Chapter 288: Smacking Gold Ship's Butt
While Makoto was on the phone with Almond Eye, on the other side of the mansion, in a large bedroom—
The "pillow fight" proposed by Gold Ship had been successfully carried out, and the entire room had turned into a battlefield filled with flying feathers.
Even now, the aftermath of the battle still lingered in the air.
At some point, two feathers had gotten stuck in Kitasan Black's white bangs. A small white flag was tucked into the collar of her yukata as she sat on the edge of a mattress, tidying her disheveled clothes.
Lucky Lilac was curled up in a corner, also wearing a yukata with a white flag tucked into her collar. She hugged a clover-patterned cushion, staring blankly toward the center of the room.
In the middle of the room, Orfevre and Nakayama Festa each wielded a large pillow, chasing Gold Ship around. The wooden floor creaked noisily under their footsteps.
Leaning half against the windowsill, Dream Journey held a book in her hands. A white flag was clipped to one side of her glasses.
"Hey, you guys—take it easy. Don't flip the mattress over."
She called out lazily toward Orfevre and the others, though it didn't seem to have much effect. Shaking her head, she reached into a snack bag on the windowsill, took out a pack of dried bananas, and handed it over.
"Anego, want some dried bananas?"
Stay Gold, who was calmly gathering the blankets and feathers that had been tossed toward the windowsill, also had a white flag stuck in her braid. She glanced over and smiled, waving her hand.
"No thanks. Why don't you ask Kita and Lilac?"
Dream Journey nodded and turned toward Kitasan Black and Lucky Lilac—when suddenly, a loud voice rang out from the center of the room.
"What's the big deal if the mattress gets flipped?!"
Gold Ship abruptly stopped, holding a big fluffy velvet pillow in each hand, laughing proudly with her hands on her hips.
"Back when I was on a training camp, I even crashed through the dorm wallpaper, and nothing happened! Hahaha—ow!"
"Now's the chance!"
With an excited shout, Nakayama Festa pounced like a hungry tiger, tackling Gold Ship to the ground.
Then, while vigorously smacking Gold Ship's backside with her pillow, she turned and shouted:
"Orf! I got her!"
"Excellent. Festa, I'll cover your lollipops for next week. Now…"
With veins bulging on her forehead, her golden hair and yukata covered in feathers, Orfevre held a pillow in one hand while rolling up her sleeve with the other. Narrowing her eyes, she slowly approached the pinned-down Gold Ship.
"It's time to settle the score for that sneak attack!"
Struggling on the ground, Gold Ship shouted unwillingly:
"Hey, hey! Orf, let's talk this out—! And Journey! You actually set me up! I won't let you get away with this!"
"Sorry about that."
Shrugging indifferently, Dream Journey pointed at the white flag clipped to her glasses.
"I already surrendered."
Then, amid Gold Ship's wails and Orfevre's satisfied shouting, she calmly flipped a page in her book.
A short while later—
The cries and shouts had long since faded, and the feathers scattered from the pillow fight had all been cleaned up.
The former "combatants" now sat in a circle in the center of the room, each holding a black dice cup, shaking them noisily.
They were playing "Liar's Dice," also known as bluffing dice.
The rules were simple: each player had five dice. After shaking them in the cup, everyone could only see their own dice.
Then, starting from the dealer or whoever was chosen first, players would take turns guessing how many of a certain number appeared among all the dice.
For example, if someone saw that they had three twos and two fives, they could guess there are three twos in total—or bluff and claim there are five twos, or even more.
They could also guess other numbers.
Then the next player would take their turn.
When one player made a claim, the next player could choose to "believe" or "not believe."
If they chose to believe, they had to raise the bid—either increasing the number of dice or the face value.
If they chose not to believe, everyone would reveal their dice to check whether the previous claim was true.
If the claim was true, the player who chose "don't believe" lost; if it wasn't, the previous player lost.
This kind of game is commonly seen in bars, but since many of the Umamusume present weren't old enough to drink, the wager was replaced with lollipops.
Naturally, the one providing the stakes was Nakayama Festa, who had proposed the game in the first place.
She was also the dealer for the first round.
Nakayama Festa shook the dice cup, producing a rattling sound, then slammed it down onto the floor with a loud thud.
Without even looking at what was inside her cup, her eyes darted around, and a sly smile curled on her lips as she spoke first:
"I'll say… there are 15 sixes in total."
After saying that, she swept her gaze provocatively across everyone.
"Hey, hey," Gold Ship immediately complained, "Festa, you're starting with such a huge guess—how are the rest of us supposed to play?"
There were seven players in total, meaning 35 dice altogether.
Nakayama Festa not only didn't check her own dice, but she also guessed nearly half the total—and picked six, the highest number.
For the next players, whether to increase the quantity or the value, it would indeed be difficult to make a call.
However, one rule of the game is that if no one has called "ones," then ones can act as wildcards and substitute for any number.
In other words, among the 35 dice, there didn't actually need to be 15 sixes. As long as there were 7 or 8 sixes, plus a similar number of ones, it would still count as Nakayama Festa being correct.
And clearly, the probability of that second scenario was much higher than having 15 actual sixes.
"So, Golshi, are you doubting me?"
Facing Gold Ship's complaint, Nakayama Festa showed no panic at all. Instead, she confidently pressed her hand onto the dice cup.
"Then I'll reveal it. If I lose—"
"Hey, hey, wait, wait!"
Gold Ship quickly waved her hands.
"I didn't say I don't believe you—it's not even my turn yet! Anyway, next is Lilac. If she believes it, I've got nothing to say."
Hearing this, everyone's gaze turned toward Lucky Lilac.
Swallowing nervously, Lucky Lilac cautiously peeked at the dice inside her cup.
She had four fours and one six.
After thinking for a moment, she felt that Nakayama Festa must have made the guess after seeing her own dice, so it was reasonable to doubt it.
But the problem was—Festa hadn't looked. What if her luck was incredible, or her skill was high enough to roll something like five sixes? That couldn't be ruled out.
After all, according to the rules, rolling five identical dice would count as an extra one when calculating the total.
After hesitating for a while, Lucky Lilac bit her lip and softly said:
"I believe it… I'll say… 16 fours."
After speaking, she looked a little uneasy, secretly observing everyone's reactions before glancing at Kitasan Black.
Next after Lucky Lilac was Kitasan Black. Hearing her guess, she looked at her own dice.
She had three ones, one three, and one six.
After thinking for a moment, she figured that regardless of Nakayama Festa's roll, Lucky Lilac probably had quite a few fours. Feeling a bit excited, she said:
"Then I'll say 17 fours."
After that, she looked toward Dream Journey with anticipation.