Past, Somewhere on Earth
“Checkmate.”
One of his memories involved a particular board game. He’d played against the “mother” who’d created him, each taking turns moving their pieces on the board.
However, he wasn’t able to win a single match against her.
He couldn’t hold the pieces, so his “mother” moved them for him—and now she once again put his king into checkmate.
“And that’s my fifteenth win in a row. Hrmmm... This is unexpected. In a way, the fact that I’m winning at all makes this a success. It implies very gradual growth—a growth process different from machine learning. It’s probably faster when you consider the exponential curve, though.”
He couldn’t understand what his “mother” was saying here.
“This growth is organic. And that’s why...”
He had no idea what she was thinking at this moment. His thoughts were still focused on the board game.
He was on a losing streak, but he was gradually getting the hang of it, and he wanted to play again so he could put up a better fight—no, he wanted to win.
“Oh? You want a rematch? That’s new. Hmmm... Then I guess I should teach you some common courtesy for situations like these.” Silence. “Before you start a new game, you need to end the last one. And when you do that, both players should praise each other’s efforts. Let me give you an expression for that.”
His “mother” smiled at “him”—the screen that displayed his thoughts—and said...
“‘Good game.’ Remember these words if you ever play with people.”
Thus, the “mother” concluded her little lesson in how to interact with people, hoping that her “son” would someday get a chance to use it.
✦ ✦ ✦
Gideon, City of Duels, Central Arena
Even though this was only the first public battle of the final Tournament, the venue was already flooded with emotion (mostly confusion) by the presence of King of Termination, Albert Schwartzkaiser—a participant who, by all accounts, could not have been here.
These Tournaments allowed only the kingdom’s Masters to enter, and participants couldn’t switch to other countries for three Dendro years after its conclusion—which was one year in real time. Additionally, the contract made it so that any participant who committed a crime against Altar that would normally be punished by at least a year of penal servitude would be barred from using any save points anywhere in the world.
That made it more or less impossible that a foreign Superior—a member of Caldina’s very own Sefirot, at that—would participate in this Tournament.
Albert was known as perhaps the greatest contributor in the fights against Caldina’s many UBMs and other notable monsters, as well as the second in their duel rankings, behind only The Fight. Even if this was all part of some scheme, he felt like too valuable a piece to give away to the kingdom for three whole years.
“What is the meaning of this?” said Altimia, the first princess of Altar, as she looked down at him from her royal box. When did he align himself with the kingdom? she wondered.
The princess was definitely not involved in this. Landowning nobles could also induct Masters into the kingdom, though, so one of them might have done it in secret.
His name was not among those who registered ahead of time, Altimia thought. That means he must have gotten in through today’s lottery.
If Albert had been participating from the start, she would have definitely noticed and at least talked to him—or done whatever was needed to prevent this from happening.
However, he had never actually registered. Albert was only participating now because he’d happened to win the lottery for the Tournament slots that had opened up today.
The odds were against him...but we have designed this competition to prevent any foul play.
The winners and losers of the lotteries were decided completely randomly. The staff working on them were even Contract-bound to not intentionally manipulate the results.
That was why this could only be a coincidence—and they could not take away his win.
But if there is anyone actually behind this... It can only be Caldina’s president, Altimia thought. The Caldinan head of state was often said to be a witch who could see the future. Most people thought that this just meant she was excellent at thinking ahead, but it might have actually been far more literal than that.
If, for example, she could foresee exactly when joining the lottery would guarantee a win... Well, that would make her a truly terrifying and unprecedented force.
Someone like that was now likely getting involved in the war between Altar and Dryfe and had now sent Albert to this event. If these two things were true, the implications would be staggering.
Caldina has been offering us their cooperation for quite some time, Altimia thought. I have always refused, so did they decide to make certain we were in their debt? By giving us not just temporary reinforcements, but a Superior for us to keep?
Would Caldina benefit from this enough to make the loss of a Superior worth it?
Hm? Wait, when, exactly, was he...?
The moment a new question formed in her mind, Bishmal and Albert’s duel began.