Ch.91Rest at the Sea (2)

I really came to the beach after a long time. And it’s my first time staying at a beach villa for two nights and three days.

Even though the Demon King will appear in about a week and a half, it’s right to put aside all those worries when it’s time to have fun.

There are about 10 people here. The office staff, plus Ha-eun, Yong-in, and Taeyang’s group of three, and Ju-an.

While I was wondering what to do today, Leo spoke up.

“There are plenty of rooms, so we can each have our own. I’m going to rest for a while.”

“I’ll go rest too. See you later, senior.”

Leo, Yong-in, and Ha-eun went to rest first. That leaves about 7 people now.

“Ju-an, do you have anything you want to do?”

“How about a board game?”

“Not bad. Anyone else want to join?”

“Me.”

“I’ll participate too.”

“This great one will join as well.”

“Then I’ll join too.”

Six out of seven people gathered. So is Taeyang not playing?

“Aren’t you playing?”

“I’m quite tired today, so I plan to rest.”

“Did something happen?”

“Yesterday… something truly terrible happened.”

I can guess what happened. He probably had several near-death experiences trying to stop Leo yesterday.

Let’s just let Taeyang rest. I roughly know how exhausting that must have been.

As we were about to start a simple dice game, Agath suddenly made an interesting suggestion.

“But isn’t it boring to just play? How about setting a penalty? For example, the loser has to take off their clothes or something like that.”

“The content of the penalty is disgusting, but setting a penalty is fine. What should we do for the penalty?”

“How about the loser does intense exercise? Like 200 squats or something.”

“Isn’t that too unfair for me?”

“Then do you have any good penalty ideas?”

“Well, let me share all the ideas I can think of.”

As everyone was suggesting possible penalties, Parthia came up with a decent one.

“How about the loser connects a horror game to that TV over there and plays it?”

It’s not a bad suggestion. But I really hate scary things.

“That’s a good suggestion, but I won’t…”

“Don’t tell me you’re scared?”

“Bring it on.”

And so it was decided that the loser would play a horror game as a penalty. In the middle of the night with all the lights turned off, no less.

***

Do you know the dice game called Yahtzee?

It’s a really simple game. You just roll dice and win if you get high numbers, so luck is the most important factor.

Anyway, I’m witnessing absolute madness here.

“Goddess, please bestow your blessing upon me.”

Rebecca is casting a blessing on herself that extremely increases luck.

“O great one, I offer you a sacrifice, grant me fortune!”

Parthia is using black magic, offering blood as a sacrifice to improve her luck.

“…You just stopped time.”

“No, I didn’t.”

“Don’t lie! You just stopped it!”

“Do you have any proof?”

Ju-an is manipulating the dice by stopping time.

“Oh my, I rolled five sixes again.”

I’m not sure what Selene did, but somehow she’s managing to get the highest dice roll every time.

Thanks to all this, only Agath and I are actually playing with real luck. Everyone really seems to hate the idea of playing a horror game.

“Ms. Rebecca, please give me a blessing too.”

But that goes for me as well.

I’ll survive until the end, even if it’s ugly. I’ll do whatever it takes to avoid the horror game.

But the answer I got was completely different from what I expected.

“Fate is already decided, isn’t it? Why not just accept your destiny?”

“…”

Still, I’ve solved everything with my own strength until now. So this time too, I’ll compete with my skills.

“Fine. Then I’ll use my real skills…”

Just as I was about to roll the dice with determination, I saw Agath gulping down something.

“…What is that?”

“Holy water that improves luck.”

Among us, there’s no one who’s rolling the dice fairly… no, truly fairly except me.

Of course, if I had such abilities, I would have cheated long ago. But I don’t have such powers.

So there’s only one thing for me to do.

“You damn bastards!”

That’s to deeply promise myself never to play these kinds of games with these people again.

***

The result was truly bizarre. Six people tied for first place, and one person came in last.

Since it’s already decided that I’ll be playing the horror game, let me ask what I’ve been curious about.

“By the way, Ms. Selene, how did you do it?”

“I cast an illusion to make the dice appear as sixes.”

“…You play really dirty.”

“Thank you.”

I have a reasonable suspicion that these people might actually hate me. But if there hadn’t been any cheating, who would have won?

“Let’s try playing with just luck, without any tricks. No stakes this time.”

“Alright. Let’s play one more round, completely fair.”

In that truly fair dice game, I came in first.

“…I really hate you all.”

“Looking forward to your horror game at dawn!”

“Aaaaargh!”

***

For dinner tonight, we decided to just make some instant ramen. We’re planning to have a barbecue outside tomorrow and eat until we’re stuffed.

And there’s something annoying about the first day of a trip. Moving around and everything makes you tired, so you don’t feel very motivated.

Anyway, I ended up making dinner here too. That’s just my lot in life.

After getting through dinner with ramen, we’re just killing time. Soon, I’ll be experiencing a truly horrific time.

“Senior? Did something bad happen?”

“I was scammed.”

“Did you fall for a voice phishing scam?”

“No. It was much worse than that.”

“What happened to make you like this?”

“We played a dice game, and everyone except me cheated.”

When I answered with a dejected expression, Ha-eun asked me with a puzzled look.

“You’re upset just because of that?”

“No. I’m upset because I have to play a horror game as a penalty soon.”

“Didn’t you really hate scary things, senior?”

“That’s right.”

“It’ll be fun to watch. When do you start?”

Everyone seems to desperately want to see me suffer. They’re truly vicious.

“Later, at dawn.”

“What will you do until then?”

“Stare at the ceiling.”

As I was about to waste time meaninglessly, a good idea suddenly came to mind.

“Oh right, can you teach me some magic?”

“Have you finally realized the beauty of magic, senior?”

“No. I just want to check if I have any talent for it.”

“I don’t think you’ll have any talent for magic anyway.”

“You never know. I might have as much talent as Leo.”

Let’s use this opportunity to prove whether that parallel world is real. If I have talent here, it’s true; if not, it’s false.

Honestly, I hope it’s false. The thought of another me going completely crazy like Leo is somewhat frightening.

So I went off to waste time on something useless again.

***

I have no talent for magic. That’s for sure.

“This is ridiculously difficult…”

I somehow managed to create a small flame on my fingertip, but it took an enormous amount of effort just for this.

At least now the possibility of me being the same person as Leo has disappeared, which is a relief. While I was thinking this, Ha-eun made a shocking statement.

“You actually have talent.”

“…What?”

“It took me 6 hours when I first learned this. But you learned it an hour faster than me.”

“Can you really judge talent based on just a one-hour difference?”

“I heard that even Leo took 5 hours when he first learned this. So you might have as much talent as Leo.”

Suddenly, I wondered what would happen if I told Leo about this. He would definitely go wild.

It might be really fun, but I shouldn’t actually do it. I might end up like Agath did yesterday.

Anyway, I’ve now realized that I have talent for magic.

“Still, I don’t want to do magic.”

“Why? Isn’t it fun?”

“It’s just difficult and not fun at all.”

“Come on, just try a little more. Once you get into it, there’s nothing better!”

“No.”

To be honest, learning magic is terribly boring. Without any exaggeration, I’d find more joy in just staring at the ceiling.

So even if I have talent for it, I don’t particularly want to learn it. Besides, I don’t think I’d have much use for it anyway.

“Why is magic so difficult…”

“Ancient magic from long ago was much easier than this. But they say it’s gotten progressively harder over time.”

“Shouldn’t it normally get easier?”

“Magic has only developed in the direction of extracting maximum efficiency with minimum mana. So old magic was simple but had poor efficiency.”

“Then why not just teach that first?”

“Even if you did, ancient magic has been completely obsolete, overtaken by black magic and supernatural powers. So even if someone wanted to teach it now, they couldn’t.”

“But couldn’t it be restored with enough effort?”

“It could be, with enough effort. But the difficulty is too high, and there’s no benefit in doing so.”

“That’s really unfortunate.”

To think that it developed in the direction of becoming excessively difficult just to survive among other techniques—magic truly is a thankless discipline.

Now I need to clear my head…

“Lite! It’s horror game time!”

Agath burst through the door with a cheerful shout.

…Shit.

***

Everyone except Taeyang and Yong-in gathered in the living room with popcorn and cola. The reason for this gathering was simply to watch me suffer.

“But honestly, you won by cheating…”

“If you don’t play, I’ll break doctrine and pounce on you right now.”

“Let’s talk about this…”

“I’ll pounce.”

“Fine, I’ll do it! Happy now?”

As I was taking a deep breath before starting the game, Ha-eun suddenly got up and headed somewhere.

“Just a moment, I’ll go get Taeyang.”

“Why Taeyang?”

“Horror games are best enjoyed by watching scaredy-cats’ reactions.”

It’s true that scary things are often enjoyed for the reactions of those around you. But I didn’t expect to be that person.

Anyway, Ha-eun returned shortly, looking somewhat unnatural.

“On second thought, we don’t need to bring him. Let’s just let him rest.”

“…You didn’t hypnotize him, did you?”

“Of course not.”

She definitely hypnotized him. Using powers just to avoid watching a horror game—I’m incredibly jealous.

But it’ll be fine. I played a horror game with Ju-an last time we went out, and I wasn’t scared. So I can handle this one without fear too.

After all, I’ve been through all sorts of experiences. My courage has grown tremendously. Would I be afraid of a mere game that doesn’t even exist?

Absolutely not. Thinking this way, an inexplicable confidence wells up inside me.

“Then I’ll start!”

And so, I confidently began the horror game.

***

“Kyaaak!”

A ghost jumped out! Another ghost jumped out! It’s creepy! It’s scary! Aaaah!

“There’s a space behind that pillar.”

Leo casually commented. I immediately moved toward the pillar. Then a ghost jumped out from behind it.

“Kyaaaaaaak!”

This is cheating! They made this game in such a terrible way!

As I was desperately running away from the ghost, Leo gave another piece of advice.

“You can kill it with Stona Sunshine.”

“How do I use… Kyaaaak!”

Thinking about it, this game doesn’t have any attack function. I’ve been tricked again.

“Why! Aren’t! You! Watching! The! Screen?!”

Everyone was watching the game well at first, but now hardly anyone is looking.

“It’s way scarier than we thought!”

“The… weather is so cold that I wanted to get under the blanket for a moment.”

“I really can’t bear to look at that bug ghost with my eyes open!”

Agath, Rebecca, and even Ju-an are hiding under blankets, not watching the screen. Why did you make me do this if you’re going to be like this?

Oh right, surprisingly, Parthia is holding up well. I thought she’d be the first to drop out since she looks like a child.

“That looks cute!”

Parthia pointed at a ghost that was incredibly creepy. Is this what being a black mage is like?

“Then! Ms. Selene! And! Mr. Leo! Aren’t! You! Scared?!”

“At my age, it would be a bit embarrassing to be scared of this.”

“There’s something much scarier in front of me right now.”

“What! Is! That?!”

“Me.”

Leo spoke in an almost enlightened voice. But in contrast, I feel like I’m about to faint from fear.

And so the damned horror game continued for about an hour.