CH 190

C190. Operation Compass Takeover (2)

Among the young nobles and warriors, there are usually those who admire the power and culture of the White Wolves.

They are usually idiots. 

White hair, blue eyes, strong bodies and spirits, usually the last thing you want to do is get close to them and end up as food.

White Wolves don't like humans. To them, most humans are inferior beings, toys and snacks.

"I've always dreamed of talking to a White Wolf! Wow, its fur is so beautiful, can I pet it?".

Jin's eyes sparkled as he spoke, and the White Wolves' faces scrunched up.

'Is he just an idiot? I thought he smelled dangerous enough to make my hair stand on end...?'

The White Wolves looked at Jin, who had been smirking in satisfaction for a while.

"Get your hands off me."

"Oh, sorry, I've been rude. By the way, is there anything you guys want to talk to me about, anything at all?".

"Hmm, no. I think you've misunderstood."

"Yeah? What about?"

"Nothing."

Jin smiled sheepishly as the White Wolves returned to their seats. Those who had been flirting with him looked at him ruefully.

'Ugh, I almost screwed up before the operation started. I'll have to make sure I keep my Legends aura in check in the future.'

He patted his chest.

'I'll be sure to kill as many of Kinzelo's men as I can during the operation.

If he let them live, they would surely return to Kinzelo and tell him about the 'dangerous aura'.

It was one thing for his disguised appearance to spread, but if news of the Legends' unique aura spread far and wide, they wouldn't leave him alone.

He spent two hours at the addition board and the dice board, searching for enemies. Fortunately, the White Wolves were nowhere to be seen, and no one suspected Jin.

'I'll go with my companions.'

There was a crowd of onlookers at the marble table. Alisa was hiding in the shadows, while Kashimir and Enya were nervously betting on the face.

'Good costumes, everyone.'

Even Alisa, who was unusually large and worrisome, was perfect. She was dressed as a man, with a mustache attached to her face.

"My God, had you thought of me already? I knew you would come, Young Lord."

Siris nonchalantly slipped her arm around Jin's shoulders and showed him her palm. There was something written on it.

(Items will go in and out of the card board on the second floor).

"Now Young Master can tell me your name, wasn't I the only one who said yours?"

As he leaned towards her, he realized that Zelia, or rather Siris, was a very good actress; she perfectly embodied a young woman who was a ludopath and crazy about the gambling life, but not unbridled and debauched for all that.

When it came to acting, Jin also had a good understanding.

Jin wet his hand with the remaining water in the glass and took Siris' hand between his own, gently rubbing his fingers across her palm to erase the writing.

"My name is Bamal, my dear."

Snap! Snap!

Casimir and Enya's marbles collided on the round board.

Under the guise of explaining the marbles, Siris began to explain the details of the plan her classmates had devised.

"First, two marbles go on the board."

"Like the young lady and me now?"

"That's right.

First, only two people go up to the second floor, that is, Jin and Siris.

"Then they start running the marbles, and then the dealer obstacles start appearing, and there are a lot of variables, some you have to avoid them, some you have to break them by throwing bigger marbles at them, and I prefer to break them."

"I think I prefer it too."

He was talking about Taking the Compass, and working together to kill the enemies that block it.

"You have to pick the marbles that break the obstacles and the ones that run to the goal. Even if you use almost all the marbles to break the obstacles, you can run alone if you only have one left."

As he said this, Siris' gaze secretly turned to Enya.

In the end, it is Enya who runs away with the compass. The companions came to the conclusion that Enya would be the least suspicious in any situation.

Enya was the complete opposite of Siris. Unlike Siris, who swept in as soon as she entered the game room and was a beauty to behold, Enya was an ant.

She was the picture of someone who didn't know her place, always fidgeting and gambling small amounts. No one would care about her.

"Does that cover the basics?"

"Is there anything in particular I should be aware of?"

"Don't hesitate or wander because you're breaking too many marbles removing obstacles, and then you lose your chance. That's how others lose money all the time."

Even if a comrade is injured or killed, it means the operation will fail if you give in to sentimentality. Jin made eye contact with Siris with a calm face.

"That's good advice, I think I could easily master it."

In this way, Jin talked with Siris about the operation until about ten o'clock at night, repeatedly losing money to Siris, and expressing his annoyance.

"Ha, the young lady is some kind of marble god, how can it be that she doesn't win a single game!".

The spectators clicked their tongues.

It wasn't just a slap on the wrist. The money Jin had lost to Siris already exceeded a thousand gold coins.

A rich man capable of losing a thousand gold coins in a couple of hours in this gambling hall was no ordinary guy.

"Well, I guess Young Master isn't very good at playing marbles, so why don't we quit and go out for a drink?".

"Heh! You want to go out for a drink after winning like that?"

"Do you really think it's a waste to waste a few gold coins, when this is your chance to have a drink with Zelia, alone, until tomorrow morning?"

"It's not a waste, but my gambling pride won't let me end up like this. I don't know how to play marbles, but I'm sure no other game will match me!"

"Oh, so you're confident in your other bets...?"

Ah!

The spectators sighed.

It was evident that Zelia's friend had fallen again.

"I tell you, this time I'll win, and in a landslide."

"I see, then, what would you like to play?"

"Cards, if it's cards, the young lady will never beat me."

Siris wore an evil grin, and the spectators seemed to die laughing.

"The cards are on the second floor, come on, Young Master Bamal."

The two got up and walked away, and wham, a crowd of onlookers gathered around them, ready to watch the handsome man hand over his entire fortune to Siris and turn into a sobbing mess.

Naturally, most of the people at the marbles table flocked to the card table on the second floor, but Alisa, Enya and Kashimir did not leave the table, as they had a sabotage mission scheduled on the second floor.

They took up positions next to the main board, where Zipple and Kinzelo were trading.

In the center of the board sat Chukon Toldurer, a Kinzelo representative and a Zipple representative. Chukon Toldurer was instantly recognizable by his bare face, but the Zipple representative wore a disguise.

'I think he's a Lord of the Magic Tower, but I don't recognize him.'

A crowd of onlookers began to gather at the next table, and something was said among them. Now, at 10 o'clock, I had to mix the gold coins on the game board and deliver the items, but suddenly there were more people nearby, so I was worried.

Kinzello and Zipple's men, who were on the second floor, were going up and informing their superiors of the situation. They told them it looked like a group of regular gamblers, with a war of nerves unfolding from the marble board.

'We've got 20 minutes left. Until Zipple brings out the compass on the board.'

Twenty minutes later, the object will be revealed, and Jin and Siris will immediately ambush it. The trick was to time it so that Jin would lose all his bets and the onlookers would walk away.

'When the onlookers leave, I blend into the crowd with a frustrated look on my face and Siris pretends to leave first. Then I follow slowly, firing a Photon Cannon over the board as the compass moves back and forth...'

In exactly twenty minutes, Siris would control the flow of money that would make me lose all my money.

But just as Jin and his colleagues have been meticulously planning this operation for six months, so his enemies will have been preparing for every eventuality.

'If we can kill or incapacitate Chukon Toldurer, we should be able to get to the second floor. Zipple's representative is unlikely to be a more skilled mage than Chukon'.

The man who appeared to be Zipple's representative couldn't be more than thirty years old, even with his disguise. As far as Jin knew, there were no mages stronger than Chukon at that age.

Chukon, Archmage/Great Wizard of Anzu.

He is the absolute ruler of the Great Plains of Anzu on the Northern Continent. Unlike Kidar Hall, he was once a man the Zipples were eager to bring in.

His unique defensive magic, known as "Extreme Defense," eventually led Chukon to join the Dark Order (Dark Magic Society), though he now sits opposite Zipple on the card board.

"Two hundred, two hundred more."

"Good."

Jin's bet began to run out at a moderate pace.

'When the Photon Cannon activates, Kinzelo and Zipple will initially be wary of each other. But it won't take them long to identify them and realize it was Siris and me. The chaos will last at most ten seconds'.

I had to take out as many enemies as possible in that time.

"Hmm."

Chukon shook his head, his keen eyes fixed on the card board for a moment.

"I guess I'm getting old, but I was wondering if those were some bandits you had prepared."

"Haha, what a strange thing to say, Lord Chukon. If we were just going to take the goods, why go to all that trouble, when we could just send them back. They're gamblers, nothing to do with us."

"Don't bluff, Carl Zipple. You're gambling on this island because you're cautious too, and if you returned it legitimately, Runcandel would smell it, and if you didn't, we'd have warned Runcandel and Bellard."

"Your words are sharp, Lord Chukon."

"They are sharp because you have the audacity to break the terms of the alliance without so much as an apology, and your father has no idea what you are up to."

"You can ask him yourself when you get the chance, though I doubt you'll have the guts to go looking for my father."

"You're behaving yourself, it's about time. Get your stuff out. I have to check."

Jin and Siris didn't hear their voices. There was some distance between them and the chatter of onlookers.

But that didn't stop them from carrying out their mission.

'Ten o'clock sharp. Exactly.'

All bets were off. Jin shook his head like a man who had lost his country, and Siris stood up with a look that said he knew.

"Too bad, young master. But I'm bored already, so I'll pretend we never agreed to have a drink."

With that, he left the board, and the spectators naturally followed suit.

The deck was quickly deserted. Jin looked up and saw a sack of gold coins on the card board.

A sack of gold coins mixed with the Compass. He opened the sack and saw Chukon pull out a golden compass, slightly larger than the gold coins.

'Ya!'

Jin slashed across the table in one swift motion and lunged at the card board.

As he grabbed it, the photon cannon was swelling as if it was going to explode at any moment.