Chapter 62 Take A Betting
Espin’s smiling face was so sweet and adorable.
“Two of us, two of you, playing a game of two against two. Whoever loses gets to buy food! Sounds like fun, don’t you think?”
Espin said giggling, even clapping her hands together.
Her suggestion didn’t go down well with Veronia, nor with Killion and Onyx. No wonder. Playing a two-on-two game with people they weren’t even close to? It sounded strange.
But Jediel’s reaction was different. He was clapping and jumping up and down next to Espin.
“Wow! This is going to be fun! Whoever wins gets our side, whoever loses gets a tasty slice! I’ve never seen anything like this before! This is going to be so much fun!”
“I know, I’ve never played anything like this before either, and I’ve been wanting to play a betting game like this at least once in my life!”
“So today is the day that Ms. Espin’s lifelong wish came true?”
“Huh? Huh! Yes, it is! A lifelong wish come true! We get to eat cotton candy. And play the betting game.”
Jediel and Princess Espin looked at each other and giggled. For two people who had only met today, they got on so well. Unbelievably so.
The owner and his wife, who was slightly withered, chimed in with a broad smile.
“Your aunt really knows how to play darts, doesn’t she?”
“I know!”
Jediel exclaimed, as if to make up for his earlier mistake, as the owners laughed even louder.
“She’s not my aunt either, she’s just Aunt Espin, Mister, you don’t know her very well.”
The child gave him a pouty look, and the owner and his wife scrambled to catch up.
“Oh my… that…!”
“I’m so sorry, kid, you looked so friendly.”
Jediel was still wearing his fat face. Espin smirked and hugged him gently.
“Come on, Jediel, can’t I really be your aunt? I mean, we seem to get along pretty well… and you’re so cute, and I’m so pretty, so why not?”
“What? A real aunt? Is that…”
“Yes! Call me Auntie Espin, not Ms. Espin. Come on!”
“Yes… yes?”
A whirlwind of thoughts raced through Jediel’s tiny mind.
Even though Auntie Espin was pretty and he liked her, he didn’t think it was okay to call her ‘Auntie’ because she wasn’t part of the family.
‘May I?’ Jediel looked at Veronia, confused, ‘May I?’ He asked for permission, and Veronia felt embarrassed.
She didn’t want the child to call a woman he’d just met for the first time today ‘aunt’. Especially not if she was to be Killion’s fiancé.
Veronia was about to turn her creaky neck to the side to shake her head when Onyx came to the rescue.
“That’s a no-no. Never, Jediel.”
“Jediel, think about it. It’s been four years since I’ve known you. And you still call me Mr. Onyx. Not Uncle Onyx.”
“It’s …”
“But don’t you think it’s unfair to call someone you’ve known for less than 40 minutes today Auntie? It’s a matter of equity, and if you dig deeper, it could be a matter of discrimination.”
“…”
Little Jediel, who didn’t know what ‘equity’ was or what ‘discrimination’ was, couldn’t understand Onyx’s words in the slightest. He just had a feeling that Onyx would be upset if he called Ms. Espin ‘Auntie’.
The situation ended with Espin giving Onyx a sharp look and then turning away with a “Huh!”.
And so began a game of two-on-two darts, with each team shooting 10 darts and the team with the higher score winning.
The game was not quite what Jediel had expected.
Veronia and Espin’s darts, flung by their slender arms, barely made it into the bull’s-eye. The duo’s skills were simply not there.
Killion and Onyx, on the other hand, hit the center of the target with every single one. It was a close call here too.
It wasn’t a game of back-and-forth tension. Neither was the outcome of the game.
“It’s a tie!”
The owner, who had been watching for the entire game, noticed the bored expression on Jediel’s face and raised his voice.
It was just enough to liven things up. But Jediel, who had been looking sullen the whole time, became pensive at the word ‘tie’.
“Tied…? The same score?”
“Yeah, yeah. You both played well, so it’s a tie!”
“So no one wins and no one loses?”
“Yes, that’s right, because it’s a tie.”
The child’s forehead, eyes, lips, and chin became more and more distorted, but the master didn’t notice. He simply continued to answer her questions.
“So, you don’t have a bite to eat?”
“Oh, that’s…”
“So I can’t get a doll? What kind of game is… this?”
The child’s eyes grew moist, and this time the adults became thoughtful. The four adults squatted around little Jediel and began to soothe him.
“Jediel, don’t worry. The game is tied, but we’re going to treat you to a nice meal. What do you want to eat?”
Killion asked inquisitively. But Jediel didn’t seem to like his solution very much.
“Why are you buying food when you didn’t even lose?”
Jediel’s question left Killion speechless, while Onyx’s face lit up. This time, Onyx spoke up.
“Jediel, you know this neighborhood like the back of your hand. You name the food you want to eat, and he can lead you to it. Now, what do you want to eat?”
“Mr. Onyx, you didn’t lose, so why are you buying food?”
“That’s right…”
This time, Onyx was at a loss for words. Kilion and Onyx continued to argue over who would buy the food, with Jediel in the middle.
Veronia watched, feeling as though a stone had been placed in her chest. Meanwhile, Princess Espin’s eyes twinkled as she giggled in amusement at the fight.
‘She’s so… cheerful.’
Veronia stared at Princess Espin in wonder.
For a girl who had spent her entire life inside the palace and had only recently come of age and been allowed outside, she seemed to find everything new and interesting.
Her face was shadowless, her speech soft, and she seemed to enjoy talking to the child, suggesting that she was pure and kind at heart.
‘They say she’s the youngest royal daughter, favored by the Emperor, and it must be true.’
A pit in her stomach fluttered as she suddenly remembered the devastation of her former life in Veronia. She shouldn’t let her emotions get the best of her. Veronia looked away.
As Killion and Onyx argued about who was right and who was wrong, the landlady made an interesting suggestion.
“Then why don’t you two play another round of the betting game?”
“What…?”
Jediel, who had been wearing a sullen expression the entire time, finally responded to the owner’s words. A ray of light shone on his face.
“That way, whoever loses the game can buy food as a punishment.”
“That will work, Mistress, genius!”
The tears that had moistened the corners of his eyes quickly dried up.
Veronia, watching from a distance, felt the words, “Jediel, that’s enough,” rise to the top of her lungs, but she couldn’t bring herself to say them. It had been a long time since she’d seen him, and she didn’t want to throw cold water on his excitement.
‘Well… it’s the fault of two people who made a big deal out of nothing. They’ve made a spectacle of themselves.’
Veronia shook her head in disbelief at the number of people who were now gathering around them.
It had started earlier, when Killion and Onyx had hit the center of the darts in a two-on-two match. Passersby had stopped walking and started watching them.
Soon, there were many people standing in the crowd, following others, not knowing what to do. In anticipation of the confrontation of the century to come.
Veronia simply scratched her forehead and hoped that this game showdown would go off without incident.
“As you can see, with only one bull’s-eye, it’s hard to tell the difference in skill. So why don’t we set up multiple bull’s-eyes?”
Killion suggested to the owners, crossing his arms and rubbing his chin with one hand. The owners nodded vigorously as they listened.
“Oh, that sounds like a good idea!”
“We’ll hang the targets on the wall in a straight line from there to here. Then we run and throw darts at them.”
Killion said, pointing his finger at the end of the stall’s wide wooden wall. Veronia clicked her tongue to herself as she watched the seriousness of his expression, as if he were dealing with an important matter of state.
‘I always thought that seriousness was cool, but now it’s a bit…’
Veronica was stunned that her handsome, sexy, and dashing ex-fiancé could be so trivialised by a darts stall.
