I Became an Academy Chapter 21

It didn’t take long for the two of them to notice .

I’ve never been involved in battles like other students, so I don’t know much about it, but it seed they could sense my presence.

Leo seed to be able to hide his presence well, but I couldn’t.

"If you were here, you should’ve said sothing."

"Well, you both seed to be having so much fun…"

"What?! We weren’t having fun at all!"

Liar.

You were having a lot of fun, even if you won’t admit it.

You might be able to fool others, but not .

Even though she still wore that grumpy expression, it was obvious.

But if I pointed this out, Orca would probably get embarrassed and change the subject.

So, I decided to just pretend to accept her denial and move on.

"Sure, if you say so. No big deal."

"…Why does that feel so irritating?"

"So, Stella, why are you here?"

Ignoring Orca’s grumbling, I turned to Stella.

It made sense for Leo and Orca to be here—Orca ca daily, and Leo visited often.

But Stella? That was different.

It’s not like we hadn’t t before, but it was unusual for her to co to the counseling room.

Was she in a situation dangerous enough to need counseling? That didn’t seem right.

Most students at the academy have a strong sense of pride.

Understandably so—after all, they’re the ones who were always called geniuses in their hotowns.

And if you asked anyone who the most prideful person at the academy was, they’d probably say Stella.

She’s a princess, after all.

And people with strong pride are usually reluctant to seek counseling.

Of course, if they were completely overwheld and had no other choice, it might be different, but…

Given the tiline of Stella’s main quest, her crisis wouldn’t happen until much later.

The emperor was still alive.

There shouldn’t be any reason for her to be ntally struggling yet.

"I ca to see you, Ophelia-sensei."

"…? Why?"

"The howork."

"?"

"…Don’t tell

you forgot? The howork you assigned ."

"No, I rember the howork, but…"

Of course, I rembered assigning it.

After all, the headmaster had just burst into the counseling room earlier, saying it gave her the creeps.

I wasn’t so dumb as to forget sothing that had happened less than a day ago.

…But why?

I tilted my head, not quite understanding where Stella was going with this, and she sighed.

"As I thought, you forgot. The deadline you set for the howork is too vague, don’t you think? ‘Until you see

again’ is pretty ambiguous."

"…Oh."

"I heard you’re always in the counseling room, so I thought I’d just take so ti to co and see you."

Now that she ntioned it, I did say sothing like that.

I had thrown out that deadline without much thought since it was just a random assignnt.

Maybe she realized it would be unreasonable to keep it up indefinitely, so she decided to co find .

That was my mistake.

"Howork?"

"It’s none of your business. …Ophelia-sensei?"

"Yes, yes. I understand. How about you two play chess together while I take care of this counseling session?"

I felt a little bad for Leo.

He had waited this long, only to be practically shooed out of the counseling room.

…Though, thankfully, Leo didn’t seem to mind much.

"I haven’t played much chess before… but after watching you two, I want to give it a try! What about you, Orca?"

"…Fine. I’ll take out my frustration on you."

"Haha, go easy on , please."

Luckily, Orca, who had been thoroughly beaten by Stella, still seed enthusiastic.

Her tone was still sharp, but seeing her like this made

smile.

Orca, who was destined to wander alone her whole life, seed to be slowly discovering the joy of interacting with others.

"It’s a good opportunity. What do you say, Ophelia-sensei? Care to chat while playing so chess?"

"Sounds good. Not a bad idea."

"Checkmate."

"…So, you were holding back against that girl after all?"

"Who knows? I always play seriously."

"Hah, what a lie."

But it was the truth.

Stella didn’t seem to believe

at all, though.

It was understandable, given that soone who had lost to Orca managed to wipe the floor with her.

"Want to play another round?"

"…Yes. This ti, I’ll win."

Of course, it wasn’t as if I hadn’t gone easy on Orca.

It’s true that I’m better at chess than she is.

But it’s also true that I had lost to her.

You see, I’ve never played chess with a real person before…

I like chess, but no one around

was into it, so I usually played against a computer, and getting crushed was just part of the routine.

So how did I manage to beat Stella?

Well, that’s easy.

I had a strategy.

Sotis, when you encounter Stella as another playable character, a mini-ga of chess begins.

Winning didn’t yield much reward, but no gar likes to miss out on even minor rewards.

After many gars played countless rounds of chess against her, a strategy erged…

A strategy to beat Stella.

I slyly moved my queen forward.

It was a position where her knight could capture my queen.

What would she do?

"…"

She hesitated, likely recalling previous experiences.

But eventually, she decided and captured my queen with her knight.

…Yes, she captured it.

She moved the knight that she shouldn’t have moved.

"And that’s checkmate."

"Wh-What?!"

"Care for another round?"

"…No, I’ve lost."

Once her knight, which had been protecting her key pieces, was out of the way, the rest of her pieces fell quickly, like dominoes.

Perhaps because she was now a person and not just a ga character, her habits seed even more pronounced.

"Alright, I’ve made my decision."

"About what?"

"The next assignnt."

"W-What? I thought the howork was over…"

"A student should always be ready to take on assignnts from their teacher, right?"

"Grr…"

Of course, she’s good at chess.

I don’t know exactly how good since I’m not that knowledgeable about chess.

But one thing’s for sure: the mini-ga was unnecessarily difficult.

It was hard enough that strategies and guides were created just for it.

Without those strategies, there’s no way I could have beaten her.

On the flip side, the fact that strategies even exist ans her playstyle is predictable.

Unlike the AI in typical chess gas, which adapts to situations, she plays in a more human, but also more rigid, manner.

Stella is obsessed with powerful pieces, mainly the queen.

If she has the choice between moving a queen or a bishop, she’ll almost always move the queen.

The reason is simple.

It’s the strongest piece. The queen is stronger than the bishop.

A lot of players liked how her personality was reflected in her chess playstyle.

And I was one of those players.

"At least twice a week. You need to co to the counseling room and play chess with . I won’t set specific days or tis."

"…Hmm?"

"Don’t you want to?"

Her personality being reflected in her chess playstyle also ant that if you could change the way she played chess, even slightly, it could affect her worldview.

It might sound far-fetched, but…

Personality is built up from small things.

By changing the way she played chess, a ga she enjoyed, even a small shift in her perspective was possible.

"…Fine. But be prepared. Next ti, I won’t let it be so easy."

"That’s good to hear."

She’s a proud person.

She’s already lost several gas of chess in a row, sothing she was confident in, so her pride must have taken a hit.

She’s probably grinding her teeth, determined to win next ti.

But what if she continues to lose?

She’ll eventually realize.

That the way she plays chess is flawed.

That if she keeps playing this way, she’ll never win.

…If she ever cos to that realization—if she ever stops falling for the sa strategies gars have used against her for so long—Stella’s worldview will change.

Whether it’s a big change or a small one, I don’t know…

But I’d say a small change has already happened.

I saw her complinting Orca through the door, after all.

"Oh, and I’ll reduce the complinting howork to once every two days."

"W-What…?!"

"I’m trying to make things easier for you since it seed like you were struggling. Don’t think too much about it."

"Can’t that howork just disappear altogether…?!"

"I never said it would."

"D-Damn it. I’ve already run out of ways to complint that old hag and Charlotte…"

"So, you’ve only been complinting those two so far?"

"Well, what else could I do? There’s no way a princess could go around complinting people she doesn’t even know…"

…Well, isn’t she clever? Or should I say her thods are just misguided?

It’s not a bad thing, though.

Even complinting people you know is harder than you’d think.

Giving complints to familiar people can be challenging.

The fact that she’s managed to do it shows so growth, right?

"In that case, Princess Stella, why not complint the students who co here? You were just complinting Orca earlier. You’ve already done it once, so it shouldn’t be too hard."

"…I complinted her? Really?"

"Yes. Leo heard it too."

Only after seeing Leo nod did Stella finally seem to believe it.

With that, the chess ga masquerading as a counseling session ca to an end.