[V3C14] Men Who Gamble With ******
Translated by Jodas 3: The Fateful BrothersRose and Oliver led Wren to a break room somewhere in the First Spire: White Smoke.
It was a simple room containing nothing but tables and chairs, but it got used quite frequently, and even now he could see people here and there chatting and laughing.
When Wren sat down in front of a table in the corner of the room, he slid over some chairs and motioned for Wren and Oliver to sit down as well.
Once all three of them were seated around the circular table, Rose pulled a small box out from his jacket pocket.
“Let’s try this!”
The box had a brilliant pattern printed on it. The pattern was intricate enough, and the color of the ink was vibrant enough that he could tell at a glance that this was not made in some backwater country town.
“A card game?”
“Yeah! It’s a really popular one back home!”
He’d seen his brothers at home play games like this before.
The cards in Rose’s hands were no less fancy than the ones his brothers played with.
As Rose took the cards out of the box, Wren fearfully asked.
“…..Is it okay for me to touch these?”
“You won’t be able to play if you don’t touch them!”
Rose smiled brightly as he handed a set of cards to Wren.
They felt good in his hands, clearly the sensation of high-quality paper. Wren’s heart raced as he flipped over each card.
Pictures of dragons’ claws, wings, and so on decorated the face of each card. They were all incredibly detailed images, with gorgeous colors.
“So cool……”
Wren suppressed his nervous feeling and looked at Rose.
“Hey, how do you play with these?”
“First, we pass out cards to everyone, then you take turns drawing a card from the deck. Whoever completes their hand the first wins. There are a bunch of different winning hands, and the harder a hand is, the more points it’s worth.”
Rose took a folded piece of paper out of the box.
There it explained in small text the details about winning hands and counting score. However, it was in a foreign language.
“Is this……Ridillian?”
“Yeah. Do you want me to translate it for you?”
“No, I can read a little bit of it.”
While stuck in his house, he would take every opportunity to collect all of the old books in the house and try his best to read them, and among those were ones written in the Ridillian language.
The Kingdom of Ridill was situated to the West of the Empire, and often conducted business with Imperial merchants.
The words written on the page were written with clear, rigid letters, making it very easy to read.
“Umm, so the hands are different races of dragon, huh……and the Black and White Dragons are worth the most points, is that right?”
“Correct!”
Games like this where you calculated points generally involved betting money.
Wren was a little worried.
“I don’t really have a lot of money on me though…..”
“No problem.”
It was Oliver who made that declaration. He took a small cloth bag out of his pocket and placed it on the table.
“We will be betting with these. I’ll give you some as a special treat.”
Oliver slid the bag across the table towards Wren.
They’d be betting with this instead of money—he wondered what it could be.
(Gems? Or some kind of scary drugs…….)
Wren trembled as he peeked inside the bag.
Packed inside were countless tiny round, shiny, brown nuts—acorns.
Wondering if maybe they were something else disguised as acorns, Wren picked one out of the bag and inspected it, to which Oliver snorted.
“No need to worry. I’ve made sure to steam all of them. I’ve made all precautions to ensure there are no bugs inside.”
“No, that’s not what I was worried about……Really, we’re betting with these?”
“Indeed. The large, round acorns are worth ten of the small ones. The ones with hats are worth five times more.”
Rose smiled widely at the flustered Wren.
“You can use pebbles as well to count score, but don’t acorns feel more special?”
These two full-grown adults were betting on card games with acorns as the prize.
(…….What in the world is going on?)
While Wren was distracted by the acorns, Rose began shuffling and dealing the cards.
“Let’s try it out. It’s a lot faster to learn that way.”
“Ah, yeah…..”
There was a lot he wanted to say about this, but he was a lot more comfortable than if he had been told to bet with his money. Wren listened to Rose’s explanation as the game started.
He had fun playing a card game for the first time.
Wren was a fast learner, so he quickly understood the rules and by the third game managed to complete his hand and acquire an acorn with a beautiful hat.
“I did it!”
“Wren, you’re a real quick learner, huh~”
“Hehe, am I? Oh, is it okay if I shuffle this time?”
“Sure thing!”
While he had his reservations, Wren felt happy to be complimented by Rose, as gathered the gorgeous cards and awkwardly tried to shuffle them.
Then, as he moved his hands, Wren mumbled.
“……Hey.”
“What’s up?”
“……..Are you guys just being nice to me?”
Beneath Rose’s fuzzy red hair, he stole a glance at Oliver.
Oliver nodded with his usual placid attitude.
“Rose suggested we do something to cheer you up, because you seemed upset after Tia and Julius had a fight.”
“Ah, haha, of course it was that…..”
Wren hung his head and smiled bitterly while shuffling the cards.
It was frustrating when adults took care of him. It was embarrassing. It made him feel uncool.
However, Wren also knew there was a part of him that was glad to have somebody looking out for him.
“I was the son of a rich man’s mistress, so I never really had any friends around me……”
He was certain that these two weren’t the type to make fun of him.
That’s why Wren allowed his true feeling to come pouring out.
“I’ve only known Tia for a short time, but…..for some reason, I’d thought……Maybe we were already friends.”
That was why Tia’s scream that she didn’t want any friends hurt him so much.
Wren wasn’t an idiot. He could understand that Tia probably had some bad memories about the concept of friends.
On top of that, Tia was a Harpy. It was doubtful whether or not she fully understood what the word ‘friend’ means in the first place.
Even then, Wren wanted Tia to think of him as her friend.
Rose responded “I see,”
His response carried the feeling that he wanted to gently receive Wren’s words and quietly express his sympathy.
Rose spoke with a somewhat nostalgic tone.
“Long ago, I also desperately wanted friends……Back then, I thought that you didn’t become friends unless you said ‘Let’s be friends!’ and that unless you confirmed ‘we’re friends, right?’ then you weren’t really friends yet.”
The exasperated feeling of who does that? coexisted inside Wren’s mind alongside the feeling of I kinda get it.
After all, Wren wanted to confirm it himself. We’re friends, aren’t we?
As Wren stood on the border of conflicting emotions, Rose smiled peacefully.
“But, you know, that’s not how you and Tia got close to each other, was it?”
“……Yeah.”
“I’m sure Tia has some bad memories about friends.”
“……I think so, too.”
“That’s why you just need to wait until Tia stops hating the idea of friends. Study together, eat meals together……and play card games like this!”
Rose’s words didn’t sound like orders from above, but advice thought up from the same level where Wren was at.
Rose was saying not to be a stranger, but to wait alongside Tia as her classmate.
“……Can I invite Tia and Sevil next time?”
“Of course! Games are more fun when you play them in big groups! I want to try it with other people as well. Right, Oliver?”
“Indeed.” Oliver nodded, and looked at Wren. His clear line of sight told no lies.
“If you want to think of Tia as your friend, then keep thinking that way. Just like no matter what my brother tells me, I will always think of him as my brother.”
Wren couldn’t help himself from pursing his lips.
“Oliver, maybe you should communicate a little more. He tried to kill you!”
“No. He only tried to crush my throat and legs.”
“That’s way too violent for a siblings’ quarrel!”
Suddenly, Wren thought back. Now that he thought of it, Sevil recently tried to enact a coup d’état against her half-brother as well.
Wren had been bullied a lot by his half-brothers, but he still found himself surrounded by much worse examples of sibling quarrels. These were scary enough to make his nerves tingle.
(However, Oliver is cheering me on in his own way……)
That made Wren a little happier.
He wasn’t as gentle as Rose, but Oliver was still the kind of adult who treats kids with respect.
Wren stroked the back of the shiny, high-quality deck of cards he had just shuffled.
Playing games, by itself, hadn’t solved anything. However, this time gave Wren’s injured heard a little reprieve.
And the confidence…… to wait until Tia no longer hates the idea of friends.
“Thank you, Rose, Oliver. I feel a little better now……. Yeah, I feel like my pretty boy power is coming back.”
Rose and Oliver smiled kindly.
Seeing them like this, Wren thought these two really are grown-ups.