The Need for Entertainment (2)
Rain and Riaen's game of Crownfall ended in Rain's victory.
Riaen had made a few moves clever enough to give even Rain pause, but Rain answered each with an equally brilliant counter, and Riaen found herself steadily pushed back. In the end, it seemed Rain had taken the win.
For the record, that was mostly guesswork on my part.
I don't even know all the rules of Crownfall, after all.
I knew the rules of chess well enough, but that was about it. I was never any good at the game. And if that was true of chess, what hope did I have with Crownfall, whose rules I'd only just heard?
"Not bad, for a human."
"…Thank you."
Rain offered the compliment in her own way. Coming from someone who considered every race other than dragons to be inferior, that was about as generous as praise got. Whether Riaen took it as a compliment was another matter entirely.
Still…
We really do need something to pass the time.
The reason Rain and Riaen had sat down to play Crownfall in the first place was simple: there was nothing else to do. If this inn saw a steady stream of guests, things might be different — but planted in the middle of the Dragon Canyon, visitors were vanishingly rare. Everyone had far too much free time on their hands, and I figured it would do us all good to spend some of it on entertainment together.
"Entertainment, huh…"
Grace seemed to have caught the drift of my thoughts, because she was standing beside me with a thoughtful look on her face.
"Have you been that bored?"
"…Honestly? Yeah."
Back on Earth, I could have killed hours scrolling the internet. Here, there was nothing of the sort. And so, yes — I was thoroughly, deeply bored.
"Having something fun to do would certainly make the time pass more pleasantly."
Grace didn't disagree with the idea that we needed diversions.
"I'll start by making board games based on what I can find in Master's memories."
"Like what?"
"Chess, for instance — we could use the Crownfall board and pieces as they are. Othello and checkers, where the board works fine but we'd need different pieces…"
And later on, she added, she could prepare boards for janggi, go, and gomoku as well.
"…That sounds great."
I wasn't particularly skilled at any of those games either — chess, Othello, checkers, janggi, go, or gomoku. Still, watching a game whose rules I actually knew had to be more enjoyable than one whose rules I barely understood.
Tug, tug…
"Hm?"
While Grace and I were talking, Riaen timidly edged up beside me and tugged at my sleeve.
"What's wrong?"
"…What are those?"
"Those? Oh — you mean the board games Grace was talking about?"
"Yes…"
I hesitated over how best to explain, thinking I might ask Grace for help — but she had already slipped away to start crafting the new games. As for Rain…
Expecting a patient explanation from her is a lost cause.
She was perfectly deferential toward me, her master, but that courtesy didn't extend to anyone else. Left with no choice, I started explaining the board games I remembered, one by one.
Riaen wasn't the only one interested. Before long, Eliona had settled down beside her sister to listen as well. And next to Eliona…
"…Silver?"
"Yes, Master."
"When did you get here?"
"Just now."
Silver, who until moments ago had been in the forge, had come out and joined the audience.
"You still have quite a bit left to explain, don't you? That elephant piece in janggi — why on earth does it move in such a strange way?"
"Beats me. I've never actually thought about why."
I did my best to explain everything I knew. Of course, the things I didn't know stayed unexplained. How was I supposed to know why an elephant moved one square forward and then two diagonally? I'd simply been taught that was how it moved, and that was that.
"Hmm… I think we'll have to try it ourselves to understand."
Silver said as much, and Eliona and Riaen nodded in agreement. Dragons were far more intelligent than humans, and Eliona and Riaen had received a high-level education as royalty — so if those three couldn't follow my explanation, the fault almost certainly lay with how poorly I'd delivered it.
Putting the information in my head into words is harder than I expected.
I looked at Silver with that thought in mind.
"So? Why did you come out here?"
"Ah — because of these."
In answer, Silver held up a handful of nails.
"…?"
"I overheard something last night while drinking with Grace and Rain. They said there was no real need for me to be forging swords."
Well, that was true. Silver had simply assumed on her own that forging swords was her duty. We'd figured that even if we told her the truth, her pride would drive her to keep making them anyway — so we hadn't bothered correcting her.
"No. Of course I still want to forge swords more than anything — but raising the forge's level and my own employee level comes first."
Only then, she added, would she be able to make better swords.
"……"
"……"
"……"
So much for pride. Then again, for someone who'd set out to forge swords only to produce things that barely qualified as such, watching her pride plummet through the floor wasn't exactly surprising.
"Please upgrade the forge."
"…Alright."
Faced with the peculiar intensity Silver was radiating, I went to the counter and initiated the forge upgrade.
"And for the employee level…"
"Improving the quality of finished products, of course."
"Figured as much."
The forge upgrade finished before long, and the moment it did, Silver vanished back into the forge.
Hmm… I would have liked to take a look at the upgraded forge myself…
"Best leave her be for now."
"She'll come out on her own when it's time to eat."
Apparently everyone had reached an unspoken agreement not to disturb Silver while she was working as a blacksmith.
After she'd gone, Riaen murmured to herself.
"There isn't that much difference between your world and this one."
"Hm? Really?"
"Yes."
Riaen explained that games similar not only to chess but also to Othello, checkers, janggi, go, and gomoku all existed here.
"A game much like Othello was popular in the Valerian Kingdom for a time. As for the others, I've heard that countries in the eastern part of the continent play similar ones."
Talking about something that genuinely interested her, Riaen spoke quickly and without a single stammer. Maybe I should have expected as much from someone who already knew the original form of Crownfall.
That was when Rain spoke up.
"But Master — we don't have to limit ourselves to board games, do we?"
"True, but Grace said she'd start with board games for now."
At the end of the day, Grace was the one making the boards and pieces. She would probably do almost anything I asked of her, but dumping unreasonable requests on her still felt wrong. Making board games was likely easier for her than crafting other kinds of entertainment. So I figured she'd produce as many board games as she could first, then gradually move on to other things.
"I'd really like to play the PC games and online games from Master's memories, though."
"As if that would work."
To make those, we'd first need something to replace a computer. I'd love it if we could pull it off, but it was never going to be easy.
"Um…"
While Rain and I were talking, Eliona carefully raised her hand.
"So what you're both saying is… you're simply bored?"
"Pretty much."
"Well… I can't exactly deny it."
We needed something — anything — to fill the hours.
"Then… if it wouldn't be too presumptuous, shall I sing for you?"
"Oh, really?"
"You're from the Valerian Kingdom, right? Their songs are excellent."
The way Rain said it suggested the Valerian Kingdom was a culturally sophisticated place. And a song from a former princess of such a kingdom? I shifted in my seat, settling in to listen with genuine anticipation.
"Ahem…! Very well, then."
Eliona drew a deep breath and began to sing.
As Eliona's song filled the room, the mood lifted naturally, and Riaen — who knew the melody — layered in a harmony. When Eliona finished, Rain, not to be outdone, launched into a song of her own…
And the sound of it drew Grace away from her craftwork and Silver out of the forge, both of them joining in.
All three dragons clearly knew the song, while Eliona and Riaen looked lost — so I figured it was something only dragons were familiar with. After that came songs from Earth that I knew. Somehow, one after another, we ended up spending the time singing together.
And as we sang…
"We need music…"
"If we had instruments, I could try to play something… but we don't have any."
"Singing without music is harder than I thought…"
Even something simple would do — we needed instruments for accompaniment. Trying to sing with nothing behind us left everything feeling hollow. Humans really were creatures of desire: once food, clothing, and shelter were more or less sorted out, new wants just kept appearing.
"Should we place an order for instruments the next time the orcs come by?"
"Instruments from the Demon King's Territory are poor quality, so if someone from Coreloot comes through… ha, but I doubt anyone coming from Coreloot will be skilled enough to haul a wagon this far."
Nothing for it, then. For now, we'd make do with what we had.
"Well, it is a rather privileged complaint."
Ordering instruments out of sheer boredom — it sounded like the hobby of a noble or a royal.
"Even then, it wouldn't be possible for a poor lower-ranking noble. Among mid-ranking nobles, only those whose territories are stable and profitable enough could manage it."
Grace said this as she took a seat.
Hmm…
After all that fun, I'm starting to feel drained.
Spending time like a complete idler might not be so bad after all…
BOOM…!
"……"
"……"
"……"
I had been sprawled in my chair, contemplating a sunlit nap, when a thunderous crash erupted outside the inn. It wasn't any of our employees — every last one of them was gathered in the dining hall with me. Even Silver, who had been in the forge, had come out during the singing.
"What's going on?"
"Uh… well… I think we have guests…?"
Rain, stationed as a guard and able to check outside instantly, reported as much.
Guests — and a crash like that?
"They're dragons."
"…Again?"
Was there something about this inn that made it a magnet for dragons?
"About twenty of them, roughly?"