The Hero and a Match (Gambling)
Well back on topic, there’s no choice but to do something about the hero who’d lost his temper.
“Even so, I heard that Hero-sama attempted to bring Meat to his room though?”
“Eh!? No no, doesn’t that sound weird!? I just wanted to hear her story since she had black hair.”
“Really… it sounds suspicious… there’s a rumor that the hero proposed to a little girl.”
“T-there’s a reason for… no, it’s nothing.”
Nn? So there was a reason?
… …
Perhaps, did Haku-san tell him to feel around and investigate the relations.h.i.+p between me and Rokuko?
That’d explain his slightly strained conduct. That he confessed so calmly, that he said he wouldn’t leave Rokuko here, and that he broke my table.
Right, this hero was under Haku-san’s control. It just doesn’t look like it. He’s probably here to find a reason to bring Rokuko to the imperial capital. Her reception… well, I can picture Haku-san rolling out the red carpet. With a house of sweets, making an entire room out of melon rolls with melon rolls filling the room.
And since I have to see the hero off safely due to my promise with Haku-san, I can’t afford to start a fight with him. Was his training for this purpose?
Alright, let’s repel him. However, not by injuring him.
“Understood. Then shall we have a match?”
“Huh? A match? … A match!”
Hero Wataru took the bait.
“As you wish, I accept! Well, naturally not a fight to the death, the plaza in front of the cave seems like a good place, what time? I’m good immediately after this though.”
“Wait wait wait. There’s no way that I would challenge Hero-sama in a fight of combat prowess, this. This.”
I showed him a die. A generic six-sided die.
“A six-sided die… A TRPG!? No way, there are rule books too!?”
“I don’t understand what you’re saying, your thoughts are skipping around too much.”
Tabletop role-playing game, TRPG for short. There’s no way that exists in this world.
… Well, when it comes to amus.e.m.e.nt, maybe I should go and popularize it?
“It’s ordinary gambling. We’ll prepare equal amount of chips and victory will be decided by struggling for them. Towers and dice, cee-lo, even cho-han are fine. Do you know the rules?” [1]
“… A while back, I read about them in manga. I don’t know towers and dice though.”
“You roll the dice, taking the amount of chips that there are pips on the faces. You do this three times back to back, with the person with the most chips in the end winning. It’s that kind of thing. In short, roll them three times, the person with the highest total of pips wins.”
“It’s easy to understand. Sounds good.”
“Then, are you fine with using this for the match?”
“Yes.”
Wataru nodded. He appeared strangely self-confident.
“What will we do about dice? Use the ones prepared by the inn?”
“No, I’ve obtained some myself. I went to some lengths to get them after all.”
Wataru took some dice out from his luggage. Probably spoils he picked up from our dungeon.
“Then, let’s let these decide our victory or defeat. Lie detecting magic tools if I win… ah, no. Five hundred additional gold.”
“Then I will take Rokuko-san to the imperial capital if I win. And that child as well.”
When he said ‘that child’ and nominated her, Meat glared at the hero. Her eyes were saying that she’d absolutely never follow him.
Don’t worry, I won’t let him take you. And as for Rokuko—
“Oi oi, I can’t bet my employer at my own convenience. She’s different from my slave.”
“Ueh!? W-what about her being your partner?”
“Huh? I think you’re confusing me with someone else.”
To the last, I’ll be obstinate in saying that I’m a different person than Narikin. To begin with, I can’t make her the bet’s wager!
“You just accepted the match, you can’t back out now.”
“Eeeh—!? T-then umm, uhh… that child, and reducing the table reimburs.e.m.e.nt…”
“… Well that’s fine. I don’t know how Meat is worth five hundred gold though.”
And of course, what we were using were the crystal-type dice golems made by me, the trick dice.
*
“And so it’s my win. Thank you for the five hundred gold.”
Competing for the one hundred chips, I won after this and that.
… But the hero has some strong luck, always rolling fives and sixes in the three rolls. What level of trick was that? I examined the dice midway, but it was just that he kept throwing fours, fives, and sixes.
Even so, sometimes I won, sometimes I lost, purposely repeating this over and over. Losing a little, winning a lot, until I took away all of his chips.
“Well, you were close.”
“… O-one more time!”
“Ehh, can’t be helped~. Then I’ll double down and go for one thousand. I’m fine taking installments if you can’t afford it you know?”
“Guh—… no, please wait a moment… I have a bad feeling about it, let’s go with mutually betting one hundred gold each.”
“Understood, one hundred gold.”
*
“Ah~. I lost. And it was a pretty big loss~. Unfortunately, I lost one hundred of the gold coins so you only need to pay nine hundred gold coins now. Congratulations!”
“Y-yeah.”
Struggling for the hundred chips a second time, somehow or another it was my overwhelming defeat.
… As before, the hero always rolled fives and sixes in his three dice rolls. He really might be doing some kind of trick. This time, I only won one or two times so it was a major loss for me.
“Well our match should be satisfied with this, how about let’s stop?”
“No! Please wait. I’ll definitely save that child next time!”
“Eh? Then are you fine wagering fourteen hundred gold coins? She still has a gold debt so I don’t want to get rid of her.”
“It’s fine, let’s do it!”
*
I started to feel sorry for him so let’s forgive him with this.
“Well then, you need to pay a total of twenty-three hundred gold coins.”
“… … Umm, didn’t you cheat!? I don’t know how but wasn’t that obvious cheating!?”
Hero Wataru is falsely accusing me.
“Why do you think I cheated? You supplied the dice and we both properly examined them.”
“What percent chance do you think there is for ones and sixes to mutually appear all three times!?”
“I’m sure that Hero-sama always got five or above twice the previous times, what chances were that? If you think about it, you might understand my hand as well?” [2]
“… I have the unique skill [Super Luck: Lv 1] that I received from Kami-sama… to surpa.s.s that… ah—, are you a summoned j.a.panese after all!?”
So Hero Wataru had a skill like that huh… I wouldn’t have won honestly huh.
Rather, as expected of a hero to have such a cheat skill other than Translation-san. Bad Luck-san taught me about his hand even though I didn’t ask for it. [3]
“It’s limited to only when I’m protecting comrades. To the extent that it’s stronger than yours.”
“S-so there was that kind of mechanism.”
I tried to say something with a deep meaning. Whaaat, I didn’t fix my victory when I didn’t wager Meat earlier, so I’m not wrong.
“And weeell, that’s enough, no more. You understand?”
“… … Excuse me, as expected, twenty-three hundred gold coins is a bit…”
“Pay it properly. You decided to wager it yourself.”
For him to be seventeen when he was summoned, he should be twenty years old now. He’s an adult by j.a.panese standards, so let’s have him pay it punctually… Seeing how that would be two billion three hundred million yen, how many lifetimes will it take? Well, an S-Rank Adventurer-sama could probably earn enough to pay it off if they persevered.
“I’m fine with installments. Pay it off with one hundred gold a month for a year and eleven months. You’ll be able to pay it back before two years are over. Easy, right?”
“Ueeeh… if I weren’t an S-Rank that would be an unreasonably absurd and huge payment plan…”
“Then I’ll pardon the interest out of consideration of Haku-san. I won’t even say something like to become a slave for collateral, so be thankful.”
“… Yes, thank you very much…”
I don’t know how much S-Rank adventurers can earn in a month, but he just said it’d be unreasonable if he weren’t an S-Rank right? I’ll believe you, Hero-sama.
Writing up a contract as well to make sure, he would pay me one hundred gold coins per month for twenty-three months. Do your best with the S-Rank commissions that pay huge sums. If you want, I’m sure Haku-san could introduce you work that pays quite a lot!
“Ah, come to think of it I didn’t include the nuisance fees.”
The hero’s eyes teared up.
Footnotes:
Cee-lo is this. Cho-han is this. Can’t find a link for towers and dice…
Hand as in tactics, means, etc.
Again, hand as in tactics, ability, means, etc. And ‘Bad Luck-san’? First time Kehma’s used it, referring to Wataru’s [Super Luck: Lv 1].