"I told him that with this mask on he would be Saber, enjoying power and deserving of a price. A true Saber does not give up his dignity, for your amusement."
Saber kicked the body away and smiled at Lorenzo, but it was a smile that chilled Lorenzo to the bone, he never expected it to be like this.
"Surprised right? The real Saber is actually a deformity, a midget."
Saber didn't seem surprised by Lorenzo's surprised gaze, or rather he had seen such a gaze so many times in his life that he was used to it.
Stretching out his five short arms, piles of flesh and fragile bones twisted his torso, his insides crammed into this small body, he gasped slightly from the sword swing he had just taken, his thick fingers struggling to grasp the blood soaked cardboard, he looked so bloated but unconcerned with the way he looked.
"I hope you are not offended by my double, after all I am the master of the Green Sharks and want to rule over a group of outlaws, a gnome's body doesn't work very well and it's hard to intimidate a subordinate, let alone the fact that I'm a Viking ..... Viking gnomes are ridiculous, aren't they."
Saber said lightly, obviously sad, but he didn't tell it like it was his own story.
"More than ridiculous, I find it very ..... Great, leading a group of outlaws in such a body, pretty impressive."
Lorenzo said sincerely.
Saber didn't feel happy because of Lorenzo's praise, instead he said calmly.
"And you? Mr. Lorenzo Holmes, I'm curious as to why you're so confident in winning against him, as long as Lady Luck deviates from you just a little bit, your head will completely explode, that's not just something Lucky Fearless can do."
It was a gamble on the brink of death, like a dance with death that only sheer madness could manage.
"The eyes, his eyes."
Lorenzo pointed to his eyes, the gray-blue pupils gleaming, in which the bloody gambling table was reflected.
"That guy wants to win so bad, wants to win so bad he's crazy, as a boss he should be able to be intimidating, but that dominance is too cowardly. I've studied acting, he's not a qualified actor, and certainly not a qualified gambler, real gamblers don't back down, the chips in their hands are all they have left."
Lorenzo had seen through the double long ago, but he had assumed that it was merely an underdog, but apparently the real Saber's appearance had complicated matters.
"You seem to like to gamble, but I've never seen you in a casino before."
Saber asked with seemingly little hostility as he shuffled the cards, the music still playing in the hall, the people reveling in the warmth and bustle, the understudy's death drawing no attention from anyone.
"Gambling is a good thing, it can turn the tables, even with just one coin it is possible to win an entire kingdom."
Rubbing his fingers gently against the brand new butcher's coin, Lorenzo replied.
But a friend of mine once told me that luck is a limited thing, and that the amount of luck a man has in his life is fixed; perhaps you should have been killed by a carriage today, but you were lucky enough to fall before it killed you, and thus avoided death.
Like a soldier in battle, he can dodge countless bullets simply because of luck, but when your luck runs out, a fatal bullet will take your life. My friend is the best gambler I've ever seen, but he rarely gambles, saying it's to build up his luck.
Saber nodded, he'd heard stories like this before, there was just something different about hearing it today.
"What about that friend of yours? Did he win the whole kingdom?"
"No, he used up his luck in one battle, broken shrapnel sliced into the only gap in his armor and pierced right through his artery, and that strongest of armor became his grave."
Lorenzo spoke slowly, his demeanor unchanged, as if it was merely a forgotten past for him.
"I like to gamble as well, only what I like is the feeling of being between life and death, of walking away with the spoils in one piece before the gates of death fall."
Said Saber licked his dry lips, it was a scarlet tongue as if he had blood in his mouth, misplaced teeth as if they were sharks, Iguan sat on the side not daring to speak, everything tonight was beyond the world she knew.
"You know it's hard to find living in life with a deformity like me, everyone thinks you're a symbol of the unseen, no one cares about you, but it's different at that edge of death, you fought death on the wrong side, maybe you even flicked his black robe and you survived, the thrill of that was great, the blood boiled, the silent heart was beating anew up!"
Saber spoke excitedly, his stubby hands slapping the tabletop with exasperation, like a monstrous giant baby, with grotesque eeriness.
"So that's what you lost?"
Lorenzo asked.
"You mean this?"
Saber said as he stopped tapping the table and held out his hands, which were mutilated palms.
Both palms were missing to varying degrees, the entire phalanges had been cut off, leaving two or three fingers on top of them, but even so he was still flexible, and that dazzling shuffle came out of that mutilation.
"Yes. No gambler can't lose, but luckily my opponents were good people who left my thumb and middle finger so I could still hold the sword .... But it's okay, I always win back in the end."
With only a few fingers, he picked up the thrusting sword, it was slim and lightweight, without any decoration, not even a lattice, it simply consisted of a blade and a hilt, the weight of the thrusting sword was greatly reduced by such a design, and it was the only way that Saber was able to command the deadly and swift sword with his few hands.
"That was a good day, want to play another game?"
"But I already won."
"That's my double."
But he's also Saber isn't he?"
Ice cold conversation, neither of the two men letting go, fine swords and guns, all the chips were laid out on top of the blood stained table.
Saber was silent for a moment, then said.
"About what happened the other day, it was someone named Mentor, who asked us to do it, in order to cover the group's escape from the pursuit."
"Who was that mentor."
"I'm not sure, all I know is that he has many identities, but they are all of high status, both in Invergar and in other countries."
"What about the group?"
"That's the second question, Mr. Holmes."
A grim smile appeared beneath Saber's half-mask, unfolding the card and laying it neatly in front of Lorenzo's face the blood on it hadn't dried yet, taking on a demonic quality.
"So want to play another game?"
...
It was a deathly silence, and though the air was warm and the music stirring, the atmosphere on the raised platform was as cold as ice.
Saber had redeemed his honor, but that was all, and to get more information he would have to join the bet again. Lorenzo's eyes were downcast, he was thinking, and it was clear that this time it would be nothing like before, this time he was facing the real Saber, a real gambler.
"Enough already."
Iguan whispered, the princess of the Phoenix family feeling more uneasy than she had ever felt about the gloom of the world being limited to the family's accounts of the war.
But Lorenzo ignored her; like Iguan, Lorenzo was equally uneasy, only unlike Iguan's uneasiness, Lorenzo really cared about the whole picture of the whole thing.
The mysterious shipment from the north that had touched Burrow and Saber and those hidden deeper in that darkness, and of course most importantly what Lorenzo had seen in his auroras, the mutated bodies, the lighthouse that had been erected, the eerie and hideous everything that had crawled out of long ago memories and tried to bring him back to that rainy night.
He needed to know the truth.
"What's the bet?"
Icy hands took hold of hers, and the sensation, like unfreezing solid ice, snapped Iguan out of that ecstasy.
"Stay awake, you don't want to be like them do you."
Lorenzo's voice rang out, Ichinoseki woke up in a big dream-like state, followed by intense breathing sweat soaked inside.
"I'm this ... What's going on."
Ichinoseki asked with some fear, the weird feeling she just had, she felt like the whole world was shattering in front of her eyes subsequently recasting itself into a grotesque shape.
"Hallucinogen, there should be quite a bit of its volatiles in the air, the effects aren't too bad."
Into his hand was the sharp short sword, pulled from under Iguan's dress, Lorenzo tucked it into Iguan's hand holding the weapon tightly might put the girl at ease.
"So this is what the ball is really like? A large feast of extreme pleasure.
The gray-blue pupils of his eyes still clear, Lorenzo wasn't at all disturbed by the hallucinogens contained in that air. "Yes, those who come here are rich, and wealth doesn't satisfy them anymore."
Saber stepped off the edge of the raised platform to rejoin the table, a coin coming out of his mangled palm and placing it in the center of the two.
"Win me once and I will answer a question." Saber extended his right hand and raised his index finger."
"And if I lose?"
"You answer me a question."
"I didn't think I would be so popular with you." Lorenzo was a little surprised, he had expected someone like Saber to ask Lorenzo to chop off his fingers."
"After all, you are the Iron Thorn of the Burrow, Mr. Holmes, and in a sense it's because of you that I became Saber became the leader of the Green Sharks, you count as my benefactor."
Saber's eyes didn't lie, he was where he was today in part all because of Lorenzo.
"It's a bit unexpected to be honest." Lorenzo was in a bit of disbelief.
"It's only natural, the Orientals talk about this stuff all the time, they call it 'cause and effect'.
I was there during the Red River tragedy six years ago, but as you know it's hard to draw attention to a man of my stature, so I survived, and thanks to you the lower city has been reshuffled, and that's how I've risen to prominence."
It was a long time ago, but Lorenzo could still smell the blood when it was brought up today, and he stiffened as if it were ice.
beside her, Iguan had frozen, she remembered when was the last time she had heard of the Iron Thorns, it had come from the mouth of Sergeant Prez, and at a deeper level was that Red River fiasco, which finally came back to her in this moment.
"The stranger hired by the Burrow, the body you threw into the Thames that day made the Burrow what it is today and after that you mysteriously disappeared, only a few survivors knew your name but were on tenterhooks, there was always the feeling that you would appear somewhere and take away the lives of those who should have died."
That was a story of the past, and Lorenzo never volunteered to mention it or talk back as if he had deliberately forgotten.
"So what do you want to play? Saber."
Lorenzo remained calm, as if he just had no emotions, mechanically alive.
"How about casting hard while?
No one would have expected Saber to suggest such a play, and with only his fingers toying with the coin, he then said.
"You're not very good at solitaire either are you? A veteran against a novice is hardly too unfair, you like pure luck, then how about this, and then ... by you?
Said hard and flicked to Iguan, the coin spun rapidly in front of the girl's eyes finally slowed to a stop, the metal surface mottled mapped with luster, it looked very old, the carvings on it became blurred under years of caressing, the axe and the shield could be vaguely seen.