Times of Peace: Volume 1 of the side adventures to The Mercenary's Salvation

  November 16, 2009

  10:46 A. M.

  Dark Abyss, Portland, Oregon

  “I brought you a gift today, Seth.”

  “A razer?”

  “So you could kill yourself? No. You’ll like this just as much though.”

  A hard case dropped in the firelight, clanking across the floor and landing just by my face as I lay on a sleeping bag. Groggy, wondering when the last time I bothered to stand was, I moved to open it as something touched my soul, my mind knowing what it was before I even glimpsed the first pieces.

  “A chess set. Cute.”

  “You’ll need it. Your first match is December 2. Product’s for Patriots Coliseum Games. A whole month to celebrate the newest empress to run the empire.”

  “So she needs me for entertainment?”

  “Sherry needs you to broker deals. Humiliate opponents. Antagonize until they do what she wants. You’ll be briefed on your opponents with time, but for now you should do your best to at least look like you know how to play. At least one of these matches will require you to try.”

  Well, with all this sudden free time it’d be easy to do so… if I had a partner. “Playing against one’s self isn’t that great of a training. Do you intend to play with me?”

  “No. Chess is such a… boring, game. When you begin to use people instead of rooks, there just isn’t that much fun to the game. It’s so much more interesting when life takes a human being instead of a pawn. Wouldn’t you agree?”

  “I’ve never played with people. How would I know.”

  Alucard laughed the question away, all too knowing that I had. There was a degree of truth to his words, but even now I find Chess to be much more pleasurable. Not so stressful to play if you don’t have to worry about anyone dying over it.

  “This is more an exhibition than anything else though. You aren’t expected to beat Bobby Fischer or anything like that; you’ll be playing businessmen and investors. Half these fools don’t even know what the term En Passant means. As such, it’ll be enough to play yourself.

  “Anything else?”

  One thing that I dreaded to ask. “I was going to start this tournament just to play Solomon… how is he?”

  “Well…”