The two of them quickly swept all the food off the table. Roy felt only about fifty percent full. After receiving a blessing, his appetite had grown larger, and his living expenses were steadily increasing.
Roy rested both hands on the table. "Miss Ryuu, I just realized something very serious."
Seeing how serious Roy looked, the elf girl thought something was wrong. Her small face tensed up.
Roy said, "The currency used in this secret realm isn't Valis, and Valis doesn't circulate here."
The atmosphere instantly became awkward. The elf girl tugged at the corner of her delicate lips. She understood what Roy meant—they were about to dine and dash. She glared fiercely at him. "If you didn't have money, why were you so confident just now?"
Thinking about how Roy had ordered like a regular customer, Ryuu was so angry her fingers trembled. Thankfully, he wasn't a member of the Astraea Familia. Otherwise, all the hard-earned reputation they had built would have been completely ruined.
"Ahem! Ahem!"
Roy coughed deliberately to ease the awkwardness and glanced outside. The super-giant still hadn't appeared. His idea of slipping away during the chaos was clearly not going to work.
Seeing that they had finished eating but still hadn't paid or left, the shop owner seemed to realize something. He turned his head and instructed the shop's staff.
Roy smiled bitterly. It seemed he could only rely on a bit of cleverness—and kill some time while he was at it.
Taking advantage of the others not paying attention, Roy picked up a toothpick, snapped it in half, then used the burrs at the broken ends to reconnect the two pieces. It looked exactly like a whole toothpick.
Then Roy stood up and greeted the dozen or so customers in the shop. "Everyone, we're actually a traveling performance troupe. Since it's after the meal, please allow me to perform two small magic tricks to liven things up."
Hearing there was a show, the customers immediately perked up, with some even starting to cheer.
"Everyone, look closely. This is a toothpick. Next, I'll use my mind to snap it in half." Roy took out the toothpick and waved it around in front of everyone.
The burrs at the break had already been smoothed out. Unless someone handled it directly, no one could tell anything was wrong.
"Hah!"
Roy pinched one end of the toothpick with one hand while waving his other hand around it, putting on a show and chanting loudly. In reality, all of this was just to divert everyone's attention.
When the timing felt right, he subtly flicked the fingers holding the tail end of the toothpick, and it snapped instantly.
Aside from Ryuu, whose eyesight was sharp, no one noticed Roy's small movement.
"Bravo!"
The customers had never seen something like this before and immediately burst into applause. In an instant, thunderous clapping filled the shop.
Roy pressed both hands down, signaling for everyone to quiet down. He then took out two Valis coins, placed one in each palm, and clenched his fists. "Now, there's one coin in each of my hands."
The crowd swallowed nervously, staring intently at Roy's hands. Earlier they hadn't taken it too seriously, but his first trick had completely stunned them.
This time, they were determined to catch something.
"Next, the coin in my left hand will disappear. Everyone, watch carefully—don't blink."
As he spoke, Roy placed the coin from his left hand onto the table, spread his palm to show it was empty, then picked the coin back up and closed his fist again.
It looked like the right hand was also about to be checked.
His hands moved slightly closer together. He opened his right fist, palm facing down, and a coin dropped onto the table.
Roy picked up the coin with his right hand, then gestured for everyone to look at his left hand. He slowly opened it, immediately causing an uproar in the shop.
His left hand was completely empty. Everyone had watched with their own eyes as the coin vanished into thin air.
Roy shook his right fist and smiled. "Everyone, care to guess where the two coins are?"
A crisp clinking sound of coins colliding rang out.
Under the astonished gazes of the crowd, Roy opened his right hand. Two coins lay quietly in his palm, and another wave of amazed exclamations echoed through the shop.
"Thank you, everyone. Today was just a simple performance. I hope you'll continue to support me in the future. If you have money, support with money; if not, support with your presence!" Roy said cheerfully.
Many customers found it incredibly fascinating and kept asking Roy when his official performances would be held, swearing that they would definitely come and support him.
Three or four customers also left behind more than a dozen copper coins.
Roy smiled and responded to everyone one by one.
Ryuu snorted softly. Smoke and mirrors. Only she had seen through Roy's trick. It was actually a very simple technique. At the beginning, Roy had pretended to show that each coin was in one hand.
But when the left hand picked up the coin, it wasn't placed in the palm—it was pinched between the middle and ring fingers.
When he "verified" the coin in the right hand, at the moment the two hands came together, the left hand didn't open, but the fingers loosened, letting the coin drop onto the table.
The right hand opened with the palm facing downward. The coin in the right hand had never left at all; Roy had used some method to stick it to his palm.
The coin placed down the second time was actually still the one from the left hand, while the right hand took advantage of the motion to collect it, ending with both coins in the right hand.
What surprised Ryuu was the boy's social ability. Without using language and body movements to divert everyone's attention, this kind of trick would never have succeeded.
Looking again at Roy, surrounded by the crowd, smiling broadly and talking endlessly, it felt as if he planned to settle down here permanently, chatting warmly with the locals.
Even though they would leave after defeating the monsters…
This man's mouth was practically made for deceiving people. The pure elf girl was beginning to realize that.
Roy gathered the tips from the customers and brought them to the shop owner. The owner repeatedly refused—he had enjoyed the performance immensely—but Roy insisted on stuffing the money into his hands. Money from Paradis Island was completely useless to Roy anyway.
Returning to their table, Roy saw Miss Ryuu staring at him with a wary expression. "What's wrong?"
"I need to be careful," Ryuu said. "I can't let myself be sold by you and still help count the money." It was a proverb that came from the East.
"…"
Roy opened his mouth, then closed it again.
Outside the shop, a group of two men and one woman were pressed up against the window, having seen Roy's entire performance.
Armin exclaimed in amazement, "Eren, that guy is incredible! How did he do it?"
Eren replied, "I have no idea."
"The second coin he put down was also from his left hand," Mikasa said calmly. She was one of only two people who saw through Roy's trick. Compared to the elf girl's sharp eyesight, her viewing angle gave her an advantage—she had clearly seen a glint of light flash from the coin pinched in Roy's left hand.
After Mikasa's explanation, Eren immediately lost interest. "So he's just a fraud."
Armin was still excited. "That's not it, Eren. He cheated everyone right in front of them and still didn't get caught. I think that's amazing."
"Good eye. Keep praising me—those are words I like to hear." A laugh sounded from the doorway.
The trio hadn't noticed at all that at some point, Roy and Ryuu had already come outside and were now standing there, looking at the three of them.
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