Emperor of Steel - Chapter 24
Chapter 24: The Magi Crystals 2
Three days later, Luke along with his group returned back to their territory.
When Luke arrived at his permanent residence, the servants who heard of his return rushed in like bees.
“Young Lord! What in the world were you doing?!”
“No matter how dire the situation was, how could you take away the statue of your ancestor! The symbol of your family!”
“You need to place it back, right away!”
Luke smiled at all the servants.
“I already sold it to a blacksmith. It should have been long melted.”
“Oh my!”
Several shocked gasps could be heard from the servants.
Hans, closed his eyes trying to suppress his emotions and talked to Luke.
“So, have you got the 30,000 pesos?”
“No, only got 2,300 pesos for it.”
“Huhu! That could be true.”
The man who laughed with an unpleasant looking smile was Terin, the manager of the Alon branch.
While he was walking around, Luke decided to blow the bubble.
“We still have two more days, right?”
“I just came here beforehand to see things. I just wanted to know what will happen after I get the 30,000 pesos.”
“Really? You want to know?”
“I’m curious because I’m in business.”
At the words of Terin, Luke took a step towards him.
He squirmed something in his hands and shoved it into the mouth of Terin.
“Here, go and receive 30,000 pesos!”
“Kwuk!”
Rolling down on the floor to gag it out, he squealed while spitting out the thing.
Seeing the thing fall on the ground, Terin couldn’t help but get shocked.
“This!”
“This, this was the note that was issued for you.”
At the Gigant arena, when getting paid with large dividends, they usually used notes issued by banks and traders with high credit rather than handing gold coins.
And that allowed Luke to haul a very large amount of money instead of carrying it around in his pockets.
‘This doesn’t make any sense! It hasn’t even been ten days yet, where did this kid get this sum of money…?’
Terin looked over at the note.
He was under the impression that it might have been forgery, however, the patter and the stamps on the paper, and the feel of the paper felt very Alon like.
“How, how did you?”
“You don’t need to know, and I’ll give you your interest right here so get off my land right away.”
Luke threw the remaining coins at Terin.
However, Terin wasn’t able to say anything back.
It was just another two more days for the bet to be finished, and for such a thing to happen!
Terin felt like he missed something huge, that was when Luke pulled out his sword.
“Get off!”
“Huh, yes, yes!”
As anger made its way into Luke, Terin rolled away.
As surprised as Terin was, so were the servants and the retainers.
They were all thinking that the debt wasn’t going to get paid, but a huge change had happened.
“Young, lord. How did you get the money?”
Luke simply answered the question from Dixon,
“It was betting.”
“The 2,300 pesos?”
“Yes.”
“What kind of a method did you use to call ten times the amount in less than 10 days?”
With the pursuit of the retainers, Luke went into the permanent residence, leaving them behind with just one word ‘secret’.
And all the attention went to Philip, who was left alone.
And that meant telling them right away.
‘Ah, this is going to hurt me.’
The winning money at the gamble hall, the truth about getting a jackpot at the Gigant Arena, they were the facts that he could never tell.
The elderly people who were filled with a sense of justice and chivalry would never accept it.
It was obvious that the young Lord had deprived the honor of his family, and it was obvious that Philip would get punished for not trying to direct the lord well.
‘How am I supposed to talk to keep us safe?’
Philip was thinking hard.
As he was hesitant, the Knight General, Roger furrowed his brows and asked,
“What are you doing?! Let us know about how this happened right away!”
“That! The young Lord has…”
It was a very short time, but because of consistent thinking, Philip was able to distort the fact very beautifully.
“… so, young lord had gone to a gambling house to pay off the debt?”
When Hans asked with a firm face, Philip nodded.
“That is true. There was no way to raise 30,000 pesos in this short time.”
“What, this guy?! Even if that was indeed true! What if the Young Lord had run out of money in the gambling house? If you were the designated knight, you should have persuaded him not to or contacted us!”
One of the retainers shouted.
“I tried to talk him out of it at first. But, Young Lord was so good at gambling, like a god.”
“God of gambling?”
“Yes. He had won against deceptive tricks. In particular, he really makes a clover straight flush without even playing the cards… kya! If only you have watched that, the young lord would have touched your feelings!”
Philip propagated Luke’s gambling performance to the old retainers with emotion and dramatics which made it seem like an epic speaker giving out a speech.
However, the faces of the retainers were rather grim.
They weren’t sure as to where the young Lord had learned to gamble, and they thought it wasn’t something that to boast about be it good or bad.
“So, did you raise 30,000 pesos in the gambling house?”
“No, we went to the Gigant Arena after earning 10,000 pesos…”
Philip elaborated on what happened at the Gigant arena.
He didn’t tell about the secret of resurrecting the old magic stone.
Instead, he focused on how he struggled with the Gigant.
That was when, the faces of the retainers which were firm as a rock, began to turn a little loose.
“Huh, that happened?!”
“Helped the princess of the other…”
They helped a good princess in a difficult situation.
He was supposed to be an honorable descendant of the great knight Rakan.
“Those notes are the dividends we placed on the princess. It isn’t very knightly to win money by betting, but can’t you see good faith in it?”
Maron, the Priest of the estate said that which was a bit flustering yet convincing.
Even the most stubborn Hans nodded his head and asked with his voice still firm,
“You sure that this story isn’t just a lie?”
“Yes! I swear it on the God of War, Mars. This is the truth!”
As it was none other than Philip who served the God of War, there was no way he couldn’t trust.
But he didn’t know that Philip chose not to speak about the Young Lord’s money that was 210,000 pesos and not 30,000 pesos.
“And the debt has been paid, and we know the way too, how about we just move to the hall room?”
“Yes.”
At the question of Dixon, the retainers nodded their heads.
They were having a regular meeting until they were informed of the young lord’s return and rushed over.
‘Phew, barely managed?’
Philip took a breath of relief while looking at the retainers who were moving into the mansion.
Roger remained, looking at him.
“You did well.”
“Not at all. I didn’t exactly do anything.”
After all, he did eat delicious food after a long time and became an expert rider in a Gigant match.
“Really? Whatsoever, be sure to submit the report.”
“Report?”
“Whatever had happened, didn’t you contribute to the deviation of the young lord?”
“But that is for the knights of this estate…!”
“I know, I know.”
Roger patted the shoulder of Philip like he understood how he felt.
“Even then, write it. You do know what happened when you cheat a little or lie about it, right?”
At the threat from Roger, Philip felt intimidated.
The good luck of deviation which he thought he could enjoy, seemed to have ended in misery.
