“Betting?”

The moment he echoed the word back, both of their gazes dropped to the two tokens in Leonardo Blaine’s hand. They had seemed suspicious from the start, looking like chips and all. It was as if the reason they had spent all this time gathering and consuming tokens through the earlier parts had been for this very moment.

“The current token values are based on the numbers recorded at the moment each participant last threw their shot put. Tokens may be used here to open the doors placed throughout this area, and each time you make a bet, the token’s value will be reduced by the number written on the door.”

Leonardo Blaine’s golden eyes swept over the numbers engraved on the doors once again.

“Once the chosen door opens after a bet, there are only two possible outcomes a participant may face. Escape, or a dud.”

“A dud?”

“Yes. Though there is no need to be discouraged just because it is called a dud. If it does not lead to an exit, we simply refer to it as a dud for convenience. In such cases, one of various effects will be applied to the token with a 33.3% probability. The best effect, of course, would be the square of the token’s remaining value immediately after the bet.”

At those words, Ero’s eyes widened. Squared? His current value was 62, so... for example, if you multiplied 62 by 62...

“You mean it would go over 3,600 just like that?”

“Yes, that is one way to increase your token value. The higher the value becomes, the more chances to bet you will naturally have. The effects vary. A certain amount might be added, or the existing value might be doubled. However, it is not always beneficial.”

It sounded like a certain amount could just as easily be deducted, or the existing value could be cut in half. And if there was squaring, then surely the opposite sort of outcome existed too. But the guide, as though intending to leave the rest to their imagination, did not explain any further.

“The higher the number written on a door, the greater the probability that it leads to an exit. The task of the third part is to successfully bet and escape this space before your token value reaches 0.”

The rules were simple. But the line of Leonardo Blaine’s mouth twisted, clearly displeased.

It sounded simple, but out of every match so far, this one was the trickiest and carried the greatest chance of elimination. When he had first heard the concept of betting, he had thought higher numbers would obviously be better, and had regretted deliberately dropping his shot put on the ground a few times just to lower its weight. But the more he listened, the clearer it became that even with a high number, all that meant was more chances to attempt a bet. It did not guarantee escape.

In other words, whether you escaped at all came down to pure luck. But is that really right?

A match format in which luck played such a decisive role did not feel like the Council’s style.

Just as suspicion was beginning to form, the guide continued.

“And just like the previous parts, withdrawal is possible midway through this part as well. Since this is the final match held before participants are officially listed for the preliminaries, one additional special rule has been added.”

“You are giving people a chance to withdraw? Why?”

Leonardo Blaine latched onto that statement instead of the added rule. There were no terrifying magical beasts here, no suffocating desert that felt like it would melt the lungs.

“If betting until all your chances are gone means immediate elimination, then what is the point of giving a withdrawal option at all?”

At the sharp question, the guide raised the corners of his mouth for the first time.

“Yes. There is a reason. If you are eliminated after consuming all of your token value, you will be barred from participating in Leagues hosted by this institution for the next five years.”

“What?”

The one who reacted as if it were absurd was Ero.

“No, why would you ban someone from participating for five whole years? It is not like they committed a crime!”

“Because this is a rule meant to regulate the match. The ability to find the exit is a means of proving that one is qualified to advance to the preliminaries in this League. At the same time, the ability to objectively judge one’s own capabilities and plan for the future is also a means of proving that one is qualified to participate in the next League.”

It was an answer that left one speechless. At the same time, it was also an easy answer to understand. Up until now, the Division One and Division Two matches had, after all, simply been tests to determine whether a participant was fit to advance to the preliminaries and put on an interesting performance in front of the audience.

“If you do not wish to bear the risk of a five-year restriction from the League, then withdraw before you consume all your tokens and participate again in the League to be held next year. Now then, what will you do? Will you bet?”

He said it as though extending a kindness, but in truth it meant that if they did not have the nerve to gamble, then this was as far as they would go. Otherwise, they could stake themselves on their own fate, no matter what came after.

By then, Leonardo Blaine was looking down at the token in his hand.

If a value of around 500 were squared continuously, it would become a considerable number. Unfortunately, though, aside from having powerful magic, his life had never been particularly blessed by luck.

In fact, the one bit of fortune that had seemed to exist had often turned poisonous in the end.

So rather than waiting for luck to arrive, he seized opportunities. That was far faster, far more accurate, and far more in line with the life he had lived and the values he held.

“Boss... what are you going to do?”

Ero asked in a miserable voice, clearly troubled. The penalty for facing a situation that did not go his way seemed to weigh heavily on him. But without answering, Leonardo Blaine shifted his gaze ahead.

Floating along the waves of the oasis were doors marked with small numbers like 4, 16, and 29, as well as 381, 752, four digits, six digits, and even more. There were all kinds of values, so many that even someone who had gathered quite a lot of tokens would be unable to attempt most of them.

Among them, what caught Leonardo Blaine’s eye was a door in the center of the oasis with a betting cost of 1.

His lowered gaze rose naturally upward. Since what was reflected on the water was only an image, the real door was above.

A rounded domed ceiling. And at its exact center, the door worth 1.

His golden eyes narrowed. It was a door anyone would covet once their token count had nearly run out, but it might also be a foolish door to open on the first try. Common sense said that 1 implied far too low a probability to lead to the exit.

But probability sometimes contained contradiction within the bounds of legality. Whether the probability was 1 or 99, if it was not 100%, then the result was always only one of two things, true or false. In other words, it was no different from a fifty-fifty chance.

Besides, this whole situation feels less like a game of luck and more like a designed device for evaluating participants. That bastard’s remark that he had been “waiting for us” from the moment we arrived here, and that unprecedented elimination penalty harsh enough to feel excessive.

Thinking that way, every choice laid out before him began to look like an opportunity. Not merely an opportunity to test his luck, but a path toward the victory he had been refining through every match so far.

There was no way the Council bastards intended to let him be eliminated so easily. And if there was one thing they had overlooked, it was that for him, there was no such thing as a next League.

If it was not victory in this League with the Exacore at stake, then he had no reason to humor this irritating event at all.

“Hey.”

Turning his head to the guide, Leonardo Blaine asked,

“Here, can you steal someone else’s token, or lose your own?”

At that moment, Leonardo Blaine felt two opposing gazes on him. One held clear puzzlement. The other held unmistakable tension.

“Of course. Just as in the first part, you may take another person’s token and merge it with your own.”

“Then the reverse is possible too.”

“...That is correct.”

The guide’s sleepy eyelids lifted slightly. He could not grasp the intention behind the participant’s question. Beside them, though, Ero muttered nervously,

“Boss... that...”

Since his own token was in the other man’s hand as well, he clearly looked terrified that it might be taken from him. And that was understandable. Joker was far too fragile to stand against Lion, and to Lion, he was no more than one card among the hand he held, not truly a companion.

“Hey. What are you going to do?”

Leonardo Blaine asked as though giving him a choice. Ero glanced up at those golden eyes, then awkwardly darted his own away. After that, he answered in a flustered rush.

“Uh... well, if that is what you want... t-take it! I can always try again next year! Ha ha, honestly, I was worried about what I would do if I used up all my tokens and got eliminated anyway... so if you used mine and made it through this round, that would make it worth having come with you, would it not? I would be happy with that!”

He spoke as if it were nothing, but he could not bring himself to meet Leonardo Blaine’s eyes. Before long, his gaze dropped somewhere near his own feet. Leonardo Blaine tilted his head slightly and stared straight into his eyes.

After taking a moment to steady his emotions, Ero cleared his throat and lifted his head with a spirited smile.

“Boss, I may only make it this far, but please, promise me that you will win it all for both of us, agh!”

“You idiot. When did I ever say I wanted yours?”

With a sigh, Leonardo Blaine flicked Ero on the forehead. He had hit him fairly lightly by his own standards, but to the other man it seemed to be a devastating blow.

The sharp sound of the strike rang through the cave, and Ero clutched his forehead with his face twisted up, writhing all over.

“Ow, b-boss...! That hurts!”

“Catch.”

Ting. A clear sound rang out. Still groaning, Ero’s eyes widened, and he reflexively thrust both arms forward and clapped his palms shut. Something narrow and flat had barely lodged itself between them. Since he had clearly expected the worst, Ero could not adjust at all to the completely different turn the situation had taken, and his lips parted.

Then he carefully checked what was in his hand.

A few seconds later, wearing an uncertain expression, he cautiously asked Leonardo Blaine,

“Boss, I think you may have handed me the wrong one...?”

It was not the 62-token he had originally been holding. But it was not Leonardo Blaine’s 517-token either. The token Ero had been given bore the number 578.

Leonardo Blaine lightly shook the token in his own hand.

“That is the right one. This is enough for me.”

Reflected in the shimmering light cast by the waves of the oasis, the token in his hand flickered with the number 1. Before Ero could even understand what was happening, Leonardo Blaine placed a hand on his shoulder, bent slightly to meet his eyes, and whispered,

“You said you would devote yourself to me for the duration of the League.”

“......”

“So do not give up. I am going ahead first.”

With that, Leonardo Blaine ruffled Ero’s hair roughly once, then glanced toward the guide.

“How do I place the bet?”

“You may either touch the token to the door, or open the door directly while carrying the token. It does not matter which method you use.”

“Really?”

Leonardo Blaine flicked the token upward with his thumb.

“Then that makes things easy.”

Soon, his arm rose diagonally and pointed at one of the doors attached to the ceiling above the oasis.

Piiing. A sharp sound cut through the air once, and a red beam shot in a straight line from the slightly bent tips of his fingers. Almost at the same time, the spinning token flew in the same direction, skewered through by that slash of light. The refractions of light reflected in the obsidian intensified along with it, and the entire field of vision turned white.

The guide and Ero both lowered their heads and shut their eyes against the blinding glare. Around then, Leonardo Blaine’s cape snapping behind him, he leaped into the air.

Kwaaaaaang!

A thunderous explosion filled the cave. The beam pierced through the rock, and the door that had existed there merely as a formality vanished without leaving so much as a trace. In its place was a hole large enough for two people to pass through, and the stream of light and the shattered fragments came pouring down onto the oasis below.

The area around that perfectly circular exit was pristine, not even a crack running through it. Only the splashing sounds of debris and friction echoed one after another through the cave. Then, as a gust of open air blew in from somewhere, it all came to a complete stop.

Ero, who had abruptly been left looking like a drenched rat, slowly lowered the arm he had instinctively raised. He cautiously opened the eyes he had squeezed shut. His vision was still blurry, but he could tell the surroundings were brighter than before. As silence fell after the passing storm, the guide, still wearing that sleepy expression, looked up at the escape hole and recited in a drained voice,

“Ah... I was hoping to drag things out a bit longer, but I suppose it was all pointless.”

Ero narrowed his eyes and stared at the guide. The guide turned to him with a bitter smile.

“If a participant clears it too quickly, the people above complain.”

“...What?”

At that moment, a single token came floating over on the rippling water and drifted up to the feet of the two men.

The guide, his hands clasped behind his back, bent down and picked up the token. Then he held it up into the single shaft of light pouring down from the ceiling.

The number written on the token was 0. A crack as thin as a thread ran through the middle where the beam had passed.

A perfectly exact calculation, without the slightest error.

Clicking his tongue in admiration, the guide held the ✪ Nоvеlіgһt ✪ (Official version) token out to Ero.

“A souvenir. Give it to him later.”

“A souvenir...?”

As Ero took it with a blank face, the guide smiled at him once more and asked,

“Now then, what will you do, participant? Will you place a bet?”