Reborn in a Dating Sim: Life as a Mob is hard in an Equestria Girl’s Dating Game!

Reborn in a Dating Sim:

Life as a Mob is hard in an Equestria Girl’s Dating Game!

Chapter Thirty-nine

Copper watched as a few stragglers left their café. He hadn’t expected there to be much in the way of customers, but the rumor spread that high priestess Luna had came and visited him. That had brought in a few curious individuals. Of course he did what was expected of him and provided them with tea and biscuits. The last of which was actually Sweetie Belle. She had come back every day they were allowed to run the café.

Succi Bargain, daughter of Baron Dark Bargain, hadn’t been allowed to come back every day, but she had come back once more to visit with Pip. For Copper it was a win. His friends had a couple of girls that liked them, and they wouldn’t be spouting nonsense about him getting ahead of them in dating. The thing was that they had no idea of where things had actually progressed for him. He wasn’t one to brag, so he didn’t go around telling everyone, but he was already intimate with someone.

He looked to see Artemis cleaning the last of the tables that they would be removing today. Beside her Sunset Shimmer was quietly sweeping up the floor. Applebloom had set to cleaning the walls, and Diamond Tiara was helping with gathering the dirty dishes. All of them worked effortlessly among one another. He was amazed to see how well they interacted with one another. In truth their interactions were that of equals. Not a one of them treated the others as anything other than equals. He finished up his part as well. I would mean a few more dirty dishes, but it would be well worth it.

All of them were poured a cup, and they took a moment to enjoy the pleasure of a finely crafted tea. Once that was done he served them all the remaining supply of biscuits that he had. To his surprise all of them were ravenous when it came to the biscuits. The sweet pastries were delightful. He’d picked them out specifically from a shop that was considered one of the guilty pleasures for the higher noble girls. Most of which went after the specific ones that he’d bought.

He’d had no problem selling them to anyone that came, but at the same time he didn’t go out of his way to advertise that he had those specific ones there. He wanted them to find out on their own. Still, once it was all said and done he felt that they’d done well enough. Especially since he’d overheard the massive chewing out that had happened next door. He hadn’t expected King Consort Baked Bean to be the kind of dad that would correct his son in front of his friends.

But then again he had to act the part. He was the King Consort. That meant that he had to set examples, and since Prince Apollo was part of the royal family he wanted him to remember that he was meant to present himself as such all of the time. His actions, inactions, and keeping of his word had to be at the forefront of his mind. He couldn’t simply let this go. He couldn’t put it off.

Still, the days of the café were done, and that meant that his plan to more than put them in the back was next. One of the huge draws for the festival was the large scale race that happened. Specifically it was a speeder race. The speeders were hover cars, and the ones being raced were designed to be single passenger cars. They could maneuver pretty much anywhere, and calling them hover cars was a little disingenuous.

They were fully capable of flight, and they were able to move in and out of the way fairly quickly. The races themselves could be dangerous, and there was almost always a hint of danger when it came to them. The simple truth was that it was a chance to see skill in action. The other side of it was that betting was allowed, and that was exactly how he planned on getting them well into the black. He’d done his work, and he knew that Posh Proppers would be racing today.

He was skilled, but he also was a freshman. It meant that there would be sizable odds against him. Still, he knew enough about the idiot to know that his skills weren’t just for show. They were the real deal, and he planned on using that to rake in the cash needed. Sure, it was a little scumbag like, but it wouldn’t be the first time that he’d done something like that. Besides, with all of the trouble that Posh Proppers and his friends had caused Diamond Tiara he felt that it was well deserved.

Maybe he was wrong on that front, and there was certainly a good chance that he was, but he’d like to think that it wasn’t the case. Regardless, he was ready to do what was needed. Besides, it wasn’t like he was forcing people to bet. He was partaking of the act, and he was planning on using it to make a decent mint off of it. His thoughts slowly changed as he finished the last of the dishes that he dirtied for his friends, and then he carried the tea set back to his dorm.

Both Button and Pip had taken the tables out. The empty classroom was simply just a classroom again. He looked at the timeline of the festival itself. The rest of today was meant to be going to the various boardwalk style arcade games, socializing, and just trying to have fun. Personally, he wasn’t so sure he really wanted to hit any of the would be entertainment. Not that he wasn’t really up to it, but rather it felt a little disingenuous. He heard the sound of footsteps and saw Artemis.

“My Captain,” she purred as she neared him, “I was told that the rest of today is meant to be used as something of a chance to socialize, to walk among your peers, and of course to potentially be treated as a date with the opposite sex,” she said, her voice close to his own ear, “How much fun would it be to simply go and act like a normal couple? We could walk together, see the games of skill, and just be in the moment.”

He looked at her, trying to figure out how he wanted to put it into words. He wouldn’t mind doing that with her, but if he was honest there were complications that would arise out of it. By this point most people believed that he was indeed sleeping with Artemis. Of course now they would be right, but it meant that they believed he took her contract the same way that several of the young noble women took their demi-human contracts. It was a means to an end. A way to get the satisfaction that one so desperately needed without any questions or concerns.

The thing was he never intended to use Artemis like that. Mostly because he knew that he was far too much of a romantic to do so. Which was why he wasn’t finding the words to explain why it would be best if they stayed in. He couldn’t bring himself to disappoint her. The lines between her being an A.I. and her being a person had long since blurred. She was just as real as anyone else to him at this point.

“Sure,” he said as he walked toward her. He held out his hand, “So, games of skill first?”

She nodded, “There is something that requires arching a ball just perfectly in order to score points. I believe it is called skeeball. I have no doubt that I can get the most advanced score they’ve ever seen in their lives. It would be humorous to see the expression of the one working the games when I defeat it.”

“Artemis, you really don’t beat skeeball, you just play it, but I imagine that there’s tickets available if you win, and if that’s the case then we might get a prize,” he replied as they walked, “actually, now that I think about it I almost forgot, we do need to play! Crap! I can’t believe I almost forgot!”

She studied him as he began to walk with determination, “Crap, I really can’t believe that I completely forgot about this! It was a stupid minigame, a horrible one, where you had to play a skill game and get a special prize. That prize opened up the next section of the quest, and I almost completely blew it!”

Together they made their way, heading toward the games, and he saw the lines of games on either side. Ring toss, skeeball, a firing range, quickdraw, and a few other games lined the sides. He walked straight to the skeeball. The reasons were for the prize, but also because Artemis had wanted to play. He looked at the attendant who was looking at anywhere other than at him. He cleared his throat, and finally the attendant looked toward him, “Viscount Bit,” he said, his words even and direct, “How delightful that you’ve decided to grace the games of chance. Would you care to play? Two gold coins per play, eight balls per turn.”

He nodded, and handed over six coins. The attendant rolled his eyes, pressed a pedal and a small wooden door opened on the track for the game. Eight wooden balls rolled down, and he couldn’t help but take a moment to look at them. Each ball was polished, the wood looked as if it was more than just pressed together. The balls themselves were works of art. The fine details in each ball actually reflected a piece of the history of the kingdom.

“You going to play or are you going to stare at balls,” the attendant asked, “I mean if you want to look at them, fine, but I’d like for you to take your turns and then clear up some room for the other players.”

He glanced at the attendant, and then he picked up a ball. Artemis had talked about destroying this game, but he could remember in his previous life how he played skeeball. He held the ball for a moment, looked at the small goals, and quickly ran the ball up the ramp to land in the one hundred thousand point goal. The attendant stood there for a moment, “Wait, that’s got to be just pure luck, there’s no way you can do that again.”

He took the next ball, and did it to the other side. The feeling of playing came back to him with a vengeance. He remembered how it felt, and the muscle memory from his previous life allowed him to play as if he had never taken a break from it. He went for the ten thousand goals next, then he went for the twenty thousand goals. Finally he got the fifty thousand goals and lastly he nailed the final two one thousand goals. He looked at Artemis, “your turn.”

She smiled, the attendant shook his head, counted up the points, and turned the dials to show the current high score. Copper watched as Artemis went for the same two hundred thousand point goals. But instead of going down from there she got another two balls in the goals. She seemed to study the board for a moment, and then she went for the fifty thousand goals. She did the same there, and he had to admit defeat. She had bested him.

He smiled, laughed a little, handed two more gold coins, and then he proceeded to play. This was a reminder that Artemis, despite how she looked and felt, was synthetic. She was a machine disguised as a living being. It didn’t make him care any less for her, but it did prove that while he could potentially have off days she wouldn’t. His next game was still decent, above what he’d scored before, but one of the balls had teetered on the edge of a fifty thousand point and finally fell. When it did it landed a mere hundred point goal.

Artemis stepped back up to the game, and he watched as she placed the balls in the same goals as she had a few moments ago. There was no getting around it, she was certainly better at skeeball than he was. The attendant, stunned at their play, tallied up what they should have for tickets. He cleared his throat, and basically handed an entire roll of tickets over to them, “Viscount Bit, congratulations,” he said, his voice sounding a little uncertain, “I mean this is the first time I’ve ever seen anyone do this well at this game. Those tickets are good at any skill game stand for a prize. If you want to cash them in here you may.”

He saw the item he was looking for. It looked like a small red and white ball, and there was a small button on the top. The ball itself contained a prize, but he remembered that certain conditions had to be met before it was opened. Otherwise the prize would be some small plastic toy. If the condition was met perfectly then when it was opened there was a collection of charms inside of it.

Each of the charms had a specific thing they assisted with. One helped those with ties to fire magic, another helped with healing magic, there was one that boosted barrier magic, and then there was the one that he was concerned with. The battle charm. It allowed the owner of the charm to have better attacks when engaged in battle. It didn’t matter if it was in a labyrinth raid or on the battlefield, the charm helped with the attacks.

He’d been on a few raids for classes since, and they’d done well. The problem was that if he wanted Applebloom to take her place as the protagonist he needed to go deep into the labyrinth in the capital. It meant facing things that were stronger than the crystal scorpions, and honestly he wasn’t too enthused about the prospect of doing that without having the charm. Sure, he believed that they stood a good chance, but there was a very real possibility that they could perish.

He didn’t want to lead Artemis, Applebloom, Sunset, or Diamond into a situation where they had less of a chance of getting out then they did of surviving. There were no guarantees when it came to the labyrinths themselves, and he knew that. There was always a chance that a person could die. It was the simple truth of the universe. He understood that there would always be a chance that any of them could pass from pretty much anything.

It didn’t mean that he wanted it to happen. Since so much of this world had been like the game he had to believe that the charms were the same way. He breathed out, “The prizeball,” he said as he looked at it, “We’ll take that for starters.”

The attendant looked at him, shrugged, and grabbed the ball from its perch. He noticed that it looked like a thin layer of dust was covering it. Evidence that it had been used for multiple festivals and never had been chosen. Most likely those that had the chance had passed it up for the guaranteed prizes. Not that he completely blamed them. He felt the ball, and he tried to remember the exact conditions. The winner of the ball had to be standing with a love interest, and they had to score incredibly high on the skill game. The next was that the atmosphere had to be fairly romantic.

He was standing with Artemis, and honestly it wasn’t a bad atmosphere. In truth he was certain that this was something she would consider to be romantic. She had proven herself, and she had been able to play a game with him. He then touched the four spaces on the ball that were a little different from the simple lock. That was the other part. Going after just the lock itself would result in a lesser prize.

He felt something inside of the ball shake slightly, and then he pressed the lock itself. It clicked, the ball opened, and he looked to see a small collection of charms. There were five of them in total. He felt a wave of relief surrounding him as he looked at them. He then looked at the attendant who stood completely surprised, “Wait, those were in that thing?” he asked as he stood there, “I thought that it was some cheap little prize. Oh well, congratulations Viscount Bit.”

Copper nodded, “Thanks, and that leaves us with about half of our tickets, right?”

The attendant nodded, and he looked at the other prizes. There were all kinds of them there, but the things he noticed that came to his mind were the rings. In the game the rings were something that added a minor protection to those wearing them, but it was also a way of displaying one’s intention. He looked at Artemis to see that she was eyeing the rings as well, “We’ll take all five of the rings.”

The attendant, who seemed a little put out, gathered the rings, and then then passed them to him, “Congratulations, I mean it, and I hope that they, and the charms, serve you well.”

He grinned, and he looked at Artemis. The rings had different color stones in them, and he selected one that had a nice sapphire in it. He then handed it to Artemis, “I wanted to give you this, and I felt that it was right,” he said as he looked at her, “I mean you more than deserve it.”

She looked at him, excitement covering her face, and then without warning she wrapped him into a tight hug. It was one that he returned happily.