Chapter 75
When Monica returned to the match venue after Lana had fixed her makeup, an extraordinary scene was unfolding in the spectator stands.
The spectators were all seated in the chairs provided by the academy, but one person was sitting on the floor in formal seiza.
It was Roberto Winkel, who had proposed to Monica on the premise of chess and been rejected at once. A piece of paper reading "Reflecting on My Mistakes" had been stuck to his back.
Seated on either side of Roberto were Felix, wearing a cheerful smile, and Cyril, wearing a sullen expression. In the seat behind Roberto, Reading-sensei from the Institute was glaring at him with his arms crossed.
As Monica stood speechless before the plainly unapproachable tableau, Roberto noticed her and called out loudly without leaving his seiza position.
"Miss Monica, once this match is over, may I return to what I was saying earlier──"
Reading-sensei brought a fist down on the incorrigible Roberto's head.
As Roberto rubbed his battered head, Felix and Cyril, seated on either side of him, addressed him coldly.
"Winkel-kun, I haven't given you permission to speak yet."
"I must insist that you refrain from disturbing a player before a match."
The atmosphere around Roberto alone was frighteningly tense.
As Monica fidgeted in confusion, Elliot and Benjamin beckoned her over. Monica seized the opportunity and hurried over to them.
"Um, those seats over there..."
"Listen, pretend you don't see anything over there. And whatever you do, don't ask what happened while Miss Norton was away. I didn't see anything. Are you listening? I'll say it again: I didn't see anything."
"Oh, to think that the student council president, renowned for his gentleness, could become so utterly merciless... At that moment, I heard it clearly—the musician Georg Altmaier's requiem, 'May God's Wrath Descend Here!'"
Monica didn't really understand, but she grasped that something truly terrifying had happened.
Deciding that she would be happier not knowing, Monica nodded rapidly at Elliot's warning.
The Minerva players had not arrived yet. Neither the players nor their supervising teacher were anywhere in sight.
The three players from Serendia Academy took their seats, and then, at the last possible moment, the three from Minerva appeared.
At the front was Barney Jones. Monica assumed he would take the anchor's seat, but instead... he walked right past Elliot and sat down opposite Monica.
Elliot raised one eyebrow and looked at Barney.
"Hey, aren't you in the wrong seat? You're the anchor, aren't you?"
"I submitted a change request earlier. This order is correct."
Barney had been the anchor, so his moving to first player meant that he regarded Monica as a formidable opponent—that was an insult to Elliot.
Elliot's usual frivolous smile vanished, and he turned a cold gaze on Barney.
"That's not a very smart way to do things."
"I realize it is discourteous. However, there are circumstances on our side that I simply cannot compromise on."
The other two Minerva players looked somewhat bewildered. The change in order had probably been Barney's decision alone.
Though surprised, Monica wasn't shaken.
Strangely, her heart was calm. Barney, whom she had once been so afraid to face, no longer frightened her at all.
The moment Monica gave up on all of it—being forgiven by Barney, being called his friend, and being acknowledged by him—one of the wedges lodged in her chest was gone.
Barney looked away from Elliot and fixed his gaze on Monica. His eyes seemed to say:
──Look at me. Be more aware of me...
But Barney's obsession could no longer reach Monica's heart.
When Monica lowered her gaze to the board, chess was the only thing occupying her mind.
There was no room for Barney.
"Let's have a good game."
"Let's have a good game."
Barney made the first move. Monica immediately made hers.
Barney's chess was extremely aggressive. It was filled with a fierce determination to win at any cost, no matter how many pieces he had to sacrifice.
Monica shattered it head-on.
Barney was strong, as one would expect from someone who normally filled the anchor position. But it was a brittle kind of strength.
His was a game in which countless sacrifices were made for the sake of victory.
As though to prove every sacrifice, preparation, and strategy worthless, Monica methodically dismantled Barney's moves one by one.
With the same pitilessness she had shown when she once shot a wyvern between the eyes.
Claudia, watching from the spectator stands, followed the movements on the board and murmured.
"...She's showing no mercy."
How many people could make Claudia, renowned for her caustic remarks, say that someone was showing no mercy?
Glenn, who knew little about chess, watched the board and asked Neil,
"Um, is Monica winning?"
"...No."
Neil shook his head, his face rigid.
"She has already won."
"Huh?"
Glenn's eyes went wide, and he let out a foolish-sounding cry. It was no wonder he was surprised. The match had only been going for twenty minutes or so.
"If Monica has already won, then why is the match still going?"
"In this position, Miss Norton's victory is practically certain. It's just that her opponent... doesn't want to admit it and is struggling on anyway, you might say..."
"...Then even forcing a stalemate would be hopeless. Still, since the anchor deliberately demoted himself to first player, losing in twenty minutes would completely destroy his pride, so he's desperately stalling for time... Is that about right?"
"Eek..."
Glenn looked at Barney with pity.
Beside him, Lana, who had been silent until then, crossed her arms and gave a smug snort.
"That's right. Monica is different today."
"...Why are you looking so proud?"
"If your friend is amazing, of course you'd be proud of her. When something I like is praised, it makes me happy and proud."
As Lana said this, lifting her slender chin, Monica quietly declared checkmate.
＊ ＊ ＊
"Checkmate."
The instant Monica made her declaration, Barney began to tremble violently and ran a hand through his bangs.
Monica stared at the board with an expressionless face. The only things reflected in her eyes were the black and white pieces. She was not looking at Barney in the slightest.
Monica had always been like that. Her mind had always been filled with magic, and Barney had never even entered her field of vision.
The truth was, Barney had understood it all along. Monica was a genuine genius, while he was merely an exceptionally capable ordinary person.
Between them stood an unbreakable, impenetrable wall, and Barney could never cross it.
"...Damn it."
Barney scraped his chair back as he stood, then stormed out of the venue.
Monica did not chase after Barney or call out to him.
Until Barney had left the room, her eyes remained fixed only on the pieces on the board.
That was reality.
(Damn it, damn it, damn it!)
Back in the waiting room, Barney slammed his fist into the wall. This wasn't clever at all. Even knowing that, he couldn't stop himself from lashing out.
"...Um, Jones-kun?"
Pitman knocked softly on the door and called out to Barney. Apparently, he had followed him all the way from the venue.
"I know you're upset about losing, but why don't we go back to the venue? You know, everyone has to meet the other team and exchange greetings at the end."
"...I'm sorry. I'll go back in a little while."
"Hmm, if we wait too long, that scary-looking teacher might glare at me..."
The scary-looking teacher was probably Boyd, Serendia Academy's chess instructor.
He did have a terrifying, mercenary-like face, and Barney could understand why being glared at by him might make someone want to beg for their life.
(...Huh?)
Suddenly, Barney felt a strange sense of incongruity.
No, this unease hadn't begun just now──he had been too worked up to notice, but the exchange in the staff room had been strange too.
Barney set aside his anger at Monica for the moment and faced Pitman.
"...Pitman-sensei, once we return to Minerva, may I ask you to coach me in chess again?"
"Oh, sure. If you're okay with me, I'd be happy to."
That response confirmed Barney's suspicions.
"...Who are you?"
Pitman stared at Barney blankly, his eyes widening in bewilderment.
"Huh? What do you mean, who? I'm Eugene Pitman, a teacher at Minerva."
"Pitman-sensei is the chess club's advisor, but he's bad at chess. He always says that he's merely a poor player who loves the game and has nothing to teach us."
"Well, I thought that, once in a while, even I should show my students I have my moments."
"Then what subject do you teach? What magic do you specialize in?"
Under the barrage of questions, Pitman fell silent.
Come to think of it, the whole thing was strange.
McLagan-sensei had taught practical subjects at Minerva for many years. Pitman had once been a student there himself; there was no way he did not know McLagan-sensei's face.
And yet, at the time, he had said:
──Do you know this elderly gentleman?
The same was true of Boyd-sensei. It was strange for Pitman, who was participating in the chess tournament as a supervising teacher, to have forgotten Boyd-sensei's name.
"...Let me ask you again: who are you?"
When Barney asked the question in a combat-ready stance, Pitman's characteristically feeble smile fell away, and his lips curled upward into an arc.