A Day with Olivia and Claudia
Claudia’s Room at Galia Fortress
“I request another round, Lieutenant Olivia.”
“Really? You want to keep going?”
“Is there something wrong with that?”
“Well, no, I guess not...”
Two hours had passed since Olivia asked Claudia to play cards with her to kill some time. Claudia hadn’t seemed all that interested at first, but now she was dealing up the cards herself. The score was currently 15-0.
“I didn’t expect you to hate losing this much,” said Olivia.
“It’s nothing of the sort, ser. I merely apply myself seriously to any activity,” said Claudia tersely as she laid out the cards.
If that’s true, why do you look so bitter? The question popped up in Olivia’s mind, but she fought back the urge to ask it out loud. She had the feeling something bad would happen if she did.
“It’s your turn, Lieutenant.”
“Okay,” said Olivia, then flipped over two of the face-down cards. A cup and a sword. Not a match.
“Bad luck, ser,” said Claudia with a satisfied chuckle. “Now it’s my turn.” She flipped over her cards. “...Not a match,” she said, staring daggers at the picture of the joker on the card before her. It almost seemed to be laughing at her.
“H-Hey now, probability-wise, it’s really unlikely you’ll get a pair on your first try,” Olivia said placatingly, but Claudia didn’t respond. “Claudia? Did you hear me?”
“...It’s your turn, Lieutenant,” Claudia muttered. Internally, Olivia was perplexed. The game had started out as a bit of fun, but now it was anything but.
“C-Claudia, now that I think about it, it’s almost lunch time,” said Olivia with a deliberately breezy smile. Claudia looked back at her, expressionless.
“Your point?”
“I just thought that it’s lunchtime, so we should go have lunch, at lunchtime...” Olivia’s voice grew smaller and smaller as she spoke.
“Do you mean to say, ser, that you intend to take your winnings and run? Do you really think that behavior befits a knight’s honor?”
“I mean, I’m not a knight...”
“What was that, ser?”
“Uh, nothing,” said Olivia, shaking her head emphatically. Anything more would be poking the hornet’s nest.
“Then your next move, if you please, ser.”
“Right...”
The round ended. Claudia clutched the card she’d won, a huge smile on her face.
“Looks like I won this one, ser,” she said with a satisfied chuckle.
“Yep, guess I lost this time,” said Olivia. “Let’s go have lunch!” She went to the door. Just as she made to push it open, however, there was a whisper right in her ear. Claudia had come up right behind her.
“Just to be sure, ser...” she said in a chilling tone entirely unlike her usual voice, “it couldn’t possibly be that you lost on purpose?” Olivia turned back, then shook her head with all her might. “I thought so. A knight would never dishonor their opponent in such a way.”
“Th-That’s right! A knight would never!”
“Very well, Lieutenant. Let’s go to lunch. How about I buy you the lunch special?”
“O-Oh! Hooray...!”
As she watched Claudia walking cheerfully ahead of her, Olivia swore to herself that she would never invite the other girl to play a game ever again.
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