Chapter 323: Kotatsu and a Board Game
Translator: imperfectluck Editor: vb24
When Seiji woke up the next morning, he discovered that the snow was already a few inches deep.
"It snowed last night? No wonder it feels much colder today," Seiji said to himself as he looked out of his window.
This was the first snow of this year's winter. The weather was now a lot colder, and it was time to keep warm.
Of course, there was heating in their apartment, but that by itself was insufficient. When staying warm in winter was discussed, it was impossible to not mention the legendary divine artefact—a kotatsu !
Seiji went out together with Shika and Reo to purchase a kotatsu . After they purchased an appropriate one and brought it home with them, they placed it in the living room, and the three of them gathered around the kotatsu to enjoy its comfort and warmth.
Slouched against the sofa, they watched TV and ate the oranges that they purchased along the way at the supermarket.
'This is just what I wanted!' Seiji was supremely satisfied with this experience.
A kotatsu was just as legendarily warm and comfortable as it was rumored to be in his past life. It was a mysterious, almost magical tool.
He was so comfortable that he didn't want to get up anymore. He even considered purchasing a laptop and writing at the kotatsu 's side in the future.
'I've transformed into a snail… I became depraved so quickly!'
There was a knock on the front door.
Seiji looked towards Shika, and Shika looked back at him.
Through nonverbal eye communication, they knew that the other was too lazy to get up. Neither of them wanted to leave the kotatsu to open the door.
Even his hard-working adopted younger sister had become depraved so quickly. The kotatsu was truly scary.
Seiji lifted his hand, a serious expression on his face.
"Let's settle this in a single duel."
Shika also expressionlessly lifted her hand.
Rock-paper-scissors, duel!
Seiji lost with scissors against rock.
And so, he could only leave this holy domain… whoops, demon lord's castle, and open the door to greet the guest.
It was Kaede.
The blonde teacher smiled as she stepped in. "You've already gotten a kotatsu ? How nice."
In order to enter the demon lord's castle, she even offered a sacrifice: a box of exquisite desserts. Then, she sat down together with them next to Reo.
The mature beauty and little beauty started chattering, breaking the silent atmosphere. A lively atmosphere was nice as well.
A few minutes later, there was another knock on the front door.
Once again, Seiji exchanged a wordless look with Shika, and Shika silently raised her hand.
Another duel!
Seiji lost once again, with paper against scissors this time. He crawled out of the demon lord's castle and saw that Mika was at the door.
"If you wish to enter, you must offer a sacrifice!" He acted as if he were a guardian of the door.
"Eh?" The pigtailed girl was astonished by his behavior.
"Why don't you bring a game that we can play? Perhaps a deck of cards for poker or a board game..."
"Oh…"
Mika returned to her home to find a game. She came back carrying a worn dark gray wooden box.
"This is a dice board game that my mom retrieved from our storage closet."
"It seems to be rather old."
"Yeah… I don't know, since I've never played it."
The two of them brought the wooden box to the living room.
Mika greeted the others and placed the wooden box on the table, which attracted everyone's attention.
"This is a board game that Miss Landlord brought out for us. It seems to be from a long time ago," Seiji explained as he sat down. "Why don't we play it together?"
This board game was a simple board game about moving spaces after tossing the dice. Each player would take turns tossing the dice and move their representative piece a number of spaces equal to the number on the dice.
There were various events written in the board spaces. They would have to follow the rules of what was written in each particular space.
This was an old historical board game. This type of game would also occasionally appear in some anime or manga, and Seiji felt that it was rather interesting.
They opened the wooden box.
They saw a set of exquisite and extravagant character pieces! There were male and female characters, and every one of them was wearing Sakura Island's traditional garb. They seemed so realistic, almost as if they were modern-day figurine models.
Everyone was astonished at how exquisite the board game pieces were.
Seiji carefully picked one up and inspected it. He felt that the piece's weight and feel were both out of the ordinary.
"This is some type of stone… no, could this be jade?" He was even more astonished.
Everyone else was also surprised to hear this.
Kaede also picked one up gingerly and carefully inspected it, running her finger over its surface.
"Indeed… it's highly likely that this is made of jade. Normal stones wouldn't have this sensation or smoothness," she concluded with her knowledge as a mafia family daughter.
A board game with jade pieces! And these pieces were crafted so extravagantly. This was no ordinary board game set.
There was a total of six player pieces, three male and three female. Each character had a different appearance and was wearing different clothing.
If these pieces were truly crafted from jade, then just these six player pieces alone were quite valuable.
Apart from the player pieces, there were also some dice—like the pieces there were six—and all six appeared to be carved out of bone! Nobody could determine what type of bone it was carved from.
The board itself… was made from some type of animal skin, and again, nobody knew what type of animal skin it was. It had been dyed dark red, and a black-and-gold whirlpool-shaped game board was painted upon it. There were also many detailed small scenes dotted around the board, lending it an extravagant appearance.
The drawings, rendered in the Ukiyoe style, were rather classical in nature. Every scene was exquisitely well painted.
There were scenes of women singing and dancing; of men drinking and fighting with swords; of birds flying across a lake; and flowers blooming in a forest.
Those scenes indicated various game events, which they would have to read through the instruction book to understand.
The instruction book was the final item in the wooden box. It was slightly yellowed.
The various scenes were depicted again in the instruction book, with text explanations under them, just like a book of drawings.
"I don't think that this is an ordinary board game that you can find at a normal store," Seiji said after he finished inspecting everything in the wooden box. "Apart from the instruction book, everything else—the player pieces, the dice, and the board—seems out-of-the-ordinary."
'What do you guys think?' he asked everyone with his eyes.
"I think so as well," Kaede agreed. "This board game resembles a work of art; perhaps it was a custom-made object. If I were to appraise it, I'd say it's worth at least a million sakuras."
"A million sakuras…" Mika was rather dazed to hear this.
"This isn't something that we should be playing with. Perhaps Miss Landlord made a mistake." Seiji rubbed his chin thoughtfully. "Mika, why don't you take this back? If it's convenient, you could also ask where this board game came from. Where was it purchased from, or where was it created? I'm quite curious what materials were used in its construction."
The pigtailed girl nodded. After everyone put the contents back in the wooden box, she took it back home again.
Not long after, she returned with the wooden box still in hand.
"Mom said that this was something my dad left behind," Mika explained. "She doesn't know the details about it either. She said that rather than leaving it to gather dust, it might as well be used by everyone for some fun instead."
Seiji exchanged awkward glances with everyone else.
"Since Miss Landlord says so… then we might as well play a round."
'Let's be careful while playing with it and not break anything.' Everyone present had this thought in their minds, including even Reo.
They spread the animal-skin board, chose player pieces for themselves, and placed the pieces at the starting location…
Before they started, Seiji inspected the board game with his [Astral Vision].
He had observed it once already with [Astral Vision] earlier. This was just to make sure. In the end, he didn't notice anything abnormal.
Shika didn't say anything either, which meant that she also hadn't detected anything unusual.
The game began.
Everyone tossed dice to determine the order of turns based on who had the largest roll. Anyone who got repeat numbers would toss the dice again.
In the end, the order was determined as this: Seiji, Mika, Kaede, Shika, and finally Reo.
Seiji went first.
He tossed a result of four for his first roll. And so, he picked up his player piece and walked it forward four spaces, landing on a picture of an elderly man who was fishing.
The moment that he placed down his player piece, a strange sensation washed over him, and the scenery before him suddenly changed!