Casino Wizard

Hilde, who had received a gift from the casino magician, felt her breath tighten.

A luxurious container imbued with cold energy.

She was too afraid to even think about opening it.

Because it was too obvious what was inside. Because the sheer malice of Hyden, the magician who had sent such a thing by courier, was chilling.

How arrogant must a person be to mock someone this cruelly?

Suppressing her dizziness, Hilde reached to open the container…

“No. I can’t look.”

Clack. She shut it again immediately.

A pale, bloodless forearm.

Just yesterday, it had been attached to her brother’s shoulder, perfectly fine. But now, it was nothing more than a slab of flesh.

She felt guilty for not being able to look at it properly, but if she did, she thought she might vomit.

‘Why would he go this far?’

Of course, the reason she had sought out Hyden was because of this right arm.

No matter how much her brother had cheated…

No matter how much money was at stake in that gamble, she still couldn’t believe that Hyden had gone so far as to sever the right arm of a man who was already crippled after losing his left.

She had wanted to confront him, to ask what had possessed him to do such a thing. To decide on the extent of her retaliation based on his answer.

But instead of meeting her, Hyden had sent only the severed arm.

A declaration of war?

Or a command—take your brother’s arm and disappear?

Or maybe… just pure mockery, telling her that she was powerless to do anything?

Hilde’s pupils quivered violently.

Her breath hitched, and the hand she had placed on the container trembled beyond her control.

That was when she noticed the neatly folded paper.

“A letter?”

A letter, enclosed with the severed arm.

He really was insane.

A strange, bitter laugh escaped her lips as she unfolded it.

She only planned to skim through it, get a sense of what was written, and then go find Hyden.

She hadn’t decided what to do when she saw him, but she knew she had to see him. There was no way she could let this insult pass.

But from the very first paragraph, her resolve wavered.

[Dragon Ear, or Lalo. I know that neither ” Dragon Ear ” is an honorable title nor “Lalo” his real name, and I apologize for addressing him this way. Dragon Ear never revealed his true name. Perhaps he wanted to protect your honor.]

Her heart lurched at the word “honor.”

It was cowardly, but relief rose alongside it.

Her brother had kept his mouth shut until the very end. She was truly safe.

Tears pricked at the corners of her eyes.

Even while losing an arm, he had refused to give her up. Whether it was out of love for his sister or simply indifference, it didn’t matter—she was grateful.

The realization calmed Hilde.

She took a few deep breaths before continuing to read the letter.

[Dragon Ear is a patient.]

A patient…

An unusual perspective, but somehow, it resonated with her.

He had lost his honor and his name to gambling, fallen as a magician, been abandoned by family and friends, and ultimately lost his horns and both arms—yet he still couldn’t quit gambling.

Yes, her brother had become grotesque and wretched.

‘Thinking about it… Yes. This is an illness.’

The letter wasn’t long, but it held unsettling truths.

[I don’t know what first drew Dragon Ear to gambling. But I believe he fell faster and deeper than most. Unfortunately, some people are simply vulnerable to addiction—just as some are weak to alcohol or desire, others are weak to gambling.]

That was true. Her brother had fallen too easily.

Hilde didn’t deny her own responsibility.

She acknowledged that she had sent swindler gamblers after him for selfish reasons and that it had been wrong.

But she had never wanted him to fall this far.

‘Even if it wasn’t me… Wouldn’t he have ended up like this anyway?’

Cowardly thoughts crept into her mind.

If she had known her brother would destroy himself so spectacularly through gambling…

Back then, in terms of skill, he had a slight edge over her, but his potential was much lower—or so she had thought.

Had she been aware of his future, she might have given up her spot as the party’s magician and simply supported him from behind.

She wouldn’t have cursed him, at the very least.

Licking her lips, which tasted faintly of blood, Hilde focused even more on Hyden’s words.

For some reason, it felt like she was hearing something she had longed to hear.

[Has Dragon Ear’s family ever paid off his gambling debts? If so, they weren’t helping him. They were giving him another opportunity to gamble.]

They had… just once.

The money he had borrowed in a panic from his teacher and fellow students—money he had been about to throw at those swindlers (whom she had secretly hired).

That, at least, Hilde had helped repay.

She hadn’t expected him to go as far as borrowing money just to gamble, but she couldn’t ignore it.

She hadn’t wanted to see him treated like trash by those he once respected.

‘So that was a mistake too…’

Had she known it was wrong… No, wait. She had already done it.

Doubt churned in her mind.

Why was Hyden subtly pointing out the family’s mistakes?

Was he trying to shift the blame, claiming that Dragon Ear’s downfall was inevitable due to his family’s mismanagement?

If that was his excuse to evade responsibility, she could never forgive him.

But the following lines weren’t accusations.

Instead, they subtly defended her.

[Hilde Lacaillé. But it is not the family’s fault that Dragon Ear missed his chance for treatment.]

That’s right.

Hilde nodded.

[A gambling addict will never keep their wealth. Even if they gain money temporarily, they will soon lose it. They will borrow money to chase their losses, using their family’s love as leverage, only to lose everything once again. But Dragon Ear is exceptionally talented at all forms of gambling. My apologies, but he is also skilled at deception.]

Now that she thought about it, her brother had stopped causing financial trouble at some point.

[So his family would have had a harder time noticing the harm. He neither borrowed money nor lied about it. What family would stop a grown man from having some fun? By the time you realized he was addicted to the thrill rather than the money, the disease had already progressed too far. This is merely my conjecture.]

Conjecture or not, it was entirely true.

Hilde had once thought her brother was just a drifter.

He had taken care of himself, used aliases, and never burdened her.

By the time she learned he had lost his horns and left hand… it was already too late.

As she read, Hilde’s anger gradually faded.

In its place, confusion took hold.

Hyden—the one who had mutilated her brother. The one who might know the secret she had kept buried for years.

She had expected nothing but filthy excuses and insults in his letter.

Yet every word resonated with her.

[If I didn’t gamble with Dragon Ear, I would have suffered unbearable losses. If I tolerated his cheating, I would have had to continue gambling. I advised treatment before taking his arm, but he refused.]

A reluctant understanding settled in.

[Even now, I find Dragon Ear far more dangerous than you. That is why, despite knowing he was your family, I severed his arm.]

A powerful mage like her being less terrifying than her crippled, wandering brother? That was an exaggeration… but she understood the sentiment.

Finally, a note of regret.

Hilde exhaled deeply.

‘In the end… I read it all.’

Her rage had settled.

She never expected her brother’s mutilator to ease the guilt she had long carried.

The line between enemy and understanding blurred.

And Hilde, again and again, reread the letter.

There might be something to nitpick.

She knew it was petty, but she couldn’t help it.

She had seen it with her own eyes—her brother’s broken figure smiling with a vibrant face, even after losing both arms. There was no way she could just accept this so easily.

But still, there was nothing to fault. No malice to be found.

“Then what do you expect me to do?”

The fact remained—Hyden had cut off her brother’s right arm.

It was Hyden who had ultimately pushed his already precarious life into the abyss.

And yet, there was no justification to do anything.

The one who had suggested betting his right arm in a gambling match was, in all likelihood, her own brother. Judging by the letters, his demeanor had been surprisingly polite…

‘Wait. Now that I think about it, he was too polite. Too knowledgeable.’

Hilde’s amber eyes, which had been wavering in despair, slowly regained their focus.

She had recalled a forgotten fact.

Hyden wasn’t just some common gambler like her brother—he was the owner of a massive, state-sanctioned casino.

She had never stepped inside, but even from afar, the scale was undeniable. She had heard that when it first opened, the waiting lines stretched endlessly. There were even people who made money by taking others’ places at the baccarat tables.

“That man… He called gambling a disease.”

If that was true, then the casino was the very root of the disease.

Perhaps that was an exaggeration.

Even without the casino, gamblers would find a way to bet somewhere.

But it was also true that the casino lured in people who might have otherwise avoided the pitfall. There had to be countless lives ruined within those walls.

Of course, Hilde knew.

No matter how corrupt a casino might be, a foreigner like her had no right to exact judgment.

And yet, she couldn’t bring herself to walk away from Hyden.

She didn’t even think of it as irrational.

Hyden was a villain—a man who knowingly ran an establishment that brought suffering to gamblers’ families.

A coward who had shattered her already broken brother yet acted deferentially only to influential figures like Hilde.

This wasn’t about revenge.

This was the rightful consequence for someone who thrived on others’ misfortune.

Or perhaps a necessary regulation to prevent future tragedies.

The thought that she might just be rationalizing flashed through her mind, but she quickly brushed it aside.

Because she had gathered her courage and opened the storage box—forcing herself to finally look at the right arm she had been too horrified to face just moments ago.

The arm had already changed color, likely necrotized.

It was difficult to even look at, but Hilde bit her lip and endured it.

“A man like that doesn’t deserve to live happily.”

Having at last found her justification, Hilde murmured with a chilling expression.

No matter how she thought about it, she couldn’t just walk away.