OBS Chapter 3556 City Park
Chapter 3556 City Park
Chapter 3556 City Park
Although Shad returned a little late, Claire assumed he was preparing lunch for Mia, so she didn't ask any further questions. Everyone ate together in the Snow Mountain Hall, and Elder Vilda only gave Shad the three borrowed special rule cards after the meal.
"Star 13 [Primitive Steam Engine - Atmospheric Steam Engine], when you draw this card, if you already have at least three cards in your hand, and all of them are of the Star suit, you can adjust the number of this card to 1, 2, 12, or 13.
Moon 2 [Power and Conquest - Conscription Order]: When you draw this card, if your opponent has more than 3 cards in their hand and is not waiting for another card, you can add one random card from your opponent's hand to your own hand.
Flower 6 [Mechanical Invention - Steamship]: If you draw this card and it's not your first card, turn all your cards face down and let your opponent choose a card. If your opponent doesn't choose this card, their final score is reduced by 1. After choosing a card, return the chosen card.
Shad read out the names, suits, and special rules of the three cards. Since arriving on Fatummst Island, he had only played cards with Major Raders at the Midnight Elk Club and had never touched the Rhodes cards before. Seeing these three special cards he had never seen before, Shad was actually quite pleased.
"You're already laughing."
Claire, who was standing nearby, reminded her.
The three cards belong to the rather inconspicuous mayor of Kyle Todd, the coachman driving the oxcart at the town gate, and Mr. Sargent, the potion merchant.
Shad carefully examined the three cards:
"I also have the [Primitive Steam Engine] series. Oh, and the [Power and Conquest] series! Although this is the second reprint, wasn't this reprint released by the Prophet's Association after the year-end holiday because of the situation between the North and South? I didn't expect to see special cards from it here!"
Elder Harald was also looking at the three cards. He had seen them all before, but that didn't stop him from examining them again. Of course, the old man didn't suggest that he could use these cards to win back the lost ones. Although he had been a bit carried away that morning, he wasn't a truly mindless gambler.
"Then Claire, you go with him. Win the cards and come back. I'll be waiting for you here."
Stella was arranged by Claire to go to the Time Wheel City docks with Matilda and the others to welcome Megan and Audrey, so in the afternoon Claire accompanied Shad to win back Elder Harald's cards.
They couldn't afford to waste too much time on this, as the witches planned to have dinner together on the Radiant Messenger that evening, so Claire needed to dress up nicely when she returned from playing cards.
However, Elder Harald did not play cards at the Prophet's Association in the morning. He had conflicts with the prophets and would not play cards on their turf.
Specifically, after the two elders left the association in the morning, Elder Vilda went to the black market in the City of Time to purchase some items for personal reasons, while Elder Harald, who was waiting for him to return to town together, took the opportunity to visit his friends in the city.
His old friend wasn't home, but Elder Harald found him in the city park of the City of Time, following directions from the friend's wife.
Although it cannot compare in size to Tobesk's "Regent Park," even a small city like Time Wheel City does have its own city park.
This was a product of urbanization driven by the steam wave. The city hall believed that parks could provide a decent and healthy place for residents of poor neighborhoods with crowded living conditions and "morally questionable" conditions, guiding them away from pubs and immoral entertainment. The citizens, on the other hand, believed that building parks was a common responsibility of the city hall and an urban infrastructure that should be received after paying taxes.
With the encouragement of the Church of Nature, parks or similar public areas could be found in almost every city in the Old World.
While there is a dress code for visitors to the City Park in Wheel City, the park is free to enter. It is located in the western part of the city, which runs roughly east-west, and is not far from Victoria Avenue. The park covers an area of about 6 acres and is open daily from 8 am to 6 pm during the winter. It features tree-lined walking paths, lawns for picnics, viewing pavilions where music lovers may play in the summer, and some well-maintained flower beds.
In short, while chatting with an old friend in this park this morning, Elder Harald heard that a young man in town had recently appeared who was very lucky at cards and was willing to gamble with others on special cards.
It just so happened that the other person was also playing cards in the park at that time. Elder Harald, who hadn't played cards much during the entire first month, got involved and then discarded all four of his cards.
Shad and Claire disembarked from the carriage at the park entrance. Shad saw a stone tablet engraved with the names of the donors, but according to Claire, the greatest contributor to the creation of the park was actually the former old bishop of the local natural church, whose name was not on the monument.
“The old man had a very good relationship with my maternal grandfather, but he was older than my grandfather and retired and returned to his hometown when I was 13. When he passed away four years ago, my maternal grandfather wrote a letter asking me, who was still in Willendale at the time, to come to his house to pay my respects.”
Because the park is quite small, it doesn't have the artificial lake that's common in Time Wheel City's urban parks. After arriving here with Claire, Shad, who had recently grown accustomed to the natural scenery of snow-capped mountains, felt that the urban park, against the backdrop of blue skies, white clouds, and snow-capped mountains, had a comfortable feeling of perfect blend between modernity and nature.
Frost still clung to the branches, a group of female workers wearing straw hats picnicked and laughed on the lawn, children played on swings under the care of their nannies, and a middle-aged man with a mustache wearing a long woolen coat stood behind an easel by the flower bed, holding a pencil and looking at the snow-capped mountains.
An elderly couple brushed past Shad and Claire, and a stray cat darted swiftly through the grass beside the park path. Although the park didn't have many green trees and flowers in winter, Shad could tell that Claire was in a good mood.
"It feels like I've returned to a big city."
Elder Harald had heard in the morning that the guy who had won his cards was in the park until 3 p.m., so when Shad and Claire arrived near the park's viewing pavilion, the Rhodes card duel was still going on in the pavilion.
However, since it was Tuesday, there weren't many people watching the card game. The small groups standing in the pavilion were either tourists from out of town or local gentlemen, and of course, there were also Carsonrick naval officers on their day off. All of these people had one thing in common: they didn't have to work today.
Claire wasn't keen on such occasions, so she walked close to Shad. The two players at the card game were, at this moment, the "young man" Elder Harald had described, and a somewhat overweight, tense-looking middle-aged man.
The former actually looked older than the outsider's body, probably around twenty-six or twenty-seven years old, but the elders thought he was indeed young; as for the somewhat fat middle-aged man, judging from his attire, the cane on the table, and the servant standing behind him, he was probably a local merchant.
The young man with light brown hair looked at his hand with a relaxed expression, while the fat merchant had a solemn look on his face. Even Claire, who didn't know much about Rhodes cards, could tell that the latter was probably doomed to lose.
Sure enough, both players quickly reached four cards each and then stopped playing simultaneously. Although the young man had special cards in his hand, he chose not to use them and won with 20 points.
The fat merchant covered his face and sighed deeply. He took out the special card from his deck and placed it on the table. Then, leaning on his cane, he left with his male servant.
The onlookers finally began to whisper among themselves, discussing that this was their seventh consecutive victory today, and that if lunch hadn't taken up their time, they might have won 12 games.
The young man with light brown hair was dressed rather respectably, though not like a member of a noble family or a wealthy merchant. Elder Harald didn't mention that the other person might be a ring sorcerer or cheat using covert methods, but Shad cautiously sensed him first, and only felt slightly relieved after confirming that he hadn't found anything unusual.
Seeing that the other person was already tidying up his deck, but no one sat down opposite him, Shad took the initiative to sit down in the seat opposite him, while Claire stood behind Shad.
She used illusion to make herself look like a man, so people only thought she was a friend of this young man from the North.
The young man with light brown hair smiled at Shad:
"Good afternoon, sir. Would you like to play cards? I do take stakes here. You can bet on special cards or use crowns. But if you want to win special cards from me, you'll have to bring out the corresponding cards as well. As for the specific rules, we can discuss them together."
Shad nodded and took out the cards from the top of his deck: [Primitive Steam Engine - Atmospheric Steam Engine], [Power and Conquest - Conscription Order], [Mechanical Invention - Steamship], and his own [Ancient Fairy Tale - Snow White] to show them off.
“I’ll bet on these four special cards.”
The onlookers started discussing again when they saw that all four cards had special rules, and the young man was also quite surprised:
"You're betting four cards at once? I'd like to give you some advice. How about we bet one card first, and you can see how it goes before raising the stakes?"
Shade shook his head:
“No need, I came here specifically to gamble on four cards. Didn’t an old man play cards with you this morning? I want to win those four cards back for him.”
Some of the onlookers, who had been there that morning, recounted the events of the morning to the others. The young man with light brown hair across the table, of course, also remembered Elder Harald; after all, it was unlikely he would forget someone who had lost four special cards to him in one go, even after lunch.
"I understand now, but I want to make it clear beforehand that if you lose, you have to hand over your cards, and no one can cheat for any reason."