“Alright, alright. I’ll stop with the jokes.” My mom held in her laughter before taking a sip of her tea, “Mm! This is good tea!”

“Tanathos-Oh, I guess you don’t know him, but Cassandra’s father bought it on his last trip to Entropa. He’s a traveling merchant.”

“Who cares about the tea?” Dad hissed, “Besides, a black traveling merchant? Customs would’ve arrested his ass a long time ago. I’m telling you, son, he must be tricking you two in some way.”

“I appreciate you caring for your boys, sir, but please don’t speak ill of people you haven’t yet had the pleasure of meeting.” Tanathos snuck up behind him for another one of his grand reveals.

“U jebote!” Dad yelped, “Gah, what the hell, when’d you get in here!?”

“This is my house, sir.” Tanathos calmly explained, “I heard some commotion just outside the greenhouse, so I went to check it out. Turns out a lot of the terrified quikkas were telling me some bad people were cussing out Cassandra and her friends and pointed me to my own house. Needless to say, I think I’m the one who should be most worried here.”

“Bad… people?” Mother looked a bit glum before initiating a barrage of attacks on dad, “See what you did, idiot! Now the whole place thinks we’re the bad guys!”

“Hey now. I don’t like how you phrased that, Miss Mirka.” Shaid reprimanded her.

“You got something to say to my wife, punk?” Dad cracked his knuckles at him.

“I-I…!” Schnell was all but ready to back down as he usually does, but this time he gulped before changing his mind, “A-As a matter of fact, I do, boss!”

“Mn?”

“The people of Havana, and also the people of Provincia, or heck, I’d even go so far as to say that all Raamans are good people!” He shouted, “They’re not monsters, goddammit! They’re people, just like us! They’ve treated me kinder than I’ve ever been treated back home, so I don’t want to hear anyone even insinuating that they’re anything below amazing!”

“Hey now, let’s not get too hasty.” Olya interjected, “I do agree that the people we’ve met so far have been very good to us, Shaid, but we shouldn’t just blindly accept everyone as if we were that naïve. It’s as you said, they’re people too, and just like in any group of people, there’s good apples and bad apples. It’s a mixed batch no matter how you slice it.”

“Whose side are you on again?” Mother genuinely asked him out of curiosity.

“Obviously the Raamans, woman!” He facepalmed before turning to my dad, “Sir, with all due respect, your wife just asked a really fuckin’ stupid question.”

“What’d you say?!” Dad went to get up and beat his ass.

“H-Hey, dad! Sit back down!” I stopped him before glaring back at Olya, “He just insulted my mother there, so I think I should beat some sense into him first.”

“Wrong, the both of you!” Shaid suddenly joined the fray as well, “No one insults my goddess and gets away with it! I say we all make sure he never says a bad word about her ever again! Together!”

And so, all the while we dragged Olya outside for a grand ass-whooping, Tanathos continued calmly sipping his tea, and Cassandra tried her best to cheer up my now very depressed mom. On the bright side though, since Olya managed to break the tension between all of us by making himself to be the common enemy, after we all had our turn on him, sitting back down around the table, we were all super friendly with each other. So hey, thanks for that, Olya!

“Hey son.” Dad continued sipping his tea before realizing it had gotten a bit cold, “You had a good start there, but kicking him while he’s down was kind of a dick move. Pardon my language, sir.”

Sighing at my father’s potty mouth as he took his tea outside to reheat it under the Sun, Tanathos noticed his daughter asking a rather dangerous question.

“Dick?” She tilted her head, “Brother Schnell, what does dick mean?”

“Dammit, dad!” I berated him, “Now look what you did! And weren’t you the one who taught me it’s bad manners to swear whilst seated at the meal table?!”

“A jebiga, jesam.” He swore again, this time thankfully switching to Cardinian just in case, “Listen girlie, forget I said anything and go play in the sand or something.”

“Don’t treat me like a child!” She hissed, “¡Vete a la mierda, pendejo!”

“Cassandra!” Tanathos got angry now as well, “What kind of manners are those?!”

“What? But…! But he was the one who…! Grr, I hate all of you!” She finally snapped and stomped out of the house.

Now that the conversation’s flow was more beaten to a pulp than Olya’s face, everyone just sort of awkwardly stared at each other, hoping for someone to say or do something appropriate to fix the situation. Even still, it seems no one could think of anything, so my dad, being the manly man that he was, singlehandedly decided it was his job to break the ice.

“Damn, what a bitch, am I right?”

“Wow.” I got up to run after her, “Alright then, I think that’s my cue to go find her. And you dad, uhh… You should really think about what you said, y’hear? That was just… Wow.”

***

“What the hell was that, boss!?” Shaid began insulting him as I was leaving the room, “Schnell, get back here and help me out here!”

“Sorry, dude. The best I can do now to help is find Cassandra and bring her back whilst you guys hopefully get dad to understand what he said wrong.” I added, “Now where could she have run off to?”

“Hmph! If you’re asking where, then there’s really gotta be one answer.” Olya pointed in the general direction, “The greenhouse. Tilling the fields clears her mind a bit, so I think she’s most probably there.”

That’s it! Olya, you’re a genius! If I know her, then Cassandra’s definitely gone to look at the fields one more time just to avoid having to deal with my parents. Running into the pyramid like building, I had called out to her from the entrance.

“Yo! You in there?”

“…Leave me alone.” She replied.

“If you really wanted me to leave you be, then you wouldn’t have said anything in the first place, y’know?” I chuckled before walking over to the soil, “I’m sorry about… everything.”

“It is not your fault.”

“Dad was being kind of an ass, mom’s at least trying to be nice, but her true thoughts sometimes shine through, and in the end you end up being the one to get the most hurt for it. For not being able to protect you as much as I should have, I truly feel ashamed.”

“Heh, kind of an ass does not begin to cover it.” She giggled, “But seriously, it is my fault for overreacting. Father just wanted me to not get provoked by them and prove to them I am not who they think I am, but I failed.”

Why does she have to be so tough on herself? No wait, a better question is why does Tanathos have to be so tough on her at all? It’s not their fault they were born Raamans as opposed to any other people, so why not try to defend your stances like she did instead of just taking all the shit my father was throwing at them? No, I can’t just be thinking like this. For starters, I’ve been in here for almost a year now. I should know better by now, that they really don’t have a choice, because if they show too big of an attitude to the white-skinned races, then they’ll all just get wiped off of the map in a single Great War waged against them.

“Tch. This is a really fucked up World we were born in.” I looked down at the ground in shame.

“Mn. But never mind that!” She suddenly grabbed my hands, “Forget about all the problems, let’s just have some fun!”

Fueh!? Is she, but no, there’s no way she just said what I think she just said! “Have some fun”? Lady, I already told you we’re not like that! I mean, I get we’re both frustrated… and alone… and together in a place where no one could hear us… Oh no, her idea is enticing! I-I mean, speaking from an objective point of view, she did basically show she had feelings for me when she got mad at me for accidentally denying her, and so maybe this could be a good way to convince her to get back, right? This is it, I’m prepared for anything now!

“Eh?” I looked at my hands as she let go of them, only to feel the weight of the deck of cards in them, “O-Oh, you meant you wanted to play cards…”

“Hm?” She tilted her head innocently, “What else?”

Damn my brain for being boyish at the worst of times. That was really rude and insensitive of me. I ran after her to try and cheer her up, but then I get such nasty ideas about the girl I literally just rejected. Shit, I’m such an asshole! Alright, from now on, I gotta focus and make sure everything is about her! No more “me” anymore, only shine the spotlight on her!

Thus, opening up the deck of cards and shuffling it for a quick game of Blackjack, I was the house, and she the player. Now, as everyone knows the good old saying, the house always wins, but I’ve got a plan for this specific game – subliminal messaging. That’s right, in situations where she should hit, I’ll ask “Hit or Stand”, and for standing, I’ll ask “Stand or Hit”. People are more inclined to listen to the first of the two options you provide them, and practically ignore the rest of the query, so keep that in mind. That being said, I don’t really think such a tactic will work for doubling and all that, but we’ve taught her how to do that optimally, so I should at least place some trust in her for that.

“Here we go. A 3 and Jack for you.” I spoke aloud, “And a 9 for me. Hit or Stand?”

“Stand.” She happily announced.

“Eh?” I jumped in surprise, “I-I’ll ask again, okay? Hit or Stand.”

“Yeah, I’ll Stand.” She nodded.

“But, then you’ll…! Ugh, whatever.” I rolled my Eyes as I dealt the rest of my cards until soft 17, “Suit yourself, but I’m telling you, the chances of me busting are… Eh?”

“Ooh, lucky me!” She clapped for joy, “That’s 1-0 since we’re not betting anything. Oh, unless of course you want to play that strip game Shaid’s been so eager to play.”

“Err, I think keeping a tally is better for now.” I said as I reset the board, “Okay, for you it’s an Ace and a… Ten? Whoa, that’s Blackjack!”

“I must be really good at this.” She got all smug, “So since Blackjack usually pays out three to two, does that mean we’re 2.5/0?”

“A-Ah, sure…” My Eyes darted around the room from the guilt of trying to fix a game to lose that was already losing naturally, “I guess you really are lucky today. Let’s go again.”

But seriously, what’s going on here? I know it’s just her and me playing, but the chances of a player getting a Blackjack are like, super small, especially on the second round, where we’ve still got a ton of cards in the deck. If we were betting on real money, I’d have already gone broke by now. Well, time to even the score then, I suppose!

Whipping out an Ace out of my sleeves, I had discreetly tossed it at the top of the deck while she wasn’t paying attention. Since we didn’t get much light in the room, this was rather easy to pull off as well, “Alright, let’s see. For me it’s a King, and for you an Eight and a Nine. Stand or Hit?”

“Hit.” She said without a hint of hesitation.

“What?!” I jolted, “Are you crazy? Hitting in this situation is practically guaranteed to get you a bust!”

“Not really.” She refuted, “We’ve been getting a ton of high cards, so chances are the next one is small.”

Of course, that’s all well and good, but since I slipped in an Ace at the top of the deck to get myself a Blackjack, that mean’s she’ll still survive on 19. That’s bad!

“Oh, you’re here as well?” I pointed to the door behind her before quickly taking the Ace away and replacing it with a higher number.

“Huh? Who is?” She turned around.

“Never mind, I thought someone entered, but I was wrong.”

“Alright, then come on, Hit!” She tapped the floor we were playing on before turning utterly devastated, “What? A Six? Wasn’t it supposed to be a Three?”

…Huh?

“What do you mean by that?” I asked.

“Ah! I let that slip! Y-You weren’t supposed to hear that!” She tried covering herself back up before just giving up and giving me a light chuckle, “Ha-ha, I guess I’m kind of a naughty girl after all… I’m sorry, I prearranged the deck to see if you would notice.”

What? Oh, ooh! I see, so basically, when she handed me the deck of cards, they were already carefully aligned to always make her win, is that it? Of course, that’d only work for the duration of that one deck, after that I would shuffle… Hold on, now that I think about it, she caught me so off guard that I hadn’t even considered shuffling it! This devilish…!

“Ha.” I slowly felt genuine laughter well up inside me, “Hahaha, hahahahahahaha! Wow, to think we’re both cheaters, eh?”

“Huh? You cheated?!” She pouted, “That’s bad!”

“Tell that to yourself, little lady!” I quickly packed up the cards before jumping back up on my feet, “Damn, I don’t feel like playing with a cheater anymore. What say you and I go back to them and make dad regret ever stepping all over the Raamans? Surely, with our combined wits, we can outsmart that piece a’ shit, right?”

“Hehe, right!” She chippered up before following me outside the greenhouse, “Let’s a go!”