episode_0055

“Kungkeong. Give me food. Buck beak.”

Those three short words, which are only six syllables, announce the beginning of Aru’s daily routine.

Whether it’s snowing or raining, he faithfully fulfills his sloth and wakes up Oscar, who wakes up late, and asks Oscar, who is half asleep, for his breakfast.

However, today was different from usual.

“Kkkk!”

When he opened the lid of the bottle that Oscar had entrusted to him, the spicy and fishy scent tickled Aru’s sense of smell. Aru held the bottle properly to prevent the contents from spilling out, and then walked around at a very fast pace.

So that the scent of Black Wyvern’s blood can spread to as wide an area as possible.

“Kuaaak-!”

“Krrr… Wow!”

Monsters that sense the scent let out a howl. Even Aru, who had reached a certain level of strength through training over the past hundred years, felt numb all over from their cries.

But Aru did not stop. Because one fact remained clearly in her mind.

“Kkkk! Kkkk!”

‘Command! assistant! ‘It’s my first time!’

“Kkekekekekekeong! Spread! The smell must spread!”

‘It’s not hunting! It’s magic! Magic!’

Aru doesn’t know what magic is. The Oscar she knew had always been hunting for a hundred years. Except once, when I tamed Aru.

Hana Aru had a vague guess. This time too, Oscar will do something fantastic. Just like when I was tamed a hundred years ago. Aru, remembering the thrill of that day, ran excitedly.

Aru ran frantically, holding two pieces of paper in his pants and holding a bottle in his strong teeth. The ferocious howl he heard from time to time made Aru stop, but Oscar’s magic wand was more terrifying to Aru than any other monster.

Just like that, the southern part of the Demon Forest was experiencing an untimely disturbance from the middle of the sky caused by a wolf.

*****

As I said before, everyone has something called desire. A base desire hidden deep in my heart.

Usually, humans hide their desires by wearing their own masks. There are also people who extremely control their desires through morality and self-control. This usually applies to saints of religious denominations.

The same goes for Beatrice Constantino, who was a Holy Knight of the Holy Order. Beatrice lived a life of extreme self-restraint, and as a result, she was ignorant of her own desires.

Thankfully, that is.

Now that desire has become my tool. My tool to attack Beatrice.

“Now! Sit there! You said you know the rules of chess, right?”

“I know, but… .”

“Then that’s it! Catch Beatrice Sir White! I will give up the first strike!”

“… When did you prepare that chessboard and pieces?”

“I painstakingly carved it last night so I could play chess with Sir Beatrice! Haha, are you impressed?”

Actually, I brought it from my parents’ home to use when I was bored spending time alone.

“Now, go ahead and put it first. I’m waiting like this.”

“Chess… Please understand even if I don’t leave you a little bit.”

Tuk-.

With those words, Beatrice moved the white pawn forward two spaces. It’s reckless talk. First of all, rushing in and looking at it is extremely magical.

Tuk-.

I similarly held out my phone two spaces. To a position diagonal to Beatrice’s phone. Beatrice tilts her head.

“Are you planning to throw away your phone? Why?”

“Haha, let’s call it a handicap.”

“… I don’t want to be given a handicap or anything like that. Even if you lose when you lose.”

Tuk-.

In chess, a pawn can only attack an enemy on the diagonal. In other words, I deliberately threw the phone away for her to eat, but Beatrice refused and said something else.

This is where her strong personality that does not tolerate negativity is revealed.

But I didn’t stop. As Beatrice’s other phone came forward two spaces, I moved my phone forward two spaces again. Beatrice sighed as if she was in pain.

“Stop it.”

“Why? I can use my phone however I want?”

“I didn’t say I didn’t want to get a handicap or something.”

“Giggle, actually, this isn’t a handicap. It’s all part of the strategy.”

“Are you saying there is a strategy for discarding a hand in chess?”

“I thought it wasn’t there either, but it is? Right in my head!”

I shouted with a bright smile, and Beatrice quietly clicked her tongue. She again held out another phone two spaces forward. I recreated the process that occurred twice before.

I gave up the first strike to do this, so I’d be disappointed if he didn’t accept it. Beatrice’s expression turns cold.

“I feel quite bad about receiving unnecessary consideration. Other than being rude.”

“Rudeness is subjective. I’m being polite right now, right?”

“… Okay, I’ll eat it. I’ll look forward to seeing if I can still be so confident even after losing this game.”

Beatrice finally moves her phone diagonally, burning with determination to break my proud arrogance.

Tuk-.

One of my phones was killed by Beatrice’s phone. I didn’t care and made the next move. The ‘three dead phones’ that I placed the other day… No, the guys who had now become ‘two’ were left alone.

Tuk-.

Tuk-.

Tuk-.

Tuk-.

Four number exchanges. Two pawns are eliminated. All the dead guys are mine. The chess situation is gradually changing. I just smile brightly.

Tuk-.

Tuk-.

Tuk-.

I continued to put my words to death. Beatrice questioned my consistency, but she took my words one by one. Not excited, but cautious.

Although she had the perspective of a novice at chess, Beatrice did not hastily catch my piece, as if she wanted to avoid getting caught in my tricks as much as possible and benefit from it.

It’s an extraordinary action, but it’s meaningless. Because right now I’m not plotting anything. I’m just handing over all my words to Beatrice with a truly pure heart.

Until only the last two words remain to whet her desire.

I silently abandoned my words. I didn’t just throw it away. Putting all my words into it, I focused on capturing one of Beatrice’s white ‘Queens’.

Tuk-.

Tuk-.

Tuk-.

Tuk-.

Tuk… … .

“… Really, I don’t understand the true intention.”

Looking at the two black horses in my camp, Beatrice breaks the silence and opens her mouth. I’m still smiling innocently.

“Why do you think so?”

“At first, I thought you had something up to it.”

“Really?”

“But, what can you do when you only have two words left? I guess it was just an intention to lose to me. Although I’m not particularly happy.”

Well, he thinks he’s already won.

That’s how it should be.

That way, you can have fun breaking expectations.

“I don’t know much about chess, so I thought everything you said was according to plan.”

“Ahaha.”

“I guess not. A spoon-fed victory. It didn’t taste very good.”

I am confident of victory.

The smile on my lips changes. The atmosphere, airflow, and situation change. I, with a sinister smile on my face, speak in a new light.

“I’m sorry. But, all my actions were based on strategy, right?”

“… Don’t be weird. How can throwing away words like that be a strategy? No matter how much I don’t know about chess, I know that the idea that self-defense is a strategy is bullshit.”

“Giggle giggle-.”

There are several pieces on the board. On my side, the king and queen are alive, and on Beatrice’s side, most of the pieces except the queen are alive and scattered, trying to catch my pieces. This is because I poured out all my pieces and eventually captured Beatrice’s queen.

The board is all set.

I turned my head and looked at the clock hanging on the wall. Approximately 40 minutes have passed since Aru left. The free time I have left means that I only have about 20 minutes left to finish this chess game.

I opened my mouth in a gloomy voice.

“Sir Beatrice, do you know that?”

“What do you mean?”

“Score of each piece in chess.”

Tuk-.

My queen killed one of Beatrice’s pawns.

Due to the nature of pawns that can only move forward, Beatrice’s pawn, which is already deep in the game, cannot capture my queen even if it dies and wakes up.

“… This is my first time hearing that there are scores.”

“Haha, it’s a kind of ability level. Or should we say combat power? The combat power of each horse? Anyway, there is something like that.”

“Why are you bringing that up now?”

“The phone with the most limited capabilities is given 1 point. Knight scores 3 points. Bishop also scored 3 points. In this case, the knight is more valuable when there are a lot of pieces left, and the bishop is more valuable in the late game when obstacles are gone and mobility is freed.”

After Beatrice cleans up her eaten words, she makes a new embroidery. Since I don’t have anything else to do, I just leave it at that.

I continued speaking without heeding anything.

“Look gets 5 points. The most important king in the game is worth about 4 points in terms of combat power alone. By the way.”

Pick up my queen and grab one of Beatrice’s bishops.

“This queen has a whopping 9 points. It gives off the power of 9 pawns alone. Of course, there are only 8 pawns in one faction, so in fact, all pawns combined are worth less than a queen.”

In chess, the king is a piece that must be kept unconditionally.

Queen is the horse that must perform the most important tasks. Or, a word that must keep many people in check alone.

It can go anywhere, forward, left, or right, and does not hesitate to attack diagonally. Because the queen’s attack path can be said to be omnidirectional, some chess players call the queen the ‘joker card’ of chess.