The Golden Coin- Part 2

Kye stepped into the casino and was blown away at the scenery. It was extremely affluent in appearance, with red and gold tiles in a checkerboard pattern that covered the floor surrounding the pits where the games were hosted. The bar was full of patrons taking a break from their games to grab a drink and socialise with those around them and a band played calm but upbeat background music on a stage on the far end of the main floor. Kye turned to the butler who had followed in behind him.

"I want to explore the main floor for a bit, just tell me where I need to go for the party and I'll get there later."

"Certainly. Those stairs at this end of the main floor will take you up to the VIP floors. We are hosting the event in room 1."

"Alright, we won't be too long."

"I will see you there, young master Kye."

The butler then left Kye and Vanessa to themselves and walked up the stairs he had pointed Kye to without sparing a glance backwards. Kye looked over his shoulder at Vanessa who was still drinking in the atmosphere of the main floor and gave a small smile.

"C'mon, we should go exchange some chips and play a few games before we head up."

Kye walked to the service desk where a young woman stood, ready to assist any customers. The uniform all of the women Kye could see were wearing was a muted maroon jacket and skirt with a golden scarf and white undershirt that was barely visible through the open bits of the jackets. The woman at the counter had a nametag that read 'Laura'. When she saw Kye approach, she gave a warm smile.

"Hello young sir, do you have a membership card at all?"

"Yeah, one sec."

Kye spoke in an unusually casual tone with people who had no ties to noble people but still tried to be as polite as possible. Kye reached into his jacket pocket and pulled out the black card he was handed at the door and presented it to Laura. Her eyes widened as she saw the colour of the card he was carrying, her eyes snapped between Kye and the card rapidly before she gave a deep bow.

"I apologise for not recognising such an esteemed guest of the casino. Please, allow me to help you in any way possible."

Kye was taken aback by her shift in attitude. She had been plenty polite before, what was there to apologise about. Kye tilted his head to the side as the question passed through his mind but he quickly refocused on talking to the receptionist.

"Uh, no big deal, I got the card a few moments ago so it's no surprise you didn't know who I was. No need to apologise or anything. I was just wondering if I could get 10 gold coins worth of chips."

After hearing Kye's assurances Laura breathed a sigh of relief before looking at the small stack of gold coins in Kye's hand. 10 gold coins was a significant amount of money to be throwing away gambling but for Kye, who even in his previous life where he spent obscene amounts of money on parts for his experiments, 10 gold coins was a rather humble amount to be using in a betting establishment.

"Certainly young sir, each gold coin is worth 10,000 chips, so 10 gold coins would equal to 100,000 chips total, is this okay?"

"Yes, please exchange these coins for chips."

Laura quickly got to work sorting the chips Kye asked for and then took his membership card and inserted it into a small box. There was a faint glow before Laura pulled the card out and handed it back to Kye and took the gold coins behind the counter.

"Since it's your first time here, I'll briefly explain what your membership card allows you to do. Within the Golden Coin, the only form of currency we accept are chips, you pay with everything from the game to drinks and even... other extra services with chips. Due to this, the owner of the casino invented this proprietary technology that allows you to store your chip balance on a magic circuit that is built into your membership card. To play games and pay for things, you need only offer your membership card and let out staff do the work."

Kye had known about this form of technology from his past life, he had worked with the magic engineer who designed the magic circuit that was used on the cards but he never knew that someone had managed to make an insular economy off the back of such an advancement.

"Would the owner's name happen to be Killian?"

"Yes, Lance Killian is the owner and manager of the Golden Coin."

Kye smiled to himself.

'So the bespeckled introvert managed to have a fruitful romance after all.'

"Thank you for your explanation, it was very insightful."

"It was my pleasure, allow me to wish you a pleasant evening at the Golden Coin casino."

She bowed low and Kye gave an appreciative nod. Kye and Vanessa left the service desk and walked further into the casino floor where there was a buzz of chatter on every table with shouts of revelry and wails of despair as punters bet it all to win or lose. Kye confidently strolled down the steps into the first pit with Vanessa trailing close behind and sat in an empty seat at the table of a game he hadn't seen before. The game master smiled as Kye took up his seat.

"Welcome, have you ever played The Queen's Cup before?"

"No, could you tell me the rules please?"

"Certainly. The game is simple."

The game master picked up a small metal ball and showed it to Kye.

"In this game, your aim is to follow this ball after I place it under one of these five cups. I will shuffle the cups around. You simply have to wager on what cup the ball is under. If you guess correctly, you collect all other bets on incorrect cups. You wager on your cups in secret so people can't deliberately stack bets on the same cup. Do you understand the rules?"

"Yeah, I'd like to play."

"Certainly, may I have your membership card?"

Kye handed him the card and his eyes widened briefly when he saw the colour of the card but he maintained an air of calmness as he placed the card to his left, where there were four other cards of varying colours.

"We will now begin the game."

-----

To show that my dedication is back, I've created a community discord server for you to all join and harass me in.

https://.discord.gg/42AaurtH <-- Just remove the . after the // and that will take you to the new community hub I've set up. Hope to see you there!