Monster Marriage

Chapter 3

"What's this?"

"Snakes and Ladders."

Mayumi stared at the board game on Alex's hands in interest. She tilted her head and poked it, "How to play this? It looks interesting."

"Well, you just roll the dice and move your piece according to the number of dots where the dice landed. The first one to reach 100th tile wins."

"Seems simple enough, let's play it!"

Alex wanted to say something more, but seeing the excitement of Mayumi, he decided to remain silent and let her enjoy the moment. Oh well, let her enjoy a little bit. She seems a bit stressed these days.

He spread the board, then handed the black pawn-piece to Mayumi while he took the white piece.

"Alright, to start, we need to place our piece on the first tile."

"Hmm, hmm," Mayumi smiled and placed her piece on the first tile at the same time as Alexis.

The moment they did so, a bright light engulfed them.

****

When their visions returned, they found themselves in a huge board with 100 tiles and a number written on a large plate below each tile.

Some lines, similar to nerves, glowed on Alex's arms, as he carefully observed the surroundings.

[Hello! Hello! Welcome to my board!]

"Who!?" Mayumi released a dark aura as she scanned her surroundings, "Show yourself fiend! Are you the one who brought us here!?"

Alex remained silent, merely taking a few steps back as Mayumi's dangerous aura was nauseating. If an ordinary human were to get exposed in that aura for a long time, it is certain that they will go insane.

Fortunately, he was no ordinary human. The glow on his arm also vanished.

[Fufufu~ Fear not milady! I am a spirit born from children's fear of boardgames due to the certain movie about it! We're of the same kind!]

"Don't compare me to a lowly spirit like you!" Mayumi growled, her eyes glowed as her hair rose up as if defying gravity.

The room shook from the sheer magnitude of her aura and cracks can be seen on space.

"Alright, let's calm down first and listen to the spirit." Alex placed a hand on Mayumi's shoulder to calm her down, which surprisingly, she did.

However, she narrowed her eyes at Alex, "...Don't tell me you know about this?"

"More or less." He shrugs. It's true. He knew that the snake and ladder board does have a spirit inside, but never knew that it would suck them in.

"Why didn't you say anything?" She glared at him, crossing her arms in annoyance.

Alex smiled, "You look really interested, so I decided to refrain from saying anything. You also look a bit stress lately, so I figured a little bit of relaxing will do you good." That, and he also wanted to have a little bit of fun with Mayumi.

He has school tomorrow, so he can't accompany her for a day which is torture. Seriously, if he can get away with it, he wouldn't bother going to school. His family is rich anyway.

He can just inherit the properties of his family and live a life similar to a king.

Mayumi groaned in annoyance but didn't say anything. After all, she may not say it, but she is in fact interested with this little game...even though it possess its own consciousness and trapped them in a separate space.

...on second thought, she might destroy this actually.

[Phew~, you are very scary milady. I don't know how you can keep your man with that attitude! If it was me, I would've ran away already]

"He's not my man," Mayumi narrowed her eyes. Normally she would feel a little embarrassed if someone said that Alex is her man, but this time she was more annoyed and pissed off with this spirit to even care.

Also, with the amount of teasing she received from Alex, calling him her man won't even make her fluster.

"I'm actually her fiancée." Alex added while looking at Mayumi with a smile.

"Urgh," She really should just give up correcting him. Doesn't matter anyway, sooner or later she will scare him and their engagement will be broken.

Let the i***t enjoy this small time victory.

[I don't know how you can tolerate such a short tempered woman, sir]

"Shut it." Mayumi growled.

"She's just shy with strangers, don't mind her manners." Said Alexis as he wrapped his arms around Mayumi's waist.

Flustered, the Diwata of mischief turned bright red as she quickly tried to struggled away...but couldn't.

'Hm?' She was confused. Though she was severely weakened due to people's lack of belief in her, she was still strong enough to bench press a truck and outrun a sports car.

How come she couldn't get out of this human's hold? Are magus so strong now? She remembered she used to just toss them around decades ago.

After awhile, Alex let go of Mayumi and said to the spirit, "Well, shall we start the game? Let's just flip a coin to see who'll go first."

[Very well! I shall provide with a coin now]

With that, a golden coin appeared in front of Alex. He stretched his hand and took it before observing it. He turned towards Mayumi, "I'll be taking heads."

"No! I'll be talking heads!" Mayumi said as she took the coin, "And let me toss the coin."

Without waiting for Alexis to respond, she tossed the coin to the air. It spun several times before landing on the ground....head, a smile appeared on her face.

"I guess I'll be going first then." She grinned at Alex, who just shrugs.

Mayumi stared at him for a moment before thinking of something, and a mischievous smile appeared on her face, "Hey, how about a little bet?"

"A bet?" Alex stared at her, feeling a little interested. "Very well. What's the stakes here?"

"How about you break off our engagement if I win?" She offered, though she knew that he wouldn't agree to it.

"Sure."

See?...wait.

What?

Did she hear that right?

She blinked, her mouth wide open, "What? Can you repeat that?"

Alexis shrugs, "I said sure. I agree to this bet."

So she wasn't just hearing things, that's good. But seriously!? This guy agreed to this bet so easily?

Wait.

She thought for a moment. No way right? There must be a "but" here.

"But...if I win, you'd immediately marry me and are not allowed to ask for a divorce ever again."

That's....fair? For some reason she was thinking he'd demand more, but oh well, lucky her.

She grinned, and was about to agree when she noticed the calm smile plastered on Alex's face...the words were stuck in her throat.

For as long as she knew him, he knew that this guy wouldn't agree on something unfavorable to him. So there must be a conspiracy here. He agreed way to easily!

Is this a trap? No, it couldn't be. But looking at that smug look, it definitely look like it is!

Damn it! Despite her appearance of a teenage girl, she's a ***-year old diwata! And she can't even see through the thoughts of a child!

To be fair she stayed in the forest most of her life so she didn't really learn much, but still!

"...on second thought, I don't want to bet." She gave up. She doesn't want to risk it and lose it all to this annoying guy.

"Too bad." Alex muttered in a disappointed voice.

Hah! So there really was a scheme behind it! Good thing she figure that out!

"Well, let's get started." Mayumi took a dice on the groun, "You better not disappoint me you stupid spirit, or I swear I'll destroy you."

[You really should break up with this violent woman, sir]

Alex smiled, "Nah, I love her just as she is."

[Men are really idiots in love]

"I guess."

"Oh shut it you two!"