Inside Seoik, the hostile atmosphere was even more tense.

In fact, it wasn’t too scary, but it could be said that it was really strange. Just yesterday, Oliver – Richard’s youngest son – had been taken to the hospital with a head injury caused by Christoph.

Fortunately, Oliver wasn’t seriously injured. All the test results were normal, and now the kid was playing at Dongik.

“Well, anyway, that’s good news.”

Jeong Taeui stared at the chessboard and replied half-heartedly.

Damn it, no matter which piece he moved, the rook or the knight would be blocked within a few moves.

Jeong Taeui groaned and stared at the chessboard for about ten minutes without moving. In front of him, Johan easily captured his pawn with just two moves earlier.

“Look, something is definitely wrong. This whole house is now a battlefield.”

“Hm……. But if Oliver is at Dongik, why is Richard at Seoik? Living in the same place but still having to endure family separation like this?”

Should he capture the queen right away? ……. No, if he did that, he would be checkmated within a few moves.

After ten minutes of thinking, Jeong Taeui moved the bishop diagonally.

“Oh, normally if you’re married or have a family, you would live separately or in a separate building, but Richard is divorced. Oliver is currently living with his grandmother at Dongik. Since Richard is still the heir candidate, he can’t live at Dongik. …… Here you go.”

Johan glanced at the chessboard for a moment and then moved his pawn. Jeong Taeui quickly confirmed its position. It didn’t look threatening, but he wasn’t sure if he could win.

“Hm……. If she is your grandmother, she must also be Richard’s grandmother.”

“That’s right. She is also Christoph’s grandmother.”

“Hm……. So, she must be quite old.”

“Yes. She just celebrated her 80th birthday a few years ago. But she is still very lucid.”

“So, is she the oldest person in Tarten?”

“In terms of seniority, yes. But in reality, the person with the highest authority…… Hey! You moved it!”

“No, I didn’t! I just touched it a little!”

“That’s not true! Chess is a ruthless world! A move once made cannot be taken back! It’s my turn now!”

“Hey, hey! No, it’s my turn! I haven’t moved yet, I haven’t moved yet!”

Jeong Taeui quickly put down the pawn he was holding and carefully leaned forward to shield the chessboard from being knocked over.

“Hey! That’s so cheap……. I let it go once. Hurry up and make your move.”

Johan grumbled as he sat back down. Only then did Jeong Taeui sit up straight.

“Hmm,” – he straightened his collar, which Johan had grabbed and ruffled, and resumed staring at the chessboard. In front of him, Johan took a sip of beer and continued speaking in a bored tone.

“The person with the most power in Tarten. He is a great person, but there is a significant age gap between him and my father and other uncles.”

“Hm……. So his child will be the successor. Instead of forcing other children into the competition and making the family atmosphere tense, wouldn’t it be more comfortable to give that position to his child and distribute the assets?”

“Oh, he isn’t married. Moreover, Tarten’s tradition is to select the successor through competition. It may make the atmosphere harsher, but it also has its advantages.”

“……Well…….”

Jeong Taeui carefully moved the bishop and glanced at Johan’s eyes. What did he just do? Did he move the bishop too? Johan casually looked at him and took another sip of beer. Jeong Taeui also drank from the can of beer placed beside him.

Jeong Taeui unconsciously frowned.

To be honest, he was quite surprised.

Jeong Taeui had liked playing Chess and Go since he was a child. Most of the time, he would go out to play, but on rainy days or when he didn’t feel like going out, he would stay at home, flipping through books or sitting next to his brother, playing games like Go or chess.

Although he couldn’t say he was very good, he often won overwhelmingly when competing with others.

However.

Although it wasn’t so terrible that he couldn’t bear to look, Jeong Taeui’s current situation was still pitifully strange.

Was this guy just eating and playing chess all the time….

He felt like he was about to lose this bet. His desire for a five-star meal seemed to be failing in the end. While Jeong Taeui wore a heavy expression, Johan seemed very cheerful.

The first day he arrived here, Jeong Taeui heard Christoph explain Seoik’s structure. Although there were many entertainments like chess and billiards, it was best not to go down to Seoik’s underground hall because there were many fools there. But no matter what he said, there were still countless people coming and going.

Even now, right next to the chessboard in the middle of Jeong Taeui and Johan’s hall, three or four men were surrounding the billiards table. Beside them were other men playing poker, and even people playing the block-stacking game Jenga.

…… Among all the other games, seeing two men sitting opposite each other in a corner and seriously playing Jenga made Jeong Taeui completely sympathize with Christoph’s words…….

Jeong Taeui suddenly thought of how they would get angry if they heard those words and shook his head vigorously. “Anyway, they’re just enjoying the feeling of fighting.”

Looking at it this way, it seemed like a group of people gathering together, but thinking about it, when going outside, each of them was an individual, possibly even from different factions. It made him feel difficult to express in words.

“Where to now, the bishop… haha, do you want to capture the knight?”

Johan looked at the chessboard for a while and then smiled dangerously. Jeong Taeui felt a little uneasy. Damn it, my five-star feast…. Damn it, my money…….

Jeong Taeui got lost in thought and stared at Johan moving a chess piece.

“Well, even if the atmosphere gets more tense, I think you’re doing quite well.”

“What did I do?”

Although Johan spoke cheerfully, Jeong Taeui’s mood didn’t improve.

“Yesterday, I heard you blocked Christoph when he was heading towards Richard with an iron rod. So, Richard’s subordinates are all gossiping, ‘He might be a good guy after all.’”

“Haha, it’s nothing.”

“If you say that to them, they might change their minds immediately.”

“…… No, don’t tell them. I just want to live comfortably.”

Jeong Taeui rested his chin on his hand, staring at the chessboard and muttering.

Looking now, Johan’s pawn had advanced quite far. He needed to deal with it quickly before it became the next queen; otherwise, this game would be in big trouble.

“But…….”

Jeong Taeui suddenly asked in a weary voice while looking down at the chessboard.

“Huh?” Johan replied, still focusing on the chessboard.

“Does Richard have a sister? She must be like Oliver.”

“Hm…… ? Who said that?”

Johan looked up from the chessboard and glanced at Jeong Taeui. His expression showed that this wasn’t a very interesting topic. Jeong Taeui responded vaguely, “No.”

“He does. Although she passed away more than ten years ago. But she didn’t look much like Oliver. Oliver looks more like Richard. Only the name is similar. Olivia.”

Johan responded calmly, as if there was nothing to hide.

“Hm…….”

“Why? Did that come up during yesterday’s confrontation?”

“Um, it’s just….”

“Then they probably talked about Christ’s mother as well.”

“Oh, you know a lot.”

“Honestly, if they want to fight, why do they have to rub salt into each other’s wounds like that?”

Johan clicked his tongue.

After silently thinking for a few minutes, Jeong Taeui placed the knight down and looked at Johan.

“The atmosphere in this family is really bad.”

“Especially between those two. The others are just competitors, but they are considered catalysts.”

“That’s why I have to try to stay neutral,” Johan said proudly and moved his pawn.

“…… Cruel! Only two more squares, and that pawn will become a queen! Damn it…!”

“Yeah, that’s one of my special moves.”

Jeong Taeui ruffled his hair.

The five-star feast was becoming more and more distant.

Jeong Taeui stared at the chessboard. Johan, seeing there wasn’t much beer left, took a new can from the mini fridge and sat back down. During this time, he carefully scanned the chessboard to see if Jeong Taeui was using any tricks.

“Anyway, those two’s personalities are extremely opposite, so their relationship was never good from the start. But as you can see, Christoph has that face. So, some ignorant fools still follow him, and one of those fools was Richard’s sister. Olivia. Christoph was fed up with her. Every time she followed him, Christoph openly mistreated her. Since Olivia was born with weak health, she couldn’t go to school and had to stay in the hospital for six months, so Richard especially cherished her. Olivia was pampered like a princess….”

“……. Please don’t tell me Christoph killed her…….”

“If that were the case, one of them would be dead by now. I already said Olivia was a frail child. Whenever the seasons changed, she worried whether she could survive until the next one. Until she was sixteen…… but she lived longer than the doctors predicted …… She was a good child.”

Johan muttered as he squinted at the ceiling, as if he was reminiscing about a lovely and gentle girl who had died young, with an extremely calm voice.

Jeong Taeui took his eyes off the chessboard for a moment and looked at him. A melancholic and disappointed feeling washed over him. He felt sorry for all those who had to leave this world too soon.

“Why… If Richard loved his sister that much, he must have understood her feelings.”

Jeong Taeui said while stroking the knight.

Suddenly, the calm and terrifying voice he had heard the night before flashed through his mind.

“Is he angry because someone said they wanted to decorate his mother’s grave with dead animal corpses? While he himself killed a stray dog and buried it in Olivia’s grave?”

“…… .”

Jeong Taeui sighed heavily.

No matter what happened … could it be that the madness within Christoph caused it, should that be considered?

“After Olivia’s death, there was a bit of an uproar – Christoph did some crazy things – and Richard made the problem bigger. So, Christoph’s family, who had lived in a separate building on the estate, had to move out. Christoph was still a successor candidate at that time, so he could continue living in Seoik.”

“It’s a bit unreasonable. The one who caused the problem stays, while his family gets kicked out.”

“Although called a family, it was actually just his widowed mother, the only relative he had left was his mother…… After all, that was Richard’s intention……. Hey, why are you blocking my pawn’s path to becoming a queen?”

“Because if this thing wasn’t here, my knight could move through…… Good move, right?”

“Haha. You’re going crazy over a five-star meal, huh.”

Just then.

Opposite Johan, who was happily looking at the chessboard and rubbing his palms, outside the open door behind Jeong Taeui, there were footsteps coming down the stairs.

Since this was a place people often came and went, Jeong Taeui didn’t pay attention, instead focusing entirely on the chessboard.

He needed to capture that pawn before it was promoted to a queen, but the only piece that could capture it now was the bishop. However, if he moved the bishop, the rook would immediately checkmate…….

Jeong Taeui was deep in thought. Suddenly, he remembered his brother.

When his brother was young, he didn’t care much for the recreational games that children his age usually liked. So the game console their father bought for him gathered dust and was eventually thrown away as junk.

But his brother was quite interested in games like this. He wasn’t extremely passionate or disdainful of them, but whenever Jeong Taeui brought out a chessboard, he would often come and sit across from him without Jeong Taeui even realizing it.

“Everyone has their own way…….”

Hearing Jeong Taeui mumble, Johan asked back: “What do you mean?”

“When playing with my brother, I rarely won, but somehow it didn’t feel like this. Instead of being relentlessly attacked like this, he was someone who enjoyed the game leisurely like flowing water…… Being with him felt more peaceful.”

“That’s because there wasn’t a five-star meal at stake.”

“…….”

Others might be longing for their brother whom they hadn’t seen in a long time, but look at his mouth……..

Jeong Taeui glared at Johan.

At that moment.

“Hmm. It seems someone is about to lose a five-star meal.”

A voice laughed from behind Jeong Taeui.

Jeong Taeui had sensed someone standing behind him, but he didn’t pay attention and just focused on the chessboard. It wasn’t until now that he turned around because the voice sounded familiar.

Richard was standing there. And sure enough, Ilay was standing beside him.

Jeong Taeui saw the two of them staring at his defensive pieces, and he bitterly licked his lips and scratched his head.

The two sat down in the empty chairs at the table. It seemed they had come to pass the time; Richard opened the drawer and took out a deck of cards.

“It seems like you’re always busy in the afternoons. Why do you suddenly have time to come here to play today?”

Jeong Taeui greeted Richard politely and didn’t bother talking to Ilay beside him. To be precise, he had no way to communicate with Riegrow.

Riegrow and Kim Young Soo.

Everything had to have a reason, but thinking back, Jeong Taeui didn’t even know why he had to pretend to be Kim Young Soo. Even though he had chosen that name himself. It was because Christoph said his name was unlucky, so he said that, but…… .

“Oh. I came back early today because the head of the family is coming to Seoik today. Can’t arrive later than the elders just because of traffic.”

“Huh?”

“Once a month, he has a meal at Seoik. So, everyone has to be present, even without prior notice…… but anyway, just think of it as inviting an elderly person to dine.”

Richard smiled and calmly explained.

Jeong Taeui shook his head, looked at Johan, and asked: “Is that the big figure I’ve only heard about?”

“I can have a meal with him at such a time and place?”

“Oh, it’s okay, it’s okay. Richard already said. We’re just dining with an old man. If you’re not the successor, just respect the elderly.”

Johan shrugged and said. It seemed he was mocking Richard, but he didn’t care. Johan didn’t seem to have any ill intentions either.

While Richard was shuffling the cards next to Jeong Taeui, Ilay sat next to Johan and opposite Jeong Taeui, arms crossed and looking at the chessboard. He suddenly spoke.

“Seeing the situation, I think Johan will get to enjoy a five-star meal.” 

That indifferent and cold voice entered Jeong Taeui’s ears, sounding like he was saying.

“Why did you lose, you fool?” 

Jeong Taeui was staring at the chessboard, heard that, and looked up at him, his eyes showing a mocking smile.

“So what…… Winning or losing, as long as you have fun playing.” – Jeong Taeui felt frustrated about losing a five-star meal but tried to respond calmly.

“I don’t know how you feel starting a game knowing you’ll lose from the start and saying you enjoy it.”

Ilay snorted in response, and Jeong Taeui couldn’t maintain his calm expression any longer. Anger surged.

If this guy wanted to pretend not to know, let him, why did he have to keep picking on him?

“You have to strive until the end, just thinking you’ll lose and not trying is even more pathetic.”

Jeong Taeui said as if nothing had happened but glared at Ilay. He rubbed his chin and slowly traced his lips with his finger, then stared intently at Jeong Taeui. He seemed to be thinking about something.

With electric stares clashing in the air, Richard, beside him, had finished shuffling the cards and smiled calmly as he dealt them.

“High fighting spirit, very good. But it won’t do any good if you’re playing chess against a grandmaster.”

“Grandmaster?”

Jeong Taeui looked at Richard with a puzzled expression for a moment. Richard looked at Jeong Taeui with a confused look, not understanding why Jeong Taeui was looking at him like that.

Beside him, Ilay seemed to understand the meaning of those looks. He quietly questioned.

“Johan. Are you hustling him again?”

*Blink, Blink* – Jeong Taeui blinked and stared quietly at Ilay. He was speaking so casually, but why didn’t he understand? However, the next moment, a light bulb went off in his head. Jeong Taeui immediately turned his gaze to Johan sitting opposite him.

“What do you mean? Did I deceive him?…  I didn’t deceive him at all. I just happened to see a chessboard, so he said he wanted to play. And if you just play, it’s not fun, so why not bet a small wager.”

Johan spoke very calmly and gently. However, it seemed his mood wasn’t as calm as his tone. ‘Damn it, I’m finished’ – was clear in his trembling, worried eyes.

“Johan. Are you a grandmaster in chess?”

Jeong Taeui asked softly with a low voice. His voice was firm and filled with admiration.

“Uh…… So what? Nowadays, it’s common. I heard there are now more than a thousand people with that title. It’s nothing special. Just average.”

Johan’s answer was very modest. The tone emphasized that it was nothing special but was extremely powerful.

Jeong Taeui smiled at him.

Thinking back, Alta also taught him that flipping a table is only difficult the first time.

“Once you’ve flipped a table once, flipping it a second time won’t be a problem.”

“When I heard those words, I didn’t know they would be so useful…… .”

Jeong Taeui muttered bitterly. As soon as he finished speaking, he grabbed the edge of the table.

*Bang*

The sound of chess pieces and the chessboard falling to the ground echoed loudly.

Jeong Taeui raised his hand with a calm smile on his face.