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#choi han and the spoon are relevant later
unluckycactus · 15 days
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Acquaint Fate bonus scene
Rosalyn, Alberu & Choi Han tell Cale about HeniRoksoo's shenanigans in the destroyed world
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After Cale busts the meetings in Beacrox's kitchen and confronts everyone, thus making HeniRoksoo no longer a taboo topic, there's this moment—
In-between their plan to drag HeniRoksoo to their world, an unlikely scenario occurs.
It’s late at night. The kids are asleep, so are most adults at the villa.
In a room far away enough to not disrupt anyone, Rosalyn, Alberu and Cale gather. They’re tipsy as fuck (we all know Cale is sober), laughing quite loudly.
Choi Han is there as well, sitting on the far end of the sofa Alberu and Cale sit at as well, looking at a spoon in his hand as if it held the meaning of life.
Rosalyn cackles madly, hitting the armrest of her individual seat as she says:
“Remember when he made the Orsena go bankrupt?"
Alberu's groan says he knows exactly what she's talking about.
"That was nasty."
Rosalyn giggles, swirling her cup of wine.
"Oh, please. You loved it."
"For political reasons, I can't deny nor confirm that statement." They lock eyes, and Alberu breaks character. “Oh, who am I kidding?”
Cale raises an eyebrow, but waits until his friends are done laughing. He knows they will fill him soon enough.
"The late Duke was into gambling." As per usual, Alberu doesn’t betray expectations.
Cale takes a sharp breath, already anticipating the outcome.
"... He did not."
"That punk faked a losing streak and lured the Duke into betting everything he had— and I mean everything, not even the clothes on the Duke's back were left to his name after Kim Rok Soo was done with him."
"Shut up." Contrary to his words, Cale’s tone carries sheer elation and the underlying message of how offended he will be if Alberu dares cut the tale short here.
"But he didn't stop at that. He gave the Duke a grace period to pay the debt and they signed a contract."
"— what did that punk ask for as collateral?"
Alberu’s smile twitched, and Rosalyn was shedding tears, so Cale leaned back expecting something great:
"The Duke's main residence."
"... he made them homeless?" Wow, now he wants to go on a looting spree with Kim Rok Soo. That guy sounded like a lot of fun.
"It gets better." Rosalyn assured.
Alberu nursed his drink and asked mirthfully:
"So, the Duke was forced to ask for a loan— Cale, whose family do you think is one of the major shareholders of the Royal Roan Bank, hm? Who do you think has enough sway to convince them of lending that amount of money in such a short notice?"
Wheeze.
"He didn't stop at that." Rosalyn interjected. "Lady Orsena, that bitch–"
"Gasp!" Cale mock-gasped.
"You know she's a bitch. Anyways, back then, she wasn't quite the successor of House of Orsena yet."
Alberu, always privy to his own kingdom’s political gossip, added on.
“Lady Orsena needed an accomplishment to prove herself in front of the vassals. Eventually, she got word of a land that was up for auction in the south; various intel sources assured it contained high-grade mana stones.”
Cale’s lips twitched.
"He spread that intel.” It wasn’t a question.
“Uh-huh.”
Kim Rok Soo, that bastard—
“... he didn’t make it a cheap investment, did he?”
Alberu threw his head back and barked out a laugh, so Rosalyn took over telling the story.
“Oh no, Rok Soo pulled a you and made Lady Orsena’s pocket bleed, until she won the auction—”
“— only to realize it was money that her family did not have.”
“The mine promised to solve all of their economic problems, but payment was due in a week, so….” Alberu and Cale locked eyes. “Lady Orsena took a loan, and became the new owner of a salt mine.”
Cale’s own eyes started to tear up. This domino-effect level of screwing someone over was just glorious.
“Then Rok Soo waltzed into their main residence a week after that, contracts in hand, and kicked the Orsena out. The Duke’s debt, his own loan and his eldest daughter’s loan had accumulated astronomical interest by then.”
Alberu sounded way too thrilled for someone whose kingdom had a whole dukedom befall into ruin.
“Their contracts had a clause stipulating that, if the Orsena failed to repay at least twenty percent of the debt in half a month, the bank would put their properties up for sale until the entire debt was paid off.”
The three bursted into laughter yet again.
The whole thing was so over-the-top and petty, and yet so satisfying.
“Wait.” Cale suddenly sobered up. “He brought Raon to the casino–?”
Raon normally helped Cale by providing information about his surroundings. He also played an important role in his scams.
Therefore, Cale kinda expected for Rok Soo to make a similar use of the little dragon.
“No, he didn’t let Raon tag along." Everyone turned towards Choi Han, who finally joined their conversation. “Rok Soo-ssi is very good at mathematics. I don’t understand, but the basics is that he kept track of the cards and calculated all the possible hands he could get; the same applied for the other games, he made his bets based on probability.”
Alberu low-whistled.
“... look at that punk go.” Snorted Cale.
“Right? Right?!” Rosalyn looked quite proud.
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