Corey Lipson was a third-year student at Serendia Academy.

As the third son of a baronial family without any special skills, he chose the chess class as his elective course. He had been playing chess with his older brothers since he was a child, so he thought he could play at least as well as anyone else.

However, the level of chess class at Serendia Academy was far higher than Corey had expected.

In that class, students were divided into three groups according to their skills: upper, middle, and lower. Basically, students in the same group play against each other, and their rank would change depending on the winning percentage.

Those who had won prizes in the past or had already taken chess classes in the previous year would be started in the upper or middle group, but Corey was grouped in the lower group. Moreover, he was at the bottom of the lower group.

Such third-year students at the bottom of the class were naturally forced into the role of taking care of the first and second-year students.

"Okay, the first- and second-year students can start pairing up randomly with each other."

After Corey gave a few cursory instructions, the juniors paired up with those closest to them and began to play the game.

However, there was one girl who was standing there dazedly with no one to pair up with. She was a petite girl with light brown hair. Her figure was so small that one might think she was a student from middle school, but judging from her sleeve ornaments, she was a second-year student in high school.

"You're not getting a partner, huh. I guess you could pair up with me."

"O-O-Okay… p-please take care of me…"

The girl bowed her head and took a seat across from Corey. It was rare to see a female student in a chess class, after all.

Not many girls took chess classes since they tended to be weaker than boys. In the first place, chess was primarily played by men.

Lucky, so Corey secretly giggled.

Students will keep track of their wins and losses in this class, and if their winning percentage was high enough, they could move to the higher group.

Let's get a quick win against this girl, raise my winning percentage, calculated Corey as he laid out his chess pieces.

"How long have you been playing chess? Have you participated in any tournaments?"

"I've only got started recently… I read the manual and learned the rules, yesterday."

Ahhhh, there they are. Some people think they can play chess just by reading a manual.

He was referring to himself, of course.

"Since this game will be recorded, I won't give you a handicap, is that okay?"

"I-I'm fine with it."

The girl nodded and stared at the board.

I think this will be a piece of cake, laughed Corey without showing it.

"…It's checkmate."

The girl declared as she moved her black knight.

Corey stared down at the board, breaking out into a cold sweat.

…wait, wait wait, wait.

Turning away from the board for a moment, he rubbed his eyes.

Then, he looked at the board again…

…wait, wait, wait, what is this, what is this…

Pondered Corey, before long, he covered his face with his hands and hung his head.

To give an honest impression of this game, there was only one thing to say: ‘Before I knew it, I had lost.'

With frightening speed and precision, the girl overwhelmed Corey. He knew how mercilessly strong she was. It was the same as when he played chess with a person from the higher group… if not better.

"… I lost."

When Corey surrendered, the girl let out a relieved breath and patted her chest.

Then, all of a sudden, Corey's shoulders became very heavy. It wasn't that he was slumped over in his defeat. There was an arm on his shoulder and someone was leaning on him.

When Corey twisted his head around, he saw Elliot Howard, his classmate, leaning over his shoulder, peering at the board.

If this was just a classmate, he would have just brushed it off and said, ‘What are you doing?' But Elliot Howard was a privileged classmate and a member of the student council. He's too different from him, who was the third son of a mediocre baronial family.

Elliot looked at the board for a moment, leaned over, then tapped Corey on the shoulder.

"Do you mind switch a place with me?"

"S-Sure."

As Corey quickly offered up his seat, Elliot took his place, sitting firmly in his chair.

The girl sitting across from him jerked her shoulders. Elliot gave such a girl his usual frivolous smile and said.

"Hey, Miss Norton. How about you play with me this time?"

"B-But, we're from different groups…"

"No problem. Even if we're from different groups we can still play a match."

Indeed, Elliot was right, no rule said the upper group and the lower group could not compete against each other. However, in this case, even if the upper group wins, it would not be counted. On the other hand, if the lower group wins, it will significantly affect their winning records.

So, people in the upper group have nothing to gain by playing games with lower groups. To put it bluntly, it was just a waste of time. And no one had ever done it.

And yet, Elliot volunteered to compete with a junior member of the lower group.

Elliot was among the three best players in the upper group. It was said that his selection for the national chess tournament was virtually guaranteed.

I mean, the chess tournament is just around the corner. How can he be thinking of playing against a junior member of a lower group at such a time?

Skeptical, Corey left his seat to find his next opponent.

＊ ＊ ＊

Elliot picked up one of the black and white pieces, quickly reshuffled it under the desk, and held his fist out in front of Monica.

"Choose whichever you like."

"I…I'll take this one, then."

Monica opened the hand she was pointing at, and what came out was a black king.

Elliot went first in white, and Monica went after him in black.

As Monica was arranging the black pieces, Elliot, who had quickly finished arranging them, muttered, "Say," resting his chin on his hand.

Her arranging hands stopped and looked at Elliot.

"I-Is there something wrong?"

"The other day's game."

Elliot poked at the piece with his fingertips and spoke as if he were talking to himself.

"You knew I hadn't taught you the castling yet, and you also knew I won the game with it… so, why didn't you point it out in front of everyone?"

Monica blinked in surprise.

The other day's game—her first game of chess—she still remembered it well.

The game where Elliot's side has no queen and the first move was given to Monica.

Monica had the upper hand in the beginning, but at the last minute, Elliot used a special move called ‘castling' to move Rook and King, resulting in Monica's defeat.

At that time, Monica didn't know the special move of castling, so it was natural for her to be defeated.

As Monica was at a loss for an answer, Elliot continued with more words.

"You had every right to blame me. You can even say to me that it's not a fair game."

Suddenly, Monica remembered.

For the past few days, Elliot had been acting strange, as if he wanted to say something to Monica in the student council room but only to slink away quickly. Could it have been because he wanted to mention this?

"Um, well…"

Monica carefully chose her words as she answered.

"… if it was someone I know, I'm sure he would have said this to me…‘You are foolish if you have taken a seat at the table only relying on the explanations of others without looking up the official rules for yourself.'"

Needless to say whom that acquaintance she was referring to.

As Monica giggled, remembering Louis Miller's broad smile, Elliot looked at Monica with half-open eyes.

"Hey, that friend of yours, isn't he too much of a jerk?"

"Well, but I really think he's got a point… he even said, ‘The game has begun before you even sit down at the table.'"

Elliot let out a deep sigh and held up his hands in resignation.

"Come on, give me a break. It's not like I wanted to set you up so I didn't teach you castling. I knew there was no way a novice could understand castling, so I had underestimated your ability and tried to win without it, honestly."

Monica gave a vague "Huh," and Elliot ruffled his bangs as if he was upset.

"That's the part you should be angry about. I had underestimated you, got pissed off, and forced myself to win by using a castling move I didn't teach you. That was not fair. It was shameful and unbecoming of a noble."

"Um…"

Monica was at a loss. She had no idea what part of Elliot's words she should be angry about.

Monica has never been angry when she was belittled. If anything, she felt more troubled when people pointed it out. She didn't see any reason to blame Elliot for not teaching her how to castling, especially if it wasn't intentional. It was her fault for not looking up the rules herself.

"…I'm sorry. I can't think of any reason to be angry."

When she uttered those words, Elliot's mouth gaped open in surprise for some reason.

And that baffled words continued, as she wondering if she had said something so strange.

"As long as I can play chess, I'm fine with it."

Monica placed the remaining pieces on the board and faced Elliot.

"I'm looking forward to having a nice game."

All expression disappeared from Monica's face.

Her young face showed no sign of fear, and her quiet, calm eyes awaited Elliot's first move.

Elliot exhaled slowly and put his hand on the white pawn.

"Then, I won't hold back anything."

"…That will make things better."

"Huh? Was that guy not enough for you?"

"…it was more fun playing chess with you, Lord Howard."

"I'm so honored to hear that."

For some reason, Elliot was grinning happily, showing his white teeth.