Chapter 18

The first round began. Kyon was sure that the wardens were not going to screw him out of his money at once. First, they would beckon him with cheese, then they would shut down the trap. At the end of the first round, Kyon was the second to leave, which earned him 2600 rupees. Now he had 5800 rupees.

The scoundrels were going to achieve more than ripping him off. They aimed to force him to go into debt. Kyon instantly knew it but didn’t show it. He pretended to be happy-go-lucky. They all sneered around him.

The stakes in the second round were raised to 1200. Kyon was the 6th to leave, so he lost his bet. Now he had 4600 rupees left.

After the second round, Kyon pretended that he was done playing and wanted to leave, but they stopped him just in time:

«Come on, do another game. You’re on a winning streak!» – Babil exclaimed “enthusiastically” and took a seat closer to Kyon to attack him at the next round.

That’s what Kyon had been expecting. He “reluctantly” allowed to talk him into it.

Now the real game began. As Kyon had foreseen, Babil escalated the situation, offering to increase the stakes up to 3000 rupees. To the warden’s astonishment, Kyon agreed too quickly. The other players nodded in agreement, too. Babil was rubbing his hands in anticipation: they had found the loser they needed. The second round would take place, by all means! Those were the rules.

It was common practice for the wardens, a way to earn extra money and send a message to the unwanted newcomers at the same time. Kyon was not a newcomer, but he had already pissed off the two wardens, brothers Tweedledum and Tweedledee. The fate of the boy was sealed. Nobody used to pay him attention. Kyon looked like a plucked chicken that could be finished off with a stick. He would have died before paying off a part of his debt. Now, after his time in the hospital, he got stronger. Besides, he suddenly had money on him, and the wardens had graciously agreed to make his burden lighter. When someone won during the sham game, the stake returned to all but the new player, which means Kyon would be the only loser.

The crowd of onlookers had already gathered around them. A pile of money in the center of the table attracted everyone’s attention. Only Borya was missing. He knew too well what was going to happen and didn’t want to watch his young friend lose.

Byron had taken a seat at the distant table, watching Kyon quietly.

Kyon looked tense. He was being attacked by three players at once. Soon, he was holding a pretty fan of cards. He was grinning to himself, though. He could win even with this pile of cards, at least, not be the last to leave the game. However, his goal was a complete defeat. The loser shuffled the deck, and that was all he wanted. At the end of the round, he had half of the deck and owed 6000 rupees, which means he was running a deficit of 1400.

Babil said with a nasty giggle:

«Boy oh boy! You are in debt now! No worries if you have nothing to bet. You can pay off the debt bit by bit. But beware, I strongly recommend you do it on time. Otherwise, who can guarantee you will stay with us safe and sound?»

The wardens high-fived each other and laughed.

Babil continued:

«There’s one more round ahead. Take it easy! We are not quite done!»

Kyon did not respond to his provocation. He just turned pale.

The onlookers were outraged. They had watched scenes like this, but it was crossing a line to gloat at destroying someone’s life. Many shook their heads with compassion, but there was nothing they could do. They were only slaves of the 3rd rank. One word out of place and they were in big trouble.

At the beginning of the fourth game, as promised, Byron came closer to the table at which Kyon was playing. A huge crowd had already gathered around them.

The stakes in the second round were the highest: 10,000 rupees. The eleven wardens at the table announced it, and Kyon’s voice didn’t matter. He couldn’t leave the game before the second round was over. He might have if he had refused to play in the beginning of the first round. It was too late now.

The people in the crowd shook their heads sadly. They had seen it all before. Indignant whispers ran through the crowd: «What did he do to them?» … «Why would anyone do this to a young boy…»

Bald Borya could not stand the suspense and showed up.

There was a pile of carelessly scattered cards from the previous game on the table. Pretending to be loosey-goosey, Kyon grabbed all the cards to himself. He turned them face up and memorized the position and value of each of them. The men roared with laughter at his awkward attempts to collect the cardboard pieces back in the deck.

«Idiot! Turn them over, face down.» – Someone shouted. The rest did not pay attention to the incident.

The naive wardens had no idea what magic his quick hands could do. Kyon began to shuffle the deck casually, arranging the cards in a particular order.

It doesn’t take to be a professional to arrange 36 cards in the ascending order. As for 196 cards… And in a specific order… It���s more challenging. But Kyon did a pretty good job.

When it was time to cut the deck, he did a knuckle cut, and the cards took the required positions. He gave six cards to each player.

Byron came closer to Kyon. Babil, who was sitting next to Kyon, tensed up.

The second round began.

Kyon wasn’t surprised to see his cards: he had carefully stacked them a minute ago.

The previous winner was the first to attack.

The game ran its course. Some players beat off the attack, the others added cards to the table. Kyon had already learned the way each of them played. Things were following the pattern, just like the previous time.

At last, Kyon was under attack.

Babil attacked with one card, then he added another one… 3… 4. Two players on his right added the 5th and 6th cards. The 6th card was a trump, but Kyon beat off all of them. Things couldn’t be more perfect. Some of the players shared a look. Babil spat angrily:

«He just got lucky.»

Byron was watching the game with a smile. The people in the crowd, especially Borya, cheered for Kyon.

Kyon drew six cards from the deck, the other players also took the necessary number of cards. No one had any reason to suspect that the sequence of cards in the entire deck was known, the disposition and the habits of the players were taken into account, and the outcome of the game had long been predicted. The whole game was an open book.

Kyon put on the table six attacking cards, without giving anyone a chance to add anything. The player next to him failed to beat his cards and had to take all of them. Kyon picked up the new set of cards, the last in this round. If he managed to beat them all, he would win. All his cards were trumps.

Things started moving. The tension in the room was high.

The smartass sitting next to Kyon сracked under pressure and decided to cheat. When he was dealing the cards, deftly holding them fan-style, he glanced at the top ten cards but failed to find any trumps. All of them were comfortably settled in Kyon’s hands. The man lost his nerve.

The wardens were giving signs to each other, but Kyon didn’t care anymore.

The player next to Babil didn’t beat off the attack to prevent Kyon from adding anything. Then they began attacking Kyon again.

Babil bombarded the boy with admirable determination, but he beat off all the cards. Two players in front of him added trump cards but… When they found out that Kyon had five trumps, Babil broke out in a cold sweat, the wardens at his sides tensed up, and Byron smiled widely. The audience cheered.

There were only a couple of cards left in the deck. If Kyon beat them all, he would be the first to leave the game.

Suddenly, somebody on the side quietly slipped a card into Babil’s hands. He immediately threw it on the table with a winning grin:

«Hehe, luck is so changeable… I guess it wasn’t meant to be!»

It was the ace of trumps.

Kyon relaxed. He said with a smile, leaning against his chair:

«I guess, you’re right. It wasn’t meant to be!» – He defiantly waved the same card.

There was a moment of deathly silence. Somewhere in the distance, a cricket of awkwardness chirped quietly.

Babil jumped up from his seat, nearly overturning the table and roared:

«You have cheated! There can’t be two trump aces in the deck!»

The card shark’s accomplices clattered approvingly: «He’s right!» … «I saw you cheat!» … «You thought you could trick us, you scum?»

«This is coming from someone who has been given a 7th card?» – Kyon said calmly.

Babil cut him short angrily:

«I have only six cards! Are you blind?»

Kyon ignored the angry protests around him. He deftly picked up the scattered banknotes and began to count them methodically. Then he mentioned casually:

«Then what’s up your sleeve?»

His impertinence drove the wardens nuts. Two guards and three other men, including the brothers, approached Kyon menacingly:

«Son of a bitch! Put the money back quickly!» … «Drop dead, asshole!»

Byron had timely caught a hand raised to strike Kyon and roared imperiously:

«EVERYONE, STAY PUT! Let Babil show us his sleeves.»

The wardens froze. No one dared to confront the tough guy. The guards did not know what to do, either. Byron could kick them off like blind kittens.

Everyone in the crowd held their breath.

In five seconds, Kyon counted the necessary amount, including the debt, threw the money on the table and snorted with contempt:

«Deal with your problems yourselves!»

«You little scum! Put all the money back!» – Babil screamed and stretched his hands, wishing to tear off Kyon’s soul and money as well.

Byron’s low roar stopped him:

«Roll up your sleeves, or I’ll break your arms.»

Babil slowly turned to the guards and gave them a sign to attack, but they turned away, pretending not to notice him. Byron would break their necks before they knew it. Babil turned to his fellow wardens demanding to back him up, but the situation repeated itself. If Babil hadn’t cheated or if he had been a real leader, they might have tried to suppress Byron with the whole crowd.

Deep inside, Kyon was laughing like crazy.

The audience was shocked by what was happening. Borya was the first to come to his senses:

«Yeah. Show us your sleeves! We all want to see what’s up there! You have cheated!» – The crowd murmured in consent.

The chubby warden regretted ten times that he hadn’t taken Byron into account. Why in the hell did he come? The timing couldn’t be more wrong! Reluctantly, he rolled up his sleeves. The card treacherously dropped out his right sleeve.

Byron growled:

«That’s what I thought… If you do anything to the boy in the future, I swear I will beat you so that you won’t come out alive.»

The greater part of the audience dropped their jaws. A fellow slave of the 3rd rank had deceived the whole bunch of wardens! Was it even possible?! It went against the grain!

«Cheater!»… «Ugh» …«Shame!» – A whole uproar was aimed at the plump cheater. Only his accomplices kept silent. Some of them got up quietly and went to their bedrooms in silent disappointment. The others held a grudge against Kyon, who had already galloped away with a satisfied look and a nice sum of money earned by blood and sweat (albeit not always their own). Alas, they could not go against Byron and the angry crowd. They had to let him go.

Babil counted the money that Kyon had thrown on the table and spat with annoyance. There was no mistake. The other winners had everything to the last banknote.

Kyon counted his riches from a considerable distance, quietly chuckling to himself. {53,600 rupees. Minus Byron’s debt, it makes 43,600. Not bad… 15 months of hard work in one night.}

Borya came up to Kyon, clapped him on the shoulder and congratulated him with all his heart:

«You are so cool! You’ve kicked the crap out of them! I don’t know how you did it but now I’m your biggest fan! Keep in mind, the fatso will be seeking revenge. He might talk your new warden into it!»

«I’ll be careful.»

Kyon talked with Borya for a while and then went to look for Byron. He found him talking with Osip.

«Here you are. Thanks for helping me out!» – Kyon held out a wad of cash.

Byron took the banknotes with a happy, smiling face:

«You surprised me! I don’t know how you did it, but the truth was on your side! You’d better watch out now. I believe they will take my threats seriously, but I told Osip to cover you just to be on the safe side…»

«Great.» – Kyon nodded gratefully to Osip.

They chatted a bit more, discussing the long faces of the cheats, and then Kyon went to his bedroom. He could hear the hungry wolves’ jaws clang all around him. The news that he had become rich had quickly spread around the common hall. However, no one dared to hurt him because Byron’s patronage did matter.

Beside greedy and envious enemies, Kyon also got himself some admirers. Borya was the president of the fan club. The rest of the night, pilgrims kept visiting him. Some of them came with greetings, the others with warnings. The wardens wouldn’t let him be. He should be careful.

Kyon was genuinely touched by their concern.