The new Emperor of the Northern Empire had been assassinated by a member of the Demon Race.
Duke Wolf, one of the Three Great Dukes, had gone missing.
The imperial palace, which had stood for centuries, was left in absolute ruin.
Human bodies preserved in liquor had been discovered in the cellars beneath Duke Wolf's manor.
An eighty-year-old grandmother had single-handedly leveled the carriage parking lot reserved for the nobility with a single spell.
Behind all of this — was it the death of conscience, the collapse of morality, or the warping of the human spirit?
The Northern Empire had descended into chaos!
Meanwhile, wanted notices were dispatched to every corner of the land.
The portrait depicted a figure with long hair, mismatched eyes, a hooked nose, shark-like triangular fangs, a gaping mouth spraying blood, and an irregularly lumpy, potato-shaped face. Other than the broken horn, it bore not the slightest resemblance to Nanoda.
Yuna looked at the wildly abstract wanted notice in her hands and burst out laughing despite herself.
"Pfft — what kind of scribble is this?"
"Lucky for us, that gate guard who'd actually seen Nanoda turned out to be a real artistic 'talent.' Otherwise she'd have become public enemy number one."
Aaron, seated at his desk, had been worrying himself half to death lately over the whole business of Nanoda taking out the fake Emperor — "Wolf." He felt like he was going to go bald. Well — not that he had any hair left to lose.
"It couldn't be helped. That fellow specifically instructed his guards to verify my appearance before escorting me into the palace — and there's a barrier around the Imperial Capital left over from a thousand years ago. Unless the conditions are just right, demons can't get in at all."
What Nanoda was referring to was the barrier key passed down through generations of Emperors. With that key, the barrier could be freely raised or lowered — a relic left to posterity by that great Mage of the Mythical Era.
In her original plan to assassinate the Emperor, Nanoda had taken this into account. It was only later, because of the "Emperor's" personal invitation, that she had changed her approach.
"For now, try not to go out and show your face. Lay low here in Gaderia for a while."
Aaron put away the wanted notices he'd been showing around and turned back to his paperwork.
"Understood... your turn. I play a pair of Sixes." Nanoda gave a nod.
"Then I'll play a pair of Tens." Yuna followed suit.
When it came to Aura's turn, she stared at her hand with a somewhat pained expression for quite a long moment.
"...Pass." She only had a pair of Threes.
Back to Nanoda. "I play a pair of Jokers."
"Pass." × 2
"Three-plus-one."
"Pass." × 2
Aura turned her hand over and back again, and realized she had nothing but straights.
"Three-plus-two."
"Pass." × 2
"Hey, Nanoda — how many cards do you have left? Can I take a peek?"
Aura smiled stiffly. Ever since she had played her very first card, she hadn't captured a single trick.
"Absolutely not, that's cheating. Aura — pair of Kings!"
"...!"
"Aura, you lose."
Nanoda spread open her empty hands. Beside her, Yuna caught her eye — and the two shared a knowing smile.
"This... this isn't fair!"
Aura stared at her hand — a fistful of straights and a handful of low singles she could only play one at a time — and began to seriously question herself.
In hindsight: she had opened with a single Three, which Nanoda had immediately eaten with the Big Joker. And after that... there was no after that. Nanoda had torn through everything with a run of pairs and three-card combos, leaving Aura with no chance to play a single card. And at the end, Yuna had even thrown out a Bomb — after Aura managed to play one measly pair of Threes, Nanoda followed it up and cleared her hand.
Aura felt genuinely hard done by. Was she really this unlucky?
"Ladies, could you please stop distracting me from my work?"
Watching the three of them play cards, Aaron felt his own fingers itch.
The card game Nanoda had invented — called Dou Di Zhu — had taken Gaderia by storm and was an enormous hit with everyone.
Most of the territory's residents had originally come from bandit gangs, so they took to this kind of game of wits and bluffing immediately.
There had been board games and card games before, but none of them were this simple or this fun.
Aaron himself would often sneak off in private to rope Qual and Lugner into a few rounds — and with his masterful card-hiding and sharp playing, he came out ahead far more often than not.
"No — one more round. I'm definitely going to win this one!"
Aura pointedly ignored Aaron's words and demanded another game. Then she shot him a vicious glare.
"Lady Aura, as long as you're having fun..."
He reached into his desk drawer and pulled out a pair of earplugs — thank goodness he'd thought to prepare them in advance.
Battle after battle raged on, from high sun to dusk.
Aaron finally straightened up from his paperwork. He leaned back in his chair, stretched with deep satisfaction, and pulled out the earplugs — only to turn his head and find Aura with the most thoroughly defeated expression he had ever seen.
"Why... why..."
Aura had not won a single round that entire afternoon. When she was the Landlord, the Peasants ran roughshod over her; when she was a Peasant, she dragged her teammate straight down with her. At most she ever held three cards of the same rank, and she never once saw a Bomb.
"Lady Aura, don't lose heart — you'll get there eventually!"
Yuna offered some words of comfort from the side.
"Aura, you are the undisputed greatest."
Even Nanoda had never seen anyone this unlucky before — an entire afternoon, upward of fifty rounds of Dou Di Zhu, and not a single win.
"Hmph — I'm done! I'm going to cook dinner!"
Aura flung her full hand of cards onto the table, stood up, and walked out. It had been a very long time since she had felt genuinely annoyed.
"Let's call it there for today, then."
Nanoda paused — and then, as if remembering something, she turned to Yuna.
"Yuna, do you have time tomorrow? Would you come by the Demon Special Zone and meet with me? There's something I'd like to talk to you about."
"? Oh — yes, of course, no problem at all."
At Nanoda's invitation, a faint flush of pink crept uninvited across Yuna's cheeks. She nodded, just a little shyly.
She found herself looking forward to it — wondering what it was that Lady Nanoda could possibly want to see her about tomorrow.
The girl's imagination began to wander.
"I'll head out first, Aaron."
"Oh!"
With a quick goodbye to Aaron, Nanoda rose and took her leave.
Demon Special Zone — inside Nanoda's wooden cabin.
After the last attack by Imperial assassins, Nanoda had simply had the demon soldiers renovate the entire place from top to bottom.
"~♪"
Linie stood in a pure white apron, stirring a large iron pot with a ladle in steady, even circles.
She was going to cook for everyone herself — a surprise for the household.
Today's dish was her most prized specialty: secret-recipe sour-pickled fish soup.
The surface of the deep purple-black broth was dotted with strange bubbles. Several black fish heads with hollow, empty eye sockets bobbed at the top, spinning slowly with each sweep of the ladle — as if they were still swimming.
Aura, who had just arrived home, felt her heart drop without warning. Through the half-open kitchen door drifted a green, unidentified gas — and on her normally expressionless face, a rare emotion appeared: fear.
The green vapor coiled in the air and condensed into the shape of a skull.
Linie was cooking.
The conclusion came to Aura almost instantly, without a moment's thought.
This was bad. Right now, she desperately wanted to go back and play cards — even if it meant losing for another whole evening, she didn't care in the slightest.
____
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