novelzi Ch 2.55: Fairness
Ch 2.55: Fairness
Ch 2.55: Fairness
“Okay,” Tira said, leaning up against one of the support beams holding up the workshop roof, “we have our entry fee sorted out thanks to generational wealth, but we still need to figure out what happens once we’re inside. Flora, what do you know?”
“Why don’t you start with what you know? You were supposed to be getting info too, you know,” Flora replied while sitting on one of the sawbenches.
“I really don’t think you should be up there,” Elaina said, glancing over from her sewing machine. “I don’t even know if you’re allowed in here at all. And shouldn’t we wait for Carly?”
“She said she’d be late, might not make it at all,” Flora said as she hopped down and started wandering around the shop. “Medicine’s a really intense course, apparently. Anyway, what do you know, Tira?”
Out the corner of her eye Elaina saw Tira blush and turn away. “I couldn’t find anything out. People wouldn’t talk to me, just thought I was trying to bust them or something...”
“Hmmph!,” Flora said as she hopped up onto one of the anvils a ways away. Elaina sighed, thanking chance that the shop happened to be empty now, and praying that Professor Sylvas wouldn’t come by to check things. “Guess it’s all up to me then.
“Twenty gold entry fee, unlimited entrants. You get a certain number of chips for entry, and pick a table to play at. A table’s game starts when there’s eight players, and then plays until there are only two people with chips left. Those two go on to the second round, and everyone else is eliminated.”
“And what’s the second round?” Tira asked.
“And I’m not gonna be the only one with this idea,” Tira said. “It’s the logical result of the system. If eight people show up, they get two people guaranteed to make it to round two. But you don’t even need to go that far; a team of five can still easily win the table, and make sure the other three entrants at their table don’t have a chance.”
“So we lose automatically if we just show up in twos?” Elaina asked, trying to reconcile how the bizarre system would work. “Isn’t that completely unfair?”
“Yes,” Tira said. “But it’s going to make them a shit ton of money. People as rich as Flora and Carline are going to bankroll groups of friends to make it through to the second round, and the slightly less wealthy and shrewd will throw their money completely away trying to pull off some hero win.”
“Just another one of these fucking things,” Elaina murmured to herself.
“What’s that?” Tira said.
“Elaina!” a voice said as the door from inside flew open, revealing a panting Carly clutching a giant book to her chest. “Good there you are,” she said as she ran over, throwing the book down onto the desk next to the sewing machine.
“Carly, aren’t you supposed to be studying?”
“No time,” the girl said, opening her book and then shoving it under Elaina’s face. “You have to see this.”