323 Kotatsu and a Board Game (1/2)

When Seiji woke up the next morning, he discovered that the snow was already a few inches deep.

”It snowed last night? No wonder it feels much colder today,” Seiji said to himself as he looked out of his window.

This was the first snow of this year's winter. The weather was now a lot colder, and it was time to keep warm.

Of course, there was heating in their apartment, but that by itself was insufficient. When staying warm in winter was discussed, it was impossible to not mention the legendary divine artefact—a kotatsu!

Seiji went out together with Shika and Reo to purchase a kotatsu. After they purchased an appropriate one and brought it home with them, they placed it in the living room, and the three of them gathered around the kotatsu to enjoy its comfort and warmth.

Slouched against the sofa, they watched TV and ate the oranges that they purchased along the way at the supermarket.

'This is just what I wanted!' Seiji was supremely satisfied with this experience.

A kotatsu was just as legendarily warm and comfortable as it was rumored to be in his past life. It was a mysterious, almost magical tool.

He was so comfortable that he didn't want to get up anymore. He even considered purchasing a laptop and writing at the kotatsu's side in the future.

'I've transformed into a snail… I became depraved so quickly!'

There was a knock on the front door.

Seiji looked towards Shika, and Shika looked back at him.

Through nonverbal eye communication, they knew that the other was too lazy to get up. Neither of them wanted to leave the kotatsu to open the door.

Even his hard-working adopted younger sister had become depraved so quickly. The kotatsu was truly scary.

Seiji lifted his hand, a serious expression on his face.

”Let's settle this in a single duel.”

Shika also expressionlessly lifted her hand.

Rock-paper-scissors, duel!

Seiji lost with scissors against rock.

And so, he could only leave this holy domain… whoops, demon lord's castle, and open the door to greet the guest.

It was Kaede.

The blonde teacher smiled as she stepped in. ”You've already gotten a kotatsu? How nice.”

In order to enter the demon lord's castle, she even offered a sacrifice: a box of exquisite desserts. Then, she sat down together with them next to Reo.

The mature beauty and little beauty started chattering, breaking the silent atmosphere. A lively atmosphere was nice as well.

A few minutes later, there was another knock on the front door.

Once again, Seiji exchanged a wordless look with Shika, and Shika silently raised her hand.

Another duel!

Seiji lost once again, with paper against scissors this time. He crawled out of the demon lord's castle and saw that Mika was at the door.

”Eh?” The pigtailed girl was astonished by his behavior.

”Why don't you bring a game that we can play? Perhaps a deck of cards for poker or a board game...”

”Oh…”

Mika returned to her home to find a game. She came back carrying a worn dark gray wooden box.

”This is a dice board game that my mom retrieved from our storage closet.”

”It seems to be rather old.”

”Yeah… I don't know, since I've never played it.”

The two of them brought the wooden box to the living room.

Mika greeted the others and placed the wooden box on the table, which attracted everyone's attention.

”This is a board game that Miss Landlord brought out for us. It seems to be from a long time ago,” Seiji explained as he sat down. ”Why don't we play it together?”

This board game was a simple board game about moving spaces after tossing the dice. Each player would take turns tossing the dice and move their representative piece a number of spaces equal to the number on the dice.

There were various events written in the board spaces. They would have to follow the rules of what was written in each particular space.