Chapter 69: New Game
"To be precise… I want to play with you."
Morgan articulated each word clearly.
Eikou was stunned for a moment, then he lowered his voice and said to her:
"You don't have to force yourself to cater to my interests. If you want to play together, we can play board games."
Eikou was a bit worried she wasn't familiar with video games, because Morgan gave off a very traditional and conservative vibe, not looking like someone who would easily accept new things.
"Eikou-san, you don't have to worry. I also know a little about the recreational activities of young people."
On Morgan's face hung a calm and confident smile, a very faint one:
"After all, I am the Queen. No matter the field, I have some involvement, including game consoles. Famicom, even Sega Saturn, are among the things I love."
These choices are way too outdated! This isn't even the previous generation — it's the previous century! You has no common topics at all with young people nowadays!
But wait… she plays Sega too? Could it be she's like those old men who only like classic games?
Truly worthy of being the Queen of the Fairy Kingdom — even her gaming taste is unique.
But if Morgan knows how to use a controller and has that kind of experience, then Eikou didn't need to worry too much about her gaming skills.
"Mother-sama wants to play too?" Baobhan Sith's eyes immediately lit up, "It's rare to see this, so I also want to play with Mother-sama!"
Eikou thought to himself, this girl's behavior was really easy to predict.
He turned to look at Melusine: "So you want to join too?"
"…Are you inviting me? You want to play with me?"
The silver-haired girl with dragon horns on her head smiled and asked in return.
Eikou always felt that the way she spoke carried some deeper implication, making him seriously think about her question.
"Strictly speaking, these things belong to someone else, so I don't really have the right to invite you… but I would be very happy to play together. Since we've met, let's consider ourselves friends."
"I see." She nodded.
"It's fine," Morgan said casually, "Then everyone play together. Melusine, you join too. Eikou-san, Gawain, can you introduce a few suitable games?"
"Let me see…"
Eikou rummaged through the cabinet full of game cartridge boxes.
"Gawain, didn't you say you had a lot of family games? Why are they all two-player or single-player? Where's Smash Bros, where's Mario Party?"
"Don't have any of them? They were probably borrowed by the Knights of the Round Table." Gawain seemed a bit surprised.
"What does your Round Table club usually do? Don't tell me you guys just sit in the clubroom playing games all day? And why don't they just come play at your place? The equipment in your clubroom probably isn't even half as good as the TV in your living room."
"That's because…"
Gawain leaned close to whisper a few words so Morgan couldn't hear:
"Mother-sama seems to hate Our King very much, extremely unwelcome to her coming to my house."
That reason… was indeed very convincing.
So normally, you guys secretly move the equipment and game cartridges to the clubroom to play games with Artoria?
Eikou continued searching through the remaining game cartridge boxes.
On game cartridge packaging, there's usually information about the game's language, supported devices, number of players… so he only needed to glance to know which games supported multiplayer.
Suddenly, he found another game cartridge.
The cover art showed a warm 2D family picture, with all the characters smiling sweetly and happily, looking like a cheerful family party game.
The title was "Love Sleeping."
"Why have I never heard of this game before?"
Looking at the introduction images on the back, it seemed to be a multiplayer life-simulation type game, similar to The Sims?
"3–5 players simultaneously, requires at least two screens."
That's what the printed text said.
"How about choosing this game then…"
Although it didn't look very interesting, it was the only multiplayer-supporting game here.
Just then, Gawain suddenly grabbed Eikou's hand holding the cartridge, stopping him.
"Sir Eikou…"
With a heavy expression, Gawain warned:
"Absolutely do not let everyone play this game."
"Why?"
"The reason is inconvenient to tell you, but please, just follow my words right now."
The Sun Knight put on an extremely serious face.
Why though?
Could this be a sealed game, cursed like The Ring, or some eroge that can't be shown to parents?
Even though Eikou didn't know exactly what was going on, the other party's expression clearly wasn't a joke.
His face was exactly like when Archer looked at Emiya Shirou taking step after step forward and said, "What lies ahead is hell" — utterly heavy.
Having been warned so earnestly by someone experienced, Eikou sensibly gave up without protest.
At that moment, a slender jade-like hand suddenly took the game cartridge from his hand.
"Love Sleeping?"
Morgan examined the game cover.
"Let's choose this one. It looks rather interesting."
A bead of cold sweat slid down Gawain's forehead.
"How about we pick another game, Mother-sama?" he said.
"The problem is, there's no other game to choose from. Where have all the party games you collected gone? Did you lend them to the people in the Round Table again, or give them to that lot of Artoria to play?"
Morgan's blue eyes suddenly turned cold, like an icy wind blowing past.
"It's rare for me to personally play a family game with guests, yet you've lent out all the cartridges. How am I supposed to display the hospitality befitting a queen?"
Gawain instantly fell silent, not daring to say a word.
Beside them, Eikou also felt a little sorry for him — too miserable. Three sharp questions in a row, each hitting a vital spot.
"Sorry, Mother-sama, I'll go get all the cartridges back right now. Everyone, please go ahead and play first."
After replying both awkwardly and politely, the Sun Knight hurried off.
To Eikou, that retreating back… rather than fetching the cartridges, it looked more like he was finding a way to slip away quietly.
Just how "hellish" could this game's content be to make a brave man like Gawain so afraid?
But at this point, no one could stop Morgan from opening the game anymore.
Moreover, after being teased to this extent, Eikou's curiosity about how this game was played had also been stirred.
Even knowing there was a giant sniper rifle pointed right ahead, he still wanted to see what was going on.
He inserted the cartridge, powered on the screen, and connected the controllers.
Since Gawain had left, the actual number of players was now only four:
Eikou, Morgan, Baobhan Sith, and Melusine.
Love Sleeping, link start!