45. A Gamble Against Time (6)
The Soul Chess match between Zeliel and Carmenset.
Including the 7-Class mage Kaderfilt, every veteran member of the expedition watched the spectacle with bated breath.
The game unfolding between the two was truly unusual.
Was it because Zeliel was losing?
No. If that had been the case, they would simply have nodded and thought, As expected.
On the contrary… the real surprise was that Zeliel was actually putting up a strong fight against Carmenset.
“My lady… is slightly ahead.”
“She’s driven the legendary Carmenset onto the defensive…”
“You’re telling me the young lady’s chess skill is really that high? Her opponent is Carmenset. That very being who is said to have even defeated the creator of Soul Chess!”
To be honest, not a single person in the expedition had thought Zeliel would win. She might have been a young genius and might have shown tremendous promise in Soul Chess, but the same was true—far more so—of the legendary Carmenset.
He had already earned the title of chess Grandmaster in his teens, had summoned the soul of the creator of Soul Chess and challenged him in his twenties, and by the time he reached his thirties, legend said he had finally defeated him.
Even if Zeliel had earned the title of Grandmaster in her late teens, wasn’t her opponent an even greater genius—
and, on top of that, a being who had lived for thousands of years?
There was no way she could win.
At least, that was what they had thought.
That the young lady was merely burning with competitive spirit.
—Well, now! This is embarrassing!
Every move Carmenset made was blocked by Zeliel’s moves. Her pieces kept sliding into perfectly precise positions, as though she already knew in advance what move her opponent would make.
Prediction? Estimation? Guesswork? Foresight?
No.
Words like those were not enough to describe it.
Zeliel’s chess… was so close to prophecy that one might as well call it that.
‘How?’
Everyone thought the same thing.
The archmage, the expedition members, Carmenset himself…
and even Zeliel herself.
‘How is it that I already know his moves?’
All of Carmenset’s moves were laid out before her as clearly as if she were seeing them firsthand.
How he would move next, what scheme he was plotting, what intention lay behind shifting that piece—
she could see through all of it.
It felt almost as if she had learned telepathy.
Then, she realized it.
The answer was not especially difficult.
Some time ago, Zeliel had suffered the second defeat of her life, and after that, she had thoroughly analyzed and studied every chess pattern and method used by her opponent then, Baek Yuseol.
It had not taken her very long to make his chess her own. In fact, she had gone a step further and absorbed it after remodeling it into a style uniquely her own.
And because of that, she could tell.
The chess played by the ancient soul of Carmenset—
resembled Baek Yuseol’s.
No, it went beyond mere resemblance. It would not have been an exaggeration to say it was exactly the same.
The reason Zeliel had taken the advantage?
Wasn’t it obvious?
She had spent days and nights thoroughly analyzing her opponent’s every move, shaving it down, cutting it apart, disassembling it, and putting it back together again over and over in altered form. At that point, even if she wanted to lose, she could not.
Certainly, Carmenset’s chess was powerful. In the briefest intervals, he shifted his patterns several times, enough to make her whole strategy wobble repeatedly.
If…
if she had never experienced a game against Baek Yuseol, and had then challenged the monstrous intellect of Carmenset—
would she have dared dream of victory?
‘…Impossible.’
Even while knowing all of his strategies, the image of defeat still flickered before her eyes. That was how overwhelming his chess skill was, beyond what a mere fledgling like herself should have been able to challenge.
And yet, even if her own skill was still far inferior to Carmenset’s—
—Hahaha! I have lost!
In the end, she won.
…And that too was thanks to the help of someone who was not even here.
Rumble!!
At last, when Zeliel’s chess piece toppled Carmenset’s King, he burst into loud laughter and said:
—I acknowledge it! You are superior to me! It would not be too much to say that the god of chess himself has descended!
“Ooh…!”
“To be acknowledged by the soul of the great Carmenset…”
“I can’t believe it…”
Those loyal to Zeliel were so moved by the scene that some had dropped to their knees.
Their young lady had not only found the legendary ruin, but had even earned recognition from the soul of Ancient Carmenset.
The moment this fact was made known to the world, she might attract as much attention as the girl mages of Stella, who had caused an enormous stir at the Aslan Seminar with their explosion of papers.
But Zeliel, instead of looking happy at all, faced Carmenset with a flat, unreadable expression.
—Good! You said what you desire is immortality?
“Yes. Give me the key to immortality.”
—Do you truly wish to live forever? No matter what the cost may be?
“…Yes. But not for me.”
—Hm?
“Not for me. I want to grant eternity to my father.”
—Oho…
When those unexpected words came out, Carmenset narrowed his eyes and slowly split the corners of his mouth wide to both sides.
—So that is… your answer…?
Something felt wrong.
But thinking that there was no turning back now, Zeliel stiffened her neck and faced Carmenset head-on.
He smiled.
The corners of his mouth tore wider and wider, his shoulders jerked out of rhythm, and his wild hair whipped in all directions.
And yet, not a single sound could be heard.
As though he were trying to suppress his laughter—
and yet he was laughing uproariously.
—Kh… very well. That decision of yours… will it not change?
For a moment, she hesitated.
Then Zeliel looked behind her.
“…!”
The 7-Class archmage Kaderfilt had his eyes opened wide and was slamming his fists again and again into empty air. He was shouting something, but none of it reached her here.
‘I’m sorry.’
No matter how great an archmage he might be, he could not stop her now.
“That’s right. I won’t take it back.”
In the end, Zeliel nodded toward Carmenset.
Crack!!!
‘Ah…?’
With the sudden sensation of something snapping, her legs gave way and she collapsed to the floor.
“Ugh…”
The world spun round and round.
An amusement park with all its lights turned off, one she had once visited with her father as a child.
A carousel enjoyed alone in the middle of the night.
Her father waved his hand at her.
But the carousel kept spinning, and because of that, she could never properly face him.
‘Dad.’
Whirl, whirl.
Within the scenery flashing past, Zeliel kept searching for her father. The carousel spun faster and faster.
‘Da…d…’
Faster.
Still faster.
Within that spinning scenery, she could no longer find her father at all.
‘Ah.’
Zeliel closed her eyes.
Hawol Plains.
Its name came from the saying, “Even after running a thousand ri, only moonlight fills the endless plain below,” meaning the plains were so vast that nothing else could be seen.
Nowadays, with trains having been developed, people could cross the thousands of kilometers of plains in short order, but in older times, hundreds of tribes had split up the land and ruled it among themselves.
There were the wolf beastfolk Garam Tribe, the cat beastfolk Heukmyo Tribe, the frog beastfolk Yuwa Tribe, and many others. Their species distribution was highly diverse, but by now, most of them had harmonized and lived together well.
And there was one especially absurd thing about all this.
The reason the tribes, who had once fought endless wars, came to reconciliation was not because they had grown tired of war, but because one day the Starcloud Merchant Company had abruptly appeared, sought out every tribe, and given them all excellent “financial therapy.”
It sounded ridiculous, but sometimes reality is more fictional than novels.
Clatter-clatter!
“Ooh…”
“Wow…”
As the train passed over tracks set along a cliffside and cut straight through a mountain, the view suddenly opened wide—
and then an enormous tree appeared all at once.
Far away.
A gigantic tree so immense that it felt as though it occupied half the world pierced even through the marching clouds and rose straight into the sky.
The Second World Tree, the Hawol Tree.
Located at the very center of the seven rivers that ran through the continent, it was also called the heart of the plains.
Unlike the Cheonryeong Tree, this World Tree was home to truly countless different races, including conservative elves who could properly be called the “classic fantasy elves” of the setting. By scale alone, one could call it the greatest World Tree of all.
That World Tree, too, was in communion with the Elf King Kkotseorin, though it did have a “tree keeper” with something of a mayor-like role. Of course, that person did not rule. Elves, as beings, had never needed a ruler to begin with.
While everyone on the train was looking at the Hawol Tree in a daze, I turned to the opposite side.
In the middle of the plains, there stood one large village built in harmony with nature.
Moonlight Hill, Lotus Inn.
At the heart of the plains, an oddly tall green stalk had grown upward, and at its very top bloomed one giant lotus in soft pink.
That place was the famous Lotus Inn.
It was also where one of the Twelve Divine Months, Silver Age November, resided, and the most beautiful location in all of Hawol Plains.
—Next station is Moonlight Hill. Moonlight Hill Station. The doors will open on the right.
To ruin the mood, a woman’s voice abruptly popped out of a machine. The people who had been staring at the World Tree in a trance quickly came back to themselves and hurriedly prepared to get off.
‘…I should get going too.’
I hadn’t come all this way to leisurely enjoy sightseeing, but still, thanks to the train ride, I had at least gotten to see something beautiful, and for that I felt lucky.
A lotus blooming high in the sky, with an inn built atop it.
Long ago, it was said that only immortals who could step on empty air and fly upward had been able to come here and enjoy elegant pleasures, but these days a state-of-the-art magical elevator had been installed inside the lotus stalk, allowing anyone to enter easily.
Was it because ordinary people became so thoroughly entranced by the scenery? At one point, Lotus Inn became almost no different from Las Vegas, drowned in gambling, to the point that scenes of casino roulettes spinning in the streets or pachinko machines going off were apparently far from rare.
But not anymore.
After the Starcloud Company bought up all the shares of Lotus Inn, it shut down the gambling halls wholesale and restored the old atmosphere exactly as it had once been.
Because of that, there was even a rumor that immortals who had developed a taste for this new thing called gambling smacked their lips regretfully and disappeared off somewhere else.
Believe it or not.
Thinking about it now, it really must have been an absurd sight. A bunch of immortals with beards down to their waists huddled around a roulette wheel shouting “Let’s go!” would not be something easy to witness, even if you paid for it.
“Do you have a single room?”
The Lotus Inn was no longer just one inn, but had been divided into many. From First Grade to Fifth Grade, the quality of the inn itself differed, and I casually chose a Third Grade room.
“Oh, come now, student. Where would we have single rooms? Naturally, we only start from doubles.”
…Was that how it was?
“Then I’ll take that.”
As I pulled out my wallet to take the room key, my Stella pocket watch came up with it.
It wasn’t an accident. It was intentional.
Like when someone uploads a food photo to social media and casually slips in a luxury watch and a foreign car key into the frame to show off.
“Hm? You were a Stella student?”
“Yes.”
“Aha, so you’ve come to play?”
The innkeeper’s expression changed. He had thought I was some ordinary little brat, but now he seemed to think I was a noble family’s child who had come out to “have fun.”
“Well… something like that? It looks like there’s a lot of entertaining stuff here.”
After the Starcloud Company’s cleanup, all of Lotus Inn’s illegal gambling had vanished without a trace. In other words, legal gambling still remained.
Games of “play” done with cards or dice were still around, and I had come all the way here specifically to participate in them.
“What would you like to try?”
“Poker sounds fun.”
“Here you are. We give out 100 coins for free to start, so try it out.”
“Oh…”
Did they originally give you something like this? I’d never really come here in the game, so I didn’t remember. Still, whatever. The scheme was obvious enough.
I looked like some noble’s child, so they planned to get me hooked with a taste and then make me spend cash.
But there was no need to bother using such a cheap trick on me.
“I’d like to exchange coins right away.”
Thunk!
I placed a black briefcase on the table, popped it open, and gleaming banknotes revealed themselves to the world.
“C-crazy…!”
Passing gamblers stared at me with their eyes wide open. The innkeeper himself also looked flustered for a moment, perhaps because it had been a while since he’d had a customer of this caliber, but he quickly put on a smooth business smile.
“Haha. My goodness~ so you were a VIP customer. If only you’d told me sooner. Did I just give you a double room? I’ll guide you to a VIP room instead!”
“That won’t be necessary.”
“No, no, this way please. You said you wanted to try poker, didn’t you? I’ll prepare the finest players for you.”
After saying that, the innkeeper began gesturing wildly behind his back.
He probably thought it was in my blind spot, but my sixth sense saw it all clearly.
Rustle.
Several hidden agents moved, and a table was arranged for me.
This entire annoying process was all just a procedure necessary to meet Silver Age November.
Even if it cost money and time, it was a process I had no choice but to go through.
‘Well then, shall we begin.’
…That was what I thought, at the very moment—
Crash!
From the room next door came the loud sound of something being smashed apart, followed by someone’s furious shout.
“You old conman bastard! How dare you cheat me! Guard! Where’s the guard?! I’m telling you this old man cheated! Otherwise how the hell does the 9 of spades just disappear?!”
“Sir, please calm down.”
“Do I look calm?!”
I hurried over toward the noise. Perhaps because I had shown enough money, the guards assigned to protect me opened the way.
In that place, which looked like another VIP room, an old man sat there calmly puffing on a long pipe, while a man in his thirties shouted his head off at him.
“Y-you…! Give me back my money right now!”
“Kehehe. The young man says amusing things. What cheat could I possibly have used?”
Even though this wasn’t a casino, it was still a place for games, so if someone cheated, they were kicked out immediately.
To prevent that, this place had the finest mana-detection sensors, personally created by an 8-Class mage, installed all over the premises, and since the innkeeper of Lotus Inn himself was a 7-Class mage, cheating through magic was absolutely impossible.
Even if Eltman Eltwin himself came here, the moment he used magic, the mana-detection sensors would start blaring.
“So then, did the sensor go off? And the guards were watching my hands the whole time—did any of them see anything strange?”
As the old man spoke with smug confidence, the guards all broke into cold sweat and shook their heads. Even the guards, made up of members of the Garam Tribe whose dynamic vision was exceptionally developed, had failed to notice anything, so it was safe to say there had been no visible cheating.
Which meant he had taken the young man’s money through pure skill, without tricks.
‘What a joke.’
Seeing the old man act so brazenly made a dry laugh escape me. How shameless could a person possibly be?
He was using a cheat so outrageously fraudulent that 9-Class spatial magic or a gambler’s sleight of hand wouldn’t even begin to compare.
“Damn it, dammit all…!”
After confirming that the man in his thirties, now completely penniless, was being dragged away by the guards, I quickly took the seat in front of the old man.
“Hm? Brat, and what are you supposed to be?”
Did I really need to open my mouth here?
Showing off superior wealth and chips—no, coins—was more than enough.
Thunk!
“Grandpa, play a round with me.”
“Oho. Looking at you now, you are…”
…Read only on MugenCodex…
Ting!
He tossed a single coin at me, and with that as the signal, the game immediately began.
The game was poker.
The card game I was least confident in.
