"We've already reached half the dice this quickly…"
Dream Journey adjusted her glasses, a thoughtful glint flashing behind the lenses.
She had already checked her own dice. Inside were three fives, one three, and one four.
After weighing it for a moment, she said, "Eighteen sixes."
With that, she pushed up her glasses, looking as if she had everything under control.
Stay Gold looked at her own dice. She had two ones and three fours.
With a soft laugh, she said, "I believe. Nineteen fours."
Now it was Orfevre's turn.
She frowned, staring hard at her own dice cup. Inside were one one, one two, one three, and two sixes.
No fours. In that case…
She hesitated for a long time, silently weighing everyone's expressions and words.
In the end, she gritted her teeth and looked at Stay Gold. "I don't believe it!"
After saying that, she clenched both hands tightly, her eyes filled with tension and anticipation.
"Excellent. Then open them up!"
Nakayama Festa shouted excitedly.
Everyone opened their dice cups one after another, revealing all kinds of faces.
There were no fours among Orfevre's dice.
And aside from Nakayama Festa, who had not checked her dice, Kitasan Black and the others had eight fours and six ones among them.
According to the rules, that was equivalent to fourteen fours, only five short of Stay Gold's bid.
The moment she saw that result, Orfevre sucked in a cold breath.
They still had not seen the remaining dice, but Nakayama Festa and Gold Ship had ten dice between them.
For exactly five fours to appear among ten dice would be very difficult.
But if there were two or three fours, plus a few ones, then that would be much easier.
And when Gold Ship and Nakayama Festa opened their dice cups, Gold Ship had one one, one four, and three fives.
Nakayama Festa's dice, meanwhile, were four ones and one six.
Taken together, that counted as six fours. Added to the other fourteen, it easily cleared Stay Gold's nineteen.
"Y-you even guessed that, Onee-san…?"
Looking at the dice, Orfevre froze for a moment, then rubbed her hair in frustration.
"That was almost twenty. How is anyone supposed to guess that…?"
Though she complained, she still accepted her loss fair and square, picked up a lollipop from beside her, and handed it to the smiling Stay Gold.
At that moment, Gold Ship started fanning the flames with a teasing grin.
"Even twenty isn't that hard, y'know. The real issue is that you're too dumb, Orfevre."
"Think about it. Lilac-chan hasn't played this game much before, so of course she'd call whatever dice she had the most of."
"She called sixteen fours, so either she had a bunch of fours, or plenty of ones."
"Kita-chan seems pretty familiar with this game. She called that fast, so she definitely had a lot of ones."
"And Dream-nee? Don't you understand her at all? The second she pushed up her glasses, I knew she definitely didn't have a single six. If I were Stay Gold, I would've challenged her right there."
"So, yeah, you got baited by Stay Gold. Hahaha!"
Ignoring Orfevre's thoroughly unfriendly expression, Gold Ship laughed for a while, then pointed at herself and Nakayama Festa.
"And you were guessing blindly without even knowing what I had over here. Of course you were gonna lose."
"If you'd just followed with twenty fours, I'd have been the one in trouble."
"Though I definitely would've called twenty-one fours. I mean, Festa here? Heh…"
Scratching her nose, Gold Ship said confidently,
"You don't even have to guess. She definitely rolled a whole pile of ones. Forget twenty-one fours, even twenty-two fours would've been safe!"
At that, Orfevre unconsciously looked toward Nakayama Festa's four ones, her eyes turning helpless.
The other Umamusume looked over as well. Dream Journey and Stay Gold both wore expressions as if this were only natural, while Kitasan Black and Lucky Lilac grew amazed.
"Festa-senpai… you're really good at games, aren't you?" Lucky Lilac asked curiously.
"Only things like poker, dice, and mahjong."
Nakayama Festa smiled casually and tossed the dice back into the cup.
She barely seemed to shake it, but after a few rattles, when she opened the cup again, all five dice were stacked neatly on top of one another.
Seen from above, the face on top was a one.
Seen from the side, every side showed the exact same sequence of numbers from top to bottom.
"I play with Sirius Symboli-senpai, Tanino Gimlet-senpai, Vodka, and the others whenever we have time."
Facing Lucky Lilac and Kitasan Black's astonished, admiring gazes, Nakayama Festa did not look particularly smug. She only smiled and explained,
"When you play a lot, you naturally pick up a few little tricks."
"That's why I said from the start that it'd be hard for me to lose at this. Just now, I even deliberately rolled four ones. Otherwise, Orfevre would've lost even worse."
"So, what do you say? Keep playing this, or switch to something entirely luck-based, like drawing numbers and comparing them? That one's pure luck."
Though she seemed to be asking everyone, Nakayama Festa's gaze kept moving between Kitasan Black and Lucky Lilac.
She had played this plenty of times with Orfevre and the others. Kitasan Black was a guest, and Lucky Lilac was their kouhai, so naturally, their opinions came first.
"I'm honestly fine with anything."
Scratching her head, Kitasan Black was the first to smile. "And actually, Festa-senpai being like this… makes it feel even more fun?"
"Oh?"
Nakayama Festa's interest was piqued. "Why would that make it more fun? You don't think what I'm doing counts as cheating?"
"Not at all. Being able to roll the numbers you want is clearly skill."
Kitasan Black waved her hands repeatedly.
"I've actually played games like this with Dia-chan… that is, Satono Diamond, and her older sister, Satono Crown."
"It's really just about guessing each other, right? The better everyone knows each other, the easier it is to guess."
"Like all of you senpais. Because you spend every day together, it's easier for you to read one another."
"Now that Lilac-chan and I are here as newcomers, I think even Festa-senpai would have a hard time guessing everything."
"And it's our first time playing with an expert like Festa-senpai, and with all of you senpais too. It feels really fresh."
"Besides…"
After thinking for a moment, she smiled gently.
"The most important thing about playing games is having fun. It doesn't really matter what we play, right?"
Affected by those warm, cheerful words, the other Umamusume all showed soft smiles.
The last traces of annoyance on Orfevre's face vanished completely, while a hint of appreciation flashed through Nakayama Festa's eyes.
Scattering the dice again, their crisp clatter rang through the room once more. Nakayama Festa looked at Kitasan Black and smiled.
"If that's what Kita-chan says, then let's keep playing."
"From the sound of it, Kita-chan is a pretty formidable expert too. Let's see if I can win a few more lollipops from you."
"If that's a challenge from you, Senpai…"
Kitasan Black also began shaking her dice cup, her voice full of excitement. "Then I accept!"
A new round soon began. This time, the Umamusume threw themselves even more deeply into the game, each racking her brains as she tried to catch clues from her opponents' expressions and words.
Orfevre became especially cautious, thinking every bid through carefully and no longer making judgments as easily as before.
Gold Ship, meanwhile, remained as carefree as ever, laughing and joking as she made her bids, keeping the whole room filled with a relaxed, cheerful atmosphere.
---
T/N: dream journey is actualyly so hot though
T/N2: HI IM BACK HAPPY 2 YEAR ANNIVERSAY ONLY UHHH 7 DAYS? 8 DAYS LATE!!!
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