/
Radis’ eyes narrowed.
This was just a speculation, but in the previous life—where Yves had not met Radis—Yves might have failed to establish a relationship with Olivier.
However, as a result of Radis being at his side, the Yves of the present time had different circumstances.
‘The Marquis seems to have a strong belief that His Highness Olivier will be the next Crown Prince. But if it’s not him…”
Yves rubbed his eyes with a forearm and yawned.
“Haaaahm!”
“……”
Looking at him with pitying eyes, Radis stood up from her seat.
“Oh, Radis? You’re going?”
“You look very fatigued, so please sleep more.”
“It’s true that I’m sleepy, but I wanna hang out with you. Radis, do you play chess?”
Yves similarly rose to his feet. Then, ududuk, ududuk, he cracked his neck.
Though she perked up at the mention of chess, Radis hesitated for a moment, but she eventually followed him.
So this was his room at the Loire townhouse. Still though, it was still quite dark inside the place.
As ever, his curtains were completely black, except for the gold trimmings embroidered with gold thread. His beddings were also black, and the table on which the chessboard was placed was also made of ebony wood.
With one hand, Yves dragged the heavy table and placed it next to the bed.
Radis wondered for a second what he’s up to right now, but Yves just crawled back into his bed, only his torso sticking out from his quilt.
Then, he smiled brightly as he called Radis over.
“Come over here, Radis!”
With how baffling his appearance was right now, Radis forgot everything that she was thinking of.
“Seriously, what’s with you? You… you slob!”
“Radis, what do you mean, slob?”
Laying back down on the bed, Yves gently swept up his bangs.
Beneath the swaying black hair, his amber eyes could be seen shining languidly.
“Where in the world could there be such a hot slob?”
Radis nearly hit her forehead again.
However, her forehead was still stinging right now. If she were to hit it one more time, she really might get a nosebleed this time.
Without a word, Radis approached Yves, pulled up his blankets, then covered his entire body, leaving only his face out—like a hermit crab.
“Marquis Hermit Crab, sir. Let’s have a game of chess.”
“Radis, how good are you?”
At the question, Radis recalled some memories from her previous life.
It was thanks to the subjugation squad that she learned how to play chess.
One of Robert’s hobbies was chess, and so most of the members of the subjugation squad enjoyed playing chess as well.
Everyone had a chessboard drawn on the inside of their shields.
In their spare time, the members would sit either here or there, turn their shields over, and play chess with the pieces that they carved by themselves.
‘Let’s have dinner as a wager.’
‘Call. Dinner, but let’s raise the stakes with night duty.’
With all sorts of things being used as wagers.
Radis spoke.
“I’m so-so. Marquis Hermit Crab, what are we betting?”
Yves blinked.
“Bet? What?”
“We’re playing a game, right? It’ll be more fun if there’s a reward.”
Yves was somewhat speechless, but he soon replied.
“What’s up with that? It’ll be more fun, you say? But what’ll we bet? Money?”
“Nope. Not money.”
“Huh? Why?”
Since Robert was the one who made chess popular among the subjugation squad members in the first place, he had no choice but to tolerate the bets that they did. Still though, he never allowed them to bet money.
Radis shrugged.
“That’s the rule.”
“Well, that makes things tricky.”
Yves ruminated for a moment, stroking his chin. Soon, Radis spoke.
“How about this? Truth or dare. We can ask each other what we want to know.”
Yves snapped his fingers.
“Nice. Let’s go with that.”
“Black or white?”
“As a knight, I shall make way for you, Milady.”
“Marquis Hermit Crab, the game has already begun. In this unforgiving world that we live in, there’s no need to feel pity or give concessions.”
With sharp movements as though she was a barber, Radis took one black and one white pawn in each of her hands, mixed them, then left them covered in her fists.
“Pick one, Marquis Hermit Crab.”
Yves commended her.
“Whoa, Radis? Why are you so cool today? Alright, I’m going with this side.”
“You’ll have black, Marquis.”
Tugging back the blanket over his head so that it was on his shoulders now, Yves’ eyes twinkled as he straightened his sitting posture.
“Okay, I won’t go easy on you!”
* * *
Tak.
Setting down the black knight, Robert declared.
“Checkmate.”
And, raising her hands in surrender, Radis replied.
“I lost, Captain.”
Sitting across from her, Robert swept the chess pieces on the board with one big hand, then he began to organize them.
With platinum blond hair looking as if it was white instead due to his tanned skin, Robert looked like a statue of a giant sculpted from bronze.
“Dee, you’re too honest. That’s why you keep falling for those tricks.”
Robert wasn’t a very talkative person, but after a round of chess, he would always mentor her like this.
Radis liked it.
That’s why, even though she knew that she’d lose easily against him, Robert wouldn’t know that she never had a game of chess before playing with him.