Deep in the woods, surrounded by tall pine trees. There nestled a cosy hut that was made of wood and stone, it had a thatched roof and a humble fireplace. Inside sat a single room that is being warmed by a crackling fire.
The walls were adorned with animal furs, they stood there as a testimony to Kanatoly Aprov’s former achievements as a hunter. The hut had a small wooden table and two benches, an old, worn quilt hung on a peg near the door to keep out the cold.
The windows were small, but they were more than enough to let in enough light to keep the inside of the hut bright and inviting.
The smell of burning wood and the chirping of birds outside made this place a peaceful and restful retreat, the perfect place to spend leisure time with your loved one.
On top of the two benches, there sat an old man and a young man opposite him.
The young man seemed around eight or nine years old, although his clothes seemed dirty, he had a healthy and optimistic complexion that brimmed with vitality.
This young man was none other than Cagnus Marlsen, the man opposite him is Kanatoly Arpov.
Both grandfather and grandson were playing a game of chess, Cagnus was playing white while Kanatoly was playing black.
“Pawn to king four.”, Cagnus spoke out. Whenever he plays chess, he has this habit to speak out loud his moves; because the chessboard has no grid, Cagnus used the descriptive notation.
Kanatoly stroked his white beard as he observed his grandson, his expression as erudite as ever. He spoke in his hoarse voice: “Pawn to king four as well.”
He extended his dilapidated hand as he moved the pawn opposite the king two steps forward, the chess piece looked coarse and unattuned.
Cagnus wasn’t surprised, he moved another pawn as he announced: “Pawn to king bishop four.”
The old man chuckled as he teased, “You really love the King’s Gambit don’t you, you leave your king vulnerable for a temporary advantage in the opening.”
Then shortly after, he announced: “Pawn king four takes pawn king bishop four.”
Kanatoly didn’t hesitate to capture Cagnus’ newly advanced pawn, he wanted to punish his grandson for playing such a bad opening.
Seeing this, Cagnus smiled as he said, “So what if my king is vulnerable? I have my knight for cover up. King’s knight eight goes to king bishop three.”
The knight piece jumped across the board, shielding white’s king from the vicious black queen.
Cagnus’ grandfather had no expression on his face: “Pawn to king knight five.”
Kanatoly reinforced his pawn, stabilising his position against any surprise attacks from white’s side.
“Hmmm…”, Cagnus put on a pondering expression as he called out his next move: “Bishop to queen bishop four.”
Kanatoly seemed to ignore the white bishop piece that’s in the middle of the board as he proceeded to attack the knight.
“Pawn king knight four to king knight five.”
Cagnus seemed to ignore his hanging knight as he made his next move.
“Castles king side.”
The grandfather looked at his grandson for a moment before he unhesitantly captured the hanging knight.
“Pawn king knight five captures knight king bishop three.”
Cagnus didn’t even take a moment to think before he captured the intruding pawn with his queen.
“Queen takes pawn knight king five.”
Seeing that Cagnus brought his queen, Kanatoly did the same.
“Queen goes to king bishop three.”
And the game seemed to proceed forward as… Cagnus lost.
“Checkmate.”, Kanatoly said in his deep and old voice, “Stop playing the King’s Gambit, it’s a disadvantageous opening that’ll leave your position vulnerable to attacks from the black side.”
“It is bold and dangerous, a gamble in the truest sense of the word. You sacrifice one of your own for a temporary advantage that gets punished if a player knows what they’re doing.”
“Sigh. You’re just like your father, looking for excitement and danger. Cagnus, you’re better than that.”
In the amphitheatre, Cagnus sighed as he missed the days he spent with his grandfather.
Although these days were rough, to him, they were the best times he ever spent in his life.
‘I wonder when I’m going to see him next?’, Cagnus wondered as he heard Professor Aloyn speak in the background:
“Chess is a board game played by two opponents.”
“Each opponent has sixteen pieces, which include a king, a queen, two rooks, two knights, two bishops and eight pawns.”
“The game is played on a square board with sixty-four squares.”
“The board is divided into halves, called player’s territories.”
…
“The objective of each opponent is to capture the other opponent’s king. This is done by moving your pieces so that they can surround the other player’s king.”
As the introduction went, each student showed amazed and astonished expressions as they listened carefully with the utmost of attention paid.
Professor Aloyn’s words were spoken out with such clarity and eloquence, describing the game’s basics in a systematic way that each student can understand.
“... The game can also end in a draw if neither player can capture the other's king.”
Meanwhile, Cagnus was bored the hell out of his mind. He already knows how to play the game, yet this “Imperial Chess Academy Professor” is explaining the basics of the basics to him.
‘No way right? These nobles should’ve gotten a chess teacher at home, why are they learning about the basics here?’
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‘These expressions… Must be fake right…’, just as Cagnus was wondering. A student stood up and asked Professor Aloyn a question.
“Sir, what if the two opponents eat each other’s kings?”
Cagnus was baffled, the man’s question was spoken in such innocence that he found it hard to believe.
‘This guy… is a paid actor right? Right? Haha, he must be a paid actor.’, Cagnus thought.
But what happened next made his eyes widen as he saw the entire class nod in acknowledgment, clearly sharing the same guy’s question.
Professor Aloyn was not offended by this “stupid” question, instead he faced the student and explained: “I’ve been waiting for someone to ask such a question; If the opponent captures your king, you won’t get to play the next move. Thereby making it impossible to capture both opponents’ kings.”
Cagnus: “....”
The school’s bell rang monotonously, it goes without saying that Cagnus was drained both mentally and physically, he had to sit through hours of excruciating pain. It felt as though he was watching a theatre play, where everyone was playing the role of a clown, including the esteemed and highly respected Professor Aloyn.
‘Well, I still wonder what that talk about Ascentionism really means. Although Professor Aloyn’s class was boring, I look forward to Professor Elizabeth's class. Apparently we’ll study the arts of magic and sorcery there.’
Cagnus has always been fascinated by the supernatural, his grandfather always narrated to him stories of his youth as an adventurer; Stories of him searching for forbidden treasure that invoke terrifying curse, or stories of him fighting with non-humanoid monstrosities to protect local villages and towns from eternal doom.
Although he did not believe half the stories his senile old man spew, Cagnus found them very intriguing to say the least.
As Cagnus made his way to his dormitory, he found an unexpected guest waiting in front of his room.
“You… you know chess, don’t you?”, a bright and pleasant voice, almost akin to a moonlight lullaby, made its way to Cagnus’ ears. Every word was enunciated with such vividness and clarity that jolted Cagnus awake.
“What brings Ms. Lyle to my humble abode?”, Cagnus couldn’t help but have the edge of his mouth twitch as he looked in the direction of his room; The door was in pieces, wooden shards could be seen embedded in the walls and his belongings were scattered in the ground.
Lady Seraphine paid no heed to the pitiful state Cagnus’ room is in as she repeated her question, “Ahem, you can call me Lady Seraphine, I was paying attention to you in class and couldn’t help but notice, you must’ve studied chess before. Am I right?”
“Ah yes, my grandfather taught me the basics when I was a child.”, answered Cagnus humbly.
Upon his reply, Seraphine couldn’t help but reveal a smirk as she took out a chess table and two chairs, gesturing to Cagnus to sit down.
“How… from where did you get the chess table?”, it goes without saying that Cagnus was ecstatic and horrified at the same time, he just witnessed something unbelievable… something magical.
Lady Seraphine pulled out a full chess set out of nowhere, all she did was pinch the empty space in front of her and voilà!
“Hmph! My father, Duke Lyle, gifted me this Void Entanglement ring. It is an Advanced-rank artefact of space-time capable of holding ten cubic metres of space.”
Cagnus’ eyes shone with brilliance as he moved his sight to the black ring on Lady Seraphine’s left hand, he couldn’t help but stare at it feverishly in hopes of learning a tinge of magic.
Naturally Lady Seraphine was a bit uncomfortable, having a boy around her age stare at her hand for that long, she couldn’t help but blush and say as she hid her left hand: “Cough, this is not the time to focus on unimportant stuff! Come on, let’s have a game of chess!”
Upon realising his disrespectful gesture, Cagnus immediately apologised: "I am so sorry, Lady Seraphine. Please forgive my rude remark."
Lady Seraphine comes from the house of Lyle, her father is an esteemed Duke in the Fide Empire. His status does not compare whatsoever to Viscount Hamann, who is the father of Neins.
If Cagnus were to ever offend Lady Seraphine, not even the rules of the Imperial Chess Academy will be able to protect him.
‘Sigh, why is my luck so bad? It’s only been a day and so far, I have offended the guards, the son of a Viscount and now, it’s going to be the daughter of a Duke…’
The chess table was constructed from rich, dark mahogany wood, its polish was so refined to the level where it attained a mirror-like finish that highlighted every single natural grain.
The surface was meticulously inlaid with a chessboard made of alternating squares of lustrous ebony and pristine ivory, seamlessly integrated into the tabletop.
Meanwhile, the borders were adorned with intricate marquetry, featuring patterns that symbolise the house of Duke Lyle: A mother-of-pearl atop a golden leaf.
‘Such extravagance, truly worthy of Fide Empire’s nobility. Say… If I ever steal this chess table, how much of a fortune will I make by selling it?’
Seeing that Cagnus is seated, Lady Seraphine proceeded to place down the chess pieces from her Void Entanglement ring. When Cagnus saw the chess pieces, his eyes could not help but widen as a glitter of greed flashed within.
Every chess piece is sculpted from pure, solid gold and sterling silver. Every single one of them is a miniature work of art itself, worth a nine generational family’s entire fortune.
The knights were intricately detailed, with flowing manes and expressive features.
As for the rooks, they resembled majestic castles with fine engravings. With just one glance, any Fide citizen can tell they represent the House of Lyle’s Dimensional Heaven Castle, a castle second only to the empress’.
And lastly, both the queens and the kings are adorned with delicate filigree and small, embedded gemstones that glitter with a multitude of colours.
Cagnus was dazzled for a second, seeing this, Lady Seraphine had a smug expression on her face as she said: “Since I am initiating the match, I will let you pick what colour you want to play with. According to Professor Aloyn, if you choose the White pieces, it should give you a significant advantage.”
“Hmm…”, Cagnus thought for a moment before saying, “I’ll pick the Black pieces.”
“Huh? Just because you had some tutoring, doesn’t mean you can be arrogant! Cagnus Marlsen, I will make sure you pay for your arrogance today!”
‘What? I just wanted to play with the black pieces because they look so slick and cool!’, Cagnus felt wronged but he couldn’t really retort, in front of him is the daughter of Duke Lyle, if he ever offends her, it’ll be the end of him and his family.
“Let’s start the game!” announced Lady Seraphine, “Pawn to King’s Bishop Three!”
After making her move, Lady Seraphine looked at Cagnus with a taunting expression, basically saying: ‘What are you going to do now, country bumpkin?’
Meanwhile, Cagnus was a bit confused. The move Lady Seraphine just made goes against every principle his grandfather taught him, not only does it not fight for the centre, but it also leaves the king very vulnerable.
‘Surely? Nah, she is either making fun of me or giving me a huge handicap.. Is she trying to embarrass me because I’m a country bumpkin? She’s a noble, she must’ve had the best tutors in the country teach her how to play chess… Meanwhile I only had that old geezer… Her foundation, opening repertoire and calculation skills must be several folds above mine.’
For the first time ever, sweat started trickling down Cagnus’s forehead. Even against his grandfather Kanotoly in heated matches with stakes on the line, he did not sweat this hard.
Seeing this, Seraphine smiled widely as she mocked: “Heh, what’s the problem, country bumpkin? Didn’t you say you were taught basic chess skills when you were young? Where’s all the courage and arrogance you had earlier?”
Cagnus ignored her mocking as he wiped off the sweat from his forehead: “Pawn to King Four.”
‘No matter how meticulous and devious the trap she has set up for me must’ve been, surely if I stick to the basics I can’t fall for it right? I’ve played hundreds of thousands if not millions of matches with my grandfather, I can’t see how she can trap me when we just started the game… But who knows, I’m just a country bumpkin who played this game for fun. My opponent is an esteemed noble who has had professional tutors since birth.’
When Cagnus played his move, Lady Seraphine couldn’t help but reveal a surprised expression as she murmured: “I certainly did not expect this…” But then her expression turned into pure confidence as she played her next move: “Pawn to King’s Knight Four.”
“No way…. How is this possible?”, seeing Seraphine’s next move, Cagnus couldn’t help but reveal a defeated expression as he almost fell off the chair.
Naturally, Seraphine revealed a smug expression as she leaned back on her chair, as if victory was already in her grasp.
Cagnus’ hands couldn’t stop shaking as he thought to himself: ‘Out of all the moves you could’ve made, out of all the openings you could’ve picked. You have chosen by far the worst combination of them, resulting in a checkmate in only two moves.’
To Cagnus, Seraphine’s performance could only be summarised in two words: spectacularly stupid.
‘No no! This is impossible, no way Lady Seraphine is this stupid… Yes! This must be a trap.’, his eyes darted left and right as he breathed heavily, his chest rose and fell noticeably as he thought of the consequences of winning the match, ‘If I win… will I be subjected to eternal damnation?’
“Just admit defeat and leave this academy, country bumpkin. I am doing this for your sake, I don’t know how you got in here but clearly, you don’t belong in the Imperial Chess Aca-.”
“Queen to Rook Five”, Cagnus announced his move, his expression dark.
"Checkmate."