“This is quite a nice room.”
“……”
“Young lady? You’re standing rather far away.”
What was I thinking?
Lacia blamed herself from just five minutes ago. Unable to suppress a fleeting moment of anger and a burst of pride, she had invited an outsider into her room.
If she could handle the situation naturally, it might have been fine. But she wasn’t synchronized with any spirits, and she hadn’t held a conversation with another person in years. It might have been different for Lacia in the past, but the current Lacia couldn’t even look Kyle Byron in the eye.
She wanted to send him out immediately, but Lacia wasn’t completely unreasonable. She had been the one to synchronize with a spirit on impulse, lose a game, then let her emotions get the better of her and tell him to enter. Now, telling him to leave felt too shameless, even for her.
And so, the odd standoff continued.
Kyle sat at ease in a chair with a relaxed expression on his face while Lacia who was surrounded by spirits retreated to a corner of the room. She was pretending to inspect the wallpaper.
[Growl?]
[Clip, clop.]
[Rattle.]
[Whirl!]
[Meow!]
At least the water and wind spirits were still lingering near Kyle.
If Lacia spoke, they’d come to her side, but she didn’t feel the need. If anything, seeing two spirits, who had always favored and supported her, remain near Kyle was a painful reminder of her mistake.
How much time had passed like this?
With a wry smile, Kyle broke the silence.
“You seem rather shy, young lady. You were so confident when you came out earlier.”
“…….”
“You’re not upset about what I said earlier, are you?”
“…….”
No, she desperately wanted to believe that wasn’t the case. Lacia didn’t want to admit she was so petty as to sulk over something so trivial…
“Well, how about this? You don’t need to say anything. Just sit across from me. How does that sound?”
…That much, at least.
Kyle had offered a reasonable compromise, and Lacia internally nodded her head in agreement. At this point, the fastest way to get him to leave was to humor him and fulfill his request.
She had a good idea of why he had come, so after taking a few deep breaths to muster her courage, Lacia moved.
Of course, she still couldn’t meet his gaze. Keeping her head low, she let the spirits guide her to the chair opposite Kyle and sat down.
That seemed to be enough for Kyle who smiled warmly.
“Thank you for being brave.”
He knows, doesn’t he? Then hurry up and state your business and leave already.
“So, young lady.”
It’s going to be the same predictable lines. Leave the tower, meet your father, face reality….so just get on with it already—
“How about a board game?”
“…Huh?”
“You’ve finally responded! As you suspected, that’s my purpose here. Just one game; what do you say?”
For a moment, Lacia was dumbfounded because she couldn’t read Kyle Byron’s thoughts.
But as she thought it over, the proposal wasn’t all that bad.
Instead of enduring those tiresome and usual arguments, all she had to do was play one board game and he’d leave quietly. She could handle that much.
Except—
“…….”
“Ah, I suppose you don’t want to play Kyle Galli?”
Of course not.
Unless she was synchronized with a spirit, Lacia had no intention of playing Kyle Galli with a man she had met less than ten minutes ago, especially when it involved physically clashing hands.
Because of that, Lacia wished Kyle Byron would quietly back down.
However, Kyle pondered briefly before pulling out a deck of cards from his waist.
“The design… hmm, there are plenty of good subjects around here.”
“……?”
“Let’s see… A water tiger, a wind horse, a fire cat, and a thunder sparrow maybe…”
The cards he took out were blank. They didn’t have shapes drawn on them like Kyle Galli, nor did they have patterns or numbers like playing cards used in gambling.
Without hesitation, Kyle began sketching on the blank cards with a pen.
Lacia tilted her head slightly to look at the cards as he drew.
“…Ah.”
[Growl?]
“Right, it’s you.”
With just a few simple strokes, Kyle sketched what appeared to be a vivid and lifelike water spirit. He completed eight cards like that.
Since the drawings were done by hand, none of them were exactly the same, but with only slight differences in composition and posture, it was clear to anyone that they depicted water spirits.
[Clop!]
“Of course, I’ll draw you too.”
He quickly sketched the wind spirit, the fire spirit, and the thunder spirit.
In no time, Kyle had created eight cards each for the seven other types of spirits, completing a set of 64 cards in total. His skilled artwork was impressive enough to make Lacia quietly impressed.
As she admired his work, Kyle selected a few spirit cards and spread them out in front of her.
“If you don’t want Kyle Galli, how about this game?”
“……………”
“It’s not a physically intense game. The rules are simple too. Would you like to hear them?”
“………….”
After a brief hesitation, Lacia nodded her head.
Ultimately, as long as it didn’t involve physical contact or clashing hands, she had no reason to refuse.
Because of that, she failed to notice the expression that momentarily crossed Kyle Byron’s face.
***
There is a certain kind of board game.
Unlike Halli Galli, it doesn’t require a bell or a game board. Just a deck of 64 cards is enough to play.
While Halli Galli encourages physical competition and rivalry, this game relies purely on psychological warfare, with no physical aspects whatsoever.
But its name was a bit strange.
Cockroach Poker.
I thought it was the best party game after Halli Galli and one that pushed psychological warfare to its limits.
The only difference was that instead of bugs like cockroaches being drawn on the cards, they were replaced with spirits.
“You can play this game with multiple people, but it works perfectly fine with just the two of us. Do you see the spirits drawn on the cards?”
“………….”
The young lady nodded her head.
Without a word, she simply nodded her head. Ever since she had stormed out earlier while seething with frustration, she hadn’t said a single word. Part of the purpose of this game was to get her to speak again.
After all, this was a game where speaking was mandatory.
“Each player is dealt a portion of the cards, which they keep private. Then, you pick a card, flip it facedown, and pass it to your opponent.”
“…………?”
“And then you say something like, ‘This is the Water Spirit ‘.”
But the card I handed over wasn’t a water spirit; it was a wind spirit.
In other words, I was lying.
“……….”
“Then, you’ll decide whether you think this card is truly the Water Spirit or not and answer accordingly.”
“…………….”
“Shall we give it a try?”
If she still kept her mouth shut after all this, I’d have to pull out a different board game.
Fortunately, the fact that the cards featured spirits seemed to pique her interest. At last, Lacia spoke.
“…This is the Water Spirit.”
“Well, let’s flip it over, shall we? Oh no! It was a lie!”
“……………….”
“Please don’t glare at me like that. Anyway, since you got it wrong, you’ll place the card face up in front of you. The person with face-up cards in front of them will then pass the next card. This continues until someone ends up with four cards of the same type in front of them. That person loses.”
“…………….”
“Oh, and there isn’t a specific victory condition. You simply win if you’re the last one standing. So, what do you think? Is this game good?”
She hesitated for a moment but eventually nodded her head.
There’s no reason to refuse.
She struck me as someone who was incredibly shy. People like her wouldn’t easily play a high-energy game like Halli Galli with someone they’d just met. So I switched to Cockroach Poker. This was a game perfect for breaking the ice with strangers.
There was no need for physical contact. You just handed over a card and said a single sentence. It was a calm and quiet game; at least on the surface.
But the real charm of Cockroach Poker could only be understood by playing it yourself.
It was a game that could drive people mad.
Although it was originally designed for multiple players, there were alternative rules for two. First, you removed 10 random cards from the 64-card deck and set them aside. The remaining 54 cards were then split evenly between the two players.
I placed my half of the deck in front of me, drew a card, and checked it.
“This is the Wind Spirit.”
“…………….”
With a smile, I handed over the flipped card to Lacia.
For a moment, the young lady hesitated before declaring,
“…This isn’t the Wind Spirit.”
Perhaps it was because of the memory of being tricked earlier that she confidently called it a lie.
When the card was flipped over—
“………”
“Oh my. It really was the Wind Spirit.”
Her hands trembled slightly as she held the card that had turned out to be truthful. After taking a deep breath, Lacia placed the Wind Spirit card down in front of her.
Now with a slightly more determined expression, she chose a card and placed it in front of me.
“…This is the Fire Spirit.”
“This is not the Fire Spirit.”
“…….!!”
“Shall we check?”
She was briefly flustered by my confident reply. When the card was flipped, it revealed the Lightning Spirit.
I smiled as if it were the most natural outcome in the world and returned the card to her.
“Technically, it should be your turn again, but since it’s your first time playing, let’s alternate for now. This is the Wind Spirit.”
I spoke of the same spirit as before and said the truth once again.
Lacia hesitated deeply at my words before saying,
“…This isn’t the Wind Spirit.”
It was as if she thought there was no way I’d truthfully play the same card twice in a row.
Her tone was almost certain. But when the card was flipped, her eyes widened in disbelief.
After all, it was another Wind Spirit card.
“What in the world…?”
“I’m simply being honest, young lady.”
“………”
Fine, let’s be blunt about it. This game was inherently skewed in my favor.
Cockroach Poker… Or should I say, Spirit Poker? At first glance, Spirit Poker seems like a game that’s all about psychological warfare. A game where you just need a good poker face and convincing acting skills.
That’s not entirely wrong. But there’s another crucial element just as important as acting:
It’s creating patterns.
Since this game is all about reading your opponent’s mind, the process of planting a clear expectation and making them think, “This is what I’m going to do”, becomes absolutely important.
For example: That player enjoys telling the truth twice in a row, so they’ll probably do the same this time.
It’s the classic gambler’s fallacy.
Independent events have no connection to prior outcomes. Believing that just because five odd numbers have been rolled, an even number is “due” next is a baseless assumption.
In Spirit Poker, the trick was to make your opponent fall into that gambler’s fallacy, and then exploit it.
“This is the Water Spirit.”
“…Yes. This is the Water Spirit.”
The truth goes once.
“And this… is also the Water Spirit.”
“…That’s right. This is also the Water Spirit.”
The truth goes twice.
“Mhmm, this is the Lightning Spirit.”
“No, this isn’t the Lightning Spirit.”
“Are you cheating or something? How do you keep guessing correctly every time?”
“…There’s something to it.”
After that, it should be a lie.
I didn’t follow this pattern for the entire game, but I used it quite frequently. After all, Spirit Poker wasn’t a game that ended just by guessing one or two cards correctly.
Moreover, I tried to hand over as many different types of cards as possible. Even if the cards stayed in front of me, four of the same kind had to stack up for me to lose, which required more guesses.
As the game continued with long pauses for deliberation and extended moments of tension, more than ten minutes had passed.
“…Ah.”
The cards in front of me far outnumbered those in front of Lacia. There were all kinds of cards, and the most common were three wind spirits, so I was on the verge of being eliminated.
In contrast, Lacia had far fewer cards in front of her. However, among them were also three Wind Spirit cards. Two of them were the same ones she had guessed wrong at the beginning.
Now, it was my turn.
“This is the Wind Spirit.”
“…..…!”
At a glance, the situation seemed to favor Lacia. All she had to do was avoid the Wind Spirit card.
But if she guessed wrong this time, the fourth Wind Spirit card would pile up in front of her, and she could lose anyway. Realizing this, her eyes filled with tension.
Is this card really the Wind Spirit, as I claimed? Or is it not?
This choice could potentially determine the winner of the game. After all, both Lacia and I already had three Wind Spirit cards in front of us.
…And in the previous rounds, I had told the truth twice in a row. Lacia had seen through that pattern.
So now, what choice would Lacia make this turn?
“……………”
Her deliberation was long. She seemed to have realized that simply having fewer cards in front of her didn’t guarantee an advantage. She became incredibly cautious.
She had been completely immersed in this simple yet nerve-wracking board game for a while now.
“…Alright.”
“………”
“This… really is the Wind Spirit.”
After an unnaturally long silence with her eyes closed, Lacia finally gave her answer.
It was different from the routine I had followed until now.
She declared the truth for the third time in a row.
And the card I had given her was—
“The Wind Spirit.”
“That’s correct. With this, I now have four Wind Spirit cards.”
—indeed the Wind Spirit.
At the critical moment, Lacia didn’t trust the pattern I had been subtly reinforcing.
It was surprising, but not impossible.
“I… I won…!!”
Thud!
After a grueling ten-minute psychological battle, Lacia, who had just barely managed to claim victory, leaped from her seat in excitement.
I smiled as I watched her.
“Congratulations. You won.”
“…Yes.”
Only then did Lacia realize her actions and sit back down with her head down in embarrassment.
Though the atmosphere suggested the board game was wrapping up—
“Now, as promised, I’ll leave the tower… but.”
“…….?”
“Would it be alright if we played Spirit Poker one more time?”
“Spirit… Poker?”
“That’s the name of this board game. What do you think?”
Perhaps it was because we had talked so much during Spirit Poker, but now Lacia no longer avoided my gaze or kept her lips sealed. She looked at me briefly, deliberated for a long moment, and then gave a small nod.
“…Just one more round.”
“Thank you, young lady.”
With her quiet nod, I had achieved partial success.
***
Now, I only needed to win once more.
Judging by Lacia’s approach to the board game, it was clear that her shyness came not from social awkwardness but from a lack of experience interacting with others for a long period of time. Her competitive spirit, however, was exceptional.
The plan was to show her what it looked like to win, to ignite her drive to compete, and to gradually find more ways to connect with her.
“This is the Lightning Spirit.”
“That’s right. It’s the Lightning Spirit.”
Hmm.
“This is… the Water Spirit.”
“No, this isn’t the Water Spirit.”
Huh.
“………This is the Wind Spirit—”
“That’s true.”
“…………….”
Next round.
As I started another game of Spirit Poker with Lacia, it didn’t even take a minute for me to realize something.
Lacia who was confidently guessing every card correctly without hesitation….be it with patterns, with bluffing, or with psychological tactics—
Is this girl…?
Right now,
…she’s definitely up to something.
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