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Nanana’s Buried Treasure Volume 8 Chapter 1.7

That’s why I made this suggestion in a situation where we were in the lead and there wasn’t a large gap between us and second and third places. We’re in the lead and won’t get involved in the fight for second place.

In this match we were in complete control, and if we had wanted to we could have taken a large amount of coins from either of them, but we didn’t. We could have chosen which one to help up to 2nd place, but we didn’t. Instead, we minimized the damage to both of them.

This indicates that these two teams will have to decide between themselves who moves on to the next round. It will have to be a showdown between them with a lot of coins at stake.

What I wanted to avoid the most was a scenario where the Cat-Ear Team with M, who is currently in last place, would rise to the top. The third-place team, having lost the battle for second place, would be desperate and push themselves too hard in the match against M‘s Cat Ear Team, and end up giving them a lot of coins. This is what I am afraid of.

So, while being careful of Tensai, they had been concentrating on making adjustments while securing the trump card that would bring about victory: Ageha-ojousama’s butlers’ Nanana collection. We showed overwhelming strength, an opportunity to move forward, and clear solutions to the problems facing the three teams.

Of course, this plan I came up with would never work under normal circumstances. There is one major factor that made this possible. It’s because the opposing teams had Yukihim-neesan and Haruto as well as Ikusaba-san and Tensai.

This situation was possible precisely because it was a battle between talented and intelligent people who were trying to see through and outwit their opponents’ intentions.

The alliance against M was now complete. Everything is going well so far. All that remains is to watch the other two teams compete for 2nd place while shutting out M. There should be no problems…

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As she returns to the great hall alone, Yukihime Fugi thinks. Before she knew it the whole situation has begun to revolve around the Young Lady team. Herself and Ikusaba were caught up in the flow that Juugo had created. Even though she was doing as Juugo intended, she didn’t feel frustrated or angry at all. That’s honestly how she feels.

「He does resemble the boss in some ways.」

Juugo himself does not have a  special talent like Ryuugajou Nanana’s divine fortune, but in certain situations Juugo is able to fully demonstrate his ability. You see it when he’s acting with trusted friends, or when he’s fighting for someone.

He doesn’t use people, he doesn’t force them to move, he doesn’t manipulate them. He acts together, hopes together, run together, and laugh together with them.

Juugo, when he had just arrived on the island, said that doing things for others was pointless. He drew a line between himself and other people. He denied the idea of helping others, saying it was foolish.

However, to Yukihime, who had known Juugo for a long time, it seemed foolish of him to say such things. He had run away from the situation where he could demonstrate his true potential. But if it wasn’t happening right now it may have just been an empty theory.

Juugo, who once had the desire to make everyone, hadt given up on that desire. That wouldn’t have changed if Juugo had stayed at home this whole time. So it was probably fortunate that Juugo was able to come to this island. Juugo had given up this path, but since coming to this island has started to reclaim it.

He’s doing it for Nanana Ryuugajou…

It is starting to happen again, out of love for people like her.

Even though they have known each other for a long time, Yukihime regrets that she was not able to notice the change in Juugo’s feelings. She feels frustrated that she was unable to do anything for him. She definitely feels like she wanted to do something about it. But she couldn’t. Because…

「It’s a little disappointing, but it’s alright.」 Since Juugo is smiling like that.

I don’t know what will happen in the future. Juugo may not return to <<Matsuri>>. But even so… I wish I could stay by Juugo’s side. In any capacity. I just want to be there for him.

4

With unspoken rules in place, the time has finally arrived.

On the 37th turn of the second round, there will be another <<forced acquisition game>>. The Young Lady Team vs the Cat Ears Team. Also the Great Detective Team vs Sakura Team.

And as soon as the match-ups were decided, Yukihime-neesan and Haruto came out from the Sakura team to make an announcement.

「I would like to declare here that we consider our next match against the Great Detective team to be our final one.」

Considering the number of turns remaining, this may be the last direct showdown between second and third places. Taking this into account and with Tensai’s approval, Ikusaba-san stepped forward.

「OK then. This will be our last match.」

This was essentially the match for second place. This made M panic.

「Hey, wait! <<Transactions>> are prohibited!」

「This isn’t a <<transaction>>.」

「It’s a verbal promise.」

After hearing that, M was left speechless and could only groan.

「So? Who’s representing your Sakura team?」

In response to Ikusaba-san’s question, Yukihime-neesan turned her gaze to her side.

「This foreigner here.」

「Are you ok Yukihime?」

「Yes, I am just still not in top form. I have high hopes for you, Ishval.」

Hearing that one word, his real name, Ishval Cornald shines.

「I’ll definitely win! And I’ll give Yukihime the gift of victory!」

He’s getting really hyped up here.

「Then I’ll play for our team.」

Ikusaba-san’s fearless smile made Haruto laugh fearlessly back.

「No great detective?」

「Yeah. It seems that she lost all motivation because she wasn’t getting any attention from her arch rival.」

Don’t look at me Ikusaba-san!

So this is a showdown between ikusaba-san and Haruto. It’s not the trial match from before, but a genuine, serious fight. It’s going to be worth watching.

Needless to say, the representative of the cat-eared team who will be competing against our Young Lady Team is M. Her opponent will be Ageha-ojousama. Just like before, Tetsu-kun and I will be supporting her.

The representatives of each team plus me, Tetsu-kun wearing sunglasses, and Yukihime-neesan, all moved to the robbery room as spectators.

First up is the match between our Young Lady Team and M‘s Cat Ears Team. From the deck of 2 player game cards that President Yuiga handed over, Ageha-ojousama drew the <<eight picture matching>. Card.

President Yuiga took out 4 pairs of cards with the same patterns that Nanana had used earlier when she had barged in and showed off her heavenly luck in the <<one card concentration>> game. This was a total of 8 cards.

「The rules are simple. You will be using these 8 cards to match pictures, which is essentially a game of concentration. There are no special rules. You will compete purely on the number of pairs you can get. The coins paid from the loser to the winner will be the difference in the number of pairs. The upper limit of the rate this time is the number of laps x 20, so it will be 200. Now, Cat Ear Mask, the representative of the Cat Ear Team with the least number of cards, please decide on the rate.」

「I’m betting the limit!」

In other words, in this game of concentration that involves 4 pairs of cards competing against each other, if the final score is 2-2 it will be a draw. If it’s 3-1 400 coins will be won. And if it’s 4-0 it will be 800 coins won.

Although it wasn’t an open-ended match lie the one M just had, the difference between the top team (us) and the bottom team (M‘s) was about 1400 coins. If we lost 4-0, we would be overtaken in an instant. This was a battle we couldn’t afford to lose, or else we would ruin all the work we’d done so far. Strangely though, I felt like I couldn’t lose. That’s because I had seen how sloppy M (or rather Yun-chan) had been in battle up till now. I didn’t feel like I was going to lose, but I still felt a strange unease.

I wondered if the organizer M would really lose so easily like this.

And then the match finally began.

Ageha-ojousama went first. She turned over 2 cards from the 8 laid out on the table, but was unable to make a pair. Next, M turns over a card that Ageha-ojousama had not turned over. It turns out to be the same as one of the cards that was turned over earlier. She immediately gives up the lead… or so we thought…

「It’s this one.」