Chapter Title: A Gambler's Tell
"It's like a good man's fate. You don't know, new bachelor."
"Then why don't you give me the other cheek?"
"I just wanted you to slap me for something I didn't do."
"You didn't do it? Then why did you suddenly push me away!"
"Where did we do that? To say 'we did it,' there needs to be at least a reciprocating motion..."
"Stop talking filth. Aren't you ashamed in front of Miss Adelaide?"
"I think you forgot you spoke first. Is the sweet Lord Ezra's sense of hearing a vestigial organ?"
"Like a rogue's conscience?"
"No. Your bottom..."
"Ahem."
Jude cleared his throat. It was quite a direct discouragement, but Cesare laughed in disbelief.
"Why do you cough? Who doesn't know that Ezra is a virgin?"
*I didn't know...* Adelaide thought to herself.
Ezra, who tended to show his emotions, turned red from the back of his neck in an instant. He looked at Adelaide in bewilderment, then gritted his teeth and said a word.
"...There's nothing to be ashamed of."
"Then don't blush."
"...!"
Adelaide could see Ezra's temper about to burst. Either way, Adelaide put her chips on the board.
"Call."
They're both awful, but they're truly skilled at bickering, and I suppose that's entertaining.
Perhaps because of her indifference, Cesare and Ezra stopped growling. Jude gave her a thumbs up.
Cesare, who sat next to Adelaide, also bet chips on his turn.
"Call."
Then Adelaide witnessed a curious sight. When Cesare didn't fold on his turn, everyone at the table suddenly had their eyes gleam like sharks smelling blood.
*...?*
Afterward, the board was lined with community cards shared by everyone. There was nothing exceptional in numbers, but there were many clubs.
*If I do it well, I might get a flush...*
That's when Charlotte folded without delay. Then she gave Adelaide a strange look.
*Does she want me to fold?*
Adelaide looked at Cesare and Ezra, who were hard to read, closed her cards, and put them down.
"Fold."
Charlotte chuckled contentedly.
Cesare raised the stakes, and Jude folded with a carefree smile. In the end, only Cesare and Ezra remained.
The moment the river was revealed, Cesare was the first to put down his cards.
"King-high flush."
Adelaide, who sat next to him, was stunned. It was quite a strong hand. But Cesare had a gloomy face.
Then Ezra grinned and set down his cards.
"Ace-high flush. I won."
As soon as the results came in, Jude Rossi and Charlotte grabbed their stomachs and started laughing.
"Ha! Again! Do it again!"
"Ahaha! It's perfect!"
"Someone take that bastard away."
Cesare sighed with annoyance, but as if he hadn't expected anything different in the first place.
It wasn't his fault, but Adelaide looked at Cesare in bewilderment. He got a king-high flush and lost to an ace-high flush.
He noticed her gaze, frowned, and pulled out a cigar.
"I'm not lucky with cards."
"Ha! It's true, Miss."
Jude interjected, clearing his hand.
"Cesare has truly terrible luck with cards. Not only cards, but also gambling, lotteries, random draws... Anyway, if it involves luck, the results are always poor. His hand is too strong!"
"How could that be?"
"When the Sea Goddess finished making Cesare, she suddenly realized the concept of equality!"
Jude laughed and began to shuffle again. A new round began with everyone distracted from the previous game.
"There were some funny things. Once, Cesare went to a straight flush..."
"You're not thinking what I think you are, are you?"
Jude Rossi began to snicker.
"It happened anyway. It was a royal flush!"
"Deal the cards."
"Can you even guess whose royal flush it was?"
Jude's green eyes slid toward Ezra. Ezra smiled and said sweetly:
"I'm a rather lucky person."
"Wow..."
Adelaide involuntarily exclaimed. How his upright pride must have been shattered!
Even now, Cesare was beside her, dripping with frustration and squeezing out cigar smoke.
Seeing this, she suddenly began to like Ezra, and she was certain that everyone in the room felt the same.
"It's not because I don't care about it! Even the goddess knows your temper!"
Otherwise, she couldn't explain Charlotte's applause. She seemed to relish the situation in which Cesare had been reduced to a laughingstock.
In any case, thanks to Cesare's ridiculous defeat, the mood wasn't so bad.
Adelaide appreciated Charlotte and developed admiration for Jude Rossi, who had created a situation where Cesare and Ezra would not directly confront each other.
With everyone smiling and Cesare with an uncomfortable look on his face, Ezra won the round with a full house, aided by Jude's storytelling.
Adelaide was surprised to discover that his starting hand was pocket aces. It was true that he was lucky.
The game continued. Adelaide kept raising the stakes. Next to her, Charlotte asked,
"Miss Adelaide. You know how to play, right?"
Fortunately, just before the chips were about to run out, the voice she had been hoping for arrived.
"Good goddess. If you don't mind, may I join for a round?"
Sharp eyes and a hawk nose. It was Palmira Ginoble.
---
After a long and intense Hold'em game, Cesare picked up Adelaide and went out onto the balcony on the second floor of the chapel.
Adelaide smiled as she sat down on a stone chair among the round cypress trees.
"You lost a lot."
"Are you teasing me?"
"Just amazed."
The final round with Palmira Ginoble. Adelaide whispered to Cesare, *"I have something to say, so let's step out."*
Cesare paused, nodded, and frantically raised the stakes. It was a good hand for everyone. Four of the five raised by half or more. The stakes reached insane proportions.
Even the people around them folded their newspapers and approached, paying attention with great excitement.
The winner was Charlotte.
"Ahahaha! That's why I told you to stop! Crazy. How much is all this?"
"I'm going to quit cards. Isn't this a scam?"
"Wow. Are you upset that you lost?"
"I'm going to take the chips and leave."
What surprised Adelaide was that the chips could indeed be exchanged for money at Stellone's bank.
Charlotte, however, seemed more pleased with Cesare's irritated face than with the chips she'd earned.
Adelaide thought of Palmira Ginoble's greedy eyes and looked at Cesare in the seat next to her. There was no hint of annoyance on his face as he nibbled on his cigar.
Adelaide asked, staring at him.
"Did you pretend to be annoyed?"
Cesare chuckled as he drew deeply on his cigar.
"Normally."
"..."
"Because people like it."
*I didn't even ask.*
"It's a face that wants to ask."
*How do you really know...*
Adelaide studied Cesare intently. Cesare curled the corners of his eyes as he exhaled from his cigar.
"You can see it on your face."
Adelaide became more cautious, expressionless and silent. When she was Adelaide, Cesare could not read her face so easily. Being so easily spotted meant that she was now "Adelaide Bibi."
*I met him yesterday...*
Her eyes stared meaninglessly at the cluster of cypress trees in front of her. It was all because she had met Cesare in a state of confusion because of Ezra.
Yesterday's man had been unexpectedly sensible. Before, she was comfortable with Ezra and uncomfortable with Cesare. Now it was as if the complicated thoughts that had arisen when she saw Cesare had been transferred to Ezra.
*...*
Thinking of Ezra made Adelaide feel a little flustered. It wasn't that she didn't like him, but she was hesitant to accept it.
Adelaide fell silent, remembering the look on Ezra's face as she left the chapel, as if he wanted to speak to her.
Then Cesare blurted out from the side.
"It's a secret that it's not really annoying."
"But you were really annoyed with Lord Ezra, weren't you?"
He let out a small sigh, as if caught off guard.
"...Keep that a secret."
"You can see it on your face."
"My sister is a bit irritating."
"It's a secret from others."
They both paused at the same time. And at the same time, they laughed.
It was ridiculous. It was strangely satisfying to be amused by Cesare's wit.
Adelaide looked at Cesare with a little resentment. As in the morning, he had a thoughtful profile. It was because the smile quickly disappeared from his eyes.
Just like now.