"Do it again."
It was Elline's voice, trembling.
Her trembling voice—the first time I'd ever heard it—and that expression.
"…"
Without even asking for my consent, she had already begun quietly gathering her pieces back into order.
All while stealing glances at me.
"… Why."
"No."
Cute.
She's sulking right now, isn't she?
Embarrassed about losing so helplessly?
I didn't know exactly what was going on in her head, but one thing was certain—her reaction right now was incredibly…
Worth watching.
*Saying it like that makes me sound like a creep.*
That moment at the dining hall, and these little glimpses she showed from time to time—they kept rattling my heart with surprising force.
"Hurry up and reset."
Elline pressed me in a voice that had barely recovered its composure, and I complied without a word.
Next game.
This time too, Elline sailed through the opening phase without any trouble, but once the real tactical battle began in the midgame, she started unraveling on her own.
Chess being the kind of game where each move unfolds slowly, it was common to only see your mistake after you'd already made it.
Moves you absolutely shouldn't have made—ones you had no idea were wrong until it was your opponent's turn and you finally noticed, too late.
That particular brand of self-loathing was something chess had a way of drawing out.
I'd been there myself, at the start.
"Ugh…"
"Ah…"
"…"
Now, every time a mistake slipped out, Elline let out a faint sound and seemed to be quietly reproaching herself.
Clack.
Clack.
"…"
"Checkmate."
The second game ended without any surprises—my victory again.
"… Again?"
She answered my words with a single vigorous nod.
Third game.
Fourth game.
Fifth game.
I noticed something interesting.
No—interesting wasn't quite the right word. Remarkable was more like it.
Chess is, at its core, a game of the mind, and once you grasp the basic intuition, your skill can leap forward dramatically.
Even by just the fifth game, Elline's improvement was striking enough to catch my eye.
*A genius really is something else.*
Where she had once been unraveling in the midgame, she was now building her own strategies and adapting them on the fly.
A few of her moves were so sharp that even I let out a quiet sound of admiration.
Considering that chess became a game of culture among mages precisely because the underlying principles are similar, it made sense that Elline would pick it up this quickly.
"Checkmate."
I won the fifth game as well, but this time the battle had been genuinely fierce.
Elline no longer showed her emotions as openly as she had at first.
Instead, she swept her gaze across the board with the calm of someone gliding through still water, and began to analyze.
As if she were dissecting a strategy and fitting the pieces back together in a new configuration.
When the warning bell rang, she rose from her seat.
"Rutess."
"Yeah."
"Let's do this again tomorrow."
A smile came naturally at the competitive edge in her voice.
"Sure. But when?"
"Lunch."
"Like today?"
Elline answered without hesitation.
"Yes."
"Aren't you busy?"
"This much is fine."
Well, if she said so, I had nothing to argue with. I had more than enough time to spare.
"Alright. Tonight's out, then?"
She hesitated for a moment, then gave a small, listless nod.
Was that reluctance?
"Okay then. I'll be looking forward to tomorrow."
We tidied up and got to our feet.
The bell was about to ring, and as students streamed out of the library like a receding tide, we walked out among them.
"Rutess."
"What?"
"I'll win tomorrow."
Her blue eyes were gleaming.
Seeing that, a smile came to me naturally.
"I'll be looking forward to it."
"…"
Elline's pupils rippled, dilating ever so slightly.
It was so brief that they settled back almost immediately, but she had been looking directly at me.
As if she'd seen something that surprised her.
"Elline?"
She took one slow step closer.
"That expression just now."
"Hm?"
She stopped in front of me, and the corners of her mouth lifted, just barely.
"It suits you."
…
Is making people's hearts jump out of their chests her hobby, coming this close like this?
"… Yeah?"
"Yes."
The distance between us was too small, and my heart started up again.
"See you tomorrow."
She tossed out a short farewell and turned her head, walking away.
I still couldn't move until her retreating figure had disappeared entirely.
Heart barely brought back under control.
A week passed.
One fixed routine had been added to both our schedules.
Chess in the library, every lunch.
Contrary to my initial expectation that we wouldn't be able to meet much given how busy she was, she always came at lunch.
Word had quietly spread that Elline was playing chess, and students had taken notice—but they only watched from a distance.
*Too scared to approach, I suppose.*
Understandably so.
"Your turn."
"Oh, right."
I looked down to find a full-scale war playing out on the chessboard.
Only a week had passed, but in that time Elline's skill had improved by a completely different order of magnitude.
"Checkmate."
I won again this time, of course—but by my estimate, a few more weeks… no, even a few more days, and her growth would carry her right past me.
"… That was close."
She said it quietly and began a slow review of the game.
"Rutess, why didn't you attack here?"
"Because going in wrong would put me at a disadvantage."
"Why?"
I picked up the fallen pieces and started moving them.
"If I'd gone in here and you took my bishop with your queen…"
I walked her through the scenario step by step, and she rolled her eyes in a way that said she understood.
"… Right, that's definitely true."
Elline nodded.
As the review was well underway, she looked up at me from where she'd been listening quietly.
"Rutess."
"Yeah?"
She held my gaze steadily, and I found it too much and looked away.
"What?"
"You're good at chess."
"Thanks. Just played a lot."
True enough.
While everyone else was studying, I'd been glued to this game—so I figured I'd better at least be good at it.
But Elline seemed to think differently, giving a small shake of her head.
"It's not just that you've played a lot."
She picked up a pawn and turned it carefully between her fingers.
"So you're saying I have a talent for it?"
I said it lightly, half-joking.
"Yes."
She answered immediately.
…
Yes?
"Really?"
I was caught off guard by the unexpected sincerity of her reply.
A talent, she said.
Something I'd never heard anyone say to me before—and here it was, coming from Elline.
My shoulders lifted on their own.
"Thank you."
I set her praise aside and began clearing the pieces.
And once again, I felt her gaze resting steadily on me.
A different kind of look than before. I raised my head.
Lips trembling faintly. Eyes that said the same.
Right. I had a rough sense of it by now.
The expression of someone who wants to say something.
"What's wrong?"
Before I could even finish asking, the warning bell rang out, indifferent to the moment.
Students began filtering out one by one at the sound, and Elline withdrew her gaze and stood.
It was the first time.
Elline hesitating over something she wanted to say.
More precisely—it was the first time she'd pulled back like that, which made me all the more curious.
She tidied the board and rose smoothly, as if nothing had happened at all.
"Elline."
I called to her carefully as we walked out together.
"What were you about to say?"
"It's nothing."
"It's not nothing. Tell me. Even if it's something uncomfortable."
Honestly, Elline still made me nervous.
I'd grown somewhat used to her, but two years of a certain impression didn't vanish in just a few days.
I didn't want to see her struggling.
"We're a couple, after all."
A couple.
The word she had offered me on that very first day.
"…"
At that, I watched her eyes soften, slowly.
Maybe I'd given the right answer this time.
"… Yes."
Elline stopped for a moment and nodded.
"Rutess."
"What?"
And she looked up at me.
"Tomorrow. I have something I want to tell you."
Something to tell me. What could it be.
Her expression was as composed as ever, but there was a resolve beneath it that gave the moment a distinctly different weight.
"You'll hear me out, won't you?"
"… Of course."
I nodded, a knot of tension in my chest.
Satisfied with the answer, she turned her head carefully and walked outside, and another lunch hour came to a close.
Tomorrow, tomorrow…
What on earth was she planning to say?
Walking home after class.
I walked alone through the cool spring breeze, lost in thought.
Something to tell me—and not until tomorrow.
What could it be.
I looked back over the past week.
Nothing particularly notable had happened.
We'd still played chess together, and on the weekend we'd taken another walk around the North Courtyard.
The awkwardness between us had eased somewhat, and I'd started treating Elline more naturally.
What was she going to say?
*Maybe…*
My steps slowed to a stop.
It was a bit of a stretch, but there was one thought I couldn't quite erase.
A thought I knew Elline wouldn't be the type to have—and yet I kept having it anyway.
The reason Elline was dating me.
Could it be that she had a specific purpose?
…
Even if it wasn't something underhanded—I couldn't help wondering whether there was some reason behind her choosing to date me.
Even now, talking with her sometimes felt unreal.
If it wasn't that she genuinely wanted me as a partner, but rather that she was dating me for some particular purpose…
That would at least make sense, I thought to myself.
And tomorrow—maybe that was what she was going to tell me.
*…*
I looked up at the sky.
The sun had set, and above the deepening violet sky, stars were beginning to shine brightly.
Elline.
Even telling myself to stop thinking like this, human instinct was relentless.
The more you told yourself not to think about something, the more it kept coming back.
…
It was night, and I was getting sentimental for no good reason.
She was going to tell me tomorrow anyway—no point in working myself up alone.
Whatever her intentions had been, she had accepted the confession I'd thrown out as a forfeit.
Whatever decision she made from here—that was entirely hers to make.
"Cold. So cold."
Spring had arrived, but the evening air still had a bite to it. I shivered and quickened my pace.
"… Excuse me!"
I would have preferred to just keep walking.
But someone's voice reached me.
I turned at the unexpected call to find two students standing there.
One was a girl with a light green bob.
The other was a boy with neatly trimmed black hair.
Familiar faces, but names I didn't know.
Third-years, most likely—the same year as me—and above all, my eyes went to the small insignia pinned to their uniforms.
*Alpha Class.*
Both of them.
Why were they calling out to me?
The girl walked over slowly and greeted me.
"You're… Rutess, right?"
"Yes, that's me. And you are?"
At that, the girl glanced back at the boy behind her, and he gave a silent nod.
He looked vaguely uncomfortable, brow furrowed, and kept his eyes away from mine.
"M-my name is Rui."
The girl who'd introduced herself as Rui offered a hesitant greeting.
"I… came because I have a favor to ask."
She got straight to the point.
"… Of me?"
Alpha Class?
"Yes. I felt like it had to be you…"
I was thrown off.
Being asked a favor by Alpha Class students I'd never spoken to before.
Whatever it was, it must have been urgent enough to track me down on the walk home this late.
"What kind of…?"
At my words, Rui raised her head carefully, clenched her fists, and spoke.
"I'd like to speak with Elline… Could you arrange a meeting for me?"
…
What was that supposed to mean?