From before, me and that pillar brother were so opposite it would be safe to call it a clash of personalities.
Unlike the guy who calculates all possible moves,
‘I was a self-righteous person.’
That’s partly why I couldn’t recognize Pina right away and couldn’t confess the truth to her.
I was running away, afraid I’d hurt Pina.
‘Compared to that, Giseok is your typical man’s man.’
So I tried inviting other players to the guild to fix my habits.
Wasn’t it called NTR Gold Knight? I wonder how he’s doing.
“…How did it come to this, Giseok?”
“….”
A chessboard that looked like it was made of blood.
The black knight moves and captures a white bishop.
“Alright. If I win here, something good should come out of it.”
Then the knight gets captured immediately. Guess that was part of the plan too.
His eyes were unfocused and blurry, but the intelligence in them was still intact.
What’s the charm of chess?
Competition and patience? Or is it about promotion?
‘The battle of foresight.’
Reading the opponent’s moves first, then responding to them.
I run countless simulations in my head.
If I move my rook here, my opponent will follow.
It’s a battle of wits as they anticipate my every move.
As I played chess with him after a long time, memories flooded back.
What was the reason I even formed this guild?
Surely it was filled with people who only played characters aimed at not forming a harem, even in these man-centric games.
‘But now it’s a different reality.’
The reason people were crazy about [Night Heart Trilogy].
The game details have always been phenomenal, making it feel like a real world has been replicated.
“Check.”
I moved my queen first, putting Giseok in check.
Even though she was a princess now, in the future she would become the Nameless Saintess because of the Demon King.
I liked her so I built a guild and tried to let everyone know about the Nameless Saintess in various ways.
The bonds I formed during that time were special.
My first meeting with the ‘Husband of the Northern Duchess’ was in PVP.
─Look at this guy’s nickname. ‘Pure Love Black Knight’? What a joke…
─How can a guy’s nickname be the husband of a duke?
As soon as we saw each other’s nicknames, I instinctively knew he was insane. He was just getting crazier.
─You seem pretty skilled, wanna join my guild?
I recruited him right away.
I was considered a top player in the game, but here was someone who was finally on the same level as me.
─Recruiting someone who just lost? Are you crazy?
─Why, is that a problem?
Plus, we didn’t even have overlapping favorite characters.
The Nameless Saintess and the Northern Duchess.
At that time, they were two completely different characters.
The fierce-hearted bear-eared duchess who had everything and the warm-hearted wolf-eared saintess who lost everything.
─Nah, I think you’re trustworthy enough. I’ll join right away.
You could call it fate in a way.
I didn’t know how the guy sitting across from me had been pulled into the game.
‘…He must have been injured while trying to protect Sophia Coldheart.’
That much I was sure of.
Listening to the Northern Duchess, I could tell this pillar brother would risk his life for Sophia.
What if the status window didn’t show that affection? What if I hadn’t gone to the North before?
‘I’d probably be stuck in this situation forever.’
Even if there were no interactions with Sophia, the Demon King of Truth would have been scheming something.
If he barged into the Northern Palace, his goal must have been to kidnap Sophia.
“Oh no, I lost my queen.”
“….”
Flints moved his arms with vacant eyes, like someone who had lost their soul.
Yet his skill hadn’t rusted.
I was already outnumbered.
With the knight and queen gone, I needed to figure out what he wanted to say without speaking.
‘…..What was the reason this guy made this chessboard?’
Breaking through the powers.
There’s definitely something he can’t convey with words.
The chess pieces Giseok and I were moving were unusual.
Pieces etched with wolf, hourglass, dragon, and octopus designs.
Plus, the chessboard had strange writings as if it were written in blood.
Normally, people don’t just make weird game boards for no reason.
“If me and Sophia remember you, I feel like something strange happened to you. Am I right?”
“……”
He silently continued playing chess.
Since day one, our gaming styles have been different.
While I memorized patterns haphazardly, he was a strategist who planned and acted.
─You know the new dungeon coming up? If you memorize the boss patterns, it’s pretty easy.
─Really? I just gathered NPCs with physical resistance or mixed parties.
Though our gaming styles were like night and day,
─Hey, pillar bro, the words our saintess says when she uses divine power are so sweet.
─Nobody’s got a saintess fetish, right? People need money to be happy.
He was sincere about the characters he liked.
When we ran out of topics, we’d argue whether the saintess was better or the duchess by sunrise.
─As long as I’m with the saintess, I’d be fine living a penniless life.
─If you say that, I’ll be the bad guy…
At first glance, he seemed cold and aloof, but he had a warm side beneath.
As I got to know him, I learned why he fell for Sophia.
After finishing a new raid in the sequel,
There were story raids where you had to defeat characters that appeared only in the game like Magic Hat.
“Still awake at this hour? Saintess fetish.”
“And you?”
There were also raids where players cooperated to clear.
Originally, it was set up that the apostles woke a slumbering dragon in the North.
But now, I had preemptively dealt with the monster assault, so that didn’t happen.
“I just ended up thinking more today.”
“Why, because of the dragon we just fought?”
The slumbering dragon beneath the harsh Northern mountains, Yortunes.
It was a frost-covered dragon that shot all kinds of freezing debuffs and icy breaths.
“….So you’re saying our duchess has been seriously ill? Ugh.”
Thanks to Giseok’s plan, we could easily capture it by bringing hot lava.
Of course, I led the charge, luring the boss monster.
I could hear a long sigh through the headset.
Once we defeated the dragon, the event CG would show the Sophia Duchess collapsing due to her chronic illness.
“If I’d known earlier, I would’ve made an elixir to cure her heart disease.”
“Maybe the hidden affection was the reason for that?”
Both of us were too immersed in the game.
You could argue, ‘It’s just a game character, why are you so serious?’ but
“…I don’t want to see Sophia suffering. Su-hyun.”
In truth, this guy was in a similar predicament as the Northern Duchess.
You could call it a case of shared suffering or sympathy.
“The one suffering should only be me. Why do these game developers have to make characters miserable too?”
“I feel the same.”
All the protagonists in the game must have trauma with the Demon King, right?
The Nameless Saintess Pina gets everything taken away from her as a princess.
Similar to how Sophia Coldheart lost her father to war.
“My mother also passed away due to heart disease.”
“…..”
Giseok had his own painful past.
He confessed that he learned to calculate whether someone was an enemy or ally since childhood.
It was like reading the license plate on the back of a car.
He said if he hadn’t known the Northern Duchess, he might still be trapped in that strange logic.
“I thought defeating this fellow would make things a bit better.”
“Yeah, I guess there’s no happy ending unless you defeat the final boss…”
Initially, he started the original game out of sympathy and interest when he met a character similar to him.
Just like I went into gaming when I was in middle school.
“….Do you think we can defeat Magic Hat?”
“I have to do it. I need to see our saintess in a wedding dress.”
Flints’ chūnibyō appearance might be because of that.
A vampire character with white hair and red eyes.
I had also chosen the Black Knight just because he looked cool, so I had no room to talk.
“When the saintess gets married, doesn’t she have to step down?”
“Oh come on, surely they have that much discretion.”
“Fair point, I did succeed in marrying our duchess.”
Giseok, now married to the Northern Duchess,
Used his fame to align himself with her status and eliminated all threats while defying noble opposition.
This was the reason I thought I couldn’t marry Pina, the princess.
No matter how much I knew about the game,
I didn’t prepare for this due to only thinking about Pina’s status as the saintess.
“..You better stay strong, Pure Love Black Knight.”
After a long discussion, what came out was just encouragement.
That moment he said it so calmly is still vivid in my mind.
Why was it that such a close friend now stood before me like this?
*
In the black and white standoff, white seemed to have the advantage.
I had 2 living pieces, while Giseok had 4.
“Alright, it’s over.”
But in chess, even unfavorable situations can turn around multiple times.
One of those ways is this.
“Stalemate.”
Stalemate. In other words, a draw.
Even though it was my turn to move, I could only be placed in check.
“So this was what you were aiming for all along, huh? Giseok.”
“…..”
I echoed back something he once taught me, and he turned to face me before looking back at the board.
The game concluded in a draw.
What exactly was he trying to convey?
‘Wait, what’s with that arrow?’
The arrow drawn in blood seemed odd. There shouldn’t be anything like this on a normal chessboard.
After everything, I noticed the symbols on the chess pieces.
Wolf, hourglass, dragon, and octopus designs.
And writings on the vertical and horizontal rows.
It’s too distinct to be just decoration, especially since I just visited a shrine, and there were exactly 4.
‘…If this represents the gods of this world.’
The arrows on the chessboard seemed to indicate reading from the left, and I glanced at the order of the stalemated pieces of Giseok.
God of Emotion Pantoz.
God of Will Tardun.
God of Reason JiSeh.
God of Intelligence Akasha listed in that order.
“……Fantasia.”
I let out a hollow sigh.
That’s the name of the developer behind [Night Heart Trilogy].
