Ryuuou no Oshigoto! - Volume 3 - Chapter 5

  MESSAGE

“I’ll be on my way.”

The Practice League meets today.

I got up early this morning like I always do, got breakfast ready, made and packed my own lunch and put Dad’s lunch in the fridge. Once everything was finished, I went to say goodbye.

Dad has eaten breakfast, but he doesn’t look up from the newspaper.

Neither of us make eye contact.

These long, quiet moments when all I hear is his breathing have gone on for months, even years. It’s normal at this point.

We hardly ever talk about Shogi anymore since Yaichi and Ginko moved out. And when we do, it’s always about managing the classroom and never about my results. We avoid that on purpose.

Could it be–––?

Days like this one have been eating away at me all this time.

“I put your lunch in the refrigerator. Make sure to warm it up first.”

“Uh-huh ……”

“Also, the homeowner’s association should be around to collect dues, and it’s almost time to pay for the newspaper subscription. I put the money in envelopes and set them on the shelf next to the door. Just give them the right envelope when they come by.”

“Uh-huh ……”

“And, one more thing–––.”

I straighten my posture to look him square in the eyes, even though he hasn’t looked up from the paper and say, “If I can’t get the B off my record at today’s meeting …… I will quit the Practice League.”

“……?”

Dad slowly looks up at me.

How many years has it been since we made eye contact like this?

Seeing my dad straight on for the first time in forever, I can’t believe how much he has aged. The wrinkles that line his face mark the past years like tree rings, so much so that it’s hard to believe it’s actually him.

It was all I could do to keep my gaze from falling as I continued. “I’m sorry for being so selfish. I’m already twenty-five, but still ask you to do so much to look after me. I realize it’s childish to make such an important decision on my own, and for that I’m truly sorry.”

I’ve rehearsed these words in my head so many times, but even though I’m finally saying them out loud there’s a part of me that doesn’t know if I’m doing the right thing. It could just be me trying to run away.

“However, if I’m not willing to put this much on the line …… I don’t think I’ll be able to do it at all.”

“Keika–––.”

“I’ll see you tonight.”

I make a quick bow to cut him off and leave home.

A plain, ordinary letter was what made me decide to call it quits.

That letter was in one of the notebooks from before I joined the Practice League, before I had my sights set on becoming a Women’s League player … from when I was in elementary school, when Dad forced me to play Shogi. A notebook so old I forgot it even existed.

The writer …… was me, when I was ten.

The letter, which began with the heading: To Twenty-Year-Old Me, talked about how difficult it was to have Dad as my Master and that studying Shogi every day was starting to get me. But it also said my dream was to join the Women’s League and to work alongside my father playing Shogi. Such a childish dream, but the words were so blunt that each one stung.

So, twenty-year-old me. Did my dream come true?

“…… I’m sorry. None of it came true,” I whisper to myself on my walk to the association, now a twenty-five-year-old woman.

That dream didn’t come true.

What’s worse, I’d forgotten how I felt when I was ten. I’d forgotten what it was like to follow a dream purely because I wanted to live it.

If ten-year-old me could have seen back then the woman she has become, she’d probably be shocked to see the sorry excuse for a human being she would turn into.

That dream didn’t come true. The dream that I had when I was ten.

“But …… I’ll show you I haven’t given up.”

I step inside the association and walk right past the friendly lady who works at the gift shop and the security guard who I always chat with when I have spare time, going directly to the arena.