The third game, Monopoly, ended with me and Speranza bankrupting the other two teams.
“YAY! We’re first, Papa!”
Speranza cheered so loudly while jumping up and down.
She seemed to be very happy to win the last game.
The farm members, who would have been pleased to see Speranza running around happily, had their heads preoccupied with something else.
Lia and Andras, who came last among the three teams, were still in the midst of the huge shock called “Seoul.”
Kaneff and Alfred were relieved that they avoided the last place, but were disappointed that they could not win the first place in the advantageous game.
I smiled and reminded the two who came last of the penalty.
“Then for the next month, the two of you will take care of the bath, right?”
“Ugh… I can’t help it.”
“Promise is a promise. I don’t know much, but I’ll do my best.”
Lia and Andras humbly accepted the penalty.
I thought they’d have a hard time adjusting to the two troublemakers Grify and Finny for a while.
Next, I looked at Kaneff and Alfred, who unfortunately came in second place.
“You two must be sad”
“Are you teasing us now because you won?”
“Maybe?”
If it hadn’t been so twisted at the end it would have been those two who would have won the game.
Kaneff replied with an uncomfortable look, while Alfred couldn’t speak as if he was really disappointed.
However, as soon as they heard my next words, their expressions changed rapidly.
“The winner was supposed to have the ‘vacation companion ticket’, but this time, I’ll just let you two have it.”
“What, really?”
“Really, Senior?”
Kaneff and Alfred opened their eyes wide with an expression of disbelief.
“I don’t need that anyway, and only two teams were supposed to compete. And……….”
I looked at Speranza, who was still smiling, blurring the end of my words.
Thanks to the two teams’ consideration for Speranza, we were able to win in the first place.
Of course, it was voluntary, but if they had seriously wanted to win the game, the first place would have been different.
For me, it was enough that Speranza enjoyed the game.
Lia and Andras also understood my decision and nodded quietly.
As such, the “Vacation companion ticket” went to Kaneff and Alfred’s team.
The two quickly shook off their regrets and expressed their joy.
“Hahaha! That’s great!”
“Finally, I also…”
Kaneff’s face had a rare happy smile, and Alfred was so moved that tears welled up in his eyes.
And they hugged each other and shared their joy.
It would have been a very heartwarming ending if it ended like this, but…
“But you two… Don’t we still have something to decide?”
“Huh? What else is left?”
“……?”
“Who’s going to get the prize? There’s only one “Vacation companion Ticket”
“……?!”
“…….?!”
Kaneff and Alfred’s faces quickly hardened when they realized the important fact belatedly.
Then they moved away from each other, saying, “DIBS!”
The teammates who shared the joy disappeared and quickly became competitors seeking the right to accompany me on my vacation.
“Hey, Verdi kid. Why don’t you yield to me this time?”
Kaneff roared with fierce eyes. But Alfred replied without backing down.
“I respected you once, and now I owe you in many ways, Boss, but I can’t just give you this.”
Their intense eyes intertwined in the air.
Not only me but also Lia and Andras came out of the afterglow of last place and watched the current situation with interest.
“Both of you have no intention of making concessions, right?”
“Of course!”
“Of course!”
It seemed impossible to come this far and solve it peacefully.
“What should we do?”
“Since we’ve decided everything with the game so far, shouldn’t we decide this one with a game, too?
Lia suggested that it should be decided with a game until the end, and both Kaneff and Alfred nodded as if they agreed.
The question was what kind of game to play…
I didn’t prepare for the fourth game because I didn’t know we would get to this point.
As my worries deepened, Andras, who was next to me, gave an opinion.
“How about playing a simple game?”
“A simple game?”
Andras said, taking out the Trump card we used to play [One-card].
“A game in which two people pick one card each and the person with the highest number wins. What do you think?”
The game he proposed certainly seemed simple and fair.
It already took a lot of time to play the three games, so it wouldn’t be bad to finish it short.
I looked at Kaneff and Alfred in the sense of asking for consent.
“All right, let’s do that.”
“I like it, too.”
The final match for the ‘vacation companion ticket’ commenced.
While enjoying the game, the rain and wind that had swept over the farm had already calmed down. By the time the final winner was decided, it seemed that we could see a little bit of sunlight.
-CHUCK CHUCK.
Under the heavy tension, I slowly shuffled the cards.
As there was a lot at stake in this deck, I put seriousness in the hand shuffling the cards.
-Tap!
A strange tension flowed and the bundle of cards was placed on the table.
“You have to pick only one card. If you get the same number with different shapes, you’ll pick it again.”
Without hesitation, he took the card at the top of the bundle of cards by hand.
Even after checking the number on the card he picked, he maintained a calm expression.
Next, it was Alfred’s turn.
Alfred also took a card from the top and checked the number.
His eyes fluttered relentlessly as if he was uneasy about his number.
“Place the cards on the table and flip them up at the same time on the count of three?”
-Nod.
-Nod.
Two cards were placed on the table.
Everyone looked at the back of the card with tense eyes.
“Now~ One, two… Three!”
Kaneff and Alfred simultaneously revealed their cards face up.
One was [Diamond 10] and the other was [Clover 9].
The winner of the last game was decided by a small margin.
As soon as the result of the match was confirmed, the emotions of the two, who had been on the same team so far, were clearly mixed with joy and disappointment.
The next day.
After a strong rainstorm, the weather on the farm became clear and sunny as if yesterday’s weather was a lie.
Yesterday’s rain and the wind were the last grim of summer, the wind felt cooler and the sky looked opaque.
I felt chilly after a long time, so I thought I should slowly take out the windbreaker for work.
‘It is already autumn…’
I looked around the farm and the surrounding scenery.
Although the changes are still minor, the seasonal changes were emerging little by little.
While looking around the scenery, in the distance, I could see Speranza and the little demon beasts running around, dressed in her summer short-sleeved clothes.
Before the weather gets cold in earnest, I should slowly prepare her autumn clothes.
I already had a happy smile on my face at the thought of buying Speranza a lot of pretty autumn clothes.
“Sihyeon!”
While I was putting out a shopping plan for the winter, Alfred’s voice came from behind.
My face frowned because I thought it would be about training swordsmanship together.
Still, I greeted him while hiding my expression as much as I could.
“Were you watching Speranza?”
“Yeah. Yeah. What’s going on?”
“Andras was looking for you He’s in the boss’s room right now.”
“Andras? Didn’t he say he would be working at the Germour Wizardry today?”
“That’s what I also heard, but he came back earlier than we thought.”
Expectations and anxiety arose at the same time at the news that Andras returned quickly.
Usually, when he suddenly comes back to the farm like this, something would have happened, good or bad.
“Then can you look after the children while I’m away?”
“Okay, I’ll take care of it.”
“Thank you.”
I tried to leave quickly before Alfred could say anything else, but…
“Ah! Senior! Don’t forget, we got to train later. These days, you’ve been making excuses and skipping them!”
Oh… Damn.
“Ugh… I see. I won’t miss it today.”
Alfred smiled and waved his hand as if he liked my answer.
I also reluctantly waved and went to the farm building.
Arriving at the building, I headed straight to Kaneff’s room.
KNOCK. KNOCK. KNOCK.
“It’s me, Boss.”
– Come in.
When I opened the door and entered, Kaneff and Andras greeted me in the room.
“Andras, didn’t you say you had work in the Wizardry today?”
“Yes, I came back for a while to tell you something. I haven’t finished my work yet, so I have to go back.”
“There’s something you need to tell?”
When I looked at him with a curious expression, Andras pulled something out of his arms.
“My father sent this for you.”
“Lord Schnarpe?”
With an unexpected look, I accepted what Andras had brought.
This is…
A letter?
The letter envelope made with a very luxurious material was stamped with the design of the Schnarpe family symbol.
I peeked to the side and found a similar letter on Kaneff’s desk.
I asked Andras with my eyes if I could open it here.
He smiled and nodded.
I opened the envelope very carefully, took out the letter inside, and read the contents slowly.
The letter began with the burdensome word ‘family benefactor’.
After that, the words “grace” and “help” were emphasized along with the poetic modifiers unique to the nobility.
I read the letter to the end with my poor Demon language skills.
The contents of the letter were very long and poetic, but the contents that they wanted to convey to me were very simple.
-I would like to invite you to the family’s mansion to repay the benefactor for his great help.
In short, this letter was an invitation to the Schnarpe family.
“Is this an invitation?”
“That’s right. Originally, I was going to invite Sihyeon to a big party, but I canceled it because I thought you wouldn’t like it.”
“You know me well, Andras!”
I lavished praise on Andras for the cancellation of the big party.
I don’t know about other aristocrats, but it has always been a troublesome one for me.
“My mother was a little disappointed because I canceled the party, so we decided to treat you to a small meal.”
“Um…”
“It won’t be burdensome, Sihyeon. We have made sure that you’ll be comfortable.”
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