The bastard child becomes the empires royal consort-Chapter 64: We meet again [3]

"Hmm." Alan squinted and furrowed his brows, trying to recall the odd sense of familiarity, but nothing particular came to mind.

"Oi, Lucian."

"Yes."

"I’m going to go check something out." Alan said, rising from his seat, in the end, he decided to just go over to the table himself and see with his own eyes just who it was.

"Alright." Lucian nodded simply.

"I’m gone just for a few seconds, okay?" As Alan started walking away, he paused, shooting a sharp look at the group, specifically at Julia. "Nothing will happen in those few seconds, will it?"

Julia nodded with a determined face.

"Okay..." Alan walked away, leaving the group at the table.

Passing through the thick haze of smoke and the loud group of people, he ducked and weaved around swaying drunks and serving staff carrying towers of plates.

As he drew closer to the centre of the tavern, the crowd thinned out into a circle of about eight men seated around a circular table, while others stood surrounding the table.

The centre of the table was hollowed out enough for a person to stand, inside of that space was a young lady skilfully shuffling a deck of cards.

He belatedly noticed the chips lying in front of the eight men as he finally realised they were playing poker.

Alan glued his eyes to the man sitting with his back turned to Alan, he was wearing a long overcoat, and a fedora hat sat comfortably on his head.

’Where have I seen that hat before?’ While Alan was lost in thought, the match of poker began.

As the dealer flicked two cards to each player and laid five more facedown in the centre, a strange tension rippled through the circle.

Alan noticed that every single one of the other seven players shot a quick, nervous glance at the man in the fedora the moment they checked their hands. 𝓯𝓻𝒆𝙚𝒘𝓮𝙗𝓷𝒐𝓿𝙚𝒍.𝙘𝓸𝙢

That was enough to tell Alan that they were all cautious of the man, unlike the rest of them, the man in the fedora remained utterly calm and impassive.

Alan raised a brow, curious, he decided to move a little closer and see the hand of the man, after all, Alan himself could play poker, the game wasn’t as difficult as it may appear.

’Nine of clubs, Ten of spades.’ Alan noted with a slightly impressed look, it was a solid drawing hand.

The man didn’t even seem to be looking at the cards, he tilted his head back slightly, the light from the lanterns glinting off a pair of thin-rimmed glasses perched on his nose.

"What the hell is he doing here..." Alan whispered under his breath, finally realising just who the man was.

It was Felix, the mysterious artifact dealer they met in the capital, the very same man who sold the blindfolds to the group.

Then what was he doing in this random tavern playing poker?

The dealer flipped over three of the five turned-down cards, revealing Two of hearts, Six of diamonds and Seven of spades.

Felix stared at the cards for a moment, a flicker of white light swirling within his grey irises, which only Alan seemed to notice, the little light was gone as fast as it came.

"Raise." Felix said, pushing forward a bunch of chips.

The moment Felix spoke, the faces of some of the men instantly crumbled, others winced with a serious face.

’Isn’t that reaction too much?’ Alan frowned slightly, sure Felix might have a good hand, so raising wasn’t a bad choice, but what was that reaction?

"Fold."

"Fold."

"Fold."

"Call."

"Fold."

"Fold."

"Call."

In response to Felix’s raise, only two of the seven men called it, everyone else folding their hands.

’Something is definitely wrong.’ Alan scanned the table in search of any irregularities but couldn’t see anything, making it all the more confusing, why were the players reacting so strongly?

"Confident are you?" Felix smiled meaningfully, speaking to the two men who matched his raise. "Believe you will win?"

One of the men frowned, the other glared daggers at Felix. "Your bullshit won’t work a second time."

"Is that so?" Felix’s lips didn’t lose the smile, he just lightly shook his head, like he knew something others didn’t.

The dealer turned over the next card, Six of hearts, the table now held a sequence of two, six, seven and six.

"What’s the move?" Felix looked at the frowning man.

"What do you mean?" The man furrowed his brows.

"Will you fold?" Felix questioned with a light-hearted smile. "Or will you perhaps raise it or call it? Do you wish for a repeat again?"

"Don’t think so highly of yourself!" The other man yelled, speaking loudly. "I’m telling you whatever tricks you’ve done last time won’t work again!"

The man placed his hands behind his chips, and pushed it all forward. "All in!"

"My, my." Felix’s grin widened further as he chuckled. "Nobody asked you to get so rowdy, allow me to match you."

Felix pushed forward a massive pile of chips. "All in."

This action alone brought forth collective gasps, even Alan let out a small sound because Felix held the highest amount of chips on the table.

Ignoring the noise around him like it didn’t bother him, Felix turned his gaze to the man who had been frowning.

"Your call?" Felix asked lightly. "Will you match it or fold?"

The man stared at his cards, as if deeply contemplating, before rubbing his forehead and letting out a long sigh. "Fold."

"Good choice." Felix nodded satisfactorily, turning to the dealer with a look saying to continue.

The lady nodded with professional neutrality and finally turned over the very last card, revealing an Eight of spades.

"So?" Felix raised a brow to the man glaring at him. "Could your luck be better than mine?"

"Let’s see!" The man slammed his cards flat on the table, showing a Six of clubs and a Nine of hearts.

"Three of a kind!" The dealer announced.

"That’s certainly a good hand." Felix agreed, calmly turning over his two cards. "But was it really worth betting everything for?"

"Straight!" The dealer called out. "Straight six through ten beats three of a kind!"

Then she pushed all the gathered chips toward Felix, as the man’s face crumpled in real time.

"He is cheating!" The man began screaming, he spread his arms out as he looked around. "Come on! You all saw it, didn’t you?!"

But all of the spectators could avert their eyes because they clearly saw the entire process, Felix in fact, hadn’t cheated, his hands were placed on the table at all times and didn’t do anything other than touch his own cards and chips.

"Sir, please remain calm." The dealer spoke low to the man.

"Don’t tell me what to do!" However, the man continued to yell, pointing fingers and blaming Felix. "He won four times in a row! You’re telling me that’s all luck?!"

"Indeed it’s all just luck." Felix shrugged, leaning back into his seat.

"Bullshit!" The man didn’t believe a single one of his words.

"Security!" The dealer called out, no sooner than she did, two large men appeared and quickly grabbed the wild man.

"Let go of me!" The man thrashed around. "He’s the one you should be taking! Not me!"

The man’s shouts continued all the way until the security threw him out of the tavern.

________________

Sup I’m writing this shit again, cuz the deadline is soon and i gotta post it, well if ur reading this it means i’m still writing the Chapter but will be constantly updating it so this text will disappear in like thirty minutes, but if you can still read this that means you’re on a pirated website that just didn’t update the Chapter, lol i realised this just yesterday when i checked to see if a pirated website updated it, anyways I’ll just write what you’ll miss in the two hundred words.

After the guy gets kicked out, Alan sits down at the table, replacing the man’s position, and has a conversation with Felix, then just fucking goes all in.

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