269 — Throw It (1)

This was the season when Rurin made bibim-guksu with truffles. It was still a hot summer day.

“Going in? No, please let me in. Damn it, I’m going in! Let me in…! I’m telling you, I’m going in! Shall we go? Let’s go, you bastard, ugh! I don’t care, get out of the way!”

“What is this, no Red allowed!”

On the way from the restaurant to the lair.

Sereina was causing a commotion in front. Asking to be let in by Rurin showed how desperate Sereina’s state of mind was.

“Stop right there!”

Then a voice was heard. It seemed like Sereina had broken through Rurin and charged into the lair.

Rurin chased after her.

“Ms. Sereina?”

Elena’s voice was heard again.

Curious, I moved from the kitchen to the lair entrance, where Elena was standing hesitantly, unsure what to do.

“Mr. El!”

“What’s going on? There was crying, shouting, and fighting—it was chaos.”

When I approached and asked, Elena scratched her cheek lightly, looking somewhat embarrassed.

“Ms. Sereina said she was too hot and wanted to go on a summer retreat, so she came here. Then she said it was unbearable and barged in.”

“A summer retreat…to the lair?”

“I’m sorry!”

Elena quickly bowed her head. Of course, it wasn’t really Elena’s fault.

“Well, that can happen. The lair is cool, so you should come in too, Ms. Elena.”

“Really?”

If you picked the best place for summer retreat in this world, it would be our lair.

For Sereina, magically cooling a certain space in the clinic might be possible, but the clinic itself was too cramped and stuffy.

Sereina had to physically charge because teleporting to the lair was impossible. To teleport to the lair, one must break the barrier Rurin created, meaning they must be stronger than Rurin.

Thanks to the Dragon Orb, Rurin had grown stronger, making that impossible.

“As expected, it’s cool!”

“It’s hot because of you! Go to your lair!”

“My lair?”

Inside the lair, Rurin was already strangling Sereina’s neck.

“It’s just full of spider webs there. Just thinking about rebuilding it makes me hot.”

“Then I’ll destroy it completely.”

“You’re ridiculous!”

These two dragons fight like children whenever they meet. When they’re together, I can’t tell if I’m in a kindergarten or an elementary school.

“Rurin, stop that and come here. It’s your lair, you’re free to come and go.”

“Hohoho. That’s right? El really knows what’s up. That’s why I like him.”

“What? Whaaat did you sayyy! Red thing! What did you just sayyyyy!”

Kwaaang!

Rurin flared up. Unable to contain her anger, she unleashed her breath.

“Are you an idiot? I wasn’t saying I liked him like that, I meant friendship. You’re so jealous. Would you like it if other humans or dragons started hating El?”

“Huh? Uh? No! El’s cool.”

At Sereina’s words, Rurin stopped spraying her breath suddenly.

“Right, you dummy.”

“Hmm, if that’s the case, I can’t help it. I’ll let it slide.”

Rurin huffed, barely calming down, then approached me. She grabbed my arm by the chin and declared.

“But El hates you. Work on your friendship alone. Hehe.”

“What, you punk?”

“Who are you calling punk!”

Rurin left me and charged at Sereina again. Sereina’s hand flew towards Rurin’s head too. Surely they weren’t about to grab each other’s heads and have a dogfight. Dragons?

“Stop, stop.”

Before that, I grabbed Rurin and pulled her towards me.

“How many times do I have to tell you, Red Dragon, Rurin’s head is precious, don’t touch it.”

“Right. My head is precious. You! Stroke it. There’s a strange aura on it.”

“Is that so?”

I stroked Rurin’s head. It was soft. The scent of the shampoo she recently changed to stimulated my nose.

“……”

Seeing that, Sereina shut her mouth and shook her head.

“Elena. Can you purify me too? There’s a dark aura on my neck.”

“Wh-what? On your neck?”

“Yes.”

“Purify it?”

What are they even doing?

“Rather than fight barbarically, there’s something good to settle this. Let’s do that.”

“Something good? What is it?”

“Yeah? What is it?”

“Actually, it suits winter better, but it doesn’t matter. I recently found it while organizing summoning items. Something fun came with it. I’ll bring it, wait a moment.”

She went to the room and brought the Yutnori board she had prepared.

It was meant for just Rurin and me, but it’d be more fun with more participants.

Rurin and Sereina still looked clueless about the yut sticks. Rurin took the sticks and started examining them this way and that.

“You there. What is this thing?”

It was an unfamiliar item in this world, so both dragons and elves were naturally confused.

“You throw these to decide the winner. Hmm, the winner can make a wish to one of the other three. Of course, no ridiculous wishes, only realistic ones. It’s hot outside and there’s nothing to do in the lair, so it’s perfect to settle your fight.”

“That’s good! Wishes are good.”

“I like it if it’s individual. If you two team up, it’s cheating, so no.”

“Alright, individual is fine too.”

“Okay? How does it work?”

Sereina, who hated the ‘couple scam team,’ showed interest when she heard ‘individual match’.

“I want to play too!”

Elena also raised her hand eagerly.

Everyone expressed willingness to join, so I explained the rules. Yutnori wasn’t a complicated game, so after a quick explanation, we moved to the main room to start.

“Lurun! Rururururunrurun! Rururun!”

While setting up yutnori in the main room, Rurin shouted to the Lurun.

I couldn’t understand, but Sereina immediately spoke.

“Huh? Asking to bring beer?”

“Ah, how did you know!”

“You’re a dragon and I’m a dragon, so it makes sense. Got a problem?”

“This is annoying!”

“Don’t be annoyed, bring mine too.”

“Yours too?”

“Rurururun, rururunrun!”

“Rururun!”

A confusing conversation took place. The Lurun nodded and moved off.

Then Rurin suddenly shouted with a confused “Huh?” expression.

“Oh? No. No need. Just bring mine!”

The Lurun had already left to get beer. Rurin pouted with a wronged expression.

“I accidentally agreed to the Red thing! So frustrating!”

“Hehe, proof you’re still young.”

Sereina shrugged with a winner’s expression. These two dragons fought no matter what. Really.

“Alright then, let’s play rock-paper-scissors to decide who goes first. Each has 4 tokens, and whoever gets all 4 tokens on the board first is first place?”

Nods.

Rurin nodded.

Elena and Sereina also nodded. The order was decided by rock-paper-scissors.

The winner was a dragon.

The order was: Sereina first, Rurin second, me third, Elena fourth.

“This order isn’t especially good for first place. You’re easy to catch.”

“Oh, really? Then I’ll catch the Red one!”

“If you overtake quickly, it’s done.”

Sereina snorted at Rurin’s sarcasm, grabbed the yut sticks, and threw them on the board.

The four yut sticks soared high and landed on the board, rolling over.

The result was “Mo”. Mo. An impressive Mo.

That means all four yut sticks landed flat on the board as intended.

“That’s a ‘Nak’ (fail).”

“What? Why!”

“One went off the board. I clearly explained you have to throw them all onto the board from a certain height.”

“…When?”

“Don’t pretend you didn’t hear that.”

“Cheh! Why are you freaking out about dropping it!”

She remembered it too and couldn’t argue more, just huffed. Sereina’s turn was wasted; next up was Rurin.

“Looks like you can’t throw too high. I’m not a fool like the Red one. Hehe. Yap.”

Rurin timidly rolled the yut sticks. All four rolled on the board.

“Wait, you have to throw at least to your chest height, right?”

“Yeah? Well, that’s true.”

“That dragon just rolled them now?”

“…Is that not okay?”

Rurin looked at me with a dumbfounded face. I wanted to say it was okay, but rules are rules.

“Yeah, that’s right. You have to throw from a certain height.”

“…Uh?”

Rurin shut her mouth and glared at Sereina.

“Anyway, watch me do it. This is how it’s done.”

The first two dragons failed. So I threw the sticks steadily, just to chest height.

All four sticks landed on the board, but the result was “Gae”. Better than Nak, but very ambiguous. Perfect for getting caught.

With no better choice, I moved my token two spaces forward on the board.

Next was Elena.

“Not getting Nak is important, right? Then, like this!”

All eyes on her, Elena carefully threw the sticks in her typical manner, seemingly copying me, exactly to her chest height.

Thanks to that, the sticks landed very steadily.

“So, what was that? Do, was it Do?”

Elena’s ears drooped hearing the result. She realized Do only means advancing one space.

“Hehe, fools. This time I’ll show my skill.”

Sereina, on her turn, grinned confidently and grabbed the sticks.

“No more Nak now. Here we go!”

“Hey, you, no kicking the falling sticks to cause Nak, okay?”

Then Rurin, sitting beside me, leaned her face toward me and whispered.

“Of course not.”

“Why not! I think it should be done aggressively!”

“Kicking? Just watch. If it wasn’t Nak earlier, it’d have been Mo.”

Sereina said that and threw the sticks. They flew up and rolled on the floor, and surprisingly the result was Mo.

“Puhahaha. That’s Sereina for you. Let’s see, if Mo or Yut comes up, you throw again, right?”

Gaining confidence, Sereina threw the sticks powerfully above her head. She adapted; no Nak appeared. Plus, this time it was Yut.

What the?

A pro Yutnori player? Why is she so good?

Including the Nak earlier, that’d be Mo-Mo-Yut.

“Ugh.”

I heard Rurin groan. She was frustrated.

“Hoho, that’s how it is. Lost one more time?”

Sereina threw again with a delighted face, and Do appeared. That was also a good result.

“Hmm, then…one token moves with Mo, one more with Yut, then Do moves it back, then carry it, right? This is the shortcut, right?”

“Y-yeah…”

“Hohohoho!”

Sereina carried two tokens and placed them on the shortcut. She was doing well. Though that case had risks.

“You did well, but you know that if Rurin, I, or Elena get Mo, both tokens get caught there, right?”

“Mo is the hardest to get, right? Then it’s a gamble!”

A gambler, huh.

“The Red one came out, so I’m coming out too!”

Rurin grabbed the sticks shouting she would defeat Sereina.

Earlier she timidly rolled the sticks, but now she threw them high and boldly—maybe too high?

Fortunately, no Nak. The result wasn’t bad. It was Yut.

“Oh! Rurin, well done!”

“Ugh?”

This time, Sereina frowned.

“Hehe, is it Do? Got it.”

Rurin threw the sticks boldly again. No Nak again. This time it was Gae.

Yes, Gae?

“Why isn’t it Do?”

Then she looked at the board and moved her token.

“Then move forward!”

Rurin didn’t catch my token and moved forward with the Gae result.

“Huh? You’re not catching it?”

Rurin nodded at my words.

“I have a plan. I’ll spare you for now.”

Sereina squinted and asked,

“You’re not saying you won’t catch your husband’s token in a wish match, right?”

“No. And I always come in first no matter what!”

Rurin was extremely confident.