The Lightning Spirit, the Water Spirit, the Wind Spirit, the Earth Spirit, and then the Water Spirit again.
“This is… the Lightning Spirit.”
“No, it isn’t.”
“…I’ll place this in front of me.”
And now, even the Lightning Spirit card.
Lacia had correctly guessed six cards in a row.
If it were just that, I could have chalked it up to incredible luck—but—
“…Hmph.”
That confident demeanor and those answers without a shred of hesitation.
It was far too different from the uncertainty she displayed earlier to be attributed to blindly following the flow of luck.
The instincts I honed from playing countless games with numerous opponents were whispering to me.
Young lady Lacia was cheating.
…And if that’s the case, then it’s obvious how.
[…Growl.]
[Clop?]
[Meow.]
[Ra… ttle.]
The spirits surrounding the table where Lacia and I were seated, quietly watching us.
She was probably sharing her vision with the spirits or asking them what my cards were.
Of course, I couldn’t be certain yet. It was possible her change in behavior was just a temporary shift, or perhaps it was genuinely a streak of luck.
But still.
If she really was playing the board game by cheating like that.
And judging by her confident attitude, if she was genuinely enjoying it—
“……………”
…No, it’s too early to jump to conclusions.
For now, I need to investigate further.
“This is the Wind Spirit.”
“That’s true!”
“…That makes this my loss.”
“And, naturally, my victory.”
With this, she had gotten 13 correct in a row.
As she kept getting the answers right, it remained my turn repeatedly, and in the end, there wasn’t a single card left in front of Lacia.
In contrast, there were at least three cards of every kind in front of me, and the Wind Spirit cards had stacked up to four.
Did she think I wouldn’t notice something strange? Lacia’s expression was filled only with the superiority and excitement that came from victory.
It was as if she craved and desired victory itself.
I’ve had instances where I knew my opponent’s cards in a game, too.
But that was always when I accidentally saw their cards because of a mistake on their part, and I never exploited that knowledge during the game.
In fact, most of the time, I’d play in a way that worked to their advantage. My philosophy was that board games should be enjoyable regardless of winning or losing.
Of course, it’s not like I ever intended to impose my way of thinking on others.
If I had lost due to luck or skill, I could have enjoyed it too, but right now, I wasn’t having fun at all.
In some ways, it might have been fortunate that Lacia only played board games with spirits.
“You said earlier you wanted to play one more round, didn’t you? I’ll allow it this time, though I’ll win anyway.”
“…Then, young lady Lacia, how about trying a different set of rules?”
“Different rules, you say?”
“Yes.”
In the end, I enjoyed playing board games, and spreading that enjoyment was part of it. Still, losing one-sidedly due to cheating was not a pleasant experience.
Moreover, with her current approach, Lacia wouldn’t be able to truly experience the essence of board games either.
In Kyle Galli, such cheating wouldn’t have been possible, so she likely enjoyed the games there in a genuine way. However, with Spirit Poker, the surrounding spirits might have tempted her into cheating, even if it wasn’t what she wanted.
…Though, for someone reluctant, she didn’t show a hint of hesitation.
In any case, if we played another game like this, it would just end up as another round of cheating.
So, I proposed different rules. Rules that would block the spirits’ ability to peek at the cards.
“We’ll play with the cards face down.”
“Huh? That’s…”
“Honestly, isn’t it a bit much to hold all 27 cards in your hand? Instead, we’ll lay all the cards face down on the table and play the game without looking at them from the start.”
“Without looking at them…?”
“Of course, we’ll add another defeat condition. Alongside the usual defeat rules, since it’s completely random, you lose if you collect 1 card of every kind of spirit.”
“……”
“What do you think?”
This wasn’t a rule I had just come up with.
Of course, it wasn’t the original rule of Cockroach Poker either.
It was just one of the house rules I often played with friends.
Since the cards couldn’t be checked, the game proceeded in complete randomness. Because of that, if someone simply lied, they could still guess a fair number of cards correctly.
There was an additional rule, though. After a few turns, players had to randomly choose some face-down cards and flip them over. Since there were only eight cards of each type, part of the fun in this house rule was tracking the revealed cards and gradually increasing the odds of making better guesses.
It was a fairly entertaining house rule, but because it relied so heavily on luck, playing it repeatedly could get exhausting. After all, it was essentially forcing an element of randomness onto Cockroach Poker, and it didn’t blend particularly well with the game’s mechanics.
Still, there was one reason I suggested this house rule to Lacia:
It was to lighten the mood.
If she could just enjoy the board game itself, maybe she wouldn’t feel the need to cheat.
This house rule was something we played occasionally, especially when our heads hurt from overly complicated strategy games or when we got burned out on psychological games. Since so much depended on luck, it often led to funny moments, and given that the foundation was the masterpiece Cockroach Poker, it guaranteed a baseline level of fun.
While we weren’t exactly tired or burned out now, a luck-type game should make it impossible for spirits to help her cheat.
If this approach could let Lacia experience the fun of different board games—
“—No. I don’t want to.”
“…Huh?”
“That kind of rule……I don’t like it. Let’s stick to the way we were playing earlier.”
At Lacia’s words, I froze.
Because her response could only mean one thing—
“Young lady.”
“Why do we need to change the rules? There’s no reason for that. Or at least, couldn’t we just keep holding the cards in our hands…?”
“………”
…So it was intentional cheating.
It wasn’t the spirits forcibly helping her. She had looked at the cards on her own.
Why?
Why would she do that?
As soon as I realized she had knowingly broken the rules, my head went cold.
Did Lacia even enjoy board games to begin with?
She had supposedly stayed up all night playing at Kyle Galli, but why did she insist on playing Spirit Poker in a way that allowed her to cheat? In Kyle Galli, such cheating wasn’t even possible.
Then, a conversation with the Tiger spirit and the Horse spirit came to mind.
They did say Lacia was weirdly obsessed with winning.
How shocked I had been to hear she’d achieved over fifty consecutive victories in Kyle Galli! The number of wins was so absurd that I’d even briefly wondered if she’d been given an easy ride, though I never asked.
What was the truth?
“Young lady.”
“Yes…?”
“Why do you play board games?”
“……?”
Yes, I knew it was a sudden question. I also knew it wasn’t the kind of question someone who had abruptly shown up to play board games would typically ask.
But I wanted to hear it directly from Lacia herself.
Her thoughts about board games.
“To win, of course.”
“To win, huh.”
“Winning is fun, isn’t it? Isn’t that why people play?”
She wasn’t wrong. The excitement of victory is an undeniable part of the enjoyment of board games.
However…
“That victory. Does it mean so much to you that you’d resort to cheating or rely on others to accommodate you?”
“…Huh?”
“I know you used the spirits to see my cards.”
“Wh-What are you talking about…!?”
As expected.
Now that I thought about it, it was clear that Lacia wasn’t good at hiding or acting out her emotions. From the moment she first entered the room, she’d been the same. Even when she unnaturally kept guessing cards correctly, or when I deliberately let her win a few rounds in Spirit Poker, it had been obvious.
For a moment, I had wondered if even that was part of an act, but… upon reflection, it made sense. Living with spirits, she probably never needed to hide her emotions or deceive anyone. Even if she did, it likely wasn’t something she had to do often.
So it was no surprise that Lacia was terribly bad at psychological games. Her extreme fluster now was just further proof.
Maybe that’s why she enjoyed Kyle Galli so much.
And yet… seeing her react like this, I felt relieved.
If she had truly been someone who sought victory at all costs, she would have remained shameless, even in this moment.
The fact that her cheating was driven by a pure (albeit misguided) desire to win was, at least, a small consolation.
I offered her a faint smile as she struggled with her embarrassment.
“Young lady, are you afraid of losing? This is just a board game, after all.”
“………”
“Did you really crave victory that much?”
“…I just…”
“………”
“I just didn’t want to lose. Not ever again.”
“…I see.”
– My daughter… Lacia… was hurt far more deeply than I ever imagined. She gradually lost her ability to trust others, and in the end, she only spoke to the spirits.
I remembered the Duke’s words.
I didn’t know what had happened to her. She wasn’t likely to tell me either.
But as a result, Lacia feared contact with people, and she feared losing.
That’s why she had resorted to cheating. She wasn’t good at hiding what she’d done, but she knew it was wrong.
When confronted with it directly, she lowered her head while looking utterly defeated.
“I’m… sorry.”
“………”
She apologized.
In a way, her apology was natural. But that was only from my perspective.
Lacia, who avoided people and only interacted with spirits, found dealing with others difficult and clumsy. When I considered her past, filled with countless wounds inflicted by people, it made even more sense.
That apology, then, must have been a result of her own courage.
…After all, I had a similar experience when I was young.
Instead of getting angry at her for cheating or demanding an apology, I simply waited for Lacia to open up.
“…I asked the spirits for help. I asked them to look at the cards for me. Because I wanted to win.”
“It was far too obvious.”
“Was it? I didn’t realize… But now that I think about it…”
“Now that you think about it…?”
“In the end, I acted no differently than those people. Foolishly so.”
I didn’t ask her who those people were.
I simply met Lacia’s gaze quietly.
“Lady Lacia, this is just a board game. It doesn’t decide the fate of the world, the ending of someone’s story, or an important choice in life. A board game exists purely for enjoyment.”
“……..”
“What do you think? Did you enjoy playing Spirit Poker?”
“I… enjoyed it.”
“Really?”
“……..”
“In the end, didn’t you play another round of Spirit Poker because you thought you could absolutely win by peeking at the cards?”
Ah.
Lacia’s face turned pale as if I had hit the nail on the head. At the same time, I could feel the spirits’ eyes focusing on me.
I wasn’t scolding her, though. I was simply using this moment to make things clear.
After all, I wanted to keep playing board games with Lady Lacia.
“That’s…”
“I hope you’ll learn to enjoy board games for what they are. Regardless of your past, your memories, or your traumas, I hope the joy of playing can help you forget those things, even for a moment.”
“That’s not it.”
Lacia, who had been silently listening until now, suddenly raised her head, as if to disagree.
“You came here because of my father’s words, didn’t you?”
“That’s true.”
“He told you to take me outside of this tower, to separate me from the spirits. That’s why you came all this way to play board games with me, isn’t it!?”
Lacia’s voice grew agitated, as though I had struck a nerve.
The Duke had told me he had tried countless ways to bring her out of the tower.
From his perspective, it was an act of love for his daughter.
But how must it have felt to Lacia, who had shut herself away with spirits because of the wounds she received from humans?
When I first entered the room, I could more than understand the attitude she had shown me.
“After all, you’re just the same as the others. You’re just trying to deceive me with flowery words, aren’t you?”
“No, that’s not true.”
“Liar—”
“It’s not a lie. The tiger and the horse spirits can prove it to you.”
“—What?”
Even though Lacia didn’t want to believe my words, I had reliable allies by my side.
She must remember the tiger and the horse.
[Growl.]
“Are you two… really? Are you saying what he’s saying is true?”
From the start, the Duke had told me on my first day to just go back. If I had returned then, I could have received a reasonable reward and focused on supplying the Kyle Galli back at my family estate.
And yet, I had spent days interacting with the spirits, trying to meet Lacia.
[Clop.]
“…Why? Why would you? What’s the reason? Was it for a greater reward or perhaps… my body? Is that it?”
Lacia’s distrust of humans ran deep. If it hadn’t been for the goodwill I’d earned from the tiger and the horse spirits, I wouldn’t have even been able to step into the tower.
And I had no idea how to heal her distrust of humans. I wasn’t a doctor or a counselor, after all.
I’m just
“I’m just here to play board games.”
“…Huh?”
“I found playing Kyle Galli with the spirits more enjoyable than I expected, and I wanted to play board games with the young lady who I heard stayed up all night enjoying it. Am I not the creator of Kyle Galli? When I heard you were a passionate fan, I simply had to meet you.”
“That’s… all?”
“What else would there need to be?”
When I returned her question with a question, Lacia glared at me with an expression that seemed to say she couldn’t understand.
“It’s just… a board game.”
“What are spirits to you, my lady?”
“…They’re family.”
[Meow…]
[Rattle…]
[Whirl.]
Although she wasn’t without a biological family, Lacia said the spirits were her true family.
How much of her past and emotions must be encapsulated in that one “family” word when she spoke of the spirits that way?
Just as Lacia felt such a deep connection to the spirits,
“Board games are the same for me.”
“Board games… are family?”
“It’s just a figure of speech. But to me, board games hold that kind of significance.”
In high school, I played with my friends. After school, I played with strangers. At home, I played with my family.
That was the life I had lived, and board games had become a daily ritual in my life.
At my answer, given without the slightest hesitation, Lacia stared at me intently.
As if she were trying to find any lies hidden in my words.
Up until now, no words could erase Lacia’s doubts.
“You mentioned earlier that you’d play another round of Spirit Poker. Does that offer still stand?”
“Ah…?”
“Of course, if you’d rather not, there’s nothing I can do about it.”
Even if she couldn’t trust people, perhaps she could trust board games.
After all, board games had been what comforted me through all my memories, my pains, and my past.
So I had no choice but to talk to Lacia about board games.
It was all I had.
“…Board games.”
I said everything I wanted to say. And every word of it was sincere.
But no matter how genuine my feelings were, others might perceive them differently.
What if Lacia rejected me? Then that would be the end of it.
I had only come here because I heard she enjoyed board games enough to play them all night, hoping we could share that joy together. I had no intention of forcing board games on someone who didn’t want them.
“…Kyle Gali, Spirit Poker…”
Lacia who had looked so conflicted, confused, trembling, and utterly lost,
Still kept her head down while clutching the spirits tightly in her arms.
“…Please, just leave.”
I see.
Well, if that’s how it is, there’s nothing I can do.
“I understand. Thank you for your time───”
“Just for today! Go down… .”
“Huh?”
Just for today?
Could it be…?
“Come back tomorrow… We’ll play just one more round then.”
Lacia’s expression as she said this was impossible to read.
She still had her head lowered, buried among the spirits in her embrace.
But that didn’t matter. There was only one answer I could give.
“I’ll look forward to tomorrow.”
“……………”
As long as Lacia didn’t refuse.
Until she could truly enjoy board games.
I would keep trying.
***
“Then, about the spirits…”
“If you’re not planning to let them join the game, let’s just have them watch quietly.”
“…Alright.”
Oh, no, that won’t do.
Nice try slipping that one past me.
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