Chapter 38: Dice of Fate

Chapter 38: Dice of Fate

On her way home, Emilia once again saw the strange Velka—the old woman who talked to trees. This time, she was feeding pigeons, and people passed by as if she didn’t exist. Emilia frowned and kept walking. She had a meeting with the children—they were going to play generals.

She grabbed her pouch filled with carved figurines, ate a quick meal, washed her dishes, kissed her mother, and hurried toward Tobin’s house. The other kids were already there, eating sandwiches and drinking birch bark juice.

Her brother was there, as well as Kael, Gozo, and of course, Tobin and his older sister Parima. Any moment now, Tim—the son of Boss Titus—would arrive too.

Emilia quickly greeted everyone and took a sandwich. Tobin poured a cup of juice and handed it to her.

“Did you manage to color the three knights?” he asked with a huge smile. The two of them often allied against the others in the beginning and had devised a strategy where they would combine their knights for defense and try to swiftly capture two forts with their more mobile units. The knights cost a lot of points, but in turn, they would be able to last for a long time and provide time for the faster units.

Soon Tim arrived, and the children gathered around the game table. Tobin’s father, one of Master Oglim’s oldest apprentices, was a master woodcarver. He was teaching Tim and Parima the craft, which was why they had the most beautifully detailed figurines—everyone else secretly envied them.

The table was covered with obstacles—rivers, hills, castles, wizard towers, treasures, and countless other things. Dice rolls could grant treasure, artifacts, or even the rare points needed to buy more troops.

At the start, everyone set up their armies, hiding them behind strips of leather. No one wanted to reveal their choices too early.

The first few turns were all about arranging units, forming alliances, and quick diplomatic chatter—they passed fast.

Soon, Emilia and Tobin moved their forces toward a meeting point where they’d unite their armies. They didn’t stop to capture small forts—only their light troops gathered resources along the way.

Meanwhile, Parima immediately began conquering the nearest forts and developing them. She had brought many workers but fewer soldiers—a risky move, since she could lose everything in the opening turns. Everyone could see her plan, and if they let her grow unchecked, she would become dangerous.

Gozo gritted his teeth and sent two of his pieces to prevent Parima from gathering nearby resources, and also began occupying the nearby forts. Kael looked at Gozo assessingly, then at Parima's multitude of workers. He also decided to send two pieces which slowly headed in her direction. He was gathering all the resources along the way, but eventually would try to limit the ambitious Parima.

Tim, on the other hand, captured only his nearest fort. Most of his units were light scouts rushing across the map to snatch up easy resources. That would quickly make him an annoying pest—stealing loot from everyone else. But his scattered, fragile scouts were vulnerable too. A risky choice.

“Emilia and Tobin are teaming up again! That’s not fair!” Kael complained.

“Then make your own alliance,” Emilia shot back. “What’s stopping you? And don’t pretend you and Gozo aren’t planning to gang up on Parima and grab her land.”

“Let them try,” Parima said calmly. “Kael’s too far away anyway. And if you focus on me, Tim will strip the whole map of resources with his scouts. Isn’t that right, Tim?”

Tim, who was usually shy, smiled this time and replied in a mock-innocent voice, “My soldiers are so weak—how could I dare attack anyone? Please, don’t mind me. I’ll just take this one tiny mountain.”

That “tiny” mountain was, in fact, one of the most crucial strategic points on the entire map—especially valuable in the late game. It was surrounded by resources, and any castle or wizard tower built there was nearly impossible to conquer. If Tim managed to construct even a single griffon tower, his scouts would gain powerful bonuses.

Next came Emilia’s turn to roll the dice for the Old Gods. From the depths of Gaia, ten monster figurines rose, scattered across random locations. According to the rules, they would attack any nearby player or neutral fort.

The game moved forward, laughter and rivalry thick in the air. Before long, Tobin’s parents appeared with more sandwiches and a pot of steaming tea.

The battle was raging, yet the turns seemed to stretch slower than usual.

“Have you heard? The griffon tower is almost finished. For the final touches, a group of stone lizardmen will come to complete the foundations, weave earth magic into the walls, and build the tower’s three spires.”

“Wait… shouldn’t it have seven spires?” Emilia interjected.

“I only know of three. Who said seven?” Parima had just finished her turn and took a sip of tea. Somehow, she had convinced Tim to strike Kael at a critical moment, and had managed to develop quite far around her starting zone.

Now they were embroiled in a fierce battle with Gozo, who had also sent countless scouts to prevent the spread of the so-called two-headed monster—Emilia and Tobin.

“I know of three too,” Tim said uncertainly. “My father said the mayor is a real tightwad and plans to replace some of the griffons with pegasi.”

“Ha! Pegasi? They’re too slow… useless for real scouting.” Parima was calculating something on her wax tablet.

“Hey, pegasi are pretty good,” Tim said, having deployed four pegasus figurines.

“Whether it’s three or seven, we’ll find out soon enough.” Tobin’s turn came, and he attacked one of Tim’s figurines, forcing it to abandon the resources it had occupied.

“I’m trading stones for clay. Anyone interested?”

“I’ll give one clay for two stones,” Emilia offered, winking at her “ally.” They often allied, but in the end, there could be only one winner.

Then Tobin rolled for Gaia’s armies and cursed under his breath. Four of the ten armies attacked his figurines.

Gozo grinned maliciously. He was farthest from the goddess Gaia’s troops and took delight whenever someone else got hit by them.

Emilia reflected on the game. It demonstrates the state of this world so well. Kingdoms and empires fight each other, form alliances, yet endlessly compete with their own allies, only to be attacked by the countless armies from the depths of Tartarus.

Wasn’t practically every kingdom at war over the “Lost Archipelago”?

And there, instead of uniting against the trolls’ forces, they constantly raced for resources. As a result, they were on the verge of losing the resource-rich archipelago entirely. Last month, an entire fleet of fifty flying warships had fallen into an ambush—only twenty had escaped.

Parima is like the Southern Empire, Emilia thought. Building cities endlessly but sending no troops to fight on the northern front. Instead, she constantly applies pressure, squeezing the other nations. Occasionally, she sends troops to help, but always at exorbitant costs. The northern nations are caught in endless war. Their armies are elite, battle-hardened against trolls for centuries. But if anything happened, could the less experienced forces of neighboring kingdoms stop the trolls? And those twenty legions of Atlas—if they managed to strike a kingdom, as Tobin is doing now—it wouldn’t be as simple as this game.

When it was Emilia’s turn, she hurried to send her troops to block half of Gaia’s forces, even aiding Tobin. She swiftly occupied one of the last free forts and continued to reflect.

I sent my troops to help. But what if Tobin attacks me and takes some of my resources? This is just a game, but in real life, losing resources means losing countless lives.

As she feared, that was exactly what Tobin had been waiting for. He grinned widely and began negotiating with the others to gather the resources he needed for two more figurines, which he then used to attack Emilia’s holdings.

“Tobin, I helped you!” she protested.

“In this world, that’s how it works,” Tobin replied in a mock-serious voice. “If you have resources, you must have the power to defend them.”

“Emilia, come on. You only helped Tobin by eliminating Gaia’s troops near your territories. They would’ve attacked you next turn anyway.”

We can't be sure. It depends on the roll of the dice.

“It depends, but most likely they would’ve attacked you. Who in their right mind would attack instead?”

Think, Emilia—would anyone foolishly send armies to help for no reason? That was the way things worked on the continent. And what would happen if Atlas’s armies weren’t just a single strike, but the beginning of the legendary Ragnarok?

Emilia studied the map, the scattered figurines across the board.

She grabbed the dice and threw them.

“Hey! What are you doing? That’s not allowed!”

“Today, we’re changing the rules. This is Ragnarok—Gaia will roll after every turn!”

“Hey, that’s not fair!” little Tim began to complain.