City ​​of Witches 1107

Chapter 1107 – #263_Holiday (4)

#1101

1.
Amelia, being pregnant, was spending more time with Siwoo and declared her withdrawal, becoming a referee alongside him. This naturally divided the teams.

Sharon and Eloa – Team One Shot.
The twins and Ruelle – Team Young Ladies.
Linne and Dorothy – Team Redemption.

That was how it was.

It seemed like a lighthearted bet, but as soon as the game started, the atmosphere became serious.

Yut Nori is a popular folk game during holidays due to its simple rules, but historical records show it was also used as a gambling game. It’s a board game where various strategies and schemes can be used, enough for money to change hands.

Team One Shot won the rock-paper-scissors and got to go first.

Sharon frowned and whispered to Eloa, who was holding the yut sticks.

“Ah, going first is disadvantageous… Your Grace, aim for either ‘do’ or ‘yut.’ ‘Mo’ would be the best. Anything but ‘gae’ or ‘geol’ is fine, okay?”
“Didn’t you say that ‘gae’ and ‘geol’ are higher numbers than ‘do’?”
“No. If you calculate the probability without considering the shape of the yut sticks as independent trials, it’s like this.”

Do: 18.75%
Back Do: 6.25%
Gae: 37.5%
Geol: 25%
Yut: 6.25%
Mo: 6.25%

“But the yut sticks are half-cut cylinders, right? If you roughly calculate the rotational motion and the curvature of the yut sticks, it’s approximately…”

Do: 10.79%
Back Do: 3.6%
Gae: 33.89%
Geol: 35.49%
Yut: 13.94%
Mo: 2.29%

“That’s how it is. Therefore, ‘gae’ and ‘geol’ are dangerous. After safely sending the most vulnerable player with ‘do,’ we can catch up by capturing other teams that have overtaken us.”

“I see! Sharon, you’re amazing.”
“Ahem! So, keep in mind that there’s also a tactic of placing a piece on ‘do’ first and then escaping immediately with ‘back do’!”
“I understand. Then I should aim for ‘do.’”

-Clatter!

The yut sticks were thrown.

“Huh?”
“Oh?”
“Hmm?”

The goddess of fortune smiled upon Eloa.

From the very first start, it was mo, mo, yut, geol.

Since the rules allow keeping ‘mo’ and ‘yut,’ she carried two pieces on her back and took the shortest route through the central intersection, making it the best first turn.

“Wow! You’re amazing! Your Grace, you’re the best!”
“Sharon! It seems like today is our lucky day!”

Sharon looked around with a ‘how about that!’ expression.

The twins had their brows furrowed deeply, Ruelle looked like the world had ended, Linne sat upright with a blank expression, and Dorothy was grinning.

It was less dramatic than expected, but the fact that Team One Shot had gained an overwhelming advantage remained unchanged.

“I think we can just escape one by one now.”
“That’s right, we can’t just rely on luck.”

With two pieces having escaped in a single turn, winning would be guaranteed if they advanced the remaining two pieces step by step, even if it was at a snail’s pace.

“Jackpot! It landed on ‘do’ at the very end!”

Sharon and Eloa, having seized the momentum early on, worked together to send one piece around and out.

Meanwhile, Team Redemption and Team Young Ladies were sluggish, each only managing to escape one piece.

“Hooray! Now we just need one more to escape!”
“Sharon, were you a Yut Nori master?”
“Well, this much is easy!”

At that moment, the eyes of Team Redemption and Team Young Ladies secretly met.

Sharon and Eloa, who had only thought about winning purely, had failed to consider something.

That in a three-way battle in the wild, if a ‘slightly more advantageous enemy’ appeared, the remaining two would form an implicit common front.

Having only one piece left out of four might seem very advantageous at first glance.

But the reality was different.
It was the weakest state, with no means to move in case of the worst outcome, and no means to check the opponent’s pieces.

As soon as the other two teams were in a position to beat Sharon to their heart’s content, they brought their implicit agreement to the surface and began blatant checks.

“Huh? Odette? What? Why are you capturing my piece here? It would be better to capture Team Redemption’s piece.”
“Oh? Was it? Oops, I made a mistake.”
“It’s okay. Let’s do better next time, Odette.”
“Okay, Unnie.”

For example, they would deliberately capture Sharon’s piece, even though Linne’s piece was at the intersection entrance.

“Dorothy, why aren’t you moving that one?”
“We have to send our Duke first~”

They set up camp inside the intersection and waited to snipe the Team One Shot pieces that were passing by on the outside.

“Oops! My hand slipped!”
“Ruelle! I told you to wipe the sweat off your hands before throwing.”
“Unnie, don’t be like that, what can I do if it slipped?”
“That’s true.”

The twins and Ruelle smiled brightly and casually dropped the yut sticks off the mat.

They were using the ‘nak’ rule, which invalidates a turn if the yut sticks go off the mat, to maintain a good position to attack Sharon.

“No, why are you placing a new piece when you got ‘gae’ and ‘geol’?”
“I just feel like it.”
“Isn’t that really unfair?”
“Hmm… Is it?”

They even intentionally placed ‘gae’ and ‘geol’ pieces to create stepping stones for the opposing team to easily chase Sharon.

“What is this! This is cowardly! How can you do such a despicable thing….”

Sharon was furious.

Only now did Eloa and Sharon grasp the situation.
This wasn’t a 1-on-1-on-1 situation.
It had already become a 1-on-2 situation.

Moreover, they had to break the common front of the two teams, each with three pieces, while being in a poor situation with only one piece.

Of course, it was impossible.

“Kya! Two yuts and a mo!”
“Step on Sharon Unnie’s piece and go again!”
“Stop! Stop it! Nooo! How did you get all the way there….”

Eloa firmly held Sharon’s trembling hand.

“It’s okay, Sharon.”
“What’s okay… We’re definitely going to lose like this….”
“Look at the board.”

By the mid-game, Team Young Ladies had managed to escape one more piece.
However, Team Redemption had not gained any additional points.

“Their alliance needs to be on equal footing to be maintained. If we leave them be, they’ll break apart on their own.”

That’s right.

The reason the two teams had been checking Team One Shot with one mind was not only because Team One Shot had an overwhelming advantage, but also because the situations of the other two teams were similar.

However, unlike Team Redemption, who had focused solely on checking Team One Shot, the twins had cleverly gained practical benefits during the cooperative check play.

They had not only escaped one more piece but had also secured good positions with their remaining two pieces.

But even with Eloa’s explanation, Sharon only felt despair.
She had already seen through what Eloa was overlooking.

“No… Your Grace… The gap is already too big.”
“Wh, what do you mean?”

The reason Team One Shot struggled with the teaming was because they had only one piece left.

Conversely, this meant that even if Team One Shot and Team Redemption joined forces now, it would be impossible to check them effectively.

“Oh dear, you’re realizing it too late.”
“To think you considered the board game geniuses Odile and Odette as mere cute apprentice witches. Heh heh.”

In other words, Team Young Ladies had suddenly become the most likely winner.
It was pointless to talk about a common front now.

“To my assistant’s bed…!”
“Let’s gooo!!!”
“Phew! Go!”

Team Young Ladies stepped on Team Redemption’s piece in front of them and carried the piece that was near the 9 o’clock position on the board.

The last two pieces were stacked, there was no force to check them, and they were less than 10 spaces away from the finish line.

Team One Shot was struggling and circling the board, while Team Redemption was in a slump, throwing ‘three dos’ in a desperate situation.

“It’s okay. There’s still hope. It’s not easy to match the exact number of spaces to escape.”

There are many variations of Yut Nori, but the rule of this game is that you have to match the number ‘exactly’ to escape at the finish line.
If a piece has arrived at the finish line, it must land on ‘do,’ and any other yut is invalid.

Therefore, it’s not uncommon for pieces to be stuck at the finish line for four or five turns and get captured by the following pieces.

“Hmph, that much is easy, you know?”
“Don’t worry. I will pass through in one shot.”
“Ruelle, it has to be ‘geol.’ ‘Geol,’ you know? Let’s finish it in one go?”

The twins, who were putting on a show of bravado, knew this, so they looked at the mat more carefully than ever.

“Kyah! How unfortunate!”
“Why did it have to be ‘gae’ here!”
“You idiot!”
“Don’t worry! We can just get ‘do’ next time!”

But unfortunately, Team Young Ladies’ piece was placed exactly on the starting point and finish line.

Now, they were in a situation where they had to pray for a ‘do,’ which had about a 10% chance.

At that moment.

“Wait. What, what is that?”
“When did they….”

The others, who had been paying attention only to Team Young Ladies, noticed it late.

The ‘first do’ point.
The piece of Team Redemption, which had achieved ‘three dos’ and had three pieces stacked on it, while no one was paying attention.

“…….”

Linne closed her eyes.

Linne was a shateigashira of the Yakuza.
The origin of the word Yakuza comes from the numbers 8, 9, and 3, the most useless numbers in Hanafuda, and useless gamblers are the foundation of the Yakuza.

Therefore, she knew everything about the physiology, strategies, and timing of gamblers, even if she didn’t want to.

The curvature of the curved surface, the feeling of the yut bouncing, the center of gravity, the air resistance, and even the friction surface of the mat were all understood.

The yut was Linne, and Linne was the yut, a soul-filled lie.

“Hoo.”

A martial art at its peak, where perfect control of the body’s extremities is possible, shines in Yut Nori.

The yut is thrown with a half rotation.
In the slow-flowing time, the moment Linne’s little finger lightly disrupts one of the yut sticks floating in the air.

-Clatter.

On the mat, the only yut that showed its belly had an X mark engraved on it.

Screams erupted.

“Aaaah!”
“This is cheating!”
“Is that even possible?!?!?!”
“Back do? A back do here?”

The three-point piece at the first do point escaped by capturing Team Young Ladies’ piece that was waiting to escape at the finish line with a back do.

A great reversal that one would rarely see even if they spent their whole life loitering around the yut board.

“Aigoo~ Our Linne is so pretty~ She’s never been as pretty as she is today~”
“Let go.”

Dorothy hugged Linne tightly and cooed, while Linne, unable to hide her delight, tried hard to maintain a stoic expression.

And so, Linne and Dorothy of Team Redemption ended up having the hot nights during the holidays.