While Yasui Makoto was on the phone with Almond Eye, elsewhere in the estate, in a large bedroom—Gold Ship's proposed "pillow fight" had come to a successful close, and the entire bedroom had turned into a battlefield of flying down feathers.
The aftermath of battle still lingered.
At some point, two feathers had lodged themselves in Kitasan Black's white bangs. A small white flag was tucked into the collar of her yukata as she sat on the edge of a mattress, straightening the collar that had been tugged askew.
Lucky Lilac was huddled in a corner, also wearing a yukata, with a small white flag tucked into her collar. She hugged a cushion embroidered with a four-leaf clover pattern and stared blankly at the center of the bedroom.
In the middle of the room, Orfevre and Nakayama Festa each brandished a large pillow, chasing Gold Ship all over the place. The wooden floor creaked wildly beneath their feet.
Half leaning against the windowsill, Dream Journey held a book in her hands, a small white flag pinned to one arm of her narrow-framed glasses.
"Hey, you few, take it easy. Don't flip the mattress over."
After calling out to Orfevre and the others with absolutely no effect, she shook her head helplessly, took a bag of dried banana chips from the snack pouch on the windowsill, and offered it to the person beside her.
"Big Sis, banana chips. Want some?"
Stay Gold, who was unhurriedly tidying up the blanket and feathers that had been flung toward the windowsill, looked over with a small white flag stuck in her braid and smiled as she waved a hand.
"No thanks. Ask Kita-chan and Lilac-chan."
Dream Journey nodded. Just as she looked toward Kitasan Black and Lucky Lilac, a loud voice suddenly rang out from the center of the bedroom.
"What's so scary about flipping a mattress?"
Gold Ship abruptly slammed on the brakes, clutching a big, fluffy velvet pillow in each hand. She planted her hands on her hips and laughed smugly.
"Back when I was on a school training camp, I even crashed hard enough to rip through the dorm wallpaper, and nothing happened, right? Hahaha—ow!"
"Now's our chance!"
With an excited shout, Nakayama Festa pounced like a hungry tiger and tackled Gold Ship around the waist, sending her to the floor.
Then, while swinging the pillow in her hand and smacking Gold Ship hard on the butt, she turned and shouted, "Orfevre! I caught her!"
"Excellent. Festa, your lollipops next week are on me. Now…"
A vein bulged on Orfevre's forehead. Her long golden hair and yukata were covered in goose feathers. Holding a pillow in one hand and rolling up her sleeve with the other, she narrowed her eyes and walked step by step toward Gold Ship, who had been pinned to the floor.
"It's time to settle the score with a certain someone over all those sneak attacks!"
Struggling on the floor, Gold Ship shouted indignantly, "Hey, hey! Orfevre, let's talk this out… And Dream Journey! You set me up! I won't let you get away with this!"
"Sorry."
Dream Journey shrugged indifferently and pointed at the small white flag pinned to her glasses.
"I surrendered ages ago."
Then, amid Gold Ship's wails and Orfevre's cathartic shouts, she unhurriedly turned a page in her book.
A short while later—
The wailing and cathartic shouts had long since vanished, and the goose feathers scattered everywhere by the "pillow fight" had all been cleaned up.
The previous combatants now sat in a circle in the middle of the bedroom, each holding a black dice cup and shaking it with a clattering rattle.
They were playing liar's dice, also known as bluffing dice.
The rules were that each person had five dice, and after everyone shook them in their dice cups at the same time, each player could only look at their own dice.
After that, starting from the dealer or whoever everyone casually agreed would go first, they took turns guessing how many dice of a certain face value there were across the whole table.
For example, after looking at your own dice and seeing three twos and two fives, you could guess that there were three twos in total. You could also pretend you had other dice and guess five twos, or even more.
Guessing other numbers was allowed too.
Then the other players took their turns guessing in order.
When one player made a bid, the next player could choose to "believe" or "not believe."
If the next player "believed," the number of dice or the face value they guessed had to be higher than the previous player's bid.
If they "didn't believe," everyone opened their dice cups and checked whether the dice across the table satisfied the previous player's bid.
If they did, the player who chose "not believe" lost. If they did not, the previous player lost.
This kind of game was generally common in bars, but quite a few of the Umamusume present were not old enough to drink, so the stakes had been changed to lollipops.
The one providing the stakes was naturally Nakayama Festa, who had proposed the game.
She was also the dealer for the first round.
Nakayama Festa shook her dice cup, making a loud clatter, then slammed it heavily onto the floor with a smack.
Without even looking at what was inside her dice cup, her eyes darted mischievously, a sly smile curling at the corner of her mouth, and she spoke first.
"I'm guessing… fifteen sixes across the table." With that, her provocative gaze swept over everyone.
"Hey, hey," Gold Ship immediately complained. "Festa, if you start with a bid that high, how are we supposed to keep playing?"
Seven people were taking part in this game, meaning there were thirty-five dice in total.
Not only had Nakayama Festa not looked at her own dice, she had immediately bid nearly half the total number, and on sixes, the highest face value.
For the players after her, whether they increased the count or the face value, it would be difficult to make a bid.
However, one of the rules of this game was that if no one had called "ones," then ones could stand in for any other face value.
In other words, among the thirty-five dice, there did not actually need to be fifteen sixes. As long as there were seven or eight sixes plus roughly the same number of ones, Nakayama Festa's bid would still count as fulfilled.
And that latter case was clearly much more likely than the former.
"So, Golshi, are you questioning me?"
Faced with Gold Ship's dissatisfaction, Nakayama Festa not only did not panic, but confidently pressed her hand down on her dice cup.
"Then I'll open it. If you lose…"
"Hey, hey, wait, wait!"
Gold Ship immediately waved her hands.
"I didn't say I don't believe you. It's not even my turn yet… Anyway, Lilac-chan is after you. If she believes you, then I've got nothing to say."
At that, everyone's gazes turned toward Lucky Lilac.
Nervously swallowing, Lucky Lilac carefully peeked at the dice inside her cup.
Her dice were four fours and one six.
She thought for a moment. Since Nakayama Festa-senpai had called fifteen sixes only after looking at her dice—no, actually, she had not looked at them—Lucky Lilac could technically challenge her.
The problem was that her senpai had not looked. If her senpai's luck was very good, or her skill was very high, and she had rolled a big hand like five sixes, then it really was hard to say.
After all, under the game's rules, if someone had five identical dice, then during the final count, it counted as one extra.
After hesitating for a moment, she bit her lip and said softly, "I believe. I guess… sixteen fours."
After saying that, she secretly watched the others' reactions with a trace of unease in her eyes, then looked toward Kitasan Black.
Kitasan Black was next after Lucky Lilac. Hearing Lucky Lilac's guess, she glanced at her own dice cup.
Inside were three ones, one three, and one six.
After thinking for a moment, she felt that, setting Nakayama Festa-senpai aside, Lucky Lilac probably had quite a few fours. Somewhat excited, she said,
"Then I guess seventeen fours."
Then she looked expectantly toward Dream Journey.
---
T/N: ohhhhhhhhh its like the liars bar gameeee
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