Chapter 3 – Story 83: A Game of Shogi
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“Alright, and with this it is checkmate.”
Once Solon placed the prime minister in front of the king, Mythos admitted his defeat, “I’ve lost.”
“Fuhahahaha, not being able to prevent the loss of your marshal and neglecting the protection of your king was a mistake.”
“Ah, shucks, it’s just as you say. I was blinded by the chariot and archer attack and didn’t expect the prime minister to come from that side at all,” Mythos slapped his forehead in embarrassment while smiling bitterly at Solon pointing out his blunder.
“Well then, let’s have another match.”
“I won’t lose the next one.”
With those words, Solon and Mythos began to line up their respective game pieces.
Five days had already passed since they started to have these shogi matches. Throughout the whole time Solon didn’t mention capitulation or fighting with a single word. Probably because of that, Mythos seemed to genuinely enjoy their shogi matches.
Adomius had to be present because of his duty, but at some point he had started to ask himself why he had to watch two men play shogi.
Yet, although it was true that he was enjoying the shogi games, Mythos couldn’t afford to forget his own position either. He frantically tried to deduce whether the messenger was trying to tell him something through this game. However, thus far he didn’t spot any hints as they were simply playing shogi and nothing else.
Rather, this fact piqued Mythos’s interest.
The situation will become increasingly disadvantageous for the revolting slaves as time passes on. I wonder whether it’s okay for them to waste time like this? What sort of person is the one leading the revolting slaves and what is he thinking to allow something like this to go on?
Gradually Mythos’s interest in the man called Divine Son of Destruction Soma Kisaki grew. But, at the same time he felt like he’d go along with the other side’s intentions, if he were to ask, 「What kind of person is Soma Kisaki?」, and that annoyed him quite a bit.
Accordingly, Mythos used shogi as a pretext and asked the following: “Is the person called Soma good at shogi?”
Adomius immediately got tense, cursing, 「So this was the aim all along!?」.
It’s generally difficult to persuade someone with an obstinate attitude. No matter how much reason your argument might have or how well you explain the potential losses and gains, you’ll be pushed aside on an emotional level. But, even if one rejects something on an emotional emotional level, it’s not like they won’t be curious to find out more about the enemy commander they’re facing. This old man has been waiting for Mythos’s curiosity to surpass his obstinacy. And most certainly he’ll use this golden opportunity to describe what a wonderful person the Divine Son of Destruction is and push for surrender.
Adomius got all cautious, but he himself was also interested in learning about the Divine Son of Destruction who was leading them around by the nose to such a degree that even General Darius was extremely wary of him. Without interrupting the conversation between Mythos and Solon, he pricked up his ears.
However, Solon said something quite unexpected.
“Haha, Lord Soma is bad at shogi. Not once has he won against me.”
This was the truth. Originally Souma had dabbled with shogi as he adored the story developments in manga and anime, where an enemy general would surrender after losing in a shogi match, but he kept losing not only against Solon, but even Shyemul who learned it together with him. And even when playing against others, he couldn’t win to the degree of being overwhelming.
At last Souma even lost against Jahangil whom he had seen as his last ray of hope to regain his honor, making him quickly give up on shogi since he didn’t have any talent in it.
By the way, the only person Souma managed to beat was Eladia. But, except for Souma, no one else――not even Solon――could win against her.
“Hoh, that’s unexpected.”
In this world shogi was recognized as a military exercise for commanders. It sounded quite unbelievable that an extraordinary strategist, who not only repelled Holmea’s strongest general but also routed the Black Wall which was famous for being the strongest army corps, would be bad at shogi.
Solon said to Mythos, “Shogi also exists in Lord Soma’s native land. But, they play it somewhat differently over there. Maybe that is the reason.”
That piece of information was highly interesting for the shogi-lover Mythos. At once he asked what sort of differences it included.
“The game pieces and the number of fields on the board are naturally different, but the biggest difference might be the possibility to use the game pieces you took from your opponent as your own game pieces, I would say.”
That’s an interesting concept, assessed Mythos.
This world’s shogi was just like chess in that a taken piece would be gone from the board. But, if you could use the opponent’s game pieces after taking them, it would expand the strategies on the board in complexity and variation to a frightening degree, Mythos assumed.
“Should we try it? I will use the style of Lord Soma’s native land while you will use the Holmea style, Lord Mythos.”
“T-That obviously won’t work!”
If the opponent could use the game pieces he took while Mythos couldn’t do the same, it wouldn’t be much of a match.
Thereupon, Solon offered a different proposal, “Okay, then how about I use the Holmea style while you use the style of Lord Soma’s native land?”
Mythos became angry at this.
If we’re going to do it anyway, we should both play under the same ruleset. Him deliberately offering to place himself in such a disadvantageous position is a humiliation. After having played this many shogi matches, I’ve grasped that Solon is ahead of me by several moves, but I don’t think that there’s this much of a gap between us.
With a face as if telling Solon that he shouldn’t whine about losing later on, Mythos agreed to go with this setting.
But just as they were about to start with the new ruleset, Solon suddenly removed the marshal and crown prince from his own side. These game pieces were important figures equal to the gold general and rook in common shogi of modern Japan.
With a nonchalant look, Solon said, “This is my first move.”
In front of the surprised Mythos, Solon moved his king.
Moreover, he moved the king, which mustn’t be taken, towards the enemy camp, making Mythos wonder what Solon was thinking as he didn’t make that move to strengthen the king’s protection, but the opposite. Far from just assessing it as a meaningless move, Mythos actually regarded it as nothing but a bad move.
Solon told Mythos, who couldn’t grasp the idea behind this, in an aloof manner, “Hmm? I thought moving the king without thinking of the consequences while not having a marshal or crown prince was the style of Holmea. Or am I wrong?”
Not only Mythos, but also Adomius were at a loss due to that explanation. Solon had demonstrated the current state of Holmea through shogi. Darius, who used to be the marshal, had fallen into disgrace and was still being kept under house arrest. Meanwhile Prince Alexius was secluding himself in his assigned room ever since ordering the surrendering soldiers to be shot, and hadn’t shown his face even once, despite a messenger’s visit. And above all else, King Warius was letting his emotions free reign without considering the consequences.
This was an extremely scathing way of sarcasm. However, although Mythos wanted to refute it with all his heart, he couldn’t do anything but silently continue with the shogi match.
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“Hmm. I don’t have any moves left anymore. I guess this means it’s a checkmate for me.”
Solon admitted his defeat and dropped the piece in his hand on the board. This shogi match ended, as might be expected, with Mythos’s victory.
Mythos ended up completely distracted by his inability to object to Solon’s severe sarcasm and thus made several basic mistakes during the game, resulting in a series of bad moves. But, despite that Solon lost as he couldn’t overturn Mythos’s superior position of being able to use his opponent’s pieces as his own while at the same time lacking two important pieces himself.
Naturally it was impossible for Mythos to rejoice over this victory. This was basically him proving that the current Holmea wouldn’t be able to win against the Divine Son of Destruction, no matter how much it struggled.
Plagued by the match he just won, Mythos lost all will to continue playing and since the sun was gradually going down in the west, he called it quits for today.
“Come to think of it, I forgot to tell you one thing,” just as he was about to leave, Solon addressed Mythos and Adomius, who had come to see him off, as if having remembered something, “Lord Soma is certainly bad at shogi. But, that’s because shogi is bound to its board.”
Adomius and Mythos furrowed their eyebrows, not understanding the meaning.
With a broad smile, Solon added, “That man’s strength lies outside the board. By the time we decide to have a match, he has already achieved victory. Good gracious, he is quite a challenge for any opponent. ――The gentleman over there understands that very well, I’m certain.”
Solon’s eyes pointed at Adomius, causing him to get startled. The battle at the bridgepoint, where his army suffered a crushing defeat despite having a lot more soldiers, was still fresh in his memory. They had headed into battle filled with the conviction that they’d win, just to get slaughtered like cattle.
After a sidelong glance at the frozen Adomius, Solon left while roaring in laughter.
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