"He, help me. Vikir. Please, just once!"
The budding Tudor, the wannabe superhero, always so proud and confident, is now pleading in a miserable position.
"Ugh. I'm going to die like this. ...Yes, kill me. It'll be impossible to beg for mercy from you, Vikir, anyway."
Sancho, the next mercenary king aiming for the supremacy of the North, has an indomitable fighting spirit and also accepts death without losing his will to fight.
"Vikir, you betrayed me! How could you do this to me!"
Piggy is just Piggy. But he trusts Vikir more than anyone else, so his frustration is deepest when a knife is plunged into his back at the last moment.
... But. Vikir killed his friends without mercy.
"If you can't do it, die."
Vikir's voice rang out dryly.
Charak-.
The cards moved.
Colorful horses moved across the wide cardboard board.
Vikir's black pieces devoured Tudor's blue pieces, Sancho's red pieces, and Piggy's yellow pieces.
At the same time, Tudor, Sancho, and Piggy were sent back to the starting line.
... along with three glasses of punishment.
"Alas, I lost again! Why is this bastard so good at board games?"
"I think I've already drank a liter of punishment drink."
"...I feel like I'm going to puke."
Tudor, Sancho, and Piggy sulked as they watched the distance they'd worked so hard to travel on the board get reset in an instant, and as they watched their drinks pile up in front of them.
Meanwhile, the girls were in a frenzy of laughter and chatter.
"Hey Vikir, you're really good at board games."
"Do you have a trick for throwing the cards?"
"You look like you've been playing games all day! Ho ho ho~"
Churlish, light makeup, and a faint smell of soap instead of perfume.
These are the usual attire of the normally modest academy girls.
The male students who came to the girls' room late at night were enjoying the atmosphere of the drinking party with their hearts pounding.
Late at night. The lovers(?) led by Tudor secretly escaped from the men's dormitory and sneaked into the women's dormitory.
The girls had broken the latch on one corner of the window in the first-floor restroom, as arranged with the boys, and after sneaking in through the first floor, the boys managed to climb up the drainpipe to the second floor, then up the fire escape to the third floor, and finally to the girls' floor on the fourth floor, which was forbidden territory.
Of course, they were stopped a few times along the way by the on-duty officer, but the supervision of the wardens was unusually lax today.
Probably because they didn't want to crack down too hard on young men and women's secret meetings.
...Well, whatever.
So here we are, boys and girls in a room playing a board game.
The game is called Yut, and the penalties are mostly drinking punishment liquor, but there are also individual penalties written on the board for moving and settling the pieces.
For example, "Hold the hand of your crush for 5 seconds," "Kiss the forehead of anyone wearing red for 10 seconds," "Hug the person in front of you for 30 seconds," etc.
Almost every space had a non-punishable penalty, with the level increasing as you got closer to the goal.
" ... is a thumb game, not a drinking game."
Someone looking at the board grumbled.
It was Bianca, sitting on the bed in her sweatpants.
Tudor frowned.
"Don't you think you're being a little too whiny about no one wanting to fuck you?"
"I think you misspoke when you said no one wants to go out with you, asshole."
Another war of words between Tudor and Bianca.
Sinclair, who was standing next to them, interrupted them.
"Aww, come on, guys – it's fun drinking."
Sinclair smiles like a sweet puppy.
As a model student, she always wore an elegant school uniform and had a flawless image, but now that she is wearing a loose tank top and dolphin pants, she looks quite familiar.
The boys began to murmur amongst themselves.
'...Hmm. Maybe we should have paid less attention to our clothes?'
'Are you stupid? You think they don't care about their clothes? Those are their combat uniforms, man.'
Sancho and Tudor exchanged a look.
"Yut."
Vikir moved his horse again.
Tudor and Sancho's horses were eaten again.
And then.
"Yut."
"Mo."
"Yut."
"Mo."
"Yut."
"Mo."
"Do."
Vikir's black horses serially slaughtered, advancing and retreating strategically.
"Aaaahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh! Hey, let's get some other penalties!"
"You're just drinking yourself to death ...."
Tudor and Sancho regretted bringing Vikir with them and picked up their glasses of punishment liquor.
Then.
"Hey, hey, hey, hey... kids, even the students drink a little."
It was St. Dolores.
She, too, was sitting on the bed, dressed comfortably in a stretched T-shirt and pajama pants.
In fact, she was deep in thought.
'They're volunteering during the Golden Week, so it's okay for them to deviate once in a while. I'm not a jerk at this point, am I? Well, I should probably have a few drinks, just in case there's an accident. Hmmm... look a little old-fashioned, too? Do I look like an asshole?'
At Dolores' troubled look, Tudor smirked and picked up the glass.
"Don't worry, Ms. President, this isn't alcohol, it's soda!"
Suddenly, Dolores is relieved.
Of course, she didn't realize that some sodas also contain alcohol, although in trace amounts.
Meanwhile, Vikir was still racing alone at the board game.
Why is Vikir, who doesn't usually like to be in the spotlight, doing so well in the game?
'... It reminds me of the old days.'
It was the memories.
The game.
Four tiles are thrown, and depending on the situation in which they are flipped or flipped, Do (Pig), Gae (Dog), Geol (Sheep), Yut (Cow), and Mo (Horse) are selected and move forward or to the side.
If you encounter an opponent's horse along the way, you can eat it and send it back to the starting line.
This board game was very popular among soldiers in the field, in ambush, or on standby during the Age of Destruction.
Not because it was particularly fun, but because there were no other board games to play in the army's internal affairs department.
'...I played this game until I got sick of it while fighting in a five-minute standby in the trenches of Hill 7 on the Western Front.'
In the midst of a protracted war and prolonged confrontation with the enemy, the soldiers lived a boring daily life.
It was one of the few things they could do together as a group of men.
Of course, at that time it was an outdated classic game that was not played by anyone except soldiers on the front lines, so there were many old people and outcasts who learned all kinds of unusual techniques...
'Now it's a trendy board game that's been around for a while.'
That's why there weren't any skilled players.
Even Piggy, who is the second best board game player right now, its throwing skills are terrible.
'If I throw ... like that, I'm going to lose to my fellow soldiers on the military salary.'
Most soldiers on the front lines in the Age of Destruction would have had enough.
Vikir wasn't much of a gambler himself, but he'd been dragged by his superiors often enough to learn the tricks.
…Thud!
Yut, and a thud to the back.
Vikir's black piece moved forward and ate Sinclair's white piece, which was five squares ahead.
Then, on the very next turn, it moves backward one space and eats another of Sinclair's white pieces.
The two white horses are rolled back to the starting line at the end of the turn.
Sinclair, down two pieces, cries out.
"Hyung! Are you a professional player? Why are you so good? It's bad enough that I lost in my studies, but now I'm losing in games...."
He told her not to call him oppa, but she was calling him hyung.
Tudor, who had five horses stolen by Vikir, asked Vikir with an shocked expression.
"No, you're good with your hands, you're good with dice, you're good with cards,... is there any game you can't play?"
"No."
Vikir said firmly.
Everyone in the room gasped at his overwhelming confidence.
"Hey, Vikir, Vikir, can't you give me a ride on your horse?"
"Hey, I want to see your face, hehe, can't you just take off your bangs?"
"Let's take off your glasses, okay?"
"Isn't it stuffy, do you want me to cut your hair, especially those bangs...."
Some of the girls sidled up to Vikir's side and touched his arm, knee, etc.
Then, another girl showed interest in Vikir.
" ... You're good at board games?"
It was Dolores, the student council president.
"And do you know how to play Go?"
She didn't know any other games, but she was confident in this one.
Finally, Vikir nodded.
"I can play some."
"Really? What's your level of Go(棋力)?"
" ...about level 2."
Dolores laughed inwardly.
'Second-grade, that's good enough to go out and show off.'
For reference, she was a level 5 amateur.
She was the top ace in her freshman year, and in her second year, she was the vice president of the Go Club, a position she held with great enthusiasm, because there was no one in her family who could play Go.
... although the club was closed after that because no new students came in.
No one would play with her after that, and most of them didn't know how to play in the first place.
Dolores also had a busy work schedule that made it difficult for her to play a game of Go, so the hobby naturally fell by the wayside.
But here we have a kid who thinks he's good at all board games. With only a second-grade skill.
"Huh, Ms. President, are you going to play a game with Vikir?"
"Sis, you're awesome!"
"The jack-of-all-trades vs. the newbie who specializes in board games! How's that for a match?"
The mood of the room was welcoming to Dolores' participation.
Dolores jumped out of bed, unable to resist the cheers.
Until now, she'd watched from the sidelines because she didn't know how to play board games, but this was different.
The only board game she knew how to play, and the only one she was very good at, was Go.
It's been a long time since we've had a game like this.
"Shall we have a little fun, then?
The saint smiled as she held up the simple checkerboard Tudor had brought with him.
Amateur level 5 hides his strength.
The difference between Dolores' power and Vikir's was as great as the difference between heaven and earth.
And she was keeping it a secret right now.
"As for the penalty, how about a cup of punishment liquor per house?"
The other students, who had been crushed by Vikir, cheered at Dolores's bold provocation.
And.
"...OK."
Vikir could only nod, as tasteless as ever.