/
“There are letters of the Imperial language on it.”
“Yes, this is what I use when I teach the twins the Imperial language. It’s a game called ‘ScrabellÂč’.”
Now feeling a little more at ease, Sera hid her hands under the desk as she spoke.
Scrabell. It’s a good name, if she said so herself. It was definitely going to be a familiar sounding name for many, but naturally, it was a game that was similar to ‘Scr*bble’, which was a board game from her previous life.
Originally, Scr*bble was a board game that Sera used a lot when teaching language classes in her previous life.
In order to reduce the burden of learning on the students, many schools in the first and second grades in elementary school didn’t have tests, and in the process, the teaching methods were replaced by things like these.
As a game where words are made by combining consonants and vowels, it was like hitting two birds with one stone because the students can have fun while studying at the same time.
‘The letters in the Imperial language that serve as consonants and vowels are different, so I slightly changed the rules of Scr*bble.’
“How do you study Imperial language with this?”
Helios couldn’t take his eyes off this item that he had never seen before. Although she showed him the teaching aides she would use for classes every week, this was the first time Helios saw something like it.
“It’s played like this.”
Instead of explaining, Sera proceeded to divide the wooden tiles exactly by half. One was pushed towards Helios and Rosé, and the other half was in front of Sera and Ferre.
“Since Your Highnesses know how to play it, shall we teach His Majesty?”
“Okay! I’ll teach you, Hyung!”
“Yeah!”
I can’t believe I’ll teach Hyung! RosĂ© and Ferre were instantly excited after hearing Sera’s suggestion.
“First word. Adelio.”
As soon as Sera finished speaking, Rosé and Ferre pulled some tiles in front of them, then after combining several tiles together this way and that way, Rosé shouted first after about ten seconds.
“Done!”
It was the perfect spelling of ‘A.d.e.l.i.o’ without missing a single letter.
“It has many letters, but you spelled it perfectly, Your Highness RosĂ©. Correct! The current score is 1:0.”
The disappointed Ferre’s shoulders drooped.
“Aha, so this is how you teach.”
Helios laughed pleasantly as he watched his lively siblings with Sera. How energetic this woman was. She was so different from just a while ago when she pinned the flower on him.
With a light smile, Helios asked her.
“How did you come up with this idea?”
“Um
 It may have come to mind while I was thinking about how to teach children.”
Sera had a meaningful smile on her lips.
And at that time, Ferre made a new proposal.
“Heli Hyung and Sera, too! Let’s play together!”
At the sudden suggestion, Sera looked between Rosé and Ferre.
Rosé thought the same thing as Ferre, and so her eyes were sparkling brightly. She was already excited about being able to play together with Helios.
“Ah
 That’s a bit
”
Looking troubled, Sera hesitated because she didn’t know how to answer them. Playing games with the children was fine, but their requests were getting more and more difficult. First, it was coming close to the Emperor to put on the carnation. Now, they wanted her to play a game with him?
Of course, her heart always went out to Rosé and Ferre, but the moment she was going to say to the twins that their request was difficult to grant this time, the Emperor intervened.
“Why not? Sera, is it time for you to go? Can’t you stay with us a little longer?”
“Yeah, you can have more fun with us, so can’t you stay? It’s not time for you to leave yet, right?”
RosĂ© pulled on Sera’s arm, and at the same time, Ferre stretched her other arm while tugging her skirt.
“It’s
 It’s not time to go yet, but
”
Whether or not she’d say that there’s a difference in their status for it to happen, the twins didn’t know how huge the barrier was between their social standings. Sera was only favored by children who didn’t know how the adult world worked.
With a troubled expression, Sera turned to Helios for help. Considering that she was a countryside noble who was just a tutor, her work was limited to just work for the Imperial family. And since her status was a lot lower than theirs, it wasn’t like she could refute them.
However, the words that slipped through Helios’ lips were even more surprising. He led the twins towards the direction that he didn’t think possible in the first place.
“RosĂ©, Ferre. Do you want me to play a game with Miss Popo?”
“Yeah, Heli Oppa!”
“Yeah that’s it, Heli Hyung!”
The twins answered in bright voices. Immediately, now with the conviction that Helios was ‘on their side’, the sparkling gem-like eyes headed towards her.
“Sera, let’s do it together.”
“I wanna play with Sera and Hyung together!”
It was a new sense of pressure.
“I also want to play together with Miss Popo.”
Helios slowly held out a small wooden tile towards Sera, meaning that he was allowing this.
Sera wondered if she was really allowed to do this, but eventually, she accepted the wooden tile that he handed to her.
* * *
This was how the players were divided:
Ferre and Sera, then Rosé and Helios.
Since it became a team match, the rules also changed. The sequence goes around twice, and each turn, a word will be spelt but the given word will be called alternately by each team.
When it’s Ferre and RosĂ© who’ll spell from each team, it’s either Sera or Helios who would call the word to be spelt. Then when it’s Sera and Helios’ turn, either RosĂ© or Ferre would call the word.
They were simple rules.
“Did everyone understand?”
Sera asked, and Rosé, Ferre and Helios all nodded.
“Then let’s get started!”
Sera took the tiles that were divided and gathered them in the middle. The first game was Rosé’s and Ferre’s, and the first word was Sera’s to call.
As she looked towards the children, she felt their nervousness. In turn, Sera had a serious expression.
“Alright. I’ll say the word just once, so please listen carefully.”
Gulp.
At Sera’s announcement, RosĂ© and Ferre both gulped, then they nodded.
Âč The board game mentioned here is actually ‘Raon’ and Sera renamed it as ‘Onra’. It’s very similar to scrabble, except that the letters on the small wooden tiles are Hangul characters. (sidenote: ‘Raon’ here had been censored, so I put an asterisk over the ‘a’ in scrabble)