Chapter 289: Nakayama Festa, the Game Master
"So we're already at half the total count…"
Dream Journey adjusted her glasses, a glint of thought flashing behind the lenses.
She had already checked her dice—three fives, one three, and one four.
After weighing her options, she said, "Eighteen sixes."
With that, she pushed up her glasses, looking completely confident.
Stay Gold glanced at her own dice—two ones and three fours.
She smiled lightly. "I believe it. Nineteen fours."
Now it was Orfevre's turn.
She frowned, staring intently at her dice cup. Inside were one one, one two, one three, and two sixes.
No fours at all… in that case…
She hesitated for a long time, silently considering everyone's expressions and words.
Finally, she gritted her teeth and looked at Stay Gold. "I don't believe it!"
After saying that, she clenched her fists tightly, her gaze filled with both tension and anticipation.
"Great, then let's reveal!" Nakayama Festa shouted excitedly.
Everyone opened their dice cups, and in an instant, various numbers were revealed.
Orfevre had no fours.
Aside from Nakayama Festa—who hadn't looked at her dice—Kitasan Black and the others together had eight fours and six ones.
According to the rules, that counted as fourteen fours—five short of Stay Gold's guess of nineteen.
Seeing this, Orfevre couldn't help but gasp.
Even without knowing the exact dice, Nakayama Festa and Gold Ship together had ten dice.
Getting five fours out of ten dice would be quite difficult.
But if it were two or three fours plus a few ones, that would be much more likely.
When Gold Ship and Nakayama Festa opened their cups—
Gold Ship had one one, one four, and three fives.
Nakayama Festa had four ones and one six.
That effectively counted as six more fours. Adding that to the earlier fourteen, the total easily exceeded Stay Gold's call of nineteen.
"A- Anego, you actually guessed that,…?"
Looking at the dice, Orfevre was stunned. She rubbed her hair in frustration.
"That's almost twenty… how did you even guess that…?"
Even as she complained, she still accepted the loss. She picked up a lollipop beside her and handed it to Stay Gold with a resigned expression.
At that moment, Gold Ship fanned the flames, teasing:
"Even if it's twenty, it's not that hard. The real issue is that you're just too dumb, Orf."
"Think about it, Lilac hasn't played this game much before, so she'd definitely call whatever she has a lot of."
"She said sixteen fours, so she either has a bunch of fours or quite a few ones."
"And Kita seems pretty familiar with the game—she guessed so quickly, so she must have a lot of ones."
"And Dream Journey—you don't get it? The moment she adjusted her glasses, I knew—she definitely didn't have a single six. If I were her, I would've called 'don't believe' right away."
"So yeah, you got tricked by her, hahaha!"
Ignoring Orfevre's increasingly dangerous expression, Gold Ship laughed loudly and pointed at herself and Nakayama Festa.
"And you didn't even know what we had before making your guess, that's why you lost so easily."
"If you had just called something like twenty fours, you would've made things difficult for me."
"But I would've gone with twenty-one fours anyway. After all, Festa here—heh…"
Scratching her nose, Gold Ship said confidently:
"You don't even need to guess—she definitely rolled a bunch of ones. Forget twenty-one fours—even twenty-two would've been safe!"
Hearing this, Orfevre couldn't help but glance at Nakayama Festa's four ones, her expression turning helpless.
The other Umamusume also looked over. Dream Journey and Stay Gold seemed unsurprised, while Kitasan Black and Lucky Lilac looked amazed.
"Festa-senpai… she seems really good at games?" Lucky Lilac asked curiously.
"Only things like poker, dice, and mahjong."
Nakayama Festa smiled casually and tossed the dice into the cup.
Without much visible shaking—just a few rattling sounds—she opened the cup again. The five dice were stacked neatly on top of each other.
From above, the top face showed a one.
From the sides, each face aligned perfectly—every layer showing identical numbers.
"I usually play with Sirius-senpai, Gimlet-senpai, and Vodka whenever we have time."
Facing the astonished looks from Lucky Lilac and Kitasan Black, Nakayama Festa didn't seem particularly proud. She simply smiled and explained:
"When you play enough, you naturally pick up a few tricks."
"That's why I said from the start—it's actually hard for me to lose at this game. Just now, I even deliberately rolled four ones. Otherwise, Orf would've lost even worse."
"So, what do you think? Should we keep playing this, or switch to something purely based on luck—like drawing numbers to compare? That one's all luck."
Although she addressed everyone, Nakayama Festa's gaze lingered mainly between Kitasan Black and Lucky Lilac.
After all, she and the others had played this game many times. Kitasan Black was a guest, and Lucky Lilac was a junior—it made sense to consider their opinions first.
"As for what to play… I'm fine with anything."
Scratching her head, Kitasan Black smiled and spoke first.
"And honestly, with Festa-senpai playing like this… it actually feels even more fun."
"Oh?"
Nakayama Festa grew interested. "Why more fun? Don't you think what I'm doing counts as cheating?"
"Not at all! Being able to roll the numbers you want is clearly skill."
Kitasan Black waved her hands quickly.
"I've actually played games like this with Dia-chan—um, Satono Diamond—and her sister Satono Crown."
"It's really about guessing each other, right? The closer everyone is, the easier it is to guess."
"Just like you senpai—you spend every day together, so of course it's easier to read each other."
"But now that Lilac and I are new, I think even Festa-senpai wouldn't be able to guess everything perfectly."
"And for us, playing with a strong player like Festa-senpai—and all of you senpai—is also something new and exciting."
"And besides…"
After thinking for a moment, she smiled warmly.
"The most important thing about playing games is having fun. It doesn't really matter what we play, right?"
Her cheerful and open-hearted words spread warmth through the room, and the other Umamusume all smiled.
The last traces of frustration on Orfevre's face disappeared, while a hint of admiration flickered in Nakayama Festa's eyes.
Scattering the dice again, their crisp clattering filled the room once more. Looking at Kitasan Black, Nakayama Festa smiled:
"Since you put it that way, Kita, let's keep playing."
"Sounds like you're quite skilled yourself. Let's see if I can win a few more lollipops from you."
"If that's a challenge from senpai…"
Kitasan Black, already shaking her dice cup, said excitedly:
"Then I accept!"
A new round quickly began. This time, all the Umamusume were even more engaged, racking their brains to pick up clues from each other's expressions and words.
Orfevre became especially cautious, thinking carefully before every guess instead of making rash decisions like before.
Meanwhile, Gold Ship remained as playful as ever—laughing, joking, and teasing while making her guesses, keeping the entire room filled with a light and cheerful atmosphere.