Chapter 3 – Betting.
The next morning, Cashew Nut went to school in a much lighter mood. She had a stomach ache from being squeezed in the bathroom, but from the ‘other side’ she was rather good.
The sky after her rain was clear as always. The thick clouds that shed her tears on had long since flown away.
Breathing in the moist air, Cashew stood in front of the school gate. No matter how strict the academy was, she was still a place where people lived, and her atmosphere was not that different.
From people who gather in groups of three or five and laugh out loud about what makes them happy, to students walking alone with bags on. As usual, the morning at Drexar Academy was peaceful.
Entering her classroom, Cashew put her bag in the middle of her front seat. The seat of ‘honor student’ cashew nuts is always there. It was a tradition she had been carrying on since elementary school.
She took her writing utensils out of her bag and retrieved the textbooks for class one from the locker behind her. After that she routinely checked under her desk. It was because of the gift from the ‘Cashew Nut Fan Club’ that she often comes out with.
Cashew Nut never intended to create a fan club. She hadn’t even thought about making something like that in the first place.
However, arbitrary and involuntary distancing made cashew nuts a special presence on campus, and perhaps because of that, a fan club existed.
Although it was a bit burdensome for her, she said that good is good, and Cashew spent the day always grateful for that fan club.
“Cashew nuts?”
While checking that there was nothing under the desk, she was about to study, but she raised her head at the calm voice she heard.
A cute girl with short silver hair and red eyes. She was Dia Celeste, the president of the ‘Cashewnut Fan Club.
“Diamond?”
“Yes, Dia. Good morning.”
After a brief greeting, Dia held out a bag of chocolates in her hand.
“Today, the kids couldn’t prepare a present, so I bought this to eat at least.”
“Oh, thank you.”
It’s a gift that the giver wants anyway, but what if it’s shabby. If you can feel that sincerity, the cashew nuts are probably good.
Apparently, she hadn’t even eaten breakfast, so Cashew immediately opened her chocolate wrapper.
“Ah.”
Unfortunately, the wrapping paper fell off weakly with only the ends cut off.
It was a little uncomfortable, but there are still three corners left. She tore off the other corner.
It was the same here. Chocolate, she trusted, betrayed cashew nuts. The chocolate wrapper, which had been rectangular in shape, had become an octagon before anyone knew it.
“… I’m sorry, I guess I should have bought the proper wrapping paper.”
“Are you okay. This is how it is.”
In fact, on Earth, there was chocolate that was packaged this way.
But I couldn’t leave it like this, so I took out a pair of small scissors from my pencil case and cut the rim. A hard, brown flesh appeared.
After chopping it up with her hand, she put a piece in her mouth. Oh, this is delicious. A sweet feeling of happiness covered her tongue.
“Dia, do you want to eat too?”
“Are you okay. Actually, I bought one.”
At the offer of the cashew nut, Dia neatly refused, taking out a piece of chocolate from her bosom.
Anyway, cashew nut’s routine was like this. Sit in the front row, check under the desk, eat any presents for breakfast. Today, though, I had contact with Dia a little differently.
If you’re done with all these steps, now you have to go through one more.
‘Anyone would come.’
Those who try to reach the unreachable star called ‘Cashew Nut’. Such people used to take advantage of the morning time to approach cashew nuts.
And unlike Dia, Cashew kept her distance from them. It was because, unlike Diamond, who felt pure goodwill, they had impure intentions. Originally, the now-disappeared cashew nuts didn’t like to make friends with people themselves, so it fit in the setting.
Still, one of them believed otherwise.
“Cashew nuts. Are you here now?”
At the familiar voice she heard today, Cashew turned her head while munching on the chocolate. Brown ponytail hair and mustard green eyes. She was ‘Efri Sugar’ who greeted her every time she entered De Rexar Academy.
“Hello, Efri.”
Cashew Nut smiled and accepted the greeting. Efri Sugar. It was hard to call her a friend, but cashew nuts were the closest people she felt, and she singled out Efri.
Epri was kind and energetic to everyone. There was not a single person around him who evaluated Epri badly. Even those strict teachers would say that Efri was great.
She was also quite idiosyncratic in her abilities, though she wasn’t quite as ‘fraudulent’ as the cashews. Her ability to use her own life force to heal her others, or her own life force to heal herself. She was able to act as both a healer and a dealer at the same time.
Her appearance was equally applied to cashews. Efri didn’t seem to care much about the difference in her status. So, in her heart, Cashew believed in Efri.
But recently a problem has arisen.
“So by the way… Cashew nuts. Have you thought about betting?”
It was because of the bet of that bastard who had been asking for it for over a week.
Efri brought up the story of betting every morning. In return for giving me one thing I want.
The game was the same every day. Break the magic stone. It was a game in which the person who broke the magic stone and created a larger or more beautiful flame won.
If it was the original cashew nut, she had to reject it with a single knife today. It is absurd to bet on cashews living with minimal variables. It was beneficial to stay away from that.
However, she was no longer the person she was yesterday.
‘What will I get if I accept the bet?’
Cashew nuts thought.
Suppose you place a bet. You can think of winning and losing cases.
Once you win. I didn’t want to ask for anything out of the ordinary. At least, ‘I want you to be my friend’, to this extent? Efri was enough, but I wanted to make him a friend.
With that thought in mind, Cashew looked at Efri. Efri’s eyes twinkled and she was looking down at herself. Even though it was not a big deal, I had a strange thought for a moment.
‘If Efri beats you… How does it feel?’
Cashew’s height was 166 cm. On the other hand, Efri’s height is 157 cm. A size difference of about half a span. Is she being trampled on and spit on by someone smaller than herself?
‘I think it’ll be damn good.’
The cashew nut’s reticular circuit started to busily do its job.
Win the bet Epri has to do one favor. In that situation, she says:
“Efri, me… See it as trash and beat it up.”
As soon as the words were finished, the atmosphere in the class broke out, and Epri’s expression was taken aback. Epri asks if it’s real. She silently nods her head to herself. She is then pushed to the floor upon request.
Even so, Epri’s fists are still weak. So she whispers
“Harder… “
Hearing that, Efri’s expression turned into disgust. And a stronger, contemptuous fist…
‘No, this is dangerous.’
The cashews soon regained her sanity and cut off her delusion. If you do something like this, the solid walls you have built up until now will disappear like a mirage.
He wanted to deviate, not to suffer social burial.
Even if I win, I don’t think I’ll gain much. Then I had to find out who was losing. What will happen on the ground? First of all, I don’t know what Epri is asking for, so let’s pass it on.
The cashew nuts she chewed on the look of Efri she had always watched. She is energetic and competitive. I don’t know if it’s because of her strong competitive spirit, but she usually has the habit of showing off when she wins.
If Efri had won the bet, he would have reacted like this.
“Cashew nuts, you’re an honor student, so you’re not good at games like this, are you?”
Saying this, Efri would look down on herself. The self she thought was perfect would be stripped away, and she would fill her mind with this thought.
‘What is it?’
Efri, who has changed her mind once, will take advantage of her strong fighting spirit and press herself with another bet. That’s how Epri’s points for cashew nuts are deducted. Her score going down will be reflected directly between herself and Efri.
The sense of defeat from losing over and over again, the sense of superiority shown by Epri’s facial expression, and the sense of inferiority that comes to mind when seeing that appearance. She can actually achieve things that can only be obtained through mere delusion as of now.
She takes a bet and gets it on purpose. It seemed like a very good choice.
“Hey, cashew nuts?”
Efri awakened the spirit of Cashew Nut, who was deeply immersed in her thoughts. Cashew looked Efrey in the eye, slightly startled, but she soon understood her situation and smiled.
“Efri. You said you wanted to bet?”
“Huh. It did?”
“Let’s do it, right now.”
“Really?”
Efri seemed quite surprised by the sudden change of cashew nuts. After thinking about it for a moment, Efri asked several questions as if she wanted to double-check.
“You want to do it right now, right?”
“That’s right.”
“Breaking the magic stone?”
“Huh.”
“By giving the loser one thing he wants?”
“Of course.”
“OK got it.”
Epri’s reaction was surprisingly calm. Except for the fact that her face was flushed unknowingly.
A pocket soon came out of her bag. The bag fell on the desk with a pop. Several magic stone pieces landed on the ground.
A cashew nut that she thought was a person from the celestial world makes a bet with a human? The interest in the class was focused on the two. Soon, numerous students gathered around the two.
Among them, Dia, who was supporting cashew nuts implicitly, was also seen.
‘Cashew-nim, I can do it.’
The cashew nut sighed inwardly at the sight of her mouth open involuntarily and conveying her sincerity.
I’m sorry, Dia. I don’t think I can win because I’m going to lose on purpose.
“You know how?”
“No matter how much I am the daughter of a duke, even if I am an honor student who only studies, I know this much.”
To Efri’s provocative comment, Cashew replied with a slight tantrum.
Breaking the magic stone was a game similar to ‘slapping a ticket’ in terms of the global standards. Few people do it right and do it well, but it’s such a game that everyone knows how to do it. There was no way Cashew didn’t know that.
“Let’s say whoever wins twice first wins.”
“Good.”
The match between the two began.
The first was cashew nuts.
As she gently rubbed the magic stone with her thumb, blue smoke rose from her transparent and stable magic stone. She immediately grabbed the magic stone with her index finger and smashed it. With a click, a fairly large flash of blue light spread all over the place.
“Oh… “
“Cashew nuts too? Since you’re an honor student, you should be good at things like this.”
The admiration of the classmates exploded.
In fact, some knowledge of ‘breaking the magic stone’ existed in Cashew Nut’s memory. First of all, this edition showed his skills in moderation. The rest was decided based on Epri’s skill.
“Is it my turn?”
Soon after, Epri picked up the yellow magic stone. Place the magic stone in the middle of her palm and rub it gently with both hands, and the magic stone shines brightly.
“Hey guys, can you come out for a minute?”
Her close friends gave her distance for her to rise from her seat.
Efri wordlessly approached their center and she dropped the magic stone to her floor. A roaring sound accompanied by a thud. At the same time, a yellow flame rose and lit up the entire class.
The first set was Efri’s victory, no matter who saw it.
‘What is that?’
Cashew was a little taken aback by Efri’s ability to break the threshold of her imagination. She just assumed that she was a moderately well-to-do average person, but she was no longer at the average level.
“Oh… “
Epri’s excellent skills made the eyes of those around him bright. At the same time, cashew nuts could be felt. That her gaze toward herself had grown a little cold.
‘Should I just lose like this?’
In fact, she seemed to feel much better that way. I still have goose bumps on my back and I feel like I’m going crazy.
She still caught her spirit. Her inclination told her to take this positively, but her ego couldn’t tolerate it. One set is a must.
She thought. Can it be pointed? After scouring the database of her memories in her head, she found that she was fine in the dark. Cashew nut Lüberg’s secret weapon when he was young.
She pulled out a large red magic stone from her pocket. She tossed the magic stone up and repeated her catch. The magic stone that was full of her vitality gradually lost its light.
It was right now.
“Be careful.”
Cashewnut spat out a word indifferently and hammered her magic stone into her ceiling very hard. Red flames covered the ceiling, and a phoenix descended and flapped its wings.
The faces of the audience, who had only thought of simple lights, were wet with joy. The shaped flame was a kind of special move. Dozens or even hundreds of times. It was something that could only be obtained by studying for a long time.
It was the only secret in Cashew’s memory. She smiled at the heat of her entire class. This time she definitely won. If you do this, you can now touch Epri’s pride. Now we just have to lose in the final match.
However, even after seeing the phoenix, Epri looked strangely relaxed.
“Are you doing well?”
Efri, who took over the turn, held an oval-shaped green magic stone in her hand.
Efri scratched every corner of the magic stone with her fingernails. I could see light streaming through the wounds. After that, she carefully fiddled with the tip of the magic stone, and neatly cut the part.
‘Is that possible?’
Her nonsense shocked all of her classmates, including Cashew Nut. Due to the unstable structure of magic stones, it was common for them to burn with a hissing sound when cutting.
However, that magic stone looked unstable, but there was no reaction.
Epri smiled triumphantly and threw the magic stone at the wall. The magic stone that slowly burned in the air conceived the life of a green flame. Deer-like horns and ferocious teeth, a long body and scales, four legs, and a tail.
Everyone knew the creature’s name.
It floats in the air and serves as a guardian deity. Its name is Dragon.
Hearing applause from around him, Cashew was convinced.
This is lost
Her disposition was delighted, but her wounded pride was disintegrating. And that inclination made her feel excited even in her broken pride.
Cashew sat down in her chair and looked around her. She was already the sparkling presence in her class, Efri. She herself has become shabby. More than you think.
Even Dia, who was poking her head out from afar, had a dark face, and it was clear that she was a little disappointed in herself.
Her stomach ached badly as she received more shame than she had properly compromised.
As she looked at Efri approaching her, Cashew felt her heart pounding. What are you going to do? What words will hurt me? Please tell me I want you to show me soon
However, Epri took a completely different action than expected.
“Are you doing better than you think? She just thought she was a model student, but she was surprised.”
After speaking in a kind tone, Efri took out a piece of paper from his chest and held it out.
“What I want is written here. I lost so please do it It must be.”
Epriy then walked out of the class as if nothing had happened. She looked so unconcerned, but if you looked closely you could tell. For some reason, Epri’s footsteps were slightly erratic.
Cashew looked at the paper she received. The paper was folded neatly three times. She unlocked the paper. A letter was written in the middle.
‘During class today, somehow get scolded by the teacher.’
The contents of the letter were very dizzying.
