Board Games Over Spirits
I had entered the spire.
It had taken a full week, and truthfully, it hadn't been as difficult as I'd expected.
If the Lady is beloved by the spirits, then the spirits will want to win her favor too.
It went without saying that more than one or two spirits lingered around the Lady at all times. And she couldn't possibly share her affection equally with every one of them.
Inevitably, some spirits would grow closer to her while others were left out in the cold — and for those neglected spirits, Kylegalli, the game the Lady had recently fallen head over heels for, was the perfect gift.
Teaching the rules of Kylegalli to the Water Tiger and the Wind Horse, then playing with them over and over so they could build up experience — the whole process might well have been a bribe.
In fact, the tiger and the horse had grown noticeably warmer toward me after getting closer to the Lady, so it had clearly worked.
Strangely enough, once I got chummy with the spirits, I found I could understand what they were saying, at least to a degree.
[Grrrr.]
"I know. I'll stop right at the door, promise."
It wasn't as if I heard their cries as literal human speech, but I could catch the gist of what they meant from the tone alone.
To the Lady, though, it probably sounded like perfect words.
Tap. Tap.
Climbing the spire with the tiger on my left and the wind horse on my right was, in more ways than one, utterly silent.
There wasn't a single soul besides the Lady, and the vast halls felt hollow and lonely with no sign of human life anywhere.
[…………….]
[……………….]
[……….]
[…………….]
At the same time, that silence existed because the ones filling the spire in place of people were holding it.
In every corner of the corridors and stairwells, spirits of all shapes and sizes were holding their breath, staring at me.
A little rabbit and a bird, a squirrel, a pig, a cow, a sheep, a lion, a leopard, an elephant, even a giraffe.
Some were so enormous I wondered how they managed to move around inside the spire at all; others were smaller than my foot. Every last one of them.
All of their eyes fixed on me and me alone, utterly motionless.
They didn't make a sound, not even a whimper, so I couldn't tell exactly what they were thinking.
……But I was quite sure it wasn't goodwill.
How long did I walk beneath all those stares?
Before long, I, the tiger, and the wind horse spirit arrived at the very top of the spire.
Unlike the lower floors, which were divided into many rooms, the summit held only a single door.
A door larger, more ancient, and more lavish than any I had ever seen.
And from beyond it, voices were drifting out.
──Mmm…… I win again.
──Whinny……
──That's fifty-six wins in a row. Hey, aren't you guys just hopelessly bad at this?
──Ting-a-ling.
──Just kidding. Well then, yes. One more round?
──Meow!
From beyond the door came a woman's voice, presumably the Lady's, mixed with the cries of the spirits vying for her attention.
As I stood there quietly listening, the tiger spirit gave me a nudge with its forepaw.
[Grrr.]
"You're saying I should speak up now? Hmm…… well."
[Dag-dak?]
"I mean, yes, I did come here to talk. That's true. But."
I really didn't want to interrupt a board game in progress. That's just plain rude.
How many times had I been in the thick of a game, completely absorbed, only for someone to cut the thread mid-session and kill the momentum and the fun?
Besides, I needed to make a good impression on the Lady before we could even have a conversation. If I barged in while she and the spirits were enjoying Kylegalli and they took a dislike to me, it would be game over.
Then again…… her voice did sound a little subdued just now.
For those reasons, I decided to put off knocking on the door or calling out to her for the time being.
It wasn't going to take that long, and standing there doing nothing felt awkward.
"Want to play a quick round of Kylegalli?"
[……Grrr!]
[Dag-dak!]
That's the spirit.
Truly, I could count on no one but you two!
*
Raysia Everts.
The youngest of the Dukedom of Everts, the spirit summoner beloved by the spirits, the Lady who never left her spire.
Everyone called her by one of these names, and so Raysia paid no mind to how anyone addressed her.
After all, her life held nothing but the spirits.
Years ago, she had barred the spire to all outsiders and kept only the spirits at her side — beings without deceit or pretense, unlike humans.
And yet, every now and then, a certain feeling would creep up on her.
Ding!
"I…… win again!"
[Neigh, whinny-neigh!]
"Thank you………."
Unbearable boredom and weariness.
The spirits were certainly kind and gentle, but that didn't mean her days with them were always fun.
Even couples who loved each other went through slumps.
Even the closest of friends had their distant days.
I'm bored.
Every so often, Raysia sank into that thought. She'd had it countless times over the past several years, but that had never once driven her to leave the spire.
With the spirits inside the spire, she only grew bored on occasion — otherwise it was genuinely delightful.
But with the people outside the spire, she couldn't stomach so much as a conversation.
Raysia had resolved to live out her days in this spire with the spirits. Even if she was cast out of the duchy someday, she could simply build a cabin in the forest and live there.
At any rate, until a few days ago, Raysia had been feeling that weariness intensely — more keenly than anything she'd felt since entering the spire.
And then her father had given the spirits Kylegalli and a sheet of its rules, as if to ask, how about this?
It was the first gift her father had left for his daughter in ages — and precisely because of that, it was also something Raysia had been reluctant to touch.
But she'd been in the depths of boredom, so she'd tried it once with the spirits.
It was fun. Yes. Incredibly so.
Really, it was more fun than Raysia had ever imagined. When she first played Kylegalli, she spent the entire day doing nothing but that.
The spire wasn't without books or board games, but she had long since read every book, and the only board game on hand was a one-on-one strategy game. It was impossible to play that properly with the spirits, and since Raysia's skill was rather high, it wasn't even good for whiling away time.
But Kylegalli was different.
Rules the spirits could grasp easily, simple mechanics, playable by many people at once — and, most importantly, genuinely fun.
It was no exaggeration to say that this whole week, they had done nothing but play Kylegalli…… and yet.
Raysia was beginning to sense the limits of even Kylegalli.
I keep winning, so it's boring.
Fifty-seven wins in a row now. Not fifty-seven consecutive bell-rings, but fifty-seven straight victories by collecting every last card.
At this point, all she could think was: no matter how many more rounds we play, I'll win anyway, so where's the fun in that? In the beginning even those victories were a thrill, but past a certain threshold, the interest drained right out of her.
She was still playing Kylegalli now, but only because the spirits seemed to want to, and she was simply humoring them.
Ding!
"Yep, I win again!"
Won again.
[Meow!]
[Woof woof!]
[Whinny!]
[Ting-a-ling.]
"Thanks, everyone. But should we…… take a little break? I'm going to lie down on the bed for a bit!"
[Ting-a-ling?]
With that, Raysia set down her cards and stretched out on the luxurious bed. Immediately, the spirits they'd been playing Kylegalli with climbed up onto the bed and snuggled around her.
Raysia loved moments like this. Nap time with the spirits — it had always been when her heart healed.
But.
──Grrrr!
──Dag-dak!
──These guys are such cheats. Honestly, isn't this proof that humans are superior to spirits? Hah.
──Grrrowl!
──No, you're the one who needs to stop regrowing your legs. I'm calling you Octopus from now on.
──Dag……dak!
──Fair point. Not saying you're wrong that you're third place, but you are also dead last, no?
──Grrr?
──Dag-dak-dak-dak!!!
……What is that?
Raysia had known someone had arrived outside long ago. It was already surprising that the water spirit and the wind spirit guarding the spire's entrance had let anyone in — and the fact that those two stayed glued to the visitor's side all the way to the top floor had thrown her off balance.
But thanks to the spirits whispering to her, she quickly learned that the person they'd brought along was the creator of Kylegalli.
That was what startled her most. Never once in her life had the spirits disobeyed Raysia's wishes.
She could hardly lose to anyone by force, and by this point, curiosity had naturally begun to stir in her.
Of course, it was mere curiosity — in the end, no one from outside the spire would enter her room or speak with her. She had resolved that if he knocked or called through the door, she would simply ignore him.
Then he would give up and leave, and she planned to ask the water and wind spirits later what had happened.
Why is he sitting in front of my door playing Kylegalli……?
The creator of Kylegalli had neither knocked nor spoken.
He had simply played Kylegalli with the two spirits who had brought him there.
Past this point, simple curiosity would no longer suffice. An intense impulse seized her — she wanted to see what on earth was going on beyond that door.
And so Raysia deliberately lay down on the bed, closed her eyes, and pretended to sleep.
Then, she focused her mind.
Synchronization.
Synchronization was one of the pinnacles of spirit arts, usable only when the bond between spirit and summoner reached its absolute peak.
For an ordinary summoner, it was a last-resort technique possible only with a single spirit they had spent a lifetime beside.
For Raysia, loved by spirits from birth, it was nothing more than a plaything she could use with any of them.
The effect of Synchronization was simple: becoming one with a spirit.
From this very moment, Raysia's consciousness fused into the water spirit in the form of a tiger.
[……Grrr?!]
"Hmm? What's gotten into you all of a sudden?"
[………G-growl.]
"Oh, if it's just bugs, never mind then."
Her vision, which should have been nothing but blackness with her eyes closed, flipped and rebuilt itself anew. At the same time, the sense of controlling a body flooded her in unfamiliar textures.
The water spirit was briefly flustered by the sudden Synchronization, but the moment it realized Raysia had entered, it obediently handed over control of its body to her.
And so, without leaving her bed, Raysia was able to step outside her room.
Let's have a look.
She lifted her head and looked around — there stood an unfamiliar man, along with the wind horse spirit, which had clearly realized Raysia had Synchronized.
So this is…… the creator of Kylegalli, then.
He had named the game after himself, so she already knew he was called Kyle Byron. The spirits that roamed outside had reported seeing that very man inside a Byron family carriage.
Kyle Byron, is it.
Raysia had exactly one question about him.
What kind of person could he possibly be, that two spirits had opened their hearts to him? And to the point that he could understand their words, no less?
To get a read on him first, Raysia turned her gaze to the Kylegalli spread across the floor.
She'd been wondering why those two spirits' skill seemed to have improved so much lately — was it because they'd been playing against Kyle Byron?
Flip.
She turned over a card in turn. If she played a few rounds like this and beat him, wouldn't she learn what kind of person Kyle Byron really was?
Even though it was her first Synchronization in years, even though her opponent was a human rather than a spirit, even though she was playing a board game with him — Raysia couldn't help but feel rather bored.
She was going to win, after all.
And indeed, on Raysia's side of the table, the stars stacked up to five.
[Dag……dak.]
As the wind horse spirit — not quite her equal in skill — hesitated, a hand reached for the bell──
Ding!
[………Grrrr?]
"Yes! What's wrong, Tiger, were you daydreaming? Why did you get so slow?"
……Slow? Me?
No, more importantly than that.
I…… didn't get to the bell?
"That's my comeback! Two in a row now……!!"
I-it must be a fluke.
All that happened was she lost the race to the bell once. Even when playing with the spirits, there had been the very rare occasion when Raysia failed to press first.
Each time, every spirit's gaze would swing at once toward the one who'd rung the bell. Probably not out of encouragement.
At any rate, the game wasn't over yet. Not yet──
Ding!
"Mine again!"
Next round──
Ding!
"What's with you two? Tiger's suddenly terrible, and Wind Horse, you keep hesitating…… you do actually want to play, right? I'll take this round too, then?"
N-no, there are still cards left──
Ding!
"There it is! Then I'll just sweep up the cards nice and clean. At this rate, Tiger's about to be last place for the first time ever, isn't he?"
Last place is absolutely──
Ding!
"And that's the game! I win! I think this round was throwing itself at me — you're not even hiding it, guys. Another round? This time let's play seriously, okay?"
───I lost.
She had gone all out partway through. She had borrowed the water spirit's superior physical abilities too.
Even at her absolute best…… she had lost.
And without managing to take a single card from Kyle Byron.
"………Ah."
The Synchronization broke. So violent was the swing of her emotions that Synchronization, which demanded perfect composure, seemed to have severed itself.
Raysia's eyes snapped open on the bed — not outside the door — and she shot upright at once.
[Ting-a-ling?]
"Hyyiik……!"
I lost? Me, who was on a fifty-seven-game win streak? Even if he's the creator, is it even possible to lose that miserably?
What did he mean, Tiger had suddenly gotten bad? And what was all that about the round throwing itself at him?
And more than anything else.
I'm furious!!
The expression Kyle Byron had worn whenever he won. His tone. His gestures.
It had only been a defeat after days of winning, yet every single detail of it stoked her anger beyond all reason.
Raysia charged out, brushing aside any thought of who he was or where he came from, and flung the door wide open.
Creeeak!
"You! Get inside my room this instant!"
"………Lady Raysia?"
"That's right! I'm the Lady you've been looking for, so anyway, right this instant──"
"Then kindly wait just a moment."
"──I'm sorry, what?"
"We're in the middle of a board game, no? Cutting a session short and walking away is an insult to your fellow players. I'll finish this round and come in…… ah, Tiger, no! You don't get to sneak cards while I'm not looking!"
[Grrr……….]
[Dag-dak.]
"What? So can I come into the room now or not? I'm in first place right now? If you quit here, you two become the spirits who lost three straight games to an ordinary human?"
[………Grrrowl!]
[Dag-dak!]
"Yes, now THAT'S my players! Anyway, please wait just a little longer. I will absolutely finish these three wins in a row before I come in……!!"
"……………."
What Raysia didn't know was this:
At that very moment, her expression bore an uncanny resemblance to the one her father used to wear whenever he watched Kyle play a board game.
So Raysia, unable to say a single word, could only stand there dumbly and wait……