It was as if a ferocious beast stood in front of me. His anger seemed to reach to the tips of his toes.
"I should have struck first."
Blood trickled from Rublet's forehead, torn by the impact of the wall. Unperturbed, Rublet scowled at the man.
"... Ah, how annoying."
He flicked his gaze in my direction and muttered.
"I wonder why you're so popular."
Yeah, I wonder why I'm so popular... And what's wrong with that guy, is there something wrong with me simply because I'm a woman...?
I wiped the spot where Rublet's lips had been on the hem of my robe and thought to myself, Whatever it is, I need to get out of here.
So as the two men snarled at each other, I slipped quietly back into the guild and called out to Leather.
"I'm sure they're fighting outside, so throw them both out. Oh, and don't forget the money pouch."
I'm grateful that he kept his word, and I'm grateful that he beat up Rublet.
But you still have to take care of what you have to take care of.
"Yes."
With that refreshing reply, Leather scurried out of the room, and after watching him go, I returned to the Master's room.
I was alone, so the room was silent as a mouse, but my mind was as tumultuous as if a storm had come and gone.
I felt like my soul was being sucked out of me just by standing, so I slumped down on the couch in a heap.
But the more I thought about it, the more I realized that I was doing the same thing with the man with sunset eyes. You can't tell me... it's just a mood...? Please tell me it's just a mood. Please.
So there I was face buried in my couch, grunting with internal pain. The crown prince doll and the evil dragon doll that were lying on the couch like me came into view. Aigoo...
In a fit of frustration, I crushed them with a cushion, spun around to face the ceiling, and pressed my hands to my face.
***
Shortly thereafter, Leather did as I asked and began selling lottery tickets at Luminous' restaurant.
Of course, the Queen had banned shop-in-shops, so we couldn't sell them legally, but who are we to argue, aren't we the ones who formed the Dark Guild under the radar of the law and filled it to the brim with money?
Dressed as a counter clerk, Leather began to covertly sell lottery tickets to customers with his trademark smooth talk.
"Don't you want to see the miracle of ten thousand gold becoming two billion gold?"
The customer frowned at the apothecary-like sound.
"What do you mean, ten thousand gold becomes two billion?"
"We're having a banquet in Luminous this week, and if you bring this and join us, we'll raffle off two billion gold."
"... Hmm."
The guest awkwardly coughed and tried to pretend he hadn't heard. He had heard the Queen's warning to never go to Luminous' banquet, so he was trying to avoid it.
Leather, who had caught him in the act, spoke up.
"The announcement of the winner will be made at 5:00 p.m."
In other words, it was not too late to attend the Count's banquet after the lottery was announced.
The tempted nobleman hesitated.
There, Leather drove a wedge.
"Besides, it's a masquerade ball."
A masquerade ball, where one's identity can be concealed by a mask of any natural color.
A place where it was a virtue to pretend not to recognize the other person.
In other words, you could watch the lottery announcement with your identity hidden.
"Hmm... I'll check it out."
The nobleman, who had finally fallen for the twist, carefully took the lottery ticket.
He wrote down the six numbers as Leather instructed, then slid in ten thousand gold.
"If I really take this, I'll be given two billion gold."
"It's not a guarantee, it's a lottery."
"No matter what, two billion gold isn't even a dog's name, and it's only ten thousand gold..."
A few days after he started selling lottery tickets to those skeptical nobles.
A few days after Leather started selling the lottery tickets.
Ten thousand gold became ten million gold.
Social circles immediately went into a frenzy.
"That was real?"
"Yes, it was, and Young master Aine was so excited that he bought it and won it under false pretenses!"
In fact, that 10 million gold was my personal safe, so instead of holding a real raffle, I cheated and won the famously tight-lipped young masters.
As I had hoped, young masters spread the word about Luminous' lottery throughout the social circles.
"Oh, I was skeptical too, but they really gave it to me. I've reinvested half of my winnings into the lottery this time around, and it's 2 billion if I win!"
"Hmm..."
"Besides, if you have at least 10 stickers of Luminous, they'll give you 2 lottery tickets for 10,000 gold for every 10 stickers. Who wants to sell me some?"
Young master Aine called out curiously, but no one in the room raised their hand.
'I'll go buy a lottery ticket.'
'Who knows, maybe the two billion will be mine.'
'Ten thousand gold is nothing.'
These were the thoughts that began to run through their minds.
The lottery fever even reached the ladies at the Queen's tea party.
"I only have 10 stickers left... I think I'll go and buy two.
"But the Queen told us not to go to Luminous' restaurant...."
"Can't I just buy a lottery ticket? Her Majesty's order was to not eat at Luminous' restaurant, not to buy lottery tickets."
"... Yes, that's right."
"Besides, it's an hour earlier than Count Essit's banquet, so if we get there and back quickly, we'll be fine."
The ladies covered their faces and made their way to Luminous' restaurant, where lottery ticket sales were growing exponentially by the day.
It was a good thing Luminous had a photocopier among the magical paraphernalia that came in for sponsorship, or the entire guild would have been overwhelmed with printing out lottery tickets.
"... What are they selling at Luminous?"
The Queen was furious at the late-breaking news; she already had a headache that some city crier was interfering with Marquis Cherish's business, but Luminous was there to anoint her, and she brought down the mace of law.
But no amount of fines could stop the lottery boom that was already sweeping the capital.
What's more, Luminous wasn't going to stand idly by and created a decoy to get around the law.
"How may I help you?"
"... I'm here to purchase ten Dragon Breaths."
"What's the password?"
"... Piik is cute. You can't eat the horns and tail."
The customer, who had blurted out the password to the counter clerk at the top of Luminous, handed over the amount, including the Dragon Breath.
After checking the gold coin count, the employee handed them a chicken skewer and ten lottery tickets.
"What? They're still selling them?!"
The Queen, who was late to the party, was furious and tightened the law.
In response, Leather and the guildmates began to disguise themselves as lottery ticket vendors and snuck around social circles.
When you are told not to do something, you want to do it even more. With the successive regulations of the Queen, there was no one in the capital who didn't know about the lottery.
Even the slow Reynos was baffled by the news, asking, 'Young lady, how do people know the word piik?'
"I don't know."
I feigned ignorance, while some idiots who mistook the lottery for a simple charity event laughed at Luminous' two billion dollar prize.
"They must be in such a hurry, to even risk such a bleeding event."
"They dared to fight the Queen, so what does it matter, it's only two billion, and no one would go to Luminous' banquet unless they were a penniless beggar!"
"The beggar family Lavirins might go!"
"Really? Aren't they going on their own? ho-ho-ho-ho!"
But the accusations died down when the winnings were raised to four billion.
"Four billion... Hmm. They must be in a pretty big hurry."
"About 4 billion..."
Then it was raised to 6 billion, and the criticism died down.
"Six out of 45? Six billion for only ten thousand gold, that's a total steal if you win!"
"I'll be generous and only buy 200 tickets!"
Anyway, the total amount of lottery tickets sold, which was expected to be around 2.3 billion when it first started, went towards 6 billion, 8 billion, 10 billion - and suddenly 12 billion.
Partly because it was the talk of the social circles, and partly because the local nobility was coming to the capital for the upcoming Winter Sword Festival, it seemed to have a lot of firepower.
And so, with lottery sales booming, the days ticked by until the day came when Count Essit's banquet and Luminous' banquet would be held at the same time.