Chapter 259: A Game of Ches-s

“You know no matter who comes, they can’t touch me.”

And you’re not foolish enough to misjudge our difference in strength, Your Majesty.

A demon whispered under the pale moonlight.

“Surely you’re not thinking of pointlessly sacrificing your troops?”

“……”

“Now, if you promise to stay put and not make a scene by calling for help, I’ll let you go. Blink twice if you agree.”

“……”

Her pupils, now calm as if never startled, blinked twice in response. A satisfied smile touched Deon’s lips as he lowered his hand and took a step back.

Yeonhwa rubbed her chin with the back of her hand, a clear sign of displeasure, and glared daggers at him. Her voice, a low rumble, was barely above a whisper.

“…What are you plotting?”

“Didn’t I tell you? I’m just here to play a game quietly.”

“There’s a lot I want to say… but before that.”

Undisguised hostility and irritation flared in her eyes.

“Drop the pretentious honorifics. They don’t suit you.”

Using honorifics to the King of a human nation, while siding with demons…

The blatant contempt was clear, yet the fact he still bothered with honorifics as he looked down on her was irritating. It was as if he was saying he hadn’t given up on being human just yet.

“How could I dare speak informally to the King of a nation?”

Yes, that’s the face.

“You betray humanity, yet your words are impeccable. I have no desire to hear your honorifics.”

“……”

Deon Hart fell silent. Though his face remained obscured by the backlight, the atmosphere around him noticeably cooled.

Pushing him further would be unwise. Yeonhwa suppressed a triumphant smirk, her gaze shifting to something in his hand.

He said he came to play a game. Though unclear what it was, that thing in his hand was likely the game tool.

“You intend to play this game with that in your hand?”

“…Indeed.”

“This room isn’t suitable for games. We shall proceed in the office.”

Originally, this place was just for a quick rest from office work. It was a small space fit only for a bed, hardly any room for games. The other party seemed to agree about the unsuitable location, nodding readily.

The game board was laid out on the office desk.

Deon conspicuously left the communicator untouched nearby. It was a form of confidence, daring her to call for backup.

Yeonhwa knew that summoning incompetent guards would only stir up trouble, so the situation progressed peacefully without unnecessary conflict.

“Shall we begin then?”

Deon, having finished a rough explanation of the rules, flashed a grin at her.

“…Very well.”

Even from a distance, his looks were striking, but up close, he was devastatingly beautiful. Yeonhwa worried she might be completely captivated if she kept looking at his face. She averted her gaze to his ambiguously long hair before finally settling on the game board.

Before the real start, they would take turns shifting tiles to determine the terrain, or so he said. Two twenty-sided dice sat on one side, covered by a cup.

Deon lightly shook the cup first.

“For fairness, Your Majesty, please shake it once as well.”

“……”

Yeonhwa placed her hand on the cup and shook it vigorously, the dice rattling wildly inside.

The result was 24.

They would alternate moving tiles 24 times.

“Who will go first?”

“You may begin.”

She had no idea why he suddenly came to play a game, but he surely had an ulterior motive. Perhaps playing the game would reveal it. Yeonhwa’s eyes sharpened.

The board shifted, and the terrain began to change.

Placing a food storage in a favorable spot, she glanced at Deon.

“A sliding puzzle-style game board, how unique. Where did you acquire it?”

“I created it myself.”

“…You devised all the rules as well?”

“It’s inspired by chess, but yes, essentially.”

“Does it have a name?”

“Ches-s.”

“Chess…?”

“Che-s-s.”

“……”

Roughly named, indeed. The game’s quality itself is good, but really…

Her turn came again, and she silently slid a tile. The terrain shifted once more. Deon Hart, after scanning the changed board, slid another tile, altering the terrain again.

A strangely familiar sensation prickled at Yeonhwa’s senses.

‘This is definitely….’

He seemed to be recreating the terrain of this very location where Sanguo and the Demon Realm were currently in conflict. She thought the way he guided the board’s movements was peculiar, and this seemed to be his aim.

She reached out, feeling his intense gaze fixate on her fingertips. Aware of his eyes, she picked a tile and slid it. The terrain shifted to a not particularly advantageous position.

And as she looked up, her eyes met Deon Hart’s.

“Indeed.”

He curved his eyes into a smile, as if she had given the correct answer.

“You are quite perceptive.”

“You wouldn’t tell me your intentions, would you.”

“Shall we continue the game then?”

“…Tch.”

Having grasped his intentions, the game progressed swiftly thereafter.

Calculating the remaining moves, they took turns sliding tiles for a while. As the last tile was moved, the intended terrain was completed.

Deon Hart slid the white pieces, which had been set aside, towards her.

“Shall we truly begin now?”

“……”

To have to recreate this desperate situation with the enemy commander and play it out as a game… Yeonhwa stared at the game board with a complicated gaze before picking up a piece.

The real game began.

And some time passed.

“…This game is incredibly detailed.”

Yeonhwa, having moved a piece and captured some of Deon Hart’s troops, murmured in genuine admiration.

“It could be quite useful in many ways.”

“Thank you for the compliment.”

“But are there no rules about deserters? As wars drag on, the number of deserters tends to increase.”

“It’s not that I didn’t consider that aspect, but I couldn’t find a place to fit it in. Especially since deserters increase even more when pushed into a defensive position, how would you add that to this game?”

“I see, so that’s how it is. …But.”

Her sharp eyes scanned the board.

The situation was that Yeonhwa’s forces were being pushed back. However…

“You’re being too ruthless with your troops.”

“Hmm?”

If this were a real situation and both sides were commanding humans, Deon Hart’s forces would probably be seeing a massive wave of desertions. Yeonhwa herself wouldn’t have been pushed back this far either.

Perhaps she might have even won.

“You seem to have not considered rebellion in the game, but in reality, such actions would surely breed discontent. Perhaps insubordination, or in the worst case, a rebellion could occur.”

“Ah.”

Tap.

Deon, having opened a new route to replace a blocked supply line, chuckled.

“If the commander himself doesn’t spare his body and fights on the front lines, such things won’t happen.”

“……”

Yeonhwa didn’t reply.

The game continued in silence thereafter.

The game concluded, and Deon, having packed up his game tools, stood. As he seemed about to leave through the window, Yeonhwa, watching him, asked suspiciously.

“Are you really just leaving?”

“Do you perhaps wish for me to do something more?”

“…Of course not.”

But this is too easy.

As she shifted her thoughts to reviewing the previous game, wondering if she had missed something, Deon Hart, perched on the windowsill, turned back to face her.

His voice, tossed out casually, reached her ears.

“I’ll come again next time.”

“…Again?”

As Yeonhwa lifted her head, doubting her ears, he had already vanished.

Only the wide-open window asserted its presence, while a tranquil silence, as if the previous events were a dream, settled in.

***

“You’ve arrived.”

“What, were you not sleeping?”

“You hadn’t returned, how could I sleep?”

Dan, grumbling lightly, took the game-related items from Deon’s hand and glanced at his expression.

“How was it?”

“Her mind is sharp, but not beyond my ability to defeat.”

Due to time constraints, the game ended in a draw, but the situation on the board favored Deon.

Of course, depending on the player’s skill, the situation could easily reverse, but Deon, having grasped the King of Sanguo’s tendencies during the game, was certain. She had a fatal weakness.

“How should I put it, she has limitations. She’s too noble.”

“…?”

“You could say she’s extremely reluctant to bloody her own hands. She can’t easily discard troops.”

Even when it’s necessary to sacrifice some troops for the sake of the objective, she couldn’t bring herself to do it.

The meticulousness in trying to save every last soldier, and the nobility that prevented her from resorting to dirty or petty tactics.

“Makes her predictable and easy to counter.”

Perhaps even if Dan had gone, he would have won easily.

Well, that wasn’t the main purpose of going in the first place, so there’s no need to dwell on it too much.

“Anyway, she isn’t slow-witted, so she’ll probably notice in just a few more visits.”

“I’m not sure what that means… but is it a good thing?”

“Yes.”

“Then that’s good.”

“Indeed.”

However, contrary to the evaluation he had given to the King of Sanguo.

In the next battle that followed after daybreak, the Demon King’s army suffered heavy losses due to Sanguo, who used some of their troops as bait.

***

Yeonhwa only informed her strategist, Sareen, about Deon Hart’s intrusion.

Naturally, there was an uproar initially. Starting from why she hadn’t called for guards, to exclamations of how she should have killed him when he was alone—passing through intensely personal emotions—and even reaching a point of admiration, albeit not entirely genuine, for playing a game amidst all that.

And as things calmed down, Sareen understood why she had acted as she did then, and, befitting a strategist, started to think strategically.

[You played a game with Deon Hart?]

[Yes.]

[Then he must have discerned Your Majesty’s tendencies.]

[Most likely.]

He would have figured out her command style when directing troops.

Even without that, her honest style was already easy to predict, so in a way, it was akin to revealing a weakness.

[Well, it doesn’t matter.]

Sareen was also aware of Yeonhwa’s weakness. Naturally, countermeasures had been prepared as well.

And so she said.

[In the next battle, we must firmly show why the King has a strategist by her side.]

Though Sanguo was currently on the defensive, it wasn’t as if they couldn’t strike back at all.

So, let’s give them a taste of their own medicine.

[Your Majesty, devise a noble strategy. I will take charge of the underhanded and vicious schemes.]

Subsequently, she used some troops as bait to draw Deon Hart’s attention, and then played havoc with the Demon King’s army that had distanced itself.

Her attitude was ruthless, as if she couldn’t hear the screams of those abandoned.

A devoted statement and image management sacrificed to a heroic degree.

What could she possibly gain by going this far? Yeonhwa’s unwitting mutterance drew a blunt reply from Sareen.

[Deon Hart’s death.]

Meaning she would sacrifice everything for only his death.

‘…Right, the death of the one behind me now.’

Looking at the map on the wall, she suddenly noticed a human-shaped shadow cast beside her feet and turned around. A white-haired man was perched on the windowsill, waving his hand.

“The prank from before was quite amusing.”

“You really… came again.”

“Would I have spoken nonsense?”

Unrestrained ambiguously long hair fluttered in the gentle breeze. As he turned his head, his beautiful face was exposed under the moonlight.

An uninvited guest who came when the white moon rose.

Moreover, that face was extraordinary, and with the dreamlike backdrop, it was a scene straight out of a dime-novel romance, but reality was far from it.

‘To be a king and yet be so powerless, unable to grant even one wish of my strategist and just watch helplessly.’

She was in a situation where even her own life was precarious, let alone fulfilling her subordinate’s wishes.

Yeonhwa gave a bitter smile.

“You were looking at the map?”

“And if I was?”

“I would say it’s an excellent judgment.”

She had been overlaying the game’s situation onto the map, thinking that the game board being made to resemble the actual terrain couldn’t be meaningless. It seemed she was right.

“You’ve come to play another game?”

“Indeed.”

She would gain more definite clues and confirmation about what he wanted to say in this next game.

“I’ll head to the office, follow me.”

She turned away without hesitation.