SWNOVELXO Chapter 29 - Interlude - Young Gambler
What triggered my self-awareness? I can’t recall the first time, but ever since I was young, I’ve had an unusual strength for competitive games. It’s not like I can win at everything or predict outcomes. However, particularly in gambling, I could distinctly sense the crucial moments to make my move.
In those instances, my vision would flicker as if overtaken by dizziness. My senses would become extraordinarily sharp, my ears ringing. Before I knew it, I would have the conviction that “this is it, I will definitely win now.”
For example, even if I played a board game with friends where we rolled dice to travel across the country, I never lost in the end. This led to frequent accusations of cheating and subsequent fights.
Eventually, my friends reached a consensus: “We won’t play any luck-based games with Seiichiro anymore.” I remained undefeated in gambling games.
My father seemed to have noticed my knack for games.
“Looks like Seiichiro inherited my talent. No wonder I suck at gambling,” he’d say, often laughing about it. That was fine when it was just a joke.
At some point, my father started taking me along to gamble. His wide network, even overseas, included various contacts in gambling circles. He started to rely on my advice and won big.
Slowly, my father became elated by my proven ability, betting increasingly large sums on my single words. I wanted to make my parents happy, so I put in all my effort and won. Our financial situation improved drastically, leading to neighborhood gossip about our sudden wealth.
I was praised by both my parents, spoiled, and spent what I thought was the best time of my life. But soon, I realized that this was the peak, and it was all downhill from here.
Over time, my father spent less and less time at home. My mother was constantly angry, accusing him of infidelity and threatening divorce. She eventually spent less time at home too.
When I was alone, I finally realized. The more money I made, the more things fell apart. It reminded me of my deceased grandfather’s words: “Don’t gamble; it will ruin your life.”
But it was already too late. My life had spun out of control. The moment I decided to stop aiding my father in gambling, he hit me hard for the first time. Hard enough to draw blood and dislodge a loose tooth.
Confused, I just stared at him.
“You ungrateful brat! Who do you think provides for you? How dare you defy your parent?!”
I realized then, the look in my father’s eyes had changed. He seemed afraid, and I understood why. He was afraid of losing his golden goose. My mother was the same; she didn’t leave him because we still had money. And when the money was gone, she left and never came back.
From then on, my gambling sense went off the mark, and our finances spiraled downwards. Debt collectors started showing up, and my father began to beg me to make predictions.
When I failed, he’d beat me mercilessly. I endured daily beatings, starvation, and confinement. And I came to understand that people can use others as stepping stones for their own benefit.
Once I realized this, my gambling sense returned. I could win, as long as I was doing it for myself. It was a simple realization: my father didn’t want to win anymore, couldn’t even hope for it. That’s why he lost.
I realized how absurd it was to do anything for someone else. Relationships can be easily destroyed by money—even familial bonds.
One day, the abuse from my father got so bad that I felt the imminent threat of death. I reached my limit and ran away. However, the world is small for a child. Although I thought I’d walked far, it was probably not that far.
Tired, I slumped in an alley where a stranger found me.
“Hey, what’s wrong?”
It was a girl a few years older than me, but she looked much older from my perspective at the time.
“Lost? Where are your parents?”
I shook my head in silence, unable to answer. Seeing my plight, she took my hand and led me to her home.
The girl’s mother was at a loss for words when she saw the child her daughter had brought home, but she didn’t turn him away.
Instead, she invited him into their home and treated him to dinner.
Along the way, he was asked his name and was questioned after they lifted his clothes a bit.
“Hey, Seiichiro-kun. Have your dad or mom ever hurt you?”
I couldn’t answer. I didn’t even know how to put it into words.
“…How about you stay at our place for tonight?”
I still couldn’t answer. But it was certain that a part of me, not wanting to go back home, slightly nodded.
For a brief period after that, I lived in the home of complete strangers.
Looking back, I suppose my father didn’t immediately file a missing person report, perhaps fearing that the abuse would come to light. During that time, the girl’s parents seemed to seriously consider what should be done about my future.
If they easily returned an abused child to their parents, they couldn’t predict what would happen next. There are cases where children have been killed, and incidents where consulting a child welfare center didn’t help at all. They probably knew this.
My mental state stabilized a bit during the short period I escaped from my father, and I suddenly remembered something—my grandpa’s catchphrase “Don’t gamble” had a continuation just once.
“Sei, if you ever get into gambling and find yourself in a tight spot, rely on this place. They helped me out too.”
That’s what my grandpa said, handing me something in a brown envelope, calling it “our secret”. At that time, I didn’t understand what it was and kept it at the bottom of my drawer.
I left a note and discreetly exited the girl’s house to go back to my own. I don’t remember well why I left silently. Maybe I perceived returning home as something that would get me scolded.
In any case, I went home, made sure my father was out, broke a window with a stone to enter, grabbed the envelope from my desk, and immediately left.
Inside the envelope was a slip of paper.
“Izumido Law Office”
It was a business card with a phone number, saying to call here.
I made the call without understanding why and gave my name when asked. Initially, a young woman answered, but the voice changed partway through to sound like an old man’s.
“Oi oi, are you really Kakami’s grandson? So that means it really… happened just like he said, huh?”
That was the voice of Mr. Izumido, a great senior of Mr. Higashi.
Mr. Izumido is a lawyer and seemed to have been a friend of my grandpa. They met when my grandpa got into various troubles and rebellions and either helped each other out—or rather, were partners in crime, so to speak.
In a way, he might be some sort of crooked lawyer. But after my grandpa ‘cleaned up his act,’ he had been running a respectable law firm.
Mr. Izumido, who I met in person after arranging over the phone, looked like a kind-hearted old man at first glance.
“He told me that his grandson was something else—had more genius than even him. That it was innate talent… a kind of monster.”
Monster. The word reverberated deeply within me.
“To think he would say that even when people said he was a genius in gambling. I thought he was blinded by his love for his grandson, but it looks like he hit the nail on the head.”
My grandpa had said it.
My grandson has talent. A keen, self-destructive genius.
So if a time like this ever comes, help him, he had said.
It seems grandpa’s intuition was, as always, spot-on.
“He did me many favors and died before he could pay them back. Sure, I’ll help you. Well, I’m old, so it’ll only be until I die.”
Saying this, Mr. Izumido showed a slightly weary smile. It reminded me somehow of my grandpa’s smile.
By the time I was in middle school, I was living alone in a remote region, far from my hometown, thanks to Mr. Izumido’s assistance.
My father got arrested, my mother went missing, and a lot happened, but from my perspective, they were people I had long severed ties with. It was none of my concern.
Legally speaking, I couldn’t dissolve the parent-child relationship, but thanks to Mr. Izumido’s various assistance, I could live quietly.
Around that time, I proposed to Mr. Izumido that I wanted to “gamble for myself.” There was no way a child could gamble alone; it was impossible without Mr. Izumido getting involved.
At first, he opposed the idea.
“I’ve suffered a lot because of this so-called ‘genius’ of mine. To never gamble for myself and end up losing—I can’t do that.”
“Hmm. You’re starting to look more and more like him.”
Thus, Mr. Izumido agreed to lend his strength to my gamble.
In the end, Izumido-san also took on a mischievous expression and nodded.
“Fine. Just for a little while. I’ll reminisce about those times and go along with it for a bit. However, no expensive gambling unless I give permission.”
And so, for the first time in my life, I seriously competed purely for my own sake.
With the help of Izumido-san, I even went abroad to gamble.
I won, and I earned. Before I knew it, I had accumulated enough money to never worry about food for the rest of my life.
Although it’s said that Izumido-san is the one actually making the money in public, he told me he doesn’t need a single yen.
“I’m old enough as it is; I’ll die soon anyway. So, I have no use for it. It was fun to be able to reminisce about the old days.”
The money that should be given to Izumido-san—I thought I’d give it to someone else instead.
The best recipients would be the benefactors who helped me back then, who took me in: their family.
Those benefactors—Izumido-san and his subordinate Higashi-san. I barely remember the name of that family anymore.
If I hadn’t met these people, I would either be dead or would have developed a debilitating mistrust of humanity.
I asked Izumido-san to find that family for me and anonymously donated money to them.
I left without saying a word, and it felt awkward to meet them myself, but I wanted to offer at least that much as thanks.
And then, just before I became a high school student, Izumido-san passed away quite suddenly.
—Again, I was left alone.