Vol.3 Ch.47 - Across the waves

Boarding the boat was a smooth process all in all, and getting settled inwasn’t that difficult either. Since I didn’t have that many tools to carry aroundwith me, all the luggage I actually had to carry was a backpack and mysword, which meant I didn’t even need the captain to help me carry it all.Speaking of the captain, he reminded me very much of the captain Ed and Ihad the pleasure of meeting back when we sailed across from Primis to theKingdom of Carmen. He was this bearded muscly nice old man who alwayscarried a pipe around, even when hard at work. This stoic behavior made ithard for us to speak to him, as we were still quite shy back then, but wequickly learned he wasn’t at all scary. In fact, he was quite pleasant to bearound, we’d always enjoy listening to all the stories he told us about hispast and about life as a sailor.Ahem, I got off topic. As I was saying, the captain of this ship I was going tobe sailing on now was very much similar, in that he too had theseidiosyncrasies, but he sort of lacked in the beard department. Not cleanshaven, mind you, it still covered his face, but when compared to the othercaptains beard that reached his belly, this one was kind of boring incomparison (Of course, if I said this to him now, he’d probably kick me offthe ship!)As I was walking around the deck of the ship, I looked out at the sea in hopesof spotting a passing island or something. To be honest, there’s not much youcan do on a ship, it’s quite boring actually. I looked around for a bit morebefore getting a bit nauseous, then I walked back over to the center of thedeck to catch my breath. I spent some more time looking at all the ropes andbarrels whose placement seemed all but random for me. I of course knowthey all serve a purpose, but I’m, by all accounts, a nautical nimrod (for lackof a better term). As a kid I always dreamed of sailing the high seas, lookingfor buried treasure and engaging in all sorts of naval warfare, but as I quicklygrew out of that phase after realizing just how horrible it actually is to livepurely off of fish and barely take any showers at all. That idea is… tooextreme for me.“Hey!” The Captain shouted, “Stop snooping around my ship! You don’t seeme poking around your luggage, do you?”I was called up to the Captain’s quarters and reprimanded for being toocurious. After I apologized profusely to him, he laughed it off stating I knowyou didn’t mean anything bad by it, but you could accidentally breaksomething off so I got off with a light slap on the wrist. He told me to have aseat across from him and asked for a game of chess, seeing as both of uswere bored.“Sorry, I’ve never played the game, I don’t even know the rules.” I said.He didn’t mind though, and instead chose to spend the rest of the day teachingme all the ways each piece can move, as well as some basic strategies andopeners. I was always rearing to go when it came to learning something new,so I had no qualms about listening in on every single word he said. I madesure to mentally jot down as many tips and tricks as I could, since anopportunity to get them from a seasoned veteran are hard to come by.After a day or two of me getting the hang of it, we were finally ready to playa real match. No handicaps, no holding back.***“Since it’s your first time, I’ll command the white pieces.” Said the Captainas he set up all the pawns.“Captain,” I asked out of curiosity, “why do you say command? If this is justa game of chess, why make it sound so serious?”“Nonsense, boy!” he exclaimed, “In this little game of ours, we are bothKings leading our nation. If you do not take it seriously, then I’m afraid you’llreach a plateau in your skills very soon.”It made sense, in a way. If I never took myself seriously during my time asGeneral of ARA, then I’m sure the gang members wouldn’t take me seriouslyeither. I kind of grasped this basic concept myself without realizing it, butstill, having it told to me outright like this kind of makes me feel stupid. Iguess I should really get into the swings of things right about now.“Alright,” he said calmly, “I’ll move my Pawn from E2 to E4!”“Weird, didn’t you say that opening with a Knight is the preferred way to dothings?” I asked, remembering all the tips he gave me during our lessons.“Oh? Does a King ask this of his opponent? Or does he keep his cards closeto his chest?” He answered back mysteriously, avoiding a straight answer.“Alright…? Well then, I’ll move my own Pawn from F2 to F4.”I figured this way I could lure him into a trap and trade Pawns-“Checkmate!” He said, moving his Queen from D1 to H5.“Whuh? But? H-How? Wait, no it really is Checkmate! I have no way ofdefending my King, nor is there a way for me to move him to safety at all!” Ilooked around the board once more.“Hmph,” he smirked, “only an amateur would be going for the Pawns, andyou even wanted to trade them? Obviously you’d lose if you thought likethat.”Seriously!? He figured out my plan from the get-go? Just how crazy good isthis guy?“Don’t worry, you’ll get better with more games.” He tried cheering me up,“But take this as a lesson you can apply to real life as well!”“What do you mean exactly?” I asked him earnestly.“Don’t go for the lowly Pawns, you’re the King, got that?” He stated as amatter of fact, “In my opinion, a King is but a mere decorative piece in theworld of chess. It represents you. A true King finds the strengths of all hissubjects, not just focusing on one. See, in real life, even when you’re just aPawn unfit to assassinate the enemy King, your next best option would be tostep aside and leave it to the more capable Queen.” He said, holding up herpiece.“Oh,” he added, “and always make sure to think 5 steps ahead! Since I wasthe one who taught you, I had plenty of time to learn all of your little habits. Iwas about 99% sure you were gonna do what you did this game.”“But what if I didn’t?” I asked, “What if I took the 1%?”“A true King has a plan B, and when that plan fails, there’s always plan C,get me?” He joked.“Amazing!” I jumped from my seat, “Let’s play another round!”Just like that, we stayed up for hours each and every day, constantly playingchess over and over. Even still, the entire time I selfishly asked for anotherround after inevitably losing, this kind old man generously set the board uponce more. It had taken me about 4 days before I could actually beat him,although I still consider it a fluke, judging by how many mistakes I made.That, or he let me win just so he could catch a break for once.“Finally! I did it!” I jumped from joy, “Captain, I did it!”“Phew, you sure got me!” Said the Captain as he wiped the sweat from hisburly brows, “Looks like all this playing finally paid off, didn’t it?”“It sure did! But…” I cut my celebrations short, “It was probably just afluke…”“Boy,” he lightly grabbed me by the shoulder, “if you’re a King, and you justbarely got out of a fierce battle with your head on your shoulders, would yoube sad about it because it was a fluke?”“W-Well, no, of course not.” I stammered, “I’d just be glad I got to liveanother day, I guess.”He raised his brows in astonishment at just how quickly I understood hisanalogy, thus patting me on the shoulder and giving me a warm smile whichcould barely be made out from his beard. I guess I understand a bit morenow, you take any victory, no matter how small, no matter how much of afluke it was, as you’ll never truly know if it’s gonna be your last.This somewhat morbid conclusion I made was sort of refreshing in a way,since it alleviated a ton of the stress from this trip. It made me think that evenmaking it this far with how bad I got treated by the world is more than good,and I was happy with the current situation, no matter how badly it started off.The Captain said he’s off to check the situation outside, so he left me in theroom and asked me to brew us some tea. Preparing the kettle and heating thewater on the stove was going well, but a sudden wave made the ship tilt abit, which lead to me scalding my hand a bit. It wasn’t that big of an issue,but it was still quite annoying.Just then, the Captain called for me to quickly go outside and help him keepall the luggage and barrels from rolling off the deck. Springing to action, I ranfrom one place to the next as I used as many of the surrounding ropes to fixthe barrels securely to the ships deck. It took a lot out of me, but since waveswere splashing all around us, the cold water actually felt quite nice on myscald mark (The salinity of the seawater had a counter effect, though…)After the weather cleared up a bit, the Captain thanked me for the help, andasked if everything was okay on my side.“Now that you mention it,” I said with a green face, “I am feeling a bitseasick…”Since the boat he sailed was effectively a trade boat, he wasn’t all toofamiliar with having passengers board it, and since he never felt seasicknessonce in his life, he didn’t know of any way to cure it.“Got any of that Great Hiana alcohol?” I asked.“Sure,” He shot back, “but now’s not the time for drinks!”“Don’t worry, just bring it here.” I said as I quickly grabbed a napkin frommy pocket.The remedy I was about to perform was one that the previous Captain taughtme a long time ago. We used this trick when Ed was the one who got seasick,but he said it stung a lot. Indeed, I was doing that. And by that, I mean Iapplied some of the alcohol to the napkin and placed it on my nose, and witha strong whiff…!“Cough! Cough! It burns!” I screamed out, throwing away the remedy in about of pain.“Why would you do that?!?” The Captain asked worriedly.“It’s supposed to…” I wanted to say Help, but then I realized it already did,as I didn’t feel nauseous at all. I guess that Great Hiana alcohol really is amiracle cure-all! I feel brand new! Like I could go for 10 more rounds ofchess, at least!And just like that, we had eventually arrived at the Icy Continent of Sibirus,and I was escorted to the ITA issued cottage located about a 5 minute trekaway from Shaid’s Temple, where all of my party members were apparentlysituated. I bid the Captain farewell and thanked him for teaching me about theways of chess, and with a tear in his eye he smiled back before turning tohead back to his ship.I opened the door of the cottage, and a warm air immediately burst out fromit. It was so refreshing I actually stood there just basking in the warmth for abit.“Hey!” A voice from the other room called out, “Close the door, it’s free…zing.” He stopped everything he was doing when he saw me, “You… Whatthe hell are you doing here!?”It was none other than the shorty, Sullivan, and behind him stood the rest ofthe party, all looking like they were having the pajama party of the century