Chapter 891: A Betting Rivalry?

The ball bounced once, twice and then dropped right into a slot that had the number nine on top of it.

There was a moment of silence before a cheer went up around the table and I found it ironic that these people were cheering in my stead when I’m just staring at the table, wondering how the heck I just won this bet again.

Was Amber hiding somewhere and helping me win with her telekinesis? Because I can say that I definitely did not use my telekinesis to control the ball just now.

And I’m at least half sure that Vieretha here was also not a Psionic since I did not sense any Psionic energy from her and Renata also did not sense anything like that either.

This is wild...

Vieretha giggled, "Fufufufu~ As I thought, Tera~ You are really fortunate, aren’t you?"

"I guess? It’s all just luck..."

"Indeed~ And your luck seems to be especially good~

I don’t really know what to say to that...

The dealer went ahead to transfer my winnings to me and I watched as thirteen million Credits just got deposited inside my Codex.

Umm... Hello? I just basically earned almost the same amount of Credits I used to pay for the privilege tickets for myself and my girls to get inside this water park...

The dealer asked if I wanted to continue but I felt a little scared to win again since that speedo guy was glaring at me so I decided to just stop here and leave the table.

I don’t care if that guy was upset at me for winning as long as he doesn’t do anything to me.

At least he didn’t just start accusing me of cheating unlike the other guy so he’s at least smarter than he was.

I left the table with Vieretha still clinging to my arm, the black Dragonling giving me a look of amusement as I escorted her through the casino.

By chance, I spotted a few of my girls playing their own games a few times but I didn’t want to disturb them so I did not call out to them and just let them play their own games.

Vieretha then spoke up as we walked past a few slot machines.

"Mmmm~ Tera?"

"Hmm? What is it, Vier?"

"Ehehehe~ Do you have a family?"

"Is it cliche for me to say that my crew is my family?"

"Fufufu~ Of course not~ I can completely understand~ But do you have any family outside of that?"

Is she checking if I was a noble or something? Or maybe she suspects that I’m a Psionic?

I shook my head, "I do not believe I have any living family members outside somewhere out in space, if that’s what you’re asking."

"Ara? Why is that?"

"Just call it a hunch," I half lied.

She hummed at my answer but said nothing more, instead she gestured towards the side while tugging on my arm.

"Oh, look, Tera! They even have games like this~"

I turned in the direction that she was pointing and realised that there was a large swimming pool that was made separate from the casino’s pool of water with various people gathered around it right now.

I was about to ask her what that place was when the sound of a bell rang out above that swimming pool and several people who had been at the edge of the pool launched themselves towards the centre of the pool.

Wait a minute... Isn’t that...

Everyone inside that swimming pool consisted of a pair of people where one person was below and moving in the chest high water while another person would be riding on top of their shoulders.

Incidentally, while the person that was submerged in the water could either be male, futa or female, the ones on top of their shoulders were only either females or futas.

The reason why became obvious when the pairs clashed together and the ones that were riding on top of their partner’s shoulders started tearing the top part of their opponent’s swimsuit off, exposing their boobs for all to see.

And each time someone managed to tear it off, the crowd cheered at the free exposure show as that couple were eliminated.

Right... So this is a cavalry battle... But instead of tearing off headbands, you’re tearing off swimsuits.

And since this was placed near the casino area, I’m going to assume that gambling is also involved in this one.

I was going to ask why Vieretha had pointed that place out when she turned to me with a glint in her eyes, "Let’s go play that, Tera!"

I blinked at her, "You serious?"

"Of course! That looks fun doesn’t it? I’ve never been able to play games like these before~ Fufufufu~"

Eh? Ah... Because she doesn’t have a partner that she could do these kinds of things with... I understand.

Well... Whatever, I guess. Since I’m already here, I might as well just give it a try.

I let Vieretha pull me towards the registration counter where several other couples were also lined up to participate in the event.

As we were waiting for our turn, there were a few people who recognised Vieretha and they started whispering amongst themselves.

"Wait... Isn’t that..."

"Yeah... What is she doing here?"

"Even better, who is that beside her? I thought she never had interest in romance?"

"She’s not called the ice queen of the Iceborne for nothing..."

"I think I’ve seen her before... She’s a Merc I think?"

"A new bodyguard then?"

"Who knows?"

The both of us ignored the whispering and just focused on registering ourselves where the staff member gave us a quick explanation of how the event would take place.

As we had already witnessed, one of us would be the rider and the other the ridden. The goal was to be the last one standing with the rider’s swimsuit remaining intact.

The rider can make use of any means to either knock off or tear off the tops of their opponents while the ridden can only move around and cannot make use of their limbs aside from supporting their rider. Ramming your opponent was apparently allowed too.

As for the gambling aspect... We had to pay a small registration fee to join in and we could bet money on ourselves winning the event and apparently... For each top that you tear off and hold onto until the end of the event, it would serve as a multiplier for your winnings with each top you hold adding a zero point five multiplier.

That means if you could tear off and hold onto ten tops by the end, you would have a five times multiplier on top of your winnings so people would be more incentivised to tear tops off instead of knocking people over.

The caveat is that the more you hold, the harder it is for you to defend yourself with all that extra weight and others could also steal those off of you as well.

I have to say though, the staff that was explaining all this to us was actually breaking out in cold sweat the entire time and trying her best not to look at Vieretha, so she was staring straight at me which made me feel a little awkward.

Was participating in this a good idea after all?

Once our participation was confirmed, we were guided to a waiting room to wait for the next round to start.

There, we had to change into the swimsuits the organisers had prepared to keep things fair or someone might just wear a swimsuit that was hard to tear off instead to have an advantage.

The good thing was that they only cared about the tops so we could wear whatever we wanted on the bottom.

While I could let Renata just create that top for me... In the interest of being fair, I decided to just wear their top instead.

Renata was really pouty when I decided to do that but she couldn’t protest without giving herself away to Vieretha.

Thankfully, she managed to settle down after she wrung a spurt of honey from me while I was changing and I had to pat myself on the back for managing to not moan out loud in the changing room while she was pumping me.

Vieretha did not need to change as we had decided that I would be the rider and she would be the ridden, which I was a little surprised about since I thought I would be the one carrying her instead.

But she had insisted quite adamantly on this so I just went along with it.

We didn’t have to wait long before it was the next match and we joined the others in entering the pool.

Vieretha knelt down and offered her shoulders to me with a little too much enthusiasm than I thought she would.

"Go on! Hop on, Tera! Make sure to hold on tight with your thighs~ Right over here!"

...

Is she alright?