"Ah?"

" . . . "

Allen raised his head from the display case: he saw an unfamiliar girl with wavy black ponytails. Her yellow eyes darted for a quick glimpse but quickly averted as she seized the emerald butterfly pin. The girl triumphantly smirked at him and began to skip away.

"H-hey wait!" Allen hurriedly lumbered past her tracks.

The girl faced him but did not utter a word. It appeared she was willing to hear him out.

"Could I please have that pin? I'm sure there are other accessories here that would suit you!"

" . . . " The girl's demeanour radiated displeasure.

"Ah, um . . . over there!" He pointed towards a red chained bracelet and rushed to it. "How about this? It looks nice, right?"

She peered over with interest but ended up scoffing at him. Her attitude gave the impression that Allen had a horrible taste in fashion.

"Allen!" Sun Hee called out to him. Sheepishly, she shook her head back and forth.

"B-but—!"

Sun Hee ignored him and apologetically bowed to the girl. "Take care of it," she softly said.

" . . . " The girl paused and then nodded.

Allen was not willing to give up. While gritting his teeth, he unhesitantly tucked his hands into his pockets and grasped out all the coins in his repository. "I'm willing to spend everything."

The girl's eyes dilated but soon rolled over, dismissing him. Letting out a soft snort, she scooped through her purse, revealing a wealthy sum of gold coins. With a palm of her hand, she began to toss the gold coins in the air to herself as though she was juggling a handball. A bright self-satisfied smirk planted firmly on her face.

Anger threatened to swell over him, but the cause of his vex was not her actions but, rather, himself. He was just a poor boy from an orphanage: how would he be able to compare to this girl in wealth? Let alone any of the average citizens here?

While the girl watched over him, she suddenly felt the weight of her juggles decrease. "Fifteen gold coins. An uptown girl." A flat voice resonated by her ear.

A shudder crossed her spine. She turned to face the owner of the voice. Her mind went blank, and her body rooted. From a glance, many would say he was quite handsome. He was a pale-skinned male with a slim but refined body. He had straight, short, jet-black hair, and dark brown eyes. Those faintly cold eyes of his were narrow and up-turned, making it seem as though he could pierce and see-through anybody. However, his aloof countenance overshadowed this impression. And instead, made him seem overall nonchalant, dumbing his expected demeanour. It was somewhat unapproachable.

The girl was completely silent, but her demeanour spoke otherwise. Even though she did not move a muscle, her deep, profound gaze scrutinised him with fervent intensity.

It was very enigmatic.

It paused Dalis's train of thoughts startling him.

He was unable to comprehend her. Just a minute ago he had grasped a general impression of her character, but now it was all out of the window.

Was him snatching the gold that much of a shock to her? The situation was very contrary to his expectations.

It was simply too strange.

In any case, he decided to continue on with his plan. That was the most important.

"Ever heard of the game spoof?"

The question aroused not only the girl but also Allen and Sun Hee; they all faced him with looks of puzzlement. In fact, the girl was also very intrigued: her deep eyes glittered and concealed twinkling stars.

"Uhhh, Dalis? Game or what not. Shouldn’t you give back the gold? Allen suggested.

Sun Hee appeared very lost and was unable to comment.

"I have heard of it."

A charming voice tinged with delight resounded—the voice belonged to the girl.

"Oh? Shall we play it?" Dalis asked.

The girl firmly nodded her head. The other two were left with disbelief.

The game of spoof was essentially a zero-sum coin game. For Dalis's spoof game, it was the same, but it was a modified version.

In this game, there is a coin pool, the initial number of coins, and these are distributed to each player's bank. The bank is a bag of coins the player has which was taken from the coin pool.

From the beginning, a player is required to request any number of coins from the coin pool as long as it was not the initial amount or over. The second player and onwards do this until the sum of the total coins in the coin pool is zero. In the case of three or more players, the amount taken must leave each player with at least one coin. The initial player to take money from the coin pool is also recognised as the first player to make calls in the preceding rounds.

During each round, starting from the first player, each player is required to guess the aggregate number of coins held hidden in their opponent's/opponents’ hands. Each player can conceal from zero coins, up to the number of coins they hold in their bank. When all guesses have been called, everyone calls "Spoof!" revealing their hands.

If someone correctly guesses the number of coins the opponent/opponents have in a round, they are dismissed and ranked first if they are first to be dismissed. Conversely, if nobody manages to guess correctly, then at the end of each round each remaining player is deducted one coin from their bank. If one were to have taken more than ten coins from the coin pool, then that player would be deducted three coins instead. When a person's bank has zero coins, they are removed from the game. Naturally, the first person to reach zero would be ranked the lowest.

In the case when multiple players are either removed or dismissed, the last person to guess is the first to be removed or dismissed.

The game proceeds until there is one person left standing. That person's ranking is dependent on the rankings of the other players.

The first person to be dismissed is ranked first, and the first person to be removed is ranked last. If only one player is remaining, then they are ranked between the last dismissed and the last removed player. In the case that nobody else was ever dismissed, this remaining player would be ranked first and be victorious.

After Dalis explained the rules, the game was set in motion.

"Ladies first." Dalis signaled.

The girl smiled and walked up to him. The lips of her mouth briefly opened but abruptly closed.

(The rules of this game . . . are fishy. My intuition warns me that this is a trap. It's not that there are any flaws with the rules but . . . this game's advantage is skewered too much to the first player.)

"Is there something wrong?" Dalis innocently asked.

(Of course there is something wrong! Have you actually even played this game before?!) The girl retorted in her mind.

"The coin pool used—"

"Yes. The coin pool refers to all the coins I obtained from you."

"Kay. Fourteen coins."

Dalis reluctantly handed the fourteen gold coins.

"Is this your first time playing spoof?" the girl asked.

"Yes."

"With your modified rules?" Her narrowed eyes sharpened.

"Yep. Never played the original. Thought I would spice the game up a little with new rules."

"Unfortunately, you made it especially boring. Stupid." The girl was on edge to play the game, but now that eagerness was no longer present. She was many times more displeased with him than Allen.

"Shall we begin?"

A slack nod from her marked the beginning of the game.

Two arms extended out between them, concealing the chosen coins for this round.

"Zero."

"Four."

"Spoof!"

Round 1 Results.

Girl: Hides 6

Dalis: Hides 1

"Since nobody guessed correctly, each person is deducted one or three coins from this round. I now have eleven coins from my bank and you have . . . haah what a waste of time!" The pissed off girl stormed her way to the counter without sparing a sole glance at her defeated opponent. Not even bothering to take her coins back.

"Four coins . . ."

The raging storm turned still.

"I have four coins left now."

She turned around and saw the boy casually wave four coins in between his fingers.

"Are those—"

"Does it look as if I could even have a gold coin?"

" . . . "

The girl stood in silence.

***

( . . . It's been over half a minute. Is this girl really that spoiled?)

"So from the beginning there wasn't just fifteen coins . . ."

"No. I actually took nineteen coins from you."

" . . . Cheater, liar."

"I did not cheat. But it can be argued that I lied, yes, call it deceiving."

"So from the start you rigged the game."

"You did not bother to check the coins I took."

" . . . " (I trusted you . . . )

Gazing at her downcast expression, Dalis felt even more guilty. He thought she would lash out at him, but once again, his expectations were betrayed. Why does she look so sad? (Mmm I really should have used the real modified version. Not this trap version. I feel pathetic even if it's to win.)

Be that as it may, Dalis knew he had to go and apologise to her.

"I am sorry for deceiving you. I should have played fairly with the real rules. And well when I saw—" Dalis could not finish his sentence as an index finger was poised between his lips.

"Shhhhh."

Dalis's eyes widened from the drastic turn of events. Let alone his entrapped mouth, the girl's head was only a ruler width apart from his own, face to face. He felt his heart slightly race.

"Let's continue with the game. Okay?"

***

The second round was about to commence. Dalis, up to this time, was still confused by her actions. Despite his confusion, when he saw the bewitching smile of the charming witch, he understood that this girl is a capricious vixen. Yet, he did not detect any hidden animosity from her. Rather . . . the opposite. That was the number one mystery out of the seven mysteries of this capricious vixen.

"Three!"

"Eight."

"Spoof!"

Round 2 Results.

Girl: Hides 2

Dalis: Hides 1

Total: 8 coins for the girl. 3 coins for Dalis.

Locking each other's eyes with mirrored stares, they began the next round.

"Zero!"

"Seven."

"Spoof!"

Round 3 Results.

Girl: Hides 6

Dalis: Hides 1

Total: 5 coins for the girl. 2 coins for Dalis.

(Why does he continue to hide one? Is the number one his favourite number? Or is this guy mocking me . . . ? No, this guy is a scheming type. He must be deliberately doing this. The moment he thinks I will guess one, he will have unexpectedly changed his hand to be another number. And that would be . . . )

"Zero!"

" . . . F-four."

"Spoof!"

(He paused! He stuttered! It's my victory!)

Round 4 Results.

Girl: Hides 3

Dalis: Hides 1

Total: 2 coins for the girl. 1 coin for Dalis.

"What??!!! Y-you chose one again??!!" The girl's finger transformed into a sharp dagger and pointed towards him. She demanded an explanation!

"Please keep your voice down. We are in a public environment," Dalis reprimanded.

"Wasn’t this all part of your ploy?"

"Could you elaborate further, madam?"

Flaming fumes could be seen steaming over her disfigured mischievous face. The smoke permeating out from her was definitely not full of joy. It was full of anger! Worst of all was his way of feigning ignorance. He acted like a receptionist who was ready to ignorantly dismiss any kind of complaint from a customer.

"Why did you pause and then stutter!" she shouted but maintained her voice to an acceptable level.

"Sorry I bit my tongue." [shitsurei, kamimashita.]

" . . . "

" . . . "

Without a word, she steadily closed her eyes and began her breathing exercises. She used the breathing method taught by her father to cope with the exhaustion. It was unfit for somebody like her to lose her calm: she must calm down.

Dalis wanted to agitate her a little further by asking why she was trying to cultivate in the middle of the game. But if he did that, he would risk being ignited to ashes.

( . . . In the first place, why am I acting like this? Isn't this how I treat Melvin? In fact, I'm too casual. I don't even know her . . .)

Before Dalis could contemplate further, he was interrupted by her voice.

"Go next."

"Are you forfei—nevermind . . . Let's proceed to the next round." Dalis was forced to end his words short when he saw her glare magnify a hundredfold.

"One!"

"One!"

"Spoof!"

Round 5 Results.

Girl: Hides 1

Dalis: Hides 1

"Ooooh a tie?" Allen interjected. He had finally found an opportunity to join in. The building and atmosphere from before had made it very difficult to intervene.

"What happens now?" Sun Hee asked.

" . . . "

" . . . "

"Why did you conceal one coin again?" No, forget it . . . If it's what I believe it is then I will really lose it. So I will ask, why did you guess one? You had a one in three chance. Yet you chose one."

(Smart girl. She knows I was mocking her.) "It's related to why I concealed one again. By spamming the ones into your thoughts . . ."

"Nope nope nope nope nope nope. I'm done. Please don't go any further." The recovered breathes threatened to stir up. She did a quick breathing exercise once again and then recomposed herself. She added, "but there is one thing that is bugging me."

"Go on."

"Were you trying to win? I saw through your tactic. You were trying to win at the beginning with that plan of throwing the ones out to confuse me but then it kind of changed, I think? You would've had me, I believe, if you were seriously trying to win. It's like you stopped caring. I dislike that."

" . . . You're correct. I wonder why . . ."

"You tell me."

"I guess I didn't mind you winning."

The tone of his voice couldn't be described as flat or nonchalant. Rather, it sounded as if he was puzzled. As if he was trying to affirm himself of his own words. A deep pensive look emerged from the girl for a moment of time. Then, she began to pack her coins away back into her purse. Afterwards, she strutted towards Dalis and snatched the coins away from him . . . or at least that was what was supposed to happen.

"Is there something with my arm?" Dalis enquired. He could feel her firm, warm, slender right hand grasp his arm. "Hey! What are you doing?"

"Let me move closer to you."

"Huh? No!" Dalis attempted to shrug her off, but his arm was like a hooked fish and thus unable to let go; a futile struggle. The approaching fresh scent of lavender tickled his nose and caused his mind to momentarily unfocus.

(Despite her petite frame, she is unexpectedly very physically strong. A body consolidator? Stronger than Stilla?)

Although she was glamorous, Dalis did not wish for some unknown girl to freely touch him. Hence, he launched a karate chop to her forehead.

?

It seemed to do the trick. In her state of confusion, Dalis handed over the coins and backed up a few steps from her.

"Sowwy."

"You are a quite peculiar, uptown girl."

An enchanting smile arose from her lips, seemingly satisfied with his “compliment”. Then she ambled along towards Sun Hee. Without giving her a chance to react, she grabbed Sun Hee's hand and dropped the emerald pin in the open palm and skipped away to the entrance of the store.

"We will meet again~" The young girl twirled like a princess and curtsied, disappearing to the door behind her.

She was gone just like that.

"Ah, wait!" Sun Hee speedily handed the pin to Allen and chased after her.

The concerned Dalis was not idle. He told Alex to buy the pin and dashed after her. Upon opening the door, he discovered the pickled Sun Hee.

Dalis moved his head left and right. "Left already."

Sun Hee nodded her head and revealed her troubled face. It gave off the impression of asking what she should do.

"Let's go back in the store for now."

In the end with the boy's urgence, Sun Hee permitted Allen to purchase the emerald butterfly pin for her. She felt guilty, but the two boys assured her that it was fine the way it is. Regarding the mysterious girl, Dalis said that they wouldn't need to worry about her. After all, a wealthy girl like her probably had numerous accessories back at her "palace". Sun Hee wasn't satisfied but could only accept the outcome.

"By the way, you acted really strange Dalis. Besides proposing some weird game, the way you treated her . . . You sure you don't know her?" Allen suspiciously asked.

"No."

"Ah well. We will probably run into her again. You two hit it off nicely."

Dalis rolled his eyes.

Since there was still time, the three of them continued exploring the bustling streets of the Royal Capital. However, at some point, Dalis slipped away from the two and ventured off his own. He left with these parting whispered words to Allen, "good luck with your date." Because he departed in the blink of an eye, he missed Allen's series of responses. Most notably, his final response: "what's a date?"

***

"So this is the blacksmith store that Sister Edna mentioned."

Dalis stood before an adobe building. Its blue tile roof shined under the sunny weather, spotlighting the proudly encased display name of the store. It was impossible to miss its name—Korah Haddad's Prime Smithy.

"The store's display case even has an enchantment," Dalis mumbled as he entered into the shop.

Surveying the exterior, in spite of its glorifying top, the store's ceiling was somewhat low. Yet, this point of nitpicking actually served to greatly emphasise the myriad of fine weaponry hanging from the sparkling poles stretched between the walls. There were even a couple of antique cabinets filled with various wrought items. Some of the oddities out of the shown collection appeared to be artefacts! It really had many things like Sister Edna had mentioned. However, there were glaring issues that could not be overlooked. Where was the forge? Where was the enchanting station?

"Young man do you need assistance?" One of the few clerks from the store asked him.

"Yes. Where are the forges?"

"Haha, everybody who steps into this store always asks the same thing. There is actually a bottom floor right behind the back shelf over there. You won't be able to see it from the entrance."

"I see." Dalis politely thanked the clerk and followed the stairs to the bottom floor.

Unlike the polished exterior of the ground floor, this room was rather unkempt and a little dirty. But this was natural. Various enchanting stations, forges, and scattered tools across tables were being utilised and vigorously worked on. The noise generated by the sound of metal being worked and alike were equivalent to a pumping factory.

"Hey hey hey keep those hands working. We gotta get this delivered to the nobles before the sun sets. Shali, take these boxes to the backdoor."

"Yes sir!"

(Impressive. They even do delivery service. This shop isn't particularly large in size, but they appear to have a sizeable number of big customers.) Dalis glanced over to the circle of customers wearing wealthy attire. It seemed they were bargaining and making arrangements with the employees.

A clerk hurriedly came towards Dalis. "Sorry for the delay. Do you have a prior appointment?"

"No. I'm new to this store. I would like to get this assessed."

"Hm? Let me see . . . Eh?! What is this?!"

"These are canine teeth."

"Yes I can see that . . . just what kind of beast has such large teeth?"

"These originated from a demonic evolved wolf."

"D-demonic?! E-evolved wolf?!! I-I apologise esteemed customer. Please wait for a moment. I will be back shortly." The clerk carefully sprinted off.

(I'm an esteemed customer now.) Dalis briefly chuckled to himself.

After a couple of minutes, the clerk returned.

"I am very much sorry for the delay, esteemed customer. Your query will be assigned to Korah Haddad himself." The clerk enviously smiled at Dalis.

"The owner himself?"

"Yes that's right. Furthermore, you even get the privilege to be face to face with not only one of the best blacksmiths of Cresuilge Kingdom but also another amazing individual too!"

"Who is it?"

"She is . . ."