Kore VS Kore & Nymph VS Nymph # 3
What Illinoi pulled out was a square object.
Eight squares across, eight squares down. Each square divided into white and black. A board game played with pieces called pawns, bishops, knights, queens, rooks, and so on.
It was chess.
Illinoi held it high above her head and declared:
“There is nothing in this world better suited to a contest than this, I declare…!”
So she wanted to open the first match with chess, of all things?
At that, Yu Ari let out a long, nasal hum.
“I see. So the Japanese team intends to take the first match no matter what, huh. You see, the Japanese branch has a psychic they call the Mind Reader. Apparently she can read people’s thoughts and feelings.”
Mind reading.
Ever since the Fifth Industry, it was no longer mere fantasy or something out of a comic book.
The mind-reading woman, Shizuka.
She wore her long black hair down her back, and over a puffy red skirt she had on a pale, jacket-like garment — a traditional old-fashioned Japanese outfit.
If a Japanese shrine maiden from the media appeared before me, this is exactly what she’d look like, wouldn’t she?
The whole vibe was so exotic that, in a strange way, she looked kind of cool.
Reiko spoke up.
“Here we have Shizuka-san, a sensing-type awakener capable of detecting human thought, a spirit medium, and a shrine maiden! For the Korean team to defeat her at chess is, how to say… practically impossible…!”
Kore Reiko covered her mouth with her palm and went hohoho with a refined little laugh.
Beating someone who reads minds at a game of chess.
Yeah. That definitely sounded like an uphill battle.
“This Illinoi has often played chess with the Yankees, I declare…! There was a harsh rule that the loser would have all of their sugar and chocolate stolen, I declare…!”
Thump.
Before anyone knew it, a table had been prepared, and the mind-reading shrine maiden — C-rank awakener Shizuka — took her seat.
In combat and in rifts, being merely C-rank, she probably couldn’t accomplish anything spectacular. But when it came to this thing called chess, she could be a trump card more powerful than S-rank awakeners who spat fire and froze ice.
Seo Yerim said one thing.
“Reading people’s thoughts. What kind of pervert comes up with an ability like that? My head is full of… classified information and secrets I can’t let anyone see. I’m passing on this one.”
Fair enough.
People were terrified of having their thoughts read.
It would be exactly like having my internet search history monitored without warning.
Even now, Oinoi would sometimes use the computer and ask, “This Oinoi is curious as to why the master of the house searched his own name all over the internet…!”
Every time she did, my face would burn hot, and I’d feel like crawling into a mouse hole like some criminal who’d been caught red-handed.
For the record, Oinoi also occasionally searched her own name on the internet.
Anyway.
Everyone has secrets they want to keep hidden.
Psychics were people you kept at arm’s length precisely because they might dig those secrets up and wave them around.
“………”
Maybe that was why?
The shrine maiden Shizuka’s face looked calm, yet faintly cold.
“Fine! I’ll do it! Chess is my specialty! I played a match with my dad every night before bed when I was little! I haven’t had time lately, but still!”
That was when it happened.
Someone strode forward.
It was Cha Yura, with her blue hair!
Truly befitting one of Korea’s three — no, now only two — S-rank awakeners, she stood proud and confident, every inch the president’s daughter and the government’s mascot idol.
“I’m wearing my personal accessory, the Frozen Ring! Hiding my thoughts will be a piece of cake! For the record, the nymphs made this for me when I became an Honorary Nymph!”
Slide.
On the index finger of Cha Yura’s right hand sat a single ring.
It looked like one of those golden strips used to tie bread bags, wound around her finger and frozen in place.
Coris said:
“This Coris made it from the golden strips that tie bread bags, that’s what…! Yuranoi and Coris are compatible, so it was possible, that’s what…!”
Nymphs had a knack for making this thing and that.
Oinoi, for instance, could craft charms that prevented sneezing.
Coris said she could make accessories like rings and necklaces.
And for the record, Illinoi could brew potions that put you in a giggly, tipsy mood.
Anyway!
Thump.
Cha Yura sat down at the table.
“What’s the matter? Can’t read my mind, can you? The principle is that the mana this ring radiates scrambles sensory-type mana. Hahaha!”
Cha Yura looked extremely confident.
Shizuka — the so-called Mind Reader — frowned slightly, as if a little rattled.
On every count, the tension was thick.
And so the match began.
Black was Japan’s Shizuka.
White was Cha Yura.
Shizuka smiled slyly and spoke.
“White moves first, so please begin. We’ll play best of three. The first to two wins takes the match — or if your opponent forfeits a game, that is a loss. However, the use of force is absolutely forbidden. Understood?”
“Got it.”
Thump.
Cha Yura picked up a piece and moved her hand.
A single pawn, advanced one square.
At that move, the crowd gasped in admiration.
“Whoa.”
“Impressive.”
“Of course. That move—”
Just what had she played that deserved all that awe?
Honestly speaking, I only knew chess down to the basic rules, and I couldn’t play it well.
Apparently some high-level battle of wits I couldn’t comprehend had broken out on the very first move!
“………”
Shizuka.
She glared at the one-minute hourglass, her brow creased.
Looking slightly nervous, she kept dabbing the sweat from her palm against her red skirt.
Then, murmuring “Yo-shi,” as if she’d finally made up her mind, she moved her hand.
Once again the crowd went “Incredible!” and “Whoa!” in admiration.
This time, I could admire it too.
“Oh. Impressive!”
Then—
Beside me, Lee Jina, who was holding Cha Yura’s bag for her, wrinkled her brow and muttered quietly in my ear.
“What the heck is going on?”
I whispered an answer back to her.
“Honestly? No idea. Just playing along.”
It would’ve been awkward to just stand there in silence, you see.
So I was faking it too.
But—
If I, who knew nothing about chess, were to offer my own assessment: Cha Yura and Shizuka had opened with moves that mirrored each other perfectly.
Maybe there was some deep meaning in that—
The moment I thought so, Cha Yura said “Fufu. I win,” and moved her hand, lifting a piece.
She set the piece down on the board like a white swan gliding gracefully over the water before touching down!
Clack—!
It was an achingly beautiful motion.
The board itself, made of the finest hardwood, rang out with a gorgeous tone.
And at that astonishing move, the crowd gasped so hard their jaws practically hit the floor.
“Th-that kind of move exists?”
“What am I looking at right now?”
This time even I was genuinely stunned.
I had no choice but to be amazed.
The pawn Cha Yura had advanced on her very first move.
It had gone straight up the board and swallowed the enemy king whole!!!
All of this had happened in a mere three turns!
What imperial, what ruthlessly hegemonic chess was this?
Was this what chess was?
Was there some rule to the chess played by the president’s daughter and the children of chaebol families that I didn’t know about?
In a capitalist society, did even a mere pastime get assigned different rules depending on one’s capital?!
Before long, Illinoi began to tremble.
“A pawn just moved on its own authority and devoured the king…? This Illinoi has never even heard of such chess in all her long years, I declare…!”
Illinoi wasn’t the only one trembling.
Seo Yerim, too, stared at the spectacle in open shock.
“Hey! Who on earth plays chess like that! You said you played with your dad every day! You’re messing with us, right? Play properly!”
Apparently this was not, in fact, normal.
So it wasn’t some upper-class rule after all.
“Isn’t this how it’s done? I did it like this every time I played chess with my dad.”
I see. So that’s how it is.
I had a great many things I wanted to say, on many levels, but I decided to just swallow them all.
It did tell me that the Korean president I’d occasionally seen on TV was tender and doting where his daughter was concerned.
Cha Yura, too, seemed to sense that something was off.
“Can’t I sacrifice five pawns to summon the Pawn Soldier of Obelisk? My dad said that’s how presidents play chess.”
“Of course you can’t!”
Seo Yerim exploded in fury.
The air around us felt like it shot up to a scorching temperature in an instant.
In fact, the slushie Coris had been munching on melted into plain water before our eyes, and Coris wilted.
“Hieee…! This Coris’s beloved slushie, brimming with her favorite little ice crystals…! The ice has melted and it’s turned into nothing but lukewarm sugary water, that’s what…!”
Sluuurp—.
Coris sucked the melted slushie water through her straw.
“But this has a flavor of its own too, that’s what…!”
Whatever she was doing, Coris always looked happy.
She seemed to be enjoying life itself.
Soon, Illinoi began trembling as well.
Her face was one of profound shock.
“Are you telling me that summoning the Pawn Soldier of Obelisk is an illegitimate move…? When this Illinoi once played chess with Washington’s George, crafting Pawn Soldiers was her specialty, I declare…!”
And I—
I had completely lost track of what was what.
Anyway.
And so, in that fashion, Korea went and lost the first game of the best-of-three chess match.
The bigger problem was that Cha Yura turned out to be someone who didn’t even know how to play chess — meaning that even if we played the remaining two games, the odds of defeat were high!
“Muh-heh-heh! The price for making an enemy of this Illinoi…! She’s going to make you pay through the nose, I declare…! A nymph’s grudge is longer than a summer’s day and colder than a winter’s night, I declare…!”
Illinoi let out an exceptionally sinister laugh.
Made sense, I suppose. Leading the match must have felt pretty good.
During the brief strategy timeout, Seo Yerim was panicking.
Because Cha Yura was even worse at chess than anyone had imagined.
If things keep going like this, we’re going to lose! Keep this up and we’re finished! Losing the first game is whatever, but— once a player has competed in one event, she can’t participate in any of the other events afterward—.
Cha Yura.
Burning an S-rank awakener on this absurd event was a massive blow.
Keep this up and we lose! We’ll lose Ildo to Japan! Seo Youngja, that rotten woman — she’s been copying everything I do and demanding everything I have since we were kids. That’s the only thing that makes her feel better!
Seo Yerim knew perfectly well that Reiko had taken a liking to Haildo.
It was only natural.
Yerim and Reiko were so alike — from their taste in food down to their little habits — that people used to ask if they were twins back in the day.
If Korea lost this retreat, it wouldn’t just mean relocating headquarters. They would truly, genuinely lose Haildo too.
And right at that moment—
Lee Jina snorted. “What, that’s it? Piece of cake.”
Seo Yerim flared up.
“What do you mean, piece of cake!”
“I’m telling you. This chess match — follow the rules properly and you win, right? If that Cha Yura girl doesn’t give up and plays it through to the end, I think she can take it. Easily.”
Lee Jina genuinely believed Korea could win.
Because in the first place, this was never a game of chess.
It was a battle of wits — a fight — between awakener and awakener.
Somehow, she seemed to be the only one in the room who’d realized it.
Well, I guess it’s not so far-fetched. Combat-type awakeners never have occasion to face sensing-types, the mind-reader strain especially. Me, I’ve gotten used to it.
Lee Jina thought her chance had come.
A place crawling with the rich and the VIPs.
More than enough fertile ground for one good score.
“If Cha Yura just does what I tell her, I can win this match for us, no problem. In exchange, though — I’ve got one condition.”