Board Game (8)
Episode 67: Board Game (8)
“……”
“It’s ‘pat someone on the head.’”
“Oh, that’s me?”
“Come over here.”
“Ugh… this is kind of embarrassing…”
“That’s right, that’s right.”
[Pat the head of the person selected by the roulette]
The mission Claire drew.
The person with the bob cut, designated as the target of the mission, lies down on Claire’s lap.
Claire gently stroked the bob-cut girl’s head, just like a mother would.
Then.
Tap, tap, tap, tap, tap.
Claire’s piece moved five spaces.
‘That makes three laps already….’
The game had progressed quite a bit.
Currently in first place is Ellie.
Excluding the 4 that came up at the start, she’s rolled a 6 twice in a row, advancing sixteen spaces so far.
Next is Lana.
With a 6, 5, and 4, she’s moved fifteen spaces.
Behind her, Claire, the girl with the ponytail, the girl with the bob, and the girl with wavy hair are all bunched together.
And.
Me.
“…….”
“Okay, it’s Ares’ turn. You’ll definitely be able to move this time.”
“…….”
I was still stuck on the very first space.
‘What on earth….’
Cold sweat trickles down my back from the tension.
What could be the problem? Is it just bad luck?
Clatter, clatter, clatter.
“Wow, a 6? Just like before—Ares is so lucky~.”
Lana, who hadn’t rolled a number lower than 4 in three turns, looked at the die I’d rolled and marveled.
‘This time, for sure…!’
It’s a 6. The highest number I’ve rolled so far. For reference, the last two rolls were a 2 and a 1. Though even those didn’t get me anywhere.
‘This time, for sure…!!’
I drew a mission card. My luck isn’t bad this round. After all, I rolled a 6. I just need to draw a good mission. If I get a mission like patting someone on the head, like Claire’s…!
“…….”
“Ares, what did you get…?”
“……A Wish Ticket.”
“Wow~, Ares, you’re so good at drawing those.”
“…….”
Ellie’s question and Lana’s exclamation. Hearing their voices, I stared at the mission card with trembling eyes.
Three Wish Tickets in a row.
‘What on earth… how…’
I couldn’t believe it.
━ This is cheating.
Yeah, it’s cheating. Otherwise, it doesn’t make any sense. How could I possibly draw three Wish Tickets in a row?
‘But to call it cheating… no one touched the cards.’
I shuffled the cards and placed them on the board. Markings or anything like that don’t matter. I’m just drawing one card at a time, starting from the top of the shuffled deck.
“So, shall I spin the roulette?”
“…….”
──Whirrrrrrr. The roulette wheel spins.
‘No, it’s okay. The wish ticket isn’t a dud.’
I calmly watched the roulette wheel.
‘All I have to do is make a wish… then I can move forward…!’
──Whirrrrrrr. The roulette spins.
And after a moment, the roulette lost momentum and gradually slowed down. Finally, the arrow on the roulette pointed to someone.
“Ah….”
“……Ugh, uh.”
It was Elly.
“…….”
“Ares….”
I looked at Elly with pleading eyes. Please. Please make a wish that I can grant. Then I’ll grant it, no matter what it is.
“E-Elly… is there anything you want?”
“Hmm…”
Ellie was thinking it over. My heart growing more desperate, I hurriedly suggested a wish I thought she might want.
“O-okay…! How about unlimited access to my room?”
“……Huh?”
Seeming intrigued by my question, Ellie looked at me with wide eyes. This is it…!
━ Seduce her
━ Grant her wish
I can do this. I can easily give her a free pass to my room…!
“Sure! A free pass! If you want, you can come into my room anytime, Ellie! Day or night! Whenever you want!”
“……”
Elly blushed, her eyes sparkling with admiration, and gently parted her lips. It’s working…! Lana gave me a slight glare, but maybe she doesn’t care. I have to keep going.
━ I can’t lose
I have to keep moving forward. So. At least a free pass to my room…!
“I…! I want to have sex with Ares!”
“GAAAAAAAH!! Nooooooo!!”
But with her face flushed, Ellie made a wish that was completely different from what I wanted. Here we go again. She’s asking for another wish I can’t grant.
Just a moment ago, the wish ticket I drew on the second spin was from a girl with wavy hair who asked for a kiss, so I turned her down.
But sex? There’s no way I can do that.
“……Do you hate it that much?”
But then, hearing my cry of despair, Ellie asked me with tears welling up in her eyes. Realizing my mistake in that moment, I hurriedly made an excuse.
“It’s not like that…! There’s no way we can do something like that right here, right now!”
“…So you don’t hate it?”
“Of course I don’t hate it!!”
“…….”
Only then did the look on Ellie’s face brighten. Thankfully, I’d managed to keep her happy. But that was beside the point.
“…….”
My piece hadn’t moved a single space.
‘How is this… even possible…?’
The dice passed to the girl with the ponytail, and it was her turn. In the meantime, I thought about the current state of the game.
‘The mission card too… it’s definitely changed. That wasn’t what it was originally.’
But there’s nothing I can do about the mission card. If the game is proceeding normally, that means the game has accepted it. To begin with, there was no rule in the game’s rules stating that you couldn’t change the cards.
“Who would even think of changing that…!”
It’s a loophole in the game rules. Cheating that exploits a gap in the rules—a gap that wasn’t specified because it was assumed no one would ever do such a thing. The problem was that, in this case, it didn’t count as cheating.
Right, there’s nothing I can do about the mission card. I don’t need to worry about that anymore. What matters now is the last-place player. In other words, the one who’ll have to take the penalty.
‘If this keeps up… I’ll be last….’
━ No way
━ No way, no way, no way
“Yay~! I rolled a 6 this time!”
Before she knew it, the game had already entered its fourth round. Claire rolled the fourth die, and it came up 6. Claire had currently moved fourteen spaces.
If she moved six spaces this time, she would already be at twenty spaces. The finish line is the twenty-fourth space. That leaves her with four spaces to go. In fact, Lana and Ellie already had three and two spaces left, respectively.
“The mission is… oh.”
“What… is it…?”
I asked her about the mission in a nervous voice. Claire blushed and glanced at me.
‘What is this…?’
Why is she looking at me? Just as I thought that.
Peck.
“Eeek?!”
“Hehe. Mission accomplished.”
Claire kissed my cheek and smiled shyly.
“What was the mission?!”
“You’re not allowed to see it. I’m not going to show you.”
Claire hid the mission card from me. But she showed the mission card to Ellie, who was standing next to her. And after checking the card, Ellie looked at Claire with the gaze of a psychopathic killer.
What on earth is this mission…?
Tap, tap, tap, tap, tap, tap.
But judging by the horse’s movement, it seems she carried out the mission properly.
“Alright, next is Ares.”
“…….”
I take the dice Claire hands me.
Clatter, clatter, clatter.
I rolled the die. The result was.
“6…!”
“Wow…, Ares has such great luck.”
Seeing the 6, all the girls around me let out soft gasps of admiration. Why are they so impressed…? When they roll, they get a 6 all the time.
‘Anyway…, as long as I get a good card…!’
I picked up a card.
“…….”
──It was a Wish Ticket.
‘This…, how on earth….’
I couldn’t understand it, and my head was spinning.
━ It’s a scam
━ It’s a scam, it’s a scam
━ It’s a scam, it’s a scam, it’s a scam, it’s a scam, it’s a scam, it’s a scam, it’s a scam, it’s a scam, it’s a scam, it’s a scam, it’s a scam, it’s a scam, it’s a scam, it’s a scam, it’s a scam, it’s a scam, it’s a scam, it’s a scam, it’s a scam, it’s a scam, it’s a scam, it’s a scam, it’s a scam, it’s a scam, it’s a scam, it’s a scam, it’s a scam, it’s a scam, it’s a scam, it’s a scam, it’s a scam, it’s a scam, it’s a scam, it’s a scam, it’s a scam, it’s a scam, it’s a scam, it’s a scam, it’s a scam, it’s a scam, it’s a scam, it’s a scam, it’s a scam, it’s a scam, it’s a scam, it’s a scam, it’s a scam, it’s a scam, it’s a scam, it’s a scam, it’s a scam, it’s a scam, it’s a scam, it’s a scam, it’s a scam, it’s a scam, it’s a scam, it’s a scam, it’s a scam, it’s a scam, it’s a scam, it’s a scam, it’s a scam, it’s a scam, it’s a
It was a situation where I couldn’t think of it any other way. After all, it’s four wish tickets in a row, isn’t it? Does that even make sense statistically…?
“But how…?”
No matter how hard I thought about it, I couldn’t come up with a way. If someone were to intentionally rig the system so that I would only draw wish tickets. How could I possibly manipulate a card that was just lying there on the floor?
After all, I was the one who shuffled the cards before placing them on the floor. It wasn’t as if someone had switched the cards. The card had been in that exact spot the whole time.
“In that case… unless I arranged the cards anticipating that they would get shuffled… it’s impossible.”
For that to be possible. I’d have to be able to foresee at least the future.
“…….”
At that moment. A thought struck me.
‘See… the future…?’
It’s not that there’s no way to see it. But. That would mean.
“…….”
“…….”
I looked up at Lana.
Clack-clack-clack-clack.
Meanwhile, the roulette wheel spins to determine who will be the target of my Wish Ticket.
‘It was Lana who brought the game… It was Lana who decided to join the game on her own…’
The roulette wheel slowly lost momentum, and the needle moved toward the mission target.
‘Ellie… can come in and out of my room….’
Finally, the roulette wheel stopped, pointing to the mission target.
‘Claire… called me out for lunch today to perform an exorcism experiment….’
What the roulette pointed to was... Lana.
“......”
“Me? Then can I make a wish?”
“......Sure.”
“Hmm, then my wish is...”
If all of this manipulation was carried out by them... Then this situation where I can’t move a single step right now is also… ──Their will.
“Ares, tell me, ‘I love you, please go out with me.’”
“…….”
The three of them… …want me to lose the game.
“…….”
Why? To kill me? Actually, not just Lana, but Ellie and Claire were all monsters too—are they finally showing their true colors and trying to kill me?
‘No….’
No. That’s definitely not it. For some reason, I just had this gut feeling. And the reason for that was…. Ironically, it was Lana—the one who was definitely a monster—who gave me that reason.
If it were Lana, she wouldn’t use a horror game like this to try to kill me. If that were the case, back when I was in mortal danger countless times… …she wouldn’t have saved me.
‘Which means….’
It’s the opposite. What they want. It’s not to kill me—they’re doing this to save me.
“…….”
I bowed my head, my eyes trembling. I realized. I. —was already caught up in the urban legend.
“…….”
“Ares?”
━ Speak
A voice echoes in my head.
━ Speak
A voice I had accepted so naturally just a few minutes ago.
━ Hurry up and grant the wish, move your mouth, proceed with the game, and strangle those girls to death
“…….”
Now that I’d realized something was off, I could tell the difference clearly. That this was the voice of a monster.
“I’ll pass.”
“…….”
I answered, looking at Lana with a tense expression.
“…….”
Then, without a word, Lana gave a sly smile. It was a look that seemed to be praising me, as if to say I’d done well. It became clear. That I had to lose this game.
━ No, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no
But once I realized it, the sense of alienation intensified, and doubts began to surface about the situation up to that point.
‘To begin with… why was I so angry in the first place…?’
Sera is a girl I’ve never even seen before. The very fact that I was running around claiming I was going to avenge her makes no sense. Of course, the bullies who tormented her are a problem in their own right. To lure a girl—who has a 90% chance of being a monster in this bizarre school—up to the rooftop and do something like that… It wasn’t something a sane person would do.
“Okay, dice.”
“Ah, yeah.”
I immediately handed the dice to the girl with the ponytail sitting next to me. Everyone has only a few spaces left now. If things keep going like this, the game will end. I’ll come in last, receive my penalty, and the urban legend will be resolved.
‘Still, luckily, Lana did a great job manipulating the mission cards, so the game’s been easy….’
If it had been the original card, we wouldn’t have been able to pull this off.
Clatter, clatter, clatter.
The girl with the ponytail rolls the dice. The number that comes up is 6. That’s a high number. And with a nervous smile, the girl with the ponytail draws a mission card. At that moment.
“Aaaaaaargh!!”
The girl with the ponytail screamed as she threw the card away.
“Why?! What’s going on?!”
“The, the, the card…!”
“The card…?!”
I hurriedly picked up the card the girl with the ponytail had thrown and checked it.
“…….”
It was the exact same type of card we’d been drawing just a moment ago. But. On top of the mission text written in black marker—new words had been written in red blood.
[Pull out your left eyeball]
“…….”
The mission had changed.
“Pass, I’m passing…! There’s no way I can do that…!!”
After reading the message and panicking, the girl with the ponytail tearfully and frantically passed the mission on. In the end, her horse-tail didn’t budge.
Clatter, clatter, clatter.
Next, the girl with the bob cut rolled the dice. The number that came up was 5. Then she drew a card.
“Eek…!”
She, too, turned pale upon seeing the card’s contents and threw it away.
[Take out your intestines and show them to everyone]
The girl with the wavy hair, whose turn came next, reacted the same way.
“No…!”
[Pull out all the nails on your right hand]
It was as if the mission were designed to ensure they could never complete it. The malice of whoever wrote those words was clearly palpable.