Chapter 28: Cheating Moth.
"Alter..."
Jeanne d'Arc once again pointed at Marie Alter beside her, then winked at Eikou, her smile filled with confidence.
"I brought her to you!"
"??"
What the hell is this, who told you I wanted this Alter?!
"I wanted Jeanne Alter—"
Eikou was just about to complain when he suddenly froze.
He had a premonition that something extremely bad was about to happen.
The atmosphere before his eyes felt like a huge storm was about to roll in.
Jeanne d'Arc alone was already troublesome enough, and now she had even brought along a woman with a higher level and stronger desires—clearly, the two of them had prepared this in advance.
"Alter had to go work part-time after school today, so I found another Alter to come play with you."
Jeanne d'Arc cutely patted her own head, acting like a child, and mischievously stuck out her tongue.
"I forgot to tell you when I came. I mixed it up a little, ehe～☆"
Ehe te nandayo!
Where did you learn this kind of cutesy act from? Kriemhild? Why does this Saint suddenly feel even more hyper once summer arrives?
Eikou couldn't help complaining inwardly.
What mix-up, you clearly did this on purpose. Rather than bringing along your close friend, you deliberately avoided bringing Jeanne Alter. You definitely wanted to take advantage of your younger sister not knowing and drag her close friend onto the same boat named Lancelot, didn't you?
But Marie Alter had already arrived—kicking her out now would go against gentleman spirit.
Damn it, does this mean the only option left is to let Marie Alter replace Jeanne Alter's position?
Eikou frowned, revealing a serious expression.
The punishment game that was originally meant to bully well-behaved girls had instead been exploited in reverse by these wicked women!
'Very well played, Saint,' Eikou thought to himself. 'I'll count the first round as your victory.'
But—
Eikou suddenly smiled faintly.
I've already rehearsed this script with the guys. There's no way you're winning this board game.
[Originally, you intended to treat Jeanne Alter as the prey...]
[But now it seems that you are the real prey instead.]
[Considering how frequently you fall into dangerous situations like this, in order to support you, a special "Disaster With Women Limited Quest" will be opened exclusively for you this time.]
[If you can become the winner of this board game match—for example, winning two out of three rounds—you will receive an additional skill reward.]
[Quest Reward: Golden Rule E]
[If the challenge fails, you will only receive a consolation reward of 5 QP.]
Golden Rule?!
Eikou's eyes widened in shock.
That generous? Actually rewarding a skill that can generate wealth on its own?
Even if it's only Golden Rule E, it's more than enough for a student like him to live comfortably without worrying about food or money.
In that case, there was even less reason to back down.
Eikou's face suddenly took on the look of a character who had just stepped out of the JOJO series.
ゴゴゴゴゴゴゴ
"Then let's begin,"
he looked at the two French jade beauties in front of him and said seriously.
"Let me make this clear first, ladies. This board game of ours includes a punishment game. The loser must unconditionally follow the winner's commands. If you want to play, the two of you must be mentally prepared."
"Wow～ that sounds scary～!"
Marie Alter's rosy, lovely face bloomed into a cheerful smile.
"Then all the more reason for us to play, right～?"
"What board game are we playing?"
Jeanne d'Arc asked.
"This time, we're playing... Cheating Moth."
Eikou said.
Cheating Moth is a popular board game that's very easy to pick up.
Its rules are somewhat similar to UNO. Each player must play a card with a number connected to another player's card; whoever gets rid of all the cards in their hand first wins.
However, unlike other card games, Cheating Moth has an extremely core rule.
That is—
Cheating is allowed.
Among the players, one person takes on the role of the Guard Bug, while all other players can use cheating to get rid of all the cards in their hand, as long as they are not caught by the Guard Bug.
Once caught, the Guard Bug role transfers to the cheater, which means that person is restricted from cheating, but they are not eliminated from the game.
That's roughly how the rules work.
As for why Eikou and the others chose this board game, it was because this style of play was the most suitable for collusion among them.
He himself had both Agility and Luck at A rank. It could be said he was naturally built for cheating.
Compared to him, whether it was card luck or cheating technique, the stats of the two French girls were far inferior.
Especially when all three brothers coordinated together, it would be a complete wipeout without leaving a shred of armor.
But—
"To keep things fair, we'll add one more rule."
Eikou raised one finger and announced.
"This game forbids the use of Skills. Anyone who uses a skill to cheat and gets caught will be eliminated immediately."
To be safe, it was better to add this rule.
This would prevent situations where the other side had someone like Morgan who could activate a clairvoyance-type skill and cheat like crazy.
And Eikou himself had many skills as well, which wouldn't be fair to others, so at least a bit of gentlemanly conduct had to be maintained.
"Alright…"
They sat down at the table, and the atmosphere suddenly became tense.
Eikou swept his gaze over all the players present. Including himself, there were six people in total.
On the male side: himself, Gawain, Tristan.
On the female side: Artoria Caster, Marie Alter, Jeanne d'Arc.
Boar-chan looked obedient and honest, seemingly not dangerous at all. The real focus was on the two girls behind her.
[Thus, your game officially begins.]
[Whoever uses cheating to discard all the cards in their hand first will win.]
[You begin drawing identity cards: five Cheaters, one Guard Bug.]
[You choose…]
[1, the card closest to you; 2, the card in the center; 3, the card farthest from you.]
Eikou chose 1.
In his heart, he kept praying that he would draw Cheater, because if he played honestly, it was practically impossible for him to be the first winner.
[The identity you drew is Cheater.]
"Great!"
Eikou lightly clenched his fist, feeling as if a huge weight in his heart had finally been lifted.
"Oh, this is troublesome,"
Tristan glanced at the Guard Bug identity card he had drawn.
"I didn't expect it to be Guard Bug. That means I can't cheat at all…"
"Come on, this is totally normal,"
Eikou patted his shoulder and comforted him. "Who told you that you have the lowest Luck here—unlucky guy with Luck E."
"I'm so sad…"
That being said…
On the surface, Tristan seemed to have drawn the worst possible identity card, but in reality, this was taking one step back to advance two steps.
Eikou knew very well that this guy was absolutely the top-tier player most suited for this game.
Completely different from his outward impression as a loose-brained, lazy, and perverted Bard, Tristan was in fact a Knight who always seriously honed his skills.
At any time, as long as he was conscious, Tristan was sensing the direction of the wind. In other words, even daily life was a period of harsh training for him.
As long as anyone present cheated and secretly discarded a card from their hand, he would sense it immediately!
With an invincible Tristan like that on their side, wasn't this basically a guaranteed win?
…