When she saw that square with the question mark, Eleanor felt as though all her senses had faded away, leaving only her eyes barely able to see clearly.
She stared motionlessly as the question mark was triggered, her eyes widening as she looked up at the image displayed above the table. It was exactly the same image as last time, just a small bonus event.
But Eleanor’s face still turned pale in an instant. The reason was simple. Just a bit of simple arithmetic—although one bonus event couldn’t let Liamy surpass Eleanor in points, what if there were two bonus events?
That little bit of increase would be just enough for Liamy to surpass Eleanor.
Seeing this, the corners of Liamy’s lips curled up even more. Although she was barely suppressing her laughter, her expression revealed nothing but delight.
Liamy, at this very last moment and with only one step left, had completed her comeback against Eleanor and claimed victory in the game!
Fully aware of this, Liamy forced down her smile and, for the final time, picked up the dice and tossed it onto the table.
This time, the die didn’t even spin—it landed just like last time, stopping at six.
At this point, it didn’t matter whether she rolled or not anymore. She certainly wasn’t going to roll a zero, was she?
So, after moving her character forward one last step to the finish line where no more actions were needed, Liamy raised both hands high, closed her eyes, and quietly awaited the announcement of her victory.
Eleanor, on the other hand, slumped weakly onto the sofa, her eyes unfocused as she stared at nothing in the air. She silently waited for her defeat to be declared.
But to both of their surprise, after a while, there was still no announcement of the game’s result.
They opened their eyes at the same time, looking toward Lavinia, who had been forced into the role of judge, puzzled as to why she wasn’t making the announcement.
What they saw was Lavinia lazily sprawled on the sofa, reading a book that had appeared from who knows where. She seemed utterly unconcerned about what was happening on their side.
Realizing she was being watched, Lavinia finally looked up from her book, meeting the silent stares of the two.
“? Ah! It’s over? Then I’ll announce the results.”
Lavinia sat up from the sofa and leaned in close to the table. After a careful comparison, she announced a result that left both Liamy and Eleanor utterly shocked.
“Whoa! How did you two manage this? How did your scores get so high? Hmm, let me see… All right, I’ve got the result. I hereby announce, the final result of this game between you two is… a draw!”
Liamy & Eleanor: “What?!”
Liamy stared incredulously at her own Adventurer Card, but found nothing out of the ordinary. She then looked at Eleanor’s Adventurer Card, and discovered that, at some point, Eleanor’s stats had increased by one, perfectly matching all of hers point for point.
At this, Liamy was completely dumbfounded. She couldn’t understand how what should have been an unchangeable victory for her had ended up as a draw.
On the other side, Eleanor, after her initial confusion, quickly realized what had happened.
“Because I reached the finish line first, it became a draw.”
After Eleanor’s explanation, Liamy finally remembered a new rule that had recently been added to the game: the first person to reach the finish line would receive an extra stat bonus.
The fierce gameplay had made both Liamy and Eleanor forget about this newly added rule. Only Lavinia, who had nothing to do, didn’t participate in the game, and had bored herself that morning by reading through the rulebook over and over, still remembered this new rule.
And because of this, what should have been Liamy’s victory turned into a final draw for both.
Upon learning this, Liamy felt a tinge of regret, but soon let it go.
Liamy and Eleanor exchanged a glance, then both couldn’t help but burst into laughter.
“Hahaha, who’d have thought after fighting for so long, we’d both misjudge the ending!”
“Haha, that’s true. Seems we still need more experience—if only there had been a clear winner.”
After laughing together, Liamy and Eleanor silently met each other’s eyes for a while. Then they both smiled again and said,
“That was a brilliant match, thank you for letting me enjoy it.”
“I really had a blast—it’s been ages since I played like this.”
After exchanging a few compliments, Liamy and Eleanor began reviewing the details of their game.
“Ah, I really shouldn’t have done that back then.”
“I know, I shouldn’t have let my guard down either.”
Watching them animatedly chatting, even Lavinia, who was still standing by, couldn’t help but laugh.
“Haha, you two really had fun, huh? Well, I have a question for you—do you know what it is?”
Lavinia’s words drew Liamy’s and Eleanor’s attention. They looked at her curiously, wondering what she wanted to ask.
Seeing both pairs of eyes on her, Lavinia didn’t hesitate, and finally blurted out what she had been holding back for so long.
“You two… have you ever considered my feelings?!”
Rather than saying it, it was more like she roared it. Lavinia poured out the pain of being neglected, her voice thundering into Liamy’s and Eleanor’s ears.
“You two really play so seriously! You just left me aside and ignored me! Ever since a few rounds ago, as soon as you two reached the finish line—even though I hadn’t finished yet—you’d just go ahead and start another round! I was clearly playing with you too!”
“A brilliant match? What’s so brilliant about it, may I ask 😡? I certainly didn’t feel a shred of brilliance! And what else? A blast? Well, I can say that the book I just found is making me quite happy. As for this game, well, you didn’t let me play, so what right do I have to complain?!”
“And finally, why did I have to become the judge?! You could have done it yourselves! I wanted to play too, you know 😭!”
Lavinia vented all the grievances she’d built up over the past few hours, making Liamy’s and Eleanor’s ears suffer.
But they didn’t argue, because what Lavinia said was true—they really deserved to be called out.
At last, Lavinia finished venting. Looking at the two, who now lowered their heads and listened in silence, she finally sighed and waved her hand.
“Forget it, forget it. Seeing how much fun you two had, I won’t say any more. But next time, you can’t leave me out again! Otherwise, I really will get angry!”
Facing Lavinia’s lecture, Liamy and Eleanor just nodded repeatedly, not even thinking of protesting.
They were well aware of their mistake in this incident, and with this lesson learned, it was likely they wouldn’t repeat it in the future.
…Probably not, right?