"Sorry? You’re asking for a move, which ans you’re challenging to a duel?"
"Pick up your weapon, Swen."
She cut off, glaring at with a sharp expression. I wanted to say sothing, but it didn’t seem like it would make a difference, so I did as told and drew my rapier.
"Are you ready?"
"…Yes."
"I will begin."
She said, then perford an elegant salute, before—
Swish!
With a speed so fast it was almost invisible to the eye, she lunged at . I barely managed to dodge the thrust of her rapier as it ca dangerously close.
"Wait a mont! My lady, just a second—"
Swish! Swish!
Before I could even attempt to retaliate, several more strikes ca from her. At the sa ti—
…Thud.
When I ca to my senses, her blade was dangerously close to my abdon. Without realizing, my knees gave way and I collapsed.
This ti, there was no avoiding it. The last ti, I got lucky, but her movents were beyond what I could follow with my own reflexes.
"…"
I slowly examined Serpina, who didn’t say a word. There was no killing intent… It didn’t seem like this was anything more than a sparring match. But then, why was she doing this?
"…I give up."
"Are you surrendering?"
"I don’t believe in persistently fighting an opponent I can’t possibly defeat."
And so, one fact beca clear. My combat abilities were absurdly low. After seeing Serpina’s movents just now, I could feel it again—I was absolutely hopeless at this. If Airen hadn’t been by my side, I would have been in danger countless tis.
"…I understand. Thank you for indulging ."
"Indulging you is fine, but may I ask why you suddenly decided to do this?"
At my question, she stared at my face for a while, then, in a dry tone, asked back.
"What do you think the reason is?"
What do I think? I tried to process the question in my mind—‘I don’t know’ was the only answer that ca to . With a question like that, unrelated to the state of the nation, I couldn’t predict her intentions. There was no way I could read her mind.
Without waiting for an answer, she spoke briefly.
"…It’s just for fun."
For fun, huh. It didn’t look like fun to , but I guessed she wasn’t planning on explaining any further.
"Uhm... Was it for this ‘fun’ that you called here?"
"You’ll find out if you follow ."
She said that, hung her weapon back on the wall, and started walking sowhere. As I stared blankly at her, she turned to ask .
"What are you doing? Aren’t you coming?"
"Ah… I’ll be right there."
After hearing that, she turned back and led the way. Her large hips swayed enticingly, but I quickly pushed away any distractions and followed her slowly.
***
We climbed the stairs and arrived at a room. Inside, there was a massive table, and in the center, a familiar ga board with pieces set up.
A chessboard, black and white pieces scattered across it… It was a chess set.
"What’s this…?"
"Swen, I wanted to play a ga with you."
Just now, we were dueling, and now she wants to play chess? What’s going on in her mind? But then again, as a servant, it’s my duty to comply when my master asks sothing.
"You know the rules, right?"
"I know the basics. But, well, I’m not confident in my chess skills. I haven’t played much, so I’m not sure I can give you a real challenge."
"That’s actually good. You won’t get hurt."
"What do you an by that?"
"Well, if you’ve never played, then there’s no sha in losing. Your pride won’t be hurt."
She said that, chuckling mischievously.
This woman?
Her obvious provocation stirred up a bit of competitiveness in . I knew the basic rules and a few openings—nothing too deep—but with my limited knowledge, I probably wouldn’t lose too badly.
"I’ll still do my best."
"Good. Let’s play, Swen."
And so, I unexpectedly began a ga of chess with her.
And—
***
"…"
"It seems there’s nowhere left to go, Swen. What will you do?"
This translation is the intellectual property of Novelight.
In a situation where every move I made would be a mistake, I once again raised the white flag. This was my fifth consecutive loss to her. Was this the difference in skill? When you’re defeated this overwhelmingly, it has the strange effect of clearing your mind.
"I concede."
"From the middle of the ga, you made quite a few blunders."
"I don’t even know which of the moves I made were blunders."
I said that, laughing bitterly. She stared at for a while, then slowly stood up.
"You’ve worked hard today, following my pace."
"It’s nothing. Is this the end?"
At my words, she smiled in amusent.
"Do you want to spend more ti with , perhaps?"
The way she casually said that made think—maybe Serpina enjoyed joking around more than I expected. Well, maybe I should give it a try in this situation.
"Of course. There’s nothing more honorable than spending ti with my master, a humble servant like myself."
"In that case, I’ll offer you so advice. If you truly wish to win my favor, you should stop saying only what sounds pleasing."
She said it lightly, but the weight of her words didn’t escape . It seed like a casual remark, so I decided not to put too much aning into it.
"I’ll keep that in mind."
"…"
Serpina slowly stood up and, gazing out of the window at the annex, spoke.
"I’ve sent out a conscription notice to Amir Castle."
"…"
"I intend to fortify our defenses based on your opinion. We’ll prepare to repel an assault from Aishus’ army."
So, she was asking for my opinion? It wasn’t necessary for her to tell this, but I decided to remain silent and wait for her to continue speaking.
Before long, she looked at with the expression of a ruler and asked:
"I’ll ask you, Swen—do you still think Aishus’ army will attack?"
"…"
Brought to this annex, I had played along with her mysterious pasti. Now she was asking if I still believed in my own opinion, which had once been dismissed as lacking evidence.
I wasn’t exactly sure, but I thought this might be so kind of test. If that was the case, what should I say?
That Aishus would attack by coming up the river?
Honestly, that was just one hypothesis I had derived by calculating from the absolute conclusion that "stationing troops at Amir Castle is the most efficient strategy." It had sounded quite convincing, so I said it.
But…
How could I be 100% certain that the future would unfold that way, given the lack of concrete evidence?
Did she perhaps suspect that I was hiding sothing?
If I thought about it, the duel, the chess ga—they were probably ways to assess my abilities. It wouldn’t be surprising if she was trying to gauge whether I was hiding sothing from her.
I didn’t know exactly what she was thinking. But if she truly believed I was hiding sothing, it might be a useful misunderstanding to exploit.
"Master."
I lowered my head and quickly fabricated a sentence that sounded plausible.
"There is no such thing as a certainty in this world. We are all travelers, always searching for the best path toward the highest possibility. Along the way, there are monts when we must see what is not visible. Even things that are clearly in front of us can elude our sight at tis. I believe that’s the answer."
"See what is not visible, you say?"
"That’s right."
To see the unseen. That was my attempt to express my current situation—how I had to track things that weren’t imdiately obvious. The phrase about the obvious being hidden was a taphor for saying, "I know the outco, but I don’t know the rest."
Instead of giving away clues about my ability, I was simply trying to make a good impression with sothing that sounded impressive.
In short, I knew I couldn’t provide solid proof, so I was going to dress up my words as much as possible. The conclusion was already set—whatever happened in the future would make my words true, so all I had to do was speak convincingly.
If she asked, "What do you an by that?" I wasn’t sure how to answer. But fortunately, she seed to accept it, falling into thought without a response.
She was probably desperately trying to make sense of my words.
—What would she think if she knew that what I was actually thinking was "Serpina’s profile while she’s lost in thought is beautiful"?
"…Is that your answer?"
"Yes."
"I see."
Serpina thought for a while longer, then finally extended her hand to .
"Today was enjoyable. I would be glad if we could spend ti together again."
She probably found it entertaining, after all the one-sided slaughter. But for , it wasn’t much fun. Still, well… this was just part of social life, wasn’t it?
"Call anyti."
I took her hand and gave a light smile. At least for now, I felt like I had made it through.
***
After Swen left, Serpina sat alone in the annex, deep in thought.
"…He doesn’t seem to have the ability to read the future."
When we dueled earlier, his movents didn’t suggest he could foresee my attacks. There was no sign of any magical ability to predict what was coming.
You can tell by the movents of the body. It’s easy to see whether soone is hiding their ability or if they really lack talent. At least in that 1:1 duel, Swen appeared to be closer to the latter.
Then, is he truly skilled in strategy?
That didn’t seem to be the case either.
Chess is a ga, but it’s also a test of one’s individual strategic skills, even in a lighthearted way. It’s common knowledge that people with a talent for strategy are good at chess. Swen made so surprising moves, but the connections between them didn’t feel very strong. It seed like he was just playing his best move at the mont rather than planning a grand strategy.
So—this, too, seed more like genuine effort than the act of hiding sothing.
The answer to my last question was similar.
There was no clear evidence behind his words. He just spoke in vague terms.
"…Bluffing?"
But still, no matter how I thought about it, it didn’t feel like he was bluffing.
Serpina prided herself on having a sharp eye for people. She could easily tell if soone was bluffing. Swen’s confidence… it had a certain foundation. It wasn’t just empty words; there was a kind of belief in it, a belief that things would turn out as he predicted.
If it was all a bluff, then it would an I had completely misjudged everything in my life.
"See what is not visible… huh."
Serpina spent a long ti alone in the annex, repeating the words Swen had spoken to herself. For the first ti, she couldn’t deny that she was drawn to an opinion she didn’t fully understand.
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