After the announcement of Sora’s “checkmate”, a long pause followed and had intoxicated the air with an unsettling feeling around Airi, she yet to accept and realize her defeat. Sora patiently waited, it was only until Airi finally looked up from her previously covered up, facing downwards face that she had half-heartedly accepted it.
“You have successfully managed to beat me in chess, who would have thought?” Airi forced a smile on her face.
“Do not fret it, I am just really good at games,” Sora grinned carefree as always.
“Do you mind explaining how you were manage to beat me?” Airi inquired shyly, embarrassed by asking her recent opponent after a heartfelt defeat. “Hence you led me right into your trap, then all of the sudden turned the tables around when it appeared they were in favor for me,” Airi sighed as a followup, her first act of acting more humane and casual considering her upbringing.
“Sure. I just simply thought of all the finite possible moves and positions within chess, and it added up to some absurd number of 10^120 in my head after piecing those together;” Sora explained his train of thought. “Also there is no luck involved, if you know all of the rules of the game, it is easy to persuade someone’s opinion on that he is winning, even though he is being led astray towards a dead end trap awaiting him,” Sora concluded.
Airi sat still with a startled face across Sora and let the information process to understand his way of thinking.
“How can you even be familiar with the Shannon’s number? Coming to the same conclusion as he did just by familiarizing yourself with the rules...” Airi expressed perplexed, doubting herself in the manner of having miscalculated Sora’s strength and intelligence when it comes to the understanding of games.
“I have no idea what that is,” Sora answered with a feeble-minded gesture.
“How did you even come to this level of thinking, and does it apply for all “game categories” as you must them?” Aria kept pondering while attempting to unravel Sora’s way of thinking.
“You familiarize yourself with the rules and the game’s boundaries, then you expand those limits until they are finally restrained by a radius filled with finite possibilities, and after you just play with this information in mind to make the best possible moves and utilize those in order to achieve victory. Is that not normal for everyone, or that is at least what I thought,” Sora replied with a more serious and sincere face.
Airi took a long good sigh as she looked outside the window.
“You are just beyond my own world of understanding,” Airi sighed a second time.
Sora attempted to answer and prolong their conversation as the mobile phone buzzed, “Quest challenge completed”.
Tab 2: “Congratulations on beating Airi! You may request something in equal value of what she had challenged you of” - Sora
Tab 2: “Quest unsuccessful, you will be receive a fit punishment in the manner of having the honor to accompany Sora at his table in the school cafeteria for a month” - Airi
Both expressed different faces, Sora had smiled about the excitement of having completed another quest, while on the other hand Airi appeared shallow and pale to the point she wanted to either faint, be filled embarrassment or both altogether and it was put in a very delicate expression of hers. Airi remained frozen until Sora had snuck over her shoulder and taken an inquisitive peak as his face was filled with curiosity to find what had stunned the high-class lady Airi, and after a careful and swift read his face felt just as pale as the one Airi had on her. The two of them perceived it as an unnecessarily heavy burden and inconvenience for a punishment, although they knew they had to adhere to the enforced rules invoked in the line of questing that this punishment could not be dismissed by their own free will without obliging its completion.
Did you know this story is from Royal Road? Read the official version for free and support the author.
Sora began moving against the door since he had caught up on their mutual feeling of letting this sink in and distance themselves until tomorrow where they would be forcefully bound by this quest in the school cafeteria table around mid-day. At the door exit Sora turned around briefly and looked back at Airi.
“By the way, the thing I am going to request you which is my entitlement,” Sora spoke and made Airi look even further pale, expecting something worse than the punishment both had received from this very challenge. “How do you beat the treadmill quest?” Sora gritted his teeth, pursuing a new train of thought about achieving the next quest in line, for the sake of relieving the gloomy feeling he was unsettlingly harbouring in his chest.
Airi stared at him as if he would appear dumb-founded and seemingly putting on a face to question how she could ever have lost in a round of chess to Sora.
“Are you serious or just plain stupid? How simple-minded are you?” Airi complained flustered.
“A bit of both, I suppose in terms of physical activities. I glanced at your body and it seemed aesthetically nurtured and beautifully trained in the regard of being fit,” Sora carelessly answered in a complementary way as to why he asked and sought for her wisdom in the treadmill quest matter.
“You obviously start on a lower level and slowly climb up until you can manage that level of exercise!” Airi shrieked with a tone of embarrassment and blushed with a clear expression of being complemented “beautiful” by someone as if it was her first time by a male boy her own age.
“Why are you blushing for?” Sora pursued his questioning.
“Get out!” Airi yelled, still slightly agitated and embarrassed.
“See you tomorrow then,” Sora sighed, confounded by her way of acting and why she appeared a bit rosy for the time being.
Sora’s day progressed quite hastily, and before he knew it he found himself in the morning shower. Hot water seemed somewhat of a relief, yet so indifferent to Sora in comparison to his old apartment. Sora felt the empowerment through finally cleansing of himself in the hot shower water, and soon appeared to be in front of the school desk with the clock nearing lunch-time as his mind had set focus on returning to the training ground’s lair where the treadmill had was awaiting him. Still somewhat scared and unused on his way to the second floor, Sora repeated his routine from yesterday of letting every girl pass before him in a matter of circumventing around them rather than appearing once again as a gentleman. At the desk after having picked up his order Sora spotted Airi expecting him, sitting and waiting there alone, ahead of time at the arranged table of punishment. Airi had not begun eating yet as she patiently endured until Sora’s arrival as he sat himself across of her at the lunch table.
“You finally showed up,” Airi berated Sora for having her wait for this long before being able to even begin eating her lunch as a courtesy implied amongst being accompanied. “Did you seriously wait for every girl for to arrive before being brave enough to walk here uninterrupted and nullifying the risk of running into a girl on your way over?” Airi kept complaining.
“What can I do, I am just not good interacting with any female players, let alone socialize with odd and unpredictable girl characters,” Sora sighed and apologized.
“Female Players? Girl Characters? We are just girls, do you assume all your reality being of a gaming circumstance? Call us girls, not either of the two terms or abbreviation of your games. Do not confuse games with reality,” Airi hissed on about Sora’s carefree comment and apology on the matter of being late. “Are you always this peculiar and troublesome to deal with?” Airi added.
Sora nodded.
“Always, with the exception of my mind when it is set to hunt down and complete quests,” Sora slowly responded as he put some thought how to convey and explain it to Airi in one brief sentence.
Airi got startled, Sora had gain back that look in his eyes during his chess match and before he had left the room yesterday, the look of resounding both confidence and excitement towards a task that one has nothing but pure love for.
“Your love for questing runs deep, I can see it clearly now, do not let the treadmill beat you too badly today,” Airi laughed, teasing Sora through the rumours she had previously heard of.
“Leave it up to me!” Sora grinned and was back to his usual self in terms of behaviour while questing.
They both shared a quiet lunchtime in the midst of a small whispered commotion amongst girls, as of why Airi was sitting near “him” and the fact that they shared a laugh together while appearing to get along just fine. A few minutes later it was decisively time for Sora to head off to rendezvous with his anxiously waiting nemesis for another trial at hand.
“I hope you were not waiting for too long dear, as I have returned a second time around to endeavour once more in besting you!” Sora smiled as he hopped on the treadmill to commence his second running attempt, much like an adventurer had resumed his journey anew by re-entering and undertaking a much familiar dungeon afresh.