The Duke's Daughter's Third Life

Chapter 48

The twins glanced at each other before simultaneously asking; "What game?"

Aeliana smiled, casting a simple spell in her hands. A deck of cards rested in her hand as the glow of light disappeared. She shuffled the cards swiftly and equally handed out the cards until the deck was done.

The twins took their stack of cards and shot a puzzled look at her. She grinned and said, "The game we're playing is called Big Two."

"...Big two?" both of them muttered, even more puzzled.

She nodded and began explaining the rules to them, "The way to play is by following the size of the card and number. The smallest to biggest is diamond, club, heart, and spade,"

Aeliana then raised her hand up, casting a spell which showed a clone of the cards she had spoken about.

"The smallest number starts from three until ten before it is the jack, queen, and king."

"Wait, what about these 'A' cards?" Marius questioned, showing a diamond 'A' card.

"Those are bigger than the king card but smaller than the number two cards."

"Why is that?"

"It's the rules."

Aeliana showed another set of cards through her magic before pointing at them as she explained, "The number two cards are the biggest in the entire game. The weakest number two card is the diamond followed by club, heart, and spade which is the strongest. If you have the number two spade card, you are allowed to put any cards you want to start within the next round. To win, you need to finish your cards first."

She turned to them and smiled, "Sounds easy right?"

Upon looking at her brothers' faces, it was the opposite making her laugh before she explained it to them once more. After half an hour, they began playing the game. Aeliana only knew about this game because she had Chinese relatives who visited and taught her the game in her first life around the age of fifteen.

It was a gambling game but she always preferred playing it without any sort of bets or gambling involved. In the first round of the game, she won by a landslide easily finishing off her brothers who were still trying to grasp the game.

In the second round, Aeliana won once again but they were slowly getting the hang of it, and understanding the extra moves they are allowed to do, allowing them to change up their strategies.

Finally, in the third round, Aeliana barely won thanks to her using the number two card she had hidden as her trump card. Marius sighed loudly as he dropped his cards on the table.

"I don't want to play this anymore!"

Darius glanced at his brother before turning to Aeliana, "Could we play one more round? I'm understanding it more now."

Aeliana laughed, her smile never wiping off her face as she spent time with them. Whenever she was with them, a sense of ease always washed over her. She leaned against her arm and replied to Darius; "Playing this game with two people only isn't as fun if there are more people."

Darius nodded and shook Marius by his shoulder, "Play around round."

Marius glared at his twin, "No thanks!"

Darius stared at Aeliana, dejected by Marius but didn't force upon it. Aeliana chuckled at them before deciding to suggest another card game.

"What about another card game?"

Hearing this, Marius' ears perked up, "Another one? What is it?"

Aeliana grabbed back all the cards and shuffled them as she spoke, "It's called Go Fish! You need to collect all four cards of a number or the jack, queen, or king. You need to ask another player if they have a specific card and if they do, they have to give you, and if they don't they will say 'Go Fish' and you must take a card out from the deck. The one who has more sets by the end of the game wins."

Marius excitedly sat upright and rubbed his hands together, "Now this one sounds easy! Let's play!"

Darius smiled and nodded, "Whatever you two play, I'll play too."

Aeliana placed the seven cards in front of them and placed the deck in the middle of the table.

"Let's play rock paper scissors to see who goes first," she suggests which the twins both agree instantly.

After a game of rock paper scissors, Darius was victorious, starting first followed by Aeliana then Marius.

"Marius.." Darius began, trailing off for a mere second before adding on, "Do you have any Queen cards?"

Marius furrowed his brows before picking out a Queen card, showing it to everyone and handing it to Darius.

"How did you know I had one!"

Darius grinned as he took the card, "I guessed."

Aeliana glanced at her cards before speaking, "Brother Marius, do you have any cards of five?"

"..."

Marius showed a number five card and handed it to Aeliana who thanked him for it.

"Stop taking my cards..."

"It's not our fault you have the cards we want."

"Hmph! Aeliana got any King cards?"

"Go fish."

Marius sighed, taking a card from the deck, muttering, "Damn it.."

The game continued until there were no more cards left, with the winner being Darius. Marius tussled his hair around, feeling a sense of unfairness.

"I hate these card games!"

Hearing Marius' words, Darius had a thought. He turned to Aeliana who was snickering at Marius.

"Eli, where did you learn about these card games? I never really heard of it."

Aeliana diverted her eyes away and let out an awkward laugh, "Oh well haha I read a book that talked all about the different types of card games you can play."

Her brothers stared at her straight in the eye before nodding, believing in her reason.

"Makes sense, there are a lot of books in our library."

"Yeah, a lot to count that's for sure."

"A—anyway! Let's play another round!"

Marius made a noise in disagreement but nonetheless played. They played until Flora came looking for them.

"Master Leon and Claud have returned."

"Really?" the three of them synchronously asked, jumping up from their seats and staring at Flora.

She chuckled and nodded, "Yes, they are currently waiting for you inside—"

"Hey!!"

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Author's note: Happy Chinese/Lunar New Year!! This chapter lowkey perfect for the occasion because I have been playing cards with my relatives, hehe blackjack (I suck at it I will never gamble irl fr)

Thank you for staying up until this point in the story! It's almost halfway to 100 chapters which is crayyyzzzz hope you all have a great holiday or weekend to those who don't celebrate lunar/chinese new year!! <3 see you in the next chapter~