When in Trouble, Seek Out Locals

A pair of threes!

A pair of pale little hands raised the last two cards high, then slammed them down onto the table. A crisp child's voice echoed through the room, heavy with the scent of medicine.

"Pass... can't beat that."

Looking at the pair of lowly threes slapped before him, Whirlpool Masahiko's face turned ashen. He lowered his head, and the identical pair of threes in his hand slipped to the floor.

The person seated before him was no longer the middle-aged Goddess Doctor, but a little girl under ten, her face full of childish innocence and mischief.

This was his fourth round of gambling. After consecutively losing to the elderly Goddess Doctor, the middle-aged Goddess Doctor, and the young Goddess Doctor, his ELO mechanism had finally activated, successfully matching him against this child prodigy doctor.

He had thought he could finally shake off his bad luck and win this gamble that concerned his son's life and death. Yet reality was always so cruel. In the end, he had still narrowly lost in a game of Battle the Daimyo.

He had lost.

Lost utterly and completely.

His wife behind him covered her face and wept, while the child in her arms teetered between life and death. Dazed and muddled, he raised his head and asked in an almost pleading voice,

"Do... do you have a daughter?"

"Huh?"

The girl, immersed in the joy of a victory she had never experienced before, froze at such a bizarre question. Her mouth, which had been stretched nearly to her ears, stiffened slightly, and her expression gradually turned strange.

Did she look like someone who had a daughter?

"Sorry, I was presumptuous."

Noticing the strange look from the daughter before him, Whirlpool Masahiko came back to his senses and hurriedly apologized.

"I've caused