"Alright—watch closely!"
The stall owner started pulling the rope. It lengthened little by little while Lux stared at it, tense.
The next second, she went completely blank.
In those beautiful eyes of hers, the rope slowly, unmistakably looped around the rod—until, in the end, the tabletop was left with nothing but the rod in her hand.
Hiss—!
A few sharp inhales came from the crowd. Even the spectators hadn't expected Miss Crownguard's luck to be this terrible.
She'd picked wrong again.
At this point, Lux might as well have "UNLUCKY" written across her face.
"Uh…"
Even the stall owner looked a little helpless. He tried to comfort her. "Sometimes luck just goes like that. Before you came, there was someone who tried five times and didn't hit once."
The moment he finished, someone in the crowd responded with a sigh. "That was me. Miss Crownguard, don't take it too hard. When you're unlucky, even drinking water gets stuck between your teeth."
Hearing someone had been even more miserable than her, Lux felt slightly better.
Up until now, she still believed she'd missed three times purely because her luck was bad.
Earlier, when she saw other people miss, she'd even thought they were idiots—how could you possibly pick wrong when the rope has a head and a tail? As long as you kept track of the folded end at the start, there was no way to mess it up.
Now that it was her turn, Lux realized it didn't work like that at all. There was a huge luck component!
Yes. Absolutely luck.
Definitely not because she was dumb.
But very soon, after two more rounds, Lux fully started questioning reality.
She had already missed five times in a row—and her wagers had gone from two gold coins to eight!
How could someone's luck be this bad?
Lux couldn't understand it.
"One more time!"
She forced herself to reset, looking exactly like a gambler who'd lost until she saw red.
She decided to play one more round—and she was convinced she'd figured it out this time.
She took out ten gold coins at once, clearly intending to win back everything she'd lost in one shot.
"Sure. I'm always happy to play," the stall owner said with a gentle smile.
He began performing the familiar routine again.
Lux thought this was where she'd been losing, so she stared harder than ever. But even though his hands were fast, the rope was only so long—there was nothing obvious to catch.
Three holes again.
When it came time to choose, Lux wasn't as decisive as before. She hesitated.
Like a chess player stuck in indecision, she didn't know where to place her piece.
At that moment, someone from the audience spoke up. "I think the left rope hole is the one that gets blocked. The other two should loop around the rod."
People looked over and felt like he seemed familiar. The man scratched his head and grinned. "I've had pretty decent luck—won four rounds in a row earlier."
There really had been someone like that.
Once he started offering suggestions, the crowd began analyzing too. Then two more spectators who'd guessed right a lot also stepped up, both recommending the left hole.
Lux, at this point, was like a blade of grass drifting with the current—she'd lost a good chunk of her own judgment. Hearing everyone's analysis, plus her own half-formed reasoning, it all sounded very convincing.
So she chose the left rope hole. "This time, I'm choosing for the rod to block the rope!"
"Alright. Hope you win back what you lost!" the stall owner said.
As soon as he finished, he began pulling the rope.
Lux stared even more intensely than before—only to freeze again.
This time too… she'd chosen wrong.
The rope ultimately looped around the rod.
The stall owner said regretfully, "What a shame. Wrong again."
The crowd's chatter instantly grew louder. The spectators who'd given advice were sighing and groaning, saying they'd misread it, that Lux's luck was just too awful, and so on.
"No one can be unlucky forever! Seven tries and I still won't hit even once?!" Lux snapped back to herself, fully worked up now—pure stubborn defiance.
She dumped the remaining gold coins from her coin purse onto the tabletop—more than ten, glittering and eye-catching.
Back and forth like this, Lux had already lost a lot.
Demacia's cost of living wasn't high. A single gold coin could cover a normal family's expenses for a long time.
And Lux had already lost at least twenty gold coins. Even for her, that was no small amount of spending money.
If she lost again, she'd really be taking a serious hit.
But if she didn't win back what she'd lost, she knew she'd go home furious and lie awake all night.
Several spectators around her echoed her thinking. People felt she was due for a lucky round—after all, missing six times in a row had basically set a record.
"Maybe you should stop, Miss Crownguard."
"I think it's better to cut your losses, or you'll lose even more."
"This is a luck game… sometimes you just have to respect bad omens."
Some of the crowd started trying to talk Lux out of it.
But words like that only made a gambler who'd already lost a lot even more determined.
Because no one believes they'll keep being unlucky forever.
Luke watched the whole thing, and something felt… off.
He studied it carefully too, replaying the earlier rounds in his mind, and finally realized what was wrong.
Right as the stall owner picked up the rope and started his routine, Luke spoke up from within the crowd, sounding thoughtful.
"I don't think this looks like a luck game," he said. "It looks like a scam."
His words cut through the noise and drew a lot of attention.
Including Lux's—her focus was so sharp right now that she caught Luke's voice instantly.
A spectator beside Luke asked, "Kid, what do you mean by that?"
"Exactly what it sounds like."
Luke stepped forward a few paces until he was close to the stall, then continued, "If it's truly a luck game, then sure—if you keep raising the stakes, sooner or later you'll win back what you lost. But what if it isn't a luck game? Miss Crownguard, then all you'll do is raise your wagers higher and higher… and lose more and more."
The stall owner looked angry. He waved his hand and glared at Luke. "Young man, don't cause trouble. What nonsense are you spouting?"
"Let him finish."
Lux finally seemed to react. She turned and looked at Luke. "What do you mean by a scam?"
Up close, her face looked even more delicate—bright and youthful, with that unmistakable innocent charm.
Luke explained, "A scam like this is when a few people work together, waiting for a 'fat sheep' to take the bait. The mark usually watches first and thinks, 'This game is so simple—how can people still bet wrong? Are they all idiots?' But the moment the mark steps in… they've already walked right into the trap."
"…Why does this 'fat sheep' sound so much like me?"
Lux realized Luke had described her exact thought process. She couldn't help feeling a little guilty. So… does that mean she was an idiot too?
But how is that my fault?!
I'm not dumb!
Seeing the look in Lux's eyes, Luke continued, "It's not that the mark is dumb. It's that the scammers exploit common psychology. And besides the stall owner, he needs a few others to cooperate and lure the mark in."
Luke glanced at the stall owner, who clearly wanted to speak, and didn't give him the chance. He turned and pointed at several people.
"You. You. And you—if I'm not mistaken, you're all plants, right?"
Two of them were people who'd lost several rounds. One had won. Another had never played at all—just stood in the crowd offering 'helpful' suggestions.
The moment Luke pointed them out one by one, they instinctively dodged his finger.
"Some of them win, some lose, and some never play," Luke said. "With that setup, if you were about to quit just now, they'd definitely find a way to convince you to keep playing."