Youkoso Jitsuryoku Shijou Shugi no Kyoushitsu e - Volume 8 - Chapter 2.9

9 
“Sorry 1st years, but I’m done.” 
The first one to finish up is Tsunoda. Kiriyama finished next after him. The remaining players are the two 1st years and the seniors, Nagumo and Ishikura. The Joker’s been in my hand from the start. In the end, I decided to give up on winning. I simply continued to play the game silently without doing much. Yahiko finished and he gave a breath of relief. And soon after that, Ishikura also finished leaving me in a one-on-one against Nagumo. 
“You don’t seem to be having fun, Ayanokouji.” 
“That’s not true. I just have trouble expressing myself.” 
“Really? You’ve been looking pale from the start. You’ve been holding the Joker all this time, haven’t you?” 
Nagumo’s remarks aren’t really anything out of the ordinary. Since it’s a one-on-one, if he’s not holding the Joker then he’d obviously understand what that entails. 
“That might just be the case.” 
Conversing with him would just be troublesome and so I brushed it off. 
Because I know that’s not what Nagumo wants to coax out of me. In short, I think he wants to get me to talk back to him the way Kouenji did. I silently extended two cards towards him. One of them is the Joker and the other card’s the winning one for Nagumo. In all likelihood, Nagumo will draw the winning card. No, I don’t get this expression he’s making. Nagumo smiled as he reached out. And then— “Good for you, Ayanokouji. Now you have a way out.” 
Nagumo picked the Joker. 
“Now this is unusual. I thought you’d surely be able to pick the right one.” 
Ishikura said so from beside Nagumo. 
“A game of cards ultimately boils down to luck after all. I’ll lose when I lose.” 
Shuffling the cards in his hands, he extended two cards towards me. 
“Now then, take your pick.” 
From a third party perspective, there’s a 50/50 chance. But that doesn’t really apply for this game. These cards came from a sealed box but Nagumo is the one who first shuffled these cards and in that moment, he must have marked the Joker. He’s used a trick. 
You wouldn’t notice at first glance but there’s a small marking on the Joker. You wouldn’t notice it normally. I unravelled this mystery based on something along the lines of a prediction. So far, in all the five rounds that he’s played, Nagumo’s been correctly guessing the outcomes in advance. Of course, since there are also 1st years who don’t know anything mixed in as well, there’s no real sense of certainty. That’s why he spoke ambiguously and only guessed the outcome in terms of teams with a high probability of winning and teams with a low probability of winning. But the senior students who have realized…no, who have been told about this trick possess an overwhelming advantage. Either way, this is disgusting. 
The card on the right from my point of view has a mark on it that indicates it’s the Joker. There’s no mistaking it since it’s a rushed, makeshift marking that was not applied to the other cards. If I pick the other card here, I wonder what’ll happen. The answer to that is simple. Nothing will happen. It would just mean I got the winning half of the 50/50 chance. 
“I really can’t tell which one’s which so I’ll just randomly pick one.” 
I said so and reached out but Nagumo pulled the cards away. 

“Please give it some thought before picking.” 
“I don’t think it’s possible to tell just by thinking about it though.” 
“Still, I insist.” 
He compelled me to give it some thought halfway through. 
“Understood, I’ll think about it.” 
I said so as I looked at the cards. Of course, I no longer gave the cards themselves any further thought. I kept quiet for about two seconds and then reached out for the winning card. 
“I like my chances with the one on the right. I’ll be picking that one.” 
A reason as good as any. 
This time, Nagumo didn’t stop me. The last winning card came into my hands. 
“Please excuse me.” 
I said so as I put together the two cards and declared my victory. 
“You’ve lost, Nagumo.” 
“So it would seem. I mean, we were scheduled to cook breakfast twice in the first place anyways so I don’t really mind.” 
He said that and then gathered the cards scattered around. 
“Still, it was fairly amusing. As I thought, Ishikura-senpai and I get along well.” 
“…I wonder.” 
Brushing aside Nagumo’s words of courtesy, Ishikura left the room. 
“There’s no problem with starting the order in which we cook breakfast with the 1st years, is there? Please take care of it tomorrow.” 
“U-Understood. Thank you for tonight.” 
Keisei thanked Nagumo. The senior students who have finished playing cards got up and left the 1st year room. 
“Doesn’t feel like we’ve interacted with them that much.” 
I could understand why Ishizaki would mutter that. Ultimately, it only amounted to a game that increased the 1st years’ burden by a bit.