Chapter 56 – Poker Game (Part 2)
Resonance 7, Part 6
Novel Title: 共鳴劣情 オメガバース (Resonance Lust: Omegaverse)
Author：岩本薫 (Iwamoto Kaoru)
Illustrator: 蓮川愛 (Hasukawa Ai)
Translator: K (@kin0monogatari)
Protagonists: 本浄天音 (Honjou Amane) & 苅谷煌騎 (Kariya Kouki) / 首藤煌騎 (Shutou Kouki)
*Please read at knoxt.space, the original site of translation. TQ*
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Stepping on the accelerator, Kouki drove the two-seater up the slope leading to the surface. Once he hit the street, he headed straight for Amane’s residence without hesitation.
Assuming Amane was meeting with Kourogi right now, if he didn’t know where, he wouldn’t be able to go to the location.
He had heard Kourogi’s business email address from his older brother Keiki, so in between paperwork with Seo, he sent an email from the D-East Station address, saying, “I’d like to talk to you about the late Aya, so please contact me,” along with his personal cell number and email address. He had also tried calling the main line of ‘Chance Promotions’. But it was after business hours. So the call didn’t go through.
The earliest Kourogi would check his business email would be tomorrow morning when he arrives at the office. That would be too late.
Just in case, he also checked the police database. But there were no hits under Kourogi’s name. However, that didn’t necessarily mean he was innocent. It only meant there was no public criminal record. In this world, Alphas with top-notch lawyers rarely face prosecution unless it’s something truly serious.
Another option was to check the company’s registration documents for the address of the CEO, but the registry office wouldn’t open until morning either.
Having exhausted all options available at the moment, the trail leading to Kourogi had gone cold.
The only place that might provide a clue was Amane’s home.
With that in mind, Kouki headed to Amane’s apartment in Downtown. When he arrived, the windows of the building were all dark, and knocking on Amane’s door elicited no response.
After confirming the door was locked, Kouki reached into his jacket’s inner pocket and pulled out a folding army knife. He extended the multi-hook tool, which had a blade shaped like a sword, and inserted it into the keyhole.
Relying solely on the feel of his fingers, he carefully probed the inside, making slight movements until he felt a satisfying click.
“…It opened.”
Inspired by watching Amane’s lockpicking technique up close, Kouki had bought an army knife and practised on his own. It had finally come in handy in this situation.
Kouki turned the doorknob and opened the door. “…Pardon my intrusion,” he muttered as he stepped into the dark room. He flipped the switch on the wall, but there was no sign of Amane in the now-lit apartment.
He knew Amane would be furious if he found out Kouki had broken in and searched the place while he was away. But there was no time for hesitation.
He began looking for clues in the most obvious spots—the café table, the dining table, the stainless steel shelves, the kitchen—but found nothing. Then again, he wasn’t even sure what he was looking for, so it was no surprise that his vague search yielded no results.
“Think…”
Furrowing his brow in concentration, Kouki suddenly recalled something Amane had said last night.
―――I’m the one who got Kourogi’s contact information.
“Contact information… a business card!”
He blurted it out in realisation.
If it was a business card, Amane must have received it at the party. Last night, when they parted ways, Amane had been wearing just a shirt and pants. If the business card was somewhere, it had to be in one of those.
Kouki started tearing through every drawer in the room, overturning everything in his search for the shirt and pants.
Amane had said he would send them to the cleaners. But there hadn’t been enough time between last night and this morning to do that. Besides, he wasn’t the type to be that meticulous. The business card must still be here.
Kouki’s search came to a halt in front of the iron ladder in the living room. The first time he had come here, Amane had mentioned that the loft, accessible by the ladder, was his sleeping area.
“The bed…”
The moment he muttered this to himself, Kouki leaped onto the iron ladder and scrambled up to the loft. Peeking into the space, he saw the rumpled sheets, a blanket, and a pillow. And there—
“There it is!”
Grabbing the crumpled shirt and bottoms that were bundled up in the corner, he hurried down the ladder. As soon as his feet hit the floor, he searched the chest pocket of the shirt.
“…It’s not here.”
Suppressing the growing anxiety creeping up his back, he quickly thrust his hand into the bottom’s pocket. His fingers brushed against something. Pulling it out of the pocket, his two fingers gripped a crumpled business card.
***
“Full house.”
Amane declared, laying out five cards on the low table. Seeing the sequence of ‘10’, ‘J’, ‘Q’, ‘K’, and ‘A’ lined up. The blond-haired guy groaned in dismay.
“What the hell is that nasty hand!”
“I thought I’d win for sure this time…”
The long-haired man furrowed his brows as he looked at his hand with a flush of diamonds. Losing with such a high card seemed to have drained his motivation. So he said, “I’m out.”
“Man, I’m done. I give up.”
Kourogi raised both hands in a gesture of surrender and asked, “Amane-kun, are you perhaps a pro gambler?”
“It’s not anything that impressive. But I’ve liked poker for a long time and played it quite a bit.”
Back in his childhood, living in a brothel, he was sometimes allowed to join a group of his mother’s colleagues who killed time playing card games during their free time. They didn’t bet money. But the winner would receive candy, which naturally made him stronger at the game. Poker was a game where aggression and observation at the right moment were key, so it suited his personality.
―――Yes. If we win, you’ll follow our orders. If you win, this wallet is yours.
Thirty minutes had passed since they began a poker game, betting the rights to give Amane orders and the black-glasses guy’s wallet. The man with the cornrow hair had returned to his post at the reception, leaving only five people in the room.
A mountain of chips had piled up in front of Amane. It seemed tonight was his lucky night. The odds of getting high cards right from the opening hand were high. He didn’t feel like he could lose.
“This sucks. I think I’m gonna quit too.”
The blond-haired guy, sulking, started fiddling with his phone.
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*Translator’s Note: These guys are like those trashy scum Alpha semes from other stories ahahahaha -K
Next update: 2025.02.26
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