Five full laps.
The bicycle's wheels were practically about to start smoking.
After the early burst of fun, Luke's scalp started tingling with that oh-no-this-is-too-much feeling.
The moment he stepped into the courtyard, he didn't say a word—just flopped straight onto the rocking chair like a dead fish, eyes unfocused, staring up at the heavy gray clouds.
Lux and the others could tell he'd been worked half to death this time, so none of them went over to bother him.
Instead, their attention shifted to the bicycle.
A moment ago, Luke had taken them out for a spin. They'd only ridden in the back for the experience.
And the verdict was obvious: it was great. Compared to riding a horse or sitting in a carriage, it was a completely different sensation.
That one "nothing-special" little contraption—just iron bits hammered into shape—could still burst into that kind of speed.
If they'd only been staring at the blueprint before, they might not have understood why it mattered.
But after trying it themselves, they got it. The bicycle deserved to be called a phenomenon-level invention.
Even if it couldn't fully replace carriages or horses, it was at least on the same tier as those modes of transport.
And the most important part was that the cost to produce it was absurdly cheaper than a carriage.
If nothing went wrong, bicycles would definitely end up woven into the streets and alleys of Demacia, and the significance would be anything but small.
And yet the inventor himself was currently lying there like a salted-fish couch potato on a rocking chair.
If it were anyone else, they'd be so excited they couldn't sit still—desperate for all of Demacia to know about it tomorrow.
But this guy? After the initial novelty and two playful rides outside, he couldn't even be bothered to glance at it again.
The girls didn't even know what to say to him.
Right now, they were still pretty interested in the bicycle.
Being taken for a ride and riding it yourself were two completely different experiences.
Watching Luke pedal back and forth made it look easy, so they wanted to try.
"I'll go first?" Lux, already bouncing with anticipation, raised her hand to check what the others thought.
The other three girls stepped back and nodded, letting her have the first attempt.
Just then—drip.
Luke, sprawled on the rocking chair, felt something wet tap the tip of his nose. A raindrop landed dead-center.
In his view, the sky was packed with dark clouds—darker than before—like it was about to dump buckets.
Drip!
More drops fell, and Lux and the others noticed too.
"It's raining."
"Let's get under cover first."
"Fine…"
So much for test-riding the bike. Just in the time it took to speak, the rain thickened fast.
"What about that guy?" Lux glanced at the rocking chair—only to find Luke already gone. She turned her head.
He'd dragged out a small stool and sat under the eaves in front of the house, yawning as he settled in to watch the rain.
So they ignored him, and the girls jogged toward the manor.
Halfway there, Kahina suddenly remembered something. "Oh—right! I brought that tile game you mentioned too!"
As she spoke, she pivoted around, holding a hand over her head, and ran back to the carriage.
The rain hit like a match to dry kindling—one second it was calm, the next it turned into a downpour.
Whooooosh—crash!
Fat drops hammered down, heavier by the second. Braving the rain, Kahina rummaged through the carriage, found a box, and hurried back.
By the time she reached them, she was soaked through, water dripping off her.
Summer clothes weren't thick to begin with, and she was wearing a white dress—once it got wet, the fabric clung to her, outlining her slim curves.
Yurna handed her a towel she'd clearly prepared in advance.
"Thanks."
Kahina gave a sweet, grateful smile. First, she passed the box to Luke. "Your Highness—the Mah Jongg set you were talking about."
Luke pulled his gaze from the curtain of rain outside, took the box, and smiled at her. "Go let Yurna help you change into something dry first."
"Mm." Kahina nodded, toweling her hair as she followed Yurna away.
A rainy-day dampness had started to spread through the air. It wasn't unpleasant.
Luke opened the box and found rows upon rows of delicate tiles inside, polished like jade.
Familiar patterns were carved into them. He picked one up and looked it over. The craftsmanship was genuinely meticulous.
It had a satisfying heft—heavy, but not overly so. About thumb-length, roughly two-and-a-half fingers wide.
The size was perfect. The markings were hand-carved, and it was obvious Navis had put real care into it.
Lux, Fiora, and Sona came over too, their eyes drawn to the tiles.
Each of them picked one up, examining it with curiosity.
Lux lifted hers higher, angling it toward a brighter patch of light, chin tipped up. "So how do you play this?"
Fiora rolled one between her fingers. "They're really well-made."
Sona nodded in agreement.
Luke stood, no longer interested in watching the rain. He looked genuinely excited. "It's insanely fun. I'll run you through a couple rounds and you'll get it."
They moved into the sitting room, where there happened to be a table that was just right for a four-player tile game.
Luke dumped all the tiles out of the box onto the tabletop.
Along with them fell several stapled packets of paper.
"The rules are all written there. Study them yourselves."
He handed a packet to each of them.
He'd had Navis prepare these in advance. There was too much to explain with words alone, and it was easy to misunderstand.
So instead, everything was laid out on paper—clear at a glance.
The first page covered the basic rules, and the later pages listed different winning-hand types and scoring categories.
He'd even thoughtfully included diagrams—just in case a certain blonde couldn't make sense of it otherwise.
Thankfully, with a printing press, after the first copy took some effort, the rest were basically unlimited duplicates.
The three girls took the instructions and immediately stopped paying attention to Luke.
They focused on the booklet.
Luke gave them a little time to understand the basics. When he saw them start flipping pages, he said, "You can read while we play. The fastest way to learn is to run a couple hands for real."
This kind of game—if you only read about it, even if someone explains the rules perfectly, it still might not click.
But once you actually play two rounds, you'll understand everything you need.
They set the booklets down and prepared to try a few practice hands.
Soon, the clatter-clatter-clatter of shuffling tiles mixed with the roar of the downpour outside.
After two rounds, they'd grasped the rules easily.
It really wasn't hard: keep thirteen tiles, draw, discard, and build stronger and stronger combinations.
Kahina, now changed into dry clothes, dragged over a chair and watched from the side.
"Got it all?" Luke looked around the table.
Including Lux, all the girls nodded, eyes bright with eagerness.
Luke said, "Alright then. One point is one silver. Payouts depend on the point value."
"No problem!" Lux immediately agreed. Her luck in the first two rounds had been great—she'd won several hands in a row.
From the moment she touched the tiles, she'd known this game was made for her.
She curved her lips into a confident smile. "Watch me sweep all three of you!"
That familiar confidence gave Luke a strange sense of déjà vu.
But considering this kind of game really did hand out a beginner's luck buff sometimes, he didn't bother to mock her.
Faced with Lux's swagger, Fiora and Sona just smiled and let it slide.
Before long, the real matches began.
As the number of hands increased, they grew clearer on both the rules and the different scoring hands.
None of them had a weak memory.
Their draw-and-discard speed naturally picked up, too. At first they still needed the booklet to check patterns, but soon they didn't need it at all.
As time passed, they understood more and more why the game was addictive.
It wasn't single-note or rigid. Four players, a big pile of tiles, random draws—every hand played out differently. Then there were all the different winning patterns, each worth different points.
Put together, it made for an absurdly replayable game.
Especially the feeling when you finally drew the exact tile you needed—there was nothing else like it.
After several rounds, Luke was winning the most.
Partly because he already knew how to play, and partly because his luck wasn't bad either.
This wasn't a game where he could dominate every single hand—when the draws went cold and nothing connected, there was nothing he could do.
But overall, he was currently eating all three of them alive.
"Six Dots."
"Five Bamboo."
"Three Characters."
As Kahina called out the tile Sona discarded for her, it became Miss Crownguard's draw.
Lux took a slow breath, reached out, and drew a tile—then held it upright to peek.
Her shoulders sagged instantly, disappointment plain as day.
Just looking at her expression, it was obvious she was waiting on a win, and she hadn't drawn what she wanted.
At this table, she was the easiest to read. Whether her hand was good or bad was written all over her face.
Sometimes she'd build something that looked huge, and before she even won, the smugness would already be glowing on her cheeks.
Lux glanced at the board. A lot of the tiles she needed had already been seen, so she relaxed and tossed her tile out.
"Four Bamboo."
"Three Dots."
"Two Characters."
"Five Characters."
Then Lux drew a One Bamboo. Her brows immediately pinched together. She looked at the discard pile—she hadn't seen a single One Bamboo yet.
Next, she sneakily checked everyone's faces. Fiora, Sona, and Luke all looked calm, quietly waiting for her to discard.
No one looked like they were sitting on something massive.
"It should be safe…"
Muttering under her breath, Lux discarded it. "One Bamboo."
"Win."
The moment the tile hit the table, Fiora—sitting to Lux's left—pushed her hand forward with a faint smile. "Three-color identical run, using the One Bamboo. Eight points."
Lux froze for a second, but when she heard it was only eight points, she let out a tiny breath of relief.
"Wait!"
But then Kahina raised her hand, delighted. "I think we won too—single-suit four stepped triplets, thirty-two points, plus a closed-hand bonus for two, so thirty-four points total!"
Lux's face tightened instantly. One point was one silver coin—so that one discard just cost her three gold and four silver.
For her already-not-that-big little stash, that was a disaster on top of a disaster.
Fiora, whose win had been undercut, sighed.
Sona didn't even have time to celebrate her first-ever thirty-two-point hand before she heard a cold laugh from the side.
And the moment Lux heard that laugh, a terrible feeling crawled up her spine.
She turned to her right—
Luke was sitting there with a cruel little smirk, flipping his tiles over one by one.
"Sorry. Thirteen Orphans—waiting on the One Bamboo."
Lux's face went pale in an instant. She stared at Luke's revealed hand, completely blank.
Even the Sona sisters shot Luke an annoyed glare.
They'd finally made a huge hand, and this bastard had stolen the spotlight right out from under them.
Fiora exhaled in relief, suddenly feeling much more balanced, and couldn't help but give Miss Crownguard a sympathetic look.
"Eighty-eight points," Luke said cheerfully, looking at Lux's stunned expression. "First time I've ever won Thirteen Orphans. Thanks for your generosity, Miss Crownguard."
Inside, even he was impressed.
One discard feeding all three opponents—and feeding a Thirteen Orphans on top of it—was rare even by the standards of tile-game veterans.
Truly worthy of Miss Crownguard.
Lux, thoroughly unwilling, dug into her purse and pulled out eight gold and eight silver.
She handed it over with the kind of resentment that could curdle milk.
And seeing the sleazy grin spreading across Luke's face just made her even angrier.
Damn it.
How much money had this guy siphoned out of her little stash by now?!
Luke still wasn't done showing off. "Sigh… I'm running out of places to put all this money."
The moment that group taunt landed, Fiora and Sona's gazes snapped onto Luke.
Two pairs of beautiful eyes, and there was a definite whiff of gunpowder behind them.
The amount they'd lost wasn't much to them.
But knowing it had all gone into Luke's pockets—and having to listen to him gloat—was infuriating.
They silently pushed the tiles into a messy pile and began shuffling again.
They refused to believe they couldn't win.
Feeling the danger rising at the table, Luke realized something was off.
He stuffed the winnings into his pocket, stood up, and tried to slip away with an excuse. "It's getting late. We should probably start thinking about lunch."
The instant he rose, a small hand shot out and grabbed him without mercy, yanking him back down.
Luke turned around to see Lux with a dangerous smile on her face. "Don't rush. We're not hungry yet."
And when he looked at Fiora and Sona, they were calmly shuffling tiles in their seats, faces cool and unreadable.
For the first time ever, they could sit in front of the concept of lunch and not budge.
Luke had successfully ignited every bit of their competitive fury.
Trying to pull a "win money and run" like the last time they played poker? Absolutely not.
So Luke was forcibly dragged into several more rounds.
And then he won even more.
Lux was so angry she looked like she might flip the table.
Even Fiora and Sona couldn't keep their composure anymore. A fire had lit in their chests, and no amount of water was putting it out.
"Ugh. I told you I didn't want to play anymore. You insisted on dragging me back. Well? Can you even scrape up any money now?" Luke stood, let out a sigh like he was the victim here, and wore an expression that practically screamed arrogant.
His pockets were stuffed with coins—every last one won from their personal stashes.
Beginner's luck meant nothing in front of absolute skill.
Maybe… this was what real ability looked like.
Invincible really was lonely.
He didn't say it out loud, but every girl at the table could feel exactly what he was thinking.
They were furious and unhappy, glaring at him with eyes sharp enough to bite.
But there was nothing they could do about it.
At the table, only Kahina and Sona still had any money left.
And even then, not much. Their families were wealthy, sure, but it wasn't like they walked around carrying piles of cash.
Especially since they never imagined that coming to Luke's house would turn into a situation where money suddenly mattered so much.
After a few rounds, even though one point equaled one silver, a single big self-drawn win could make you rich in an instant.
Like that Thirteen Orphans hand—if Miss Crownguard hadn't discarded it and Luke had drawn it himself, then each opponent would've owed him eight-point-eight gold.
And Luke's draws were hot. He self-drew easily.
So of course their wallets couldn't survive.
"I'm done. I'm going to make lunch." Luke smiled faintly and headed for the kitchen, in an absurdly good mood.
The money itself didn't matter to him.
But thinking about who he'd won it from? That felt amazing.
Once he left, the girls couldn't stop him. One by one, they sighed.
Today, they'd been completely cleaned out by this guy.
"Let's play without money," Kahina suggested.
After watching so many rounds, her hands were itching. She wanted in.
The other three had no objections. They figured they could at least sharpen their skills, so they started up a no-stakes game.
Meanwhile, Luke hummed to himself in the kitchen, leisurely preparing lunch.
He glanced out the window. The rain had been falling for hours, but now it had weakened—water dripping from the eaves was almost louder than the rainfall itself.
It looked like it would stop soon.
A little sunlight was already slipping through outside, soft and gentle, and that fresh, rain-washed clarity made the whole atmosphere feel unexpectedly nice.
Luke liked that feeling. He kept humming while he cooked.
When the meal was ready, he shouted toward the sitting room.
"Food's up!"
The moment they heard it, the girls—who'd long since been teased by the smell—immediately tossed down their tiles and rushed to the kitchen to sit.
Lunch was lavish. There were new dishes every day, and several plates they'd never seen before. Steam rose in fragrant waves, and everything looked delicious.
After a whole morning of losing at tiles, their sour moods lifted at the sight of a full table.
And in moments like this, even looking at Luke felt less annoying.
He'd won all their money—so now they were going to eat until they got their value back.
With that thought, they dug in without restraint.
Sona—who always told herself she needed to diet before every meal—
ate for a while, then quietly changed her mind.
Forget dieting. Not today.
TN: Sorry, there was no way to westernize the episode more cuz they're actually playing Mahjong.
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