When Linkin agreed to the bet, the two guards secretly pitied him. He had no clue that there was absolutely no chance of him winning. This wasn't a bet, this was a scam! A con!
But, how could Linkin not know what the two guards were up to? Trying to scam him was the same as freely handing over their belongings to him.
"Alright, as usual, you can be the one who rolls. That way, you can't try to say that we cheated you as you'll be the one doing the rolling." The first guard smirked.
The first guard walked over to a small nearby stool with an empty handless cup sitting on top of it. He placed the pair of dice into the cup before handing it over to Linkin.
When the cup was passed over to Linkin, he made a slight gesture which caused the dice in the cup to rattle slightly.
As he did, he could not help but to shake his head inwardly at such a poor attempt. If these two tried this on anyone who knew their stuff, they would probably be beaten to death for cheating.
'These dice are obviously weighted.'
Linkin smirked underneath his mask.
'If you think a pair of weighted dice is enough to keep your money safe, then you're simply daydreaming.'
"Do I just roll whenever I like?" Linkin inquired.
The two guards looked at each other with smug looks on their faces, as if their victory was already guaranteed. These were a pair of dice that they had to pay quite a few coins to obtain. However, it paid for itself over time thanks to how it worked.
"You can start whenever you want. But, we don't have all day. So make it fast will you?" The first guard replied.
Linkin nodded his head and shook the dice around in the cup a few times, "Oops."
Linkin let the cup slip out of his hands and land directly on top of the pair of dice. The cup was perfectly covering the results of the dice.
The two guards shook their heads when they observed Linkin's fumbling of around with the cup of dice. This was easier than taking candy from a baby!
"My hand slipped, surely that doesn't count right?" Linkin sounded panicked as if he were afraid that the two guards were going to include that attempt.
When the two guards saw how flustered Linkin was, they almost wanted to burst out laughing right then and there. Would they be so forgiving? So what if he made a mistake, it was his own fault.
"I know we're friends and everything, but rules are rules you know? If we break them this one time, how can we call ourselves honorable guards of the Imperial Capital?" The first guard chuckled.
"That's right! Rules are rules! Who are we to bend them? You just have to accept the consequences of your actions for accepting the bet in the first place." The second guard chimed in.
"But I-" Linkin tried to speak, but quickly interrupted.
"You've said enough. We've already made up our minds." The first guard cut Linkin off mid-sentence and leaned over to lift up the cup to see the results of the roll. However, he already knew what it was going to be and so he already began to celebrate before he even lifted the cup up.
"Alright, as you can see it's less than seven. Now, about our re-" Just as the first guard was speaking, he abruptly stopped. He had a look of disbelief on his face when he noticed that the two numbers added up on the dice made twelve!
"Impossible!" The first guard thought to himself.
The second guard was curious as to why the first guard stopped talking and when he caught a glimpse of the same thing the first guard saw, he also had a look of incredulity written all over his face.
They had used these two dice many times and it had never failed them before. How was it possible that they failed this time? It was probably just an extreme case of luck because of the way the cup was randomly dropped! Yeah, that had to be it.
"It's twelve... I won! Hahaha, I won!" Linkin was behaving in a very excited manner.
"It didn't count..." The first guard muttered.
Linkin suddenly stopped celebrating and behind his mask, his expression turned ice cold.
"What happened to rules are rules?" Linkin asked.
"If I say it didn't count, then it didn't count! You dropped it and so your roll is invalid! Heh, we can play again if you want, but you won't get anything from this round." The first guard scowled.