MTLNOVEL Chapter 46: Chapter 44
Well, it's been two days since I got the Sephira from Natsumi, but unfortunately I still don't have the perfect place to put it, so I need someone to test it with me.
And the perfect choice has already been made, right now I'm standing in front of Shiori's house door after being invited for lunch.
Ding Dong
I press the doorbell and am soon answered by Kotori with black ribbons who has a clear angry look, although she is blushing. My counterpart in this world has had sex with her much more times than the current me to test something, so this Kotori has even less resistance to pleasure.
"Unff, just come in, you filthy pervert," she says angrily while making space.
"It's easy to insult me during the day." She lowers her head to hide how flushed she is, she's smart, obviously the end of that sentence would be how she acts like a whore at night, she doesn't even complain about being cursed in that way.
Soon I see Yoshino coming down the stairs.
"Oh, Aurelio-kun, you look handsome, did you come to ask Shiori on a date?" Yoshinon, the puppet on Yoshino's hand, "speaks" to me in a playful way.
"Hahaha, actually today I came to invite you on a date," Yoshino looks confused at me.
"Oh, oh? Aurelio-kun is a pervert who likes children?" Yoshinon says playfully in response to what I said.
"No, but nothing prevents us from going out to have fun, right?"
"That's true," he agrees as Yoshino comes down the stairs and waves at me.
'...Her Sephira doesn't have much value, but it's not like I can waste it.' If I have the chance, I'll also get her Sephira, although I don't know if Shiori can withstand multiple Sephiras in her body.
I enter the house and go with Yoshino to the TV, while doing so I already create unnoticeable barriers in her to speed up the process, I want to put at least one more Sephira in her to see how I can do this safely with Shiori.
"Aurelio-kun, shall we play a game? Or are you going to be afraid of losing? I'm very good at it," Yoshinon speaks provocatively while Yoshino holds a board game.
"Of course, I'm always ready for a good game, the others can join too, what do you think?"
"Perfect." Yoshino places the board on the table and goes to get the others. Shiori is currently cooking, so she won't be able to participate. After about 5 minutes, Kotori, the Yamai sisters, and Tohka appear to play.
Tohka looks at me competitively.
'...'
"What are the rules?"
"Fufufu, I'm glad you asked. We're going to play 'dodge or face'. You roll the dice and then move the number of spaces you rolled. After everyone has played, the one who moved the most spaces can apply a punishment to another player."
"And the other player can either accept the punishment or pass it on to the next player, but they can't pass it to someone with a higher number," Yoshinon explains with exaggerated movements of his puppet hand.
'Seems easy.'
"We'll play with this 32-sided die, and the winner is the one who can complete 18 laps first."
As soon as he explains, we decide the turn order through rock-paper-scissors, and in the end, the order is me first, followed by Tohka, Yoshino, Yoshino, Yuzuru, Kaguya, and Kotori.
I start by rolling the die and using the barrier to manipulate the trajectory, ending up with a 29. I could have gotten a 32, but I don't want to raise too much suspicion of cheating.
The results are soon recorded in a table.
[Aurelio = 29
Kotori = 20
Yuzuru = 19
Kaguya = 17
Yoshino = 8
Yoshinon = 7
Tohka = 2]
"It seems I get to choose the punishment..." I say, but then I realize I don't know what to do.
"Yoshino, what punishments can I give?"
"Fufufufufu," Yoshinon laughs evilly like a cartoon character.
"Once you start playing 'dodge or face', you can't stop until the game is over, and the winner can choose any punishment for the loser, as long as it's not ordering them to lose and nothing repeated."
"!!!" Everyone looks surprised at Yoshinon, as they didn't know these conditions. Yoshino hides her face, embarrassed at having so many people staring at her.
"Then I'll punish... Yoshinon. Until the end of the game, he must remain silent." This reduces the chances of him helping Yoshino.
"I'll pass it to Tohka," Yoshino passes the punishment to Tohka.
"Huh? What? Me? Why?" Tohka gets all confused when the punishment goes to her.
"Tohka, the punishments can't be passed to those with higher numbers," I tell Tohka the obvious rule of the game. Yoshinon is the second-to-last, so he could only punish Tohka.
Tohka soon makes a sullen face, but doesn't say anything.
'He's more cunning than I thought...' I swore Yoshinon would accept the punishment, who would have thought he'd pass it to the poor Tohka.
"Come on, let's keep going!" Kaguya interrupts.
"Encouragement = Yuzuru agrees with Kaguya, let's roll the dice again," Yuzuru encourages what Kaguya said, so we start rolling the dice again, in the same order as the highest number down, so I'm first again.
[Aurelio = 24
Yoshinon = 23
Yuzuru = 15
Kotori = 14
Kaguya = 10
Yoshino = 3
Tohka = 1]
Tohka seems irritated, but can't speak. If she doesn't fulfill the punishment, she's eliminated from the game.
"Okay, I won again, so I'll punish... Kotori. She can't leave her spot until the game is over."
"Is that all? Hahaha, you outdid yourself on this one, Aurelio, I accept this punishment," she says disdainfully.
"Great." I get up and push the table where the game board is.
"...!!!"
"HEY, THAT'S CHEATING!!!" Kotori yells at me.
"Cheating? I just moved the table because I wasn't comfortable with the angle," I say maliciously. No one says anything because it's not really cheating, that's the intent of the game.
It was never about reaching the end by completing all the laps, it's about eliminating the competitors until only you are left.
"Anyway, shall we roll the dice?" I say with a smirk, and soon everyone starts rolling the dice, and the most obvious thing happens - Kotori is eliminated because she can't get up to grab the die or move her piece.
"You'll pay dearly for this, you cheating Aurelio," Kotori mutters sulkily on the sofa, her eyes seeming to bore into my head.
[Tohka = 27
Aurelio = 24
Yoshinon = 18
Yoshino = 14
Yuzuru = 13
Kaguya = 10]
This time I deliberately made Tohka win, and the reason is quite simple.
"I won! I'm going to punish..." Tohka speaks excitedly.
"Tohka is out," Yoshinon and I say at the same time, while Yoshino giggles.
"W-What? Why?" Tohka asks, not understanding.
"You spoke," Kaguya says, barely containing her laughter. The moment Tohka could no longer speak, she lost the game. Of course, she could have used paper and pen or charades, but she's not smart enough to think of that.
She angrily leaves the game, her eyes furious as she looks at Yoshinon, who gave her that punishment.
Once again, I'm first, since I was previously in second place and the first place was eliminated. We all roll the dice, and the results are complicated for some.
[Aurelio = 32
Yoshinon = 31
Yoshino = 18
Yuzuru = 4
Kaguya = 3]
'Yoshinon was very lucky...' I didn't do anything with the die, so he rolled a 31 on his own merit, unlike me, who is meticulously manipulating the die's rotation.
"I'm going to punish... Kaguya. She has to punish Yoshinon for the next 3 rounds." So we play the next 3 rounds, and every time I make Kaguya win, and each time she punishes Yoshinon, who passes his punishments to Yuzuru.
And now in the fourth round, the winner was Yuzuru, and the first thing she does is apply the punishment to the one who has been hindering her.
"Punishment = I apply the punishment to Kaguya. She must roll a number above 20 on the next roll or be eliminated."
"!!!" Kaguya gets nervous, and as soon as we move on to the next round, the results are:
[Aurelio = 20 Yoshino = 18 Yoshinon = 17 Yuzuru = 8 Kaguya = 1]
"Confirmation = Kaguya is like the summer breeze and couldn't withstand a true daughter of the typhoon and her gale." Kaguya leaves the table, probably because she's very competitive and lost quickly, while Yuzuru continues.
And Yuzuru realizes and seems to feel a bit bad, but that's natural in competitive games.
"I'm going to punish Yuzuru. Yuzuru, without your twin, you'll be eliminated in the next round." And so Yuzuru is out of the game for having eliminated her partner.
Yuzuru doesn't seem sad to lose and goes to Kaguya's side, though she doesn't apologize. It's clear she feels very bad for hurting Kaguya.
"It looks like only 3 are left..." I say as I roll the die. After everyone rolls the dice, the result is:
[Aurelio = 7
Yoshinon = 5
Yoshino = 1]
"I'm punishing Yoshinon. The punishment is... uhm... If he doesn't punish someone else, he'll lose the game." Yoshinon is in a dilemma.
If he doesn't accept the punishment, he'll be eliminated, but if he does, he'll have to eliminate Yoshino, who would have to eliminate someone else when there's no one below her.
"I... lost," Yoshinon says with false sadness.
"Hahaha, you got me, Aurelio-kun," he says, raising his arms.
"It's just the two of us left." I decide to leave this to chance. I roll the die, and she does too, and the results are:
"..."
[Yoshino = 32
Aurelio = 1]
"..." I don't think anyone expected such a glaring difference.
"I-I punish A-Aurelio-kun... you can't move a single space or you lose." And so I inevitably lose by moving, as moving is mandatory.
"Congratulations, Yoshino, you beat me." I genuinely congratulate her. She won when I stopped cheating.