Published at 2nd of May 2026 6:43 am

Chapter 2565: Housemate

This chapter is updated by JustRead.pl

Drinking in the room with Vanessa-san, she sat across from me in a rather daring outfit, no bra, just underwear and a T-shirt. With her downer-type beauty, it felt like the kind of situation that would normally make anyone flustered, but for now, the way she drank beer and smoked so casually gave off such a strong middle-aged man vibe that it somehow barely balanced out actually, is it even balanced? It feels more like it just turned things into chaos

[So, by the way, Vanessa-san, what game did you play at the casino today?]

[Today I played Seven Card Poker.]

[Ah, thats the one where you pick five cards out of seven to make a hand, right?]

[Yeah, yeah. The one I played wasnt just about winning or losing, it changed the multiplier depending on how strong your hand was when you won. If you manage to win with a strong hand, the return gets bigger.]

The Seven Card Poker Vanessa-san played was a game I had seen before at the casino I once went to with Alice.

Normally poker uses five cards, but this version gives you seven, making it easier to form hands. However, that also means the dealer tends to get stronger hands too, so something like two pair almost never wins. It feels like a more flat version of poker.

[Man, it was so close. If Id gotten a heart on the final change, it wouldve been a flush. If Id gotten a 3, it wouldve been a straight. And if it was the 3 of hearts, it wouldve been a straight flush, a really exciting hand. I was totally convinced the flow was with me, so I bet big and then, unbelievably, after changing three cards, I didnt get a single heart or a 3, and ended with just one pair.]

[Thats really unfortunate. Setting aside the 3, statistically getting a heart for a flush sounded pretty likely. But still, if you didnt have a made hand yet at the time of the change, maybe you shouldnt have bet big]

[Thats easy to say afterward. When youre in the moment, you just end up betting Kaito-kun, you seem like youd be good at casinos.]

[Im banned from the casino near the North District of the royal capital.]

[Ahaha, I doubt youd cheat, so you mustve won too much and got banned huh? What did you play?]

When I told her about going there with Alice and ending up getting tearfully begged by the casino manager, on his knees, not to ever come back, Vanessa-san laughed and slapped her knee in amusement.

[I tried a bunch of things, but for poker I played a version with jokers.]

[Ah, the one where Five of a Kind becomes the strongest hand. So, how ridiculous was your winning streak?]

[I played three times. The moment I was dealt my cards, it was Five of a Kind, Royal Straight Flush, and then Five of a Kind.]

[Bwahahaha! Thats completely unfair! With the Blessing you have, Kaito-kuns luck is insane. Though I guess always winning might get boring. Its not like youre after money anyway.]

Back then, that was true, but now I probably have even more Blessings than before, so I feel like all three rounds would just end up being Five of a Kind from the start.

If that happened, it really wouldnt be fun like Vanessa-san said, so even if I werent banned, I doubt Id go to a casino.

[Ahh, but in things like monster races, if I think and choose for myself, the Blessing doesnt affect it. If I just pick randomly because I dont understand whats going on though, then luck kicks in and I win]

[I see, so if its something you think through yourself, its fine. I like monster races too, but theres no racetrack in the royal capital. Maybe because it would compete with the casinos]

[When I tried it, it was in the Archlesia Empire.]

[Come to think of it, in your world, you bet money on horse races, right?]

[Yeah, horse racing. I havent seen anything like that in this world though]

My impression had been that monster races occupied the same position as what wed call horse racing, but was that actually the case? Do horse races themselves even exist here?

[There are horse races, but its more like nobles having their own horses compete against each other. Theres almost no betting or rather, theyre not really open to the public. Its more like one of those events hosted by nobles. Lilia-chan sometimes enters her own horses too. Though its more of a social obligation among nobles, Lilia-chan herself doesnt seem all that interested.]

[I see, so horse races do exist. Then it shouldnt be strange for betting on them to exist too buy is it because there are monster races instead?]

[Thats probably part of it, but more simply, its hard to tell the difference between horse-type monsters and normal horses. A lot of them look almost identical but even if they look the same, monsters with magic power are overwhelmingly faster.]

[But if you can see magic power, you should be able to tell ah, right.]

[Exactly. There arent many humans who can use magic after all. If people started making a fuss about horse-type monsters being mixed in whenever they lost, itd be a huge hassle. So as a form of gambling, it probably comes with too many complications.]

[I see]

The difference between monsters and normal animals comes down to whether they possess magic power, so anyone who can use magic can tell at a glance, but since few humans can use magic, if they cant distinguish them by appearance, it would inevitably lead to trouble.

If monsters were allowed to participate, then it might as well just be a monster race, there wouldnt be much point in doing it as horse racing

[As expected of Vanessa-san you really know your stuff when it comes to gambling.]

[Leave it to me. Ive got plenty of knowledge thats completely useless in life Apparently when you eat chocolate, your brain gets about four times more excited than when you kiss want to try it?]

[Doesnt chocolate not really go with beer?]

[Thats true maybe we should try it when were drinking wine or whiskey~~]

I figured she was only half joking as she teased me but somehow, if I had just gone along with it, it felt like Vanessa-san might actually have gone through with it, so I decided to steer the conversation elsewhere.

Serious-senpai : [If I remember right, it was originally something like, the lingering pleasure of letting dark chocolate melt on your tongue lasts about four times longer than a deep kiss]

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