""The Queen,"" he held up the stick in his hand, ""is with me.""
Swoosh!
The moment Ei secured the Queen stick, the two Round Table Knights immediately sensed an opportunity for a counter-attack and instantly pledged their loyalty.
"Please give your command!" Gawain said.
"Hmm, let me think about this..."
He pondered for a moment, holding the Queen stick, suddenly realizing his difficulty.
Although he now had the right to command, he lacked cheating skills like "Fairy Eye" or "Discernment," so he couldn't see the players' numbers at all.
What number was Baobhan Sith, and what number was Morgan?
He could only guess blindly.
"Number three, hand over one of your articles of clothing to me."
Ei randomly called out a number and commanded.
First things first, he had to get his clothes back.
Ideally, he would call Morgan's number, forcing her to return the clothes she took.
If he called one of her daughters' numbers... well, no apologies, Morgan started the clothes-stripping, so he'd call it self-defense.
Also, he wasn't without his gentlemanly manners. Considering he might call a female number, he played it safe by only asking for an article of clothing, not everything.
If he called Morgan's number, he got his clothes back. If he called the number of any other female present, he'd get an eyeful. It was a win-win either way.
He looked at Morgan.
Don't blame me, Queen Morgan. You started this game!
Whoosh!
A black men's suit jacket and shirt were suddenly tossed toward him.
"...Huh?"
Ei hesitantly caught the suit and then looked across the table at the bare-chested Tristan.
Tristan said: "You're welcome."
"..."
Damn it, I almost forgot we had this unlucky soul with Luck E in the boys' group!
Regardless, Ei silently put on Tristan's suit jacket.
"It's fine, Old Tris. I've figured out Queen Morgan's cheating pattern. I'll draw the Queen stick again next round and help us get all our clothes back."
He subtly winked at Tristan.
"I trust you!" Tristan replied, full of conviction.
[It is a new round of the Queen's Game.] [Morgan seems to have realized that you have seen through her trick, so she tries to deliberately mislead you by picking through all the sticks, preventing you from knowing which is the true Queen stick.] [You activate the skill "Instinct C."] [Check successful. You saw through Morgan's trick with your intuition.] [Although Morgan tried to cover her tracks, you still snatched the Queen stick she wanted first, relying on your intuition.**]
"It's me again this time."
Ei played calmly with the Queen stick in his hand.
He had learned a lot of skills recently. If he wanted to cheat, his performance wouldn't be any worse than Morgan's.
"Number Five, hand over one of your articles of clothing to me."
"As you command."
Tristan silently unbuckled his pants and handed them over.
"...It's you again, you unlucky bastard."
Ei was speechless.
Good news: He finally had all his clothes back on!
Bad news: Our Tristan is now only in his underwear!
"......Fine."
Looking on the bright side, at least the boys' group's clothes weren't lost outside—they just circulated internally.
Then came another round of the Queen's Game.
Ei once again lived up to expectations and snatched the Queen stick.
"I command..."
He looked at Tristan, who had nothing left but his underwear. Asking him to take off any more would surely fail the censorship check.
He sighed inwardly and deliberated:
"Number One, hand over all of your clothes to Number Two. If Number One only has underwear left, the command is void."
That should cover it, right?
Poor Tristan had nothing left to take off. Even if his number was called by accident again, he wouldn't lose anything more.
Tristan breathed a sigh of relief: "Fortunately, I only have my underwear left."
"That is not fortunate at all."
"And my number wasn't called this time."
Ei nodded approvingly. "Good. You can't be the only one suffering bad luck. It's someone else's turn."
Half a minute later.
Gawain dutifully carried out the command and handed all of his clothes over to Morgan.
"They are for you, Mother," he said seriously.
Morgan replied, "What would I do with your clothes?"
Thud!
Ei slammed his fist on the table.
Damn it! Why did it have to be Gawain who got exploded this time?!
This was a massive loss. The three grown men combined could only scrape together one full outfit.
"It's alright, Sir Ei."
Gawain and Tristan said earnestly.
"If you draw the Queen stick again, just issue the command as usual. Don't worry too much about our situation."
"But..."
Ei looked at the two men, who were down to just their underwear.
"You have nothing left to take off! Only the final line of defense for a man remains! Are you telling me you don't care if you expose your 'Tower of Babylon'? No, that can't happen! That image is terrible in every sense of the word!"
"Who says that? We haven't used our backup hidden power yet."
"Backup hidden power? You have something to take off besides your underwear?"
Gawain and Tristan suddenly lifted their hair, revealing several hairpins hidden in their bangs.
"This is our ace card!"
"...Why are you two still making Grand Blue references at a time like this? Has the author completely run out of ideas?" Ei couldn't help but say.
Meanwhile, the girls' group was whispering to each other. After a moment, they conveyed their discussion to Gareth, who was observing. She nodded and said:
"Um... after unanimous discussion among us girls, we'd like to ban all commands related to taking off clothes. The reason is that Brother Gawain and Sir Tristan have nothing left to take off, and continuing this is not good for either party. Most of us here are Round Table Knights; we should have a sense of shame and not bring disgrace to our King."
Bang!
Gawain and Tristan both slumped onto the table in disappointment.
Ei looked at the two men lying defeated and thought, That was a brutal finishing blow. Not only did they lose the game, but they also lost their dignity as Round Table Knights.
While the request was reasonable, the boys' group suffered a crushing defeat! We've practically lost the very shirts off our backs!
"What a pity..." Morgan said wistfully to him from the side.
"I wore some very daring lingerie today. Aren't you sad you didn't get to see it?"
"......"
Ei thought, I don't feel a single bit of pity. I've already seen too many of the selfies you send.
Also, what do you mean by that? Even if my command had called your number, you'd rather take off your clothes and show off your sexy lingerie than give me back my own clothes?!