Chapter 602
“Ha! The Mercer family went bankrupt?” Harvey let out a sharp laugh. “Let me spell this out for you: even if the Mercer family disappeared from the face of the earth, ten of you combined still wouldn’t be good enough for Mira p>
Harvey stared Wyatt down, his gaze piercing.
Even though Mira had explicitly told him to keep her actual status under wraps, Harvey simply couldn’t tolerate Wyatt’s subtle condescension. The utter disrespect was infuriating.
Since their afternoon class meeting wasn’t for a while, the group had plenty of time to kill after finishing their meals. Mira had originally planned to head back to the dorm for a quick nap, but Cedric chimed in with a suggestion: a few rounds of cards.
The cafeteria had mostly emptied out by then, leaving plenty of open tables. Even the cleaning staff were laid-back about it. “Just make sure you don’t make a mess on the tables, kids p>
The group huddled around and decided on a game of Three-Card Brag.
Elara had never played before, so she sat beside Mira to watch and learn.
That left the four guys from Harvey’s dorm-including Zachary Boone-along with Mira and Leah, making it a six-player game.
Mira had picked up advanced card-sharking techniques from Master Ellis, purely for fun. Coupled with her photographic memory, she figured this would be an absolute breeze.
As they settled in for Three-Card Brag, Harvey suggested, “Let’s start the buy-in at five bucks p>
“Let’s stick to one dollar,” Mira countered smoothly. “We’re all students. If the stakes get too high, it goes from a friendly game to an illegal gambling ring. One dollar buy- in, cap it at five dollars a hand, and we only play for one hour p>
For Mira and Harvey, losing a few hundred dollars meant absolutely nothing.
But for the average college student, dropping that kind of cash could mean skipping meals for a week or two.
Since Elara didn’t know how to play, Wyatt suggested she act as the dealer, passing out three cards to everyone.
Harvey took the first round. Zachary won the second.
Since everyone was just playing for laughs, Mira didn’t bother utilizing any of her sleight-of-hand tricks.
In truth, she didn’t care about the money at all; she was far more interested in observing everyone’s behavior under pressure.
Human nature dictated that everyone loved to win, especially a table full of fiercely competitive university students.
No matter the stakes or the game, people always pushed to come out on top.
And in that pursuit of victory, hidden facets of their personalities inevitably bubbled to the surface.
By the time the second round ended, Mira had already memorized the subtle, unique markings on the back of nearly every card in the fresh deck.
Combined with Elara’s agonizingly slow shuffling, Mira effortlessly tracked the sequence of the cards throughout the process.
By the time she picked up her hand, Mira already knew exactly what everyone else was holding.
Even though Mira’s hand wasn’t
particularly strong-just a pair of
tens-she knew the rest of the table had absolute garbage
She
confidently rode the bets all the way
to the end and walked away with thirty bucks in a single hand.
Now she was playing with house money.
In the fourth round, Mira held a weak pair, but Cedric had a three-of-a-kind with twos. Knowing Cedric’s stubborn and reckless personality, she knew he would bet aggressively to the bitter end. The moment the cards were dealt, Mira folded
immediately, only losing her one-dollar ante.
In the fifth round, Mira had a pair of fives, while Wyatt held a pair of sixes. The rest of the table had unsuited junk. True to his cautious
nature Wyatt only stayed in for two rounds before folding.
When Mira finally revealed her winning cards, Wyatt groaned in regret. “You only
had a pair of fives! How did you have the nerve to keep betting p>
“It’s called gambling. Sometimes you just have to rely on sheer guts and a little luck,” Mira replied with a smirk.
She didn’t rake in a massive pot that round, but she still pocketed twenty bucks.
What genuinely surprised Mira, however, was that after ten rounds, it became glaringly obvious that at least half the table had also figured out how to read the cards from the back.
It was a stark reminder that absolutely no one at Aethelgard University was a slacker. Plucked from their respective hometowns, every single person at this table was a certified genius.
At that moment, Leah finally spoke up. “We can’t let Elara deal anymore. She’s so slow that she’s letting you guys figure out the tricks right away p>