Prologue:
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"God, this is so awkward." Those were the thoughts of the young black-haired man in his current situation.
It is around noon, the five camps of the royal selection of Lugunica met again to add several new closures for the alliance of the five princesses and recap the fateful events against the witch cult in Priestella, the reunion against one of the archbishops in the tower of the Pleiades, among other things, so both the candidates along with their knights met at Roswaal's temporary mansion.
While the candidates were discussing in private, the knights were waiting in another room for them to finish, and said waiting room was clearly uncomfortable for the gathered knights, apart from talking about each other's activities especially Subaru's "adventure" in Vollacia, they had nothing else to talk about, especially because of each one's personal situations.
Julius who still no one remembers completely, apart from some inconsistencies in various events that could link him to him there is no way to make people recognize him, Reinhard's family problems were an absolute NO in any type of conversation, Crush's situation and her refusal to let Subaru absorb the dragon blood that runs through his entire body makes Ferris's mental health worse, and Aldebaran who was just on the couch placidly relaxing his aching body, no one spoke for a long time.
After about thirty minutes of absolute silence the knights began a new, different conversation starting with Reinhard.
"How about we play some games to pass the time?"
" Nyaaa … how about the cards? I think there's a full deck in the carriage."
"No thanks Ferris, I've played cards during my breaks from guard duty and I don't have good memories of those games."
"Really, Julius?"
"…I don't know if you're asking seriously or not, but trust me Subaru, you don't want to know how those discussions ended."
"Oh…"
The way Julius looked at Subaru made it clear that he didn't want to talk about any of the card games he had so he just nodded and they fell silent again.
"...Okay, good deck of cards, any other suggestions?"
"How about a game of chess? I'm not very good at it, but at least it's better than nothing."
" Nyo ."
"We haven't been allowed to play it for half a year."
" Huh , why?"
"It involves Subaru kyun and Julius kyun , a pair of purple eyes and a fire."
Aldebaran could be heard holding back his laughter, a snort coming out of him that could not be seen because of his helmet covering his face, leaving Julius and Subaru looking at the ground in shame due to that "tragic" event, with it ignored Reinhard decided to give a new suggestion.
"Oh, what a rock -"
"Don't even mention that old game, Schult asks me and Heinkel to play with him almost daily after his sword training due to the lack of other boys his age."
Aldebaran responded almost immediately causing Reinhard to remain silent with a nervous smile that reached a slight sadness in his eyes at not being able to finish his sentence and because of Schult's activities; again everyone was in an awkward silence, again waiting for any of them or some external element to intervene, Subaru decided to suggest a game that he and perhaps Al knew the type of game.
"Uh… Hey, I have a draft of a board game from my lands, do you want to try it?"
The knights turned to look at the black-haired man, curious about this game, especially about something that comes from their friend's unknown country, and Aldebaran was listening to the proposal while looking for a glass of water, this caused a little nervousness on Subaru's part about what he was going to say.
"W-well, the basic instructions aren't ready yet, but I can explain what it's about."
Aldebaran understood what his companion from another world was referring to, but the others did not understand everything, especially about the instructions, instructions for playing a game?
That caught the knights' attention so they agreed to listen to Subaru.
"Tell us about the game."
"O-okay, how do I explain it to you…"
"Just get straight to the point with the rules bro, it's easy to understand."
" Do you know about the game Subaru is talking about , Al?"
"Of course, I played it with some friends at home before coming to Vollachia ."
" Nya , it's funny that a board game requires instructions to play, why is that Subaru-kyun ?"
"Well, it is not so mandatory to use it, you only need paper, pencil and dice, but the instructions are for the player who will guide the others to play their role in the game."
"Our role? Like a play."
"Not exactly Julius…"
Subaru says this while scratching the back of his head thinking about how to explain role-playing games to them, but in the end he followed Al's advice and told them what it's about.
"The game consists of one of us creating an entire world with its kingdoms, rules and monsters, where he will narrate the events that occur in it while the other players will say what their characters do by rolling dice to see if the actions or attacks were successful or failed and the "narrator" will describe how the result was and continue with the adventure."
Listening to their friend's explanation, they were a little confused, not only by the concept of the game itself but by how complex it sounds. The specifications of the game are clear enough that it can last more than just a normal afternoon, and that led them to think of the same answer, with Julius being the one to give the answer.
"You have the incomplete instructions to read it."
"Huh, are you serious?"
"We have nothing to lose by reading it, and the game is really eye-catching."
"I don't know…"
"You were the one who suggested it in the first place Subaru kyun, why are you hesitant to show it to us now."
"…okay, let me bring it here."
"We'll be waiting for you here, brother."
With that Subaru gets up from the leather chair to go to his room to pick up the prototype of the manual. It was somewhat uncomfortable to pass by the meeting room and hear Felt arguing with someone or even hear his dear Emilia raise her voice so they could get back to the main topic, although it sounded like she was going off topic. When he got to his room he didn't find Beatrice in his bed or in the chair that is attached to the bookcase they put together so she could keep new books to read, most likely she is educating Spica how to behave and be able to speak or say basic phrases so he continued walking to the desk.
He opened a desk drawer and after moving various papers with doodles and advanced writing practices, he found the instructions, around forty pages written by hand, not counting the pages that had errors in various paragraphs or where ink had been spilled by accident.
"One month for only forty pages and still more pages to go, God I hope they don't criticize how ugly it looks."
After obtaining the instructions, Subaru returns to the waiting room, listening in on the way to the room where the candidates are, who seem to have returned to the original topic. Without wasting time, he arrives at the waiting room where the others were waiting.
"I found it, if you have any questions, ask me."
After saying that, Subaru hands the instructions to the table in the center near Julius who takes it to read it while Reinhard and Felix approach to start reading it. The sound of the pages could be heard in the room leaving Subaru slightly tense and nervous about his companions' opinion about the game.
"It looks entertaining."
That was what Julius said after finishing reading the game draft, this did surprise Subaru that he was still interested in the game after reading the instructions, which made him relax a little.
"Even though it is an incomplete draft, it is quite interesting."
"Although, there are parts of the rules that I don't fully understand, like magic for example, can you explain it?"
" Ahh … well, in my land we didn't know how magic worked so we just imagined what it would be like."
The answer that Subaru gave was accepted by his companions along with a look of curiosity from Julius, he couldn't say that in Japan magic didn't exist, it would sound ridiculous to them, so he gave an answer that is a lie and at the same time no longer, that on his first day in Lugunica he didn't know how magic worked until Puck "taught" him, so Reinhard's divine protection wouldn't activate, or at least he hopes it wouldn't be activated.
"Do you have the dice?"
"uh, not all Reinhard , the ten-sided die doesn't spin properly and-"
Before Subaru could say anything else, several footsteps could be heard approaching the door, which was opened with some force by the candidate Felt with a sulky expression.
" Reinhard , we're leaving now."
That was all she said before quickly leaving with a frown on her expression, after her several footsteps were heard in the hallway, the other candidates having a frown along with a firm look which they looked at the seated gentlemen only to continue walking firmly.
With a shiver running down their spines, the knights understood and began to get up, but not before talking about the game.
"So, what should we do, Subaru ?"
"Ah, I will try to finish the instructions and send a copy to everyone, I will bring the dice, Julius."
"Shall we play it at the next meeting?"
"Yes Rein , I think everything will be ready for the next one while you wait for me to send you the instructions so that you understand."
They all nodded and decided to leave with their candidates waiting for them outside the mansion, Subaru watching them leave could see Aldebaran looking in his direction raising his thumb only to then leave not without first receiving a kick from Priscilla for being late.
"Okay, I have to start now."
Subaru decided to return to his room to finish the game manual, but not before trying to calm Emilia down about the results of the meeting; after that he continued to his room so he could start finishing it and send it to them.
A month had passed since the last meeting and now they were going to start another one to continue what they had left off in the previous one.
The room itself is spacious, you can seat 12 people here and still have room to move around despite the leather sofas in one part of the room and the main round table along with matching chairs and bookcases covering half the room.
Subaru was preparing the room so that they could start the game without any mishaps, such as several homemade sandwiches along with mayonnaise, some squared sheets to physically guide his friends, the dice needed to play that took him many tries and cuts on his fingers, the character sheets and so on.
It wasn't long before they started knocking on the living room door and Subaru opened the door letting them in.
"Good morning Subaru , I hope you've been well."
"I am thank you Rein , were you able to receive the manual?"
"We received them, I appreciate you sending a copy to each of us."
" Although mine didn't arrive until next week, check how you write the addresses so that it doesn't happen again."
"Oh, sorry."
Everyone had a copy of the basic manual that Subaru sent them, it was complicated trying to make the copies for the manuals having to go to a specialist to make them with magic, another thing that Subaru learned in this world.
Subaru also greeted Aldebaran by bumping their fists before closing the door to return with them at the table where the game is, Subaru sitting where the data tablet is so as not to forget anything while the others were sitting around the table waiting for Subaru's new instructions.
"Okay, before we start, do you have any questions?"
"Do you have the dice you mentioned in the instructions?"
"Here they are."
Subaru takes a small cloth bag he had next to him, taking out the handmade dice in the process, the dice were made of wood that he found leftover in his training camp, the numbers are drawn with the characters of the world instead of the numbers of the earth, except for Aldebaran everyone else looked with curiosity at the shapes of the strangest dice they saw.
" Nya , what curious shapes."
"I have never seen any of these dice."
They said that while each one took the twenty or four sided dice, Julius just stared at the character sheets he had on his chair seeing each blank section and he was just waiting to talk to Subaru with the certain sections.
" Subaru , shall we start filling out the data on the sheet?"
"Yes Julius, remember to roll three dice in order and by the way Rein , please deactivate your divine protections."
The knights and Aldebaran began to fill out their character sheets, with Aldebaran being the first to finish his while the others took a while to finish with various questions about character equipment, spells, and some available races, which Subaru answered quickly in order to start session 0.
"Okay, let's get started with this session. Please state your character's name, class, and race."
"I, Reinhard, am Martin, a red-haired halfling of the fighter class."
"I, Felix, am Dorothy , a young green-haired elf of the wizard class."
"I, Julius, am Andrew, a brown-haired dwarf of fighter class."
"I, Al, am Bond, a black-haired human of cleric class."
"Okay, let's get started."
With everything sufficiently cleared up the knights began to play.