『Stephanie Dola』
A perfect, flawless beauty. Sora thought, staring at Shiro. He shook his head, trying to clear his mind of such thoughts. Humans are disgusting creatures, stupid and weak. But for the first time since he had conscious thoughts, he wasn't sure about his opinion.
A light knocking on the door disrupted Sora's thoughts.
"Who's there? I paid up front-" He opened the door to reveal a young woman, tightly clutching a blanket to hide her body.
"Can I come in?" she asked.
"Shiro?" Sora asked, lightly nudging the sleeping girl.
She rubbed her eyes sleepily. "I have my own bed," she murmured, half awake.
Sora's brow furrowed in confusion. "What?" He was about to ask more, but was interrupted by Stephanie Dola.
"What was that all about?" she asked, evidently embarrassed.
"What do you mean?"
"If you knew she was cheating, why didn't you tell me what she was doing?" she demanded. "I could've won if you had!"
"Pledge eight: Being caught cheating during a game in grounds for an instant loss. Right?"
"That's right. And thanks to you, I lost! I lose my chance to become king, and everything is over!" The red-haired girl had tears in her eyes.
"In other words…" Sora said. "You're mad that you lost, so you're taking it out on us?"
Stephanie flinched. She fell for it. Sora lowered his face so that Stephanie wouldn't see his sly grin.
"You couldn't even figure out a simple trick like that, so you lost everything you owned and now you're taking it out on us? What a joke," Sora taunted, an arrogant tone in his voice. Shiro sat up on her bed, now interested in where Sora was taking this conversation.
"What?" Stephanie yelled, standing up from her chair.
"And when someone calls you on it, you blow up in rage at every little thing. You're simple-minded. Easily riled. You can't control your emotions, and you're too conservative to take risks. To be blunt, you never had a chance." Sora said these words easily, letting the bitter emotions of his past seep into every word. "If it's the foolish king's blood in you, it's no wonder you lose all the time."
Stephanie Dola looked like she was stabbed. "Take that back," she whispered, her hands quivering in rage. "Say what you want about me, but I won't let you insult my grandfather! You take that back this instant!"
Sora's cold, red eyes looked at Stephanie in mock sympathy. "If you're getting mad, that means I'm right again. Obviously the granddaughter of a foolish king."
"You think I'm going to put up with this?!" Stephanie raised her hand, ready to slap Sora.
A clap echoed through the walls. "Then let's play a game."
"A game?" Stephanie's hand was still raised, frozen in surprise.
"Yup. 'All conflict … will be resolved through games.' That's the rule in this world, right? So let's play rock-paper-scissors."
She lowered her hand. "Rock-paper-scissors?"
"Yup. But… I'll only play paper. If I play anything besides paper, I lose." Sora explained the rules of the modified game.
"So what are we betting?"
"If you win, I'll comply with your every demand. I'll tell you how she cheated, and if you don't like the fact that I called your foolish grandfather a fool, then you can tell me to die."
Stephanie gasped. He continued. "And if I win, you'll comply to my every demand. I'm risking my life for a game of rock-paper-scissors. You understand, right?"
"And if we tie?" Stephanie's eyes narrowed.
"I'll give you a hint about how she cheated. In exchange, you can do me a small favor. To be honest, once we use all of this, we've got no means to get food or a place to stay." He help up the bag of coins.
"You want me to give you a place to stay?" Stephanie asked.
Sora stuck his tongue out. There was a barely audible noise that came from Shiro. She came to sit closer to Sora.
"Understood."
"Then I swear by the pledges…"
"Aschente!" they yelled in unison.
Stephanie Dola nodded, running through the possible scenarios. Sora could easily cold-read her, she was going to choose rock. He smirked. What a foolish girl. Stephanie Dola looked up to see Sora's expression, and gasped. Her thoughts changed directions, but the smirk never faded from Sora's face.
"Let's go," Sora said. Stephanie Dola raised her hand, a determined expression on her face.
"Rock, paper, scissors…"
"…shoot." Sora held his hand in a fist, while Stephanie held up two fingers.
"How..." Stephanie was speechless.
"You clearly put some thought into that, but not enough. You almost let me taunt you into playing rock, but when you saw my expression, you came to your senses and understood that if I played anything but paper, I couldn't win. You eliminated my chances of winning. That was good. Still, you should've picked paper."
"But… with scissors, I'd have twice as high a chance of winning as with paper!" Stephanie said.
"That's how I was able to predict you'd pick scissors!" he countered. "If you'd been able to figure out that I had figured all that out, you would've been able to play paper instead of scissors. That's why I said: you're not good enough." More like humans aren't good enough, Sora thought.
Stephanie collapsed, unable to comprehend.
"The game was going to end with me winning anyway. It was over from the start."
"You mean you were going after a tie, right? I understand. I can find you a place to stay."
"Nope," Sora said in a playful voice. "Shiro, what did I say?"
"You said 'In exchange, you can do me a small favor.'" Shiro recited from memory.
"And what did I say that would be?"
"You didn't say."
"Huh?!" Stephanie exclaimed. "W-Wait! That's not true! I checked! I asked if you wanted a place to stay!"
"Yup," Sora confirmed. "But did I respond?"
Sora watched Stephanie's expression change to horror as she recalled the event.
"In other words, the biggest trap in this game was the fact that you carried the same risk whether you lost or tied."
"But… that's fraud!"
"I obeyed all the pledges when I challenged you. It's your fault for not checking. I guess it's time to tell you what my little favor is."
Stephanie looked at Sora's face in trepidation.
"You now belong to me." Sora stated. Somehow, a little part of his heart melted when he saw the look of admiration on Shiro's face. Even if it was only for a second, I saw it!
Sora chased the wailing Stephanie out of the room. "We're going to live in your- no Shiro's and my palace, okay?"
"It's fraud!" she whined as Sora closed the door.
Before going back to bed, Sora added an item to his checklist.
Gain Shiro's trust.
UPDATE: I'm working on a new chapter! So sorry for making you guys wait - it's been too long!