135 — Camping (5)

“To lose to the Red one. To lose to the Red one.”

These words kept coming out of Rurin’s mouth.

And my dice stopped at 3. When I moved my piece, I landed on another golden key. It’s definitely better than landing on Sereina’s land. Sereina has the most land, and I have the second most.

If a misfortune card comes out, there’s nothing I can do, but it shouldn’t be worse than paying the toll, right?

Elena picked up a golden key card and began reading it. I hoped it was a fortune card as I looked at Elena.

“You can unleash a breath on the opponent’s land. The land hit by the breath will be scorched…it says.”

“What? That, that…I made that…”

Sereina looked at me and Rurin in confusion. Sereina seemed to have bad luck like me.

Unlike Rurin, who seemed to be blessed by the goddess of luck.

She had never drawn her own card, only Rurin’s, and was grumbling about it.

“Indeed, as you said, it’s fair. Since there’s no trickery, it’s very fair.”

“That’s not right! Hey, wait! Isn’t it better to send Rurin away here? It’s not real, so think about the competition coldly, human!”

“Well, I’m about to enter a danger zone like Rurin, so I’ll have to destroy the most expensive land in that area.”

“You scammers! Con artist couple…! Elena, help me, this is cheating!”

“Huh? But… the card just says the opponent…”

“Damn, ugh, I should have made it excluding me!”

Sereina scratched her head in frustration. Then, Rurin, who had been drooping with a dying expression, started smiling as if a ray of dawn had come from the sky.

“That’s my dear! I’ll forgive you for not lending me money earlier. So destroy the Red one’s land!”

“Well, that’s right here. There’s a greater risk of landing on Sereina’s land than on Rurin’s.”

I nodded and destroyed the most dangerous of Sereina’s lands, Elena’s Clinic.

“Ugh, my, my clinic…”

“It’s not actually blown up or anything. The owner of that land is just gone. Huhu. I’ll buy it.”

“Re-really?”

Elena’s pronunciation slipped in response to my casual remark. Really.

“Yeah? If I can buy it.”

When I shrugged again, Elena’s eyes sparkled for some reason, and she clenched her fist tightly.

And Sereina collapsed on the floor.

“Hehehe, then I won’t lose if I roll a 6!”

That’s right. The space blocking Rurin’s path from 1 to 6, all Sereina’s land, now had a breath of life. That’s the light of dawn.

“This can’t be… Tch. Well, it’s not like you’ll roll a 6 every time.”

Sereina said that and rolled the dice again. The number was 6.

“Another golden key.”

“Indeed.”

Elena said that and read the golden key.

“You can roll the dice once more.”

“That’s ordinary.”

“It’s not ordinary. It’s good because you can receive a salary.”

Indeed, if Sereina rolls the dice once more, she will complete another lap and receive a salary.

According to the rules, you receive 5,000 Linds as a salary after completing a lap on the board.

“Well, as long as I don’t roll a 6.”

But Sereina had one worry. If she rolls a 6, she lands on <Hilltop Restaurant>.

And currently, <Hilltop Restaurant> has two hotels.

It’s a bomb-like land that means instant bankruptcy if you land on it. It’s one of the two lands Rurin owns.

The dice rolled.

A few seconds later.

Soon, Sereina’s loud scream echoed through the cave ceiling.

“Aaaaaah! This is impossible!”

To summarize, in the next turn, Rurin must roll a 6 to avoid bankruptcy.

And Sereina could roll anything but a 6 and be safe. In terms of probability, Sereina had the overwhelming advantage. But something unbelievable happened in front of us.

From Rurin’s perspective, it was like a miracle.

From Sereina’s perspective, it was like hell.

Rurin’s strong luck was at work.

It’s scary. Such terrifying luck.

I’ve known it since losing at the claw machine back then.

The dice Sereina threw clearly, without any controversy, showed a 6.

“Hehehe! It’s my land! Finally, I receive tolls for the first time!”

Rurin, who seemed to be half-dead about five minutes ago, came back to life and started jumping around.

Is this the danger of gambling? How can the situation suddenly change 180 degrees like this?

Maybe taking Sereina’s land and breaking her momentum exploded Rurin’s luck?

The luck had shifted.

Hehehe.

“Elena! This, this is a con artist couple’s trick! Tell me it’s true! There’s no way I should be in last place!”

“That’s not true…neither of you have lied…. I can see that.”

Sereina buried her face in Elena’s stomach and started sobbing, while Elena looked back and forth between me and Rurin, patting Sereina’s back.

Of course, Elena, being who she is, couldn’t pat Sereina openly. She did it very carefully, hesitantly, just touching Sereina’s back with her fingertips, then gently stroking her, and so on.

“Waaah!”

Sereina struggled. But she was bankrupt. All of Sereina’s money went to Rurin.

“Hehehe. You, I have a lot of money!”

Rurin jumped up and down, completely out of her mind, in front of me.

“It’s all thanks to me, everything is thanks to me.”

“Well, I’ll give you that. It’s thanks to you. But a match is a match. I won’t go easy on you!”

When she asked for money, but now she won’t go easy.

She’s scary when she has a trump card. I needed to stay sharp to avoid ending up like Sereina.

Anyway, Rurin grabbed the dice with a big smile. This made Rurin’s assets 90,000 Linds, paid by Sereina as tolls. Sereina went bankrupt for lacking 10,000 Linds.

My current assets are 30,000 Linds.

I have 6 pieces of land.

Rurin has 2 pieces of land.

Landing on Rurin’s land means destruction.

So, to be safe, I needed to acquire more land. The only way to slowly reduce those 90,000 Linds was to expand my land without landing on Rurin’s.

It was unfavorable.

The money difference was too great.

Still, with only 2 pieces of land, there was a glimmer of hope.

Rurin rolled the dice.

The dice rolled.

The dice pointed to 4, and the destination was the Miliorrek Mountains.

It was Sereina’s land, but now empty due to her bankruptcy.

“But I don’t need it. I have a lot of money!”

If you have a lot of money, you should buy land to expand, geez.

Rurin shook her head without even looking at the land card. How could she have more money than me with such nonsense? She’s just a lucky one.

I sighed and threw the dice.

And this time, it was another golden key. Honestly, these golden keys all over the place hold the keys to the game.

Elena picked the card up with a tense face.

“Oh?”

She made a strange face and looked back and forth between me and Rurin. Then she began to read the card in a textbook tone.

“So, it says…if you kiss Na.Ru.Rin, I will give you all my land! Hehe.”

“What? Why did you write in first person on the golden key?”

“Argh!”

Rurin quickly grabbed the card and glared at Sereina.

“This, this! This is the card I tried once and threw away! I couldn’t win with this, so I set the kiss trap on the uninhabited island!”

“Sorry, sorry, I added it because it seemed fun.”

Sereina, who had been lying in Elena’s arms with a soulless expression after going bankrupt, suddenly came to life and started laughing hysterically.

“Hahaha! I added the card, so it’s absolutely valid. The card is in effect.”

Sereina giggled with a face of pure joy, while Rurin started to tear up.

“I’ve already secured the kiss. So I don’t need this! You already said you’d kiss earlier… This is mmph?”

My lips touched Rurin’s.

Rurin’s softness transmitted through my lips to my brain. I couldn’t see her expression well, but she must have been very surprised.

Since everyone was watching, I kept it brief. The card didn’t say anything about a deep kiss.

Yes, the world of competition is cold. I had to execute it before any more words were said.

I pulled away and looked at Elena.

Elena’s face turned red, and she didn’t know what to do, pinching her thigh tightly for some reason.

“Now, Rurin’s land is mine, right?”

But there was no answer.

“Elena?”

When I asked again, Elena finally nodded.

“Yes, yes! That’s right. The golden key is absolute, and since Sereina is bankrupt too.”

“What is this… What is this… I like it but I don’t. Huuu.”

And Rurin collapsed, her body sliding down as she leaned against the wall.

Rurin, who had lost her will.

In the end, the match was easily my victory.

“Well then, Rurin, do the dishes. And the last place, Sereina, will clean and build the camp. Elena and I will rest.”

“Wuuuu-”

“This is annoying! Building a camp!”

The two started complaining. Well, whatever.

---

Sereina was using a lot of mana outside the cave to move trees and build a cabin.

And Rurin started washing dishes while grumbling.

“I should be lounging around, how did it come to this?”

She scrubbed the dishes hard, complaining about the injustice.

“You, dishwashing is hard.”

Rurin, standing shakily as if on the verge of collapsing, forcibly washed the dishes while complaining about the difficulty, but I responded with a smile.

“Don’t break anything, take it easy.”

Actually, there’s nothing that can break, since these are camping containers.

“If it breaks, it’s weak.”

But Rurin often broke things while washing dishes at the restaurant.

“You’re just strong.”

“I don’t know! I’m weaker than you.”

Rurin grumbled and focused on washing dishes again. After eating and playing the game, a brief peace continued.

And before we knew it, Sereina’s construction was complete.

“Whew, there, two cabins. One for us, one for you guys. Two in total.”

“Oh my! They’re so pretty!”

Elena exclaimed, looking at the two cabins.

They were well built.

They were really simple cabins, but built this way, there’s nothing to nitpick.

Rurin made a face at that, biting her lip. She looked frustrated that she couldn’t find anything to criticize.

A cabin is a cabin. If you climb the ladder, there’s a sleeping area made of wood.

Moonlight pouring in through the hole in the cave ceiling and the artificial lighting we created in the cave sparkled on the lake.

The view from the cabin was quite beautiful.

“Hmph, it’s nothing special. I could make it better.”

“You?”

“Yes.”

“Then go ahead.”

“I don’t want to.”