Purpose

~3~

Killua said his goodbyes to Jess and the others as he departed. The Magic Knight exam was starting in about thirty minutes so he had some time to kill. The bored teenager wandered around the booths and stands for a bit, not that he had any money to be able to afford anything but he just wanted to get a feel for the place. It was a far cry from Rosemare, very medieval looking as well. There were magic swords being sold as well as meat, clothing, various wooden objects as well.

Killua sighed Man, there's nothing interesting here- Killua's eyes were suddenly drawn to a sort of carnival game. But that wasn't what caught his attention. What caught his attention were the dartboards being used in it. Or is it for a bow and arrow? Ah who cares, I wonder what the jackpot is. Killua strolled over with a curious hum, waving to get the man who ran the stand's attention. "Excuse me sir? I have a question." The male glanced over with a toothy grin. "You ready to try your luck, ay? Stick five bullseyes and you get the prize! Admission fee is a hundred Yule!" Killua's eyebrows raised. "A hundred? Isn't that quite a lot?"

The male scoffed. "There's a hundred thousand Yule on the line! Course it's a lot. Lots of folks tried to win the jackpot but when they failed their money only contributed to it" Killua was somewhat in shock for a moment, that was a lot of money. That many people really tried and failed? It's probably rigged then. He mused, eyeing the boards. "You look like you've got deep pockets, feel like giving it a shot?" The man tried. Killua let out a sigh. "Well, I don't have any yule on me at the moment, I thought not having money on me would keep these things from happening but oh well." He said, reaching a hand into one of the deep pockets of his outfit and setting down his grimoire. "Could I bet with this?"

The male's eyes widened, and filled with greed. No doubt he'd be entranced by the thought of winning a supposed noble's grimoire. "Sold! But 'member, a deal's a deal. You lose, and this is mine." He said, sliding the Grimoire, then quickly rewrote the sign, adding in the new prize. Killua chuckled softly. "Oh i'm fully aware-" In less than thirty seconds, there was a massive crowd around the stand, presumably attracted to the fact that a 'noble's grimoire' was part of the prize pool now. Most likely they wanted to catch a look at whoever was dumb enough to try that.

"Alright, when do we start?" Killua said, with a cool smile. The man in charge of the stand seemed a bit put off by his confidence, and hummed. "No magic, it's in the rules." Ah, that's probably why so many people lost. People tended to rely on their magic too much, but Killua was different. "Sounds good to me." The male cleared his throat, then fitted what seemed to be a slightly dismantled shackle on his wrist. He assumed it was supposed to cancel out his magic, and was most likely used for prisons. "You get five darts, you land all 5 bullseyes and you win the jackpot"

Killua let a sly grin draw across his face, he hadn't had fun like this in months. "So are there any rules as to the order? Or how fast I have to throw? Or how many at once?" Killua wasn't too worried about losing his grimoire if he did manage to lose anyways, it was practically useless to him. The crowd got even bigger, people whispering and chattering to each other. The stand handler gulped. "W-well...no? Just no magic and don't move from that spot. O-oh and no weird contraptions." He added quickly. Killua nodded. "Mhm, alright then." Killua strolled over to the line, feeling each of the darts. They were indeed slightly rigged, but it wasn't too hard to compensate for that as there wasn't much effort put into it. Killua pretended to focus intensely, then threw the dart, landing dead in the middle of the first bullseye.

The crowd's anticipation rose, some even shouting words of encouragement. Killua glanced over at the stand tender. "So how many people have played the game so far?" he asked casually, then turned back to the target and stuck another bullseye as if it was nothing, not even stopping to aim. The stand tender started looking nervous. "Uh....well the prize used to be only twenty thousand Yule..." Killua hummed. "That's a lot of people, you must be making bank off this" He stuck another bullseye but...he didn't even look this time. At this point the male was looking panicked, Killua was over halfway to the jackpot and he didn't seem nervous in the slightest.

Killua hummed softly in amusement at the man's panic as he picked up two darts, then tossed them at the targets. The crowd went absolutely wild when he stuck the last two, and he saw a few of them pass around money as well. We're they betting on if I was going to win or not? Killua shot the man an amused grin. "So, where's my prize money?"

"Y-You- YOU MUST'VE CHEATED!" The man shouted, sweating profusely. Killua scoffed, tilting his head up then looking down his nose at the man, deciding to play into his noble façade. "Me? Cheat on a silly game like this? That's something a commoner would do. Something you would do. I used a little something called skill, maybe you should go get some instead of trying to run a rigged carnival game for a ridiculously high entry fee." he said, with a disgusted look on his face. The man stammered, gulping nervously. "You do realize I could just buy out your entire stand, right?" He threatened, taking a step towards the man. He enjoyed watching him panic.

"N-No please! I'm sorry! I promise I won't do it again!" The man begged, getting down on his hands and knees. Killua blinked. Maybe I'm going a bit too far with this- Killua cleared his throat, snapping his fingers. "Bring me my winnings, and I'll take my leave." he ordered, slipping his grimoire back into his pocket. Now, I wonder where Jess is...

1053 words

To be continued...