The next day, the den was just as alive as ever. The sound of dice clattering inside the wooden cups, bursts of cheers and groans, and the constant clink of coins hitting the table filled the place.

All of them were working, but this time, Leonard wasn't in his usual spot behind the table.

Instead, he deliberately pulled back just today.

He let Anika, Gareth, Eric, and Ferio take charge of the games. He wanted to see if they could handle the den already without him.

"Hmm…" Leonard watched them.

Ferio was good at keeping the crowd entertained while shaking the dice. Anika, who was as cheerful as ever, was good at interacting with the crowd. And as usual, she was all smiling.

Eric was good at talking with the people around him. From time to time, he would ask them what they were doing with their lives as if all of them were just buddies.

On the other hand, Gareth has become more interactive compared to the past. His table was also getting surrounded more by people. He knew how to joke with the crowd now. Most importantly, he was still as generous as ever.

As Leonard saw it, he confirmed one thing.

'They can handle this already.' They didn't need him guiding them anymore.

Everyone was in place even without his guidance.

'This is good,' he chuckled.

Leonard moved among the crowd with a calm pace. There was a friendly smile on his face. He wanted to interact with the crowd more closely, maybe get their opinion.

It is also a way for him to know their needs.

'What a genius mind I have,' Leonard playfully grinned.

What he's doing now is just market research, but make it a medieval version.

"So, how's the game treating you so far?" Strolling to the crowd, Leonard asked a man with flushed cheeks and a pouch full of coins that he had just won. The man laughed, showing a row of missing teeth.

"Better than my wife back home, that's for sure!" he barked, and the people around him roared in amusement.

Leonard laughed too, clapping the man on the back before moving on.

At another corner, a group of younger men was arguing about their bets. Leonard leaned down slightly, speaking just loud enough so they could hear him.

"Hello, my friends. Is it your first time here?" he asked them. He noticed that they were new faces.

One of them turned, startled.

"Y-Yeah… uh, the place is wild," the boy admitted. His eyes darted around the packed room, almost overwhelmed.

Leonard chuckled. "It gets easier when you win," he said. Just after saying that, the table erupted with laughter. The nervous boy's eyes widened, taking his eyes off Leonard.

"We won!"

"WHAT? WE WON?" He suddenly cheered with the crowd, momentarily forgetting about Leonard.

Left alone, Leonard just laughed and kept on walking around. He talked with others and joked around. To his surprise, people eagerly talked back to him, even the new faces.

Since he was feeling generous today, he would give the people he talked to a silver coin in secret. Their reaction was priceless every time, but he told them to keep it quiet.

"Interesting… so this is what it's like from the other side," he muttered to himself. He enjoyed talking to the people more than he thought.

Leonard's steps slowed when he noticed a group of men gathered at the corner table. Their faces weren't new. He remembered them from the earlier days when he first opened this on the market.

At this point, they were regulars now. They were the kind of men who came every day with the same loud laughter and eager hands tossing coins, even if they lost sometimes.

"Oi! Look who it is!" one of them shouted when they spotted Leonard walking toward them.

"Leonard!" Another stood up and waved exaggeratedly, his cheeks red from excitement.

"Hah, the man himself!"

The table erupted with cheers, and the men grinned ear to ear as Leonard approached them.

"Thanks to you, I've been bringing home more money than ever!" one of them said, slapping his pouch of coins on the table with a grin. "My wife actually smiled when I came home last night! For the first time in months!"

The others immediately joined in.

"My wife stopped nagging me, too!" another chimed, earning a round of laughter. "Before, she used to scold me every day. Now she even serves me breakfast in the morning, saying I should work hard. If only she knew I'm just lucky here! Hahaha!"

"Same here, same here!" another man barked out, his round belly jiggling as he laughed. "Yesterday we even had a good time! Hahaha! She said it's my reward for working hard! If she knew it was dice that did the trick, she'd probably faint!"

The group laughed together, sharing the same experience. Leonard couldn't help but throw his head back and laugh with them, his hand resting on his hip as he shook his head.

"You guys…" he said between chuckles, "if your wives knew the truth, you'd all be sleeping outside."

That only made them laugh harder, wiping their eyes and clutching their stomachs.

But then, one of the men leaned closer to Leonard, his voice lowered a little as if he was about to share a secret.

"But you know, Leonard… you should bring in drinks here."

The others immediately perked up, nodding.

"Yeah! That's right!"

"And maybe continue the games later, too, until night!"

"Exactly! That way we can work during the day, bring in more coin, then come here at night to gamble and drink!"

"I agree! The night is always too young, after all!

"Just imagine it! Dice rolling, beer flowing… Our wives will think we're working harder than ever! HAHAHA!"

Their laughter boomed, filling the corner and getting a few attention. Leonard stood there, watching the group laugh and slap each other's shoulders as they shared more of their experiences.

However, his attention was not on them anymore. They were at the words that had just been said.

Drinks.

Night games.

More coin to spend.

He rubbed his chin slowly, his lips twitching upward into a sly smile.

'Drinks, huh… that's not a bad idea.'

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