Chapter Sixty-Nine: Transformation

"Checkmate," Liuru declared confidently, pushing her chess piece to the edge of the board.

This time, she wielded the white queen.

It was Suziye, true to his promise, who had taught her Western chess upon his return. Though its rules were entirely different from those of traditional chess, which Suziye had previously introduced, the underlying logic of calculation was similar. Liuru quickly mastered it; in the very first game, she nearly routed Suziye.

Unlike traditional chess, where power is distributed differently, the queen in Western chess is the strongest piece, reigning supreme beside the king, dominating the battlefield, nearly invincible. The king she protected, however, seemed weak and vulnerable.

Suziye's king had no escape, and he could only pull back his knight in a desperate attempt to defend, but it was futile. Liuru's queen advanced, dispatching the knight with ease. Yet this gave Suziye a brief respite, allowing him to place his bishop as a shield before the king once more.

Even so, Suziye had already suffered heavy losses. The outcome was clear at a glance.

"You've lost," Liuru declared as she gazed at him.

Suziye bowed his head and smiled. "Then let me teach you two special rules in Western chess."

"The first is called promotion."

"When a pawn reaches the farthest rank, it gains the opportunity to promote, becoming any piece except the king or pawn."

He took his pawn, pushed it to the end of the board, and looked up at Liuru. "I promote my pawn to a rook."

"Why not a queen?" Liuru asked, a hint of curiosity in her voice.

As he had explained earlier, the queen was the most powerful piece, able to move freely across the board in any direction. Just one queen could command nearly the entire battlefield.

"You'll see soon enough," Suziye replied, smiling at her.

His pawn became a rook at the edge of the board, but the situation remained precarious. Liuru had no immediate means to check, but Suziye, though cornered, was still fighting fiercely.

Liuru moved her queen, preparing for a decisive attack.

Suziye watched her and continued, "Now I'll teach you the second special rule in Western chess."

"It's called castling."

"Castling?" Liuru repeated, puzzled by the unfamiliar term.

"In a game, each player has only one chance to simultaneously move their king and rook. Specifically, the king moves two squares toward the rook, and the rook leaps over the king to the square adjacent to it," Suziye explained, demonstrating the move with his king and rook.

Liuru looked at the board and her expression changed dramatically.

The king normally could move only one square, trapped like prey in a spider's web, unable to escape Liuru's grasp. But now, the king moved two squares at once, instantly reaching safety. Meanwhile, the rook, racing in from afar, not only protected the king but was poised to threaten Liuru's own king in the next move.

In that instant, the entire situation was reversed.

Liuru was stunned.

She tried to reorganize her forces and strangle her opponent, but Suziye needed only a few moves to force her to surrender.

"Why didn't you tell me about these rules earlier?" Liuru protested slightly.

Suziye's face remained pale—after all, it had only been an hour since their return. Liuru had wanted him to rest, but Suziye insisted on playing this game.

"Don't you think these rules are fascinating?" Suziye asked, smiling calmly.

Liuru was momentarily speechless.

Indeed, she had always thought of herself as the most insignificant pawn, her life's worth defined by charging forward until she reached the end—then, having exhausted her value, cast aside as a discarded piece.

But today, Suziye had shown her a new rule: a pawn reaching the end was not useless, but could choose to promote, becoming the strongest piece on the board.

As for castling, Suziye had long blurred the lines between himself and Liuru, confusing many people. Even tonight, when Xingxi came to assassinate them, Liuru remained the primary target, not Suziye.

"It is interesting," Liuru admitted, nodding.

"So what do you wish to become?" Suziye asked, gazing at her.

The boy's black eyes were like a deep, bottomless pool.

"Me?" Liuru was at a loss for words.

"You are a pawn that has reached the farthest rank. According to traditional chess, you have lost all value. But in Western chess, this is only your new beginning," Suziye said with a smile. "So, what do you want to promote to?"

To what should she promote? Liuru fell into deep thought.

In Western chess, a pawn reaching the end can choose to become a queen, bishop, knight, or rook.

Suziye had promoted his pawn to a rook to enable castling, but if Liuru were to choose, she would naturally select the queen as the most powerful.

After a moment's reflection, the girl looked at Suziye. "I want to become a bishop."

"A bishop?" Suziye laughed in amusement. "Why? I thought you would pick knight or queen."

The queen was undoubtedly the most powerful, and the knight, with its unique movement, sometimes achieved surprising results. The bishop and rook, however, were entirely overshadowed by the queen, making them somewhat redundant choices.

"Because the bishop is also a counselor," Liuru replied. "I want to be the one at your side, aiding you."

But not your queen.

Liuru spoke this silently in her heart.

"Very well," Suziye nodded. "This is a promotion one can make only once in a lifetime. I will remember it."

"Now then," the boy looked at her, "would you like to hear a story?"

"A story?" Liuru echoed, not quite comprehending.

"A story about everything," Suziye smiled. "About all that you see now."

Without waiting for her answer, Suziye began his tale. "The origin of the story begins with the birth of the Empire of Sterna."

Note: In actual chess rules, castling is far more complex, requiring that neither the king nor the rook has moved before, and only allowing castling with rooks on the same rank as the king. This restriction prevents promoting a pawn to a rook and then immediately castling with it. Nonetheless, since this is a novel, I have ignored this rule. And a game in which a pawn is promoted and then castling turns the tide implies a significant disparity in skill, making this essentially an instructional game by Suziye.