A Dragon's Curiosity

Picking up the black pawn again, Nisha moved it a single pace forward. As it was located to the outer border of the board, it could be seen as a fairly conservative move, avoiding to clash with the forward position her opponent, Alice, assumed in the middle of the field.

In her heart, a strange tension arose. Winning or losing, she would benefit in either way. The brown haired woman already guaranteed her she could enroll in any case. Yet …

Nisha was not willing to lose.

Accurately speaking, this could be the first time since she entered the academy grounds that someone took the initiative to come and challenge her. Her instincts as a beast roared beneath her calm demeanor. Even without knowing her adversary’s playstyle, failure was not an option anymore.

Similarly, Alice Rotland burned fiercely under the guise of a calm demeanor as well. The break to sort out her thoughts and reassess her mindset did not diminish the burning fury hidden beneath her smooth skin. A challenge to her honor and disrespecting her directly, an unprecedented event. Whether intentional or not, she had to bury the young elf on the battlefield as soon as possible!

Her play style reflected her emotions, a furious charge right in the middle of the field.

Nisha, on the other hand, managed to hold up against the aggressive flood of pawns and knights bombarding her with offense after offense.

Frowning slightly, the dragon slowed down the placement of her figures. A pattern emerged inside of her head, but it couldn’t be. Right? No one would really do that. There had to be another hidden move besides the obvious.

Glancing towards Elye Rotland, the elder overseeing the bet and chess game, sorted through his papers, looking up now that he felt a gaze resting on him. Studying the board for a second, he quickly went back to his documents, shaking his head as if something was wrong.

“Are you out of options already? I haven’t even started cornering you yet!”

Unhappy about the break in an otherwise smooth exchange of offense and defense, Alice could not help herself and taunted the elf to bring her attention back on the field where they were pitting against each other.

Refusing to stoop on the same level and taunt back, Nisha tightened the circle of her black fighters, guarding the king in the middle and rearranging the figures to respond quickly in case the plan unraveled in the way she foresaw.

But it could not be. There’s no way Alice would not know.

Trading some of the pawns and taking them off the field, the flawless offense continued, sometimes moving forward, having occupied two thirds of the board by now, sometimes just rearranging the more powerful figures to threaten important key stones like the black queen or the towers holding the flanks.

No matter how hard the dragon analysed the formations and considered future outcomes, everything indicated a single plan by her opponent.

Flickering her eyes between the brown hair falling slightly on the table before moving around her own pieces, Nisha was finally convinced to go along with it and see if it really was so simple.

Seizing the momentum to broaden a small flaw in the otherwise peerless offense, a corridor bereft of obstructions opened, allowing the black cavalry to charge straight towards the white king.

A dangerous glint appeared in Alice’s eyes. She was fully focused on the game by now, not even taking the time to taunt her opponent or jeer anymore. Her delicate face only showed concentration and resembled a mask otherwise, not letting her emotions escape. Whether she could deal with the sudden reversal or if she planned it, no one could tell.

Alye also stopped reading, his eyes fully seizing up the board and taking in the situation before his shoulders started trembling.

Slowly lifting her snow white hand, Nisha rested it for a second on one of the knights, yet she didn’t move it. Instead, she stared straight into the brown eyes belonging to the lady that challenged her. There, the burning glint grew even stronger, while she controlled her face to not leak her emotions, her eyes still betrayed her.

Assured to have understood the opponent’s plan, the dragon removed her hand in a much faster fashion. Moving away one of the bishops to the open flanks on the side of the board, an innocent expression appeared on her face. Inwardly, the elf was massively pleased with herself for having seen through the trap before her.

In turn, the black queen now dangled in front of the white offense, the protection of the bishop ceased to be. Although it screamed ‘trap’ as well, the allure of taking the strongest figure off the board was too strong. Pushing one of her own knights forward, it stopped besides a pawn in a safe position, giving Alice the chance to kill off the queen in the next round before threatening the king. Even if Nisha moved the bishop back to his original position, the knight would still reap the queen, even if it died.

Trembling even more yet not revealing what he was thinking, the elder spectating almost could not hold it in anymore.

Happy to have her gamble succeed, the elf leaned back, not moving her figures anymore.

“Checkmate.”

“What!? No way! You’re lying!”

Shocked by the sudden declaration, Alice’s mask broke apart fully, revealing the fury and confusion underneath. Studying the board closely while leaning in, trying to figure out how exactly her opponent claimed to have bested her. Elye finally started laughing loudly. Having had to hold it in while seeing the two girls trap each other, he was glad to have observed the game. As for the tactics involved, he was familiar with one and the other shocked him, even he had not thought of countering the ploy his daughter was so proud of before.

When the brown haired beauty could not figure it out no matter how hard she searched, indignation welled up in her face. Yet before she could voice her dissatisfaction, Nisha swiftly reached out to move her queen away from the king, opening another hole in her otherwise iron defense. With this single gesture the whole board seemingly changed. It made no sense to move the queen to spaces to the side, the enemy knight would still beat her in the next round and two rounds after that the black king would fall.

However Nisha already calculated for this situation. The open corridor, the invitation to storm ahead after only defending, she had seen it all before in the single game she observed Alice play in the [Eel’s Park]. At the time she saw what would happen and the strategy stuck in the dragon’s head. While she never played it herself, she simulated it in her head and thought of a countermeasure.

What confused Nisha at first was the notion that her opponent would reuse a set up she had already seen through. Contrary, she even suspected this was an elaborate arrangement to place a trap one level higher. Yet nothing of the sort happened.

Looking at the board now, the useless move of sending a bishop out to the far side of one flank suddenly became a deadly dagger, piercing straight through the stretched lineup of white pieces defending their king. Alice already disregarded the queen as her knight would kill her as soon as it was her turn. The bishop had confused her, but as soon as he would move into her domain it would die, since no figure was there to cover him.

Strangely, this wasn’t necessary at all. With the bishop restricting the single field in front and to the side of the king, all Nisha needed to do was move her queen two steps to the right. Suddenly, the black stone faced the open corridor, threatening the black king in a straight line, disregarding the white queen in the middle of the field and the knight which would kill her in the next round.

Simply because there was no next round. The tower shielding the white ruler from one side now became his downfall, as all retreats were sealed by the bishop and the queen finished the checkmate.

Truthfully, even a more experienced opponent might not have thought of this move. Sacrificing the queen was almost always a desperate move in a last effort to try to struggle to avoid an inevitable defeat. With the nonsensical move of opening her defense beforehand, Alice got too eager and oversaw the black queen actually still having the ability to influence the board since she regarded it as a dead piece already.

In the stunned silence from the match suddenly concluding, only Elye’s laughter rang out.

“Incredible. Instead of braving the open charge, you assassinated the king before anyone caught on what was happening and lured Alice in with your queen instead, using her own move against her. What a game. I definitely need to tell the other old codgers about it, they’ll be delighted.”

Praising her skill openly, the elder carefully studied the board and nodded several times, committing the sight to memory and afraid to miss even a single position of the stones.

Nisha herself didn’t think the game was especially skillful or brilliant. Having experienced the defeat of a fellow charging into the open passage in the [Eel’s Park] before, it should be natural to have thought of a countermeasure in case she experienced such a situation in the future. Right now, the preparations simply paid off. As for sacrificing her own queen, Nisha didn’t value the versatile black figure more than she did one of the pawns. As long as she could obtain victory, a pawn might turn out to be even more valuable after all.

Lastly, Alice looked like her soul left her body. With a dropped jaw, she stared at the board, still not convinced she actually lost. Her plan worked out as she had prepared it inside her head, the open passage clearly opened by the elf as so many times before by other opponents. Of course the brunette lady did not always use this tactic, but it had never failed her so far, making it a top tier strategy when she absolutely couldn’t lose, even her father could only stall but not break it. Yet currently … no matter what move she did, her king would fall. She needed to move it out of the checkmate, but the lone bishop on the far flank blocked all escapes and was too far from her figures to be beaten. Unwillingness welled up in her chest. This wasn’t how it was supposed to go!

Nisha could almost see the fire spouting from Alice’s eyes. Sure, the lady was angry and likely would make more trouble for her now despite her promise. But the dragon thrived off overcoming the enemy and grasping victory. Similar to a hunt, this rush of adrenaline simply felt the best. Nothing could come even close.

“You! You must have cheated! This …”

As expected, the woman could not accept this defeat just by lying down and rashly jumped up again, sending her chair flying once again. Luckily the elder intervened at this time.

“Enough, Alice. Do you imply I would have missed it if she was cheating right in front of me? A bet is a bet, you lost. Take it as a lesson to remember: don’t bet what you can’t afford to lose.”

Pulling out five envelopes out of the stack of documents, his withered hand placed the amber pipe in front of Nisha and the letters besides it.

“I have to say, I’m quite surprised, Miss Nisha. In total, there are five different letters of recommendation just pertaining you. Two from the church, one from an army not native to our kingdom and two different nobles that don’t wish to reveal their own identity. Very unusual. I think the current record has been three letters, and you surpassed that by not just one.

Anyway, with this your admission certainly can be finished right away, I will personally take care of the details, the only thing left to do is make a copy of your adventurer card. I do believe I remember you already achieved E rank, isn’t that so? The card will also act as your student identification card, take care to not lose it. Would you mind handing it over to me?”

Patiently waiting for the elf to react, he kindly smiled, unlike his aura which heavily surged to restrain his daughter heavily.

Naturally Nisha wouldn’t refuse such a convenient arrangement, even if it was slightly suspicious. She had acquaintances in two different elemental halls and Hale might have sent a letter of recommendation as well, she discussed the differences in education between Leandar and Terus with the Lance Corporal, she knew the elf planned on enrolling in the academy. The dubious part were the two nobles recommending her, she hadn’t made any noteworthy connections which would explain the two mysterious backers.

Nonetheless, she handed over her E rank adventurer card which acquired a stamp from the old man. Regular eyes would fail to catch it but the dragon clearly noticed how another magic circuit was added to the card due to her [Spirit Sight].

With unknown variables and being on foreign terrain, Nisha decided to stop pushing her luck and excused herself with all due respect and heeding all needed courtesy. Closing the door behind her she could hear a heated discussion breaking out.

“Father! How can you just let her go like that! Didn’t you see …”

With the guarantee from Elye Rotland that neither side could pursue the victor of the game, Nisha couldn’t be bothered to eavesdrop on them, she already achieved her objective for coming this time around and hummed a happy melody while depositing the amber pipe in her [Inner Space]. While she was not sure regarding its usage, a treasure was a treasure and it was the second one she snatched away since staying in Thurgau.

Leaving through the academy gates, she proceeded to return back home, Little Lia must be really missing her by now.