"So it was Eris?!"
Setsuna found the result both unexpected and somehow reasonable.
"If it's a contest of luck, there's probably no one who can beat Eris, right?"
A tiny blessing from the Goddess of Luck could let an ordinary person pull three or four SSRs in a single ten-draw, or turn a 5% success-rate experiment into a 100% guaranteed success for some research-obsessed loli.
If she personally entered the arena, there were probably very few people who could wrestle with Eris when it came to games.
"But luck isn't omnipotent, is it? Games still depend on skill in the end, right?"
Silence Suzuka looked puzzled.
"No, no, no..."
Setsuna shook his head.
"You know nothing about true luck."
After walking a short distance, they spotted Grey dueling Eris.
The two had set up at an outdoor café, holographic interfaces unfolded before them.
When they saw Setsuna, both stood up to greet him.
"Commander, good day."
"You two?"
Setsuna couldn't help but laugh.
One was a super artificial intelligence that followed absolute logic. The other was the Goddess of Luck who turned the impossible into possible.
Artificial intelligence never spoke of probability. It achieved victory through perfectly rigorous calculations and deductions. As for Eris... she relied purely on instinct and intuition.
"Yes, Commander. Today I will prove that in the face of logical thinking, luck does not exist."
"As long as I defeat Eris... hm, at minimum I should get two weeks of exclusive Commander-usage vouchers? Then we can hehehe together..."
The nanomachine began daydreaming.
"Come on."
Eris looked relaxed, completely unbothered by Grey's provocation.
"According to the rules, the challenged party gets to decide the game. How about we play Fight the Landlord?"
"Fine. Let's do it."
"Hm... Jibril, how about you be my teammate? We can split the spoils evenly afterward."
"Sure—"
Having only recently arrived in the Starsea Empire, Jibril had yet to witness Eris's terror and agreed without hesitation.
She folded her wings and sat down cross-legged.
Shff—
Projected cards were distributed into everyone's hands.
"Oh ho—"
Grey glanced at her hand, and a complex holographic interface instantly appeared before her eyes.
With overwhelming computational power, she began simulating the entire match.
She calculated, down to each individual card, the probability that the opponent held it, then aggregated the data to deduce the opponent's hand.
After every round of plays, she updated the simulation in real time based on the cards already revealed, achieving near-perfect predictive accuracy.
Jibril was the same. Her processing power was slightly inferior to Grey's, but together they complemented each other, making the game almost transparent.
"Wait, just remembering the played cards already gives you a huge advantage, right? You can even reverse-calculate the opponent's hand and then simulate their possible play order?"
Silence Suzuka was startled, secretly relieved she had chosen to enjoy herself earlier instead of playing against these monsters.
Otherwise, she probably wouldn't even get a chance to see the Commander.
"For the sake of a happy life with the Commander, of course I'll use every possible means."
Grey stated it as if it were only natural.
Round after round, relying on precise calculations, she and Jibril suppressed Eris completely.
"One Two, four Aces. Jibril, throw the bomb. Blow up the Two."
"Seventeen cards and you think you can beat me?! Beat me instantly? If you can wipe me out with seventeen cards today, I! Will! On the spot! Turn into a twin-tailed loli and let the Commander f*** me!!"
The nanomachine's expression grew increasingly arrogant.
"A mere Goddess of Luck can't possibly overcome mathematics and logic..."
"It's over. Please pour Eris a cup of cappuccino. Thank you."
"Um, wait a moment..."
Then—
Pa—
Eris emptied her entire hand in one turn.
The game settled, and both the nanomachine and Jibril were completely cleaned out.
"Huh?!"
"Wait—how is that possible?!"
Jibril and Grey stared in disbelief.
"That can't be right! How could you possibly draw a hand like that?!"
"Our calculations showed an 88.75% probability that you only had three pairs plus single cards, and a 9.2% probability that—"
"You laugh at Eris for not understanding math, but Eris laughs at you for not understanding luck."
Setsuna nearly died laughing.
Anything involving probability, in the eyes of the Goddess of Luck herself, had a result of 100%.
The outcome had been decided from the very beginning.
"What were you saying earlier? Where's my twin-tailed loli?"
He looked at the nanomachine.
"..."
Grey recovered from her shock and spread her hands.
"Say it. Who should I turn into?"
"Airi Akizuki, Nico Yazawa, Kurumi Tokisaki, Laffey, Hatsune Miku... pick one. I don't mind."
"I'll transform and get packaged to your bedroom later. Guaranteed identical in both appearance and functionality."
"I DO mind!!! Don't casually turn into other people!!"
Kurumi immediately protested.
She realized that in a certain sense, this thing never lost either way.
"Huff—"
Eris stood up, dusted off her dress, and counted the chips in her hands.
Then she looked at Setsuna expectantly.
"Commander, I can exchange these for one week of alone time with you~~ You'll agree, right?"
"Mm. I just didn't expect you to come personally."
Setsuna smiled as he accepted the thick stack of vouchers Eris handed over.
"With you entering the field yourself, it's a bit unfair."
"Uu..."
Eris puffed out her cheeks.
"I... I occasionally have selfish thoughts too!"
"I've been staying in the Grand Cathedral in the capital all the time. Commander, you never come to see me, hmph..."
Pfft—
Setsuna had never been particularly interested in praying and worshipping gods. No wonder Eris, bored out of her mind listening to believers all day, had come here to play.
The usually serious and gentle goddess was quite adorable when she let loose once in a while.
"Alright. I promise you."
Setsuna poked Eris's cheek. The silver-haired, blue-eyed Goddess of Luck lowered her head shyly.
Always gentle and rule-abiding, Eris felt she might have slightly overstepped, but after thinking about it, she decided to follow her heart.
...
After accompanying the Horse Girls, the person by Setsuna's side quickly became Eris instead.
He felt this arrangement wasn't bad.
Girls he rarely saw in the capital now had more opportunities to spend time with him. They could throw different kinds of parties in rotation.
"Back when you held celebration banquets on the Eternal Snowfall, there was too much to handle at the Grand Cathedral. I couldn't get away."
"This time, I heard the winner could spend time alone with you, so I came to try my luck."
Eris blinked slyly as she linked arms with him.
"Try your luck? Do you even need to try?"
Setsuna laughed.
Under envious gazes, Eris monopolized Setsuna's alone time for several days.
The two continued strolling through the city.
Everywhere, in the struggle for party slots, there was a scene of vibrant competition.
Of course, some people had simply come for fun, tourism, or even stranger ideas.
"..."
"Do something already, hey!!!"
Inside a villa in the capital.
The white-haired dumpling gathered Bronya and Mei together.
"It's all this rule's fault—everything has to be decided through games... I-I've never even played these things before!"
"Uh, I think it's pretty fun? It's like getting a summer vacation..."
Mei didn't fully understand, but she simply felt that inside the Theater of Domination, with its time distortion, they could freely enjoy a holiday.
Food and entertainment were top-tier. As for chips... just play for fun. She didn't have much competitive drive.
"It's not the same!"
Kiana scratched her head and pleaded as she nudged Bronya.
"So many big sisters have already gotten alone time with the Commander. I haven't yet. I even lost a lot to Pandora the past two days..."
"Bronya, help me out. I know you're the smartest."
"Help me think of a way to win more vouchers. Otherwise Commander Dad is going to be snatched away by the other big sisters—and my mom!!"
"???"
Bronya nearly choked to death, her pupils trembling.
"Kiana, maybe listen to what you're saying first?!..."
"Aaaahhh—"
"Bronya, hurry up and think of something! My dad is about to be stolen away by Mom!!—"
"The Commander is on a date with Eris and my mom right now, aaahhh—"
Faced with the chattering white-haired dumpling.
Bronya was stunned.
"Kiana, aren't you going a little too far?!"
Ever since the Schicksal-01 battleship crashed into the Starsea Empire's space station, everyone had known that Kiana's dad was the Commander of the Starsea Empire, and her mom was Schicksal's legendary S-rank Valkyrie, Cecilia.
She could be called the biggest second-generation official at St. Freya.
If she casually wrote essays titled "My Commander Father" and "My S-Rank Valkyrie Mother," even Himeko and Shigure Kira would tremble while grading them, their hands shaking as they marked the papers.
Yet it seemed this girl actually had other thoughts.
"When I was little, I had a dream—one day, I would marry the Commander!"
Kiana declared righteously. Mei nearly choked.
"???"
"Does the Commander know you think that?"
"The Commander doesn't mind. It's my mom who minds."
"Huh?!..."
For the first time in her life, Bronya—whose IQ was as high as 180—felt that her brain wasn't enough.
She had the vague feeling she had stumbled upon some high-level secret of the Starsea Empire. If she let something slip, she might get thrown into a black hole or something.
"Why don't you just act spoiled with the Commander? He wouldn't refuse you, right?"
Mei said as she poured tea.
She was a little envious of Kiana's identity—being able to stick by Setsuna's side at any time.
"It's not the same!"
The white-haired dumpling lifted her chin.
"Since we're in this world, we have to follow the rules... just like when I became a Valkyrie through my own efforts! Only things you fight for yourself have meaning!!"
"And... if I win it fair and square on my own, then whether it's the Commander or anyone else, they definitely won't have any reason to refuse, right?!"
"..."
Mei had more or less gotten used to Kiana being strangely competitive in certain areas.
"Alright then. Um... I remember you're usually pretty lucky in games? How did you lose so badly?"
"Come on, look at who my opponents were! Three Yukikazes who start with heavenly hands, Eris who always wins at the beginning, and the King of Knights who uses battle intuition for gacha pulls—who can beat them??"
Kiana grabbed her head and knocked it against the table.
Her good luck only extended to pulling a few extra SSRs in gacha and easily getting what she wanted from capsules.
Compared to those monsters, she was nowhere near enough.
"Bronya, Bronya, you're the smartest among us. Help think of a way, please?"
"How can we get more chips so I can go on dates with the Commander? ...Um, the three of us could split the chances evenly?"
"If you have anything you want, you can go find the Commander too."
Kiana felt she could only rely on her teammates' intelligence. A grasshopper's brain simply wasn't built for these scheming games.
"Hm?"
An exclamation mark popped above Mei's head.
"By split evenly, you mean... I can join too? I-I can also go on a date with the Commander? ...Isn't that a bit, a bit sudden? ..."
"...Don't steal the Commander from me!!!"
"..."
Bronya ignored the noisy pair, sighed, and opened a holographic interface.
"This is difficult..."
"If the three of us want to gather enough chips, the difficulty and workload are triple that of a single person. Bronya believes it's nearly impossible."
Even so, she wouldn't abandon Kiana and Mei.
"Ordinary people don't hold enough vouchers. So we can only challenge stronger players. Hm... but the difficulty is very high."
Quite a few girls, after suffering several losses and handing over part of their chips, had immediately washed their hands of the matter to avoid spending the remaining days reduced to mere butt-pushing tragedy.
As a result, a considerable portion of the vouchers had concentrated in the hands of a few experts.
"The strongest is Eris. She's already gone to exchange her winnings with the Commander. Don't challenge her. No one here can beat her in games."
"Grey and Shiro are the same. My calculation ability isn't as strong as theirs. Forget it."
The three of them huddled together, seriously analyzing their opponents for quite a while.
In the end, their gaze fell upon the Witch of Vanity.
This Sin Archbishop Witch from the Re:Zero world usually had a low presence. Aside from strolling around the capital, she spent most of her time soaking in the library.
Yet her record was outrageously high, with a win rate second only to Eris.
"...I remember among the Witches of Sin, the one with the highest IQ was Echidna, right? Why is Pandora's win rate so high?"
Mei said while flipping through the data.
"Uh... I remember playing two rounds with her. Every time, I felt like I was about to win, but in the end I still lost? ...It's strange..."
Kiana scratched her head, deep in thought.
"That's her Authority—Vanity."
Bronya said.
"She can modify reality. Bronya speculates that during the game, she continuously corrects facts unfavorable to herself, thereby achieving victory."
"Huh?!"
"Isn't that cheating?!"
Kiana was shocked.
"No. The game rules state that if there is improper behavior during the game and it is exposed, it counts as a loss. Cheating that is not discovered is not cheating."
Bronya shook her head.
"Moreover, Pandora's win rate isn't 100%. She has lost to Eris and to Mio. Perhaps differences in rank prevent her Authority from working? ..."
"Fortunately, that Spirit of Origin rarely uses her Authority. Otherwise, I feel very few people could beat her..."
"Eh—"
"What kind of divine-level match is this?!"
Kiana despaired.
Causality-bending Yukikaze, the Goddess of Luck herself, a reality-modifying witch, a nanomachine with super computation...
Winning even a few rounds against these people was harder than ascending to heaven.
"Mm... Bronya believes fighting the Witch of Vanity would be extremely difficult. I have no confidence in exposing her."
"Then what should we do? Go find someone else? Who's weaker? What about Chaldea? Should we challenge Ritsuka Fujimaru? ..."
The white-haired dumpling leaned closer and asked.
"...Hm..."
Bronya thought for a long while before suddenly speaking.
"Kiana, the more chips someone holds, the greater the reward if we defeat them, right?"
"Right."
Kiana answered without understanding where this was going.
"It's a pity we can't deal with Eris, Pandora, or the three Yukikazes... We can only look for weaker ordinary people. Or maybe you could compete in intelligence with Rani? Or go bully Aqua? ..."
The grasshopper inexplicably set her sights on the useless goddess.
"Your goal is to win enough chips within the rules, and then go find the Commander, right?"
Bronya asked again.
"Yeah. What are you getting at?"
Kiana looked even more confused.
"In that case, Bronya has the simplest method with the highest success rate."
"???"
...
"Hey, Commander—"
On an endless stretch of beach.
Setsuna lay with his head resting on Eris's lap, yawning as he casually gave her a squeeze.
"Size isn't that important, really. Aren't you hot wearing that here?"
Most of the shipgirls and girls playing along the shore wore swimsuits. Only Eris still wore her abstinence-style nun outfit.
She stood out conspicuously among the bikinis.
"What are you saying? ...Um, a goddess's constitution is special. It's fine!"
Eris stubbornly insisted.
"But sooner or later I'll see it anyway. I know. It's fine. Small is cute too."
Setsuna laughed.
According to the fifth doctrine of the Axis Church, Eris padded her chest.
She seemed to care a great deal about this, unwilling to reveal anything even on a beach vacation.
"Uu..."
Eris puffed out her cheeks.
"What do you mean sooner or later you'll see..."
"Then tonight I'll go find Taihou? You two can compare sizes?"
Setsuna replied casually.
"You villain."
Eris pinched his face.
"At least take off the outer layer. There aren't any outsiders here. Don't tell me you're not wearing anything underneath, Eris. You're not actually that bold, are you?"
Setsuna said.
"Asking a girl to undress in public, Commander—you should confess that in my cathedral."
Eris poked him.
"Church play makes sense. I haven't tried that yet. We should give it a shot when we get back..."
Setsuna thought about it.
Inside a sacred grand cathedral, the goddess listening to believers' prayers while, because of various stimuli, she had to suppress her voice.
The intense sense of taboo and excitement combined together—classic material. Especially when the heroine was the goddess herself, even more thrilling than the usual nun scenario.
Just imagining it was enough to make him stand at attention.
"Hey!!!"
Eris was both helpless and amused, lightly hammering him twice.
"Honesty is good, but could you not be so direct? My cathedral is crowded every day..."
"Hm? Someone's coming?"
Suddenly, footsteps sounded nearby.
Setsuna saw the white-haired trio standing before him.
"Kiana? What's the matter? ..."
"Guh..."
Kiana looked at Eris, then at Setsuna.
Summoning her courage, she stepped forward two paces.
"Commander, I challenge you to a duel!!!"