Chapter 23: 22. Taming a Noble Lady (?)
1.
I don’t know how chess developed in this world, but there was an old story that had been passed around the chess community for ages.
‘If humanity had to rebuild its knowledge of chess from zero, would it converge on the same theories we have now?’
The answer was generally yes.
As long as the pieces moved in fixed ways and the board had a fixed size, the optimizations humanity arrived at would ultimately converge along similar lines.
Most importantly, they would eventually develop AI.
This other world seemed to be no different.
Isabella’s first move was a knight rather than a pawn.
Tap.
Chess generally had all kinds of opening concepts, but the most universal one was pushing pawns to claim the center.
Moving a knight meant she intended to watch first, conceding the center for the time being.
It also meant she would position her bishops like snipers and slowly target the center.
People who usually played like this fell into one of two categories.
Either they wanted to react flexibly after seeing how I responded.
Or...
‘They’re just gay.’
Hypermodernism.
And I really loved picking apart defensive styles like this.
The time limit was fifteen minutes, a rapid-style game.
There were rapid and blitz formats in chess.
Rapid was fifteen to thirty minutes per game—a format with relatively ample time for calculation.
Blitz was a format where you played in seconds, with games lasting as little as one minute or up to five.
For the record, my rapid rating was 2500.
My blitz rating was 3200.
That was a fairly large gap, and there was a reason for it.
AI had less room to interfere in blitz.
Even if a tin can calculated the optimal move, it still needed time to look at it, relay it, and make the move.
There was no time for that in blitz. Victory and defeat were decided by fractions of a second.
It was an arena where humans faced humans. That was why I felt I had a chance there.
"Your turn."
Isabella called to me after seeing me blankly staring into the empty space on my right.
Come on, did she think I didn’t know that?
"I was thinking."
"From the very first move?"
This woman was habitually rude. Who tried to throw someone off right from the start?
I had been thinking.
More precisely, I hadn’t been thinking about what my first move should be.
I’d been thinking about how to tear her apart.
Tap.
I began with a standard response.
The game progressed.
Tap.
Tap.
...Tap.
Tap.
......Tap, tap.
After every move Isabella made, I moved immediately within 0.1 seconds.
The instant she took her hand away, I made my move.
That was my style.
Even that alone put pressure on the opponent.
"..."
The pieces began moving faster and faster, but Isabella gradually started to hesitate.
Her prepared opening ended here. From now on, it was the middlegame.
It was an opening I had almost never seen before, but it wasn’t nonsensical, so I responded appropriately.
After thinking hard, Isabella made another move.
Tap.
I didn’t hesitate in the slightest.
The key here was to never look at the chessboard.
I simply turned my head, stared into the empty space on my right, and pictured the board in my mind.
Then, whenever Isabella moved, I would respond instinctively the moment I saw it.
I had already thought through most of the moves I would make.
.........Tap.
Tap.
.....................Tap.
Tap.
When I had briefly scanned the chessboard earlier, I thought she was completely terrible, but she wasn’t quite that bad.
She seemed like a decent intermediate player.
Her style was pretty funny, though.
A traditional, defensive style, I supposed.
This was exactly how I imagined a noble lady would play chess.
It would be fun to tear through and devour.
My specialty was dragging my opponents down to the bottom.
"...?"
I harassed her with messy moves that might be unsound.
The more I muddied the board, the more useless her preparation became.
Perhaps it was chess unlike anything a noble lady had ever experienced before.
I had my head turned away, so I couldn’t see her face, but the time she spent thinking doubled.
....................................Tap.
Tap.
After repeating that several times, my remaining time was fourteen minutes and twenty-eight seconds.
Isabella’s remaining time... had fallen to two minutes and seventeen seconds.
The advantage ratio was probably around seven to three now.
She was diligent, but far too defensive.
It was like poking a block of wood—there was no feeling of striking home.
She came at me a few times in the beginning, but after getting completely thrashed and realizing this was serious, she started doing nothing but running away.
Never mind making the game messy; she just kept running away.
‘Should I wrap this up soon?’
Just as I was thinking that—
...Tap.
After a long think, Isabella finally made her move, and I was about to respond.
[Um... Lionel?]
What?
Yuna suddenly stopped me.
[Look at this.]
Yuna brought up a camera window at the edge of my vision.
"...?"
Wait a second.
On the screen Yuna showed me, Isabella was holding a chess piece.
But...
‘Is she crying right now?’
Tears had gathered in her eyes and were running down her cheeks.
Even the hand holding the piece was trembling.
No, why... was she crying?
This was so bewildering.
Her lips were pressed tightly together as she cried.
There were a few things I was weak against, and one of them was tears.
Especially tears shed by someone who had earnestly done their best.
‘Ah...’
Fine. Let’s look at it differently.
Suppose some elementary school kid suddenly showed up out of nowhere and absolutely destroyed me at a rhythm game.
I wasn’t joking—I might cry too.
How humiliating would it be to get thoroughly crushed while playing White?
I wasn’t heartless enough to go that far...
Throwing the entire game would be a little much.
I’d give her a chance. If she spotted this mistake, she would win. If she didn’t—
‘Then you just lose.’
In the end, I made a move that looked questionable.
At a glance, it looked fine. But if you examined it closely, it was utter garbage.
More specifically, it put my rook in a position where it could be taken for free two moves later.
If Isabella kept calm, she would spot it...
"...Sniff."
Isabella sniffled quietly as she examined the board.
Ugh.
With her sniffling as background noise, I gave her a little more time.
And then—
"!"
It seemed Isabella had found it.
Nice. Good work.
After playing a few more moves, I subtly hung another rook.
And another bishop.
It sounded a little funny when put that way, but...
I seemed to have barely succeeded in putting myself at a disadvantage.
The moment Isabella’s advantage became certain by calculation, her shoulders relaxed slightly.
Her sniffling gradually faded as well.
She was such an open book.
Ugh, I’d lost all interest.
Think of it like being in a boxing match, only for your opponent to suddenly start crying.
Honestly, it just made me want to laugh.
"I resign."
I turned away from the empty space I had been staring into and lowered my head.
The remaining time was fourteen minutes and one second to twenty-three seconds.
Of course, the result was my defeat.
"Huh? Yeah... uh."
Isabella nodded with a dazed expression.
She looked like she couldn’t quite believe she had won.
I offered both hands for a polite handshake, then rose from my seat.
Women who cried were the most exhausting.
I didn’t want to say anything, but it drained the life out of me.
Still, I thought I should say something out of courtesy.
"Your opening is interesting. It’s my first time seeing it."
It looked like she had tailored the Réti Opening to her own tastes.
But then—
Whoosh!
Isabella suddenly turned her head, her eyes sparkling.
"That’s right! How did you know?"
"...?"
"I made that opening. I worked really, really hard on it for a year."
Ah, so she had made it herself.
Then it was something like the Isabella System.
That changed my evaluation somewhat.
If she had researched and created it herself, then it was worth raising my assessment.
It looked like she had done some studying to beat Dolores.
"Leaving the center open and indirectly controlling it with my pieces..."
"Yes, I could feel the philosophy behind it."
"Really? If it had been Dolores, she would definitely have cursed me for doing something pointless. She always says chess is about the center."
"Yes, it looks fine to me. Keep going. You can do it."
Pioneers always had it hard. It was the same in my world.
Keep your chin up, Isabella.
After comforting her with sweet words, I slowly edged away from my seat because I didn’t want to get any more involved.
"I’ll be going now..."
"What did you say your name was? What family are you from?"
I was caught just as I tried to leave.
"...I’m Lionel, and I don’t have a family."
"Huh? Are you a knight?"
"I’m not that either."
It was hard to explain my relationship with Dolores.
She hadn’t told me to say anything, nor had she told me not to, so I should keep my mouth shut.
"Oh, right. Is there anything I could improve about the opening?"
"I lost. What could I possibly say?"
"That’s true. I did win, didn’t I? Is there anything you’re curious about?"
"..."
This woman was a little strange.
I quietly shut my mouth and tried to resume working out.
Her first impression had been incredibly sharp, but...
She talked way too much.
Perhaps she was accustomed to people not answering her, because she kept chattering away beside me.
"Huff..."
"So what you mean is, instead of developing the bishop right away, it would be better to wait and see how things go."
"Yes... so delaying it a little would be better..."
"Then... what about this instead?"
She talked to me the entire time I exercised.
She also seemed sincere in her own way, so I couldn’t just brush her off completely.
Trying to exercise, think, and answer her questions at the same time was killing me.
"Haa..."
"Sorry for constantly talking to you, but why are you doing something so crude?"
She pointed at my jump rope as she asked.
"Huff... I need to work out..."
"Watching you play chess and work your brain, you seem perfectly suited to be a mage."
"I have no talent for magic."
After I had gone through about three sets and collapsed, Isabella squatted beside me and asked,
"Once you polish up the opening, can I come back and ask you about it? I’ll ask you about the things I don’t know."
"Why do you keep trying to ask me when I’m the weaker player?"
"Yeah, that’s true. I did win, but, um..."
Clap.
She clapped her hands and added,
"It’s an exchange of information. Chess information. As you know, chess is essential for nobles, right? You’ll need it too when you make your debut in high society later. And I’ll teach you magic. Magic. How about it?"
"..."
First of all, I wasn’t a noble.
Second, the offer was tempting, but...
Sorry, but I was a blacksmith.
There was a reason I was busting my ass working out like this.
Magic really wasn’t for me.
"Magic isn’t my thing. But aren’t you leaving?"
Seriously, please leave.
"I can’t leave because Dolores isn’t back. She’s hiding the gloves, and—ah! It’s something you don’t need to know about."
"..."
Mommy, help me.
Sadly, Mommy seemed to have spent quite a while looking for ore.
And so I had to listen to Isabella chatter for another two hours or so.
After the grueling training ended, I sprawled on the floor, conserving even the energy it took to breathe.
"Good work. Are you done?"
"..."
"But you enjoy talking to me, don’t you? Everyone else disappears pretty quickly."
For a moment, her first sentence nearly made me snap, but her next words made me feel sorry for her.
This woman was strange. Seriously strange.
Over three hours, I had been forced to tell her every opening I used.
She was incredibly rude and annoying, but she didn’t have any malice.
"Now that you’re done, shall we play another game—"
"..."
I seriously thought I understood why Ruby had run away and vanished.
Just as I closed my eyes and was about to sigh—
Bang.
The reception room door flew open.
"...Isabel."
The moment I heard that voice, I flinched.
Standing at the door was Dolores.
She appeared to have just returned from going out, with a sack of ore still in her hand.
It was the lowest and coldest I had ever heard her voice.
It startled me.
"Elysia, it’s been a while..."
"Dolores."
"...Why are you angry again? Fine. Dolores."
Elysia was her given name, and Dolores was her family name.
It sounded like she was telling Isabella not to use her given name.
But why was she so angry?
As I carefully got to my feet,
"Lionel..."
She slowly approached me.
Then she took out a handkerchief and carefully wiped the sweat from my forehead.
Her eyes scanned me from top to bottom.
My sweat-soaked shirt, flushed face, and the dumbbells and jump rope scattered beside me.
Tap.
Dolores’s hand reached for my cheek.
"You worked hard, didn’t you?"
Squeeze, squeeze.
Then she kneaded my cheek.
Her eyes curved softly, and her voice rose in pitch.
At least, it didn’t seem like she was angry at me...
That was when it happened.
"Have you talked with Lionel a lot too?"
Isabella suddenly cut in from the side.
"He’s so small, but he’s incredibly smart. What family is he from? I want to stay in touch with him from now on. He’s fun."
Every word made her interest painfully obvious.
"..."
Then Dolores’s head...
Creeeak...
Slowly turned toward Isabella.
The hand that had been kneading my cheek fell away.
"Get out."
"All of a sudden...? I still have something to say..."
"I said get out. I’ll follow you."
"...What?"
In the end, Isabella rose from her seat and left.
She glanced back as she walked toward the door, but Dolores did not even spare her a look.
The door closed, and Dolores looked back at me.
Then—
Squeeze...
She hugged me, lightly but tightly.
It felt like there was more strength in it than usual.
"I didn’t teach you this, did I, Lionel?"
"Pardon?"
She stroked my forehead and whispered,
"...You mustn’t follow strangers, all right?"
Leaving those words behind, she headed in the direction Isabella had gone.
2.
Her mood had been wonderful all day.
‘He’s so small, but he’s incredibly smart. What family is he from? I want to stay in touch with him from now on. He’s fun.’
But in a single instant, it plummeted over a cliff.
If that was a talent, then it was certainly a talent.
Isabella.
She was one of Dolores’s sworn sisters.
One of the few people Dolores would at least keep company with, perhaps.
She used to come by occasionally to play chess. But after the board was ruined a year ago, she had not returned.
She hated losing more than death, after all.
That was the sort of personality she had.
Dolores did not know why Isabella had come here now, at this particular time.
But...
She had set her sights on something she should not have.
Creak.
She opened the door to the office where Isabella was waiting.
Isabella sat on the sofa. Whether because she was naturally so cheerful, or because she simply lacked tact, she looked remarkably composed.
Closing the door, Dolores spoke briefly.
"Keep it brief. What do you want?"
"...Give me the gloves. I’ll buy them."
"..."
So that was her goal.
She had read the message and not even replied. Had she been so jealous inside that it felt like her stomach would burst?
"Those gloves. They’re worth studying, so they have value—"
"Get out."
If what Isabella wanted was the gloves, the situation became even more troublesome.
After all, Lionel was the one who had made the gloves.
Yet Isabella was already interested in him without even knowing that he was the person who had made them.
If she learned that those gloves had come from Lionel’s hands as well...
‘Get out of my house right now.’
Dolores could not even imagine what would happen.
She did not know what they had discussed while she was away, but Isabella’s eyes right now were identical to the ones she had worn in the past while searching for a way to conquer the Tower.
They meant she was focused, fascinated, and pleased.
"All right. You’re in a really bad mood today, aren’t you?"
"...Yes, I am. I’d like you to leave—"
Just when Dolores thought Isabella might actually leave so obediently—
"Then just tell me what family Lionel is from. Honestly, that’s become more important than the gloves."
Even worse.
She hated that.
She hated that most of all.
If Dolores said he was a child under her care, Isabella looked ready to come here every day.
But pretending he belonged to another family would make the cleanup afterward far too complicated.
This entire situation...
Was extremely troublesome, and extremely irritating.
Simply beating Isabella senseless and throwing her outside the estate was not an option, either. Even after Dolores stopped climbing, Isabella had continued scaling the Tower without pause.
Dolores could not be certain she would win.
"He’s really good at chess, did you know that? I hear he’s close to Ruby."
"..."
"His mind is incredible—brilliant. I’m even thinking of teaching him magic. We could cooperate! I teach him magic, and he teaches me chess... no, wait, I won, didn’t I?"
Dolores’s eyes grew wider and wider.
This woman...
What was she saying right now?
"Ah, right. Taking him on as a disciple would be good too. I don’t know what family he belongs to, but they’ll go crazy over it. I’ve never taken a disciple before. Yes! A disciple would be perfect! He looks more than qualified to be my first disciple."
Isabella broke into a bright smile, the corners of her lips curling upward.
"That’s right, I’ll be his magic teacher. He’ll be my chess teacher..."
"That child is...!"
Teacher.
That was the one word she absolutely could not tolerate.
It felt as if something precious were being torn away from her.
She shouted furiously.
"He is my child."
In the end, she had no choice but to tell the truth.
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