The game started as Selva turned around and closed her eyes.
“1… 2… 3…”
I rushed away from her, escaping as fast as possible by zigzagging between trees. When she counted six, I checked behind to be sure she wasn’t looking and teleported to the inner world.
It was still early afternoon and my destination was the market. I quickly made my way to our stall and was glad to see Suuru handling it. She also noticed me and her face filled with happiness.
“Tila! Are you back?”
“Hi, Suuru. I’m almost back but not completely. I only have about one hour of free time right now.”
“Oh… I’m happy that you’re looking healthy. How far are you from Geola?”
I answered her and we shared the news. I quickly told her about my trip and most of what happened to me. She was most horrified about the bandit attack since the domes were a much more peaceful place than the outer world. Deaths were very uncommon here while this was just an everyday thing out there. They also didn’t have any advanced weapons since they did not need them. At most, the police would have some basic repression tools in case a scuffle turned ugly.
On her side, I learned how she had been doing. My absence disappointed some people, including Ulum, but that didn’t change our food quality or price. The business was doing as well as ever, or even better since she kept acquiring new clients as word about our stall spread. She told me she was sorry that some of the people who recognized her avoided the booth but that was nothing new. They were just a minority anyway and were the ones at a loss since they couldn’t get cheaper food.
It seemed it was the correct choice to let her do it by herself because she was more confident about interacting with clients. I watched her work for a while and soon joined in to help a bit while I was here.
When the time was up, I told her I should normally be done with the trip by the following day. I waited about ten minutes more than the end of the agreed hour and teleported back to Makji. I didn’t have to search for Selva for long. She was standing at the starting point, her arms against her body with her fist clenched tight, looking extremely vexed.
“Hey, Selva. Do you need to see the time?”
She glared at me for a while before answering.
“…No.”
“All right, we can agree this is my win. Any objection?”
As I approached closer, she seized me by the collar and shook me.
“How did you do that? It’s impossible!”
“Let me go. My methods are a trade secret.”
She shook me harder.
“Tell me!”
“Stop it. Don’t be a sore loser. You still didn’t learn anything from the gambling house. It’s your fault for underestimating your opponent.”
“What is there to underestimate? You’re rank 0! Same affinity as me!”
“Didn’t you say I’d become a great trader yourself? I obviously have a trick or two up my sleeves. What about you? You say I’m good but, in your head, you’ve only seen me as a loser rank 0 merchant, right?”
“What? N-no, I never thought that!”
Her grip slightly relaxed and I escaped from her hold.
“And the truth?”
“I… I said I didn’t!”
“Yeah, right. Anyway, that’ll be a good lesson for you. Now, you didn’t forget the winner’s prize, right?”
She was the one who took a step back now, some panic on her face.
“W-what are you going to make me do?”
“Hey, I’m not a monster or a rapist. Even if we’re sex friends, I won’t do anything you don’t like.”
“Really?”
“Sure. Just come to me when you feel like it.”
“What… That’s it?”
“I told you it was a good relationship. But if you want more, I’m fine with having sex right now.”
“No! That’s fine! I’ll… I’ll come to you instead.”
“I know exactly what you’re thinking. You’ve been just fine by yourself so far so you don’t know why you’d ever come to me, right?”
“W-who said that?”
I was the one to come closer this time.
“Let me tell you a small secret. If someone does it for you or with you, it feels at least three times better.”
“Nonsense. You’re a virgin! You don’t even know what you’re talking about!”
“You can think whatever you want. Just like you thought you could never lose this game.”
“Uhhh…”
I placed my face right in front of hers and gave her a quick peck on the cheek, feeling her grey leather-like smooth skin on my lips.
“What are you doing!”
She pushed me away in surprise and I laughed for a bit.
“Hahaha. You can’t be startled by a simple kiss on the cheek. We’re sex friends now, aren’t we? This is nothing at all.”
“Still!”
“We can do more next time. Let’s go back to the carriage now.”
I turned around and left just like that. It was easy to imagine Selva’s frustrated expression, left behind after all her plans went awry.
That night, we stayed in the same inn as the first day of our trip. On the morning of the next day, we crossed Geola’s border. The border military personnel quickly inspected the carriage and let us move forward without any issues since it was pretty much empty by this point. Even our food reserves for the trip were almost completely gone, which was great since it proved I had calculated correctly.
We didn’t move far on the other side, however. A group of flying soldiers wearing Geola’s army uniforms immediately stopped us from the air. They were all rank 5 or 6, making for quite the military strength despite being such a small group.
“Halt! Is there anyone among you called Tila Urtek?”