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Chapter 46 - Chess
🕑 Added 2021-08-08 19:26:23 +0000 UTC***Due to formatting problems with Patreon, please see the attached word document at the bottom of this post for proper format***
Chapter 46 - Chess
[Human Dialect] “Hello sir… may I help you with something? We want no trouble here.” The voice came from a man behind the bar wearing a nervous smile. He was middle aged, lean, clean shaven and starting to bald. He wore two tunics, one under the other for warmth and did the same with his long trousers.
Trey didn’t smile back, continuing over to the bar with his tail waving out behind him as he went. Coming to sit down on a stool, he noticed he still had blood stains along his shoulder where he’d been attacked earlier that day while summoning.
It probably wasn’t a good look.
Trey replied the best he could, still getting a feel for the new language and hoping it all came out right. [Human Dialect] “Yes… I was hoping you would. How much for a room?”
The barkeeper’s expression immediately changed from one of nervousness to that of relief. “Oh! You wish to stay the night? Yes I can certainly help you with that!”
Trey raised an eyebrow as Atharost stood with arms crossed behind him, the demon was giving the humans around him disgusted glances and he had an obvious superiority complex.
“What did you think I would come here for?”
The barkeep shrugged, polishing off a cup and placing it on a rack along the wall with other dishes. Then he turned back around to face Trey and lean over the bar as the people of the room resumed their normal activities once they’d heard Trey’s answer.
“It isn’t normal to see a warlock or summoner like yourself displaying your… wares, out in the open. The same can be said for necromancers. Your kind isn’t well liked… as I’m sure you’re aware. I’m actually surprised to see you’re human. When I identified you I thought for sure you were some other demon species I hadn’t heard of before.” The man shrugged, rubbing his bald head to get at an itch. “Often it ends in violence, or kidnappings for sacrifices. Be careful where you let your minions out, if this were one of the rich districts they’d have strung you up on the spot and claimed you were a danger to the public.”
Trey made a mental note to himself not to have minions out while walking amongst better kept parts of the city. He nodded. “Thanks for the advice, but how much for a room?”
“Just 1 silver for a night. We supply extra blankets left on the heating stone when you need them. Food comes as a separate cost.”
“Then we’ll take two.” Trey turned his head to look at Ashe and Izumi. “You two can have your own room that way.”
Appreciative smiles from the women were his only response.
Trey motioned for Jason to step forward, and the tall blonde man handed over two of their silver which the barkeep took with another happy smile.
“Glad doing business with ya. I’ll call for my wife and she’ll show you to your rooms. Were you planning on getting anything to eat while you stay?”
Izumi shot her hand up like they were back in a classroom somewhere on Earth. “OH YES! I would like some food please! Ashe would like some too!”
The excitement of the small asian girl caught the barkeeper off guard, but a chuckle rang out before he called out his wife’s name. Soon from around the corner in the back, a petite brunette woman made her way to the front. She froze upon seeing the demons, but with an encouraging nod from her husband she continued slowly to where they were at the bar.
The barkeeper grunted, handing a ring of keys to his wife then turning to Izumi. “And what is it that you’d like? We have 2 cooked potatoes for the price of 1 copper. A bread loaf with butter is 2 copper. Venison is 3 copper. Fresh, clean water and Ale are what we have for drinks and you get one free with a meal. After that, they’re also a copper piece. Does any of it suit your fancy, young lady?”
Minutes later and everyone had ordered something to appease their appetites. One of the recently vacated tables was then procured by their group, and soon they were chatting it up and getting to know each other better now that they finally had some peace of mind. A couple loafs of buttered bread, a couple slabs of venison, four potatoes and some water had left them almost completely out of money. However it was worth it when the food finally arrived.
“I’ll show you to your rooms when you are done eating, just ask my husband to call for me.” The barkeep’s brunette wife gave them a slight bow of appreciation for their business and turned around to disappear from sight again, having delivered the wooden plates of food and water-filled mugs just ten minutes after having ordered them.
It smelled great. Amazing, in fact. Napoleon didn’t bother waiting for the others to begin and began devouring his venison like he had been famished, ignoring the laughs from Ashe and Izumi. Rivia began digging into the bread, not having ever tasted food like this before and the others all followed suit.
“Man, it’s really busy and loud in here for being such a small inn.” Jason mused aloud just as a look of depression overcame him. He sat the bread piece down and tears began to swell up in his eyes before brushing them away.
Trey frowned, setting down his own bread and crossing his fingers. “You ok? You don’t look it.”
Aiko, Izumi and Atharost all shifted their eyes to Jason.
Jason covered his face in his hands, and even amidst the loud banter of the room Trey could still make out a suppressed sob. It took Jason a few seconds to get himself under control, but soon he wiped his eyes and shook his head.
“I… I need to go to bed. I don’t feel well.”
Jason shoved the rest of his bread into his mouth, stood up, and turned without making any eye contact. Leaving the rest of the group at the table, he briefly talked to the barkeep before being shown the way to his room by the barkeep’s wife.
Ashe frowned, brushing her blonde locks of hair out of her face and lowering her chin. “He’s still sad about that girl and her family.”
“Elise?” Trey asked.
Ashe nodded. “Yeah. He was talking to me about it the day before yesterday. He’s having a really rough time.
“Well the poor guy was obsessed with her!” Izumi said sadly, putting down her cup of water. “He talks about her all the time. It’ll probably take him a while to get over it. What happened was pretty traumatizing.”
Even Napoleon had stopped to listen to them talk, having watched Jason leave with his huge primal imp ears cocked the way Jason had gone. “Me liked them too. Me sad sad too. Elise nice.”
They sat eating in silence for a time, no one saying anything at all amidst the jolly drunkards around them. That was, until Rivia spoke up - she hadn’t understood what they were saying due to the language barrier.
[Ancient Demon Dialect] “Are they sad about that human girl who was killed? I can’t understand everything, but what I did understand made it sound like they were talking about Elise’s death.”
Trey looked over to the demoness on his left and nodded. [Ancient Demon Dialect] “Yeah. Jason’s having a hard time.”
Rivia’s face lowered in confusion. She blinked, put down the potato she’d been eating and tapped her finger on the table a couple times before speaking again. “He’s upset over losing just one prospective mate? I don’t understand, and personally I didn’t think she was very likable. Can’t he find another mate? Why was she so special?”
Trey glowered at the demoness with a disapproving look. “You wouldn’t understand because you’re a cunt, coming from a cunt society where life isn’t valued.”
[Human Dialect] “What are you two talking about?” Izumi asked curiously, not understanding the demonic tongue whatsoever and trying to get a grasp on things based on the expressions exchanged between minion and master.
Trey waved his hand dismissively as Rivia shut up. [Human Dialect] “Nothing important. Rivia just as a lack of basic empathy is all. From what I’ve seen, it's a common phenomenon amongst culn. Anyways, now that we’re not entirely on the run anymore, how about you tell me about yourselves. Izumi? Do you want to start or should I?”
Atharost chuckled as Rivia gave Trey a sideways glare, and Izumi perked up at being asked a question relating to her past.
“Hmmm… where to start…” Izumi began thoughtfully. She gave an irritated scowl at a loud drunken man who’d bumped into her from behind before continuing on again. “I’m 20 years old, and before leaving Earth I was a college student enrolled in an economics program at a university in California. My parents are from Japan, but I don’t speak any Japanese. I was an only child and my parents probably are worried sick about me, if they don’t already think I’m dead… I was wishing I was dead back in that prison by the way. Thank you for saving us. I know I’ve mentioned the experiments they were running on me, and the torture, but I left out a lot of details… It was really, really bad.”
Now it was Izumi’s turn to start crying. Her lip began quivering and a couple tears streamed down her face before Ashe gave her a hug. She recovered a lot faster than expected though and hugging Ashe back she took a swig of water and calmed herself down.
“Uhm… where was I… so I was a college student. I had a boyfriend, I loved manga and anime, I was also on a recreational baseball team! I was pretty bad at it though. That’s the short story of my recent life! What about you Ashe? We didn’t talk much in prison.”
The pretty blonde cleared her throat after nearly choking on a piece of meat, then adjusted her posturing to sit up straighter. “My father was a pastor, and my mother died at a young age. I was a cheerleader through highschool, and when I got out - I had a hard time figuring out what I wanted to do for the next year. But eventually I applied to college as well. I’m 19 years old and was about to start my first semester before being dragged here. Then… I had a hard time adjusting. Died twice, though I know it isn’t as many times as the two of you died but it still sucked. Starving once, and dying when I broke into someone's house to steal so I could survive. They bludgeoned me to death along with one of the other guildmates from ‘The Undying.’ I still can’t believe those bastards left me there just because I wanted to leave their guild…”
“Are you religious? I assume you are because of your dad.” Trey asked curiously.
Ashe shook her head. “I believe in god, but I’m not nearly as religious as my father is. I used to sneak out of the house to go drinking with friends when I was only 16 years old. He never knew about it and never allowed alcohol into the house. What about you?”
Trey stifled a laugh and adamantly shook his head no. “Absolutely not.”
“Well, don’t you think god had a part to play in all of this?”
“All of what?”
“This!” Ashe motioned around them to their surroundings, then pointed at Trey’s horns. “All of this. We are here in another world! I choose to believe it is God's intervention. It is the only thing that makes sense to me.”
Trey raised an eyebrow, outwardly scoffing. “Please. That’s the same kind of logic ancient Greeks used to explain lightning. They created Zues and began to murmur to their imaginary friend before going to bed every night. I’ll stick to the idea that this is an immersive game, with AI technology coming on so fast in the past couple of decades it makes a lot more sense than some guy in the sky smiting us and sending us here.”
Ashe’s smile turned to a frown. “Maybe god used the robots for his designs.”
“Oh help me, baby Jesus.” Trey shook his head and Izumi just began to laugh.
The night rolled on, with the inn growing even more busy as time went before Izumi and Ashe said their goodbyes to head in for the night. The barkeep’s wife showed them to their room, leaving Trey and his minions at the table. Talsh’Noc’Un was too big to be out in such a small area and didn’t need to eat, so the greatsword was being kept in shadowform temporarily. Trey could have put it into a nether realm to save carrying space, but he didn’t have much at all aside from the sword and it was faster taking the sword out of shadowform than it was if he dismissed it to the nether realm. He did notice though that his shadowform’s maximum carrying capacity was 500kg, and he felt a decent chunk of the capacity vanish after placing the sword inside. Because he was a closet history nerd, he actually happened to know that an average two handed blade from the medieval era back on Earth weighed only about 3 kg or 6-7 lbs. This Talsh’Noc’Un greatsword though was at the very least 80 lbs and possibly even 100. Almost a fifth of his carrying capacity just vanished after using his handy dandy shadows for storage. If the sword hadn’t adjusted itself to feel weightless while he wielded it, he’d have a very hard time using it as a viable weapon. It also made a lot of sense, regarding how whenever Talsh’Noc’Un hit anything - it was like a truck was slamming into Trey’s target.
Trey pushed what little crusts and leftovers they had to the edge of the table to symbolize they were finished, and his eyes wandered the room. Settling on the gambling men to his right playing cards and chess, he took a look at what little money they still had left. Only a couple copper - they were absolutely broke. Taking time to watch the players at their chess game from afar, he realized that it was indeed the same exact game with the same exact rules that had been played back on Earth.
Perhaps he would try his luck here to earn some more cash. The characters playing only looked… slightly shady, and he was sure he’d be able to handle anything if they became violent after crushing them in a game of whits.
***
Chess.
Trey had always been really good at it, at least compared to the average guy. He could safely beat 9 out of 10 people he went up against without a problem. Certainly not a pro, but consistently good.
However, as he looked down the board and then back up to the cocky shitbag imp of his who grinned mischievously with 3 of 3 wins under the little demon’s belt… Trey couldn’t help but rethink the opinion of himself he’d always had concerning this strategy game.
The little bastard was smart. Too smart. It almost made Trey’s mind boggle as he’d never considered Napoleon to be a genius by any shot… but then again he’d never given the little horned imp a chance to prove himself.
“Master so stupid stupid!” Napoleon chortled as Trey took his hand off the hand carved wooden queen. Napoleon moved a knight over to check the king while simultaneously putting the queen in a precarious position with no option for removing the knight at all.
Trey cursed and Napoleon’s cocky chortling became louder and louder until the little shitbag had his little clawed hands up in the air to either side in a maniacal squeaky laughing fit.
Trey’s forehead, or more so his horns, hit the table as the dozen spectators in the tavern around them burst into laughter too. Trey’d been able to beat every single one of the challengers here even while drinking himself into a buzz and had earned quite a bit of money on bets doing it. He’d earned 4 silver and 12 copper as his winnings and he’d been on a roll until his own minion had challenged him outright - stating he’d beat Trey once he’d learned the rules.
So Trey had taught him the rules, and the very first game Napoleon had actually won... to everyone’s amazement.
Atharost leaned against a support beam grinning and arms crossed. Everyone had given the ifrit space upon his appearance, none of them having ever seen a real ifrit before but all of them having heard stories.
“God damn it.” Trey muttered as he picked up his head and rubbed his temple. Moving his king out of check he sighed loudly as Napoleon promptly took Trey’s queen and did a chortling happy dance.
“I’ve never seen a summoner made a fool by one of his own minions!” one of the drunkards roared with laughter along with his two friends. They’d been some of the ones who Trey had won money from and they’d grudgingly given it, but now they were getting their money’s worth at the embarrassment Trey felt after his cocky attitude had been utterly crushed by Napoleon’s superior intelligence.
Rivia stood behind Trey, silent and watching as she took in the game’s rules. Many of the men there ogled her or even catcalled her many times throughout their stay but none dared approach her with Atharost nearby. She simply ignored them, preferring to stand instead of sitting and doing her best to learn.
“Hey! Demon girl! Show us your tits!” screamed belligerent skinny drunkard so far gone that he didn’t know what was best for him. He was a middle aged man, wore a farmer’s getup and had dirt covering his pants. His four bigger friends who wore similar attire tried to get him to shut up, but he continued to yell across the small tavern until Rivia gave him a look.
The disgusted sneer she gave was exaggerated by the red eyes and small black horns she had. Her fingers flexed in anger and she raised her chin with a cocky better-than-thou attitude.
[Human Dialect] “Back in Oblivion we would have gutted you for food and eaten you alive.” Rivia snarled, wrinkling her otherwise perfect purple skin as her lips curled in revulsion to the catcalling. The words were somewhat misspoken due to her minimal knowledge of the language, but she got her point across well enough.
The skinny drunkard bellowed a laugh and pointed at her, slurring many of his words as he did. “We? WHO’S WE?! You’re no better than a slave bitch now!”
He laughed harder and began to stumble in her direction, drawing other’s attention as he continued to rant. “You demons and your fucking warlocks come in here and think you own the place. I’ve seen your kind before! You don’t scare me!”
The belligerent farmer’s locks of dirty brown hair swayed as he abruptly stopped an inch from Rivia’s face. The demoness didn’t flinch, but it was obvious she was trying to contain her anger.
“You’re so weak even I can identify you, you little whore!” yelled the man aggressively. “Don’t think you’re better than us!” He whirled around to point at Trey. “That goes for you too! You cause any trouble here and I’ll have the guards on your ass hotter than you can shit! My brother is captain of the guards here in this town and I’ll have ya gutted along with your minions if ya fuck with me! Just being a god damned warlock means we can hang ya without another reason!”
Trey raised an eyebrow and casually looked over to Atharost who’s grin had turned into an outright smile of ill-intent. Napoleon on the other hand just gawked at the man in confusion. The next sentence the man followed-up with threw Trey off guard though, and it took him a couple seconds to contemplate it before Trey found the words to reply.
“I’ll give you 4 silver pieces for an hour with your demon bitch! That way I can teach her some manners! Otherwise I tell my brother and the other guards we have demons here that need hangin.” The slurring, skinny farmer pulled out a pouch of money, counted the counts and tossed them angrily at Trey. They hit his arm and bounced to his lap or the ground, rolling to a stop. The other bystanders watching the chess game scowled and told the man to get lost, but he waved them off with a very rude gesture.
Trey briefly remembered the exchange rate after the All Spirit had explained the system. Everything had been adjusted off one U.S. dollar and a standard weight per coin:
- 1 copper = 1 dollar
- 1 silver = 10 copper = 10 dollars
- 1 gold = 10 silver = 100 copper = 100 dollars
- 1 platinum = 10 gold = 100 silver = 1000 copper = 1000 dollars
- 1 nethma = 10 platinum = 100 gold = 1000 silver = 10,000 copper = 10,000 dollars
So this man was essentially offering him the rough equivalent of 40 dollars. Trey was broke, he could really use the money and he really didn’t want to get the guards involved. He also held Rivia in low regard considering her history of sacrificing and eating people, but he hadn’t even thought of pimping her out. Also the idea of letting her go for only 40 dollars was downright insulting. Especially with how hot Rivia actually was.
"No… that’s not nearly enough.” Trey remarked, picking up the fallen coins. He calmly placed them on the table in a neat stack next to where the swaying drunk man stood. “That demon bitch hates mortals. She doesn’t even like me much, and the sex is good. If you want to have an hour with her it’ll be 5 gold coins, non-negotiable.”
Here in these new worlds it was a pretty simple system that the All Spirit had set up. The locals talked about it occasionally from what Ashe had told him. There were mild levels of inflation and deflation with the currency depending on where you went, but it was all kept relatively stable due to base prices set up at the All Spirit altars. The altars were found randomly placed across the world and would supply limited amounts of items that differed by cycling them out every month for new ones. You could exchange any copper, silver, gold, platinum or nethma coins that you had so people were stopped from inflating beyond a reasonable means. Apparently the All Spirit also regulated the influx of new currency by providing more of these materials in other ways that hadn’t been specified, but that’s what the rumor was.
But getting back to the point, he was asking for 5 gold instead of the 4 silver. This also meant that Trey was asking the farmer for an equivalent of 500 U.S. dollars, and the skinny man’s eyes bulged at the offer with a loud scoff. When Atharost repeated the message in the demon tongue, Rivia’s eyes widened too at the mere thought of being forced to sleep with a gross, wretched human such as this.
“5 gold!? Are you fucken with me boy!?” the drunkard slammed his hand onto the table over the silver pieces and shoved them into Trey’s face aggressively. “4 silver is more than what this whore is worth!”
In that instant, Trey felt disrespected. He would not be disrespected in front of his minions. He would not lose face.
Trey open-palm slapped the man’s hand away, scattering the silver across the floor and aggressively stood up as the farmer fell back on his rear. The drunkard cursed him and was about to get up for a swing when he saw a swirling ball of chaos mana the size of a baseball in front of a hand outstretched his way. It sparked with black and crimson energy, waiting to be unleashed to shred the man’s innards on command.
“The only reason I haven’t killed you outright...” Trey began slowly, walking forward with glowing red eyes focused angrily on the farmer, “Is because I don’t want to cause trouble for the fine men here who have been playing chess with me. I wouldn’t want your guts all over their clothes, as I’d feel obligated to buy them new ones.”
Some of the men observing the chess game earlier snickered or raised their eyebrows while the farmer’s friends nervously put hands on the daggers they each carried at their belts. Atharost and Napoleon just continued to watch as Rivia stood back.
The two men stood looking at each other for a time before the drunkard glanced back to Rivia. His eyes went up and down her athletic purple figure that was rather noticeable beneath the form fitting silk robes she wore. He snorted and swayed again, completely unaware of how real the danger to his life was due to his intoxication.
“My brother would have you hanged if you killed me.” The farmer said cockily, getting up and picking up the silver coins before brushing himself off. “I apologize for insulting you though, please put the magic away.”
Trey was surprised by the sudden addition of manners and did as he was asked. The chaos ball dissipated and the mana he had used to summon it returned to his mana bar. He folded his arms curiously and waited for the dirty farmer to speak as others around the room watched.
The man pursed his lips, looking the demoness over once more and turning to his friends who had visibly calmed down since the escalation had been dealt with. “What do you all say? Want to pitch in and have some fun with her for an hour with me? I don’t have the money by myself.”
The four other farmers who’d followed the belligerent drunk inside exchanged looks.
“That’s a lot of money, and my wife would get mad if she found out...” one of them said slowly. The bigger brunette man came around to look Rivia over once more and then he shrugged with a laugh. “But it’s probably worth it. I’ll pitch in. What about the rest of you?”
Atharost translated again. The others began to debate and started pulling out pouches as Rivia took two quick steps over to put words to Trey’s ear.
[Ancient Demon Dialect] “Master, you cannot be serious!” Rivia whispered anxiously. She looked back over to the five men who were still counting coins. “Please do not make me do this!”
Trey looked the girl over. [Ancient Demon Dialect] “We need the money.”
“Please!” whispered Rivia again, this time a little more urgently. “They are disgusting!”
Trey frowned. He didn’t really like the idea much either, but they really DID need the money and he viewed Rivia more as a tool than anything else. Then there was that looming possibility of getting the guards involved… if this drunk-as-hell farmer really had a brother in the guard unit here, it would mean problems if he didn’t get his way.
Meanwhile Rivia and her people were cruel monsters, and the things he’d seen in Oblivion still made him angry to think about. 5 gold would also be more money than they’d had to this date. He cleared his throat and thought about it for a bit.
“How about I make a deal with you.” Trey said slowly. He turned to fully face her. “You want Alkir’s Writs, correct? Those unholy books you were talking about?”
Rivia nodded slowly as her eyebrows began to furrow, her gorgeous features strained as her fingers tapped against her folded arms nervously.
He leaned in closer to be next to her ear. “I’ve been told by one of the other chess players that there’s a black market here in Bravana dealing with black magics. If you do this, we’ll have enough money to go take a look and potentially buy some if they have any available.”
[Human Dialect] “We’ve got the money!” interrupted the skinny drunk farmer with a haughty grin. He placed a stack of silver and copper coins and lustfully looked Rivia’s curves over as she pulled her robes tighter. “It’s all there, the equivalent of 5 gold coins. Go ahead and count it!”
Trey pointed to the imp. “Napoleon, go ahead and count the money as I talk to Rivia.”
The imp shrugged and got onto the table, using his tiny clawed hands to count the money and Trey turned back to the culn girl.
Rivia protested in another hushed whisper, refusing to look at the pervy farmer a few feet from where she stood. [Ancient Demon Dialect] “It’s not likely the writs are even there! If it was certain I would agree, but we don’t know!”
Trey’s frown deepened. “First of all, you don’t have a choice. Second off, we’ll never know until we look. Or perhaps I should just find another culn that will be more willing to follow orders without having to compel them through force? I could just sacrifice you to the goddess you love, or maybe some other god instead for all that illustrious power you were talking about... using the same ritual you’re oh-so-eager to use on other people. What do you think?”
Rivia’s facial expression fell. She straightened her back and adjusted her posture just as Napoleon finished counting the money.
“It it all here stupid master!” Napoleon croaked gleefully. “44 silver and and 60 copper!”
The demoness looked Trey squarely in the eyes and then nodded submissively. “I will do as you command, master.”
[Ancient Demon Dialect] “Good. [Human Dialect] “Atharost, go with them to one of the rooms upstairs. Make them be the ones to rent it out and enter the room with them.” Trey stated it loud enough for all the buyers to hear. “Don’t let anyone harm her. Just sex. If they hurt her, burn them all alive. If they try to take her from the building or do anything weird, burn them alive. Got it?”
The ifrit stopped leaning on the pillar and his eyes momentarily flared with fire to extinguish a second later. “Of course.”
The five farmers shrank away from the greater class demon with obvious fear, but it was soon lost when their attention focused back on the beautiful demoness.
“She’s all yours.” Trey said to the skinny drunk as he slapped Rivia’s ass to prod her forward.
The farmer didn’t waste any time grabbing her backside himself, and she was quickly passed to the other men as they began to hoot - leading her to the front where they quickly rented a room and led her up the stairs. She gave Trey a single piercing glance before she left, and then she disappeared with the seven-foot tall Atharost following them closely behind.
Trey reached over and pocketed the money the men had left, then turned back to the small crowd waiting for him to continue playing chess. He cleared his throat. “Ahem. Anyone know where to find passage to the Lawless Lands? I’m trying to rent a boat, information would be appreciated.”
