Huh?

Sora knows that Stephanie can't play in this tournament. That's the whole reason they sought her out– no, she doesn't know that, she just assumed it was the case.

Did she mention it while they were still at the Railbird's Perch? Yes, to the reporters, and Shiro was in the crowd but she doesn't remember Sora being there…

The thing that ultimately matters here is what she decided to wager against Zell, namely her right to participate in the tournament. Stephanie did not wager her right to register for the tournament, so there's nothing stopping her from registering and simply not participating. Sora either doesn't know this and has an ulterior motive, or he does and he has an ulterior ulterior motive. Maybe he's planning to cheat somehow.

Either way, she's holding up the line.

"Good idea," she says wryly.

Princess Stephanie ought to have collected her starting stack in the morning, when the line was shorter. She lives in the castle, there was nothing stopping her. He is much too professional to comment on this.

The castellan adds her name to the list, verifies under oath that this is the first time she's tried to register, and passes her an equally large sack of poker chips.

And they'll be on their way!

The next stop is the ambassador suite. Stephanie leads them further into the bowels of the castle, through dim passageways and up spiral staircases, until they reach a spacious corridor on the third floor lined with iron-banded wooden doors. Their destination is the penultimate room, which is again labelled by carvings in the adjacent stone in a language than neither Sora nor Shiro can read.

The room is palatial and richly appointed. A four-poster bed with indigo sheets dominates the space, along with a night table and a writing desk. Light streams in from the far side, which opens on to a separate solarium overlooking the city; for evenings and nights there are candelabras situated in appropriate spots. In the middle of the room are a coffee table and two chairs, next to a bricked-up fireplace.

BED.

Shiro flops directly onto the mattress and checks out.

"This is where the ambassador from Rapture would stay, back when we were on cordial terms with the ocean-dwellers. They haven't maintained a relationship with Elkia since before my grandfather's time. I host guests here instead."

"You said sirens couldn't walk. How did they get here, or do anything once they arrived?"

"It was a succubus. There's only one kingdom beneath the waves. We have a giant fishbowl too, just in case. I'll have the maids bring it out, if you fancy having a private pool."

"Tempting, but we'll pass." For now.

Sora sits down on a chair and runs his hands through his hair. There are a lot of quests in the log to get through, a lot of lore to ingest, and a lot of battles to win. They have to win the tournament first, so he's going to worry exclusively about that for the time being. He ends up staring at a hanging tapestry depicting a mermaid and a man in shallow water shaking hands beneath Disboard's strange green moon, running through everything he knows about Texas hold 'em in his head.

Stephanie sits down as well.

This is an excellent time to resume her meditations, although knowing what Sora wants her to do takes precedence. She decides on waiting silently for a bit before saying anything.

Mostly he appreciates the chance to sit down himself. He's had a rough go of it over the past few days.

"Why did you want me to register?" she asks eventually. "I lost my right to play in the tournament."

Sora grunts softly. "I wouldn't have you playing poker with us even if you could. You would lose."

Insinuating negative things about someone's skill at games is a mortal insult of the highest caliber. Where does he get off, talking to her like that?

Legends of Summoned Heroes are replete with cultural misunderstandings. He clearly doesn't mean anything by it, other than the factual truth of the matter.

You will defend your honor, Princess Stephanie!

"I think you'll find that I can hold my own, if need be," she says primly.

"Tell me how to play poker," Sora says abruptly, turning to face her. "Tell me, when you're sitting at the table, what decisions you make and why. Tell me what you think about when you play games."

What a reasonable question, provided that Sora is missing the subtext instead of ignoring it in order to needle her. Nevertheless:

"In hold 'em you're dealt two hole cards. Good hole cards are pairs, two consecutive cards of the same suit, any two high cards – higher than ten, maybe including ace-nine… If you have bad hole cards, you fold. If you have good hole cards, you bet. If you're playing with a pair or an ace-high, you want the board to come in with sets, and if you're playing with suited connectors you want keep betting if you think you'll get something – two pair, a straight, a flush – and other people are betting too, you want to think about how many chips you have left and whether you can afford to gamble on getting the cards you need to win the hand…"

Sora continues to stare at her as she trails off.

What? What does he want???

He breathes deeply. "Poker is a game of reading your opponent, just like Rock Paper Scissors. Except that's not where you're supposed to start, you're supposed to start at the beginning. I don't know if — do we have a deck of cards around here somewhere?"

Sora must be joking. Of course there's a deck of cards (and a set of dice, and a chessboard, and various other gaming implements). It's in the night table's drawer.

Sora will get his hands on it sooner or later. He returns to the table and dumps the cards out of the pack, letting them fall haphazardly.

"In any kind of stud, draw, or community card poker game, the goal is to make the best hand of five cards. If you select any five cards from a fifty-two card deck, that gives you around two and a half million possible hands."