Chapter 526 – Summoner on the Board

“Please inform Her Majesty that I look forward to meeting her in Termwills,” said Miriam, the owner of the Labyrinth Trading Company, with a cheerful smile. In her hand was a bottle of Grantios ocean-aged wine.

“Understood. We should be able to return on the Sirius in a few days,” I replied.

While our island vacation had been quite lively and enjoyable with activities like clam digging and fishing with the children, and concerts by the Sirens, Auria, Elliot, the artillery members of the Demon-Slaying Knight Order, Old Sigmund, and Forset hadn’t originally planned to take time off. They wanted to return to Termwills ahead of us to get a head start on their work.

Auria had her duties as Guild Master, the knight order members needed to resume training, and Old Sigmund and Forset had magical research and preparations for creating the Vessel of Cerberus.

Regarding the Vessel of Cerberus, they wanted to advance the preliminary preparations as much as possible so they could get straight to work once we returned. However, Valentina and Charlotte would remain on the island.

Besides returning to the workshop for research and development with Old Sigmund, Forset apparently wanted to check on the rice seedlings. Florian, Harvesta, Mihaela, and Cecilia were keeping an eye on them, and we’d already confirmed they were growing well.

So after using Teleportation Magic to send everyone to Termwills, we decided that since we were going there anyway, we might as well bring back magic tools for the mansion, a billiards table, darts, and so on. We moved forward with the plan to complete the mansion’s game room and stage equipment.

“Hmm. That should be about everything, right?” Alfred nodded as he checked the magic tools, billiards table, dartboard, and other items placed in the workshop’s courtyard.

“Well then, we’ll be off… But Alfred, are you sure you don’t want to take a vacation?”

“Yeah. Don’t worry about me. I have a lot to do, and Ophelia can’t travel far since her relatives are visiting. Otherwise, I would have liked to go somewhere.”

I see. If he were to go out, he’d want Ophelia to come along too.

“Okay. Then once things settle down, let’s all go together.”

“Sure. I’ll look forward to it.”

After making that promise with Alfred, I turned to face Auria and the others seeing us off.

“Well then. We enjoyed our time on the island, but we’ll be returning ahead of you. Well… I’ve also let some work pile up,” said Auria with a somewhat regretful smile.

“Is that so?”

“Yes. Requests from nobles tend to increase from autumn to winter. This year is relatively light, though.”

I see… Well, having Auria’s help had been useful in various ways.

As for Elliot, Camilla had come to the workshop to pick him up, and they looked quite affectionate together.

“Please take care of my sister,” Elliot said.

“Understood. Sir Elliot, please be careful during your training.”

At that, Elliot smiled quietly.

“Please tell Valentina and Charlotte to enjoy themselves without worrying about us.”

“Please look after Sion and the others too.”

“Yes. Well then—”

“Indeed.”

With everyone seeing us off, we teleported to the deck of the Sirius.

Now then. By bringing the billiards table and dartboard into the mansion and installing various performance magic tools on the land and sea stages, our vacation became even more fulfilling.

Queen Eldorene seemed to have taken a liking to billiards, as she was quite engrossed in the game room with the Water Guardians and Weltes.

The children also seemed to be enjoying the cards.

However, billiards, darts, and cards were… fundamentally land-based games. I wanted to provide games that could be enjoyed equally on land and in water.

Games like tag seemed universal, as I heard they existed among Grantios children too. But whether this could be played equally on land and sea was another matter. Due to factors like swimming speed and the presence or absence of the Humanization Spell, it was difficult to make it fair for everyone.

In that case… shogi or chess would probably be the best solution. As long as everyone understood the common rules, they could enjoy playing together regardless of whether they were on land or in the sea.

So far, we only had games like Gomoku Narabe… Well then.

While everyone was playing nearby, I brought some stone materials to the corner of the game room and started contemplating my design. Sheila noticed and tilted her head.

“Hmm? Are you making something?” she asked. Hmm. She seemed to have sensed it from the atmosphere.

“Yeah. I was thinking I wanted something we could play in the sea too.”

What to make… Hmm, chess would be good, right?

Well… I might be overthinking it, but calling pieces “King” or “Queen” might be considered presumptuous given this era’s background, so I should make some adjustments.

I’ll make the King a summoner… the Pawns Goblins, the Knights Pegasus, and so on, fitting them to monsters.

The Rook, Bishop, and Queen would be Wood Golem, Phantom, and Demon respectively.

Making Pawns Goblins is… because Goblins have abundant higher species like Goblin Mages, Goblin Riders, and Goblin Lords. This would recreate Pawn promotion here.

Goblins are… well, cowardly yet belligerent, which could justify why they can move two squares initially. They’re spirited but careless, so if another Goblin takes them from behind, they’re easily defeated.

The Wood Golem fits the Rook motif. I’ll make it so they’re normally tree houses to fit with castling.

If you move them as Golems, they’re no longer houses, so that justifies why castling becomes impossible.

The Phantom, modeled after the Bishop, is a ghost-like monster wrapped in tattered cloth.

The Demon would be the summoner’s partner. In that case, it would be good to make it look like a fairly high-level demon.

Next, I’ll create the pieces using Earth Magic according to their respective motifs. By that time, everyone had noticed what I was doing and gathered around.

First, eight slightly stylized Goblins.

…Should I make it so their equipment can be changed for promotion? I’ll make it visually clear when they promote to Knight, Rook, Bishop, or Queen by adding a glider to their back, allowing them to ride a wolf, letting them switch from a knife to a staff, or making it so they can equip a crown.

Hmm. Even though they’re just Goblins, I feel like I’m being oddly particular about the props… but oh well.

“These are… Goblin dolls?” Grace tilted her head.

“Yeah. They’re pieces you move on a board to capture your opponent’s pieces. You lose if your own summoner gets captured.”

“That sounds fun!” Seraphina smiled while looking at the Goblin pieces. Hmm. Quite a good response.

Continuing in that vein, I made the other pieces. For the Wood Golem, I’ll model it after a Treant, but attach doors and window frames to show it’s a house.

The summoner… what should I do? Since the motif should be visually clear, I’ll go with the typical magician style – robe, beard, and staff. Since the Demon was originally the Queen, I’ll make it female with a tail and wings.

And then—finally, creating a board with eight squares vertically and horizontally would complete it.

“My, my. How do you play?” Queen Eldorene seemed quite interested.

“Well then—I’ll now explain how to move the pieces and so on.”

Let’s see. Stalemate, perpetual check—are there any rules I haven’t explained yet? I explained the various detailed rules and compiled them on paper.

It would be better to have a rulebook underwater too. I should carve these onto a stone tablet or something.

“…I see. With this formation, it seems better to start by moving the Goblins in the center first. That would make it easier to move the Phantoms behind them through the gaps,” Rosemary analyzed while observing the pieces’ movements.

…Developing in the center is a standard opening strategy in chess. If you think about it logically, you might arrive at the same conclusion. Rosemary seems like she’d be good at chess or shogi.

“I’m going to make a few more sets, so why don’t you all try playing with them?”

“Then Steph, shall we play together?”

“Yes. I’ll be your opponent.”

Princess Adriana and Princess Stephania seemed to be having a match. Like Rosemary, both of them seem skilled at this type of game.

It might get interesting once everyone gets familiar with the rules and improves… But for now, instead of watching, I should focus on dissemination by preparing a reasonable number of sets, including mass-producing some for people to take back to Grantios.

Hmm. Should I prepare variations with different stylization levels, like versions that even small children can feel familiar with.

Conversely, for adults, it might be better to make the pieces more elaborate and imposing.

As it turned out, chess was quite popular. Well… I had thought they’d enjoy it since I was bringing over a game with already established detailed rules.

The strongest players were indeed Rosemary and Princess Stephania. The Duke and Oscar also seemed skilled.

It was wonderful to see everyone from Grantios, adults and children alike, getting excited about it.

The sight of Fishfolk pondering over chessboards was quite an unusual scene, I thought.

Anyway, we’ll probably be ending our vacation and returning home soon. Since the children have grown attached to us, the farewell will likely be bittersweet.

I thought that if I gave them something like chess to improve at until we meet again, or souvenirs they can enjoy after we leave, having goals or something else to focus on might help distract from the sadness of parting.

In the medium to long term, if games with common rules spread across land and sea, it should make interaction easier.