As Never Was

Chapter 5

The first round of the game was....boring. It wasn't to say that Shao Long had played board games too much in his last life that the mere sight of it would make him nauseous. Well, it partially does, but sometimes there could still be a form of excitement whenever one is challenging a particularly famous opponent. Or many of them. Sure yeah, Felix, Leon, Ciel, Albert and Alex had yet to be the famous people they had been, but Gion and Charles were already scary enough around this point of time. And even though this Charles wasn't the Charles who had been the bane of his existence, he was still the asshole that got Shao Long kicked out of kindergarten. 

So yeah, Shao Long should feel somewhat challenged. But they had only played three rounds, and so far nothing interesting happened other than almost all of them striving to buy as many properties as they could with what little beginner's money that they have. It was sort of cute. So plain. So childish and overall had nothing to do with real life business at all.

Or maybe it did, but not the more serious ones Shao Long was so used to engaging with as an adult. No, these business strategies that the princes used were the same strategies that beginner businessmen do. Those amateurs, the novices, the low-expectations ones who self-advertise their products in the most basic of ways.

Shao Long had no problem with the people who did simple business that didn't require high principal or sponsors. He himself had several of them he did for fun. Scratch that, he had dozens.

And yeah, for the princes maybe that was what business meant.

Simply purchasing and selling. Simply having many properties for higher investment returns. Simply gaining money the way they so often see in the streets.

Maybe they would do better speak with one or two of the richest people in the world. Get them to know what it takes to be so successful. Get them to see that there was so much more to simple trading that makes one sit on the throne in the business industry.

But most importantly, it became increasingly clear that these people had no long term plan. At all. Including Gion.

Shao Long remembered glancing at Charles, wondering what the fucker was up to by forcing him to participate as well. When he saw the guy glancing back at him with a (somewhat) knowing look that Shao Long had no idea what for, the urge to flip the board game flared faster than Charles could blink.

It almost looked like— ah, what was he even thinking, because seriously, Charles hardly made any sense since the moment they first met, and he wasn't making any sense now, unless Shao Long was correct in his assumption and, was Charles expecting him to do something?

Like what, was he waiting for him to start doing some dirty moves? Start provoking people?

Maybe he should, just maybe, start making fun of these guys.

There's just this wonderful, satisfying pleasure in provoking children, the same way Shao Long would laugh when kids would trip on pebbles or drop their ice creams or being lost in the mall. It's absolutely delightful. Extremely hilarious. Makes him want to gobble them up. And weren't these princes still children right now? 

"Hah! You've stepped on my property! Pay up, shawty!"

"Now you watch your mouth, you git! The auditorium is not your property!"

It was most definitely not Ciel's property, and it was definitely Shao Long's if the house built on the area were any sort of indication. None of them had been rich or experienced enough to consider building houses yet, except Shao Long. Felix had the money to built thrice the number of houses Shao Long built but all in all he was still in the mindset of collecting money. With little investment.