CH 167

[It’s the season of Dice Lane yet again! Your host—]

A black rectangular box set up against the wall. In the image projected on it, a man in red and yellow clothes that made my eyes hurt was talking in a pleasant tone. Hmmm, the way this screen looks is a bit similar to my [Auto-Mapping]

“…………………….”

“Hey, Canal, why don’t you relax a little more?”

We were sitting on the leather couch watching the screen, but Tia chuckled and called out to Canal, who was feeling restless and uneasy all by herself.

“Hey, I am calm! Hmph, it’s not like you’re going to win anyway!”

“Hahaha, you’ll just have to wait and see. Now let’s see what happens, shall we?”

This was my first time seeing this scene, as I in the first round only heard the results blurted out by Canal. On the screen, a large number of dice covered in a thin, shiny bubble-like substance were clattering around inside …. Oh, it looks like there’s movement.

[Now, let’s get started! The fateful… Dice Lane!]

With a call from the host, a bubble of light popped, and the dice inside turned into meteors of blue light, falling one after another onto the floor. As our eyes were glued to the gorgeous performance, the numbers on the top of the dice that fell to the floor were counted one after another by some mechanism and recorded in the background.

“Uwa! Uwa! So Beautiful!”

“I know right, This is certainly a frenzy.”

“I won’t win… There’s no way I’ll win… There’s no chance that I’ll win… Mutter mutter mutter,” Canal grumbled.

[The fate-deciding dice have now determined their results! Now let’s check the tabulated result!]

The screen displays the total of all the dice rolls and how many times each number from one to six was rolled. I don’t remember the total, but I remember the individual numbers very clearly. The number that Canal made a grimace about during the first round and said, “Is this even possible?! It must be rigged!” was—

[What?! Can this even be real?! One appeared once, two appeared twice, three appeared three times, four appeared four times, five appeared five times, and… six appeared six times! It’s a miracle! A true miracle!]

If such a result was given in a bar, a fistfight would break out in seconds, but in the case of public gambling, there was no way to complain about it unless you were a person who could complain to the state authorities. Well, the probability of any number appearing is the same, so I guess it’s just a coincidence, but still, that’s a terrible result… Anyway, that’s beside the point.

“How about that, Canal? Did you win?”

“…”

“Canal?”

“Y-Yes, I-I-I-I won…”

Canal’s body trembled slightly in front of me as I said this with a smug look on my face. In her hand, she tightly clutched a piece of paper with the number that had just been announced, and Canal gently placed it on the table, crumpled up with too much force.

“Oi oi, along with crumpled, it’s all sweaty, is this okay?”

“It’s okay. The purchase record is properly recorded in the Fragment, so this is just for confirmation… Wait, is it correct? Huh, did it really hit?”

“Told ya. So how much is this going to be?

“R-Right, I did win but it might not be that significant of an amount! Haha, yeah. Some people might even buy commemorative items with these kinds of numbers, so it might not be that expensive… KYAFUN~”

“Kyafun? What do you mean?”

While fidgeting with the crystal on her wrist, Canal suddenly made a strange noise and collapsed on the spot. After waking up shortly thereafter, she either showed no response at all, or became like a child, speaking in broken sentences, making it impossible to communicate with her properly… The next day, we were still worried about her condition when Canal suddenly sat up straight on the couch and let out a big sigh after fiddling with the crystal on her wrist again.

“…………………… It wasn’t a dream.”

“Canal! Thank God you’re finally back to normal!”

“Tia-chan…… I’m sorry, I know I worried you.”

“It’s fine, really. Right, Ed?”

“Yeah, but one day feels so long, doesn’t it?”

“Don’t say such unreasonable things. Even after sleeping and waking up, the balance hasn’t changed, I finally just barely accepted the reality… huh? Who’s that, Onii-chan?”

“Stop! Don’t confuse us any more!”

With eyes that had lost their light, Canal began regressing to a childlike state again, but I vehemently shook my head and refused. Immediately, I went to the kitchen and made a strong cup of coffee, then forcefully poured it into Canal’s mouth.

“Hot! Hot! Bitter!”

“Wake up, Canal! Remember your true self!”

“Okay, I got it, I got it! But still, isn’t it normal to freak out about something like this? How much do you think we actually got our hands on?!”

“Speaking of which, how much was it?”

Unlike the first round, I was able to reveal that I was from another world, and we were able to openly ask Canal about “common knowledge” that we should have known. According to the knowledge we obtained, the average value of a copper coin in each other world is approximately 100 obra.

So, it seems that the gold coins, which should have been worth 1 million obra, were exchanged by Canal for 400,000 obra, but that is not a problem since I am already satisfied with the value. The important thing is to find out how much the 400,000 Obra would be worth…

“500 million.”

“Huh?”

“500 million! 500 million obra!

“Oh, about 50,000 gold coins? With that much gold, I guess We won’t have to worry about money for a while.”

“That’s right. We can eat delicious food and buy souvenirs, and still have enough money left.”

“Why!? Why are you so calm!?”

Canal got upset and lashed out at us for being so nonchalant about it.

“500 million! That’s a fortune that I could never earn even if I died and was reborn 100 times! Even in your world, it should be a lot of money that would make your eyes pop out of your head, right!?”

“Well, that’s true, but it’s only money after all.”

“And besides, once you have a certain amount of money, you don’t have to worry about the small details anymore, right? If you live a normal life, you don’t really spend that much money.”

(T/N: I need this much calmness in life)

Certainly, having a certain amount of money gives you more options, but for us right now, problems that can be solved with money are not that big of a deal. And as Tia said, for a normal life, we don’t really need that much money… in fact, we wouldn’t even know how to use it. Just eating and drinking good food normally would cost us a gold coin a day, which would already be quite a lot to spend.

“Crazy, you guys are absolutely crazy…… or am I just a petty commoner? Ugh, my stomach hurts… I wonder if I have any painkiller tablets stocked up…”

“Well, I’ve accumulated enough experience to be able to say that. So what do you think, Canal? If you’re ready to believe me this time, I’d like to ask for your cooperation again.”

“Ugh… Well, compared to the possibility that the government is trying to deceive me, it’s more likely that you guys are telling the truth… but still, cooperation? What do you want me, a simple and virtuous citizen, to do?”

Canal looked up at me and I grinned as I answered her.

“Of course…we’re going to defeat the Demon King.”