Chapter 45 - The Chess Record of Lady Ariarein (Part Two)
From the following day, a new daily routine was added to the lives of the master and retainer.
After finishing everything—the education as the Crown Prince's fiancée, or the training as her guard—there was a moment before going to bed. Arveil would visit Ariarein's room and sit in the designated chair at the designated table.
A chessboard was placed on the table, and the pieces were lined up. And it was customary for a chess record with a bookmark inserted to be placed beside the chessboard, and a drink to be placed on the side table.
He would pick up the record, study the page where the bookmark was inserted, and move the pieces in his head. Around the time he grasped the general flow, Ariarein, wearing a stole over her loungewear, would show her face.
"Arveil, are you ready?"
"Anytime, my lady."
Using such an exchange as a signal, the two would play through the record, and then swap white and black—the first and second players—and repeat the same thing once more. If it was an opening with variations, they would play through the record and reproduce those variations in the same way. Even if the things to be memorized were the same, being able to move their hands and actually see the moved pieces and the positions with their own eyes was useful for grasping the openings.
Since what they had to do was mostly decided, the two didn't exchange many words. It was only to the extent that Ariarein would speak up when she felt a doubt about the intent of an opening.
"In this situation, I wonder what would happen if I responded like this."
"Continuing the attack in this position seems a bit unreasonable to me."
Arveil's response to such doubts was also mostly decided.
"Then my lady, let's try playing it out a bit."
While saying so, he would prepare paper and pen, play out the continuation of Ariarein's doubt, and record it. Sometimes they would easily reach a dead end, and other times they would conclude that they couldn't quite see ahead. Setting aside famous masters, for two players at a stage where they were still trying to memorize openings, it was frequent that they couldn't read all the way to the end.
Even so, they would play to confirm anyway and record the results. That became the rule for the master and retainer. The recorded results were folded and inserted between the pages of the original record.
Ariarein and her father the Marquess repeatedly played matches from time to time.
On days when a match was held, that record was reproduced as far as Ariarein could remember, and it was examined in detail from where the losing momentum had thickened. Sometimes the losing move was clearly understood, and other times the situation had worsened without them quite knowing why. Even so, one could somehow understand around where the situation had begun to tilt.
Even if she appeared no different than usual on the surface, the examination of the record on such days would be longer than usual.
As expected, she is competitive, Arveil thought, without putting it into words.
For Arveil, who was effectively cutting into his rest time, it wasn't that there were no difficult parts. However, even so, the time spent helping Ariarein, who was seriously thinking about something while playing each move, was one of the pleasures for Arveil.
"I suppose that's about it for today."
"Yes."
"I'll be counting on you tomorrow as well."
"Yes."
"Thank you, Arveil. Good night."
"Good night, my lady."
When they finished the examination of the record, the master and retainer invariably exchanged such a conversation. In that way, the two continued their efforts to somehow overcome the wall that was far too high to climb.
*
One day, about two months after they had started reproducing the records.
"Hey Arveil, will you listen?"
As soon as Arveil entered the room at the designated time, Ariarein, who had been waiting, said with great excitement.
"Yes, of course. —My lady, what on earth happened today?"
With a somewhat surprised feeling, Arveil nodded and asked back.
Normally, Ariarein wouldn't wait for Arveil. It was customary for Arveil to arrive at his seat first and wait, and Ariarein, wearing a stole over her loungewear, would appear after making Arveil wait for a bit.
"It became the form of the opening we examined a while ago, today."
It was a direct response—or rather, one that left out several premises.
Ah, so she played a match with His Excellency today, Arveil thought as he nodded.
"And then, er—this. I tried this variation."
Ariarein opened the book of records, turned the pages, reopened the paper inserted in the target page, and placed it on the desk. Her voice was in a much more cheerful tone than usual.
"Then, Father thought for a bit—ah, this. From here, I played the continuation that we couldn't read through with Father. I lost, but I memorized the record desperately. I wrote it down as soon as I returned to my room."
"Yes."
She added a variation to the opening and made him play a new move. Ariarein remembered that process and the result.
"Hey, will you think about it with me again? What we've been doing wasn't wrong."
"Yes, gladly, my lady."
She did lose. Even so, there was a great step forward there. It was different from two months ago when it wasn't even a game.
—At this rate, surely.
Someday. No, in the not-so-distant future.
Arveil was certain. That the day of my lady's first victory would come.
The master-retainer chess episode concludes with this part.
Thank you for following along.
If you like, please pick up the middle volume as well.
Also, the final volume, the lower volume, is scheduled to be published in winter. Along with the comicalization project, please look forward to it!