The four antiheroes entered the Mercenary guild.

It was filled with all sorts of people. Mostly humans, however some elves and dwarves were here- no monster kin though. Some wore large armor whereas others wore thin and lighter sets or magical robes with staffs- it was rare for someone to have a magical set of gear though. This was because it was only recently when Percius allowed the practice of magic among the mercenary groups- after being heavily opposed by the central military faction. It was also excessively rare for people to be skilled in magic in the first place. Those who could use magic even without any training usually were in the 3rd tier at least, but some famous magicians were able to rise through the rankings, making it to the 4th or 5th tiers. Most warriors could not make it past the 3rd tier, aside from exceptional individuals, who would be able to make it to the 4th tier.

Many of the most powerful figures of the Empire were mercenaries, as it was a job well suited to those who were powerful. For those who trained their strength, it would be a waste to perform any other duty, aside from joining the military.

There was a man in the corner wearing white gloves with a long black cane and a jesters hat who was flipping a deck of cards from one hand to the other in a little show.

The antiheroes approached a desk where a young man with blonde hair that was gelled up stood. He wore a tunic much like the average citizens of the empire, and had a leather satchel at his side.

"Welcome to the Mercenary Guild here in the town of Erthos. I see that you four are Corporal ranked mercenaries, however I haven't seen you here before. Would you like to register with our town so that we can record your requests taken and transfer your payments?"

"If you will.", Trevor responded.

The man pulled out a ledger and the four gave their false information to the man, thus registering them within the guild here.

"You're all set! There is a request board over there, If you wish to take on a particular job, don't hesitate to ask. You are free to take any job regardless of your status, however please keep your own abilities in mind, as we do not pay you back for any loss of life or limb. Each job has a recommended ranking. Also, if you wish to raise your ranking you must first complete three requests of your current level- which would be Corporal ranking, or 1 request of a higher ranking. By doing so, you can submit a case to the senator for the consideration of promotion."

The four nodded and turned to the lounge area where many mercenaries were either relaxing with food and drink, playing and listening to music, or simply sitting around with friends.

It was a noisy place, and Trevor didn't want to stay here too long if he could avoid it. Too much contact with other people could risk exposing their identities, however he still wanted to form some contacts and gain some information about the people in this country. Not to mention that there was actually a very low risk of exposing their identities, given that the monsters were the only ones who actually knew about the antiheroes, and from what they had seen the people of the Empire here showed no signs of wanting to negotiate with the monsters.

They viewed them as nothing more than beasts- enemies to be defeated, rather than people to interact with.

This made Trevor somewhat concerned regarding their future relationships with the Empire. Was it only the people who they had come into contact with, or did everyone view things this way?

It would be troublesome if a crusade against the monster people were begun. That would mean that Trevor would have to defend the Dictatorship and its people at all costs. Given that everyone in the Dictatorship was an intelligent monster, the possibility of attack was likely if the humans discovered the Dictatorship.

Should anyone who finds the Dictatorship be silenced, or rather should they be terrorized and allowed to go free? Or perhaps even they should be allowed to spread the word of the existence of the Dictatorship? While this was risky, it did pose potential rewards. Either way, there were benefits and drawbacks.

Trevor considered his options of solutions to these problems, but decided that he needed to do more research before taking action.

'I suppose I'm thinking too far into the future. I'll consider these things more when I get more information. I suppose we have capable people working in the Dictatorship either way, so I will be informed if anyone visits or attacks.'

However, it also benefited Trevor for now that the humans didn't negotiate with monsters so readily.

Because the humans did not consider the monsters to be worthy of negotiation, they wouldn't come into contact very often, and even if they did the chances of the monsters giving out information about the Dictatorship was unlikely.

Even if this were to happen, this wouldn't be an issue so long as nobody made the link that the four elves present were actually the antiheroes. The discovery of the antiheroes arrival in the monster realm by the humans was an inevitable outcome now that they had taken over such a prominent group and established an entire city, however for the sake of their current undercover operation, it was necessary to stay incognito.

"Does anyone wish to challenge me to a little gamble?! Anyone!! Step right up! Nobody? Nobody!? Is everyone here too scared to lose to me?!"

Most of the mercenaries seemed to be ignoring the jester who was clearly trying to provoke others into playing him.

However, looking over to Garett... well, Trevor knew that he was interested.

However, it was Samantha who walked up to the man.

"You seem pretty confident to be challenging so openly in a room full of people like this. I'll play your little game.", she said while taking a seat gracefully across the table from the man. The other three stood behind her watching. Garett looked intrigued and pulled up a chair behind Samantha, while the other two stood watching.

It then hit Trevor.

'Heh heh.... this woman is getting more and more devious by the day. So that's how you're playing this...'

----

'Heh heh... what a sucker, this woman. She's beautiful, I'll give her that, but she's overconfident. I've marked every single one of the cards of this deck... it's barely noticeable, but there are slight imperfections on the edges of each card. Depending on the location of the imperfection, it is associated with a particular card, so I know exactly what card my opponent has played...'

'I'd better not get involved in this... that man will target me if I speak up...'

'Don't stare... just walk by casually... nothing to see here...'

'Ah no! That cheating bastard... he takes on every confident newbie he sees and gets them to pay him an entire month of their wages! I better warn that girl before she gets cheated.'

Samantha overheard many thoughts going on around her, however she didn't back down. Instead, this was what encouraged her to challenge this man.

'Insignificant humans... acting like demons towards one another, and not even realizing that the one you have challenged is a demon herself...'

An older dwarven man wearing a silver-blue armor with a mace of similar material at his side walked up to Samantha with a flustered face as she sat down.

"Wait just a minute miss- this man!"

Simultaneously, both Samantha and the man with the jester hat held their arm up to the man who was trying to warn her.

"This is my battle. I don't need someone like you to take pity on me.", Samantha stated, arrogantly.

'It looks like I'm rubbing off on her', Trevor thought.

The man wearing the jester hat looked at the soldier with an evil eye.

"That's right, Nerumar. This woman challenged me fair and square. Please don't ruin the fun."

'I was just trying to help you, woman! Don't blame me when you've been cheated out of your wages!'

The man walked away with a crooked face, staying quiet. He was still concerned for the woman, but there was nothing he could do anymore to save her. She got cocky and had dug her own grave.

"Now then! Let me explain my little game that I have devised. The name of this game is Higher or Liar. We each pick out a number of cards from the deck- depending on how many rounds are left. If there are 3 rounds remaining, we pick 3 cards. If there are two rounds remaining, we only get 2 cards, etc. We then select one of the cards to play. The cards are worth points, ace being one, and any number card being worth its value in points. Jack is worth 11, queen 12, and king 13. After placing our card, we each write down on a piece of paper the value which we claim our card to have. You are allowed to write whatever you want- but here is the catch. The person with the lower written value then has the option to determine whether to pass or to claim that their opponent is a liar. If they pass, the cards are flipped and the person with the higher card receives the amount of points in which they wrote down- regardless of whether anyone was lying or not. However if they wish to claim that their opponent is a lying, then they may do so. If they claim that their opponent was lying and it turns out that they were, the player who found out the lie receives double of their own points that were written down, however if they claim that the opponent was lying and that is not the case, the opponent receives double the points that they wrote down. In the case that both players write down the same number, a draw is called and no further action is taken- regardless if either player is lying or not, however this would not cause a decrease in the remaining rounds."

In this game, there was a risk to lying in that being caught meant that your opponent gained more points, but there was the potential to earn more points than you otherwise would. It was also risky to call someone out on a lie, because doing so when they were not lying would mean that they would gain double points of the already high value- however this made it safer to bluff a little and lie by only a few points if your luck was rotten.

Samantha nodded and indicated that she understood the rules of the game. Garett seemed to be running numbers in his head and Ashley was over looking at the job board nearby in the corner. Trevor was simply standing by.

'Heh heh... I'll know whenever you're lying based on the cards you play... typically in this game you want to use the highest card you can and avoid lying, however its actually more risky to call someone out on a lie than to lie... this game is all about being able to read your opponent. If you can figure out whether they are bluffing or not, you win.', the Jester thought.

Samantha sneered as he thought this.

'This girl... she seems so arrogant... I'll put you in your place...'

"Now then.... how does 3 rounds sound?", the jester asked.

"That's fine. What are we betting?"

"Let's say 1 gold coin. If you don't have it on you, I'll give you a month to pay it up without any interest", he said while throwing a single gold coin onto the table.

'Ah... there it is.... his usual inescapable debt.... he makes you think that it's easy to pay back but then he goes and lays an interest rate on you when you realize that a typical mercenary wage isn't enough to make that much in a month... poor girl... she did this to herself after rejecting the advice of Nerumar...', a passing mercenary thought.

"Deal."

Samantha merely laughed on the inside.

She could barely contain herself from bursting out in laughter as all these people took pity on her and as this man thought he had the upper hand on her.

The man shuffled the deck before handing it to Samantha to allow her to shuffle it.

"So that you don't think I'm up to anything funny, of course."

She shuffled the deck and the man even allowed Trevor to be the one to deal the cards.

Trevor slid three cards across the table to each player without a moment of hesitation.

Samantha took a look at her cards

A 6, a 4, and an 8.

She then looked to her opponent with an arrogant grin.

'Why is this woman looking at me with such an arrogant smile... her cards aren't even good... I have a Queen in my deck, so there's no reason for me to lie here.'

The man placed down a card and wrote down 12, and Samantha placed down her 2 and wrote down 12 as well.

The Jester, as he was called, saw that Samantha had placed down her 2, however he was unaware of what number she wrote down.

'To play a game with such an easy rule to manipulate... well, I suppose these humans can't read each others minds, so typically you wouldn't be able to copy your opponent's value if you got a bad hand.', Samantha thought.

The two then flipped their written numbers, revealing that the round was a draw.

'Damn! Is this woman an idiot?! Trying to bluff with a 12 when she had an 8 as her largest card!?! And she didn't even play it! There was no way she would have won the round while she played a 2!! What is she thinking?? I can't tell if she has balls or if shes just an idiot, but it canceled out this round which I had in the bag... ah well. Next time...'

The man looked slightly irked but cooled off in an instant.

"I suppose it was a draw this round. Tee hee. Lets go again, shall we?", Samantha asked in a cutesy yet irritating manner.

Trevor gathered the cards and reshuffled them before distributing another set.

For Samantha, an 8, a 9, and a Jack.

She looked over to her opponent.

A 9, a 2, and a 10.

'Alright... she has a higher card than I do... if I do things regularly then I will lose this one... I need to either catch her in a lie or lie myself. I could write 11 to cancel things out, assuming she doesn't try to bluff even higher... she wouldn't do that right? What if I write 12? No, there would be no point in that because if she caught me in a lie I would lose double, and if she passed I would lose either way when the cards are flipped... what if I did things the other way around? What if she was greedy again and tried to go for more points? If I write a lower value and catch her in a lie, then I would get double that value... interesting... should I just go with 10 then? I will know if she is lying, so I can only hope that she does so... if not then I will lose... should I just abandon this game and write 11? You know what. That's the safest bet. She will likely write 11 and play her Jack, and the game will end there. If she gets greedy, then I can catch her in a lie... heh heh heh... delightful... that makes it so I am guaranteed to either win or tie!'

Hearing this line of reasoning, Samantha did something completely unexpected, which nobody would do unless they could quite literally read the mind of their opponent.

She placed down her Jack as her card, and wrote down 10 as her value.

She knew that the Jester could see the card she placed, and could hear that he was going to write down 11 in order to cancel the game.

What he didn't know, was that she could use that to catch him in a lie.

The two flipped their papers, revealing that Samantha had written 10 and that the Jester had written 11.

"Oh? What's this? Trying to pull one over me? Don't tell me you placed a Jack there... I'm certain that you're lying about that one.", Samantha stated arrogantly.

'What!? She wrote down 10!?! Why would she do that!?!?! She purposefully put herself at risk of being caught in a lie, and she would get less points as a result of it! Unfathomable! Why would she do so!!?! There is absolutely no reason!! Unless she was reading my mind, only an insane woman would perform such an action!! It's suicidal! She had no way of knowing that I would write what I did, so how?? Was this just a lucky fluke?'

The jester was completely at a loss, however...

Samantha received a total of 20 points from this round.

A couple people had gathered around to watch at this point. The Jester rarely ever lost at his own game, and most people secretly wanted Samantha to beat him. Many people here had lost to him as well back when they started as mercenaries and gotten into a bad loop of debt.

'Whoa. This girl just outplayed the Jester.'

'I think that was just dumb luck...'

'But look at that insane play! Nobody normal would do that!'

'It's like she read his mind!'

'Nah. She probably just got lucky after writing down the wrong number on accident.'

'Well imma watch and see'

The people around were whispering to each other, and the Jester did his best to give her a smile and maintain his composure.

"Well played girl."

"Are we gonna move onto the next round sometime this year, or are you gonna sit there complimenting me?"