Ryuuou no Oshigoto! - Volume 7 - Chapter 4.6

  THE CALL

The call came in the middle of the night.

“Father. You have your own Placement Match tomorrow, so why not go to bed?”

“Yeah ……”

He and I have been sitting facing each other at the kitchen table repeating this conversation over and over for hours now. I boiled some water for him to drink when we first walked into the kitchen, but it’s room temperature at this point.

C-2’s Placement Match finale is today.

Yaichi took an unexpected loss at the hands of Zaou-sensei.

Ranked as low as he is, Yaichi’s chance to promote based on his record alone is gone. Whether he promotes or not all comes down to Kanto’s match results. And those should still be going on.

I say should because neither Father nor I have checked the blogs.

We could pull them up in an instant on our phones, but …… So many complicated feelings are getting in the way that neither of us can go through with it.

So, that’s why we’re sitting here in the kitchen doing absolutely nothing while waiting for a phone call that might not come at all.

However, it’s time we finished doing that, too.

“If you’re worried about it, I’ll stay awake–––.”

Father’s smartphone vibrates before I could finish that sentence.

“!Yeah? It’s me.”

He presses the accept button on the first ring and is clearly nervous about talking to whoever is on the other end of the line.

“Ahh. Yar fine. No big deal.”

His voice is slow and steady to hide his nerves.

“Uh-huh ……………… Yeah. I see. Congrats!”

The call was over quickly.

It was maybe two minutes long. After waiting for hours, the fact that it didn’t last longer must mean that both sides understood the situation and saying anymore would’ve been awkward.

“Yaichi?”

“Yeah.”

He promoted, didn’t he? I thought about it, but didn’t ask. If he called at all, it’s obvious what he was going to say. And, when the call finally came, I realized I didn’t want to hear it.

As much as it pains me to admit, I was disappointed but relieved when Yaichi lost today.

Seriously, Yaichi has so much already.

I like him as a person, I love him like a little brother and I genuinely want him to be happy.

But I’m jealous. That’s what’s going on.

Although it may not be morally correct as a human being, I firmly believe that as an active Shogi player it’s not wrong. There is no moving up in this world without harnessing that black flame.

Considering it’s this hard processing things for me, Father must have it even worse.

Much less, Father will fight …… in a Placement Match to determine his rank tomorrow.

If he hasn’t had a change of heart, it could determine whether he retires from Shogi altogether.

–––To make matters worse, his opponent is Yaichi’s ………

I was anxious to see what kind of effect the call would have on him.

“Keika.”

“Yes?”

“Would ya get out my kimono?”

“! ………… Sure.”

I’m a little relieved.

There’s a fire burning in Father’s heart.

I don’t know if the flames are bright or dark, but there’s a fire.