At my deliberate act of self-destruction, Ignis looked at me as if wondering whether I’d simply made a mistake.
I nodded back, resolute.
I didn’t play the wrong one. This is the one I meant.
The moment he understood what I’d intended, Ignis’s face took on an odd expression I’d never seen on him before. And not long after that, with no warning signs whatsoever...
Patter-pat-pat.
“Aagh!”
“Eeek, what is this, somebody get it off me! Aaagh!”
Something came pouring down over our heads.
A swarm of pine caterpillars, bristling with fuzz and fattened up nice and plump, was falling like rain.
Caterpillars squirming and writhing everywhere, clinging to the table and to people’s bodies and crawling, and people shrieking as if they’d gone into full panic.
It was a horrifying sight, enough to turn your stomach just from looking at it. Having gotten exactly what I’d aimed for, I smiled in quiet triumph, wrapped my arms over my head, and flattened myself across the table.
Aaaaaargh! Aaaagh!
And on the inside I was screaming myself hoarse. The sensation of them crawling and wriggling over me without any regard for which body part they picked made my skin crawl.
Disgusting! Vile! I think I’m going to throw up!
I squeezed my eyes shut and repeated it to myself like a mantra.
C-calm down... these bugs can’t hurt me. At worst they’re vegetarians whose staple food is pine needles!
Plop. Plop.
I stayed curled up and still, and at some point the swarm of caterpillars stopped falling out of the sky.
“Good heavens, Your Highness...! Are you all right?”
My attendant, who hadn’t joined the game and had been waiting behind me, came running with a shrill cry. Flinching the whole time, he picked the caterpillars off me one by one.
Arms, shoulders, hair, even the back of my neck. Only after he’d carefully brushed away the last one on my shoulder could I finally lift my head.
He insisted he’d gotten all of them, and yet it still felt like something was crawling around on my skin...
The revulsion was more than I could stand, and tears beaded at the corners of my eyes. Ignis, who had been watching me in that state, muttered half to himself.
“What’s this? You passed up a perfectly good card to draw that one, so I assumed you were fond of pine caterpillars...”
He’d turned the card’s contents into reality exactly as the rules demanded, but the look he gave me said he couldn’t make sense of me at all.
“Why would you pick that card if you were going to be scared of it?”
Don’t tell me he’s some idiot who can’t read. It was written all over his face.
I sniffled a little, held his gaze without flinching, and answered in a wet, teary voice. As though my choice had been perfectly sound and entirely reasonable.
“Because... that one lets you move more spaces forward.”
Ignis listened to that, then quietly checked the wording printed on the cards.
‘Fairies’ Banquet’: advance 4 spaces. ‘Pine Caterpillar Party’: advance 10.
He raised his head and looked at me. He’d probably only just realized it — that I’d been focused on how far I could move rather than on what the card actually did.
“We finally got to be on the same team, hyungnim, so I wanted to let you win.”
I hadn’t forgotten for a second the character I’d decided on from the very beginning.
Dumb, blunt logic that said nothing else mattered because ten was a bigger number than four, plus the pure, guileless declaration that I’d been frightened but found the courage anyway, all for his sake.
The picture of a little brother so innocent it bordered on dim, without a shred of ill will in him.
I am absolutely not going to go down easy.
The Ignis I knew was the type who found someone who stepped outside his expectations far more interesting than someone who played it by the book.
I thought of the attendants before me, frozen with fear, hesitating over every move, unable to concentrate on the game at all. A completely normal reaction for completely normal people — which to Ignis must have felt like the same tired scene playing on repeat.
So I gave him a fresh new thrill.
He’s never once seen someone throw themselves into the game in good faith under this much pressure.
Compared to losing my life, this was nothing. If flattering him was all it took to leave a good impression, I could take a round of pine caterpillars.
And my gamble must have landed, because after a moment of silence Ignis let out a breath.
What burst out at first sounded like a dry cough of a laugh, then grew and grew until it shifted into something high and clear.
Not a tyrant reigning over a board game, but a child his own age who’d stumbled onto some small, simple delight.
“You’re really funny.”
The game went on and on as though it had no intention of ever ending.
His turn ended, and then came mine. Sunk in listless resignation, I still drew a card.
Purely to keep him entertained.
Tap. A bead of sweat ran down my skin and dropped onto the table, making a tiny crown.
I consciously kept a smile at the corners of my mouth so none of my alarm would show, but inside me a typhoon was tearing through.
Of all the cards in the deck, how do I manage to draw garbage like this?
The wording called poisoning to mind, and my fingertips trembled faintly. I could feel my heart beating faster than usual.
I lifted my eyes just the barest fraction to check on him. I’d been hoping his attention had wandered somewhere, anywhere else, but he was sitting right across from me, staring at me head-on.
As if he’d grown bored, there came the regular little noise of his fingers drumming on the table.
Tap.
Tap.
It felt like an invisible hourglass of patience was running out.
Damn it, I can’t drag this out too long. That silent prodding set my nerves on edge, so I dropped my head low and skimmed quickly through the deck in my hand.
Please, please let there be one normal card in here. Chanting it over and over inside.
...but the result was a catastrophe.
A ghastly premonition slid down the length of my spine. I knew, with absolute certainty, that it was all over. The escape route I’d been counting on was sealed, and once I’d confirmed that, there was no stopping my face from falling apart.
He must have read the outcome off my expression too. Right on cue, his lips parted, slow and unhurried.
“So you’re finished as well.”
His voice was relaxed, and carried a faint trace of boredom besides.
His attitude hadn’t wavered once for the whole game. Unlike me, clawing for survival from the moment I was forced into that chair, he had never once been in earnest.
All this time I’d thought I was sitting at the same table as him, but not for a single moment had he and I ever been equal players.
Because the life I was thrashing so hard to protect was, to them, nothing but a trivial, worthless little amusement that lasted an instant.
Urk.
The moment I noticed my breathing had gone a little difficult, a vile wave of nausea hit me. Something that had been scalding my heart surged up the back of my throat.
My head spun, and as I barely caught myself against the table, I saw a dark red blossom spill down my chin and bloom outward, spreading like ink on an ink-wash painting.
Drip. Drip.
Only belatedly did I realize that what I was looking at was blood, and my eyes shook violently, as though I were panicking.
Why? I haven’t picked a single card yet. Why am I getting a penalty...?
A cold sensation brushed down my spine. As if struck by revelation, I looked at the object sitting beside me.
Don’t tell me, there was something in there!
Through my swimming vision, an exquisitely finished teacup came into focus.
More precisely, the unidentifiable liquid pooled inside it, purple and green swirled together.
Thud.
Somewhere along the way I’d ended up sprawled helplessly on the floor. I’d coughed up blood and collapsed, no question about it, yet I felt no pain at all, as though I’d been given an anesthetic. My arms and legs wouldn’t move the way I wanted them to.
Clack. Clack.
Neat heels sounded against the floor, and then a pair of sleek, polished shoes shimmered right in front of my nose. It was obvious who they belonged to.
There, with my life guttering out, I finally came to understand something completely.
Ah, maybe there was never any way to survive in the first place. From the instant I rubbed them the wrong way, my fate was already decided.
What expression he wore while he watched me die, what words he spoke to me, I couldn’t really tell.
All I did was force my eyelids up, one last act of thrashing, so I wouldn’t lose consciousness.
I can’t fall asleep. I haven’t managed to do anything yet, and if I fall asleep here...
...ther, Mother is...
