Chapter 457: Easy Gamble

"No way." Sigrid whispered. "It can’t be."

But the centaur crossed the finish line first, and suddenly everyone was congratulating her.

"Let’s go, Commander! You did it!"

"How did she win again?!"

"Just how good is her luck?!"

Sigrid stared at the coins multiplying in her hands.

"What’s going on here?"

Luca leaned in. "You probably have Lady Luck on your side, Sigrid. Bet even more. See how much you win."

She tried to resist. But it was useless.

"I...I guess I have to. I want to spend it all, after all."

She placed her entire stack on another centaur.

And shockingly she won again.

"What—no way she won again?!"

And again.

"You’re joking?! My eyes are playing tricks on me!"

And again.

"What tomfoolery is going on here!"

With every race, the crowd grew more hysterical.

"WHAT IS THIS BLACK MAGIC?!"

"THIS IS SOME BULLSHIT!"

"WHY IS FORTUNE FAVORING HER?!"

"IS MAVIS CHEATING?!"

Mavis was furious. "I’m NOT cheating! And even if I wanted to give her the answers, she wouldn’t accept them!"

Which was true. Even Sigrid wouldn’t cheat.

But that only made the mystery deeper.

Whatever it was, Sigrid kept winning. Every bet she placed, she won. The pile of coins on her back grew so large that she had to start hanging pouches from her flanks like saddlebags.

Every time she moved, she clinked and clanked like a walking treasury.

"This...This is impossible." Luca muttered, watching with something approaching horror.

Even he couldn’t keep his cool anymore, so he slid off her back and made his way to Mavis’s podium.

"Alright. Confess. Are you helping her?"

"I am doing nothing!" Mavis’s eyes flashed. "Why would I help my sister cheat? That would completely undermine the integrity of the entire operation!"

"Then how is she winning every single—"

"I don’t know! I thought you were helping her!"

"Me?!"

"You’re the one who’s been making heart-eyes at her since you arrived!"

"I don’t make heart-eyes—"

"You absolutely make heart-eyes!"

"...Then how."

"I don’t know."

And it was entirely true. He had been watching her do it.

Every single time, Sigrid had walked up to the board and looked at it with an expression that said I would like to lose this one now, and picked somebody almost at random.

And every single time that centaur had somehow found the run of her life!

Meanwhile, Sigrid approached the podium with a slightly dazed expression, her latest winning ticket in hand.

"Um, Mavis? I need to collect again."

Mavis looked at her coin chest. The coin chest that had been full this morning.

But now, it was empty.

"We’re out of coins." She said flatly.

"What?"

"Out. Empty. You’ve won them all. You’ve literally bankrupted the entire gambling operation!"

The crowd gasped. The elders clutched their Mahjong tiles. Poppy looked like she might faint from sheer admiration. Sigrid stood there, draped in pouches of golden horseshoes, looking like the world’s most reluctant pirate queen.

"I..." Sigrid blinked down at her overflowing hoard. "I think I understand it now, Sir Luca. This gambling thing—I thought it would be obnoxious. Hateful. But it’s actually..."

A slow, incredulous smile spread across her face.

"It’s actually not bad at all! Who would have thought it would be so easy? I just place a few bets without thinking, and I win!"

Luca’s eye twitched. Never in his life had he seen someone with such ridiculous luck. This was beyond luck.

This was divine intervention. This was reality itself bending to accommodate her!

For a moment, he wanted to take her back to his world and visit every casino in existence.

But then Sigrid spoke again.

"With how many coins I have, I could buy the entire shop."

She shook her head.

"But that’s too many things. Why don’t I just..."

She brightened with an idea.

"...give everything I won to everyone else?"

"WHAT?!" Luca’s head snapped toward her. "No! There’s no way!"

"It seems like what I should do." Sigrid said reasonably. "There’s so much stuff. I can’t keep it all to myself. I should just give it all out."

Luca felt a mental scream building inside him.

’NO! That can’t happen!’

The entire gambling operation was working because there were things to win. But if Sigrid just bought everything and gave it all away, then there would be nothing left to gamble for.

Everyone would have everything they wanted. The game would be over.

He had to stop this.

But he couldn’t just invalidate her coins. That would go against the rules.

But then, like a bolt from the heavens, he had an idea.

"Sigrid! Do you want to multiply the number of coins you have...by ten?"

The entire area went silent.

"What did he just say?"

"By TEN?!"

"That can’t be right! The maximum ratio we’ve seen is three times!"

"The Hero is offering ten times?!"

"Sir Luca?" Sigrid’s voice was suspicious. "Are you mocking me? This is some sort of joke because you can’t stand losing?"

"Not at all." Luca said earnestly. "I promise you."

"Then what’s the catch?" Her eyes narrowed. "You want me to guess how many grains of sand are in your hand? You want me to find a bird’s feather in the dark? That’s the sort of thing you’re about to say."

"Nothing like that. In fact, I’d say this is the easiest bet you could possibly make. And you can participate yourself."

The crowd pressed in closer. Even Poppy had stopped bouncing and was listening intently.

Luca pointed toward the racetrack. "It’s the same as the other races. But this time, I’ll be racing too."

Groans immediately rose from the crowd.

"Oh, come on!"

"That’s not fair!"

"He’d beat us all without breaking a sweat!"

"I’m not finished." Luca said, holding up a hand. "There’s a handicap. A very significant one. You see that line?"

He pointed toward the finish line.

"I won’t start running until at least one of you is one meter away from crossing it. A arms length. You’ll practically be at the finish before I take a single step."

The collective gasp nearly sucked the air out of the clearing.

"An arms length?!"

"He’s going to start a meter from the finish?!"

"That’s impossible! Even for the Hero!"

"He’d have to be faster than lightning!"

Sigrid felt something was wrong.

This was too easy. Too simple. Luca wouldn’t make such an impossible bet unless there was a trap.

But then—

The thrill of the gambler rose in her chest.

The excitement. The certainty of winning.

And her pride refused to back down.

"Fine then." She said, breaking into a smile. "If you want to place this bet, I’ll do it."

She unlatched the bundles from her back.

"Mavis! I’m going all in! Whatever coins I have—I place on this bet!"

The other centaurs couldn’t hold back.

"Two hundred coins on any of us winning!"

"Three hundred!"

"Four hundred!"

"I bet everything!"

They threw their coins at Mavis, all convinced they were about to win.

"Three dozen centaurs against one man, that’s FREE MONEY—"

"SERA. Sera, get every coin from under the bed—"

"We’ll all be rich!"

"This is the easiest bet in history!"

Poppy bounced on Thea’s back, her horn swinging dangerously.

"Take it all, Mavis! All of it! I’m going to buy a new castle! No—TWO new castles!"

"My lady." Thea said tiredly. "You can only win items from the Hero’s world. You can’t buy castles."

"I’ll buy a castle-shaped item, then! Don’t ruin this for me, Thea!"

Only the elders held back, placing modest bets of a few coins each. Agnes caught Luca’s eye and gave him a small, knowing smile that suggested she’d seen tricks like this before and wasn’t about to fall for one now.

Mavis tallied the final numbers, her voice carrying over the restless crowd.

"All bets are locked! Here are the terms: if any single centaur crosses the finish line before the Dummy Hero, everyone gets ten times their wager. If the hero wins..."

She paused for dramatic effect.

"You all lose everything."

"WE WON’T LOSE!" Someone shouted. "IT’S IMPOSSIBLE TO LOSE!"

"ONE METER! HE’S GIVING US A WHOLE METER!"

"THIS IS THE BEST DAY EVER!"

The fastest centaurs in the village lined up at the starting post—Riley, Ellie, Juno, every champion runner the clan had to offer. Sigrid herself took a position at the front, her muscles coiled, her eyes fixed on the finish line.

"We’ll see who has the last laugh, Sir Luca." She murmured.

Luca, standing casually at the very back of the line just smiled. "I look forward to it, Sigrid."

Mavis raised her clapper.

"On your marks."

Every centaur dropped into their stance.

"Get set."

Hooves dug into the dirt.

CLAP!

The racers exploded forward, a thundering wave of muscle and determination that shook the very earth beneath their hooves.

"GO! GO! GO!" The crowd’s roar was deafening.

"DON’T LET ME DOWN!"

"I BET EVERYTHING ON YOU!"

"FASTER! FASTER!"

The racers moved as one unified mass at first, their bodies pressed close together. Then, slowly, the pack began to spread. The strongest pulled ahead. The weaker fell behind.

And at the front of it all, leading the charge, was Sigrid!

Her silver ponytail streamed behind her like a banner of war. Her powerful legs devoured the ground with fury.

She had always been the fastest. Ever since she was a child, racing against the other fillies, she had always been the fastest. And now, with everything on the line, she was proving it once again.

Behind her, the other racers struggled to keep pace. Riley was there, pushing herself to her limits. Tilia was there, her face contorted with effort.

All the strongest, the fastest, the most determined warriors of the village—and none of them could match Sigrid’s pace.

The crowd’s roar intensified.

"SIGRID! SIGRID! SIGRID!"

"LOOK AT HER GO!"

"SHE’S GOING TO WIN!"

"I’M GOING TO BE RICH!"

The finish line was approaching.

Fifty meters...

Sigrid’s hooves pounded against the earth. Her lungs burned. Her muscles screamed. But she didn’t slow down. She couldn’t slow down. Everything depended on this moment.

Forty meters...

She could see Luca standing at the finish line, still as a statue. His hands were in his pockets, looking like he was a spectator as well.

’He’s not even trying.’ She thought. ’He thinks he’s already won.’

The thought only made her run faster.

Thirty meters...

The other racers were falling behind. She could hear their breathing growing ragged, their hoofbeats growing distant.

She was leaving them all in her dust.

Twenty meters...

Ten meters...

Five meters...

Two meters...

The finish line was right there, just a single meter away. She could see it. She could almost taste victory, the thrill of the win, the joy of defeating Luca.

’I’ve done it!’ She thought, her heart soaring. ’I’ve actually done it! I’m going to win!’

She thought of all the strange, wonderful objects from Luca’s world that she could give to her villagers. All the smiles on their faces. All the celebrations that would follow.

This was her moment...

Her victory...

Her triumph!

She took the final step.

Her hoof crossed the invisible line that marked one meter before the finish. But in that exact instant, just as she was about to cross the finish line—

Luca’s lips curled up.

Just a little bit. Just enough for her to see.

And then—

BOOM!

The air exploded.

A tremendous shockwave erupted from the spot where Luca had been standing. The dirt beneath his feet burst apart, and the surrounding grass flattened as though an invisible hurricane had swept through the area.

For one brief instant, the world seemed to shake.

And Luca...was gone.

’What in the world?! Where did Sir Luca go?!’

Sigrid was baffled!

One moment he was standing right there and the next he had just disappeared. She wanted to go and investigate where he had gone, but that could happen after she crossed the line.

So, with all the haste in the world she pushed forward to win glory for her entire village when suddenly—

"...!"

Her eyes widened.

There he was.

Luca.

...Not behind her.

...Not somewhere along the track.

Right there at the finish line looking directly at her!