An hour later, I was in the palace with Axion.
"Mel!" Axion, dressed beautifully, waved to me and greeted me. I somehow felt the optical illusion that his tail was wagging. Today's Axion looked like a puppy with pure white fur.
"Play with me before Your Majesty comes!"
"Oh, is that so? I brought a lot of fun things. Shall we have fun together?" As I lengthened my words, the boy hurriedly avoided my gaze.
I think he's lying about something, but why?
"Yes! That, that's it."
"Is that so?"
"My brother called me too! Brother will be coming soon… Oh, you're coming over there!"
I glanced behind me. Sure enough, Prince Cassian was approaching in a gray tailcoat. He carried that kind, courteous smile.
I grabbed the fabric of my dress, curtsied lightly, greeted Prince Cassian, and then turned my eyes back to Axion. The boy opened his mouth and took turns looking at Prince Cassian.
Oh, now I understand.
"Axion, Your Highness our Prince."
"Uh, what?"
"…If you want to play with me for a long time, tell me in advance!"
He even called his brother because he wanted to play with me more? How cute!
I smiled subtly and sat down on the chair that had been prepared for me. After a while, Axion and Cassian sat side by side across from me.
"Lady Meldenik." Prince Cassian gave me a brief greeting.
"There's nothing wrong with being close to the prince." This world was a society of connections. If I maintained a close relationship with him, I might be able to distribute my goods to the Imperial Palace one day.
"I knew this would happen, so I prepared something." I smiled subtly to myself and took out a small box that had been quietly hidden in the gift box. The long-awaited box full of gacha paper and gifts!
"We're going to play gacha. Would you like to play with me?"
"Draw game? What is that?" Voila! I exclaimed and pulled out a large gacha paper from the box.
"Now, let's play a fun gacha game!" At the top of the gacha paper, it was written: "Bet amount 1 becquel ~ up to 100 becquel gacha paper." Several sheets of opaque paper, about twenty pieces, were attached in a detachable format like post-it notes.
"If you bet 1 becquel, you can draw a yellow paper, 10 becquels can draw blue paper, and 100 becquels can draw green paper. The prize is random!"
Of course, there would be memorable stationery store products. I smiled contentedly and placed the small box I had brought with the gacha paper.
It lasted about thirty minutes. Axion looked at the paper he had drawn with a frustrated face. It was a note with the word 'miss' written on it.
"Uh, how can this be! Miss!"
In just a few tens of minutes, the lovely Axion, who didn't even know what 'miss' was, was tamed by the demonic nature of dangerous speculative entertainment.
I smiled subtly and showed him the paperboard. "Come on, pull out the next piece of paper."
"I really want a little teddy bear… This time it's 100 becquels!" Axion stomped his feet and exceeded 100 becquels. After all, in gacha games, the more you have something you 'really want,' the more gambling addiction appears.
Usually, the stationery store lottery is 100 won in bulk, so let's lower the price a little.
I decided to adjust the price at my own discretion for the sake of the innocent prince.
"I'll give you 10 becquels in particular. You bet on 10 becquels. Please pull out the note right away!"
Axion clasped his hands and muttered, "Goddess Ashtar, God of Drawing, protect me!"
There was no such thing as a god of gacha in the world. But that's how eager he was, right?
Cute Axion bit his lip and pulled out a paper with a bubble (indicating a prize).
"Now, you pulled out the jewel candy, right?"
"What is jewelry candy?"
I gave Axion a small box of candy made of sparkling diamonds as a gift. "It's a candy that looks like a diamond."
Axion opened his mouth and took the candy. "I'm going to pull it out again! Again!"
I shook my head. "If you pick it right away like this, it's less fun."
"Hmph, I'm wondering what I'm going to pick up next…" Axion clutched the jewel candy in his hand and tapped the floor with his foot.
"Oh, wait." Axion grabbed my hand tightly with his plump, white, bread-like hand. "It's my brother's turn left, right?"
I stared at Prince Cassian, who had been deliberately turning away from me until now. He was still wearing silver-rimmed glasses, and today he looked cool and affectionate, but quite intelligent. In a word, he seemed far from this kind of gacha.
…That prince plays a gacha game?
Prince Cassian watched us with a blunt and affectionate face the whole time. I'd been on his mind for a long time…
"I can't ignore you, so I should talk to you at least once."
I looked at him. He was looking at me with subtle eyes. I thought he was watching Axion… Strangely, every time he saw me smiling happily, he looked like that.
Why, is it strange that I'm laughing?
Lennox would always insult Meldenik by frowning when she smiled.
Well, of course, Prince Cassian is completely different from Lennox.
I cursed Lennox inwardly and laughed heartily.
"Do you want to do a lottery?" I asked without expectation, but he smiled as he folded his beautiful eyes, like a delicate painter.
"Yes, I've been waiting for you."
Surprising. Was he really going to do it? I asked as if I was putting on a mask.
"Once you do it, you won't be able to stop. It's very addictive."
"That's right, brother! Hurry up!"
Under Axion's rare greedy gaze, I handed Prince Cassian a large paper panel.
More than this!
"Gradually turn the princes into slaves to my gacha game."
Unaware of my insidious plan, Axion stomped his feet excitedly.
After a while, Prince Cassian looked at me with his intelligent glasses pushed up. At first glance, his face looked kind, but the whites of his eyes were vaguely red. The whole time, my mouth opened wide, as if I was only having an intellectual discussion, and a low voice leaked out from my lips.
"Why do I only get 'miss,' Lady Meldenik? It's as if someone manipulated the probabilities."
I raised my hands and shrugged my shoulders exaggeratedly. "What… You just have to pick it until something good comes out."
"And Axion only picks up amazingly good results."
…Oh no, it seems like they were manipulated to make Axion win.
But children's innocence must be protected.
I slipped away from the hand I had placed on the drawing paper and scratched my head. "Of course, if you manipulate the gacha probability, you will die…"
It's also quite fun to have a short crack on a face that looks kind at first glance. In front of him, there were already several sheets of paper with the word "miss" written on them.
And, one more time…
"It's the fifth miss."
"Maybe it will come out well next time."
"I see. I'm looking forward to the next time."
That's what gacha games are all about. Next time, next time… You get addicted to it. This is definitely not my experience. It's definitely not something I can seduce them with because I've been through it.
"I'll try to pull it out again."
"100 becquel bet, right?"
"…Yes." The prince looked at me and bit his lip.
Seeing us like that, Axion clapped proudly. "The two of you look so good!"
"Yes?"
"It's totally, completely romantic!"
In an instant, Carat came to mind.
It reminds me of Carat trying to intertwine me with the Master of the Magic Tower…
Prince Axion's attitude was very impure.
Does he still want to introduce me to a good person because of Lennox?
I wasn't hurt much.
Axion came out with dreamy eyes as if he were dreaming, and looked at Cassian alternately.
"…That's right."
Cassian also stopped his hand to pull out the paper and moved his gaze slightly. Axion pursed his lips and said as he bit the cotton candy he received as a prize in the gacha game.
"Well, if Mel enters the palace, will she become family with me…?"
Axion seems to be pretending not to know, not to be. However, I was astutely aware of the meaning of the phrase "when you enter the Imperial Palace."
"…Axion."
Despite Prince Cassian's dissuasion, Axion muttered as he chewed the cotton candy with a starry gaze in his eyes.
"Then let's play gacha every day! I hope it's really good."
"His Highness Prince Cassian is in a bad mood."
Cassian's meaningful gaze touched my face. I glanced at him and said, "…Don't worry about childish pranks."
"…"
"Yes, Axion. No worries! Even if my family doesn't work out, I'll play with you every day!"
"Huh, heh. Really?"
"Then!"
"Well, I hope the two of you can get closer, Joe." (This "Joe" seems like a stray word or a mistranslation. I will remove it.) -> "Well, I hope the two of you can get closer."
I wanted to do as much as I could to do what Axion wanted. Wasn't that my sister's heart? So he nodded and smiled brightly.
"Oh, that's right!"
Prince Cassian was about to say something, but then he closed his mouth.
But that was the time. While playing a happy gacha game, I gradually felt like I was getting to know each other, and at this point, I felt like the warm-up game was over.
"His Majesty the Emperor is here."
The lively atmosphere was drastically reversed. It was a moment I had been waiting for the whole time.