Spending My Retirement In A Game

Chapter 287 - The Truest Magic Of All

With a light smile, Stahl stepped away from the player, whose face showed that he would want to rip off Stahl’s head with his hands just about now, but considering the tangled-up position he was in, any kind of rash movement would cause for the player’s own head to be ripped off instead.

And so, as everyone in the Auction House avoided Stahl due to what had just happened, the young man stepped up to Evalia, before then placing his left hand onto his own back lightly and extending his right hand toward the young woman. "Shall we go, my Dear?" Stahl asked with a smile, before Evalia snapped out of it as well and nodded her head with a smile.

"Of course, Honey. Thank you for showing that rat its place." She responded, before taking Stahl’s hand as the two of them swiftly left the auction house.

One of the guards was trying to follow them, but they had already slipped into the nearest alley and had Evalia change them back into their regular outfits and appearances, while the young artist swiftly put on her mask and cloak.

The Guard looked at them suspiciously for a moment, but then immediately moved on in search of the two people that had caused such an immense ruckus.

"Huh, that went a lot better than I thought it would." Stahl said with a wry smile as he scratched the back of his head, before looking over at Evalia, who still seemed to be quite baffled from what happened.

"Better than you thought? That was amazing! Where’d you learn moves like that?" She asked, before Stahl just shrugged. "I really don’t know. I activated any skills that could improve my footwork even a little bit, my martial arts skills and my dancing skill. And that seemed to have worked pretty well, because my body basically dodged on its own there." He explained as he scratched the back of his head, and Evalia just smiled at him.

"That’s honestly amazing! I had not the slightest clue that you could do that! But how did you get the idea to take his belt and do all that? That in itself is really impressive." She exclaimed, but Stahl simply shook his head.

"Just came to me, I guess? I was trying to look around and figure out what I could use as a weapon, when I saw the belt. I took it off of him, got the Pickpocketing skill, and then... yeah, then all that afterward happened just kind of intuitively, but it worked out a lot better than I thought it would." He said with a smile, before moving on to something more important. "Did you get anything about his name? A guy walking around and letting his chat decide what to do seems pretty troublesome."

"Definitely, especially considering he has the kind of chat that would want to kill random people. Alright, I’ve got to give it to them, we were pretty despicable." She replied with a wry smile, and Stahl, without any hesitation, nodded his head.

"True, you were a bit of a bitch in there." He said with a blank expression while scratching the back of his head, before Evalia simply punched his side. "You weren’t any better, asshole." Evalia replied with a smirk, before Stahl laughed back and put his arm over Evalia’s shoulders as the two of them started walking out of the alley.

"Alright, then let’s just be assholes and bitches together." He said with a smirk, before opening his status window and checking his skills. "Nice, that whole thing helped me level the skill up by 70 Levels!" Stahl exclaimed excitedly, before Evalia nodded her head and leaned against Stahl as they walked.

"I figured that would happen. You stayed completely in that role the whole time. It was kind of scary for a moment, actually." Evalia admitted, and Stahl rubbed the side of her arm.

"Don’t worry, I’m not actually that scary. I’m just a really, really good actor." Stahl sighed, as if trying to get rid of the bothersome weight of pure talent, and Evalia just laughed in response.

"Sure you are. Anyway, we should probably figure out another role for now, right?" Evalia asked, and Stahl slowly nodded his head, trying to figure out what they should do next, before it came to him. "Hmm, do they have playing cards anywhere around here?" Stahl asked curiously, and Evalia looked at him surprised.

"Playing cards? Why that?" She asked, and Stahl simply grinned at her.

"Because I just figured out what we’re doing next."

---

"Come one, come all, and see the wonderful magic of this here gentleman!" Stahl exclaimed loudly as he stood there in the middle of the marketplace in an outfit not too dissimilar to what he was wearing in the other ’performance’, just that the suit he was wearing now was extremely colorful and bright. Of course he attracted a bit of attention, although most just dismissed him. Magic was an everyday thing, after all. But then, Stahl swiftly took the chance when he saw a curious child gazing over toward him as he was passing Stahl and Evalia, who this time around didn’t change her own appearance.

Swiftly, Stahl rushed over to him and literally slid across the ground to kneel in front of the child and his mother, who looked at him confused. But Stahl just payed attention to the child. "Hello, little boy! Are you having a wonderful day with your beautiful mother?" Stahl asked, at the same time trying to butter up the mother as well, before the young boy slowly nodded his head.

"That is such a great thing to here! Kid, do you want a candy?" The young man asked with a smile, before the boy tilted his head to the side while Stahl presented the candies from a well-known store that was actually within sight of Stahl’s current performance. Slowly, the boy looked up to his mother, who shook her head suspiciously, so the boy did the same.

"Awe, shuck! Seems like I missed the mark with Apple-Flavor, huh?" Stahl asked as he hung his head low disappointedly, before rasing his finger, to show that he got an idea. Of course, all of the noise slowly attracted some people that wanted to see what was going on, and as Stahl was acting quite goofily, everyone seemed to notice that he was just a regular old, albeit weird, street performer.

"Alright, let’s do this, alright? Here, I know a really cool magic to let us change the flavor! I’ll place this into my hand, and then you need to press onto the candy as hard as you pooossibly can and then say the flavor you want, alright?" Stahl asked with a smile, before the boy looked up to his mother again, just that she this time nodded her head, a little curious now herself.

So, Stahl placed the small Apple-Flavored candy onto his palm, before extending it toward the boy, who did as Stahl had told him and pressed down onto Stahl’s hand with his, before saying, "Cherry!" in a truly adorable voice. And with a grin, Stahl nodded his head.

"Perfect choice, kiddo! Now, take a look at-" Stahl exclaimed before opening his palm, revealing that it was completely empty, not even the candy that was there before could be found anywhere. "Huh? Where’d it go?"

The young performer asked with a scared tone, before turning his head hurriedly to see if it dropped onto the ground, before the boy spotted a small red candy laying on the brim of Stahl’s hat. So, with a big smile, he pointed at it.

"Your hat!" He exclaimed, so Stahl stopped and tilted his head to the side confused. "My hat?" Stahl asked, slowly putting his hand onto the very top of the top-hat he was wearing, and then the boy shook his head.

"No, not there!" He said with a giggle, before Stahl moved his fingers down to the rim, patting it everywhere except the spot where the candy actually was.

"Are you sure you’re not lying to me, kid?" Stahl asked with a light frown paired with a small pout, before the boy shook his head. "It’s right there!" The boy yelled out, before Stahl opened his mouth with a big smile.

"Ah, I got it!" He exclaimed, before once more grabbing the top of his hat, simply pulling it off of his head. And what came next was practically a flood of the same bright red, cherry-flavored candy flowing out of it onto Stahl’s body. "You meant that it was inside of my hat the whole time! Good eyes, kid!" Stahl exclaimed with a bright smile, before swiftly picking the candies up from the ground and placing them into the hat, before extending it to the boy.

"Here, take one, kid." He said with a wink, before the boy, with bright, cheerful eyes, grabbed one of the small red candies happily, and with permission from his mother unwrapped it and stuffed it into his mouth.

So immediately afterward, Stahl stood up and walked around the crowd that had formed, specifically to all the kids, offering them some of the candy as well, before swiftly putting the hat back onto his head after returning to the spot he was standing at before, with his back against a wall, while the crowd began to clap a little for him. And next, Stahl looked around at everyone around him and bowed forward with one hand behind his back, while the other one grabbed the, now suddenly empty, top-hat and held it in front of him respectfully.

"Thank you for arriving so soon! This is the only time that I am holding this special performance, so be glad that you got to see it and tell your children, grandchildren, and great grandchildren about this once-in-a-lifetime occurrence!" Stahl exclaimed, just to try and at least somewhat hype everything up more, before he looked around at the crowd and stuffed his hand into the top-hat, before pulling out a set of cards which he swiftly played around with a little bit.

"Now, Ladies and Gentlemen! I would need the assistance of one of you! Are any of you interested?" Stahl asked with a grin, continuing to play around with the cards, before one man raised his hand.

"Ah, there we have it! All of you, applaude our volunteer for a moment!" Stahl exclaimed as he stepped forward toward the man, holding it over toward him. "Pull any one card from this pile, please." The young man was with a smile, before the man from the crowd nodded his head and did so, before Stahl shook his hand for a moment and made a pen appear out of seemingly nowhere.

"Now take this pen, if you please, and draw anything that you wish onto that card!" The performer explained, so the man did so before Stahl took the card again and went around the crowd, simply showing them the card so that everyone knew what it was, before stepping back to the wall he stood in front of before, and then held the deck on one of his palms before pushing the card that the man drew on into the middle of the deck so that everyone could see.

And then, stepped back up to the man with a smile on his face, before grabbing the top card of the deck and flipping it around, revealing the card to the one that the man drew on before.

"Ah shuck, not again! How did I mess up this time..?" Stahl exclaimed with annoyance in his voice, although that was quite clearly part of the act, before holding his finger up as if he got an idea again.

"Hmm, maybe this one works then... If this didn’t work, then how about this!" Stahl exclaimed as he swung his arm forward with the card he grabbed between his middle and index finger, but before anyone could notice, Stahl’s hand was empty.

"Dammit, not again! This time around!" He yelled out once more, and then in a similar fashing swung his hand forward, and a card truly reappeared between his fingers, just that it was the card that the volunteer drew on before.

And now, not only that volunteer, but everyone else was once more quite impressed. Magic was a thing, and these things were definitely possible with elements, but this particular performance somehow didn’t seem to involve any regular magic in the slightest!

But both Stahl and Evalia knew what this really was! It was the incredible power of Sleight of Hand!