Chapter 22
1.
I don't know how chess developed in this world, but.
There was an old story that had been circulating in the chess community for ages.
‘If humanity had to start learning chess all over again from zero, would it converge on the same theory we have today?’
The answer was generally yes.
As long as the pieces' movements and the board's size were fixed, the optimal strategies humans ultimately reached would converge in similar ways.
Above all, humanity would eventually develop AI.
This other world seemed to be the same.
Isabella's first move was a knight, not a pawn.
- Tap.
Normally, chess has all sorts of opening concepts.
The most common one is to push a pawn and seize the center.
Moving a knight meant giving up taking the center early in exchange for watching over it.
It also meant positioning the bishops like snipers in the meantime and slowly targeting the center.
Usually, someone who played this move was one of two types.
They either wanted to respond flexibly after seeing my reaction.
Or.
‘They were just gay.’
Hypermodernism.
And I.
I really enjoyed tearing apart this kind of defensive style.
The time limit was fifteen minutes, making this a rapid-style game.
There are two types of chess games: rapid and blitz.
Rapid games last fifteen to thirty minutes, giving you relatively ample time to calculate.
Blitz games last anywhere from one to five minutes, with moves made down to the second.
For reference, my rapid rating was 2,500.
My blitz rating was 3,200.
The difference was fairly large, but there was a reason for it.
Blitz left less room for AI intervention.
Even if a tin can came up with the optimal move, it still needed time to see it, move the cursor, and make the move.
Blitz didn't give you that kind of time. The winner could be decided by fractions of a second.
It was an arena where humans fought humans. That was why I felt I could hold my own there.
“Your turn.”
Seeing me staring blankly into the air to my right, Isabella called out to me.
Do you think I don't know that?
“I was thinking.”
“From the first move?”
This person was habitually rude. Who tried to get in their opponent's head from the very beginning?
I had been thinking.
More precisely, I wasn't thinking about how to make my first move.
I was thinking about how to eat her alive.
- Tap.
I began with a textbook response.
The game progressed.
- Tap.
- Tap.
- …Tap.
- Tap.
- ……Tap, tap.
I made every move immediately after Isabella's, within 0.1 seconds.
The instant I took my hand off a piece, I made the next move.
That was my style.
Even this put pressure on the opponent.
“……”
The pieces began moving faster and faster, but.
Isabella gradually began to falter.
The prepared opening ended here. From this point on, it was the middlegame.
It was an opening I had almost never seen before, but it wasn't nonsensical, so I responded appropriately.
After much deliberation, Isabella made another move, but.
- Tap.
I didn't hesitate for even a moment.
Actually, the key here was never to look at the chessboard.
I simply turned my head and stared into the air to my right, drawing the board in my mind.
Then, when Isabella looked over, I responded intuitively the moment I saw her move.
I had already roughly thought through what I would play.
- ………Tap.
- Tap.
- …………………Tap.
-Tap.
When I had scanned the board earlier, I thought she was a complete noob, but she wasn't quite that bad.
She was simply a decent intermediate player.
Her style, however, was pretty funny.
Should I call it a traditional and defensive style?
If a noble young lady played chess, this was exactly what it would look like.
It would be fun to tear it apart and eat her pieces.
My specialty was dragging my opponent all the way down to the bottom.
“……?”
I played uncertain but dirty moves and tormented my opponent.
The muddier I made the board, the more useless her preparations became.
Perhaps this was chess the noble young lady had never experienced before.
Since I was facing away, I couldn't see her expression, but.
Her thinking time had more than doubled.
- ……………………………………Tap.
- Tap.
After repeating this several times.
I had fourteen minutes and twenty-eight seconds remaining.
Isabella had… two minutes and seventeen seconds remaining.
The advantage seemed to be about seven to three in my favor.
She was diligent, but far too defensive.
Should I say she was as stiff as a block of wood, so there was nothing to sink my teeth into?
She had lunged at me a few times at first, but after getting thoroughly beaten, perhaps realizing that something was wrong, she had started doing nothing but running away.
Rather than making things dirty, she had simply run away altogether.
‘Should I end this soon?’
Just as I was thinking that.
- Tap-tap.
After a long think, Isabella finally made her move, and I was just about to respond.
[Um… Oppa?]
Why?
Yuna suddenly stopped me.
[Look at this.]
Yuna opened a camera window on one side of my vision.
“……”
Wait a second.
On the screen Yuna showed me, Isabella was holding a chess piece.
But then.
‘Is she crying right now?’
Tears had gathered in her eyes, then streamed down her cheeks.
The hand holding the piece was trembling, too.
No, why… tears?
This was so bewildering.
She was crying with her lips pressed tightly together.
There were a few things I was weak against, and tears were one of them.
Especially tears shed by someone who had done their sincere best.
‘Ah….’
Right, let's look at this differently.
Let's imagine that some random grade-schooler suddenly showed up and beat me at a rhythm game.
I'm not joking. I might cry too.
How humiliating would it be to get utterly crushed while playing White?
I wasn't such a heartless person that I could just ignore that….
But letting her win outright felt a little wrong.
Let's give her a chance. If she caught this mistake, she would win, and if she didn't.
‘You can just lose.’
In the end, I made a move that looked ambiguous.
At a glance it seemed perfectly fine, but if you examined it closely, it was complete garbage.
More precisely, it left my rook hanging for free two moves later.
If Isabella stayed calm, she would surely take it….
“…Sniff.”
Isabella quietly sniffled as she examined the board.
Sigh.
Using her sniffling as background music, I gave her a little more time.
And then.
“!”
Isabella seemed to have found it.
Good job. You worked hard.
As we played out a few more moves, I subtly sacrificed another rook.
And one more bishop.
The wording was a little funny, but.
I had somehow managed to make my position worse.
The moment Isabella's advantage became undeniable by calculation, her shoulders relaxed slightly.
Her sniffles gradually died down, too.
What a transparent person.
Sigh, this had killed the mood.
To put it another way, imagine boxing someone who suddenly started crying.
Honestly, all I could do was laugh.
“I resign.”
I turned away from the air I had been staring at and lowered my head.
Fourteen minutes and one second remaining for me, compared to twenty-three seconds for her.
Of course, the result was my defeat.
“Huh? Oh… yeah.”
Isabella nodded with a dazed expression.
She looked like she couldn't quite believe she had won.
I politely held out both hands for a handshake, then rose from my seat.
Crying women were the most exhausting.
I didn't want to say anything at all, but they drained me.
Still, I thought it would be better to say something for the sake of manners.
“That was an interesting opening. I've never seen it before.”
It looked like she had molded the Réti Opening to suit her taste.
But at that moment.
- Swish!
Isabella suddenly turned her head, her eyes sparkling.
“That's right! How did you know?”
“……”
“I made this opening. I spent a whole year really working hard on it.”
Oh, she made it.
Then I guess this was the Isabella System or something.
That changed my assessment a little.
If she had researched and created it herself, she deserved a higher evaluation.
Maybe she had studied it to beat Doloris.
“Leaving the center empty and indirectly pressuring it with my pieces….”
“Yes, I could feel the philosophy behind it.”
“Really? If it had been Doloris, she definitely would have cursed at me and called it pointless. She always says chess is about the center.”
“Yes, it looks fine to me. Keep going. You can do it.”
Pioneers always had a hard time. It had been the same in our world.
Keep at it, Ms. Isabella.
After soothing her with sweet words.
I began edging away from my seat because I didn't want to get any more involved.
“I'll be going now….”
“What did you say your name was? What family are you from?”
I was caught just as I was about to leave.
“……I'm Lionel, and I have no family.”
“Huh? Are you a knight?”
“That either.”
It was awkward to explain my relationship with them.
Doloris hadn't told me either to say anything or not to say anything, so I decided to keep my mouth shut.
“Oh, I see. Is there anything I could improve in the opening?”
“I lost. What could I possibly say?”
“That's true. I won, didn't I? Is there anything you're curious about?”
“……”
This woman was a little strange.
I quietly closed my mouth and tried to start exercising again.
Her first impression had been quite sharp and everything, but.
She talked far too much.
Perhaps she was used to not getting an answer, because she chattered away beside me.
“Phew….”
“So you're saying it's better to wait and see how things develop rather than bring the bishop out immediately.”
“Yes… so it would be better to delay it a little….”
“No, then… how about this instead?”
She kept talking to me the entire time I exercised.
And she seemed genuinely interested, so I couldn't just send her away.
Trying to answer her while exercising, thinking, and giving her proper responses was killing me.
“Haaah….”
“Sorry for constantly talking to you? But why are you doing something this crude?”
She pointed at my jump rope as she asked.
“Phew… I have to exercise….”
“Seeing you play chess and the way you think, you seem like you'd be perfect for magic.”
“I have no talent for magic.”
After doing about three sets and collapsing, Isabella crouched beside me and asked.
“If I polish the opening a little more, can I come back and ask you about it? I'll ask you about things I don't know.”
“I'm a novice. Why do you keep asking me?”
“Yeah, I guess so. I did win, but, hmm….”
- Clap.
She clapped her hands, then added.
“It's an exchange of information. An exchange of chess information. As you know, chess is essential for nobles, right? You'll need it later when you debut in high society, too. And I'll teach you magic. How about that?”
“……”
First of all, I wasn't a noble.
Second, it was somewhat tempting, but.
Sorry, but I was a blacksmith.
There was a reason I was exercising until I was half-dead like this.
Magic was really not my thing.
“I'm not interested in magic. But aren't you leaving?”
Just go already.
“I can't leave because Doloris hasn't come back. She's hiding the gloves, so—ah! That's something you don't need to know.”
“……”
Maman, help me.
But sadly, Maman seemed to have spent a lot of time gathering ore.
And so I had to listen to her chatter for about two more hours.
After the hard training ended.
I collapsed onto the floor, conserving even the energy it took to breathe.
“Good work. Are you finished?”
“……”
“But you enjoy talking to me, don't you? Everyone else disappears pretty quickly.”
I nearly choked at the first thing she said, but the rest made me feel sorry for her.
This woman was strange. Seriously strange.
For three hours, I had to tell her about every opening I used.
She was incredibly rude and annoying, but she had no malicious intent.
“Now that we're finished, let's play one more game….”
“……”
I seriously thought I understood why Ruby had run away and disappeared.
Just as I closed my eyes and tried to sigh.
- Bang.
The reception room door burst open.
“……Isabella.”
The moment I heard that voice, I flinched.
Standing in the doorway was Doloris.
She seemed to have just returned from going out, and was still holding a sack of ore in her hand.
It was the lowest, coldest tone I had ever heard from her.
I was startled.
“Elysia, long time no see….”
“Doloris.”
“…Why are you angry again? All right, Doloris.”
Elysia was her given name, and Doloris was her surname.
It sounded like she was telling her not to call her by her first name.
Why was she so angry?
Just as I cautiously got to my feet.
“Lionel….”
She slowly approached me.
Then she took out a handkerchief and carefully wiped the sweat from my forehead.
Her eyes swept over me from head to toe.
My sweat-soaked shirt, flushed face, dumbbells, and jump rope scattered beside me.
- Tap.
Doloris's hand moved toward my cheek.
“You worked hard, didn't you?”
- Knead, knead.
Then she gently kneaded my cheek.
The corners of her eyes softened, and her voice grew higher.
Fortunately, she didn't seem angry with me….
That was when.
“Have you talked to Lionel a lot?”
Isabella suddenly cut in from beside me.
“He's really small, but incredibly smart. What family is he from? I want to keep in touch with him. He's interesting.”
Her words practically dripped with interest.
“……”
And Doloris's head.
- Creak….
Slowly turned toward Isabella.
The hand that had been kneading my cheek dropped.
“Get out.”
“All of a sudden…? I still have something to say….”
“I said get out. I'll be following you.”
“…What?”
Isabella eventually rose from her seat and left.
She glanced back as she walked toward the door, but Doloris didn't even spare her a look.
Once the door closed, Doloris turned back to me.
And then.
- Squeeze….
She gave me a gentle but tight hug.
It seemed to carry more force than usual.
“I haven't told you this, Lionel.”
“Yes?”
She stroked my forehead and whispered.
“……You mustn't follow strangers, you hear?”
She left me with those words.
Then she headed in the direction Isabella had gone.
2.
I had been in a good mood all day.
‘He's really small, but incredibly smart. What family is he from? I want to keep in touch with him. He's interesting.’
I fell from the very peak to the bottom of a cliff in a single moment.
If this was a talent, then it was certainly a talent.
Isabella.
She was one of Doloris's sworn sisters.
You could say she was one of the few people Doloris at least had to talk to.
She would occasionally come by and play chess. But after the chessboard broke a year ago, she hadn't returned.
She hated losing more than she hated death itself.
That was her personality.
I didn't know why she had come at this particular time.
But.
She had taken an interest in something she absolutely shouldn't have.
- Squeak.
She opened the door to the study where Isabella was.
Isabella was sitting on the sofa. Perhaps because of her naturally sunny personality.
Or perhaps because she was oblivious, she looked remarkably unconcerned.
Doloris closed the door and spoke briefly.
“Just say what you came for.”
“…Give me the gloves. I'll buy them.”
“……….”
So that was her purpose.
She hadn't even answered after reading it, but perhaps she had been so jealous inside that she felt like her stomach was about to split open?
“Those gloves. They're a subject of research, and their value is—”
“Get out.”
If the gloves were what she wanted, the situation became even more troublesome.
Lionel had made the gloves in the first place.
Yet Isabella was already interested in that child without even knowing that Lionel was the one who had made them.
If she also found out that the gloves had come from Lionel's hands.
‘Get out of my house right now.’
Doloris couldn't even imagine what would happen.
She didn't know what exactly Isabella and Lionel had talked about while she was away, but.
That look in her eyes was exactly the same as the one she had worn in the past while searching for a way to conquer the Tower.
It meant she was focused, interested, and enjoying herself.
“All right. You're in a really bad mood today, huh?”
“…Yeah, a little. I'd appreciate it if you left….”
Just as Doloris wondered if Isabella would actually leave obediently for once.
“Then just tell me what family Lionel belongs to. Honestly, that's become more important than the gloves.”
She hated that even more.
She hated it so much.
She hated that most of all.
If Isabella heard that he was a child under Doloris's care, she looked ready to come by every single day.
But pretending he belonged to another family would make the aftermath far too complicated to clean up.
This situation itself was.
Extremely troublesome and extremely irritating.
Doloris couldn't simply beat her senseless and throw her outside the estate…. Isabella had continued climbing the Tower even after Doloris had stopped.
She couldn't guarantee anything.
“He really is good at chess, you know? I heard he's close with Ruby.”
“……”
“He seems incredibly smart, brilliant. So I'm thinking of teaching him magic. We could cooperate! I'll teach him magic, and he'll teach me chess… No, wait, I won, didn't I?”
Doloris's eyes grew wider and wider.
This woman.
What was she saying right now?
“Oh, right. Taking him on as a disciple could work too. I don't know what family he's from, but they'd go crazy. I've never taken a disciple before. Yes! A disciple sounds good! He seems qualified to be my first disciple.”
Isabella smiled brightly and lifted the corners of her mouth.
“Right, I'm the magic teacher. He's the chess teacher….”
“That child is…!”
A teacher.
In the end, that was the one word she absolutely couldn't tolerate.
It felt as though something precious of hers were being torn away.
She shouted furiously.
“He's my child.”
She had no choice but to tell the truth.