‘Do you enjoy wasting your time like that?’
In the dark room, he stared emotionlessly at the battlefield displayed on the monitor. In his line of sight, mercenaries were sacking Rome, while a separate force set fire to the Library of Alexandria.
‘You once wished to become a renowned shogi player. Did you abandon that dream?’
The annoying voice grated his nerves. His gaze drifted unconsciously to his not bookshelf, which was now empty. Everything that was related to shogi was sealed away in storage.
‘Even that game you use to comfort yourself. Reduced to its essence, it is no different than a game played on a board. You are unable to truly cast away your passion.’
So? What if that was true?
If you don’t touch a piece for one day, it takes three days to regain your feel for the game. And Yasuharu had already drifted too far away to ever return.
‘But I could raise your skill to the realm of gods.’
He could only laugh at that. The realm of gods? It was nothing more than fantasy.
‘Then let me show you.’
Without warning, the world was engulfed in pure white.
The strange space was surrounded by marble. At the center sat a young man with crimson hair. He was facing a neatly arranged shogi board.
‘Approach it however you like. And take what you should take.’
Even though he hated it, Yasuharu found himself staring at the board.
In the first game, he was defeated effortlessly.
The second, he was hopeless once again.
The third, he lost as though sinking into a fathomless swamp.
Then the fourth, fifth, sixth and seventh…
The losses piled up without end.
‘Why is that look on your face?’
The words came after more than a hundred matches.
At the young man’s mocking voice, Yasuharu felt something change within himself.
He was laughing. His face was being pulled into a twisted smile.
‘Serve me, Yasuharu. And offer the victories of your games to me.’
The god’s arrogant voice rang out like a divine revelation.
‘And I shall pour into you every shogi player, every board position, every opening variation that exists, and all within a world where time stands still.’
Like that, Yasuharu felt the sound of the final move being brought down on his mind.
Within this eternity, he could continue to improve his skill for as long as he wished. It was exactly the kind of thing that an aspiring shogi player would crave.
More than anything, by becoming an unrivaled master, a genius without equal, he could finally erase that disgrace.
That 4-5 knight move.
The mistake he regretted more than anything.
He could make it as though it had never happened.
‘At the very least, you must not use Reset from now on.’
“Ah.”
‘Attaining victory through endless take backs and do-overs… Like some kind of amateur player.’
“Ah…ah…”
‘What would your grandfather say if he could see you now?’
“Aaaaaahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh!!”
His entire soul was cast once more into the raging flames.
And into that prison of self-loathing with no escape, Yasuharu could do nothing but willingly descend of his own accord.