“Guaaaahhh!”

A knight screamed in agony as his arm was severed, and Aileen responded nonchalantly.

“Don’t worry. I cut it clean. In a bit, the Observer will fix it up. After some rehab, it’ll reattach nicely.”

“Aileen, are you angry?”

“Yes. I’m mad. Seeing the teacher get attacked ticked me off a bit.”

“...”

It was a little embarrassing.

I appreciate the concern, but saying something like that in front of everyone... it’s a bit... embarrassing.

“You knew there wouldn’t be a problem...”

“That’s one thing, and this is another.”

“Ah, right.”

Thanks to castling, Aileen and I switched positions and launched a surprise attack, but castling isn’t all-powerful.

You can’t use castling in truly dangerous situations.

I remembered that in games, you couldn’t use castling when the king’s health was below a certain threshold. Probably because of the chess rule that you can’t castle while in check.

Anyway, since there’s no health bar in real life, the conditions for using castling have changed significantly.

The new condition is that the user must not feel threatened.

That’s why, even with a blade at my throat, I was able to use castling without a problem.

Well, it’s because I could make them stab their own throat with just a word from me.

However, Aileen didn’t know that, so she must’ve been worried that I might fall into fear.

That must be why she’s reacting so fiercely.

“...Damn it, change of plan! Target the isolated one first!”

“What? But...”

“Shut up and do it! We don’t know how many more times they can use that technique!”

...Huh, they seem to be under some serious misconception.

They must’ve been thrown into confusion after seeing Aileen and me teleport in an instant.

Did they think we could keep doing this indefinitely? What a happy misunderstanding. I can only use it once.

Leaving us gathered together, they rushed toward Leo.

“Ha, what fools. They don’t even realize they’re falling into a trap.”

“Well, you can’t really blame them. Stella’s magic is pretty unusual. It’s not strange they wouldn’t know.”

The reason I, assigned the role of the king, remained here with Aileen.

It was to lure in enemies with me as bait, someone who would seem enticing in the prince’s eyes, and then eliminate them.

So here’s the question:

Why is Leo here, even though it would’ve been fine with just Aileen and me?

Maybe they thought Aileen alone wouldn’t be enough?

Well, let’s ask again. Why Leo, of all people?

Anastasia could’ve returned after the initial ambush, after all.

...That’s because of this moment, right now.

“Hup!”

“Ha, an attack like that won’t—Guaaah?! My... my leg...!”

“I... I clearly dodged it! What the hell...?!”

Leo charged at full speed and swung his sword with all his might.

Obviously, the royal elite knights wouldn’t be unable to dodge an attack focused purely on power.

The targeted knight snorted and dodged lightly, then swung his sword at Leo’s neck... only for his stance to crumble, and his strike to veer wildly off course.

“Damn it, chase after him! Head toward the prince! We have to stop him!”

“No, sorry, but that won’t be happening.”

“Grr... Don’t get in my way! If you do, I’ll cut you down first!”

A pawn, powerless, with no special abilities.

Yet, because of that lack of power, pawns possess two unique abilities unlike any other pieces.

The current attack was one of them—en passant.

I don’t know the exact rules. I just remember a player on the forums who was really into chess complaining about how poorly en passant was implemented in the game.

Something about how castling was well done, but en passant was either badly implemented or not at all, and they got really upset.

Eventually, they gave up, saying, “Well, it’s a game after all. En passant is tricky to implement.”

Back then, I just thought, “Oh, I see,” and moved on.

“There are four of them... Teacher, you should hide behind us. It could get dangerous.”

“Wow, that’s intense.”

“...Don’t joke around. I’m serious.”

“Okay, okay.”

Anyway.

En passant, which caused all that fuss, has a simple effect.

No matter where you strike, as long as the target is in your line of sight, the attack will hit. In other words, guaranteed accuracy.

In the game, it wasn’t a particularly good ability.

Rooks had attack and defense. Bishops had magic resistance and magic attacks.

Queens were a step beyond rooks and bishops in buffs. Knights were all about agility. Kings had HP and MP.

Stella’s buffs gave different stats depending on the role, which either enhanced their strengths or covered their weaknesses.

But pawns... well...

To put it bluntly, the buffs were for weaklings. Other roles could only assign one or two at most, but pawns could be assigned infinitely...

The stats were lower than other roles, so guaranteed accuracy wasn’t as great as it sounds.

It sounds amazing, but without power, it’s meaningless.

If all attacks were guaranteed to hit, that’d be different, but obviously, that would be overpowered, so you could only use it once in the game.

But this is reality. Other buffs are dangerous, of course, but even if it’s only usable once, this attack is essentially a one-hit kill.

And it’s Leo using it, not some random extra.

“...”

“What? Not attacking? Didn’t you say you’d cut me down first?”

“Grr...”

Even for Aileen, it would be tough to face the royal elite knights alone.

That’s why we positioned Leo here.

Castling once. En passant once.

After eliminating at least two of them, we’d decide what to do next based on the situation.

If there were too many enemies, we’d join the fight to help Aileen. If there were fewer, we’d leave it to Aileen and go assist elsewhere.

Right now, there were only four left. And after being hit by two inexplicable attacks, their morale was low.

Aileen could easily handle this.

Not to mention, she had buffs.

She possessed talent that even a swordmaster from that world would be shocked by.

With her physical limitations bolstered by buffs, she could win against them.

And even if she couldn’t, it would be fine. I’m here, after all.

“Whew... I wonder how things are going on the other side.”

Everything was going as expected, so I sighed in relief and lay down on the ground.

There’s nothing left for me to do now.

Everything should be fine, right?

“Huff... huff...”

“You’ve got a mouth, but your skills don’t match.”

“Shut... up...”

“Oh, come on. As a member of royalty, you should maintain some decorum. Crude language doesn’t suit you.”

So strong.

Stella glared at her brother, muttering under her breath.

“I told you before, sister. Whether I fall into a trap or not doesn’t matter. The only important thing is whether or not I kill you.”

“...”

“You’ve never beaten me, not even once.”

“Yeah, that’s true...”

Stella looked around her.

In the distance, Anya was subdued after trying to gather holy power and getting caught.

Orca, who hadn’t stopped running, had been knocked out with a hit to the stomach after letting her guard down.

Neither of them could help anymore.

Sure, the other side had taken hits too, and only two of them were left, including her brother, but in the end, she was the first one to fall.

"Yes, that’s right. I could never beat you."

That had always been the case.

At first, it would seem like she had the upper hand, but before she knew it, she would always lose to her brother in the end.

Today didn’t seem any different.

At first, she thought she had read his moves well, but ultimately, she lost due to being outnumbered.

She struggled to win. She even had two trustworthy people helping her.

But in the end, she lost.

"Kuh... hahahaha... Ahahahaha..."

"...Have you finally lost your mind, sister?"

"No, that’s not it. It’s just a little funny."

"Funny? What is?"

The current situation was so absurd that Stella couldn’t help but laugh loudly.

Her brother seemed confused, wondering what could be so funny in this moment.

It looked like he wanted to ask before killing her.

Well, if he’s asking, I suppose I can answer.

"It’s funny because this is the first time I’ve planned for my own defeat."

"...What?"

"It’s humiliating, so disgraceful. But everything is going exactly as planned, even my defeat. That makes me quite happy."

Up until now, she had always lost to her brother.

She didn’t want to admit it, so she fought with all her might, but still lost.

It was humiliating, but it made her happy, because everything was going exactly as she had anticipated.

"What the hell are you talking about...?"

"Aaaaah! Princess Stella!"

"They’ve finally arrived."

Upon hearing the desperate scream calling her name, Stella smiled.

Seeing that there were only six people here, Stella realized immediately.

Leo would come here.

The number of enemies might have been large enough to discourage him from coming, but Stella never considered that possibility.

Leo would come. She had faith in that.

And, true to her belief, Leo arrived.

...Though his appearance was slightly different.

"What the hell is this?!"

"What do you think? It’s a promotion. You’ve played chess before, haven’t you? When a pawn reaches the other side, it transforms."

"I know that! But why did I turn into a woman?!"

"Isn’t it obvious?"

Stella looked at Leo as if he had asked a ridiculous question.

Despite his tattered appearance, it was such an amusing sight that she found it hard to hold back her laughter, though for a different reason than before.

"A man can’t become a queen."

"Knight! Knight!"

"Queens are stronger than knights."

"Aaaaaagh!"

The pawn’s second special ability: promotion.

Leo had become a second queen.

Given his already short stature, it made for a rather cute queen.

Though, judging by his reaction, he wasn’t too happy about it.