A rhythmic tapping sound echoed throughout the empty restaurant.
Finn was sweating bullets while avoiding eye contact with Sophie, who was staring a hole into him.
"So? I am waiting."
"S- Sophie. It was just a bad joke and I really didn't mean it! I don't care about other girls because the only girl I love is you!"
Finn looked at Sophie with an honest look, hoping that she would let him off the hook.
"…"
Sophie didn't want to become a possessive girlfriend who would order Finn not to meet other girls, so she tried to calm down a little.
She felt that she was falling in love with Finn, so she just didn't want to lose him to someone, but that was no reason to treat him like a thing she owned.
"Alright, but don't say things like that again... Also, one more thing. You told Rex that you would be leaving. Where are you going?"
Understanding that Finn was just trying to protect himself from his parents' teasing by making a bad joke, Sophie let it go and asked what she had been wondering about.
"Oh that…"
Finn scratched his head and tried to think of a way to explain his future plans.
He wanted to visit the Elvish continent because there was something that he saw in his previous life and he wanted to get it no matter what.
"I have always wanted to visit the Elvish continent, so I am planning on going there. I wasn't going to keep it a secret or anything, and you are free to go with me."
Finn didn't mind inviting Sophie because he loved spending time with her.
"When will you depart?"
She asked because her schedule had become quite busy recently, so she wanted to know if she had time to prepare.
"As soon as possible. Tomorrow maybe?"
After thinking for a bit, Finn answered with an unsure look.
"That soon?!"
Sophie raised her eyebrows but then remembered that Finn always liked to do whatever he wanted whenever he wanted, so she calmed down again.
"I can't go with you then."
She crossed her arms.
"Oh…"
Finn looked at her with sad eyes, but she just shook her head.
"I finally made some free time, and I wanted to spend it with Mia and Nina because we haven't been spending time together the last week. Nina had also started playing Second Life and even joined our guild, so I want to help her level up."
Explaining her upcoming plans, Sophie described how she wanted to spend time with her sister and her best friend.
"Nina joined? Why don't I know this?"
Surprised, Finn asked, but that just made Sophie shake her head in disbelief.
"...Because when I tried telling you, you were in the middle of poking my cheek while saying that you love me and not listening at all…"
Remembering the exact moment, Sophie stopped describing the situation, and a light blush appeared on her face.
She tried to tell Finn multiple times, but he would always just nod in acknowledgment, and the information would enter one of his ears and leave the other.
"That may have happened. Well, if it's like that, then I guess I will go alone."
After remembering the number of times he had teased her, Finn nodded his head with a smile and then decided to travel by himself.
"You are not going to bring Leo or James with you?"
Sophie asked, slightly worried that Finn might get himself into trouble with his silver tongue.
"Leo is busy training for his next match against WhiteTiger, and James is busy studying new magic, so nope."
Finn shook his head.
After that, Sophie told Finn to message her every day and not cheat on her with some elf girl.
Finn's parents had also finished making dinner, and so they all sat together to eat as one family.
---
The next day, Finn said his goodbyes to everyone in the guild and took a carriage to another city.
After a long, uneventful ride, he finally arrived at the harbor city of Leviathan.
Because Iliados wasn't connected to the sea, people had to take a carriage to a port city if they wanted to use a ship.
There were other port cities that were a lot closer than Leviathan, but Finn needed something specific here.
One of the things he needed here was a ship to get to the Elvish continent, but the other one wasn't anywhere else in the world.
Entering the city, his nose was instantly hit with the smell of the salty ocean and fish.
The city of Leviathan was a lot smaller than Iliados, but it still had a lot of people living there. It was filled with fishermen and gangs. A lot of gangs.
Leviathan was a city with the largest criminal organizations on the human continent.
Because of that, there were a lot of casinos, bars, brothels, fighting rings, and, most importantly, it had the biggest slave auction in the entire continent.
There were other harbor cities, but Finn chose Leviathan because he needed to buy a certain slave there.
When Finn arrived, it was already night, so he tried to search for an inn, but they were all full.
That was because in seven days, the Leviathan Slave Auction House would be hosting an important event where one could buy a wide variety of slaves.
Finn also wanted to join this event, but he didn't know that he would have such a huge problem finding a place to stay.
He tried to ask people on the street for help, but most of them either ignored him or ran away from him because of his black skull mask that he continued to wear in case he met another player.
"You look lost, sir. Want me to read your fortune?"
Stopping in the middle of the road, Finn looked to his side because he thought that somebody was talking to him, and sure enough, there was a girl sitting at a small table on the side of the road, looking at him.
Her clothes were dirty, and she had tarot cards on the wooden table that was on the verge of breaking apart.
Finn didn't really believe in fortune telling, but he was happy that someone finally talked to him, so he went and sat down at the girl's table.
"Sure. How much do I have to pay?"
The table had a small wooden stool that barely didn't break when Finn sat down on it and asked the girl.
"Nothing, sir, but if my reading helps you, then please consider donating some money."
She answered with a soft voice unbefitting of the harsh city she lived in.
'Smart…'
Finn chuckled to himself because he could see what the girl was doing.
If she were to have a certain fixed price, then some people would think it's too much and some would think it's too little, but if she tells them to donate without saying an amount, then everyone will give her the amount that they are comfortable giving away.
Of course, not everyone would choose to donate, but if she were at least half decent at tarot reading, then she wouldn't have a problem getting some donations.
She also won't anger anyone by having a bad price, and she might even earn a lot if she lucks out on a rich customer.
Finn raised his gaze from the table and looked at the girl.
She had brown, curly hair and brown eyes. He couldn't see more than that because her face was really dirty, but from the shape of her face, he could tell that underneath all that filth hid a cute, innocent-looking girl.
In Leviathan, there were two types of people: the hunters and the prey.
The girl in front of Finn was the prey because she didn't have enough money to even pay for water to clean her face with.
The hunters, on the other hand, were the gangsters that stole from the honest citizens.
"...Sir?"
Finn realized that he was staring too much, and he quickly looked down at the cards.
"Ah! Sorry... Umm, Sure. Please tell me about my future."
Embarassed that he was caught staring, he quickly agreed.
The girl nodded and started shuffling the cards.
They were worn out and had dirt on them, but she was still using them, so Finn knew that the money he was about to give her for the fortune-telling would decide if she were to have enough to buy food and live to see another day.
The girl then let Finn pick three random cards, and he did just that.
Placing the three cards on the table face-down and flipping the first one, she looked at Finn.
"The Lovers. You have someone you love, and in the near future, you will be faced with a difficult choice that will determine whether you would sacrifice yourself for this person or not."
Her soft voice was gone, and it was replaced by a deeper voice that sounded like there was a devil inside her, speaking for her.
"I would."
Unbothered by the new voice, Finn answered in a heartbeat while smiling at the girl, but she just nodded and turned over another card.
"Reversed Judgement. You feel like your progress is a lot slower compared to the others, but if you manage to push through then the results will be extraordinary."
The girl put emphasis on the word "extraordinary" to let Finn know that he had something to look forward to.
'She is probably talking about my class… Can this tarot reading be real?'
At first, Finn doubted the reading and only wanted to use it to pass the time, but if the judgement card that she had just revealed was not a fluke, then the other cards might also be real, which would mean that something might happen to Sophie.
The girl looked at him, but he only thoughtfully nodded and gestured for her to flip the last card.
"The Death…"
When she flipped the last card, she paused for a second, and Finn became a little worried.
"Am I going to die?"
He looked at the girl, but she shook her head with a smile.
"No. It signifies that something else about you is going to die. It might be a plan of yours failing or your relationship ending. Basically, a part of you will die."
Finn frowned when he heard that his relationship might end because he immediately thought of Sophie again.
"The weird part is here."
She pointed at the Death card and the Lovers card.
"What's the weird part? I don't see anything wrong."
Looking at the cards, Finn only saw that they were two ordinary and very dirty cards.
"I let you choose three cards, and it is no coincidence that these two are upright. It means that they are connected."
"Which means…?"
Finn looked at the girl in confusion, still not understanding what she was getting at.
"You said that you would sacrifice yourself for your love, but with the cards connected, it could mean that by sacrificing yourself for the love you so long for, something within you… will die."
"…"
Speechlessly staring at the girl, Finn's brain started to work overtime, trying to think of any danger he might be facing or any enemies that might try to sabotage his relationship, but he couldn't think of anything.
The girl didn't want to assume more than she had already done, so she just left it at that and took her cards back.
Finn was still bewildered, but it was no use thinking about an uncertain future, so he quickly shook his head and smiled again.
"Thanks for reading my future. Here you go."
He handed the girl a gold coin, and she immediately smiled, her eyes brightening. Today was a lucky day for her, and she would finally be able to have a decent meal.
"Can I ask you something before you go?"
She was torn out of her thoughts by Finn's question.
"…Yes?"
Clenching the coin tightly in her hand, she thought that Finn might want to take it away.
"Is there an inn that might have a place for me to sleep? All the ones I have tried have been full."
Finn didn't really know the city Leviathan as well as Iliados because he had almost never visited it in his past life, so he wasn't sure if there were different inns that he had yet to check.
"...Have you tried Joe's?"
After thinking for a bit, the girl thought of one unusual place and asked.
"Joe's? I think I have seen that before… Oh! It's the biggest casino in this city, right?"
Even as a person who had almost never been to Leviathan in his previous life, Finn knew about the biggest casino in Leviathan because it was frequented by big names.
"Yes, but they offer rooms too. Although, they are expensive... very expensive."
The girl only told him this because he had given her a generous donation, so after packing up her stuff, she quickly ran home, leaving the table behind because nobody would want to steal a rotten piece of wood.
Finn didn't even get to thank her, but he noticed how happy she looked, so he let her be and went to the casino that she had talked about.
---
'So, this is a casino.'
Finn stood in front of the casino that used different colored shiny stones to illuminate its sign, "Joe's".
'Did you say casino?!'
The sleeping Loki quickly woke up after he heard Finn's thoughts, and seeing the huge casino, he excitedly started shouting at Finn.
'Go inside Finn! I will show you why people called me the God of Gambling!'