102: Playing Jenga Between Cities

On the second day after leaving the city of Kicca, we stopped at a forest lake to rest our horses. In the distance, large pale green mountain line up as if they want to surround us. When I look closer, I feel like the green color varies somewhat depending on the distance and tree cover. Yellow-green for trees that have new leaves, brown for trees that have dead leaves, and green for leaves in the main growing phase. It’s cheery to see the different colors.

It’s beautiful to see the brightly colored flowers and nuts growing in and on the trees to give further coloration to the green mountains. It’s interesting that the color of the same mountain varies based on what is growing in each area. When I listen carefully, I can hear birds chirping away. I can enjoy nature visually and audibly.

What wonderful nature.

By the way, it would be nice to lie down on the grass and take a nap, but then I would have problems getting to sleep tonight. Earlier this morning, I fell back asleep twice from the pleasant sunshine. If I took another nap, I wouldn’t be able to get to sleep at a normal time tonight. I don’t want to wreck my sleep schedule for just a nap. Moderate napping is fine, but excessive napping is verboten. Must nap in moderation.

The water is still too cold for me to get in the lake and play. So I’m making something new while sitting on the grass in the sun.

“Mr. Alfred, what are you doing?” Irving asks with a backet in his hand.

His basket contains many wild plants and mushroom. Adventurers and caravans supplement their supplies with nature’s blessing like this.

“I’m making a game called Jenga” Al

“Jenga?” Irving

I’m making rectangular prisms with Earth Magic and stacking them into a tower shape. Yes, it’s a version of the famous table game from Earth. I make eighteen layers of three blocks each, each layer rotates 90° from the previous layer. I tried it since I thought it would be easy to make if I can make the pieces using Earth Magic.

“Is this a game about stacking those pieces?” Irving

Irving sits down and picks up one of the rectangular pieces.

“Not really, that would be just building blocks. Well, I guess you could play it that way too.” Al

“Then how do you play?” Irving

“I’m still preparing the pieces, so give me a few minutes.” Al

“Oh!” Irving

It took a little while to finish stacking the rectangular pieces while Irving watches me. Finally, the eighteen level tower has been completed.

“Oh, you’ve piled them up neatly! So what do you do now?” Irving

“So, I’ll pull out one of the stacked pieces and stack it on top. Each player does that in turn, trying not to knock over the tower.” Al

I should demonstrate, even though it’s not a complex ruleset. I’ll pull a piece and stack it up.

“Oh, I see! That’s pretty easy to understand. So I’ll take my turn now.” Irving

Irving reaches out with a laugh, but I slapped away his hand.

“What are you doing? Isn’t it my turn?” Irving

“You can’t pull from a layer that doesn’t have a complete layer on top of it.” Al

There wouldn’t be any danger if you’re pulling from too high. Don’t you want to play a game?

“I see, that sounds good.” Irving

Between Reversi and Jenga, they’re both interesting in how they have such simple rules but are so fun. Their original creators must be geniuses. After all, their popularity is that anyone can pick it up and play.

“Then, I’ll take my turn.” Irving

He leans forward and reaches for the bottom layer. This guy is full of amateur ideas.

“Oh, that was close. I’ll stack this on top.” Irving

Irving tries to put the piece on top casually as if he didn’t almost knock it over on his first move. Well, it’s his first move, it’s not that unbelievable it didn’t collapse.

“By the way, if it falls right after you stack your piece on the top, you’re still out.” Irving

“Say that earlier!” Irving shouts as he pulls back his hand.

Jenga is a game that rewards those who can understand the center of gravity, so placement is quite important. In this game, the center of gravity has been tilted to the right, so it will collapse if you start the new layer on the right side. Well, it shouldn’t matter since it’s the first move. Irving places the piece more carefully.

“Hmm, well, this is easy” Irving

A while later…

“Ah?! Ah, ah, no, no, no, NO!” Irving

Irving has knocked over the tower for the second time now. His tragic screams echo over the idyllic lake scenery.

“Yes, Irving loses” Al

“Let’s go again! Play another game! Why does it collapse like that? Can’t it hang on a little more?” Irving yells as he slams the ground in anger.

It’s unpleasant to react to those questions, I’m not sure if I should scratch my head or get angry.

“The tower is an inanimate object” Al

“Let’s go! Once more!” Irving says as he gets out of his angry position.

“Yes, yes, I get it. Let’s collect the blocks and set it up.” Al

“Oh!” Irving

We collect the pieces, I walk to get the pieces that got flung away because of Irving’s anger.

Now that I think about it, why am I collecting the pieces? Isn’t that usually a task for the loser?

“Hmm? What’s wrong?” Irving asks me when he realizes I have stopped picking up the pieces.

“What’s the matter? Shouldn’t the loser have to reset the tower? Hmm? Doesn’t it make sense that the person who knocks over the tower builds the next one? Hop to it!” Al

“Augh! Did you have to go there? Next round, I’ll get to say that line! I’ll make you crawl around in shame to pick them up!” Irving spits out in anger.

I definitely don’t want to lose now, since it’s going to be a terrible situation. Well, even if I lose, I can collect them with Psychic magic and quickly assemble the tower. Even so, I don’t want to lose to Irving.

Irving quickly collects the blocks to make the layers.

“Oh, here’s some blocks. See, I’ll help you.” Al

“Oh?! Well, I just knocked over the layers I had! Is it fun to watch someone lose the things they piled up?!” Irving

“Really? Can’t you handle two things at once?” Al

“Hey, I’m just trying to have fun” Irving

“I didn’t say anything about that” Al

“If I win, I’ll throw the pieces far away when the tower falls over!” Irving

Irving continues grumbling for a while as he rebuilds the tower.

“You two have been noisy for a while, what are you doing?” Alisha

Alisha and Ilya walk over holding baskets like Irving. Ilya looks ridiculous, since she’s got her basket up against her chest, pushing certain things out. Did she place some large melons on the side of her basket? Can you even harvest melons in this forest?

“Jenga, Jenga” Irving mutters as he’s building the tower.

“Jenga? What’s that?” Alisha

I then explain the game to the two women.

“That sounds interesting! Let’s play it! I was bored of looking at the scenery a while ago.” Alisha

Seems the pitch worked well.

“Yeah! Can we both play?” Ilya

“Definitely, this is a game four people can play” Al

After I accepted Ilya’s question, the two smiled and sat around the game platform.

“Hey! Sit down slowly! The tower can collapse from the shock.” Irving

“Excuse us! We’re not that heavy!” Alisha

After that the tower collapsed because Alisha hit Irving’s head, but it was quickly built back.

“Is this made using soil? Did Alfred make them?” Alisha

“Yeah, that’s right. It was easy since I just needed to make a rectangular prism with Earth Magic.” Al

Using my previous life’s knowledge, I needed to keep the density consistent across the blocks. If I mix the soil well before forming the blocks, it’s pretty simple to do. However, I’m not sure I did it perfectly this time, I’ll have to experiment some in the future.

“It’s a beautiful rectangular prism, plus there’s very little variation across the pieces. I know you can use magic for this purpose, but you must have considerable magic control to get the sizes so consistent.” Alisha

“Yeah, I couldn’t reproduce that precision.” Ilya

Huh, is it really like that? I don’t really know how my skills compare since there aren’t really any other magician children around me.

“Well, are you ready to play?” Irving

As Irving prods to get started, Alisha places the final piece on the top layer.

“So, the order will be me, Alisha, Ilya, then Alfred.” Irving

“Got it!” Alisha

“Yes!” Ilya

So we’re going clockwise, that’s easy to understand. Does Irving think I’ll have a harder start because I’m the fourth to play? Looking at Irving, he seems to be grinning. How annoying. Did he jump in so he could define the play order? What am I supposed to do now? Let’s forgive him for now.

“That’s one!” Irving

Irving starts, he’s already got a familiar movement on his third game.

“Next is my turn” Alisha

Alisha leans closer excitedly.

“Can I take this one?” Alisha

Alisha’s thin fingers pop a piece out.

“So now I put it on top, next is Ilya.” Alisha

“Huh!” Ilya

Alisha takes her turn without difficulty and urges on Ilya.

As Ilya leans forward, a minor tragedy happens. Her ripe fruits lean forward along with her and collide with the tower.

“Aah!” Ilya

The tower immediately collapses due to the overwhelming force imparted by the chest. The tower collapses as the melons slightly deform.

“Oh, no, no, no, no!” Alisha & Ilya

“Yeah, yeah, yeah!” Irving & Al

The tower collapses and the pieces scatter around.

“Ah! I’m sorry! I accidentally bumped into it.” Ilya says as she bows apologetically.

“What’s with this chest? I won when the tower fell, but I still feel defeated! I leaned forward… I leaned forward tooooo” Alisha

I thought Alisha was standing up in anger, but she’s despondent. With Alisha’s humble assets, I can’t see her tipping over the tower.

“Yeah? I lost because I knocked it over? I just wasn’t paying enough attention this time.” Ilya

Sometimes people who have assets say things that were accidentally cruel.

“I don’t have to pay attention!” Alisha

Alisha is despairing over her chest, she shouts and leans on Ilya. Magicians need to pay attention in order to use magic, right? Well, if Alisha wants to make the same mistake, she’ll need a lot of padding or to get much, much closer.

“Hey, Alisha! Stop! Don’t hit your chest! That has to hurt!” Ilya

“This is it! This is a bad chest!” Alisha

Alisha is acting odd by hitting her chest, please take note that a child is around and stop it.

“It is possible to build it back and wait for those two to stop that?” Irving

“Yeah” Al

We re-assembled the tower and started another game. Then the carriage was ready to depart before the tower collapsed again.

You should only play Jenga before bedtime or when there’s enough time for a full game.

Translation

Good Job!

Do Better!

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