Chapter 78: Wooden Dice Game (2)
“Wooden Dice Game is fun when there are many people.”
“…….”
“Why is your face like that? Have a cup of mul-tteok for now and relax~”
Dog Butcher picked up a chipped earthenware bowl and completely emptied the takju inside.
The messenger also reluctantly picked up the bowl placed before him.
Gulp-
The thick white liquid brewed with rice and yeast passed down his throat, but no flavor was felt.
How to escape from this board, his insides were only burning black.
At that time, Dog Butcher opened his mouth once again as he looked at the courtesans.
“That envoy and I are in a situation where we will lose our lives if we lose, and you all will be able to return holding a thousand gold if you win. Let’s all enjoy.”
“Cough!”
The messenger spat out all the takju he was drinking.
It is real.
That clear-eyed madman really intends to start a war over this single game of toy play.
Cold sweat ran down from the messenger’s temples like rain.
“You go first. Since it is the first time.”
Dog Butcher winked.
Then he threw two Wooden Dice dice before the messenger.
Roll……
A wooden dice written from 1 to 6.
His life depended on the sum of these two turning out.
The messenger glanced to the side.
The exit was already tightly blocked by the Hundred-Heads of the Dog Fortress.
‘Damn it, this is at least the only way to live.’
It was unavoidable.
The messenger squeezed his eyes shut and grabbed the two Wooden Dice dice.
‘If it comes to this, it is do or die. Once I escape here, Tiger Thousand-Head will solve everything.’
His teeth gritted on their own.
If he could just escape here and return to the Tiger Fortress, he would surely be able to repay today’s humiliation.
“I, I will throw. But before that…….”
“Before that, what?”
“If I win this game, Thousand-Head Sul must follow our Tiger Thousand-Head’s words.”
“I told you I would. I always keep my word in a gambling board~”
“Then I will believe you.”
Eventually, the messenger threw the Wooden Dice dice.
The two dice went up in the air and fell to the ground.
Roll, roll, roll……
One of the six sides was fixed upward.
Five and six. A total of eleven.
Clack! Clack! Clack! Clack! Clack! Clack! Clack! Clack! Clack! Clack! Clack!
One of the messenger’s pieces started from the starting point and moved a total of eleven spaces.
‘Good. It went quite far ahead.’
He thought a good number came out from the start.
At least until Dog Butcher threw the Wooden Dice dice immediately after, the messenger thought so.
“Now, then it is my turn.”
Dog Butcher threw the Wooden Dice dice as if rolling them with a peculiar hand movement.
Roll, roll……
Then soon, the two Wooden Dice dice revealed the same side as each other.
Four and four. A total of eight.
Dog Butcher curled his lips upward.
“Two Wooden Dice are the same number. Then you know to throw once more, right?”
“T-That is a rule I hear for the first time…….”
“In our Dog Fortress, everyone does that.”
Ignoring the messenger’s protest, Dog Butcher threw the Wooden Dice dice once more.
Roll, roll……
One and two respectively. A total of three.
Dog Butcher’s piece moved an additional three times from eight.
Coincidentally, it was the space where the messenger’s piece was.
“Oops. My goodness. I caught it?”
Dog Butcher’s piece overlapped on top of the messenger’s piece and overturned it just like that.
Originally in the Wooden Dice Game, when one’s piece arrived at the space where another person’s piece was, one could return the opponent’s piece to the starting point.
But the wooden dice rules in this Dog Fortress were slightly different.
Looking at the trembling messenger, Dog Butcher smiled.
“For us, once a piece dies, it is just the end. There is no such thing as resurrection.”
“H-How can such a……”
“It is. It is here. Still, isn’t it much better than reality? Since you have two lives.”
“…….”
“Take good care of your remaining life.”
Dog Butcher took his eyes off the messenger and kissed the cheek of the courtesan next to him.
“Honey. Look at this. At the very beginning, it is rather advantageous to throw later. If you rashly take the lead, you can be caught by the latecomers.”
“…….”
“Hey- messenger. What are you doing? Everyone threw. It is your turn, throw quickly. The atmosphere is getting boring~ If a yawn comes out of our pretty one’s mouth, you die?”
After the courtesans also threw the Wooden Dice dice once each, the messenger’s turn returned quickly.
Unable to withstand Dog Butcher’s urging, the messenger threw the Wooden Dice dice once again.
Roll, roll……
The wooden dice rolled like a top and soon stopped moving.
The second piece moves forward.
Five and four. A total of nine.
Dog Butcher smiled and grabbed the Wooden Dice dice.
“Oh dear, what to do? If you are unlucky, it will be the end from the beginning.”
“…….”
The messenger closed his eyes tightly while sweating cold sweat.
Eventually, Dog Butcher’s Wooden Dice rolled on the wooden dice board.
Roll, roll……
Four and four. A total of eight.
Since the two numbers were the same, he had to throw the dice once more.
“Yes!”
The messenger rejoiced.
It was the first time a sigh of relief came out even though the opponent overtook him.
“Aw. I went too far ahead.”
Dog Butcher moved his piece eight spaces forward.
Then he threw the dice once more.
Two and three. A total of five.
He moved the piece an additional five spaces forward.
“Huu…….”
Looking at the distance widening between Dog Butcher’s piece and his own piece, the messenger swept his chest.
Although it became disadvantageous looking at the whole board, he escaped the crisis of having his piece caught right now, so he extinguished the urgent fire.
Right at that moment.
Roll, roll……
An unexpected thing happened.
Right in the next turn.
A young courtesan who received the dice next to Dog Butcher.
A girl who looked to be just about fifteen or sixteen years old threw the Wooden Dice dice with a calm face.
Five and four. A total of nine.
The number of Wooden Dice produced by the young courtesan was exactly the same as the number the messenger threw earlier.
“……Uh?”
The messenger made a blank expression.
The other people watching also all gaped with blank expressions.
But regardless of that, the young courtesan moved the piece with a calm expression.
Clack! Clack! Clack! Clack! Clack! Clack! Clack! Clack! Clack!
The piece that was dashing vigorously moved a total of nine spaces.
And soon, it caught the messenger’s single remaining piece.
“…….”
“…….”
“…….”
The atmosphere of the crowd turned cold as if splashed with cold water.
The courtesans trembled, and the water bandits swallowed dry saliva in tension.
Not by Dog Butcher, but by the hand of a completely different person, the messenger’s piece was caught.
Moreover, too futilely as soon as it started.
“Ah…… Hahaha…… Ahahahahaha!”
The messenger laughed.
Two pieces.
Seeing all his remaining lives out of the wooden dice board, he forced a hollow laugh.
“I have lost as soon as it started. My goodness. You play the wooden dice game really well. How old are you?”
The messenger spoke, roughly stroking the head of the young courtesan who threw the dice at the end.
“Thousand-Head Sul. This, I did not know, but the wooden dice game is a very fun gamble. My guts became the size of a bean after a long time. It seems it has been indeed a long time since such a tight match. Ahem. This time it was fizzled out because of a child’s play, but next time I really want to play the wooden dice game seriously again.”
The messenger seemed to not even know what he was saying due to panic.
“Anyway. I will settle this matter well…… I will. Returning to Tiger Thousand-Head, I will speak well. Therefore, shouldn’t there be as little discord as possible between the two sides? R-Right?”
Before he knew it, his tone also implicitly changed to respectful language.
“…….”
“…….”
“…….”
The atmosphere of the crowd was still tense due to tension.
The courtesans were worried they might see blood in a place meant for play, and the water bandits did not seem to think a war would break out over such a trivial gamble.
However.
“What are you talking about, you?”
As Dog Butcher stood up from his seat and reached his hand to the back, the atmosphere of the water bandits changed.
“……!”
The messenger’s eyes widened as if they would tear.
What Dog Butcher picked up was a large blade.
Dog-Head Guillotine.
A heavy blade used when cutting things difficult to cut even with scissors or knives.
It was what the famous judge Bao Zheng of the Northern Song Dynasty used when cutting the waist of criminals.
Dog Butcher was carrying only the blade part of it separately like a large saber.
“If you lost, you should pay the price, what kind of bullshit are you barking? Is it because this is the Dog Fortress?”
“Ugh…… Uaaaah! Th-Thousand-Head Sul! Are you crazy!?”
“I did hear that I was a mad dog a lot in the old days. Hohoho-“
“Th-This is mutiny! I am an envoy! Do you think Tiger Thousand-Head will stay still if you kill an envoy!”
“He wouldn’t have expected me to listen to his words anyway. You were just a piece sent for probing and then discarded.”
“A-Are you really going to do that? A-A-Are you really going to kill me? If you do, a war will……!”
That was the messenger’s last words.
Slice!
Dog Butcher brought down the Dog-Head Guillotine and severed the messenger’s waist just like that.
Splatter, splatter, thud!
The piece cut in two.
Between the rough cut surfaces, many things spilled down.
“Crazy…… puppy…… doesn’t know…… fear of a tiger…….”
The messenger mumbled before dropping completely limp.
“…….”
“…….”
“…….”
Everyone froze.
The courtesans were silent due to the shock of a person’s death, and the water bandits were silent due to the shock of a civil war breaking out.
However.
“Hohohoho-“
Dog Butcher still looked as if it were no big deal.
He picked up a takju bowl with his bloody hand and emptied it with a pleasant laugh.
“To send a Hundred-Head rank of the Tiger Fortress in a single bout. You are quite something, child.”
Dog Butcher was staring at the young courtesan who threw the dice just now.
“If a Hundred-Head rank of the Tiger Fortress set his mind to rush…… hmm. I am not confident in killing him with a single gesture either. But since you did it by rolling a dice just once, I have no choice but to say you are better than me.”
“…….”
“Look at that. A new female expert has appeared in the martial world. I want to give you something to celebrate. What do you like? Alcohol? Money? Rice? Oh, there are also many silks and ornaments.”
Dog Butcher spoke with a smiling face.
Then the young courtesan spoke calmly, without her expression changing a bit.
“Rather than that. Is the Wooden Dice Game already over?”
“……?”
“There is no reason to receive a prize when I have not won yet.”
“……!”
At those words, Dog Butcher’s languid eyes rose slightly.
Turning his head, there were still many pieces remaining on the blood-stained wooden dice board.
“Hohohoho…….”
Dog Butcher laughed.
Then he clapped his hands loud enough to echo in the cave.
“Right. You are right. The game is not even over yet, so rewarding of merit is early.”
For the first time, vitality dwelled in Dog Butcher’s eyes, which had looked bored.
“Come on. Let’s play again. I did not know, but Wooden Dice Game……”
Dog Butcher’s gaze was fixed firmly toward only the single young courtesan in front of him.
“Is fun even when there are few people.”
Unrivaled Spear Ghost