Because you’re the game’s protagonist, that’s why! I couldn’t very well say that, although it would’ve been way easier. Instead, I had to come up with some other excuse—make up something on the fly.
“Because I hate bullying, I guess,” I said offhandedly, giving Dolly and Donna a dirty look.
Olivia lowered her head again. In a voice thick with sadness and strained by tears, she said, “Please…be my stand-in. Save me, I beg you.”
“I won’t let you down.” I put my hands on her shoulders and coaxed her out of her chair.
“We don’t accept this!” Dolly howled at me.
I had the perfect plan to shut Dolly up. I signaled Marie with a look. Her expression was disgusted, but she approached the table all the same, handing me a bag.
“Thanks,” I said.
“You’re a horrible person. I hope you know that.”
The bag she handed me was stuffed with “platinum” coins. They’d originally been gold, but they were now imbued with magic that made them glow white. Thus, they looked more valuable than normal gold coins.
As I dumped the bag’s contents on the table, the looks in Dolly and Donna’s eyes changed instantly.
“I’ve got plenty to bet. See?” I said. “I may have been lucky in succeeding on my first adventure, but as you can see, I’m loaded.”
The mountain of coins stoked the girls’ greed. Perhaps they assumed that, although I knew they were cheating, I hadn’t yet figured out how. Or maybe they were simply so confident in their methods that they thought it didn’t matter.
“This means you’ll owe us everything Olivia lost,” Donna snickered.
I nodded. “That’s fine.”
“For the record, if we take everything from you—even the shirt off your back—we still won’t be done with you. This game doesn’t stop until both parties agree. As big a pain as that rule is, we’re going to follow it. Are you still brave enough to go through with this?” Dolly cocked her head, her smile self-assured.
They’d probably come up with that “rule” to drive Olivia into a corner. Oh well. It made things more convenient for me.
“That’s fine. I like that rule,” I said.
Dolly sniffed at me. “We won’t show you mercy even if you break down into tears.”
“Glad we see eye to eye on that, at least. Now, let’s get serious.” I plopped down in Olivia’s vacated chair.
The two girls exchanged smug grins as if they thought their victory was guaranteed.
Deirdre leaned close to my ear. “You really did see through their trickery, didn’t you?” she whispered. “I’d at least like to know that you weren’t just bluffing when you said that.”
It didn’t matter that someone was cheating if you couldn’t prove how. Regardless of how suspicious you were that they were up to something, they were free to keep doing it as long as they didn’t get caught.
I kept my eyes on Dolly and Donna as they took their seats. Speaking more loudly, so that they heard me, too, I told them, “Speaking of, your servants don’t need those cards they have stowed away. Come on, did you think I wouldn’t notice the extras tucked up their sleeves?”
Dolly and Donna’s servants instantly flinched. They immediately tried to hide the proof of their involvement in the cheating, but a crowd member stepped forward and grabbed both servants by the arm, shaking loose a couple of cards that fluttered to the floor.
“What a shame. If you were involved in cheating, you’ll need to be punished.” It was Lucle who’d come forward to catch the servants red-handed for me. His eyes, normally narrowed into solid lines, were now cracked partway open. The hold of both his hands on their arms was firm and unyielding.
“P-please don’t!” one servant pleaded.
“If you’re going to cheat, you should be prepared for the consequences,” Lucle said as he briefly released one servant, only to take the opportunity to snap the other’s finger. A terrible crack resounded as their bone broke. There were myriad reactions from the crowd; some people watched grimly, while others glanced away.
I appreciated Lucle seizing the two before they could hide their involvement, but when he meted out justice so quickly, I panicked. I hadn’t intended to have them punished. On the other hand, the male students really hated the personal servants. They seldom physically attacked us, but they clearly looked at us with disdain. Maybe, since the chance to get back at them was so rare, Lucle had gotten a little too carried away.
Oh, man, I hope that’s it. Someone tell me that’s all it is.
Marie stood there solemnly. To my surprise, she didn’t seem the least bit bothered by what she’d witnessed. “A single broken finger’s nothing. Mine have been broken countless times.”
Somehow, I didn’t really want to know how or why her fingers had been broken. Maybe she’d injured herself while hunting? Either way, she made it sound like she’d suffered way worse than broken fingers.
I sucked in a deep breath, trying to stay calm and relaxed. It was a rule in Holfort that if cheating was exposed, it had to be punished. If you cheated, and were caught, that was your own fault. I couldn’t let anyone see how shaken I was—it would kill the intimidating air I was trying to affect—so I did my best to keep an unreadable poker face.
Meanwhile, the other guys from my group started piping up.
“What’re you doing breaking that guy’s finger, Mr. Lucle?” one asked.
“What?” Lucle responded, confused. “Isn’t that the rule? You get caught cheating, you get your finger broken.”
“No. It’s supposed to be your arm, right?”
“You’re kidding. I was always taught it was your finger.”
Everyone seemed to disagree on the appropriate punishment. Different regions apparently had different rules, and of course, bickering ensued as to which was the proper one.
Having retrieved an axe from who knew where, Deirdre returned to the table and swung it down. Whack! The blade bit into the wooden tabletop so loudly that it redirected everyone’s attention, and the guys’ arguing voices fell silent.
“Enough pointless squabbling!” Deirdre declared. “Since these ladies brought their family names into the game, it’s only fair that the penalty for cheating be one’s entire arm!”
“Wha—?!” I squeaked in surprise.
Unlike the two girls I was taking on, I had Luxion on my side, so I didn’t need to worry too much about getting found out. Still, an arm seemed like too steep a price.
Dolly and Donna shook like a couple of leaves in the wind.
“No, um, like, I think that’s going a bit far,” said Donna. Her bravado had fled.
Deirdre planted her hands on her hips, chin held high. “Why is that? You understand the situation’s gravity, don’t you?”
✦ ✦ ✦
“B-but I think going that far would be a pain, you know?” Dolly stammered, lips trembling.
“When you bring up your house’s name in the course of a competition, it’s no longer a game,” said Deirdre. “Surely you’re prepared to take this seriously. Or am I mistaken? Let me make this clear—I hate people who can’t walk the walk!” She glared at them, her lips forming a thin, flat line.
Rattled, Dolly and Donna just stood there, still trembling. Even I was a little—okay, a lot—intimidated by this point.
Deirdre turned to the crowd. “You all remember Stephanie Fou Offrey. Even she humbly accepted her punishment after being defeated. Surely no one here is so cowardly that they can’t be at least as brave as Stephanie.”
Dolly and Donna were still pale, but when Deirdre mentioned Stephanie, their expressions set in grim determination. They couldn’t let themselves look weaker than someone like her.
“Ha! Fine. We’ll go ahead, then,” Dolly declared.
Her bravery actually made me think a little better of her. Just a tiny bit, though. After what she and Donna had done to Olivia, I still couldn’t empathize with them. Plus, there was a bigger issue at hand.
“Luxion,” I muttered under my breath, quietly enough that no one would overhear me. “I’ll be fine, right? Miss Deirdre and the others won’t pick up on my cheating, will they?”
“As I suspected, your confidence in involving yourself stemmed from your plan to use me to cheat your way to victory,” he responded in exasperation. “Now you are terrified because you think they may somehow catch you.”
“Stop stating the obvious! Hurry up and tell me whether it’ll be okay,” I snapped, anxious for some sort of reassurance.
“You underestimate me far too much, Master. This is, as you humans would say, child’s play for me.”
Praying he was right, I charged into this tricky gamble to save the game’s protagonist.