Triples

"He's going to use the double-sided tape?"

What's the chief thinking? There's no way that kid would use the double-sided tape! If he knows the trap that we laid out, he won't use it! It's just idiotic to use it in this situation!

The best thing to do in this situation is to trust in your luck and instinct! That's the rational and logical way of thinking! If the kid is in his right mind, he won't risk it all by using the double-sided tape that I laid out as trap! There's just no way!

"You might be thinking that It's logical to rely on your luck alone, right, Sagashira? But that's where you're wrong!"

Huh? I'm wrong? How? The chief continued speaking over the phone:

"Araragi Hideki doesn't have any luck at all. If in the off chance that he's lucky, something unfortunate will happen in return for sure! That's why I'm sure that he will consider using the double tape again or cheating in some kind of way!"

Huh? Does that kid have really terrible luck? But that's not a reason to completely believe that he's going cheat!? Even if he has terrible luck, It's still dangerous to cheat if you know that someone is attempting to catch you right away!

"That's why I need you to keep your guard up!"

Keep... my guard up...?

"Observe his actions, hand motions, finger moving, any kind of suspicious movement that he could use to cheat! Just imagine this... If in the 1st and 2nd roll, you've got incredibly bad rolls, then you're going to be worried at the last roll! That means... you need some kind of assurance to win!"

While I'm listening to the chief's explanation, I'm getting his point slowly! That's it! I get it now! If you don't want to lose, you've got to do something to assure that you're going to have a high Roll! That's why... the safest roll to cheat is the 3rd Roll!

You can cheat as a last resort if your 1st and 2nd Rolls failed! I've got this in the bag! This is good as won! I heard from the chief that the kid doesn't want to lose and will definitely struggle! That's why he will cheat! And the moment he does that... I will catch him red-handed, perfect plan!

I closed the phone since the call already ended and spoke to the kid...

"Kid, I'll allow it. A restart, that is."

He smiled a bit and said "Is that so?" to me. The crowd cheered for the kid and completely ignored me. What a bunch of hypocrites. So you completely achieved your restart, but that will only bring you your doom! Get ready, kid, for I'll crush you!

+++++

Araragi Hideki's POV

I did it! He allowed me to restart! All according to my plan! It's going accurately to plan that I'm having creeps! But... I've got a restart! That means I can roll 3 times again! Having more chances to roll means more chances to win!

But this is still not over! If I actually get a high roll right from the first try, that's good! But If I didn't get any... I've got no choice but to cheat! If I'm caught, our group's going to get kicked out for sure! But If I pulled it off, I can make the 2nd Round a fair match for the Cherry Blossoms! In short, this is already a gamble!

That announcer still wears that creepy smile of his. I'm sure he's up to something again. Maybe he's expecting that I'll cheat again to win so he can catch me red-handed?

The possibility is high, but It's possible that he laid out another trap for me that I didn't notice earlier. Regardless, I have to be careful of him. The other guards are busy suppressing the crowd so he's the only one going to guard me here.

The old bowl was taken away and replaced by a new bowl. I rolled dice on it as a test run and confirmed that It's legit now.

"Okay! So we'll start again! Cherry Blossom's representative, Araragi Hideki will roll the dice once again! Now... Mr. Araragi, please roll the dice."

This filthy announcer is actually using a polite speech to me? I didn't care about it much to be concerned and just readied my hands to the 1st Roll.

In the count of three, I dropped the dice to the bowl and let it spin around for a while and the result is... 4-5...

"4-5-5!!! So close! Yet still far away!"

Right, the announcer is right! That was close! Only one dice and I would have got a high roll! My luck today must be... awesome! Yeah, It must be! I mean the last 2 rolls I've got was not even close to 4-5-6! Yet... this one is so close! Too close in fact!

I grabbed the dice from the bowl and readied my hands for the 2nd Roll. Okay! This is my 2nd Roll! Please keep my luck rolling so I don't have to cheat! I'm begging you!

After praying for a while, I slowly dropped the three dice and It spun around the bowl again. As it spin, the dice is stopping one by one and the result was astonishingly amazing for everyone. No one could believe it, even I had a hard time believing it.

I looked to the announcer and he just gave me this dumbfounded look on his face. I didn't' realized that I'm already having a wide grin on my face! Like I thought, my luck is incredible today!

"The roll was a once in a blue moon roll that only comes out in 1/16 chances. It's the... triples."

END OF CHAPTER 34