Whispering Verse

"It stands to reason that only those who have registered with me in advance can come, but who makes this young friend of yours so handsome? The girls here all like this kind of man. It's okay to let you participate, but you still have to pay the registration fee .

A player can bring two friends to the event, and the registration fee is 20 kronor, which I know is quite expensive. But I only keep 20% of the total registration fee as a commission, and the remaining 80% will be distributed to the four semi-finalists in the ratio of 1:2:2.5:2.5. Of course, the champion can also get the Rhodes card as a reward in the end. Once you win, you will earn more than the 20 crowns. "

The registration fee of 20 kronor is equivalent to nearly 250 pounds according to the exchange rate. This registration fee is really not a small amount of money.

"What card?"

Shade asked, so Mrs. Frey tilted her head slightly, leaned into Shade's ear and said:

"[Ancient Alchemy·Dragon Stone]."

Xia De was startled:

"this is not"

One of the three expensive Rhodes cards that were rumored to be scattered in Moon Bay after the businessman died.

Mrs. Frey nodded slightly proudly:

"I have always had information about this card, but none of you were willing to buy it, so I got it myself. How about this card, is it worth your 20 crowns to gamble on it?"

Of course it is worth it. The "Ancient Alchemy" series is also one of the oldest Rhodes card series, including the famous [Ancient Alchemy·Philosopher's Stone], [Ancient Alchemy·Serpentine Medicine], [Ancient Alchemy· Elixir] and [Ancient Alchemy·Universal Solvent], every time they appear in modern times, they can be sold at auction for a high price of at least 600 pounds, which is 10 times the price of normal special rules Rhodes cards.

"Where did you get this card?"

Shade asked curiously. On the one hand, he wanted to know the clues to the last of the three cards. On the other hand, he also remembered that the death of the missing lurker from "MI6" was related to this.

Mrs. Frey smiled:

"If you can win to the end, of course I can tell you, but have you brought enough money?"

Thanks to Marquis Molson in the morning, he sponsored a lot of operational funds for the three of them.

In short, although it took a lot of trouble, the three of them finally managed to enter the Parsifal Club and quickly found the captain who was sorting out his Rhodes deck at the table.

Compared with the tall vampire and those big hands, Rhodes cards are like small pieces of paper. When Shade and the other three appeared, the vampire captain was very surprised and said:

"What do you want to say to me? You're all chasing me here. Wait, you didn't even pay the 20 crowns for the game ticket, right?"

"It doesn't matter, we're not paying for it anyway."

Mr. Bernhardt said, sitting down on the chair opposite the captain, while Mr. Schad and Mr. Albert stood behind him:

"We want to talk to you about the 'threat letter'. In fact, we already went to find it in the morning."

"Can you wait?"

The captain, who was still sorting out his deck, said:

"I have to concentrate on preparing for a while now. The fee of 20 crowns is not cheap. Is there anything we can discuss later? You see, even if I enter the finals, you only have to wait two hours. If I’m unlucky that you didn’t even have to wait two hours.”

"This is a matter involving your life safety."

Shade warned.

"Life safety? I am a ship runner, and my life will be in danger at any time, but as long as the value of the goods is high enough, then everything is worth it. Without this awareness, I would not be here today. Now, this time Luo The value of German cards is very high.”

Captain Rudolf said so. Herr Bernhardt wanted to speak, but he refused to talk.

Then Mr. Albert put forward one last condition:

"Can we follow you then?"

"Worried that I will run away after playing cards? Ptolemy, am I like that? Okay, okay, it's okay to follow me, but you can't stand behind me when I play against this friend of yours. I lost to him in an arm wrestling match last time, but I have been thinking about regaining my face."

The people who came to participate in this card game were all friends of Mrs. Frey or regular visitors to the Parsifal Club. The captain was a friend rather than a regular visitor. Among the confident players, Shade even saw Freeman Hawthorne, who he had attacked twice.

However, Freeman Hawthorne was busy talking to other acquaintances and did not see Shade. And even if he saw him, he wouldn't be able to recognize him, so Shade didn't pay too much attention to him.

The number of all the players who paid the registration fee, including Shade, was 15. Because it was not an even number, Mrs. Frey herself decided to participate in the competition to round up 16 people. Everyone had no objection to this, because this charming lady would definitely not Get yourself to the finals.

The number of 15 people means that the total registration fee is 300 kronor. Even if Mrs. Frey only takes 20% of the fee, she can make a net profit of about 750 pounds.

Although it was a small profit from playing cards, the Parsifal Club still lost money after considering the delayed sales. But this maintains the relationship with these important guests and friends, and as a local intelligence dealer, she may have other purposes, so overall, this activity is definitely not a loss.

Of course, for this formal Rhodes game, staff from the local Prophets Association were invited to serve as referees. The game officially started soon after the three Shads entered the field.

15 people will play four rounds of cards. Each round will have three rounds. The three rounds will be based on points. The first person to get three points will win the round. The first person to win two rounds. Win this round and advance to the next round. In this way, including the intermission, two hours is almost just right.

Herr Albert followed the captain, and Herr Bernhard with Schade. In the first round, Shade didn't meet anyone he knew, but the wealthy businessman Mr. Stanford who played cards with him was very poor at playing cards. He even made mistakes when counting points, so Shade won the round without any surprise.

In the second round, Shade's opponent was the local nobleman Baron Lehman, whom Shade had met at Margaret's banquet last week. This baron's poker skills are not bad, and his luck is pretty good. Of the two special cards in the deck, he drew one before the end of the game.

But Shade had better luck. When the second game between Shade and Baron Lehman ended, the latter looked at the "Queen" card in Shade's hand and touched his chin for a long time before saying:

"So you stopped at the second card, not because the point was high enough, but because the queen card forced a stop?"

Freeman Hawthorne was eliminated in the second round, and Shade actually knew two of the other three people who entered the third round. The tall vampire captain looked very happy. As for Mrs. Frey herself, she smiled and said that she was very lucky, and also promised that she would not want the bonus and would give it to the girl who played cards with the guests today as a bonus.

In the third round, Shade's opponent was Mrs. Frey, and Captain Rudolph sat with another fat baron whom Shade didn't know.

When Shade put his deck without any special cards in his hand, he tried to see something from Mrs. Frey's expression, but the woman who was good at hiding herself could not see anything from Shade. Instead, she Said to Shade:

"I didn't expect you were also a good player at Rhodes. When I asked Boatman about you last time, he only said that you were very good at dealing with girls. However, I am very curious that you don't have any special cards in your deck."

"There are many girls around me. In order to maintain my status as a rich man, I usually sell the special cards I get. When I was in the Northland, I even sold them to the 1853 Grand City Players champion, Mr. Hamilton of Ray Jade. Pass special cards.”

Behind Shade, Mr. Bernhardt pursed his lips to avoid laughing, while Mrs. Frey squinted her eyes and smiled:

"Have you seen that knight? I heard that he is also very handsome, and he won the heart of the beautiful Duchess of the North with his face. I really want to meet him to see what kind of face can capture such a noble person. The heart of a lady.”

Mrs. Frey played cards in a way that was different from anyone Shade had ever played with. She didn't care much about winning or losing, and regardless of the cards in her hand or the points she showed, she always had a smile on her face, which made it impossible for Shade to judge her trump cards through her expression.

But Mrs. Frey's card skills were somewhat average. She kept chatting with Shad at the table about the customs and recent events of Moon Bay, such as Margaret's disaster relief speech at Moon Bay City Hall on Tuesday morning, and Willondale plans to support manpower and material resources to help Yuewan survive this turmoil.

And when she lost to Shade in the end, she didn't show any regrets. After blessing Shade to win the [Ancient Alchemy·Dragon Stone], he stood up and left his seat.

Shade stood up with the teacup in hand and saw that the card game between Captain Rudolph and the Fat Baron was still in the final stages, while Mr. Bernhardt whispered to Shade:

"This Mrs. Frey looks really extraordinary."

"She is the local intelligence chief. The person behind the rumor is one of the 'upper three' of the seven major families, Eddington, Hawthorne or Belindel. She is definitely not Belindel, and she doesn't look like Hawthorne in her methods. , otherwise if something happens to Freeman Hawthorne here, she cannot possibly be Eddington."

Mr. Bernhardt nodded and looked at Mrs. Frey’s back:

"Yuewan City is really complicated."

In the end, Captain Rudolph relied on luck to defeat his opponent and also reached the final. The venue for the final match was placed in the lobby on the first floor of the Parsifal Club. The players who had lost before did not leave, and they also wanted to witness who would win.

A professional gaming table was placed in the center of the hall, and the card players and club girls quickly surrounded the table.

Apart from the deck of cards on the table, the two of them only had a teacup in hand. When Shade and Captain Rudolph sat down at the table and shook hands respectively, the sturdy vampire said with a smile:

"I told you when we were drinking last time that I would definitely play Rhodes with you next time we meet."