Bab 280: The Taste Of Defeat
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***
Hu Tao smiled widely, "Uwaaah...I lost again...My future husband is very smart when he feels like it!"
"...You lost in five moves...Hu Tao..." Yomite dryly replied. She was absolute trash at chess...
After Yomite watched Paimon and Lumine play a few more times, Hu Tao woke up and wandered around the house until she eventually found them.
She proclaimed herself to be the master chess player and wanted to take revenge for the "doggie" thing, so she went ahead and challenged Yomite, but not only did she lose, she also lost in just few moves!
How embarrassing was that?
"I'm gonna go outside to stretch a little, who wants to go with me?" Yomite asked.
"I am a bit angry with you, my Assistant, I will abstain." Hu Tao pouted.
She used to play chess with herself and a few ghosts, yet it seemed that all of her experience was for naught.
"Paimon wants to go with you! How about we go and buy some sweets!"
"I will also go with you, Party leader."
"Alright, let's go then."
He didn't go and ask the rest of the girls since Fischl was still asleep, and Barbara and Iris were still talking in her room
Once they got outside, somehow, they began talking about his old world.
"Paimon didn't think you were so smart, Good Tattoo! Chess takes a lot of effort to master!"
"Does it? I played chess ever since I was little. It doesn't seem hard to me. I can visualize it pretty well."
He was from Japan, meaning he had to either undergo Violin, chess or piano classes as a beginner package when he was a child, or else his free trial of living would end.
"Woah! Visualize it? Does that mean you've played mental chess before?"
"Ah, actually, yeah. I played it a few times."
"Paimon wants to play with you then!"
"Well...sure I guess. What game? Rapid, blitz, bullet, king of the hill or classical? Or does this world have some other variations I am ignorant about?"
"Eh!? Eeeh wait! Paimon didn't know there were more variations of chess!?"
"Ah, Paimon is so dumb sometimes, alright. We will go with classical then."
"Hey! Just because Paimon hasn't heard of those terms before, doesn't mean Paimon's dumb! "
"Just because you call me Bad Tattoo doesn't mean I need to fulfill your made-up expectations about me."
...
..
.
"...Paimon is silent."
She murmured under her breath.
"No, you're clearly still talking though? Let's move on....Which side do you want? "
"Oh! The white one!"
"Alright, that leaves me the black side—...if we were in my world, people would for sure complain about this one on some social medias..."
"Eh?"
"It's nothing. Well, you begin." Yomite walked forward with Paimon flying next to his head and became mitten in the magic dust around them, emitted from her cape.
"Paimon chooses...Pawn E4!"
"Pawn E5." A swift response came from him, matching her.
In game theory, pawns were seen as little bugs, due to their speed at moving while occupying multiple tiles and most often being subjected to attacks by pieces already established on the board and sacrificed for the greater good.
The chess theory went by two ways; quantitative theory, where game was quantitatively measured, and strategic theory, which concentrated on the pieces themselves instead. Both were useful but the latter seemed to be more accurate.
After a few moves each, they had found themselves pretty much standing back to back, exchanging blows to see who could knock off their opponent's piece first.
Lumine was observing the two of them from behind, as Paimon and Yomite were battling it out inside of their minds.
Well, she had never seen anyone play a mental chess before, but she assumed from the name that the battle of wits would take place inside of their mind instead of a wooden board...
It was certainly interesting.
She wasn't entirely sure what kind of worlds these "fighters" were living in.
Or did they simply exist inside the intricacies of their own thoughts?
Were they actually so intelligent that they could play a chess game without a chessboard and set pieces on specific positions, and remember it all? Or were they just that good at creating an illusion to fool her? Maybe it was just an elaborate prank they conspired together?
This got into a new realm altogether, and her perception skills weren't nearly enough to comprehend it.
When Lumine played with Paimon, she could barely concentrate on the game when it was right in front of her, much less the entire board with positions and pieces not existing...
How was it even possible to play like this?
Things got intense after the battle for queen began. They stood toe to toe, each trying to knock off the other's pieces.
Soon it came down to the fact that they were either advancing, defending or playing bait, distracting each other. With neither able to gain an advantage or safe position yet, it started to get tedious.
Yomite smirked at the Fairy who continually kicked the air in front of her out of frustration.
"Paimon is getting annoyed now!"
"Less talking, more concentrating. Or else you might forget the position of all pieces and lose instantly."
"You don't know Paimon very well! Paimon is smart and never forgets!" The little fairy snapped back, still pouting, "Paimon hasn't lost a match ever since Paimon became Paimon! Just because you have a few tricks, doesn't mean Paimon has no counter-tricks! "
The fairy seemed to be rambling on about herself while looking smugly satisfied at sweet victory she would soon taste. It seemed that her attitude changed in the face of someone strong.
This wasn't like playing against Lumine, where her tactics were the same every time.
Yomite was showing some unpredictability in his strategies which allowed Paimon a small glimpse into the unknown, as if she were making sense of a puzzle piece for a brief moment before it fell into place and turned out being something completely different than what it initially appeared as...
Paimon held her head and muttered to herself after Yomite made a move to knock off her knight.
"Oh...Paimon missed that...?"
She was beginning to realize that Yomite's intelligence wasn't quite as simple. He was predicting her next moves.
He seemed to be great at reading the situation ahead of time and acting accordingly.
Once Paimon lost her knight, her rook soon followed and her defense fell apart completely.
He continued knocking off more pieces until she had nothing but the king piece left.
"Checkmate."
Paimon smiled, not so much triumphant but happy nonetheless, seeing how easily she had been beaten.
"Paimon's head is overheating...Paimon will go and take a quick rest!" She smiled once more, and disappeared into the air as she usually did when bored or exhausted.
At times like these, Yomite didn't know whether she teleported away somewhere or just turned invisible and rested mid-air. This mysterious little fairy was full of tricks none of them could comprehend.
"You did it! You avenged me." Lumine came to stand right in front of him with an expression of joy.
"Of course."
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