The Game Room

Now then, around the time the smithy's construction began, I had been making progress on a new facility bit by bit, and the game room was finally complete.

That said, the contents were just slot machines, dice, and the playing cards I'd been putting in dungeon treasure chests and started buying back at the inn for five copper coins.

… For the dice and playing cards, I just prepared cloth-covered tables and made them available for rental. People can bring their own dice or cards too.

If you're wondering why it took so long despite that being all there is, it was because I had to soundproof the walls so they wouldn't disturb the guests' (and my) sleep, adjust the slot machines, and develop trick dice golems. Let's go through them one by one.

Soundproofing goes without saying. For now, I bought some sponge with DP and sandwiched it inside the walls, and it seems to have worked out somehow. I feel like I just brute-forced it with wall thickness in the end, but it's within acceptable levels.

I adjusted the slot machines in various ways so that players would rarely win big and lose fairly often. Naturally, overall the house always wins.

As for the dice golems, they're insurance for when I play. When you channel mana into them, their center of gravity shifts for just ten seconds. After ten seconds, they're just ordinary dice.

The material is transparent crystal. Since I filled them with oil that has the same refractive index, you can't see the internal structure at all. This was quite a struggle to get right.

"I'm not cheating, right? Just look at them and you can tell." That's the idea. I actually am cheating though. There's a famous saying that if you don't get caught, it's not cheating. So it's not cheating.

Moreover, I managed to make them authenticate individuals through mana so that other people can't use them. It seems golems can distinguish between different people's mana. This mechanism could be useful for dungeon keys and such.

Now then, with all that said, I added the game room. Sneakily, in the middle of the night. Since I stayed up all night doing construction, I can't help being sleep-deprived. I've only slept nine hours today.

"I've been wondering for a while, but how many hours of sleep per day would satisfy you, Kehma?"

"Hmm, let's see. Twenty-five hours would be ideal."

For the record, this world also has twenty-four hours in a day.

"… Maybe you could manage it with space-time magic?"

Seriously? Space-time magic is amazing. Maybe I should master it. I'd never have enough DP though.

Well, setting aside that farce, it was time to unveil the game room.

Our inn's frequent customer, Gozoh, arrived right away. He's our commemorative first guest.

"… Was this here yesterday?"

"Ah, an A-Rank adventurer acquaintance who's a mage built it overnight."

"Hooh… Should've had him build Kantra's smithy while he was at it."

"The commission fee is pretty steep. It's better to build it normally."

Besides, construction has already started. I can't go stealing work from the carpenter.

And I don't want to do extra work. I don't want to work. I don't wanna woooork!

"Hey, Kehma. What is this? A chat room?"

"No, it's a game room. Those are tables for playing dice and cards. And that square thing over there is—"

"Slooooots!"

Ichika rushed past me in the middle of my explanation.

Come to think of it, I do give Ichika and Niku wages. It's more like pocket money though.

I give them money in an easy-to-understand way, and if they want something, I provide it with DP or whatever. It basically goes toward food. No, it used to go toward food.

The reason it's past tense is that recently Ichika has been saving up for slot machine war funds in anticipation of the game room opening.

"Hyahhaaa! Put in three copper! Then the lever! Pull it! It spins! It spins and spins! Ahahahaha! Button, button, press the button! Stop! Tch, one more tiiime!"

Her eyes are dangerous. She's totally gone.

Yeah, maybe I should ban the slot machines… Is it already too late?

"H-hey, Kehma? Is that thing safe? It's not some dangerous box?"

"… It's called a slot machine. It's for gambling."

Ichika's completely and thoroughly addicted to the slots, and she's scaring away the customers.

… Well, I'll leave her be.

"… Let's change the subject. Want to play cards? There aren't any other customers, so I'll be your opponent."

"Hmm? These are the things that started appearing in the dungeon recently, right? I heard you were buying them, but so they were game pieces. Teach me the rules."

I taught Gozoh poker and blackjack.

He seemed to like blackjack better because "the rules are easy to understand."

"If we get more people, there's also old maid and sevens."

"There are lots of ways to play, huh, these card things. But it hasn't been long since they started appearing, and you've already come up with so many ways to play?"

"No, I just got a book that had the rules written in it. Found it in the dungeon."

"I see, so that's why you started buying them."

By the way, if you want to buy them, it's one silver. I'm overcharging since there aren't many yet.

Originally I put them out for 5 DP and let adventurers take them for free, so this much profit should be fine. Eventually I'll probably buy them for twenty-five copper and sell them for around fifty copper.

"Well then, next let's try the dice—"

"It's here, here, heeere! Jackpot! Jackpoooot!"

Ichika shouted, and I could see copper coins overflowing from the slot machine with a clattering sound… Yeah, I should prepare a box.

"Ooh?! That's amazing!"

"Hehehe… Now I can play more slots…!"

At that point, I don't even know what she's playing slots for anymore.

"Let me try it a bit. Kehma, how do you use this?"

"It's written on that sign over there. Well, it's not that difficult. You get a payout based on what symbols line up."

"I see, just as it says. But with an adventurer's eyes, lining something up at this level is simple, simple— mu, gu? T-this is actually pretty hard…"

Sorry about that. It's a game of luck.

 

＊ ＊ ＊

 

After a while, other inn guests started showing up too. Well, we only have five parties staying here including the merchant caravan, but all of them gathered.

"A cloth-covered table perfect for dice, huh. Heey, Dorani, wanna play dice? I'll be the dealer first, let's play big-or-small!" "Sure, let's do it. We'll take turns being dealer twice each, that good? Anyone else want to join?" "Heeeh, so that's what these cards were for… You can bring your own cards too? Next time I find some, I won't sell them and keep them instead." "Hohoho, I'd certainly like to purchase some for our business as well." "Gikkon-san, let's play this 'sevens' game!" "Sounds good. Let's do it. Would you like to join us, Roppu-san?" "Nn. I'll join in. My partner's been glued to that box for a while now." "Oh, Gozoh-san? What's that?" "Apparently it's a slot machine… Ooh, I won!"

Chatter and bustle. That's exactly how it felt. Since I built it large with the future in mind, the room as a whole has plenty of space, but it's gotten quite lively. Nice feeling.

"Ugugu, the slots…"

And so Ichika, who had tried to monopolize the slot machine despite being an employee, was currently on break.

She did hit the jackpot, but I made her stop when her overall balance evened out to plus-minus zero. The seats were filling up and she was getting in the way. It's fine when no one's around and there are open seats, but it's not good for an employee to hog them when it's crowded.

"… The slots seem like they'll be popular. Maybe I should make more."

"Goshujin-sama! In that case, please make one just for me…!"

Yeah, Ichika, let's try getting back to reality a bit, okay?