royal flush? No, wait…”

As people hurriedly checked the cards in front of the dealer, I said again with magic:

“It’s right, isn’t it?”

If you use suggestion to deceive people, I’ll just crush that suggestion with lies.

“Th-this doesn’t make sense…”

August mumbled like that while looking back and forth between the cards in his hand and my cards. But no matter how many times he looks, it’ll be the same.

I could already see everyone’s locks opened before my eyes, which means…

‘Everyone believes my lie.’

It’s different from sloppy suggestion that needs to borrow the power of artifacts.

—There should have been suggestion…

‘Suggestion seeps into the subconscious, right? But lies actively deceive the other person.’

Lies can’t break brainwashing, but they can easily break suggestions.

If it’s a power that needs to borrow the strength of artifacts, I thought it would inevitably be weaker than my lies, and my prediction was correct.

—What if that prediction was wrong?

‘Well, I would have been treated like a crazy person and kicked out of here.’

Anyway, I’m glad the gamble succeeded. I smiled at the people looking at me with surprised faces and said:

“I understand you’re all surprised at the amazing hand, but how long are you going to just be surprised?”

At my words, the dealer Moziano’s eyes wavered. It was his job to settle the game and announce the winner.

In a situation where the plan has fallen apart, how will that man act?

Moziano, who quickly composed his expression and smiled, said to me:

“To think a hand you might see once in a lifetime appeared. It seems you have incredibly good luck.”

Moziano hurriedly said that and tried to smooth over the situation. Nikki shook her head looking at my cards.

“That’s right, this is my first time seeing a royal flush in real life too.”

“No wonder you were so confident. Congratulations.”

“Yeah, you must feel amazing.”

“I thought it was such an obvious bluff, but with a hand like that, it’s understandable you couldn’t control your expression.”

After roughly receiving the words flying in succession, I deliberately looked at Moziano shuffling the cards with a calm expression.

He’ll probably think this one time was just a coincidence. He doesn’t know why the plan went wrong, but he’ll think something like this won’t happen again.

But your thinking is wrong.

Next hand, Nikki who checked my cards jumped up from her seat and shouted:

“A-another royal flush?”

“It seems so?”

“Impossible!”

Everyone looked at me with suspicious eyes, but when I also made an expression like I couldn’t believe it, they roughly let it pass. Though it was an impossible thing, no one thought I had manipulated this game.

That’s how much ‘manipulation’ is a word that can’t be brought up in this poker game without considerable courage.

“Your luck is unbelievably good.”

Nikki said that and laughed ‘Hahaha.’

But in the next hand, I completed a royal flush again… The man in his 50s who checked my cards stood up kicking his chair.

“Ha! Do you think this makes sense? A royal flush three times in a row?”

“I-I also think it doesn’t make sense.”

“Forget it, this is cheating. It’s definitely cheating! I don’t know what you did, but…”

“I-I’m also bewildered!”

—Wow, you sure can speak with such a brazen face.

Using ‘lies’ I could easily settle their suspicions, but I deliberately fostered conflict.

“What can I do if these hands keep coming to me. I’m just as bewildered.”

Nikki, who had been quietly watching the situation, chimed in from the side.

“I don’t know him well, but he’s certainly not the type to cheat like this. Besides, anyone with sense wouldn’t reveal a royal flush three times.”

“So you’re saying three royal flushes in a row is just ‘good luck’?”

At the man’s words, silence fell over the table.

Certainly, for a hand with a 0.0001% probability to appear three times in a row, well. It was impossible without manipulation.

“What does the dealer think?”

At the middle-aged woman’s words, everyone’s gaze turned to the dealer Moziano. Moziano opened and closed his mouth with a flustered face.

“That’s right, you say something. You said there’s no manipulation at all in this casino!”

“Th-that’s right. Our casino monitors to ensure no talents or artifacts interfere during games.”

“Then how do you explain this situation? Aren’t you in cahoots with him?”

I shrugged with an aggrieved expression.

“It seems no use no matter how much I say I’m wronged now.”

“Because you made a royal flush three times in a row.”

“For now, I’ll sit out this hand.”

“Ha, you’ll take people’s money and run?”

“I’ll return all the money I won just now.”

At my words, the middle-aged man immediately shouted.

“Who cares about the money? The problem is we can’t trust the game at all now.”

Gazes focused on the dealer Moziano. Moziano looked at everyone and said:

“If you wish, we can end the game here…”

That’s not what I want.

“We shouldn’t end the game. If there really is a problem, we’ll find out if we play more, won’t we?”

“Oh ho, there’s something wrong with this table?”

“That’s right. I didn’t do anything.”

People listened to my words.

“If we want to find out if there’s really some device, wouldn’t it be best to play one more hand?”

“Yeah, let’s do it!”

People’s judgment had already flown away due to the artifacts and suggestions laid around, and my ability.

Distrust between each other, and anger.

“Dealer, deal the cards quickly.”

People started the next game with me sitting out. Moziano dealt cards to people with shaking hands.

“Is there really a need to reveal cards one by one? Let’s just reveal them all at once.”

Under my lead, everyone revealed their cards. And before everyone could check their cards, I opened my mouth.

“It’s another royal flush.”

“What?”

“Look at your cards. It’s a royal straight flush.”

At my words, people’s gazes turned to the man in his 50s.

“Huh? No, it wasn’t…”

The man in his 50s who had been looking at his cards until just now shouted in bewilderment. But after briefly making eye contact with me, the man soon nodded with a dazed expression.

“Th-that’s right! It’s a royal flush. T-to think I made a royal flush…”

“Is there really some device on this table?”

Nikki’s sharp voice cut through the air.

“And that device is malfunctioning so royal flushes keep appearing?”

“That makes more sense than four royal flushes in a row, but still there’s not zero possibility that person did something!”

Someone’s hand gesture pointed at me. Before I could open my mouth, Nikki shouted:

“How could someone who completely left the game do anything? Besides, if he had such an ability, there’d be no reason to do this! He could just keep quiet and make decent hands.”

“Well, that’s certainly true.”

In the end, everyone’s conclusion converged on one point.

That something was happening in this damn casino.

“These are all scammers!”

Nikki was the first to stand up kicking the table. Moziano said with a trembling voice:

“Th-there must have been some misunderstanding…”

“Misunderstanding? What misunderstanding?”

“Forget it, we can’t play here anymore. Let’s go.”

At Nikki’s words, people grumbled and stood up simultaneously.

“W-wait a moment!”

If people were let out like this, rumors would spread in an instant. And those rumors would be a death sentence for the casino already barely hanging on at the edge of a cliff.

‘Now what will you do.’

Moziano blocked people’s path.

“Please, everyone calm down.”

But no one listened to those words. Just as I thought everything would end like this. A huge flow of magic was felt throughout the room.

And then…

“Stop!”

At that shout, everyone’s bodies stopped at once. The one who shouted that was the bespectacled August.

August who took off his glasses slowly walked out between the stopped people. I rolled my eyes slightly to examine August’s face.

His pupils without glasses had a faint orange tinge. August who irritably wiped his eyelids muttered a curse.

“Damn it, what the hell happened.”

—You said the one with the talent was the dealer!

‘…I thought so too.’

It wasn’t contact lenses worn on the eyes, but the eyeglass lenses?

August who used his ability to stop people bit his lip.

“How do you plan to clean this up?”

At Moziano’s question, August squeezed his eyes shut.

“My ability only works for a few minutes at most. E-even now…”

August trailed off mid-sentence and hurriedly covered his nose with the back of his hand. 

Drip, drip. Blood trickled down his nose.

“These rumors can’t leak outside. They can’t.”

Moziano who muttered like that pressed a button on the table. Just as my attention was drawn to that button.

Thwack.

Someone hit the back of my head. With tremendous pain, my vision blurred. Just before collapsing, I barely turned my head back.

“Your eyes have been annoying me for a while.”

August holding a broken wine bottle was glaring at me.

Damn.

I’m screwed.

With that final thought, I closed my eyes.