Ruricho Nadeshiko hesitated.
Reason told her that if she withdrew now, nothing would happen, and she could leave with 2.8 million. But another voice in her mind was tempting her: this was 6 million! If she won, she could buy the piano she wanted in full!
In her dilemma, Ruricho Nadeshiko was still tempted by the 6 million and chose to sit down.
"Okay, I agree to one more round." Ruricho Nadeshiko emphasized after sitting down, "But you need to know, this is the last round. After this round, you cannot stop me from withdrawing and leaving."
"Of course not." Meari smiled.
In this round, their roles seemed to have swapped. Before, it was Ruricho Nadeshiko persuading Meari to stay; now it was the other way around.
This was a gamble with a stake of one million, which could be multiplied up to six times, with a total prize of six million. For Meari, she absolutely could not lose this game.
"Ruribird, can you continue to balance the scale this round?" Meari asked.
"If I balance the scale, will you still give me 500,000?"
"Of course, one success doesn't prove anything; it could be a coincidence."
"Forget it, I don't care for that 500,000, and I don't want to prove anything to you."
Meari saw that Ruricho Nadeshiko seemed a bit resistant, so to increase her motivation, she specifically raised the stake, "If you can balance the scale in this game, I will give you an additional one million yen."
"One million... Alright, I agree."
Ruricho Nadeshiko knew full well that Meari wanted to find her cheating method through her actions, thereby turning the tables.
However, Ruricho Nadeshiko was also confident; she had thought about this cheating method for a long time, and no one had been able to expose it yet. She didn't believe Meari could find the flaw and successfully counter it with just one or two attempts.
Which gamble doesn't have risks? But if she won this game, she could get up to seven million in one go. Ruricho Nadeshiko was still willing to take this risk.
In this round, Meari still put the coins into the coin bank first. She glanced at Ruricho Nadeshiko, then grabbed a handful of coins from the box and, without hesitation, poured them all into the coin bank with a clatter.
The sound of coins colliding even echoed in this specially treated music classroom.
She thought Meari would come up with some good idea. It turned out she just wanted to pour all the coins into the coin bank at once to interfere with her hearing with the sound.
How adorably naive...
Ruricho Nadeshiko's eyes held a hint of arrogance and flirtatiousness, and her slightly raised chin showed her confidence.
She was determined to win this victory.
"I'm done. It's your turn." Meari pushed the coin bank forward and withdrew her hand, indicating that she couldn't tamper with the box anymore.
Ruricho Nadeshiko glanced at her watch, then let out a soft laugh. With her slender fingers, she began to pick up several coins, then, concealing them from Meari's sight, she also put them into the coin bank.
Kurume Laiwei muttered to herself, Meari wasn't stupid, and 500,000 wasn't a small sum for her. Trying to determine whether the other party used Absolute Pitch by balancing the scale was enough to do once.
Could it be that Meari was deliberately setting a trap...
Although she knew this, Kurume had no intention of warning Ruricho Nadeshiko.
Although Ruricho Nadeshiko was arrogant, she wasn't foolish. She must have thought of this point, but she still chose to gamble with Meari—she still didn't take Meari seriously.
Forget it, as the middleman in their gamble, she didn't need to interfere. Kurume decided to watch from the sidelines.
Meari was the first to place her coin bank on one end of the scale and looked provocatively at Ruricho Nadeshiko, "Since both of us are ready, let's put the coin banks on the scale. I guess, with your Absolute Pitch, you can definitely make the scale balance, right?"
"Naturally."
Ruribird Nadeshiko snorted proudly and placed her piggy bank on the scale.
At this point, both of them had placed their piggy banks on the scale—the scale did not balance and tilted towards Ruribird Nadeshiko.
Ruribird Nadeshiko's smile froze.
"How can this be!? Why isn't the scale balanced!" Ruribird Nadeshiko cried out in surprise.
Something was wrong; this was not the result she had expected! She had clearly put in the same weight as Meari's side, so why wasn't the scale balanced, and why was Meari's side lighter instead!?
"Why, that's what I want to know too."
Meari's face revealed a knowing smile: "Since the scale isn't balanced, then according to the rules, you need to give me one million."
Losing one million to Meari, although it made Ruribird Nadeshiko a little uncomfortable, it was actually fine; she lost, and that was that, after all, one million wasn't much.
What she couldn't accept was that the scale wasn't balanced; Meari must have tampered with the piggy bank!
The number of coins in Meari's piggy bank was beyond her control; she no longer had the confidence to predict the number of coins the other party had.
But it was too late to regret now; her only hope was that Meari wouldn't guess the number of coins on her side.
"Ruribird, I went first just now, and now it's your turn to answer first. Do you know how many coins are in my piggy bank?" The one holding the winning hand now was Meari.
After a moment of hesitation, Ruribird Nadeshiko said in a low voice: "...I refuse to answer."
The situation had gone beyond Ruribird Nadeshiko's control; the more she said, the more mistakes she would make, so she decided to stop answering this round.
"You're actually refusing? If you answer correctly, that's five million!"
Meari deliberately made a surprised expression to prod Ruribird Nadeshiko: "You really are so noble. Even though it's such a large sum of money, you choose to give up. As expected of a noble young lady..."
After being relentlessly mocked by Ruribird Nadeshiko earlier, Meari finally got her revenge.
"Less nonsense!" Ruribird Nadeshiko slapped the table in annoyance and shouted irritably: "So what if I refuse to answer? You still won't be able to guess the coins in my piggy bank!"
"You're right, I really don't have the confidence to guess the coins. However, I don't actually need to guess... because you cheated."
Meari chuckled leisurely and suddenly asked Kurume Laiwei: "Kurume, do you know what the penalty is for being caught cheating on the spot?"
"This gamble will be judged as a loss, and you will be sentenced to hand over all the gambling money from that round as compensation to your opponent," Kurume replied without hesitation.
"Only in this round?"
"Even if you cheated before, as long as you weren't caught on the spot, it cannot affect the results of previous gambles."
Kurume's words made Meari a little disappointed. She had originally wanted to get back everything she had lost in one go, but it turned out it only calculated the maximum bet for this gamble.
However, she shouldn't be too greedy; this result was already good enough.
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