The Price of a Pawn

The once quiet inn lobby was now packed with onlookers. A sea of bobbing heads surrounded the chessboard, chattering excitedly at the magical light that flickered frequently from its center.

Saranya believed her chess skills were decent. Though once a bottom-ranked provincial competitor, she was more than capable of handling an otherworldly noble who treated chess merely as a pastime. Lucius, it seemed, had unwittingly walked straight into her trap.

In the opening phase, both she and her opponent moved swiftly. It was less like playing chess and more like arranging pieces, as the strategies for this stage were fairly fixed. Both sides shared a single objective: to deploy their formations as widely as possible, seize control of the central board, and thereby establish their lines of attack.

Lucius advanced his knight, threatening her pawns. She, in turn, moved up her flank pawns, forming a defensive line at the front that could mutually support itself.

So far, not a single piece had been captured. Due to his first move advantage, Lucius controlled slightly more squares than she did. However, she had woven a robust defensive net, her formation proving more balanced, and the overall situation remained largely even.

From this moment onward, the opening phase concluded. The two armies on the board were now engaged in close combat, and if the game were to progress, sacrifices were inevitable.

It was Saranya’s turn.

She decided to offer one of her frontline pawns to her opponent. As her opponent captured the piece, their tightly knit formation would shift, providing an opportunity for her powerful units in the back ranks to tear open the opponent’s defenses and seize the initiative in attack.

Her primary goal in employing this pawn sacrifice was to probe Lucius. She wanted to understand what exactly ‘capturing a piece’ entailed within this chess game constructed from ritual magic, only then deciding whether to continue her offensive.

Lucius claimed it was a simple chess game, insisting that using divine arts to draw the board and live people as pieces was all for amusement.

She did not believe things could be so straightforward.

This young master before her hailed from Vero’s most powerful family, serving as the de facto controller of the City Council. He had gone to great lengths to pinpoint her location, organizing a significant force to seek her out, and had even tasked Lenix and Dalia Aurelius with planning such an intricate ritual magic.

After all that effort, was he now telling her it was merely for entertainment? No one in their right mind would believe that!

Saranya moved her piece forward, offering a Redwater Gang thug into the Holy Fire Knight’s attack range. The opposing Holy Fire Knight, seeing such an easy target practically fly into their grasp, immediately beamed with delight. The Redwater Gang thug, witnessing this, couldn’t help but turn ashen.

Saranya sighed, able only to console herself that this was a necessary sacrifice. Silently, she offered an apology to her subordinate.

“Hey…”

From a distance, Lucius rubbed his hands together like a fly. Yet, surprisingly, he didn’t capture Saranya’s pawn. Instead, he moved a bishop from his back rank—an incredibly foolish move. If Lucius didn’t take her pawn, she could, in turn, capture one of his, which would not only open up the board for her but also spare her pawn, essentially granting her two significant advantages.

Saranya raised an eyebrow. Without wasting the opportunity, she decisively captured a piece, claiming first blood.

The entire process was remarkably smooth. Her pawn teleported to the square occupied by the opponent’s pawn, and the Holy Fire Knight on that square immediately dropped their weapon, being then teleported to the ‘graveyard’ area at the edge of the board.

Shortly after, Lucius used his bishop to capture one of her pawns. Despite the opposing Holy Fire Knight’s incessant provocations, loudly declaring a desire for a one-on-one duel with her thug, her thug still trembled and raised their hands in surrender.

The eliminated pieces continued to leave the board peacefully, with no incidents occurring.

“Useless trash, no backbone at all!”

Lucius, now at a disadvantage, clearly felt his composure cracking. Upon witnessing the scene, his face fell, his expression shifting erratically.

“Oh, come on. You were the one who eliminated my piece. Stop acting like you’re the aggrieved party!”

Saranya scoffed outwardly. Inwardly, she breathed a small sigh of relief.

Unexpectedly, the chess game seemed quite normal. If her opponent hadn’t prepared any tricks, then she would simply win this round based on her own skill!

Two more moves passed, and Lucius made another blunder. Saranya used Phillo, her ‘rook,’ to eliminate the opponent’s knight, Malacar, the arena owner.

Malacar let out a hearty laugh. He cast aside the monstrous, blood-red chain hammer in his hand and was immediately teleported into the graveyard. Simultaneously, Lucius, playing as the ‘king,’ was exposed to Phillo’s threat and had to move his position.

“Check, you smelly blondie!”

“Haia! Haia! Ranger Haia!”

“Amazing!”

“Our Lady Mother is incredible!!!”

Seeing the tide of the game turn decisively in Saranya’s favor, while Lucius merely scratched his head and sweated profusely on the sidelines, the Redwater Gang members, both inside and outside the arena, cheered jubilantly, shouting her name aloud.

It had to be said, Lucius’s chess skills were truly abysmal. Saranya even began to suspect he genuinely wanted to court her, having deliberately staged this entire charade simply to win her favor.

Next, Saranya swept forward irresistibly. She commanded a white-robed Silver Hand to cut diagonally across the board, capturing Lucius’s rook. Then, she sent Vireta leaping past the pawn line, effectively blocking the attack routes of Lucius’s knight and another rook.

At this rate, she wouldn’t even need to move her queen; she could checkmate Lucius within four moves, bringing this exhilarating game to an end.

Saranya could now confirm that Lucius had genuinely intended to outwit her in chess. His flushed face and impotent rage as she cornered him were entirely convincing, showing no hint of pretense.

“Your chess is terrible, blondie! You really need more practice!”

“Don’t get cocky!”

Lucius moved Mitchel, his ‘knight,’ intending to capture one of Saranya’s bishops. However, this was another terrible move, as Mitchel had inadvertently stepped into the attack range of both Vireta and Kaelan. Before Lucius could capture the bishop, Saranya could eliminate his knight first.

Saranya reached out towards the small chessboard, her fingertip hovering above the queen’s head.

“You said the queen can attack diagonally, so I can capture Mitchel now, right?”

Kaelan’s voice chimed in her ear. The little witch’s emotions were remarkably stable, and she had been watching the game with great relish.

“You haven’t moved my piece the entire game. For a queen, this is an excellent opportunity to strike, isn’t it? Should you send me to eliminate Mitchel?”

As expected of the intelligent half-elf witch, Kaelan had only just understood the rules, yet her grasp of the game was already exceptionally thorough.

However, with Kaelan’s interjection, Saranya, not wanting to interrupt Kaelan, did not move Kaelan, but instead picked up the ‘knight’ representing Vireta.

“It’s fine… Lucius has no chance anyway. Having Vireta capture that piece will suffice.”

“Is that so…”

Yet, this seemingly casual choice would later lead to her endless regret.

“Mitchel! Pay attention!”

When Lucius shouted this, Saranya realized something was terribly wrong.

“What are you doing?! Mitchel was eliminated, wasn’t he?!”

Vireta teleported in front of Mitchel. The latter, unlike those before him, did not lower his weapon. Instead, he furrowed his brows, drew the longsword from his hip, and pointed its tip at Vireta, striking a pose that mirrored a duel invitation.

“Vireta, don’t touch your weapon!”

By the time Saranya discerned the trick and called out to Vireta, it was too late. Her daughter had already raised her blade.

“As everyone can see, both parties have agreed. Based on the principle of fairness, please enjoy the duel between Knight-Captain Mitchel and Grand Commander Vireta!”

“You didn’t mention this beforehand!!!”

“It’s an unwritten rule!”

“Bastards… Bastards!!!”

Mitchel’s muscles bulged beneath his chainmail. Before Vireta could even fully recover, the heavy sword blade whistled as it descended upon the girl’s head!

“Clang!”

The girl raised her sword hilt, blade pointing down, barely parrying the enemy’s downward slash with an unorthodox hanging guard. Her body stumbled, collapsing to her knees, and a wisp of light blue hair was severed, scattering in the air.

“Ugh… Nngh!”

Mitchel spun, changing his attack. Vireta had not yet recovered when the enemy’s cross-guard slammed heavily into her shoulder.

After a clear sound of bone cracking, Vireta let out a piercing scream.

The girl still did not give up. She rotated her sword with one hand, attempting a mid-level thrust at Mitchel, but she misjudged the distance, and Mitchel seized the flat of her blade.

The Holy Fire Knight-Captain cruelly curled his lips, delivering a final, merciless slash.

“Vireta!!!”

Blood splattered across the ground. In the blink of an eye, Vireta was drenched in crimson. She staggered two steps before collapsing face-first into her own pool of blood.

“Click… click-click…”

From beginning to end, the girl hadn’t even managed to utter a single word.

Her daughter, her sweet, obedient little daughter, lay on the ground, bathed in her own blood, her almond-shaped eyes still holding a lingering confusion.

Vireta was looking at her.

The daughter’s gaze passed over the crowd, fixing on Saranya’s face. The look in her eyes was not hatred, nor fear, nor even much pain.

In those gradually fading pupils, there was only guilt, as if a little girl had messed up and feared her mother’s scolding. What her daughter cared about, always, was that she hadn’t eliminated Mitchel.

Vireta, the girl whose bond she had so casually affirmed, was now stretching her blood-stained fingertips, dragging five fading crimson streaks across the inn’s stone floor, futilely reaching out to her mother.

Mitchel was still on the board. Lucius’s next move was check, but Saranya could no longer see the chessboard.

She fell to one knee, tears streaming down her face, grinding her molars frantically. She heard an inhuman growl erupt from deep within her throat. She cried, sobbed, and furiously cursed everything around her under Vireta’s dimming gaze.

All sounds seemed to have been drained from her world, except for one:

“Saranya.”

“Master… what do I do… what do I do… Master… save her…”

“Move Cecilia.”

“Cecilia… what…?”

Kaelan’s voice remained calm, almost cold-bloodedly so. She had adopted that commanding tone again, as if nothing had just happened. “Lucius has put you in check. What you need to do is move Cecilia in front of you, letting the enemy eliminate her to the graveyard. That way, she can assist Vireta. You want to save her, don’t you?”