Board Games Beat Spirits
Making friends with people is hard. With the opposite sex, even harder. And if she happens to be the daughter of a man who could erase me with a single wave of his hand, harder still.
And if she spends most of her time with spirits instead of people? Needless to say.
But add just one premise to the equation, and every single one of those problems dissolves.
Board games.
Board games are god. Board games are invincible.
This isn't blind faith for no reason. I'd resolved several of life's crises through board games before.
In high school, when I had no friends and stood on the brink of total isolation, I made friends with the board games I'd brought from home.
In university group projects, one round of a board game neutralized even the most awkward of atmospheres.
On my first blind date, we went to a board game cafe and kept things warm and cheerful the whole time. I got rejected in the end, granted.
And in the army, I spread board games to my tyrant of a squad leader — instead of getting screamed at, I got to slack off while indulging him at the table.
In university, my bag carried board games instead of textbooks, and rather than grinding RPGs or AOS titles on a laptop, I played board games online.
Board games, my light. Board games, my salt.
Board games, my eternity.
Anyway — as long as we played a board game together, I was confident I could get close to anyone, whoever they were.
[Grrr.]
[Clop.]
"……Um, you two?"
Yes.
If we actually get to play.
'What is this.'
The chamber of the Grand Princess, beloved of the spirits, sat in one of the spires of the ducal castle. The castle had four spires, and apparently each housed one of the Duke's children — though only the Grand Princess remained in residence now.
Spire or not, it was still the ducal castle, and since it was where the Princess lived, everything was immaculately maintained. But.
[Grrrowl.]
Something was blocking the entrance to the spire. Namely…… a tiger made of water.
So this was the legendary spirit, was it?
I knew the basics — beings formed of pure elements — but seeing one up close, it was quite the curious creature.
Its body, legs, and head were made of water that beaded and dripped away, yet its size never diminished. Though there was clearly nothing there but water, it shifted the water's hue and deepened its shading to render eyes, stripes, and features.
It was also obscenely enormous — it looked like it could swallow me whole and drown me on the spot.
One look was enough to tell it could crush a middling knight without effort, and it wasn't alone, either.
[Clop.]
Instead of a roar, the tiger makes hoofbeats — because beside it, guarding the entrance just the same, stood a horse made of wind.
Which should naturally be invisible, yet peculiarly, the wind itself was tinged yellow-green, whirling in a spiral and taking on a shape of its own. Like the tiger, it even shifted the wind's color to make itself read as a horse. As if that weren't enough.
A tiger of water, and a horse of wind.
The reason they were blocking the spire entrance was obvious.
"Do you two understand human speech? You do, don't you?"
[Grrrowl.]
"Am I your Princess's— what do you call a spirit mage again? Anyway, that person. I need to play a board game with her. So could you step aside?"
[Clop.]
Well, well. Not budging.
Was this the spirits acting on their own to keep people out of the spire, or had the Princess ordered them to?
Forcing my way in was out of the question — the tiger's fangs of water and the horse's hooves of wind looked like they could splatter an ordinary person without breaking a sweat.
I'd prepared a fair number of games beyond Kylegalli, but far from playing with the Princess, it looked like I wouldn't even get a glimpse of her.
How long had we been at this standoff? Then I heard someone approaching the spire entrance.
"……My lord Duke?"
"Just as…… I expected."
Duke Nicholas, walking up alone with no retinue, shook his head slowly.
As if even his brief flicker of hope had crumbled away, that chilling look he'd fixed on me for whatever reason was gone.
"To think you can't even set foot inside the spire. So Kylegalli is merely Kylegalli after all, and its maker is another matter entirely……"
"Forgive my impertinence, but can you not enter either, my lord?"
"It has been over three years since that became the case."
Hold on, then.
Is the Princess really living in that spire with nothing but spirits……?
"What about meals?"
"The spirits bring her food and necessities on a regular basis. It has been quite some time since I last saw her face — or since she last set foot outside that spire, for that matter."
"……How did it come to this?"
I hadn't listened closely before, but even if she was beloved by the spirits, refusing to see her own family — how did that make any sense?
If the spirits were barring her from people she wished to meet, that would be one thing, but the Duke's words carried the nuance that the Princess herself rejected other people outright.
The Duke, who had been looking at me a moment ago, soon lifted his gaze to the top of the spire with a bitter expression.
"My daughter…… Raysia has been wounded far more deeply than I ever realized. Little by little, she lost her ability to trust people, until she would speak with no one but the spirits."
"You have no…… intention of telling me more, I take it."
"Try to understand. You are, after all, an outsider. One cannot speak of every private matter of a ducal house."
"Even though it only drives the Princess further out of reach?"
"……Yes."
Despite my one attempt to probe, the Duke's stance remained stubborn. And his eyes sank deeper than ever.
I had worked up some courage to push, but the Duke seemed to regard it as only natural to refuse. Even knowing the situation was spiraling somewhere wrong, he used the excuse of my being an outsider and went no further into it.
"You are free to return."
"I beg your pardon?"
"The spirits have rejected you, so there is no hope regardless. Promise to keep what you've seen secret, and you may go home. Naturally, I will see to it you receive some manner of compensation. Thank you for humoring my whim."
"…………."
"If you wish, you may linger a while longer in the duchy or the castle. I will grant whatever you desire……"
The Duke's back, as he spoke those words and turned to leave—
drooped, so unlike a man of omnipotent power.
[………Grrr.]
[Clop……… clop.]
The spirits, too, watching the Duke walk away, let out only listless sounds — nothing like the ones they gave me.
I stared after the Duke's retreating figure for a long, long while, then turned my head to the spirits.
"……See you next time."
[Grrrowl.]
[Clop.]
And so.
I, too, left with nothing but those words behind me.
Promising a next time that would come someday.
[……Grr……… ruff?]
[………Clop.]
Ding!
"No, I'm telling you — when there are five shapes, you ring the bell! You two need to get good at Kylegalli if you ever want to play with the Princess, you know that, right? You said you're sad your spot beside her got taken lately, didn't you? Let's run it back."
"……What on earth are you doing, exactly?"
"Ah, my lord Duke. Good morning to you."
The next day.
Duke Nicholas, walking alone to check on the spire as he did every day, stopped dead in his tracks.
In that place where nothing should have stood but the guarding spirits and the Duke himself—
Kyle Byron was playing a board game.
……With the spirits, of all things.
"Good, now — these cards are waterproof-treated, you see? You just flip them over with your paw. They only look like front paws; they're made of water, so a little thing like this should be easy for you, right?"
[Grrrowl.]
"Hey, I wasn't ignoring you! What actually worries me is this guy. Am I wrong? Can you even pick up a card with hooves made of wind?"
[Grr…… ruff?]
[Clop!]
"……It actually works?"
Is he out of his mind?
Duke Nicholas, who had spent a moment seriously deliberating over Kyle Byron's mental state, soon let out a sigh.
"Whatever it is you're attempting, it is a pointless endeavor. You may as well simply go home."
"My lord Duke, did you know? I have confidence."
"……I beg your pardon?"
"If I could merely meet the Princess even once, I am certain I could grow close to her through a board game. But the spirits block the entrance and won't let me so much as see her, don't they."
"That is…… true, yes."
"Then befriending the spirits comes first, doesn't it? Through board games, naturally."
He has most certainly lost his mind.
As the Duke weighed whether he ought to send William a letter of apology along with a capable physician, from far off, Kyle Byron's personal maid came running toward the spire.
Good timing, actually.
Any fool could see her master had gone half-mad, so I should simply tell her to drag him home—
"M-milord! I-I brought the extra cards you asked for……!!"
"Thanks, Sally. Ah — this is my personal maid, Sally. Say hello."
[Grrr.]
[Clop.]
"Huh? Y-yes. I'm Sally……?"
"Anyway, thank you. I'll head back later once I've finished playing with these fellows, so why don't you go have a look around the castle?"
"I-I want to play with you too, milord!"
"Should you? It's fine if Sally joins in, right?"
[Grrrowl…….]
[Clop-clop-clop.]
[Grrr?]
[Clop.]
[Grrr, grrrowl.]
"They say it's fine, it's just a game. Here, Sally — take your cards."
"Yes!!"
"……………."
Like master, like servant, indeed.
The personal maid — without a single shred of doubt about playing board games with spirits — sat down beside Kyle Byron and joined the game.
Duke Nicholas, watching Kyle play with what looked like genuine sincerity, soon lowered his head.
"He won't last long regardless……"
Still, the young man was a guest the Duke himself had invited. He couldn't very well expel him by force, so the boy would simply exhaust himself playing and drop out on his own.
Befriending spirits through board games — what was this, if not the reasoning of a lunatic?
The Duke glanced up for a moment at the top of the spire where his daughter was, then turned on his heel.
He could simply come again tomorrow. By then, Kyle Byron would be gone.
Slosh.
In the ears of the departing Duke—
there was nothing but the sound of cards being flipped.
The next day after that.
"Come on, come on, come on……!!"
[G-grr, grr……… RUFF!!]
Ding!
"Ah! I lost again! Hey, you! Is it legal to just grow yourself an extra water leg? You're supposed to maintain the tiger form!!"
[Grrrowl…….]
"Look at this brat getting all high and mighty? And you — you think so too, right? You're made of wind, so it's not like you can ring the bell any easier than he does!"
[C-clop! Clop-clop!!]
[Grrrowl~]
"One more round! If I win this time, you two take one full step back from the spire entrance……!!"
[Grrr!]
[Clop!]
"………Huh?"
The day after that, after that.
"By the way, something's been nagging at me. Between you two — who's actually better at Kylegalli?"
[Grrr?]
[Clop?]
"Fair question, no? You both got so good in just two days that you're miles better than me now. I'm hopelessly ordinary, so dead last is a done deal, but you two just keep trading wins back and forth. Do you even know who's won more between you?"
[…………….]
[………Clop.]
"Wrong — the tiger's up two wins. Are you really fine living out your days as second place? Get seriously good here, and you'll be the star when you play with the Princess too. You're going to keep living as the runner-up this guy walks all over?"
[C-clop. Clop-clop……!!]
"That's the spirit? How about a fair and honest one-on-one, befitting spirits of your stature? You in, tiger?"
[Grrrowl!]
"Bold. I like it. Then we play under a special house rule. I step out as referee, and you two play using my exclusive spirit-built ruleset. Ready?"
[C-clop!]
[Grrrowl!]
"Good — begin!"
"………………."
And then.
[Grr, grrrowl!]
[Clop! Clop-clop!]
"Ah…… I have to head home today, so no matter what you say, I won't be able to play Kylegalli with you two anymore. You can manage on your own now, can't you?"
[Grrrowl…….]
[Clop-clop…….]
"Just the two of you is boring, and the other spirits are hopeless at it? I'm honored you say it's only fun with me, but my hands are tied. I stayed here to meet the Princess, and in the end I never even got inside the spire……"
[………Grrr?]
"What? No can do, no. You two are guards whose whole job is keeping outsiders out, remember? If I waltzed in, the Princess might get angry."
[Clop-clop, clop-clop!]
"Just to the door? And talking to the Princess through the door from there is fine? Really?"
[Grrrowl…….]
[Clop! Clop, clop-clop!]
[Grr, grrrowl! Grrrrrr!]
[Clop!]
"You two — going that far for me……! So this is what they call friendship! Then I'll meet the Princess tomorrow — tonight, we play Kylegalli until dawn!"
[Grrrowl!]
[Clop!]
"M-milord! I-I've got dinner ready!"
"Food's here! Eat first, play after!"
[Grrr~]
[Clop~]
"…………What on earth is this."
One week had passed since Kyle Byron arrived at the Everts ducal castle.
And this morning, at long last, he stepped inside the spire together with the two spirits.
"…………."
Duke Nicholas could do nothing but stare, hollow-eyed, at the sight of his back.
The spire had let Kyle Byron in.
……Because it still, to this day, refused Duke Nicholas.