Only a couple of gold coins were left, being tossed back and forth through the air by Luke.
In no time, the next one vanished right in front of her eyes. Finally, Luke clenched the last coin in his hand.
When he opened his palm again, it was gone too.
After that whole routine, Lux just… froze.
She couldn't figure out how he'd done it. It felt impossible—yet he'd clearly pulled it off.
"Show's over. Thanks for watching."
Luke gave a slight bow to signal the curtain call, lowered his hands, and started walking ahead.
Lux was still trapped in the aftershock of the magic trick, following along like a sleepwalker. It took her a while to snap back to reality. Then she hurriedly said, "Okay, the trick's done. Give my gold coins back."
Luke blinked. "What gold coins?"
Lux: "?"
A question mark might as well have slowly floated over her head.
Are you seriously pretending I'm an idiot right now?
Sensing the killing intent rising in Lux's eyes, Luke cleared his throat and said, "Aren't you curious how I did it?"
Lux hesitated, then nodded honestly. "I am!"
Luke said, "That's paid content."
With a hint that obvious, Lux understood instantly. She started thinking.
While she was thinking, Luke didn't forget to keep tempting her from the side. "Five gold coins, and you get to learn the secret behind a magic trick. That's a steal, Miss Crownguard."
And yeah—he put it like that, and Lux's curiosity flared up hard.
Five gold coins, so what!
The little heiress gritted her teeth and nodded. "Fine. Talk!"
So Luke explained the sleight of hand—so detailed it was basically a step-by-step tutorial.
Lux listened in a daze. When he finished, she felt like she still didn't understand.
"Then I'll show you again."
Luke was putting in real work for those five gold coins.
He took out the five coins he'd hidden and performed the trick for Lux all over again.
This time, even though Lux already knew what technique he was using, when she watched it again… she still couldn't catch a single thing.
It left her completely baffled.
"Pretty impressive, right?" Luke asked with a grin.
Of course he couldn't let her see through it. Otherwise, how was he supposed to set up the next steps?
"…Impressive," Lux admitted honestly. In her eyes, that move really was amazing.
"Want to learn it?"
"I do." Lux's eyes lit up, bright with anticipation.
Luke made a little money-counting gesture and smiled. "You get what I mean, right?"
Lux's anticipation instantly cooled off. Her brain climbed back onto the throne, and she stared at Luke with deep suspicion. "Are you targeting my secret stash?"
She felt like Luke was seriously off today.
Why does every other sentence lead back to money?
"How could I be?" Luke said, guilt written all over his face. "I can't exactly teach you for free."
"Heh." Lux laughed coldly, tipped her chin up, and snorted. "Then I'm not learning!"
She'd already been burned for five gold coins—no way she was getting burned a second time.
Luke's eyes filled with visible disappointment.
Damn it. Since when did she get this smart?
Five gold coins… is that really my limit?!
He'd prepared a whole chain of套路 after this.
Like: if you want to unlock more content, you need to pay additional gold coins… that sort of thing.
But now, the whole plan died right at step one.
Just then, Luke noticed a familiar figure up ahead on the road.
And clearly, the other person noticed him too.
Both of them looked excited, each heading straight for the other.
As they got close, Luke called out first, thrilled, "Brother!"
And across from him, Jarvan IV was just as fired up. "Brother!"
"Brother!!"
"Brother!!"
"Brother!!!"
"Brother!!!"
Lux rolled her eyes.
What is wrong with these two? They're acting like they survived a life-and-death separation.
Of course, she couldn't understand what Luke was feeling right now.
In Luke's eyes, walking toward him wasn't Jarvan IV—
It was a shining, gold-glittering… coin purse.
And Jarvan IV didn't know why he was getting this excited either, but since Luke was excited, he got excited too.
"To think the two of us could run into each other by chance in a capital this huge," Jarvan IV said with a sigh of emotion.
Luke nodded and sighed back. "Yeah! I've been wanting to visit you again for ages."
"Ah— I heard you moved out of the palace. I should've been the one to visit you," Jarvan IV sighed too, clearly feeling guilty toward his own brother. "But I never had the time. Who would've thought we'd run into each other like this? Have you run into any trouble lately? Tell me—anything you need!"
He might be Luke's brother, but ever since Luke came to the capital, Jarvan IV really hadn't done his part.
It wasn't right.
Hearing that, Luke didn't hold back at all. "Brother, actually… I have."
Jarvan IV immediately put on a serious face and promised, "Say it. As long as it's within what I can do, I'll solve it for you!"
Luke looked deeply moved. "Lend me some money!"
Jarvan IV: "…"
His expression froze on the spot.
And the "moved" look on Luke's face also froze midair.
Don't tell me… borrowing money is outside your ability?
As if he could read Luke's question—
Jarvan IV gave an awkward nod.
Luke: "…"
Now it was Luke's turn to be speechless.
You're a prince of an entire kingdom—how are you living so broke that you don't even have money on you?!
He seemed to have forgotten what Tianna once said: Jarvan IV's situation wasn't much better than Luke's—if anything, it was worse.
Because of his status, he'd received the very best training since childhood.
But because of that, his treatment and restrictions were equally harsh.
Those noble brats who get a thousand gold coins a month in allowance and spend however they want? That kind of thing basically doesn't exist for Jarvan IV.
If he really dared to be that extravagant, he'd get his legs broken.
Luke couldn't help looking at his brother with a little more sympathy.
"Sigh… I've only got these few dozen gold coins on me. If you really need it, take it," Jarvan IV said, pulling out his coin purse and putting on a pitiful act.
"Brother… how am I supposed to do that to you?" Luke sighed again. Even as he said it, his hand was already on the coin purse, ready to take it.
He tugged.
For a second, it didn't even come loose.
"You have to be careful with it. If you run out, come find me again," Jarvan IV said, looking like his heart was bleeding, yet still forcing himself—through endless reluctance—to hand the coin purse over.
"Absolutely," Luke said solemnly.
He renewed the "moved" feeling from earlier, then carefully stored his brother's coin purse away like something precious.
He really was a very sentimental person.
Even if his brother had to suffer, he absolutely couldn't let himself suffer.
"I still have some things to do, so I'll get going," Jarvan IV said, recovering a bit and preparing to leave.
If I'd known, I wouldn't have come out today. One trip outside—and my secret stash is gone.
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