OPENING TALK
When he was a child, he thought the world was simpler. That there was no contest you couldn’t win. That hard work would be rewarded. That anything was possible. What he believed as a child, still foolish and ignorant—looking at the world with cloudless eyes—was it wrong?
……Was it really wrong…?
…… ?
In the cramped room, lit only by a faint lamp, the boy picked up a piece. He was the only figure there. But the boy looked intently at someone he knew he saw, deep in the darkness, and ruminated.
A game, after all, was only child’s play. Alone in the room, the boy imagined an opponent of perfect strength, and carefully, he placed his piece on the board, just as he had done as far back as he could remember. Outside the room, terror and uncertainty—the despair of those who couldn’t foresee even the day that would follow—froze the darkness of night. But inside the room, it was like another world. The faint light reflected with a burgeoning heat. Piece in hand, the boy ruminated once more.
Once they grew up, everyone naturally drifted away from games. Why? Because they didn’t have time? Because the world wasn’t as simple as games? Whatever the reason, when people grew up, games were inevitably discarded as childish things… But the boy—had never given this any thought. He simply considered his next move and then once more placed his piece on the board.
A child who went on and on playing games alone. He’d grown up the subject of strange looks from everyone around him, yet the boy kept playing. After all, he didn’t understand the reason for those peculiar stares. Because if he squinted carefully into the darkness—“he” was there. Seemingly about the same age as the boy, “he” grinned boldly.
The boy thought “he” was strong. “He” was always far ahead of the boy, and the boy would always—lose. As if it was only natural. As if there was no chance he could win in the first place. And feeling this… unbearably entertaining , the boy challenged “him” again. As far as others were concerned, the boy was alone, but to the boy, they were two. That was all. In the darkness, “he” never spoke. But “he” greedily sought out the moves that surpassed the boy’s—the more perfect play.
A more correct move. A more excellent tactic! A more advanced strategy!! “He” merrily gloated from the darkness, and the boy answered back with a bold grin of his own.
…As far as others could see, the boy was alone—but he didn’t care. The world was simple and clean. Win, lose, or draw—that was all there was. And no matter the outcome—though in the end he always lost—he’d ponder how to win next time. That—was the boy’s world.
But the outside world trampled his personal world mercilessly.
—No warning. The dim room lit up dazzlingly, and the boy turned to the window. The night sky, which was supposed to have been shrouded in red—had gone white. As his parents burst into the room, screaming and grabbing his hand, the boy, terribly slowly, looked at it. Connecting heaven and earth—a column of light. As his parents held him, shrieking something, their faces pale, the boy quickly reached out.
—The game wasn’t over.
Abruptly, he pulled the chessboard on which he’d been playing “him” close, and then… When next he lifted his eyes, a light that seemed to sear his retinas—
……
They were right: The world wasn’t as simple as games. Awoken by the terrible smell, the boy came to this realization. Extricating himself from the charred arms of his mother, draped limply over him, the boy looked around. The scene left in the wake of the light that had violated his world, unreasonable and absurd, occupied his senses. The taste of blood in his mouth. The scent of scorched flesh in his nose. His ears rang with an abyss of silence. His skin baked with a burning heat. And his vision…swam with a world utterly changed. Not a vestige of life remained. Rubble, clouds of dust, and exposed earth stretching as far as the eye could see. The boy turned his eyes to the sky. Amid a scarlet canopy that looked poised to fall at any moment—destruction rampaged. Gods battled over petty squabbles, without so much as a glance at humanity below. Just one stray blast. A whole world of people—to say nothing of the boy’s own private world—obliterated in its wake.
They were right: The world wasn’t as simple as games. Because the world had no rules. No rules. No one to call foul. No, even from the start— Suddenly, as the boy stood, visible through the smoke and dust, a shadow lit upon the rubble. Wholly oblivious to the child, this silhouette casually—almost as an afterthought—noted the gaze directed its way.
The boy gaped at the one who had taken everything from him—the destroyer—and thought: Yes, to them, human beings aren’t even players . It had swept away his—their—world without a care, as if it had been so much dust. This force of annihilation. Through the flames and sand, he could just make out a shape like a person, but—
“…………”
Recognizing that his gaze had been met, the boy turned and staggered off, dragging his feet behind him. Shaking off the glare he felt at his back, he walked far—someplace far away. To survive. Clutching the chessboard hard enough to break it, that day the boy became a man.
This world is chaos. Devoid of fate. Filled only with random happenstance. Unreasonable, absurd, and meaningless. Amid all that, where could one find…time to play games…
It had already been six thousand–odd years since the endless Great War had torn heaven and earth asunder and murdered the planet. Since the conflict for the throne of the One True God for absolute sovereignty over the world. A world in which the God who had claimed the throne by default—Tet—had set forth the Ten Covenants. A world on a board where force of arms was forbidden and all quarrels had to be settled by games—Disboard. In this world, on the continent of Lucia in the west, there was a city.
The “Provisional Commonwealth” of Elkia—the capital, Elkia. A city which, until just a few months earlier, had been driven to the brink of doom, submerged in despair. The last city of Ixseed Rank Bottom, Immanity. But now things had changed. Three countries—
• The Eastern Union—the nation of the Werebeasts, comprised of countless islands
• Oceand—the nation in which the Sirens and Dhampirs lived symbiotically under the sea
• Avant Heim—the nation where the angelic Flügel graced the heavens
—populated by four races had been brought into the fold in a twinkling by the new king and queen just after their coronation. This city now found itself the capital of a sprawling commonwealth. The city’s Main Street bristled with activity. Merchants and farmers who had just gained—or lost—vast resources. Craftspeople who purchased their goods. Each and every one of them traveling to and fro on foot or on horseback, haggling in voices overlapping without pause.
A world where all quarrels and conflicts were settled by games. Indeed, that must sound quite simple. But the reforms were all too rapid. Immanity was swallowing up other races and multiple countries in games and forcing them into their fold. No matter how you might dress it up, all it represented was a policy of aggression. Spouting off about how it was a commonwealth, united in cooperation—was entirely too kind. Under such circumstances, the administration should have been in chaos, a quagmire of political wrangling among realms and races. Under such circumstances, that was what one could rightly expect.
—That is, if it hadn’t been the handiwork of the king and queen…the siblings named Sora and Shiro. Winning games with other nations—plays for dominion—swallowing them up whole and then— achieving bloodless coups without anyone losing out .
On the bustling street, here and there, one might find a few Werebeasts. The preposterous concept of building a multiracial commonwealth to transcend the barriers between the “sixteen seeds,” the Ixseeds, little by little, subtle as it might be, was somehow showing progress.
The world was changing. With this place, Elkia, at its center. There must have been some for whom this unshakable premonition felt uncomfortable. But at the same time, people’s hearts throbbed and their eyes glinted. For they were the witnesses—to the revolution of the world.
…………So, back to the main topic. As described earlier, the Ten Covenants set forth by the One True God caused everything to be decided by games. As for that One True God, Tet: Don’t you wonder…how he passes the days? How a more or less omniscient and omnipotent One True God lives? Today, I’m going to do you a special favor and tell you about it. For now, in an alley of Elkia, being poked with a stick by a small Werebeast girl—
“Hey! Hey, you. Didja kick the bucket, please?”
—the One True God lies sprawled on the ground.
“ … N-now that I think about it … Immanities … die if they don’t eat, don’t they…?”
“So do I, please. Are you a dumbass, please?”
At this insult delivered with wide, innocent eyes, Tet pressed his face more firmly to the ground. The Werebeast girl, with black hair and ears like those of a fennec fox—Izuna Hatsuse. Formerly the ambassador of the Eastern Union in Elkia, now the playmate of its king and queen—pardon, their adviser. While this Izuna prodded him, Tet considered: Though this might have been his first attempt at existing as an Immanity—he really shouldn’t have.
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