Chapter 16

◈ Chapter 16 – Nobody Is Ordinary

"I'm sorry, Louise... but this is just a test."

Bell's voice carried no real remorse.

"Don't hold a grudge. No hard feelings between us, right?"

She swung her wooden sword and slammed it into Louise.

"Ugh!"

The impact and a short cry rang out simultaneously.

"Ghk...!"

Bell kept swinging mercilessly.

"Thirteenth turn."

"Bell, keep going."

"Louise, don't you dare back down."

Louise tried to escape the pain, but I wouldn't let her.

"Hold."

I clenched my right fist.

"Kugh...!"

No matter what happened, I refused to change my commands.

"Fourteenth turn."

"Bell, push her."

"Louise! Hold!"

I barked the orders even louder.

"Krrgh..."

Blood spilled from the corner of Louise's mouth.

She was no match for Bell's skill.

"Hey... Bell, isn't that a bit too much?"

"Don't be dramatic. It's nothing but a test."

"Bell's acting like she's beating laundry on a rock."

"Brutal. Absolutely brutal."

"Brutal? Lose and get zero points. Life-or-death stakes here."

I heard my classmates whispering.

Then, cutting through their chatter, another voice rang out.

It was Oscar, his neck veins bulging with rage.

"Mago! Stop this now...! A role is just a role!"

"Instructor! Say something!"

Just then.

"Mago. Are you really going to keep this up?"

Even Kinzo's voice joined in.

It was like asking if I felt no guilt for making my own hand beat Louise bloody.

And this was my golden chance to deceive Kinzo.

"No."

To make it look like I'd given up.

"Fifteenth turn."

"I will open my eyes."

I opened my eyes.

Bell, mid-swing toward Louise, froze in place.

"Mago, you've run out of chances now."

"I win."

Kinzo let out a smug laugh.

"It's over. Mago can't use Lake anymore."

"Sixteenth turn."

"Bell, full advance. Capture Mago."

"Oscar, move right."

Bell casually tossed her wooden sword aside.

Kinzo acted like he'd already won.

A loud boom erupted soon after—the unmistakable sound of a unique skill being activated.

She charged in recklessly, leading with her body. Reaching me took only an instant.

Just one touch meant defeat.

So I merely tilted my head slightly.

I dodged with ease.

Her fingertips grazed past my hair.

Silence hung for about two seconds.

"K-Kinzo. Did you see that? Mago definitely dodged by sight! He dodged with his eyes closed!"

"That's impossible. Lake should be finished..."

"Something must be wrong... huuuuh..."

And sure enough, Bell collapsed on the spot.

Kinzo couldn't use Bell anymore.

Only Amon remained.

But Amon had to stop Louise, who had already reached Kinzo.

"Seventeenth turn."

"A-Amon! Block Louise!"

Just as expected, Kinzo's orders were predictable.

"Oscar! Move forward!"

I shouted loudly in the meantime.

"Eighteenth turn."

"Oscar, keep moving forward."

"Huh... Since when was this possible? Did I mess up the experiment from the start?"

"Nineteenth!"

"Oscar, further forward."

"No way... Was it when it rained yesterday..."

"Twenty!"

"Oscar."

That was my final command.

"Just one more step."

Oscar took a single step and stopped in place.

He was standing behind Kinzo's back.

"Kinzo, you can't see behind you, can you?"

Oscar, who had only ever moved forward, had already passed Kinzo.

Amon and Bell were outside the range of Lake.

Just as I had no idea what they would do.

Kinzo couldn't spot Oscar.

Unlike me, he couldn't see behind himself.

Sensing the end, Kinzo slowly opened his mouth.

"I was confident in outsmarting others. I thought I had far more moves than you. But why..."

"Well, you should have come out when I woke you up last night."

I shrugged and flashed a sly grin.

"So it really was last night."

He let out a helpless laugh.

Back during the first test.

Oscar had been caught between me and Kinzo.

It was no exaggeration to say he made it into the rankings by luck.

In Oscar's own words—

If we were special, he was ordinary.

If we were the plus, he was the minus.

Even on a chessboard, he was a pawn.

That was the man named Oscar Sitta.

That Oscar—he'd ended up behind Kinzo, having slipped right past him. In chess, when a pawn reaches the farthest rank, it promotes. The board flips. A pawn becomes a queen, or any piece you want. And here, the pawn had become the most powerful piece on the board. Nothing could stop him now. Whether his eyes were open or closed didn't matter—Kinzo's back was completely exposed. In chess, a player concedes by tipping over their own king. So Kinzo just flopped to the ground.

"I've learned my lesson." He spread his arms wide. "Damn it."

*

Bell Red slammed her forehead into the bulletin board. Buried it like she wanted to drill through. "I'm... forty-first?" Her voice came out hollow, like she was reciting a spell. Beside her head lay a paper with the interim rankings.

"I'm from one of the three great houses. The youngest daughter of the Red Family..." Her gloom showed no sign of lifting. Next to her, someone else had their head buried too.

"Ha... ha... fourteenth? Me?" It was Amon Coster. "I'm the youngest son of the Coster Family..." Together, they radiated pure misery.

"Hey, Mago, you know what?" Kinzo piped up. "They say the Empire won't have three great families anymore. From now on, the only noble house left is the Moonlight Family. The Reds and Costers are ruined because of these two." He was clearly enjoying their suffering.

"And you? You okay?" I asked.

"No." His face went dead serious. "Actually, there was no empty spot on the board, so I couldn't even post my name." Kinzo had dropped from second to ninth.

"There's still one more test left, isn't there? Once the individual assessment is factored in, who knows how the rankings might shift." I said it as consolation.

All three of them turned their heads and glared at me like they wanted to murder me on the spot. I'd held the top spot through all three rounds.

"By the way, Mago, where did you learn chess?" Kinzo asked.

If I hadn't known the rules of chess, I never would've thought of that promotion trick. I'd have been cornered.

"From some woman."

"A woman? Where do you even have a woman?"

"What's your definition of 'having'? There are women among our peers. Bell, Louise..."

"Forget it." Kinzo waved his hand dismissively.

The one who taught me chess had a rule: the loser got flicked on the forehead. I still remembered how close I came to having a hole drilled through my skull. Silently, I thanked her.

I studied the board more closely. Louise Murphy sat at second place. Oscar Sitta at seventh. The only two noble families outside the rankings were the ones who'd suffered a humiliating defeat. It must have stung.

"Mago. I overheard the instructors talking. They said you could coast through half of the fourth test and still keep your top spot." Bell's voice cut through my thoughts.

"Really?"

"Can't you at least pretend to be humble?"

"Maybe I should."

"You're such a smug bastard."

In my past life, that position had belonged to Amon. But the future had shifted dramatically. Amon Coster, who used to hold the top spot like a fortress, now sat at thirteenth. A score that wouldn't even get him into the Special Forces.

"What are you guys doing here? Heads buried in the board..."

Louise approached, her ponytail swinging. A bandage wrapped around her shoulder.

"Louise!" Bell rushed over and threw her arms around her. Looking up with a trembling voice, she said, "Louise! Is your shoulder okay? I'm sorry... I'm so sorry..."

"It's fine, it's fine. It was just a test, nothing we could do about it. We won, so that's all that matters."

"But I'm still sorry...!"

"I said it's okay."

"I've committed a mortal sin!"

"No, Bell. What sin could you possibly have committed? If you want to blame someone, blame Mago."

Louise turned her head and glared at me.

"Why is it always me...?" I instinctively raised my hand to protect my cheek.

*

That night, Amon spoke with a serious expression. "Today, we do it."

The male trainees sat around the campfire. Four of us: Kinzo, Amon, Oscar, and me.

"It must never be discovered. Understood? This conversation goes to the grave." Oscar ran a hand through his gray hair as he added.

"How Louise will tie her hair tomorrow. Volume 28. Minimum bet starts at one glass of milk."

Amon recited it with utter gravity.

Then Kinzo spoke with confidence. "You guys. Just guessing by luck will only make you lose to me every time. I've analyzed Louise's patterns for a whole month."

He said that with complete certainty, even holding up a piece of paper with scribbled notes. "Based on my analysis, unless there's a variation, tomorrow is twin tails. I bet five glasses of milk."

"Hmm, Kinzo. Starting strong right out of the gate." Amon pressed a hand to his forehead.

I knew. I knew these guys could be idiots sometimes. But I never thought they'd approach such a worthless topic with this level of seriousness.

"Alright, Kinzo. You just happened to mention something important. Variation."

Amon pressed his advantage against Kinzo. "That variation makes the future impossible to predict. You might think you've analyzed everything, but I've seen the one variable that will sink your entire theory."

"H-How could you..."

"Louise told some of the female trainees..." Amon mimicked her tone. "'I'm tired of changing my hair every single day. Maybe I'll just take a break for once.'"

It was a terrible impression. A voice I never wanted to hear again.

"Therefore, I'm going all in on straight hair—exactly how she wore it today."

"If Louise herself said that... I have to agree with Amon." Oscar sided with him. "Mago, what do you think? This is your first time. Say something."

"You guys. Are you on vacation or what?"

Their faces froze instantly. "You've been doing this twenty-seven times?"

"Twenty-seven times?! This bastard, we let him join and he talks like that—!" Amon shot to his feet. "Chairman Amon! We've got a traitor here. What's the procedure?"

Oscar chimed in. "No need to debate. Execute him!"

"Yes, sir!"

"I'm disappointed in all of you. Sitting around a campfire in the dead of night for this? You'd be less embarrassed talking about your first loves."

"M-Mago."

Their faces darkened instantly.

"What are you even getting out of this?"

"Mago... S-Stop!"

"Is guessing how Louise ties her hair really worth this much passion? Betting precious milk on it?"

"Mago, I said stop—!"

Kinzo rolled his eyes to the side, signaling me.

To the right.

I turned to see what was there.

"And what exactly are you doing?"

Red eyes stared back at me.

I'd seen those eyes before. A snake that had just locked onto its prey looked exactly like that.

Bell's face was lit by the firelight. It made her look like a ghost.

Silence stretched. Only the crackling of wood filled the air.

Kinzo struck first. "Mago suggested it!"

"What? Bell, no. I came here to stop them."

"That's right! Mago's the ringleader!" Amon backed him up.

"No! We're all in this together!" Oscar was completely clueless.

"Shut up, all of you. I heard everything. What do you think will happen if I tell Louise about this?"

The others swallowed nervously.

"She'll give you a look of utter contempt."

Bell answered her own question.

"Honestly, that sounds like a reward..." Oscar was clueless for the second time.