Tales From The Kronos

Neige, Silva, and Sepide all went to the bar, hoping to win the poker tournament and meet the sheriff. They all registered for the competition and only had to wait now. It wasn't easy to convince everyone that Silva wasn't their sheriff but just someone who looked very similar to her. Once everyone lost interest, the group sat at a table and started to talk about their strategy around a glass of milk.

"So, should we cheat?" Proposed Sepide with her usual calm tone. Silva was shocked by her answer and didn't hesitate to oppose her.

"Cheat? That would be boring!"

"But it's not about being interesting, we need to meet Silv as soon as possible. If cheating allows us to fix everything faster, then I propose that we do it."

Silva was clearly not agreeing with Sepide, and turned toward Neige, hoping he would side with her. The man hesitated for a moment before giving his answer.

"Usually I'd be with Sepide, we need to fix everything as fast as possible. But if we get caught, everything will be much harder, we should only do it as a last resort."

Silva smiled and looked at Sepide with a smug look on her face.

"See? We're gonna play it fair and square, whether you like it or not."

Neige couldn't help but notice the sudden shift in tone of his friend. There was something wrong ever since they came to this world, and even if he had an idea of the reason, it had to wait. Now was the time to focus on their objective.

"So, anyone played before?" Asked Neige seriously, to which Sepide answered.

"Not really. I just know the basic rules." She turned her gaze to Silva, hoping she would have more experience.

"A bit, nothing crazy. What about you Neige?"

"I never played, is it like Yu-Gi-Oh?"

"Yu-gi What?" Asked Sepide, confused "Neige, do you know the rules of poker?"

"No, but how hard can it be? I'll just learn while playing." The two others looked at Neige with concern. They were surprised he proposed to play in the tournament without even knowing the rules. It was probably too late to explain the rules, but they still spent some time trying.

"I don't understand, how can I play my cards? I don't have mana." Neige stared at his cards, genuinely trying to understand the rules. Sepide was trying to find a better way of teaching him, while Silva was explaining the basics.

"You don't play your cards, the only thing that you do is replace the cards you don't want once per round. Then, you can bet as much as the other players, more than them, or fold."

"Seems boring, it's all down to luck. At least I can mulligan."

"What are you saying? That doesn't mean anything Neige!" Yelled Silva from the other side of the table with exasperation before getting closer to him to explain.

"The goal of the game is to guess what they have in their hand while making sure they don't know what you have in your hand." Neige looked at the cards in his hand, then at Silva. He continued like that for a few moments, before telling her straight in the eyes.

"I didn't understand, can you repeat?"

"I'm giving up!" Announced Silva before going to the bartender for a drink. But even despite that, Sepide stayed with Neige to teach him more.

"You need to get better cards than your opponent, if you think they have better cards, you fold." She explained calmly to her friend, to which Neige answered.

"So I need to create a good deck!"

"You don't create decks, what are you talking about?" Neige thought he understood the rules, but he still had trouble with them.

After a few hours, The tournament was about to start. Neige was still not understanding anything but the very basics. So to conclude, Silva came to him and gave him one last advice.

"Neige, if you're lost just fold."

"What is folding?"

Everyone was preparing themselves. Leaving Neige quite lost.

Alcohol and sand were getting everywhere in the room as everyone was moving around. A paper with the list of every player was displayed. There were Eight players, including the three of them. The first match involved Neige, worrying his two friends.

"There's no way you win, but you know, miracles happen. Good luck." Silva tipped her hat to Neige to wish him good luck before leaving him at his table.

"Don't worry, I think I understood the rules."

Neige took his place on the table, facing three other men. When they saw Neige, one of them started to say in a mocking tone.

"Aren' ya the lady that don' know the rules?" It was clear that the small size of Neige and his rather feminine appearance didn't help him to be taken seriously, but even despite that, he wasn't about to give up and decided to ignore them.

The dealer gave them their cards, and in a surprising move, Neige bet all of his tokens.

"All in!" He said proudly, as everyone was shocked, Neige then turned toward his friends and asked "Wait, when my hand is bad, I all-in, or I fold?" Understanding that he made a mistake, the others laughed at him, not taking him seriously at all.

The dealer asked if they wanted to draw new cards by discarding some. Neige thought a moment, before announcing

"No thanks, I keep my hand." Everyone was confused, if his hand was really that bad, why would he not change his hand? They all started to think that he was playing dumb on purpose, maybe he was a genius after all? Was he actually a poker expert? Everyone already betted too much to go back, and when the moment of revealing the cards was here, Neige revealed his four aces, winning him the round.

"He cheated!" Screamed one of the players while pointing at him, Neige looked really confused and tried to explain himself while looking at his cards.

"If I cheated, I would have taken some better cards, four ones are pretty bad." At this point, nobody really knew if he was a genius or a dumbass, and with all the tokens he got from this match, he was well set to win the tournament.

Once he was over, Neige regrouped with his friends before apologizing to them.

"I'm sorry, I thought I could win at least once." Silva and Sepide looked at him confused, he won after all.

"It's okay, you won Neige." Said Sepide, still trying to understand why he thought he lost.

"Really? Their hands must have been awful then. Or maybe it's my strategy of not changing my hand."

"About that, if you thought your hand was bad, then why did you keep those cards?" Asked Silva, still amazed that he managed to win anything.

"Well poker is about making your opponent confused, and to confuse them, you must confuse yourself first."

They didn't know if it was the stupidest or smartest thing they heard, but either way, the tournament wasn't over.

After some more games, Silva ended up last, Sepide in an honorable third place, and Neige was the winner of the tournament. Everyone was confused, and when the time to get his reward came, Silva interrupted everything.

"One moment please, there's still someone he has to beat before being declared the best."

Everyone looked at Silva, annoyed that she stopped the part where the winner was rewarded. But then, she sat at the table and stared at Neige right in his eyes. Everyone in the tavern suddenly smiled, understanding what was happening.

"The sheriff is still undefeated."

Everyone looked at each other in joy and started to cheer for her.

"I knew you were the sheriff, you just wanted to play in the tournament, right?" Said the organizer of the tournament. Sepide looked around confused, and tried reaching toward Silva.

"What are you saying, Silva?" She tried walking toward her, but Neige stopped her in her movement.

"I knew something was wrong, you're not Silva." The girl with red hair smiled at Neige's words. Was she not their friend? Was she the real sheriff playing around?

The sheriff took an old book and placed it on the table, Neige knew what it was, it was the diary they came for.

"Let's have some fun! That's what you came here for, that's my bet. If I win, you give me your life, do we have a deal?"

Her knowledge frightened the two friends, she seemed to know way more than she was supposed to. Neige sat right in front of her, and with a serious voice, gave his hand to her.

"Deal."

Silv shook his hand with a smile that looked innocent and childish, but for some reason, it was terrifying to look at.

"I warn you, Neige, your tricks won't work against me."

Neige stared at the girl in front of him, if she was ready to pass off as his friend, he knew she would be able of much more.

"I know you'll cheat."

"And you still played along despite that? Are all Neiges that stupid?" She clearly knew about the other worlds too, but it wasn't the moment to think of that, it was time to win one last game of poker.

The dealer dealt the cards, Neige looked at his hand but he had no idea what it meant. His opponent didn't even look at her cards and instead asked him

"So, will you change your hand, or will you confuse yourself to try to confuse me?"

Neige planned to steal the diary while she was looking away, but she didn't stop staring at him. Her eyes were locked on him, while Neige was feeling more and more uncertain about his chance of winning.

"If you try to run away, know that I have your friend hostage."

He figured that Silva's disappearance was because of her, but it only made the situation worse, he just felt backed against a wall. It felt like nothing could save him from this situation, but when all hopes were lost, a distant voice echoed in his head.

~Send back the two cards on your left, you'll draw a queen and king of heart.~

Neige looked around him, but everyone was silent. He knew he heard this voice, but for now, the question was about whether he'd listen or not. Everything was out of his control anyway, so he decided that he might as well listen.

He gave his two cards to the dealer, and he received a queen and king of heart, just like the voice said. The sheriff frowned as if something wasn't going as planned.

"It's time to reveal our hands, sadly, your hand can't do anything against me."

Neige and Silv both revealed their hand, Silv had Four aces, but Neige had a Royal flush, the most powerful hand in poker. But Neige didn't know that, so he had to wait for everyone's reaction to know whether he won or not.

The public was silent, shocked by what happened. Even Silv looked at Neige's cards with disbelief, knowing that something had gone wrong. The girl glanced at the dealer, who looked as confused as her.

"The... The sheriff got beaten at her game!"

"Is this guy even real?"

No one could believe what took place in front of their eyes, the person had never lost a game of poker just lost against someone that didn't know the rules.

Silv tried taking the journal on the table, but Neige quickly put his hand over it. Silv's face filled with rage, barely able to control herself.

"You were supposed to lose! I was supposed to win! I was supposed to be the real main character!" Everyone around her started to think she was crazy, that their new sheriff was a fraud. She was far from looking in control and was more like a child throwing a tantrum than a leader. Neige stared at the girl in front of him, his hand still on the book.

"You read this journal, right? If you could read it, it's that you know the language on it, and if you know it, then you're not from this world."

"Neige! I swear that this isn't over, maybe I can't win, but I can make you lose!" Silv suddenly ran away from the bar, leaving everyone perplexed. Neige quickly followed her, not without taking the diary they came for, followed by Sepide right behind him.