Chapter 70. Berenburg (8)

There was a time when an AI boom briefly took off.

At some point, it became an undeniable trend that approached the public, but I remember there being an AI boom even before that.

It was probably when a leading Go player lost to an artificial intelligence.

Numerous books preaching the development and dangers of AI became bestsellers.

It had nothing to do with me, who was cooped up in my room playing games, but I had a coincidental experience with AI.

It was when I was playing internet chess as a hobby in between games.

A player with the nickname ‘AI Chessmaker’ challenged me.

As the name suggested, it was a player who used AI.

Whether they used it poorly or not, it was not an invincible being as shown on TV.

Still, its play style was very unique and memorable.

It was completely different from playing against a person.

It never lost in a short-term situation.

It felt like playing against a prophet who could perfectly see several moves ahead.

The Marquis' play style reminded me of that memory.

Click.

A bishop took my pawn.

The left front was once again in crisis.

I threatened the bishop with a rook.

The bishop retreated.

“Possibility is too broad a scope. The future is uncertain. Even with the power of the gods, I can only know of confirmed, approaching, and at most, impending misfortunes within a few weeks.”

Was it because he had some leeway?

The Marquis began to ramble on as if complaining.

I moved my pieces silently without answering.

Click.

A black knight took the Marquis' retreated bishop.

“The Pewin Viscount case was like that too. We tried to assassinate him. But only after all the preparations were complete in the dark did the gods foretell an ill omen.”

A queen and a rook put simultaneous pressure on my knight.

I retreated without being greedy.

By the way, so that’s why he was alive.

The reason why Viscount Pewin, who should have been dead at the start of the game, was alive was revealed like this.

“All the effort I put in went to waste… well, in the end, didn’t I avoid the worst?”

The Marquis said with a leisurely smile.

He wasn't wrong.

The assassination of Viscount Pewin was the starting point for the Emperor to prepare for a major reform.

The ill omen the statue foretold must have been referring to that.

But.

“Remember this. You can achieve quite successful results just by avoiding the worst.”

Just avoid the worst, huh.

Was that really the case?

I would bet against it.

Even without the trigger of Viscount Pewin’s assassination, the Emperor eventually raised a secret knight order.

The Marquis was cornered more quickly.

As a result, the civil war also broke out earlier.

Moreover, Viscount Pewin, who had avoided the assassination attempt, became my strong supporter.

Without the Viscount’s early support, I wouldn't have been able to expand my mercenary band so quickly.

The reason I was able to crush the Marquis' rebel army and stand before him now was ultimately because Viscount Pewin was alive.

From this, one thing could be known.

That statue could not see that far into the future.

“Checkmate.”

I said, taking the second bishop with my rook.

“……What?”

The Marquis asked back as if he didn't understand.

“You, your imagination is running wild.”

He laughed.

That was right.

It wasn't a checkmate yet.

The anomaly occurred the next moment.

It was the moment the Marquis placed his hand on a piece.

The crystal embedded in the statue emitted a red light.

“Huh……?”

It was the same no matter where he moved it.

The red light did not go out.

Six moves after that.

The checkmate I had predicted was achieved.

It was my first victory.

“How did you do it?”

“Who knows. Next game?”

The pieces were reset.

A new game began.

This time too, the early flow seemed to be in the Marquis' favor.

It was when his suspicious expression began to relax.

“Checkmate.”

At some point, the red light of the crystal did not go out.

I won again.

“…Let’s play one more. This is strange.”

The game unfolded again.

I hadn't just been sitting still while losing eight games in a row.

I had tried various strategies to observe the Marquis' ability, or more precisely, the ability of the statue.

The Marquis said that the sacred relic of ‘The Maiden Who Heralds the Time’ could not see more than a few weeks into the future in reality.

I already knew that fact before the Marquis brought it up.

I didn't know about reality, but on the chessboard, the sacred relic saw six moves ahead and warned him.

Exactly six moves.

Of course, within six moves, it was true that it ignored all differences in skill between us.

It would be a powerful advantage to never lose in the short term.

But as I said, I had experienced a similar match before.

“Checkmate.”

“……”

Another chip returned.

I now had five chips in front of me.

At this point, let’s recall the match with ‘AI Chessmaker’ again.

The match with him was not easily decided.

To be precise, I lost almost all the games, and I had to challenge him again and again.

That cheerful player did not refuse my challenges.

After a fortnight of playing, I found the answer.

The answer was to look extremely far ahead.

His mediocre artificial intelligence, whether due to a memory problem or some other reason, could not calculate more than a few moves into the future.

From that point on, I adopted a method of inducing the overall flow of the game, even if it meant taking an immediate loss.

It was the same now.

“Checkmate.”

I won.

“Checkmate.”

Once. And again.

“Check…”

“Stop. I get it.”

The Marquis slammed the table.

The chessboard shook, but the pieces did not move.

A feature befitting a magic tool indeed.

Before long, the Marquis pushed his chips.

I had won seventeen games in a row.

All but one of the chips that had been piled up in front of the Marquis had been moved in front of me.

That was his last chip.

His last chance.

“Checkmate.”

There were no variables.

I achieved victory through promotion.

I made two queens with two pawns.

For this, I gave up a queen early on, but in return, I crushed one side of the front line and advanced my pawns there.

“…Yes.”

The Marquis hung his head low.

The statue on the table flashed with light.

As he had vowed, the energy that had been pressing down on the room disappeared.

It was the moment the skill seal was lifted.

[[Warrior’s Insight] is deployed.]

[You have acquired a skill.]

[Imperial Green Flowing Sword (Level 5)]

A thin rapier stabbed like a dagger.

As if to assert that I wasn't the only one whose skills had been unsealed.

I drew my sword and deflected it.

I had expected this.

He wasn't the type to die just because he lost at chess.

However, unlike chess, the outcome was decided quickly.

[[Tuivat High Priest's Swift Sword] is deployed.]

Marquis Ricardo was an excellent strategist and commander, but not an outstanding warrior.

He had learned the imperial sword in his youth, but his level was only at the basic level.

The Marquis, his side half-split, fell to his knees with a thud.

He collapsed to the floor, clutching his spilling intestines with one hand.

“Heh… it’s been a long time. My conflict with our damn Emperor.”

Was it a deathbed ramble?

Or a ploy to induce carelessness?

“I was a tool. My life. A good tool for the Karlos family.”

I didn't know which it was, so I didn't let my guard down.

In the meantime, the Marquis continued to speak with a faint smile.

“Do you know? That our Emperor was a cute nephew who followed me well when he was young.”

A bloody foam formed on his smile.

***

Marquis Andre Ricardo.

His original name was Andre Karlos.

The second son of the Karlos family.

Considering that the prince-electors’ right to vote was merely nominal, he was practically the second in line to the throne.

Andre had no interest in the throne.

Perhaps because of that, his relationship with his brother was not bad.

His brother would safely become the emperor, and he would receive a suitable title and live quietly as a supporter of the imperial family.

At least, that was what Andre thought.

Until the previous emperor had a son right after an early marriage.

“I was sent to the southern front when the prince turned five.”

He participated as reinforcements in the holy war waged by the Theocracy.

Outwardly, they could boast of sending a member of the imperial family, and inwardly, they could eliminate a brother who could threaten the position of the heir, so it was killing two birds with one stone.

The rest of the story was obvious.

Andre survived the bloody battle with Indika.

Moreover, he played a surprising role in the peace treaty negotiations, leading to a positive relationship with Indika.

The emperor, wanting to keep his capable brother in check while still using him, married him off as a son-in-law to the most insignificant of the prince-elector families.

In crude terms, he was sold off.

The Marquis' surname changed from Karlos to Ricardo.

“But it was fine. I could understand if I put myself in his shoes. I thought it was unavoidable and did my part. For the country my cute nephew would rule.”

He quickly seized power in the Marquisate.

After becoming the de facto ruler, he built up the family’s power.

Using the skills he had honed on the battlefield in his youth, he waged territorial wars and absorbed the power of the local nobles.

And he achieved the immense wealth that made the current Marquisate through maritime trade.

“Yes. It was for my nephew.”

He was once the most powerful supporter of the imperial family.

As the most powerful Marquisate in the Empire.

And as one of the top three families among the prince-electors.

“After my brother died and my nephew became the emperor, he called for me. It had been almost 10 years. Since I had seen his face.”

“……”

“He told me. From now on, report the trade status of the Marquisate once a year. Without a word of welcome, or even a single word of ‘it’s been a long time.’ It was only then that I realized. Ah, to this guy too, I was just a sharp tool…”

A single careless word.

That one word caused a crack in his long-standing loyalty.

It might have been a predetermined future.

The long-simmering resentment would have been ready to collapse at any moment, like a dam full of water.

‘Master. The hall of ‘The Maiden Who Heralds the Time’ is collapsing.’

Kkumteuli said, breaking its long silence.

I looked around, and it was true.

A static-like noise was spreading throughout the entire space.

The scenery outside the window, which had been flowing like slow motion, was getting faster and faster.

The statue placed next to the chessboard was still faintly emitting an ominous red light.

The Marquis coughed.

A clot of blood gushed out.

“Do you know?”

What was he thinking?

Even after a considerable amount of time had passed, I still couldn’t understand why he had opened his mouth then.

“The you I know was not like this.”

“What?”

“You were bold, an excellent strategist, you did not hesitate even on a dangerous battlefield, and you pushed through judgments that were close to a gamble to finally seize victory.”

[Gambler], [Fearless], [Eloquent], [Battlefield-Overlooking Gaze]

These were the representative traits the Marquis possessed.

In fact, he was a commander specialized in fighting a large number of enemies with a small number of troops.

According to the lore, he had succeeded in such operations many times in Indika.

I still remember it.

How many difficult situations he had created when I played as the Emperor hero.

“I’m saying you weren’t the kind of person who spouted nonsense like ‘you can achieve quite successful results just by avoiding the worst.’”

“……”

The Marquis did not answer.

I thought he might have died already, but that wasn't the case.

He was just gazing at a distant place with eyes that were losing their focus.

His lips, bleeding red, were smiling.

I suddenly became curious.

What scene was he watching in the memories that were flashing by like a revolving lantern?

If I were to die.

What scene would I see?

‘…Master.’

It wasn't a problem to worry about now.

By the time Kkumteuli opened its mouth again as if to urge me, the focus had completely disappeared from the Marquis' eyes.

With his death, the distorted space and time also returned to normal.

Screams and wails could be heard from all over the lord’s castle.

[[Small Subspace] is deployed.]

Slurp-!

Kkumteuli extended its tentacle and brought the statue on the table into the subspace.

[Achievement Unlocked! You have collected two or more sacred relics of the Theocracy.]

[[Warrior’s Insight] regains its original power.]

[You can now search for the origin of skills acquired with [Warrior’s Insight].]

[Achievement Unlocked! You have overcome the crisis scenario ‘The Empire’s Civil War’]

[Fixed Trait….]

Something was popping up in a rush.

This too was probably not important right now.

“Olif!”

I left the office and went out to find the unit members scattered throughout the lord’s castle.

I could find them easily by following the screams and cries.

The unit members were floundering in the illusions created by the Marquis' sacred relic.

It seemed that the aftereffects remained even though the Marquis was dead.

“…Commander.”

Fortunately, no one had died.

Before long, the Emperor arrived at the lord’s castle with the Pegasus Knights.

There was a happening where a few unit members were pushed over by the wind as dozens of Pegasus flapped their wings and landed all at once.

“Ash!”

The Emperor was delighted to see the Marquis' corpse.

His eyes were similar to when the Marquis had won the first game of chess.

***

When the Marquis died, the rebel army naturally disintegrated.

It took a whole day just to capture those who threw down their weapons and surrendered here and there.

There were also some who had hidden among the city’s citizens, so it was said that it would take quite some time to catch them.

In the meantime, our mercenary band was given a rest.

“Everyone has worked hard. Take a personal break and rest until further notice.”

Meanwhile, the members who had entered the lord’s castle with me complained of considerable aftereffects.

The main symptoms included severe headaches, tinnitus, nausea, confusion, and hallucinations including phantom limb pain.

“The symptoms are very strange. It’s as if they’ve been possessed by an unclean ghost… Ah, no. It’s impossible for those who follow Sir Ash.”

An Inquisitor raised a heretical question, but when I quietly glared at him with narrowed eyes, he immediately corrected his statement.

Ah, this was satisfying.

Someday, I would create a world where I didn't have to fear Inquisitors.

I returned to my personal tent, briefly checked my condition, and was about to stretch out on my blanket.

I felt a presence outside the tent door.

“The Emperor summons you.”

“……”

“The Emperor summons you.”

When I went out, a pitch-black man was standing in front of the tent.

Repeating the same sentence with the same pitch and intonation, like a radio.

“…Just a moment.”

“The Emperor summons you.”

It gave me the creeps.

Did he have some kind of mental illness?

For reference, ‘pitch-black man’ was not a metaphor, but literal.

This guy was wrapped in black cloth from head to toe, with only the whites of his eyes glinting.

‘Master, I think I peed a little because of that crazy guy. What should I do?’

…Do statues pee too?

Well, honestly, if it weren't for [Lord’s Unyielding Mind], I probably would have peed too.

Who wouldn't be startled if a creep with such a terrifying appearance and a bizarre way of speaking was waiting in front of their door so confidently?

Of course, I knew who he was.

A named hero.

‘Barum of the Black’.

He was a member of the Imperial secret knight order.

And one of the Emperor’s closest aides, no less.

By the way, the Emperor was summoning me….

‘That’s right. I’m a sacred relic. It was just a feeling. I didn’t pee… huh, master?’

It was surely no coincidence that Kkumteuli brought up a meaningful story at this timing.

‘This guy, my successor. His navel is glowing red.’

The sacred relic of ‘The Maiden Who Heralds the Time’.

The statue I had taken from the Marquis foretold an ill omen.