Boarding the boat was a smooth process all in all, and getting settled in wasn’t that difficult either. Since I didn’t have that many tools to carry around with me, all the luggage I actually had to carry was a backpack and my sword, which meant I didn’t even need the captain to help me carry it all. Speaking of the captain, he reminded me very much of the captain Ed and I had the pleasure of meeting back when we sailed across from Primis to the Kingdom of Carmen. He was this bearded muscly nice old man who always carried a pipe around, even when hard at work. This stoic behavior made it hard for us to speak to him, as we were still quite shy back then, but we quickly learned he wasn’t at all scary. In fact, he was quite pleasant to be around, we’d always enjoy listening to all the stories he told us about his past and about life as a sailor.

Ahem, I got off topic. As I was saying, the captain of this ship I was going to be sailing on now was very much similar, in that he too had these idiosyncrasies, but he sort of lacked in the beard department. Not clean shaven, mind you, it still covered his face, but when compared to the other captains beard that reached his belly, this one was kind of boring in comparison (Of course, if I said this to him now, he’d probably kick me off the ship!)

As I was walking around the deck of the ship, I looked out at the sea in hopes of spotting a passing island or something. To be honest, there’s not much you can do on a ship, it’s quite boring actually. I looked around for a bit more before getting a bit nauseous, then I walked back over to the center of the deck to catch my breath. I spent some more time looking at all the ropes and barrels whose placement seemed all but random for me. I of course know they all serve a purpose, but I’m, by all accounts, a nautical nimrod (for lack of a better term). As a kid I always dreamed of sailing the high seas, looking for buried treasure and engaging in all sorts of naval warfare, but as I quickly grew out of that phase after realizing just how horrible it actually is to live purely off of fish and barely take any showers at all. That idea is… too extreme for me.

“Hey!” The Captain shouted, “Stop snooping around my ship! You don’t see me poking around your luggage, do you?”

I was called up to the Captain’s quarters and reprimanded for being too curious. After I apologized profusely to him, he laughed it off stating I know you didn’t mean anything bad by it, but you could accidentally break something off so I got off with a light slap on the wrist. He told me to have a seat across from him and asked for a game of chess, seeing as both of us were bored.

“Sorry, I’ve never played the game, I don’t even know the rules.” I said.

He didn’t mind though, and instead chose to spend the rest of the day teaching me all the ways each piece can move, as well as some basic strategies and openers. I was always rearing to go when it came to learning something new, so I had no qualms about listening in on every single word he said. I made sure to mentally jot down as many tips and tricks as I could, since an opportunity to get them from a seasoned veteran are hard to come by.

After a day or two of me getting the hang of it, we were finally ready to play a real match. No handicaps, no holding back.

***

“Since it’s your first time, I’ll command the white pieces.” Said the Captain as he set up all the pawns.

“Captain,” I asked out of curiosity, “why do you say command? If this is just a game of chess, why make it sound so serious?”

“Nonsense, boy!” he exclaimed, “In this little game of ours, we are both Kings leading our nation. If you do not take it seriously, then I’m afraid you’ll reach a plateau in your skills very soon.”

It made sense, in a way. If I never took myself seriously during my time as General of ARA, then I’m sure the gang members wouldn’t take me seriously either. I kind of grasped this basic concept myself without realizing it, but still, having it told to me outright like this kind of makes me feel stupid. I guess I should really get into the swings of things right about now.

“Alright,” he said calmly, “I’ll move my Pawn from E2 to E4!”

“Weird, didn’t you say that opening with a Knight is the preferred way to do things?” I asked, remembering all the tips he gave me during our lessons.

“Oh? Does a King ask this of his opponent? Or does he keep his cards close to his chest?” He answered back mysteriously, avoiding a straight answer.

“Alright…? Well then, I’ll move my own Pawn from F2 to F4.”

I figured this way I could lure him into a trap and trade Pawns-

“Checkmate!” He said, moving his Queen from D1 to H5.

“Whuh? But? H-How? Wait, no it really is Checkmate! I have no way of defending my King, nor is there a way for me to move him to safety at all!” I looked around the board once more.

“Hmph,” he smirked, “only an amateur would be going for the Pawns, and you even wanted to trade them? Obviously you’d lose if you thought like that.”

Seriously!? He figured out my plan from the get-go? Just how crazy good is this guy?

“Don’t worry, you’ll get better with more games.” He tried cheering me up, “But take this as a lesson you can apply to real life as well!”

“What do you mean exactly?” I asked him earnestly.

“Don’t go for the lowly Pawns, you’re the King, got that?” He stated as a matter of fact, “In my opinion, a King is but a mere decorative piece in the world of chess. It represents you. A true King finds the strengths of all his subjects, not just focusing on one. See, in real life, even when you’re just a Pawn unfit to assassinate the enemy King, your next best option would be to step aside and leave it to the more capable Queen.” He said, holding up her piece.

“Oh,” he added, “and always make sure to think 5 steps ahead! Since I was the one who taught you, I had plenty of time to learn all of your little habits. I was about 99% sure you were gonna do what you did this game.”

“But what if I didn’t?” I asked, “What if I took the 1%?”

“A true King has a plan B, and when that plan fails, there’s always plan C, get me?” He joked.

“Amazing!” I jumped from my seat, “Let’s play another round!”

Just like that, we stayed up for hours each and every day, constantly playing chess over and over. Even still, the entire time I selfishly asked for another round after inevitably losing, this kind old man generously set the board up once more. It had taken me about 4 days before I could actually beat him, although I still consider it a fluke, judging by how many mistakes I made. That, or he let me win just so he could catch a break for once.

“Finally! I did it!” I jumped from joy, “Captain, I did it!”

“Phew, you sure got me!” Said the Captain as he wiped the sweat from his burly brows, “Looks like all this playing finally paid off, didn’t it?”

“It sure did! But…” I cut my celebrations short, “It was probably just a fluke…”

“Boy,” he lightly grabbed me by the shoulder, “if you’re a King, and you just barely got out of a fierce battle with your head on your shoulders, would you be sad about it because it was a fluke?”

“W-Well, no, of course not.” I stammered, “I’d just be glad I got to live another day, I guess.”

He raised his brows in astonishment at just how quickly I understood his analogy, thus patting me on the shoulder and giving me a warm smile which could barely be made out from his beard. I guess I understand a bit more now, you take any victory, no matter how small, no matter how much of a fluke it was, as you’ll never truly know if it’s gonna be your last.

This somewhat morbid conclusion I made was sort of refreshing in a way, since it alleviated a ton of the stress from this trip. It made me think that even making it this far with how bad I got treated by the world is more than good, and I was happy with the current situation, no matter how badly it started off. The Captain said he’s off to check the situation outside, so he left me in the room and asked me to brew us some tea. Preparing the kettle and heating the water on the stove was going well, but a sudden wave made the ship tilt a bit, which lead to me scalding my hand a bit. It wasn’t that big of an issue, but it was still quite annoying.

Just then, the Captain called for me to quickly go outside and help him keep all the luggage and barrels from rolling off the deck. Springing to action, I ran from one place to the next as I used as many of the surrounding ropes to fix the barrels securely to the ships deck. It took a lot out of me, but since waves were splashing all around us, the cold water actually felt quite nice on my scald mark (The salinity of the seawater had a counter effect, though…)

After the weather cleared up a bit, the Captain thanked me for the help, and asked if everything was okay on my side.

“Now that you mention it,” I said with a green face, “I am feeling a bit seasick…”

Since the boat he sailed was effectively a trade boat, he wasn’t all too familiar with having passengers board it, and since he never felt seasickness once in his life, he didn’t know of any way to cure it.

“Got any of that Great Hiana alcohol?” I asked.

“Sure,” He shot back, “but now’s not the time for drinks!”

“Don’t worry, just bring it here.” I said as I quickly grabbed a napkin from my pocket.

The remedy I was about to perform was one that the previous Captain taught me a long time ago. We used this trick when Ed was the one who got seasick, but he said it stung a lot. Indeed, I was doing that. And by that, I mean I applied some of the alcohol to the napkin and placed it on my nose, and with a strong whiff…!

“Cough! Cough! It burns!” I screamed out, throwing away the remedy in a bout of pain.

“Why would you do that?!?” The Captain asked worriedly.

“It’s supposed to…” I wanted to say Help, but then I realized it already did, as I didn’t feel nauseous at all. I guess that Great Hiana alcohol really is a miracle cure-all! I feel brand new! Like I could go for 10 more rounds of chess, at least!

And just like that, we had eventually arrived at the Icy Continent of Sibirus, and I was escorted to the ITA issued cottage located about a 5 minute trek away from Shaid’s Temple, where all of my party members were apparently situated. I bid the Captain farewell and thanked him for teaching me about the ways of chess, and with a tear in his eye he smiled back before turning to head back to his ship.

I opened the door of the cottage, and a warm air immediately burst out from it. It was so refreshing I actually stood there just basking in the warmth for a bit.

“Hey!” A voice from the other room called out, “Close the door, it’s free…zing.” He stopped everything he was doing when he saw me, “You… What the hell are you doing here!?”

It was none other than the shorty, Sullivan, and behind him stood the rest of the party, all looking like they were having the pajama party of the century.