The lawyer probably saw how young Shade was and did not want him getting involved in gambling. Shade smiled and put on a confident look:
"Take a look at this old deck of mine. Do I look like a Rhodes Cards novice? At most, I'd lose less than two shillings in a round. I don't think my luck is bad enough for me to keep losing. Sir, we have to find something to do on such a boring morning."
He deliberately spoke with a heavy Tobesk accent. The lawyer shrugged, signaling that they could begin.
"I rather admire confident people."
The surrounding crowd was excited as well. None of them had ever seen this young man before, but as long as the card game continued and gave them something to do, they would not care even if Shade were from Military Intelligence Section Six.
Shade still adhered to the principle of not gambling. He sat at the table now only because he wanted to obtain information by winning money. Therefore, this did not count as gambling.
The gambling games in taverns like this had no particularly formal rules. Both sides kept drawing cards, then counted their points after stopping. The lawyer might have had decent skill and plenty of experience, but against Shade, whose luck came from Founding Silver Moon, he still lost far more often than he won.
When Shade sat down, he had already prepared for both winning and losing. But after easily winning four of the first five rounds, he knew there was nothing to worry about.
By ten-thirty in the morning, a pile of small coins and a small amount of banknotes had accumulated beside Shade, while only an empty cup remained beside the lawyer. Sweat beaded on his forehead. His right hand pressed down on